My birthday

Celebrating 25 Years

November 14, 1984-November 14, 2009

It was a wonderful day that consisted of Eli blowing off his homework, at my request, so we could spend the day together watching Smallville, since we are pretty much obsessed right now, and eating at Five Guys Burgers and Fries (which is THE BEST burger joint ever) with our friends Amy, Arthur, and Mia (just kidding Amy) Maya. They even treated us to Cold Stone ice cream. It was a great relaxing day. Cause now that I am so old I can't do a whole lot that I used to besides just resting and relaxing...just kidding. Eli was the best though, he did all the dishes and cleaned our house while I was gone to a meeting the next day. He said he was just earning "velvet bucks" which I am sure he has enough to start his own bank. It was a great day with friends and family.

All Hallows Eve

This year the festivities consisted of a late afternoon ward trunk or treat partay! We LOVE halloween, so of course we all dress up. This year's theme was centered around Eli's brilliant costume. Rummaging through the old Williams Ward Church building before it was torn down, he happened to come across an old Williams Ward basketball jersey. The scary thing is that it was a legitimate uniform...it was actually worn in public. It would have been classic without the T-shirt and spandex underneath, but for the sake of the ward members we thought maybe it would be a good idea to indeed wear the spandex. It turned out to be pretty chilly so it was a good thing. So, Eli is the 70's basketball player, I'm the 70's cheerleader, and Axel is the ref.
It was a great Halloween.

That's the love of my life right there. Where was he all of my life?

One happy, but really wierd and gooberish-type family!!

all about the fam

First of all I do have an excuse for not updating for so long...actually a couple of excuses. Our upstairs neighbors who we shared internet with, moved so our access is very limited. Next excuse: I got the swine flu! Poopy, I know. I was followed by Eli getting only the tiniest degree of the flu because his immune system is very similar to Superman's, then finally Axel got the flu. So, we have been quarantined in the apartment for the past two weeks. I'm still fighting the runny nose and cough unfortunately but everyone is doing great.
So, back to life. All of the hubbard women got together in Salt Lake. I discovered that I have not grown out of my characteristic of being prone to car sickness. I made the mistake of sitting in the back from Rexburg to Grace. I haven't sat in the back Forever! Which is obvious because I thought I had out grown getting sick. So, by the time we got to Bailey's, I lost my breakfast. Finally by Brigham City of sitting in the front of the truck, I was feeling better. I guess it isn't all bad, I was guaranteed a front seat permanently. Then Melissa has the longest legs, so she got the front too. So, there you have the sister in laws in the front with our dear mother in law and all of the sisters in the back. It was a great trip though. We ate at Olive Garden and stayed up late chatting. A true girl party. Plus, since it was ALL of the Hubbard women, I finally got to put a face with a lot of names I remember from wedding presents and thank you cards but had never met. It is a great blessing to be a tight knit family.

Everyone posing at olive garden. What we have to wait for a table for seven? I can't believe those aren't readily available! ;)

All the sisters in the back. Lora took the front with me for a bit while we were driving in Salt lake.


I am a mom, so, of course, I have to say something about the snicklefritz. Lately his thing is getting in the dish drainer and having to have BOTH scubbers. Heaven forbid if I take one away to do the dishes...it often produces a full on melt down.

Good news is I finally found another movie he will watch besides mary poppins. ...drum roll...hocus pocus! That Bette Midler is quite the charmer I guess.

And finally I got his first year pictures taken...you know since his birthday was three months ago but who's counting. I took them on campus in the flowers. Not too shabby for someone too cheap to get them professional.

Back on the blog-wagon

Labor Day and the Titcomb Reunion....yes everyone not familiar with my maiden name, it is indeed Titcomb. To answer a question I always get..Yes, the nicknames were plentiful in high school regarding my last name. I had one guy who found out what my maiden name say, "Don't worry I won't tell anyone, except for when I need to blackmail you."...um okay, it's not THAT bad. I've definitely heard worse. Anyway, on to other things. My dad has one sister and so it isn't the typical huge family reunion you would think, such as on the Hubbard side. :) We all got together and ate some food, played some sand volleyball, and shot the bull for a while. Good times, good times. So, here is the fam...

