Happy Birthday, Dalton!!

Dalton turns 9 on Monday, April 27th!!

Happy Birthday, buddie!!

Here are our NINE favorite things about Dalton~

1. He has such a tender heart! He always feels for other people when they are down.
2. He is very smart. He does very good in school and always tries his best.
3. He hates litter. Even as a 2 year old, he would run across the playground to pick up a piece of garbage. He is still that way today.
4. He is such a great big brother. He is alwyas looking out for his brother. They are the best of friends.
5. He is honest. He speaks his mind. He is not shy to say what he feels.
6. He is like his dad. They both love to fix things and make things work.
7. Dalton is a good friend. He likes everyone and plays fairly with others.
8. Dalton is happy. He is always making us laugh at his jokes and silly faces.
9. He wants to be Tiffany's assistant at work. (I love his goals!)
   
   For his birthday party, he invited Jaxson and 3 other friends and they went to McDonalds for lunch and then we went over to the movies. We watches Monsters vs Aliens in 3D. THey boys LOVED it! They wore their glasses all evening long.Here are they boys and their MONSTER faces.

Here are their cute boy faces.

After the movie, we came back to the house for presents and cake.

Dalton loved how Grandma Dar put NINE of this favorite candy bars on the front of his gift.

Dalton has had 2 soccer games so far. They have won them both. They have a great team. It is fun to see them pass the ball to each other and follow plays. Dlaton scored a goal at his last game. We were all so excited about it!!

I took these pictures of SPRING yesterday....

Here are the same pictures TODAY......WHAT IS UP WITH THIS??!!

We had Pack Meeting for scouts last Thursday. Dalton received his Wolf, his Bobcat, 3 arrow points and 2 belt loops. He has been working very hard in scouts. He is now working on his Bear award. They have a tradition that when the boys get an award, they have a pin that they pin on the moms. Here I am getting pinned. Well, Dalton wanted Tracey to get pinned too, so on his next award, Tracey got the pin. It was so cute.

Here is Dalton helping with the flag ceremony. I am so proud to see him do this.

Happy week to all!

Tiffany

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter from The Mitchell Family!!!

Here are the boys showing off Jaxson's school art for the Easter holiday. The boys just LOVE to color eggs. They aren't really into all the stickers, glitter, and stuff, they just like to make colors!

Yes, even Tracey and I got in on the color action.

Here is what we ended up with....

Here are a few of my layouts and cards from my last Moments and Expressions kits.
Love the summery colors and all of the flowers.

We took the boys bowling at Pinecrest Lanes this past weekend. The balls were heavier than the boys liked, so they had this ramp that they could roll their ball off of. You should have seen Jaxson squat down and "eye up" the direction of the ramp. Dalton was readily availabe to give a bit of advice.

I just love this photo....Come on people, you HAVE to love the bowling shoes!!

Remember the pics of the boys in the alley??!! Well, here are my favorite ones of the boys. Made 8x10's for the living room. Such cuties!

Dalton started soccer this week. We have our first game tomorrow. I hope it is not snowing!!

Tiffany

Spring Break..What we've been up to....

What Jax has been up to.....

Loosing his TWO FRONT TEETH! I finally talked him into letting me pull them. I asked him last week if I could pull them out and he got really sad and said "Mom, I need just two more days with them.". Two more days it was, then out they came. Just before I pulled them out, Jax showed me how he could make his two teeth overlap and then he made one bend forward and one bend back. They were barely hanging on by a thread.

Here are the photos of us and the bear cubs. Aren't they so cute!

What I just finished reading.......

This is the biography book of Kelly Perkins. She is the heart transplant patient that I will be climbing the Grand Teton with this fall. She is such an inspiration.

What is bringing me inspiration.....

Moments and Expressions from Express the Moment. I am so in love with the spring colors. Look at the whole package of big chipboard!! I love chipboard! We get an album by Fancy Pants also. Cannot wait to get creating with these kits. To subscribe to these kits, contact Kim at http://www.expressthemoment.com/.

What I have been making.....

Watches!!!! They are so addicting! My fav so far is the brown wood watch, although I have a purple one in progress that may soon be on the top of the list. Loved the wood beads so much that I made a necklace too.

What color I love.......

GREEN!!! I have green watches, a green blog, green work clothes, and thanks to MM, green scrapbook stuff!! Found this pile of green goodness at Porters in Rexburg. After my ETM assignments, I am going to dive into these!

What happened at our photo shoot....

I took the boys down to a few different alleys in downtown Idaho Falls. The wind picked up and it was a little chilly but I did manage to get a few good shots. Here are a few more.....

Well, that about wraps up our week. Been under the weather the last few days. Going to snug by the fire.

Tiffany

Our last 4 months-recapped!

Okay~Just call me the worst blogger ever! 4 months since my last post! I will do my best to recap what all we have been doing, starting with the most recent......

