Prognosticator of Prognosticators

Thousands of people gather at Gobblers Knob in Punxsutawney PA to watch grown men dressed in top hats pull a giant rodent known as a groundhog, out of log and ask him to predict the weather. What an awesome and under appreciated holiday! This year was Punxsutawney Phil's 125th prediction. And he so kindly gave us spring. Although I can't help but wonder if he had felt that -1 degree weather I felt this morning if he would have chosen otherwise. And yes we celebrated Phil this year by watching one of our all time favorite movies Groundhog day. I could watch that movie today and the next day, and the next, and the next.... We also enjoyed some delicious Punxsutawney Phil Pie. I first attempted to draw a groundhog with the chocolate syrup but that ended in disaster. So I quickly watercolored up this picture instead. The pie was topped with grasshopper cookies because groundhogs occasionally eat grasshoppers. Logan said his favorite part of the pie was the little bits of groundhog bones.

Monthly update

I realized that I am not very good at keeping track of whats going on in our lives rather than just posting fun things we have done. So my new goal is to do a monthly post that reports what each of us is up to. We will see how long this lasts. It's really for my own benefit of than yours so I won't be offended if you don't care to read it. I need to do better on my record keeping especially because this is my only source as a journal. So here is January's:

Lets start with Jack. It's crazy how much he is becoming more and more independent each day. He likes to help feed himself, wipes his nose and put his hats on. He is at the stage where he imitates a lot of what we do as well. He talks on the phone and won't leave our computers alone. That just goes to show what we are doing far too often. He makes a piggy nose when he sees a pig or pounds his chest for a monkey, can say "ish" for fish, and is starting to recognize Jesus. I am so surprised by what he understands. When I tell him let's go up/down stairs he heads straight to the stairs. If I say -let's feed the rats, he know where to food is and starts shoving food in their cages before I get there. If I tell him to find his socks he goes to the drawer and gets some. Speaking of socks, he has a battle with socks. No matter how many times I put them on, he always gets them off. And I shouldn't be proud of this, but I finally got him to enjoy watching a little TV. I mostly did it so once a day we can just sit and have a break together. He has taken no interest to watch TV until I tried Elmo. How can you not love Elmo? So I checked some out from the library and we watch them from time to time. Elmo is just as entertaining for me as well. Oh and we can't forget the temper tantrums that have started with him being a toddler. I know those will get old someday, but right now they are just hilarious.

Logan is busy finishing up his last semester at USU. He has some papers to publish, his Thesis to finish and a conference in Atlanta Georgia to get ready for in March. His shoulder is healing remarkably well which has been such a blessing. He wants to start running again in hopes to do a half or full marathon in the near future. It has been so nice to have him around these last couple of months, but I will be loosing him again until the conference is over.

I have been trying to avoid going crazy being cooped up inside while there are red air days and snowstorms. Luckily, I have my workout buddies- Erica and Dani to keep me going early in the morning. I also get to hang out with Kym and Riley on occasion which is always a treat. Most of my days consist of cleaning the house, trying recipes or a coming up with a project to work on, and entertaining Jack with random activities. For the most part it keeps me pretty busy and I enjoy doing it.

Winter makes us desperate

It usually hits this time of year, cabin fever. I love winter up until Christmas and then I am through with the cold and snow. To top it off, we live in Logan where there are Red Air days which means don't go outside unless you want cancer. So Jack and I entertain ourselves inside with random charades such as: hide and seek rats, bubbles, and climbing up and down our stairs. But even these exciting games can wear thin, so we brave the cold every now and then. My good friend and neighbor Kym and I decided to take the boys out for some sledding. To our surprise, the snow had melted over night. We were determined to go and did it anyway.

Jack copies everything Riley does

Puddles and slush replaced our snow. The boys were quite wet.

I'll be honest, they hated the sled.

