Mother's Day

This was my first mother's day and Kyle is always trying to do things to make everything so special for me. Kyle's class that he is taking is every Saturday, usually all day. The day before Mother's Day, his class was from 8 am until 8 pm... so imagine my surprise when Kyle showed up at 2 pm finished for the day!!! We didn't have anything planned really, so I asked Kyle if he wanted to go down to Vegas. His eye has really been botering him so he said no, and that he wanted to spend my first Mother's Day with just us. So instead, Kyle made reservations down in Mesquite so we could spend the day laying around by the pool or in our underwear and not have to clean up after ourselves. It was the best. The first picture is Jaxton's first time in a hotel room!

My two favorite men of all time.

I woke up on Mother's Day and this was next to my pillow... when I asked Kyle what is was, he responded "Oh, the Mother's Day Fairy must have come by"

Opening the gift from Kyle and Jaxton (the Mother's Day Fairy)

It's a necklace that has Jaxton's birthstone. It was SO thoughtful! I LOVE IT!!! Sorry that I do look like that in the morning!

We went out to breakfast and when we were little we would always take the jelly packets, so I took some in honor of my grandma.

This was Jaxton's first time swimming... actually the water was too cold to put all of him in... so just his feet.

I LOVE this picture... We got this look a few times throughout the swimming experience.

Daddy can always cheer him up!

It was so much fun!

I also got to talk to my little brother who will be coming home a week from today! I am so excited! I can not wait! I got an email from him today and he said he is so excited to come home. He is so excited to meet Kyle and Jaxton. I am so blessed to have such an amazing brother who was willing to serve the Lord and for the blessings his mission has brought our lives in the past 2 years!! Now I know why they let missionaries call on mother's day, and Jay is my brother!

And the gloves come off...

I think it's true what everyone always says... being married is HARD work! In the beginning, it's all about having fun and making sure you don't piss your partner off. But it doesn't stay that way for long, and it shouldn't. This first year has been extremely rough... with lots of tears and a lot of hurt feelings, but when I look back on what kyle and I have been through, I wouldn't change it for the world. Yeah, we have our problems and we are working through them, but I can't even believe how close I feel to him even when we are not getting along. I am learning to rely on him for emotional strength and I am learning to accept his help and his love. He has been my best friend since we started dating but I am starting to see now that he wants that and that I'm his too. There is so much that we don't agree on and I used to think that wasn't ok, but when I really stop and think about it, we don't need to. We are learning to compromise and learning to know each others needs without even having to express them. I have learned so much lately from my brother and my sister in law. Kyle and I had a big fight a few days ago (I will not go into detail because it's not important) but I called Sheena because I needed to cry and my mom wasn't home. She talked me down and the best thing I took out of that conversation is that her and my brother are not on "Team Shannon", but they are on "Team Kyle AND Shannon" and after talking to my mom, I realized she is on that team too. Whenever I am in a lot of pain I email my brother who is coming home from his mission in less than 2 months... Jay has never even met kyle but he knows how good Kyle is for me and he knows how much I love him. He is nothing but supportive to us. They have never once said anything negative about kyle because they know how much I truley do love him and how much I want to be with him. I have spent a lot of time thinking and praying about everything lately and I have come to the realization that for most of our marriage, I was on "Team Kyle" or "Team Shannon". I support Kyle in everything that he does and I love him with everything that I am, but it's time for me to stop being on one side or the other. I need to stop beating myself up for things that I have no control over. School is finally out so we hopefully have more time to do more fun things. I also need to stop beating up Kyle for things he has no control over. So starting today (I actually started a few days ago, but I'm writing the blog today) I am officially on "Team Kyle AND Shannon"!

So thanks mom and Sheena and Alan. What great examples I have to help me be a better me! And I will forever be grateful for Jay and the blessings that his mission has brought into our lives!

So big

While I have been finishing up school, some girls in my ward have been so kind to watch Jaxton for us. It is always hard leaving him, but one of the girls took some pictures of him and got them to me recently. He is changing so much... but is so cute!

While we were down in Mexico back in March, Brigett took some family pictures and some pictures of Jaxton. I have been so busy with school and Kyle has been busy with work, we just got them. I love looking back at my little man and seeing how much he has changed!

On a completely different note, I take my finals next week and then I am done with college (for now). I cannot believe it is finally here! What an amazing feeling! Kyle is finishing up his EMT-I class (which will finish in May) and then hopefully we can move away from Cedar City. I love that Kyle is taking this class, but the class is literally every Friday night from 6-10 and every Saturday from 8 in the morning until usually 6 at night! Makes for a long and lonely weekend!!! However, I have been working on Jaxton's scrapbook and I love getting to show Kyle everything I have done when he gets home! All of this is for our future, so I just need to quit whining about it!