Grandma and Me...if you know my gram, I'm guessing some pretty interesting and funny stories are coming to mind. I love my granny.

This is my dad's sister Shirley, her husband and daughter and Mariah's hoodlims.

My crippled mother with a "chipper" expression. Looks like I caught dad with a mouthful.

The sisters...all except Tennille :( The party definitely missed her! We did receive a summer miracle when Al showed up from hunting. Mariah's whole marriage he's never been there for a labor day. It was only because my cousin (who happens to be his hunting partner) dragged him here...and he kept reminding us that that was the only reason he was here.

And now for Braxton and Axel. I overheard Brax tell everyone that Axel was his favorite cousin. He's probably just so excited to have another boy around. He sure treats him like a king. What a sweetheart!

I never thought I would have a one year old yet here we are. Life passes so quickly. We had his birthday party at my mom's house and I took on the feet of making my own ice cream cake or I should say ice cream cakes and even decorating them for the big event, so of course I had to take a picture.....

Then, of course, we have the "Dig Right In" cake for Axel..and that he did. I think he made more of a mess with his dinner though than his actual birthday cake. He kept clapping after every bite. I'll take that as a compliment that he likes my cooking :) Really, though I think it was because he knew he had an audience. When we sang "Happy Birthday" he kept dancing and waving his hands. He learned to dance from the song "Steppin' Time" from Dick Van Dike...in of course Mary Poppins.

He didn't give a crap about actually unwrapping his presents but he liked them afterwards.

Pacen kept making him laugh. I get a kick out of his stark white aborigini pop belly. That's my boy!

Poor Griffin got a battle wound from the party. We were all playing sand volleyball when Eli looks over because all the kids are suddenly quiet. He sees a crowd around a body laying on the grass with no one making a peep and he said to himself..."Something ain't right." We found that the body was Griff's and he had a huge black eye with a bump that was sticking out of cheek a good two inches. The culprit was Nessa, his little sister, who threw a big bocce ball at his face. He had a good ole shiner and didn't know whether to laugh or cry so he kinda did both.

It's been such a great year that has sped right by. I love his sticky fingerprints all over everything, and the thin film that is always on my coffee table no matter how often I wipe it off. I love the moments like when Eli told me I had a fork stuck onto the back of my shirt from my sticky son. I love that he is "all business" when he plays and one of his favorite toys is a can of pens and pencils. I love his little quirks and rocking him to sleep at night, yes even the nights that he flails and slaps me in the face and pulls my hair with a big ole grin on his face. Every day has been such a blessing that I get to spend all day with my son at home. We have some good times and many more to come.

The Worst Camping Trip EVER

Our camping trip started at Egin Lake where we went to take a dip. This is leg of our "camping trip" was really fun. We were originally going to camp here but the cheapest spot is $25. No thanks. Egin Lake was perfect for a swim though, because it only gets about 3ft deep at the very most, so Axel could crawl in the lake and everything. Plus it is really warm. He loves mud as we soon discovered...course who wouldn't love mud. He did keep trying to eat it of course, since everything goes in his mouth first thing. Here are the before and after pictures of his discovery...

I sure do love my man with a farmer tan. My hubby and my son who both appear to be walking and crawling on water. It's a miracle. Of course in my eyes, they do walk on water. ;)

Warning: The following passage is not for the faint hearted.

It was the next leg of our journey that turned sour. Mostly, I think it was the location we chose for camping...Beaverdick Park. First of all, the mosquitoes flock like the salmon of Capistrano. :) (guess that movie) After a quick dip in the river, and I do mean a quick dip because it was freezing, we decided to set up camp. While doing so, we discovered the mosquitoes had an extreme liking to the Hubbard blood. So, Eli decided he needed an extra strong dose of mosquito repellent. Grabbing the spray, he began his shower: up and down both legs, point blank range on arms, face, neck, and clothes. There was no way he was going to get bitten. During his "bath", he thought to himself, "Man, this repellent seems really crappy. It doesn't even smell like repellent, "which of course, made him apply even more. After doing this, he looked up and saw the can of mosquito repellent sitting on the table. Immediately his thoughts were, "Duuuh, what do I have?" He then looked down and discovered he had in his hand a can of cooking spray! What I observed first was the body building glaze he had on his arms and legs. It looked like someone had just rubbed thick cocoa butter all over him. He could have jumped belly down on the grass and slid clear to the river without stopping. We laughed forever. Needless to say, we could almost hear the mosquitoes saying, "mm, mm, mm, this guy's even buttered himself up for us...let's go!" And go they did. He had 18 bites on one leg and 14 bites on the other. The worst part is, it gets worse.