The Big Two Seven

Logan celebrated his 27th birthday on January 12th. It was a nice day. We mostly just relaxed and spent time together. Jack's gift to Logan was letting us sleep in until 9. I am still impressed he allowed that. If you want to give Logan a gift, give him food. So I made sure his day was filled with delicious food. We had a yummy brunch followed by a yummy lunch. Logan then got his birthday present from me, a massage at the Sports Academy and then we went to Chilli's while my good friend Kym watched Jack. And of course I topped it off with a tasty graham cracker crust dessert.
I know have to give a short tribute to my dear husband. He is works so hard for our family. I don't know how he runs on the amount of sleep he gets and yet he still always takes time for Jack and even helps around the house. I am truly so lucky to have him. I knew we were soul mates when we discovered our shared love of Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy (perhaps this is why we named our son Jack). He made me laugh then and still does now ( I am referring to both Logan and Jack Handy). So in honor of Logan, I post these Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy:


"I bet when the Neanderthal kids would make a snowman, someone would always end up saying, "Don't forget the thick, heavy brows." Then they would all get embarrassed because they remembered they had the big hunky brows too, and they'd get mad and eat the snowman."
"I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it."
"I can still recall old Mister Barnslow getting out every morning and nailing a fresh load of tadpoles to the old board of his. Then he'd spin it round and round, like a wheel of fortune, and no matter where it stopped he'd yell out, "Tadpoles! Tadpoles is a winner!" We all thought he was crazy. But then we had some growing up to do."
"I think somebody should come up with a way to breed a very large shrimp. That way, you could ride him, then after you camped at night, you could eat him. How about it, science?"

University of Virginia

We got in to the University of Virginia! Their campus and the town looks so pretty with lots of these colonial style buildings. Charlottesville is supposed to be awesome. It was ranked the #1 place to live back in 2004 I think. There is lots of hiking and festivals, the weather is relatively warm, lots of history and you are not that far from the beach. It's a tiny town with only 40,000 people. We also got scholarship so thats a bonus and puts Virginia on our list of schools we want to attend.

The Year of The Tiger-Rabbit

Last year was the Chinese year of the Tiger. I am really disappointed I didn't learn this until the year was almost up. I really would have enjoyed that. This year, starting in February, is the year of the Rabbit. Not as cool but still fun. So when we were coming up with a theme for our New Years Party, I was having trouble deciding which animal to focus on. Logan had the amazing idea of the Tiger-Rabbit. He even designed and drew our year slogan of a rabbit emerging from a tiger. Out with the old, in with the new. Or, the new emerging from the old. We were so proud of this that we posted the picture everywhere. Jenna and Brad joined us for this tiger-rabbit celebration. We ate rabbit leaf dip with chips, tiger's blood punch, and tiger-rabbit cookies. Jenna brought some awesome dip that once she learned of the party themed decided it had bits of rabbit in it as well. We played Cranium, our favorite game as of late, and farkle. We had a bunch of good luck charms for the new year. We ate 12 grapes at midnight. The sour grapes represent bad months and the sweet ones represent good months. We lucked out and had a sweet batch of grapes so it looks as though 2011 will treat all of us well.
Happy Tiger-Rabbit 2011!

Our decor

The decorations were quite classy...

One lucky winner got to take this beauty home. I painted the frame and Logan drew his signature Tiger-Rabbit masterpiece.

The many games to choose from...

We ate our 12 grapes at midnight. You are supposed to do it fast so be aware of choking. I guess that was probably symbolize a not so great year coming your way too.

Striped tiger cookies and rabbit cookies.

Rabbit lettuce dip.

10, 9, 8, 7....

Jenna and Brad are such troopers to always go along with our bazaar themes. They even wore my rabbit party hats.

Happy 2011!

University of Chicago

The Windy City, the City of Big Shoulders, the Second City, and The City That Works. We got a call today and Logan got into University of Chicago! They are our highest ranked school yet sitting at #5.

A few facts about Chicago:

• Population is about 3 million people.
• Its the third largest city in the U.S.

Chicago is home to:

• More than 200 theaters
• Nearly 200 art galleries
• More than 7,300 restaurants
• 77 community areas containing more than 100 neighborhoods
• 26 miles of lakefront
• 15 miles of bathing beaches
• 36 annual parades
• 19 miles of lakefront bicycle paths
• 552 parks
• United States President Barack Obama

Needless to say, its a pretty busy city. It's going to be a tough decision!

