Asserting Independence

I am not sure that I am ready for this kind of independence. It seems like all I do is mop the floor!


Now whenever Brock eats, he grabs his spoon by a "death grip" and it is impossible to get it back. I guess I need to let go of the control and embrace the mess!

An Afternoon with Uncle Josh

Uncle Josh and Aunt Emily invited the family to see a F-16 jet while they were taking their Christmas card pictures. Josh is a fighter pilot at Hill AFB and he gave us the grand tour around a few of the bunkers.

Josh gave a detailed explanation of the plane to Dustin and the kids...I am not sure how much the kids remember. They did have a few incidents of slipping on grease in the hanger, but overall no big catastrophes.

Brock is giving the camera a good cheesy smile!

It was a great day and pretty interesting. Pretty crazy to think that Josh flies F-16 Jets, he is kinda like Maverick but taller.

Griswald Family Trees

So we made a trip back up to Bear Lake to look for a Griswald Christmas tree!!! We didn't quite have the experience that Clark Griswald had, but we found some pretty good trees.

Emily, Josh and Emma searched with us and it took us a few hours to find the perfect trees. When we asked Emma if she liked cutting down Christmas trees, she informed us that it was boring! (She is five years old.)

Brock and Indie enjoyed the trek through the mountains, mostly because they both got to ride in their Kelty packs.

When Indie and Brock did walk it was disastrous, too many rocks, trees and dirt. Plus their coats and boots are too big, hopefully they will fit better next year.

Halloween

Brock the BAT and Indie the BUTTERFLY! I had to bribe them with tootsie rolls just to get them to stay in their costumes and to take pictures. Luckily after a while they forgot they had them on.


This is just before heading to the Dopp's Halloween Party. First time for all of us, we had no idea how much fun it would be. We all loved it!


Indie is doing her best to steal Brock's tootsie roll, this is nothing new at our house!

The best part of the night, TRICK OR TREAT!!! The kids rode in style in their chariot until we started the festivities. No big surprise, Indie was the Queen of Trick or Treating. She was on a roll, she walked the whole street and got a lot of candy. Sometimes she just traded what was in her hand for a new piece. In fact she loved it so much on Saturday morning, she wanted to put her shoes and costume back on and go outside. Too bad she has to wait until next year. Brock on the other hand, Mr. Mellow, was pretty indifferent and would rather be carried than walk. Trick or Treating was just not his thing this year. Overall it was an awesome holiday!

Pumpkin Carving

Well the kids got their first taste of pumpkin carving(and of course raw pumpkin) this year! Indie loved it! She just loves taking objects out of things. Brock was not that into digging out the pumpkin, he just wanted to eat the dessert, brownies and ice cream.


Dustin wanted to carve a pumpkin like the kids, always yelling with just one tooth hanging out!

Bumps, Bruises and Bear Lake

This little mishap happened a couple weeks ago. Of course the kids left my sight for a few moments and I heard a loud crash from the office. Brock was once again beat up by Indie, but this time it involved the office door being pushed into his head. It left a pretty sweet goose egg and bruise for a good couple of weeks.


Conference weekend we were able to go to Bear Lake again. The weather was pretty bad, but it was awesome to hang out in the cabin. Dustin was able to catch some conference talks in between entertaining the kids and the dogs!


We spent some time outside with the kids and went for a few walks. Indie can walk forever! Brock had a hard time staying on his feet. He was pretty much covered in mud just like any little boy should be!

On Saturday morning a mother moose and her baby walked right through the driveway and around the cabin. It was so great to see them so close!


Leave it to Grandpa Jackson to figure out a makeshift high chair for dinner one night! Brock was entertained for a few minutes but then wanted to be free to roam and eat!

Heber Valley Century Ride

So I have to say that I finshed my first century ride, that is 100miles! It was also my friend Leslee's first century too! It was such a great day. Our group consisted of Leslee, Ken, Dustin, Jeff, Scott and me.

