Jackson Abram Logsdon

Jackson's favorite things in the world (besides his Dad) are hot air balloons. I don't remember exactly when it became his favorite, but he has always just loved airplanes and hot air balloons. When Grandma and Grandpa Schultz were in town in July we went to the hot air balloon festival in Celina, and a few weeks ago there was one in Plano. Chauntel got up really early and took just him out to see the balloons. HE LOVED IT!!! He also got that great blow up hot air balloon that he plays with all around the house. He talks all the time about the hot air balloon "bestibal".
I will have to say that there are very few things that will warm your heart quicker than a smile from my youngest son. He is naturally sweet. You can't help but be happy around him because he is so happy all the time. He loves to laugh and smile. It's so amazing how he can touch each of us. Him and Kayla sleep together at night "so he can protect her". Jackson loves to wrestle or karate Isaac, and it's amazing to me how good Isaac is about not totally destroying him. Isaac thinks it's great how fearless Jackson is. I've taught him how to "wrap up" on a tackle and he goes at Isaac 100%. Jackson will come up to me about 2 times a day and ask me to go to the front room so he can "box me up". I love it. Him and Mom have a special relationship now that the kids are back in school and they are home together alot. I love to hear from him how their day was when I get in from work everyday.
This morning in Seminary, I was teaching 2 Nephi 2 and the scripture about how " . . . and men are that they might have joy" came along. As I was preparing, my thought immediately was "what brings me joy?" The first thing that came to mind was the moment when I come in the back door at the end of the day and get my greeting from my little guy and hear about his potty adventures for the day. He's not old enough yet like the others to realize that I'm really not that cool of a guy and not worth the effort to say hi and give hugs. But I seek all of them out everyday and ask them how their day was because, as I was thinking in my lesson last night, my family truly is what brings me joy. I am happiest when we are doing things together (except fishing on Saturday. That was terrible - that's another story. I learned that kids under the age of 8 require a 1 to 1 parent/kid ratio when fishing. I was out numbered and quickly defeated. We were playing on the slides at that park within 30 minutes. And then it was fun)
With all that he has gone through already in his young life, it has far from soured him on life. Till we lay him down at night, he is still trying his best to "play bowling", or shoot hoops, or wrestle whoever is closest. It's Isaac's sense of accomplishment in spelling a new word for me - Makayla's pure excitement when doing division "clicked" to her - and Jackson's run around the bases after Isaac's baseball games with a slide into home that make being a Dad such a rewarding thing. What a great baby-maker Chauntel turned out to be. I knew she had the hips for it!

sweet pork!!

This recipe is for my family to try. I got the recipe for my friend Jessica Trinadad. I lost hers and than googled one that's similar. I love it. We put the sweet pork in a tortilla, but it can also go on a taco salad.

1 Jar pace salsa blended (I've also used 1 can red enchilada sauce and 1 can green chilies)
1 3/4 cup brown sugar
3 cans cherry dr. pepper (most people use cherry coke or just coke, but I like dp)
1/2 tsp garlic
all blended together in a blender

Cook pork tenderloin in crock pot over night in water and one chopped onion. The next day, drain the water and blend up the salsa, brown sugar, garlic,and dp. Put it in the crock pot for the rest of the day. Whenever the pork is tender enough, use two forks to shred it.

This is why I don't blog recipes and tutorial. I'm not good at directions, writing them or following them:)

new living room sort of

I finally sold my couches and bought some need and used stuff. I plan on lighting up the curtain because every things so dark brown.

run tre run

Yesterday, we weren't able to go to Tre's game because it was an hour and a half away:( But while we were eating dinner we got an text from someone in the ward, who was at the game. It said "you just missed two 80 yard touchdown's from Tre." What!!! So Tre had an excellent game last night and we totally missed it:( I told him he'd have to do it again at his next home game. He said "O.K." So Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt's should call and congratulate him or just leave a post. Both would even work. Now I'm going to go figure out how to check his grades on line. Hopefully there's some more good news.

Co Op

Jackson is in a Preschool Co-op this year. He had his first day on TH. It was so cute. He's been talking about going to high school. I keep telling him, it's preschool, but I guess that's not cool enough. I bought him a little back pack lunch box but he wants the back pack and he wants to carry a lunch box.
He's been wearing underwear for four days with only one accident. I'm totally excited to be done with diapers (for a while anyways:) I wasn't really sure he'd ever be willing to try.