Christmas

Oh geez, where do I begin? Christmas was a blast. We spent a good week and a half in Gunnison and could have kept going but Logan and Jack got sick so we decided to head home. We went down the Saturday before Christmas so we could attend the Annual Christenson Christmas Party and the Chappell Party. Always a treat. Staci and Scott and the kids were down too so we took advantage of that. We attended the Manti Temple and did lots of playing in the snow. Of course we had Jack's birthday party and the Chopped Competition. We got to see Madee and Lafe play at their basketball games, watched movies, and played Cranium and the Wii. By Christmas Eve, all of my siblings were there and then the festivities really began. We did a nativity with the grand kids which was followed by the Jacks tournament. I surprised even myself by sweeping the competition with first place! The Duck of Triumph was all mine this year! Logan's luck was not so good with his left handed handicap and ended up taking the Stallion of Shame home. We then had a White Elephant exchange where some awesome gifts were given and received. Christmas was wonderful. It was nice to be around so much family. We opened gifts then Logan and I and Jack were off to Brian Head to stay the night at the condo Logan's family had rented that year. It was a short stay, but well worth it! I couldn't get enough of Gracy's Hannah Montana game. My favorite part was when I realized we were out of diapers so we had to buy a rather small pack from the lodge for $19! The next morning we headed back to Gunnison to the Pickett Christmas Party at my Uncle Hal's house. The next day we left early that morning to head up north. We had brunch and baby shower for my Aunt Korina at my Aunt Jennifer's house. Then we had some awesome sledding up the canyon. Jack was a trooper. He didn't smile and laugh, but he didn't cry either and it was pretty darn cold. Then it was off the Chuck a Rama for some family feasting! We finished off the day with just my immediate family at Temple Square. Nothing says the spirit of Christmas like Temple Square. Finally we finished the drive home to Logan. What a fun was to spend the holiday!

Here are the thirteen shirts I screened or sewed for gifts the day before we left for Gunnison. I was enemies with my sewing machine and Yudu after that.

The snow fall in Gunnison had to have been record breaking. Of course for Logan, its somewhat common, but not in Gunnison.

Adam and Wills. Adam had a love hate relationship with the snow. He refused to wear mittens and this was often the source of his anger.

Will building a snow slide.

Jack and Logan work on a snowman.

It melted as fast as it came.

I like this picture. Jack is in the pointing stage. I love it.

He loves animals. Especially dogs, cats and of course, rats.

The Nativity! Jack was baby Jesus.

The Annual Pickett Jacks Tourney! Jason took the trophy last year.

Poor handicapped Logan. Couldn't use his right arm so he had to do lefties. Made it quite challenging.

I was nervous, but focused.

The best and the worst.

The Stallion of Shame and the Duck of Triumph.

The White Elephant Party. We passed on our awesome 7-11 Slurpee machine we got from the Carlile's to my dad.

Now that is a white elephant gift! Secretly inside was hidden a Subway gift card. Nothing goes better together than Saddam Hussein and Subways!

Christmas morning. We have a tradition of lining up youngest to oldest to go into the tree. I always liked this because I was the youngest and this year Jack took my place.

So many people crammed into such a small space...

Jack sort of got the present opening thing. But mostly he was a nuisance to the other kids as he wanted all their toys.

Logan and his happy little kindle. My gift (turned out to be a sewing machine) didn't arrive on time so I was empty handed on Christmas day. I will get my vengeance on you Wal-Mart!

At the condo in Brian Head. I forgot to take pictures until the morning we were leaving so I just snapped a few. Mostly of everyone waking up. haha.

Gracy

Lafe

Madee

I whipped up some matching beanies for Jack and I. Kind of lame. I didn't really intend for them to be matching. I just really liked the color.

Jason pulling Gracie, Jack and Will in the sled.

It started out well, but in the end...

Mom, Adam and Will get warm by the fire.

Me and Loge.

Crazy Uncle Jathon slipped in a picture.

Temple Square. I always seem to surprise my mom when I am taking pictures of her.

An attempted family picture of the Jackson family. Its mostly a miracle we didn't lose Adam while we were there.

Ahh the Temple. So pretty

Dad. Or as Gracie calls him, Papa Pickett. I like that.

The Christus Statue.