And on a completely different side note, Alan and Sheena found out they are having another BOY! If it wasn't for Ella and Cortney, Jaxton wouldn't even know what a girl cousin is! Our families are definitely blessed to have so many boys but I think someone needs to have a girl!!! With our record, it seems doubtful that it will be a LaPratt! Congratulations Alan and Sheena, we can't wait for his arrival!!

Easter 2010

It must be a curse that I always have to work on Easter Sunday. I am never ever scheduled during the day, except when Easter rolls around. So I went to work from 8-4. I guess if you can't attend church on Easter (or this year it was General Conference) a good way to make up for that is to attend an A.A. meeting. So that's what I did. I took the clients to a Sunday meeting and it was actually not that bad. Some people had some good things to share! So I came home from work and there were little Easter eggs laid all over the house and Kyle had a little smirk on his face. "What is this?" I asked him and he replied "It's from Jaxton". I go get all of the eggs and start to open them. Kyle knows I have been trying to lose all of my baby weight so instead of candy, he (I mean Jaxton) put little notes in each one. Some said things like "Thanks for being my mommy" or "I love you mom" and some were from Kyle. I may have even cried (big shocker)! Then I made some enchiladas and Kyle and I decided we would celebrate our anniversary since I was finally feeling better. So we pulled out the top layer of our wedding cake and just enjoyed our time together. It was a great day. I love being Jaxton's mom and Kyle's wife.



I am not a photographer, and I do not pretend to be but I wanted to get a few pictures of Jaxton with with eggs he got me for Easter

The top of our wedding cake 1 year later... it got a little mushed!


The love of my whole life!

I hope everyone had a happy Easter and remembered the reason for such a special holiday!

Anniversary

Kyle and I celebrated our first anniversary on March 28, 2010. Actually, that is not a true statement. We haven't celebrated at all yet! The sunday before our anniversary was the first Sunday we took Jaxton to church. As we were sitting there, I kept getting really cold and chills all over my body so we went home after sacrament meeting. By the time we got home I had a full blown fever. Suck!! I called my mom to see when her spring break was so she could come up and help me. Unfortunately I was a week off but Sheena (my brother's wife) offered to come up. I thought my fever would break within a few days so she could help me while I got completely caught up with school. She came up with her 2 boys and it was such a help! I was sick the whole week! We finally went to the dr (he actually left procedures at the hospital to come over to the office to do a quick exam) and he treated me for an infection (which is what was causing the fevers). Then on the weekend, my parents came up to Cedar and my dad drove Alan and Sheena up to Ikea. My mom ended up staying with us until Thursday and she even offered to stay later. It was such a great help! And I loved having her here. She is an amazing grandma and a great mom! So thanks to Sheena and mom for all of the help! I will be graduating in May... I promise! I refuse to be one of those girls who gets married and drops out of college. I have too much potential for that!

Conley kissing Jaxton
Conley loved helping with Jaxton. It was really sweet!

So I have no pictures from any birthday celebration because I was in bed sick with a fever and an infection (Happy Anniversary Kyle, I have an infection) and we had house guests. While I spent to much time in bed I did a lot of thinking about the past year. I absolutely HATED our wedding. Too many people trying to make the day about them, not about me and kyle. But this first year of marriage has been really hard but totally worth it. I thought I would mention some of the highlights...

Getting married

Wedding night ;)

Moving in together


Selling Kyle's truck

Buying our car

Finding out we were accidentally pregnant

Finding out it was a boy

Our first christmas being married

Having Jaxton

Lots of other stuff has happened, but it is late and I am TOO tired to be thinking! But Happy 1st Anniversary Kyle... I love you forever and ever and always!

Rub a dub dub and meeting some family

My mom has been so amazing since we have had Jaxton. It is really hard to get anything done because he always wants to be held... so my parents came up for the weekend to help me out... I can not imagine not having my mom... she is such a blessing in my life! The day before they arrived, Jaxton's cord finally fell off, so my mom helped me give him a bath... well actually she bathed him while I took pictures


I think this picture is hilarious! and his face is adorable too!

he loves taking baths and now that I know what to do, I am not so scared to give him baths and I love doing it too... it is a fun bonding time for me and him

While we were in Vegas after returning from Mexico, Jaxton got to meet his great grandma LaPratt and his aunt Leslie and cousin Ethan. Les has been wanting to come up to meet him since he was born but she has to give her ex-husband a 14 day notice before taking Ethan out of the state and she works a lot being a single mom... so we brought Jaxton to her. Ethan loved Jax... he always wanted to hold him and would smack your hand if he could see you trying to help him or trying to take Jaxton away... talk about possessive... but it was really cute!

meeting aunt Leslie
Ethan and Jaxton

I think Ethan's face is adorable in this and it is so cute that Jaxton is staring at him!
Great grandma LaPratt... she agrees that Jaxton is definitely a LaPratt with all of that hair!!!