I had so much fun

had so much fun making most of makayla's b-day gifts. i made her a barbie house, a scripture bag, and decorated a cute little tee. she just thinks i don't like spending money. really i just love creating stuff. she also got new scriptures and a pink mp3 player. she wanted a ds but we're not ready for video games in our home.

Our 1st baptism!!

Makayla got baptized on Saturday. What a special moment to have my oldest get baptized. I'm so proud of her. I wasn't sure she would go through with it. She was pretty nervous and didn't want to go to the church. Audrey Carter was there with her and helped her stay calm and have a good time. Thank you Audrey:)

mom, there's a policemen in our house!!!!

Tonight, Isaac went missing. He actually goes missing a lot and it's been something we're trying to correct. Usually he's at one of three friends' homes in the neighborhood. But tonight around 6 when we're eating we were starting to wonder when he was going to come waltzing in again. I realized it was a lot later in the evening than usual. When Jeremy got home, he went to all of his friends' homes (about 7 or 8 different homes) and to the park to find him but he wasn't anywhere. Our neighbor came over to help look for him. And me and the kids look through the whole house again to make sure he hadn't fallen asleep in one of the closets. Jeremy eventually called the cops and I called every member of the ward I could think of,over to help comb the neighborhood together. At around 8:15 we had two cops, and about 10 friends over and at around 8:30 Isaac came driving up to the house with a friend from school and the kids dad (who I've never in my life meet) Come to find out he's been over there for about three hours playing games and eating dinner with them. There was a pretty good size thunder, lighting, and rain storm the whole evening, so he didn't want to walk home. And I guess they didn't want to drive him home and Isaac is totally daft when it comes to learning our # so, there you have it. One very scary night for the logsdon family well everyone except for Isaac. It sounds like he had a great evening. I didn't know if I should love him or beat him to death. With two cops hanging around I opted to love and lecture. He will never leave this house again. Makayla, bless her sensitive little soul, can not handle stuff like that and Tre totally searched the area and park (in the rain, I might add) and Jackson was clueless, he was excited about the police being in our home. I'm a pretty calm and collective person (when it comes to the big stuff, and a total nut when it's the super small stuff), so I didn't start crying or getting excited until people started showing up to help.

Thank you to everyone who showed up to help.

So the trampoline has been the best thing in the history of our family. I was very much against it b/c I didn't want the problem of moving it every time I had to cut the grass (pretty lame, I know), but it has turned out to be so much fun for the kids. Isaac likes to stand on the top of the wood thing, jump down to the trampoline, then flip while he's about 6 feet in the air and he's landed on his feet several times. It's wild. Makayla loves to get out and jump too. They'll get the sprinkler and put it under it on hot days. Our water bill was higher than ever last month, but at least they were outside!

So we have to say good-bye to the summer:(

There are many things I'm going to miss about the summer, like sleeping in, swimming, family coming to visit, and the sound of blood curdling screams coming from my kids, as they try to kill each other. I've really enjoyed this summer. I'm not sure I want it to end. Sure I'm looking forward to only having Jackson home, and catching up on cleaning, and doctors appointments (well pretty much catching up on everything) but this summer has been soooo relaxed and so enjoyable.

Both the kids got calls from their new teachers and "meet the teacher night" is on Thursday. What an exciting time as a kid, finding out who your teach is and seeing what friends will be in your class.

Tre is almost all registered for school here. -for those of you who don't know, Tre, my nephew is living with us and going to school here. It's actually been really great having him here. I thing the honeymoon is a little over and he's more used to us and more homesick, because things are getting a little less happy smilie. I love him and I feel so blessed in so many ways, that he is here and staying for awhile. I'm so thankful that by some miracle he made it on the plane and got here.

This is all so new and different to him, I hope and pray he will be open to new experiences and friends and really start to feel like this could be his home. I have to say that I have the most amazing and loving husband in the world. I thank God for him everyday in my prayers. I'm thankful he wanted tre to come and that he is so protective and supportive of me.