We eat and about 9 pm we decide to put Axel to bed. This became the night we almost lost our son. When I say lost, I mean gave away. We put him in the tent all by himself with very high hopes that he would simply go to sleep after a while. Little did we realize the fire of stubbornness that kept sleep far from his eyes. Let's just say he finally drifted off at 11:30 pm. And then, it gets worse....We decided to rename Beaverdick park to Beaverdick truck stop. Apparently, it is the hot spot to drive in, and around everyone's tents and then drive out. Eli never wanted to shoot so many tires out in his whole life.(or people for that matter) The second to last straw came at midnight when a group of about ten college kids decided to set up a tent right next to us. Don't worry their car lights shown directly into our tent. And then laughing, giggling, and talking for all to hear, they proceeded to set up camp. Eli with nothing but compassion, Christ-like thoughts, and charitable notions in his heart opened up the tent door and expressed a message motivated by pure love, "SHUT THE HELL UP, THERE'S PEOPLE TRYING TO SLEEP!" When that didn't work, he had to go pay them a personalized visit, with a much nicer delivery of his plea. It was successful, they quieted and all was well again...NOT. Upon Eli's return to the tent, two cars pulled up behind the tent and engage in conversation. When finished they peeled out at which point our son woke up and started wailing. The final straw was shattered. To illustrate this moment, we turn our thoughts to similar experiences of rage...like adolf hitler sitting in his bunker about to end his life, or General Custer when he realized, "I'm not going to get out of this one." At that point, Eli breaking flash light said, "I HAVE HAD ENOUGH." So, we broke camp and went home. All within 15 minutes I might add. You could hear Axel stop crying and give a sigh of relief when we laid him in his crib. And we joined him for a good night's sleep.

How's this for random

It's great that I get to experience all of Axel's "firsts" with him. For instance:
His first hair cut as shown I even parted it. He just looked like a little man.


The look of shock and awe

Nothing like running a good comb along the ole gums

Again that shock and awe...I get that look a lot.

Now we have the "I-can-actually-see-out-of-the-car-cause-I-am-facing-forward" first. It's a good one. He is really happy. Getting the new car seat was a funny story actually. Some lady in Mckammen was selling it on craigs list for $15 bucks. For anyone who's priced these they run for about $50. We wanted to check it out while we were home in Grace. Eli also wanted to take me for a ride on his dad's harley. Well let's knock out two birds with one stone right? Oh boy did we. About an hour after we left we were thinking "how do we get into these situations" because there we were on a harley with me holding onto the front facing car seat between Eli and I, in a rain storm, with the wind blowing us every which way on the bike. This is one of those times that I prayed super hard that we could just make it home in one piece...God definitely answers prayers, even the seemingly trivial ones. :) But it was worth it cause look how happy Axel is...

If you look close you can see the three toothed wonder himself.

And now finally Axel's first time helping me clean the bathtub. I was unaware that Eli was taking a piture or maybe I wouldn't be quite so bent over...not the most ideal side of me to post on the internet but Axel was so cute I couldn't help it. He kept "helping" me by dropping this one toy in over and over after I would hand it back to him. He loves standing up to everything now. My little boy is growing up so fast. sniff sniff

And this is the magic of my ordinary days...