My cousins Jeff and Scott were patient enough to ride with us too!

Scott lives in Utah, but Jeff drove all the way from Denver to ride with us.

The ride was awesome and hard at the same time. There was a lot of climbing involved...about 4500ft. and I am not sure we were totally prepared for that.


We all made it and had such a good time. The leaves were beautiful and the temperature was perfect! I think we might have to put it on the calender for fall 2009!

Baby Shower

This weekend I got together with some of my college friends for a baby shower for our friend Becky! Isn't she so cute! We had such a good time talking about motherhood and the good old college days. Becky is having a girl and we are all so excited for her and Joe.




This is our friend's, Tonya and Dusty, son. His name is Wyatt and he is nine months old. He is so cute with big blue eyes and blond curly hair. He weighs close to 10lbs. more than Brock who is four months older. This was the first time we met Wyatt, hopefully Brock will start to catch up in size and they will be good friends.

Monday Night Football

Football season is finally here!!! Dustin and Brock were so excited for the Monday Night Raiders Game, but to their dismay (mostly Dustin's because Brock was in bed before the game even started) the Raiders got killed by the Broncos!


This is nothing new, the Raiders pretty much have been horrible for 5 years now, but Dustin is still a die hard fan and has been since the good old days when he was a kid.



Brock and India continue to grow and change so fast! Brock is now walking and trying to keep up with Indie, they continue to fight over toys,
play together and influence each other to get into things they are not suppose to!









Indie doesn't have any Raider's attire right now, but I don't think she minds too much. She is just happy to have fun time with dad.

Back to School

The first few days of school are always crazy at our house, not because we go to school...the school is just in front of our house. The great thing about school starting is that Brock is completely entertained from 8:20 til 8:45 a.m. He climbs on top of their Bumbo, a seat, and intently watches all the kids getting dropped off at school. I think he is already excited to go to school...too bad he still has a long time to wait. Indie is too busy and on the go to stop and watch anything! They are so different from each other already.

Just Another Day of Fun

This was Indie's idea of fun...try to stand/sit in a toy way too small for her, use Brock's hair for balance and then knock him over!!! This is pretty much how playtime works everyday.

Weekend in Bear Lake

We just spent a fun and exhausting weekend in Bear Lake with my family. Dustin's dad let us take my family up for the weekend and we had a great time. My parents came and my older brother and his family. We had a great time playing golf...well maybe I had the best time because I played way better than anyone else. They all claim that they had the worst round ever! I would like to think that maybe I am just that good, probably not!

We also had a good time just hanging out at the cabin, playing cards and watching the Olympics. My dad made an awesome dutch oven dinner and we loved it because we haven't had dutch oven for a long time. We also had to stop for a raspberry shake, Le Beaus.

We finally took the kids on their first ATV ride. Brock loved it from the get go and Indie of course had to warm up to it. After a while they were both into the ATV as long as they got to push every button they could reach.


Indie's is walking up a storm and has been since their birthday. She is walking all over and Brock still prefers to crawl. We are trying to motivate him to walk, but he usually will get Gumby legs and sit down. It is so funny how different Brock and Indie are from each other.








This is a perfect example of Indie's "stink eye" pose. She is really good at it, sometimes she just thinks she is a diva!

One Year Old!

Well we made it one year! We celebrated the twins first birthday last night and it was utter chaos. It felt more like Christmas with everyone bringing two presents, our living room was full of wrapping paper and toys!

Lets just say that Brock and Indie were completely overwhelmed and and I think that is probably normal. They kinda got the hang of opening presents but their cousins were way into opening the presents themselves. So they really didn't have much of a chance.

The cake was another story. We had our friend Emily Merrill make the cakes and they were awesome. Everyone loved them except for the twins, Brock tolerated it and Indie hated it! Mostly Brock liked the circle fondant icing. They both did love the homemade ice cream though. Maybe next year they will like cake more?