CATCH UP

Ok so I think I have officially earned the status of binge blogger! I get so behind and then dread playing catch up, then by the time I finally get around to doing so its like picture/info overload for all of you!!! So here I go summing up the past three months...

In February Jake had a trial ad competition in San Diego. (he is on Utah's national trial advocacy team). Anyway, since he was getting to enjoy some beautiful sunshine, my parents decided I should come visit instead of sitting in the freezing tundra they call Salt Lake (a little melodramatic I know, but seriously it was still snowing here last week, what the heck?!?)

While we were there my mom and I took on a little project of making the boys Doctors costumes. And of course after spending a whole day at the sewing machine my child wanted nothing to do with putting that thing on (thankfully he has changed his tune since, because those "EASY" patterns are very time-consuming) Jaxon was pretty stoaked once we completed them, Dr. Jaxon spent the next couple days fixing everything that was wrong with all of us...

We also took the boys to Chuck E. Cheese. Carder has never really been timid about anything, so it was so weird when he would not go on any of the rides. I would try and put him in a car or on the merry go round and he would just hold onto me like a little anaconda. My mom finally got him to do the "shoot the water" game (the one where you aim at a little target and it makes some shape go to the top. He loved it. After that he still wouldn't go on any kiddy rides, but did want to do the NFL football game (where you throw a football at some targets) and the NBA basketball game...strange child those are the games older brothers or dads play to pass the time while their mom/wife has dragged them to Chuck E. Cheese for the little kids. The Chuck E. Cheese adventure left quite an impression on the little guy because he still constantly talks about "shoot the water" "play ba-kit ball" as well as money and tickets. He'll pick up my cell phone and have some pretend conversation and then all of the sudden I hear him saying "shoot the water" "play ba-kit ball" "tickets." So strange that he is so fond of it now since he was so timid while we were there.

so proud of the tickets that he earned

showing off his money

For some reason Carder has developed an infatuation with credit cards. I don't know how he learned what a credit card was, but he considers all cards (library card, licenses , etc.) to be credit cards. So one day I asked him what a credit card does, and he says "get the moneys," then I asked him why he needed money and he tells me "play ba kit ball, shoot the water." Those Chuck E. Cheese tokens have done a number on the boy.

After the week we all flew back to Salt Lake (we met up at the airport there) and Jake had brought us these amazing homemade ding-dongs from a bakery in San Diego called D.Z. Akin's. OH MY GOSH they were so good...seriously if you are in the area make a trip there, you will not be sorry.

We've made a few trips to Vegas to try and figure out housing , etc. We stay with my Aunt Kimi (same one we stayed with last summer during Jake's internship), and my cousin Brandon totally loves Carder. They watched him for us while we went house hunting one day and when I came home Carder was sporting the same hair do as his "Best Bud" (thats what he calls Brandon) which he was very proud of.

(we've got to work on his cheese face...it just kills me!

For Easter weekend my family was in town. I'd heard all these good things about Discovery Gateway (the children's museum in Salt Lake) so we took Carder and Jaxon there. It was pretty cool, but I swear every little kid in the greater Salt Lake area was there.

The boys loved playing in the water

and were totally stoaked when they got to pilot a real helicopter

Easter Sunday the Bunny came for the boys and there was a little egg hunt at our house.

Monday there was the big Egg Hunt at Jake's Grandpa & Grandma Apostol's house...

Jaxon

There are also dollar bills hid amongst the eggs and treats, and I guess it's a big deal to find those. Jake was pretty proud of himself for finding all of these (even though I think Carder was a big help with that)

The Kiddos

All the goodies

Other than that Jake has just been finishing up his last semester of law school (his last day of classes is this Tuesday!!!), getting everything ready for taking the bar (I don't think it's going to feel like it's really over until that's out of the way), and figuring all the relocating/moving stuff. As for me I have been getting a little bit more serious about the whole photography thing, (I recently did my sisters bridals as well as a couple other shoots...I'll post some later) and taking care of the little guy. Carder has been keeping me super busy...I swear the kid gets more energy every day. We are LUCKY if he naps for an hour during the day, and it's not like he goes to sleep before 10pm, and still wakes us before me every morning! During college I took a bunch of child development classes and I remember they saying at 18 months a child starts picking up on stuff I think it was 3 times (good thing there's not a test!) as fast as they had been before...its crazy how true that is. Carder knows all his letters (he is totally obsessed, he'll point them out whenever he gets a chance), knows his shapes (his favorite is an octagon, he is sure to point that one out every time we pass a stop sign), and is pretty good at his colors and numbers too. It's so fun getting to spend everyday with the kid...its crazy how much a one year old can make you laugh and make you love 'em.

Here are a few funny/cute things he has done lately:

During March madness Carder insisted on having his basketball hoop moved out to the living room so he could "play ba kit ball with boys" as he put it...

He loves to do cooking (especially baking) with Mommy. He gets his little stool out and wants to help with everything. On this occasion he scored the left over chocolate batter...

lickin' that chocolate bowl clean...definitely my child

showing off his scary face...

and his muscles

Speaking of Chocolate...there is this new TLC show called Little Chocolatiers. Anyway Jake had heard about it on the news and we recorded an episode...ya that was pretty hard to sit through, but these people are out of Salt Lake, its called Hatch Family Chocolates. How often is one of the places featured on TV in the town you live in? So of course we had to go try it...the chocolate was good but their hot chocolate was AMAZING. It was like molten chocolate lava cakes in drinking form. So thick and rich you pretty much had to chew it...mmmmmm. If you are ever in the Salt Lake area that place is definitely worth a gander. (Its is weird how excited I get about good food???)

Lately he has developed an infatuation for putting things on his head. Some times its Jake's hats, sometimes it's a bucket and sometimes it's his old bumbo chair. This time he wanted a bandana. Once it was on he was walking around the house saying "look tough."

showing off his "big" muscles

over being tough...

now its time to be scary