Poppy and Me Cruisin'

Here's Poppy and I on my motorcycles. We went cruisin' a lot of the nights he was here. It was great. I'll sell the one he's on in the next few weeks. I loved it while I had it.

My New Bike

Here's my new bike. It's a '98 Kawasaki Vulcan 800. It's a bit smaller than my bike now ('86 Honda Shadow 1100), but I like it alot. It's been custom painted, lots of extra chrome and some pipes on it that have set car alarms off when I drive by. Poppy has been here this week so we've had 2 bikes to go cruisin on. It's been great.

The Beauty Salon!!!

BEFORE

AFTER



I took Makayla to a real salon to get her hair cut. I've always cut her hair myself. I will never cut her hair again. I can't believe the difference. I don't have to do anything to her hair and it looks so beautiful. Her hair has this natural curl, it's so pretty.

I swear they came

So Grandma and Grandpa came to visit. (Thank you Mom and Dad for making the drive) We had so much fun. We took the kids roller skating for the first time with Grandma and Grandpa. It was so much fun to watch the kids skate. I could totally see their real personalities come out. Like Jackson didn't take one break. He was a skating maniac. He was dripping with sweat and had the best time ever. Makayla was a little timid to try it by her self and very careful. Isaac wouldn't let anyone help, and tried very hard for a little while but could get it quick enough so he quit and was done for the rest of the night. That is so my kids.

We also went to a hot air balloon festival while they were here. It was a lot of fun. I was definitely a high light of their visit and our summer.

The kids cried a lot after they left:(

Oh and I didn't take any picture, but I swear they came to visit. I'm not making it up.

Wow, what a task, taping of this project was. Makayla helped me so much I could have done it without her. I've been wanting to paint my room for awhile but I knew it would be a big job. It feels so good to have it done. I only painted the one wall. Yeah I did it:)

Jackson's summer

Jackson is finally old enough for swim lesson:) I love it. Last year it was so hard to watch Makayla and Isaac at swim because I had to entertain Jackson. He's getting a little better at listening to his "coach" but he's pretty flighty. It's really funny to watch him and the teachers inneract. He just does what he wants and they try to keep him with the group.

Yesterday they had him swim by himself in the deep end. He didn't like that so much. He got really freaked out when his short little arms couldn't grab the side of the pool.

I bought the kids a little blow up pool for the back yard. Somedays it keep them real busy and it's a lifesaver, but somedays it's so annoying. Like everyday when jackson gets in the pool with his clothes on or when he runs out naked after a bath and swims in the dirty pool water.

One Sunday afternoon, we came in from church and Jackson went straight from the car to the pool with all of his church clothes and shoes on and jumped in:)

I just love my little sprite.

4th of July Weekend!

We had soooo much fun having the Carters visit. Our kids are all getting a little older and are able to play better, without fighting. It makes everything a little more relaxing. Makayla and Audrey have know each other their whole lives.

You can tell Isaac likes Rachel a lot because I've never seen him play barbie with anyone before. Rachel has a way of calming Isaac down a little, which is really great.

Every year our ward has a bike parade it's one of my favorite traditions. We slept in late and made it to the parade when everyone was leaving:( But that's O.K., that's the nice thing about traditions, there's always next year.

GiRlS cAmP

I had soooo much fun at girls camp. It was such a different experience from being a young women 15 years ago. It was a learning experience. Thank goodness there was a albertsons 10 min. away. I can't wait til ward girls camp come again, in two years. (every other year is stake camp) I don't think stake camp will be nearly as fun for me, but it will definitely be a lot easier.

Isaac the artist

Isaac loves to draw, color, and cut and paste. He made this cute little duck for me and the tree for Jeremy. His bedroom wall and my bedroom door are covered in Isaac art.

I made my sister a baby blanket

My sister Bailey just had a little baby boy, Maddox. She's the man. She went all natural (on purpose) WoW!

My sister Jillian is having a baby in Aug. It's her first and I'm so happy for both of them. The blanket is actually for Jillian. I'd be to nervous to make Bailey anything. (Unless you like it. I can always make you one too.)

I can't believe how many nieces and nephews I have.

My friend Niki has a blanket like this. Every time I visit and see the blanket and I wish I had a reason to make one, so tu-du.