A spoonful of sugar

Lately it's all about Mary Poppins, not animated movies, not other musicals (which I have tried all sorts), not chic flicks (too bad I wouldn't mind putting those in every now and then) ---only Mary Poppins. Axel doesn't even pay attention to me when Mary Poppins is on...heck he barely pays attention to me when Mary Poppins isn't on the big screen. Especially since he is trying to break in his other two front teeth, Mary Poppins seems to be the only thing that makes him happy, so we watch it a lot. I go to bed with the songs in my head and wake up humming them too. My dreams tend to be have real have cartoon. :) Yesterday, I tried to take a nap while Axel was snoozing and couldn't fall asleep because one of her songs kept echoing in my head. You know you've seen it too much when you start picking out all the flaws of a disney movie. And you can not only quote it word for word but have the facial expressions down to an art too. When I got up to bear my testimony last week I kept thinking in my head, "I feel like I'm holding Mary Poppins hand cuz, 'my heart [keeps] beatin' like a big brass band'" Luckily I didn't start off my testimony saying a corny line like that. Then people would really know what a nerd and a goober I really am. But hey, this is my life lately, and I'm still lovin' every minute of it. So, there you are...a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

A True Chocolate Lover

My Little Puddin', sporting his treat, a chocolate marshmellow egg (yes this event occurred over Easter), all over his face. But not only on his face as you can see if you take a closer look to the left...that's right...that's his "hand"iwork (pardon the very cheesy pun) on the wall. The process of it getting there is too funny, though. He was devouring his egg and sucking all the chocolate off of it when he noticed chocolate all over his hand. He looked at his hand, then looked at the wall, then stuck his chocolately hand on the wall. When he pulled it away he leaned close to the wall to look at the his mark he just left. Satisfied he sat back up looked at us and just smiled. It was hilarious to witness.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day consisted of the traditional grave hopping. Don't worry it's not morbid or disrespectful. We just have relatives in so many graveyards around Grace that we drive to each one. While we're there, we usually end up b.s.ing around the graves for quite awhile. .. that is until we get rained out. Every Memorial Day you can count on crazy weather..sunny, then rainy, then sunny. What do you do? Too bad the pics I got of the extended family turned out so dark you couldn't tell what they were...so you'll have to make do with pics of just us three.

Axel eating dandelions.

Eli in the biker duds..hugging his gorgeous wife..:)

Check out that stare from Mr. Blue Eyes himself.

Migratory Bird Day

May 9, 2009 consisted of the Migratory Bird Day held at Camus Wildlife Refuge. This is a day second in importance only to Christmas, or at least according to Eli's professor Bro. Strickland it is. Eli thought he was volunteering for a mission to save the world through these birds....instead he watched them through binnoculars ALL DAY. The awesome thing is that he could identify every single bird not only by sight but also recalling their order, family, genus, and species. Don't worry that is what we spent all last semester memorizing. He made me proud and even showed up his professor by correctly identifying a bird that Bro. Strickland got wrong. I know what you're thinking, "where can I go to sign up for this?" I'm sure if you are bored enough you will find a way, if you really want to be nerds like us that is. One cool part about the experience was the hooters he got to handle. :) Owls that is...what were you thinking?

Just the girls

Last month, we had a girls weekend with just my mom, sisters and me. Just like old times, we all shared a room and one bathroom. Even more like old times we even had a bit of a cat fight. It was awesome. The craziness was all worth it. We got to shop and look around Park City and Salt Lake and best of all just be with each other. Tennille flew in from Oregon, which is why we all met in Salt Lake. It is rare indeed when we can all get together, and I sure do look forward to it. Once a year just isn't enough.

All my sisters..Sunshine, Tennille and Mariah

Waiting for our table at Olive Garden

My mama and me

Tennille and the moose at Park City...and her extremely long tongue

We all went to the Mountain Body Day Spa where I
used to work in Park City and got a hand treatment

Axel did not like the bear on the bench one bit.

It was hilarious...in a mean sort of way.

How dare I take advantage of Axel

when he was so sad,
if he didn't look so darn cute when he cried.

P.S. Note to Sunshine.... I waited to post it so when nothing was happening in Rexburg besides 30 mph winds EVERYDAY then I will still have something to blog about. Instead of blogging all these major happenings in a row and then have diddly squat for months.

A Nice Day for a White Wedding

We found ourselves in Bountiful this weekend for a wedding. My roommate from Salt Lake, Kim, got married Friday. The sealing was awesome and was a great reminder of all of the blessings we receive from being sealed in the temple. Having my family for all eternity is seriously the most I could ever ask for...yes even when my son is an onery little cuss...but who wouldn't be after a four hour car ride.