My Last Year in My 20's

Yesterday was my birthday and I decided I wanted to go to the Macaroni Grill for dinner, but I didn't want anyone to feel like they needed to pay for my dinner and I didn't want to pay for it either. So, I called and asked the manager if he would give the birthday girl a free entree if she brought in more than 10 people. To my surprise they agreed. I also had a coupon for a free appetizer. All in all it was a sweet deal for me, but the waiter refused to give me birthday cake and sing to me and I swear they put a laxative in my food. Oh well. I guess even the birthday girl can't have everything. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with me! Everyone made it in the picture below except for poor Boston who is behind my mom.

Happy Halloween!

We had a lot of fun things going on this October. First we went to Grandma Cersey's annual Halloween party. Grandma goes all out to throw the best party imaginable. There was a haunted house, pumpkin decorating, spooky gingerbread house decorating, face painting, a huge inflatable bouncing house, a doughnut eating contest, limbo, costumes and photo shoots, tasty lunch and dinner, and lots of Halloween treats. Did I forget anything? We had a blast, as usual. Thanks Grandma! Below are some pictures of the haunted house. Justin was hiding in the bathtub that was made to look like a coffin. I should have won the "eat a doughnut off a string without using your hands" contest. Justin must have cheated because I was beating him the whole time. On the Thursday before Halloween we went to Randy's Pumpkin Patch, another annual tradition. Brindi and Aiden joined us there and we took a lot of pictures.

Jackson and Drake liked roaming around and looking at all the pumpkins and decorations. Jackson and Aiden went into the bunny petting zoo, where they tortured the small creatures with there loving tight squeezes.

On Friday we went to our church's Trunk-or-Treat activity. Justin, Drake, and I were the Rubbles (Barney, Bamm-Bamm, and Betty) and the Woods were the Flintstones (Fred, Wilma, and Pebbles). Jackson was a Ninja, but he was running around with Grandma and his friends the whole time, and I am sad to say we never got a picture of him. Grandma Cersey was Cruella DeVille and Megan and Alexis were 2 of her dalmatian puppies. They won best costume for obvious reasons.

On Hallween day we ventured out to our local Publix. Why? Because they have Halloween activities for the kids of course. Jackson fell asleep on the way. He was a dinosaur this time. We met Carey, Boston, Nicole, Jonny, Maggie, Jess, Andy, Megan, and Lex there. The grocery store is a happening place on Halloween. The kids decorated cookies and pumpkins, and played bean bag and ring toss games.

I wasn't going to dress up on Halloween, but after Justin told me that I always look unhappy and angry, I decided to be happy and optimistic for Halloween. I wore a pink shirt and pearls because thats what happy people wear. I accidently broke character a few times, and when I acted the part I over did it a little and it got annoying, but it was a nice little exercise. After Publix, we went to Grandma Pearson's house and had dinner. Then we suited up again and headed out to do some good old fashioned trick-or-treating. Grandpa Pearson went out with us while Grandma stayed home to pass out candy. Jackson decided to be a Ninja again, and Drake changed into a dragon, a fitting costume I think. The dragon costume was a little small, but Drake didn't seem to mind. Drake tried to walk into a few houses at first, but he caught on fast with his big brother showing him the ropes. While we were out we bumped into Grandma and Grandpa Cersey as well as the Dollars and the Baughs, so we tagged along with them for awhile. It was a rainy cold night, so we didn't last too long, but it was fun while it lasted.

We had a great October and we hope you did too!

Earning His Keep and Bones

A few months ago Jackson got a modeling job. It was funny because we never intended to get him into modeling. I mentioned to my agent one day that I had 2 sons and she told me to send her pictures of the boys just in case any jobs came up for mothers and children. So I did, and within an hour my agent had called me back to tell me that Jackson had gotten a job! The client didn't even want me, they only wanted Jackson! The job was for a company that manufactures shirts and then sells them to retailers, so you won't be seeing him in any ads, but he worked for about an hour and got paid $440! His check came in the mail yesterday.

Now we are considering getting Jackson into more modeling/acting stuff. Luckily his mom has some connections. We are going to try and save his money for him, but unfortunately, we are struggling financially like everyone else (hence the ads on the right side of the page, go ahead and click on them, you know you want to Ryan). So we might have to borrow Jackson's money so that we can buy groceries. It's not too terrible to take your 3 year old's money, is it? I mean, he's gotta earn his keep, right?

Last week we noticed a dog on our back porch sadly staring at us through the window. Though I don't really like dogs, this one looked terribly skinny and scared, so I did what anyone with a heart would do, and I fed it. Of course the dog keeps coming back and I continue to feed him or her. He (or she) looks like an Italian greyhound, so someone probably paid good money for him. He is wearing a collar with no tag on it, so he must just be lost. He won't let us get close to him and he runs really fast, so we can't catch him. I think he has been abused, because he is terrified of people. My plan is to try and warm him up to us and then take him to the vet. We named him (or her) Bones.

Its kind of nice having a dog that requires so little attention. If only having a pet were always this easy.

The Boys

I was looking through my recent posts and much to my dismay, there is not much mention of our boys. So here is a post just for them.

You may have seen on the news that Georgia has been one of the primary targets for wet weather this past week or two. Well, luckily we have not washed away yet, but Jackson has been disappointed he hasn't been able to go outside and play much recently. So this evening we threw caution to the wind and let him go out in the rain and thunder (there was only a slight chance of electrocution by lightening). He thought it was great...for a few minutes. He jumped in puddles on the street and then ran around to the back of the house where he proceeded to jump in the pool of water that was our muddy backyard. Mud splashed allover his legs and that was when he called it quits. You can see the look of disgust on his face in the two pictures on the right. Jackson hates being dirty, most likely because his mom openly expresses how much she hates it when he gets dirty. I guess I've got to work on that, otherwise I might rob him of his boyhood.