• We took the boys up to Bear World on Saturday and had their picture taken with the 8 week old bear cubs. They were so cute!! We were able to hold them for a little bit. They were about 1 foot long. Their claws were about one inch long already. Need to scan those photos into the computer and i will post them later.
  
• The boys were all about having their pictures taken outside of Bear World. Here they are...
  
  
  


• Been doing a lot of this........
  
  
• I am trying to be more consistent with exercise. Here's why. There is this gal, Kelly Perkins, who had a heart transplant 13 years ago. She was an avid climber before her surgery, and as part of her rehabilitation, she continues to climb mountains. She has hiked Mount Hood, Kilimanjaro, El Capitan, and Whitney. She is coming to Idaho Falls in August to give a motivational seminar about heart health and organ donation. She is also going to climb The Grand Teton. (She will be the first heart transplant recipient to climb the Grand) 4 of my nurse coworkers and I in Cardiac Rehab are going to hike with her! This will be such a great experience. We are all excited about the challenge.





• It is finally starting to look like spring! The boys begged us to get out their bikes and roller blades. We spent one Saturday over to the church riding around and having a picnic. The boys have also got out their football and been tossing that around with Dad.
  
  






• Tracey has been working hard on finishing my scrapbook room. Take a look...
  
  
  



• He finished the window casing, and framed in this shelf that runs the length of the room. It looks so great! I love having a place to display all of my favorite things.
















• We also rearranged the room a little. Bought some more storage cubes from Roberts and Tracey made a built-in corner desk. I just love it!! Everything is so tidy and organized!
  

Here is my ribbon corner. ( I love that everything has a place and can still look cute!!)

• Overall, we have all been pretty healthy this winter/spring. Jaxson did have trouble with his asthma and got pneumonia. He spent one day in the hospital and then recovered the rest of the way at home. He really bounces back quickly.


• Took a drive to Shelly and Blackfoot to see the condition of the boat docks. Talked the boys into a family picture. It turned out adorable!
  
• Todd, Emily, and the kids came to Idaho for a visit in January. We celebrated all the recent birthdays and Christmas while they were here. Grandma Marti rented a hotel room and we stayed the night there. The kids loved the pool and had a great time "on vacation". We took family pictures while they were here. Here are a few........
  

• Found a new past time....BEADING! I went to a watch party by Hoppers. (See Karri Nelson's blog for photos of watches). I am addicted. I love those big chunky watches. Then, the next day, Mom, a friend Kim, and I took a watch making class at Roberts. It was a blast!! I now have watches in Purple, burgundy, green, brown and white. I love how you can clip off the band and change watch faces. I will post some of my creations.
  
• Scoped out the local climbing gym to help with my climb of the Grand. Took Dalton with me. Here he is climbing a few walls. He did great with the heights.
  


• Starting to plan Girls Camp for this July. Going to Bear Lake. So many fun, outdoor activities planned (water skiing, repelling, skeet shooting, horseback riding, and caving)
  
• The boys are going awesome in school. Jaxson is reading well and getting "big fat A+'s" on all his homework. Dalton is reaching his reading goals and doing tons of fun science experiments.


• Dalton is busy with scouts. He loves all of the activities they get to do. Last week they went to the Vet clinic. He just received badges for fishing, swimming, and soccer.


• Whew~that was a very quick ride! Look for updates coming soon about Dalton starting soccer and Jaxson loosing his two front teeth!

Tiffany

Happy Birthday, Jaxson~~Reading is Fun~~(Not so)Extreme Home Makeover

Six years ago, from November 10th, 2008, we were blessed as a family by adding another member to it. Jaxson Thomas was born at 1:55 pm. He has continued to be a blessing to us.

This year he turned 6! I thought I would list six funny things about this funny boy.

1. He has a SUPER memory. He recites commercials or TV shows after just seeing them once. People leave their numbers on our answering machine, Jaxson will remember them for months!!
   
2. This boy LOVES to read. When I asked him what he wanted for this birthday, he said "Another set of books, Mom!"
   
3. He loves to snug in the recliner. ( Okay, I love it too...)
   
4. He is so kind to his brother. Jaxson invited two of Dalton's friends to his birthday party, "so that Dalton will not be lonely."
   
5. He decided that he may not get married because "I am going to be driving around all of the time." Apparently, he is going to grow up to be a police man and he will be driving around catching bad guys and wont have time for a wife. Once he reconsidered, he said maybe he could drive around for a few days, and then " stop in and see how his wife is." (I am so glad he plans ahead.)
   
6. Jaxson is just a bright spirit and he brings so much happiness and joy into our family. He has a huge heart and an even bigger sense of adventure!

We love you Jax! Happy Birthday!!