Drake took his first few steps yesterday. Justin was getting tired of having a baby who was behind in reaching his developmental milestones, so he worked with Drake for about an hour last night. In the end Drake could take about six unsteady steps to the couch. Drake still prefers crawling today, and when we tried making him walk again it was as if last night's lesson never took place. He is still about at a six step maximum and he tries to sit down every few seconds. Hopefully he will have it down by Halloween so that he can go trick-or-treating.

As they get older we are definitely starting to see personality differences between our two boys. Drake loves to play with bats and balls and Jackson likes to play with rockets and trains. Drake screams when he doesn't get his way and Jackson asks nicely for things (when Jackson was too young to speak he would use sign language, something Drake refuses to pick up). Drake is a momma's boy and Jackson loves talking to everyone (he doesn't quite grasp the "don't talk to strangers" concept). The boys do have a few things in common though. They both like to wrestle their Dad, they love each other, and...

...at the end of a long day the both sleep like rocks, thank the heavens above. We love our crazy boys even despite the fact that their mom is constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

White Water, Camping, Modeling

Back on August 7th we dropped our kids off with some sitters and Justin and I went to White Water with some friends. It was the last Friday before school started so it was rather crowded, but we had a good time chatting while waiting in the excruciatingly long lines. Justin and I hadn't been there in at least 10 years and I remember it being a lot bigger and less gross. Either time has taken its toll on White Water, or my eyes are no longer fogged with childish whimsy. Perhaps both are true. Anyway, we went with Nicole and Jonny Wood, Nicole's sister Anna, and Rachel Shumway. The day went by quickly and so did the lining in my swimsuit bottom (for some reason I always burn holes in the butts of my swimsuits when I ride water slides). Anyway, we had a good time.

On August 14th we took Jackson camping with some friends (we left Drake with Grandma Cersey). We went with Brindi Ryan and Aiden, Nicole Jonny and Maggie, and Rachel Thayne and Jones. Now, I am not a big fan of camping. I don't really see the appeal of it, but Justin insists that I need to get used to this kind of thing since we have two boys. So, we packed up an entire SUV worth of camping gear for one night in the woods. We went to some property that Ryan's dad owns on Strom Thurmond lake. We got there around 7:30pm and it got dark faster than Justin and I could get all of our stuff set up. We cooked hot dogs over a camp fire and roasted marshmallows. After we put the kids to bed the adults played some high stakes poker (the winner got dinner at Chick-fil-a) until 3:00am in the community tent. I wasn't able to sleep at all, but the boys slept like rocks as usual. In the morning Justin and some of the others jumped off a dock into the lake a few times. I don't have pictures of that, but Brindi does. If you want you can check them out here.

I started modeling again a couple of months ago to make some extra money. So far I haven't made any money, but I have some cool new pictures. These first shots were taken by Tim Wedig and his wife, Andrea Laxton.

These next shots were taken by Rick Newby. I did 3 different looks with him and we even got the boys in some of the shots!

The D.R. Baby!!!

The Views

The Food

Some pretty, some not so pretty.

The Pools

The Beach

The Eating

The Dancing

The Horseback Riding

The Speedboat Driving

More Horseback Riding

More Eating

More Fun and Relaxation

We had a great time in the D.R. with Nicole and Jonny. We were sad when it ended, but we have high hopes for many more trips with good friends in the future.

Utah Trip July 8th -14th

We went out to Utah for my Great Grandmother's 100th birthday. We had a great time doing all kinds of things. The first night we were there we stayed with Uncle James in his bachelor pad. The boys love their cool Uncle James. He even let them play on his drum set! Thanks James for putting us up for a night!

Part of the time we stayed in Park City at the Westgate Resort at the Canyons. We met up with my good friend Sherri and her son, Daniel and her husband, Sam at the Alpine slide. Jackson and I rode down together. It took us a half an hour to get to the top on a ski lift and about 2 minutes to slide down. It was worth doing once. Jackson also liked riding the "buckets"/gondolas at our resort. We rode them in circles a couple of times for his enjoyment.

The boys met their Great Great Grandma Wilson who is now 100 years old and still going strong. I hope I got her longevity genes!

We hung out with my brother James and my good friend Liz, we went swimming, we went to BYU, we threw rocks in a river, we went to Squaw Peak (during the day with the boys, don't jump to conclusions). Nothing but good wholesome fun.

We went to temple square...

The guys went rock climbing. Jackson was all ready to go climbing too, but he had a little accident with Grandma Pearson and they both fell down and hurt themselves, so Jackson wasn't in the mood for climbing anymore. Justin traditionally lead climbed two different routes which he had never done before, but he did great and made it to the top of both of his climbs without any mishaps. After the boys came back down Jackson decided he was ready to climb a little, so Justin took him over to the rocks and helped him do a little climbing.

Here are some pictures that display the different personalities of our boys while traveling. As you can see Drake is a little demon and Jackson is an angel.

The boys barely slept the whole trip which means Justin and I barely slept the whole trip either. We had a good time though. Thanks to the Hursts for letting us stay with them the last 2 nights of our trip and thanks to our friends and family who took out the time to entertain us. We love you and hope to see you again soon!