His birthday party this year was at Blast Off. Him and 10 friends played in the ball pit, ate pizza, and ran off tons of energy. He got lots of great gifts and then got to take a trip in the balloon prize vault. He had to catch as many balloons as he could. He caught 2 and won a prize.

On evening, I heard the boys giggling uncontrollably. I came downstairs to find this.

I didn't realize how much fun reading was.....

Actually, they were looking at cross sections of machines, trains, planes,buildings, and so forth. There were cartoon pictures of people in their underwear. Somehow this led to the uncontrollable giggling. Go figure...it must be a boy thing...Anyway, it makes me happy to see them doing things together and being happy.

Here are some pictures of the makeover in our master bedroom. It is not anything really major, but we have not changed anything in there since we moved in about 8 years ago. This makeover started because my mom is making us a comforter for Christmas. It is done in shades of purple. I thought that I would change up/update the walls a little since I was getting a new comforter. Here are a few photos. Notice how I used the black chipboard accents to jazz up my photo frames. I also added the rub on scroll to the lampshade and hot glued the fringe on. It was so fun to "makeover" some of the frames, lamps, and pictures that I already had.

These are pillows that my mom and her friend Judy made. They sewed them by hand!I cannot wait til the whole thing is complete. Guess I will have to wait for Christmas!!

Have a great day!!

Tiffany

Fall leaves, Halloween, and Apples

As fall quickly approaches, I enjoy watching the leaves turn to gorgeous shades of yellow, orange, burgundy, and red.

The boys and I raked all of the leaves, but I could not help but let them jump into the last pile.

Halloween came fast this year. The boys love to carve pumpkins!! They both like to do it all themselves and they each have their own ideas of what they want it to look like. Here are the results.

We did our annual trick or treating with Tammy. She was a princess this year. That girl LOVES Halloween.

After that, we gathered treats from Grandma Marti and headed over to see Grandma Dar and Papa. The boys filled their sacks with all the goodies from them too. We then went home and i expected the boys to want to go get more candy, but they started answering the door and handing out candy. They had a blast! They got to see all the kids and the fun costumes. Every time the doorbell rang, they would break out into giggles.

We have gotten a lot of apples from my friend Cathy, and I have been drying them.

Jaxson helped me peel them with our peeler. He thought that was the coolest thing!!

Here are the fruits of his labor.

Here are the YUMMY results.

I have now expanded the menu of dried fruits to pineapple, cherries, apricots, blueberries, and oranges. Mix all these delights together and you have a healthy (delicious) snack.

Getting ready for Jaxson's birthday. That kid can hardly contain himself about his upcoming party. Pictures of that next week.

Tiffany

Oh, where Oh, where, have I been?!?!

I really cannot believe that it has been two months since I have last posted. Anyways, here is an overview of what we have been up to in the last few months.

• Eastern Idaho State Fair

Mom and I always enter items into the craft areas of the fair. I entered a clear acrylic album that had all of the flower photos from our trip to DC. I also entered a western chipboard album that was of a trip mom and Ruth took up to Salmon. Both won 1st place!! I won two huge baskets of scrapbooking supplies. It was so awesome!!

Mom entered this western blanket that she made. Isn't it gorgeous!

• Creative Escape in Arizona

Mom and i went to Arizona together. She went to visit family and I went to a scrapbook convention. We had so much fun! The first thing I did was had lunch with my friend, Jena, who used to work with me at the hospital. She now lives in Arizona. It was so great to meet with her and get caught up on what has been happening in her life.

Here are photos of the resort that we stayed at. It was the Wild Horse Pass Resort. The scenery was breathtaking!! Take a look for yourself...

The resort even had its own water slide.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures .......

Part of the experience was to visit the Bazzill Paper Warehouse and the Scrapbooks Etc. Store. They were awesome!! Tons of shopping!!

Here are a few layouts that I did of my Arizona pictures for Kim's monthly kit (http://www.expressthemoment.com/)

The projects were superb, the keynote was so inspiring, and the food was to die for!
It was such a wonderful getaway.


• Soccer

Dalton started playing soccer this fall. His team was the Lightening Bolts. He did very well. He learned a lot and his coach was great.

• Hunting Season

Tracey had been doing some hunting this fall. He has gone out a few times for deer and more frequently for game birds. No deer brought home yet, but lots of limits on birds.

• Layton

Mom and I took the boys to Layton for a few days. Todd (my brother) was down there from Seattle to help out a new manager. We stayed with him for a few days. It was so fun. The boys loved the pool! Dalton is swimming like a pro

Jaxson is catching on too.

They would have spent 24/7 in the pool if I let them. We also did some shopping, sight seeing, and then had dinner with Todd. It was great to see him. We miss him and Em and the kids!!

• QVC

Still waiting to hear for sure of the air date for my QVC appearance. I am having some fliers printed up to hand out when I know the date for sure

It seems that I should have more to post in two months, but these are the highlights.

Tiffany~