One Whole Year!

One year ago today completely changed our lives!  Johnathan got his dream job!  I still remember what we were doing when he got the call.  Johnathan was working with Gold Cross and was at work.  We knew that if he got the job, he would get a call.  If he didn't get the job, he would get a letter in the mail.  From the time he started the first test in the hiring process until we got the call was seriously like 3 months.  And it was high stress the entire time!  Anyways, back to the big day.  We had been told they would make a decision before the weekend, and we didn't get a call.  According to their hiring list, after all the tests and interviews, Johnathan was #8, but we knew there were 3 people in the #3 spot.  There was still a chance of him getting the call, so we waited...  The kids and I were eating dinner and the phone rang.  Caller ID said it was from Provo.  My heart started pounding as I answered.  They asked for Johnathan and told me they couldn't reach him on his cell phone, but he needed to call her back in the next 20 minutes (before she left for the day).  I took down her number and hurried and called Johnathan.  Johnathan had gotten her call but accidentally hit 'decline' instead of 'accept'.  He was panicking in the ambulance because he didn't have her number to call her back!  I called and was also panicking and gave him the number.  Then he called me back and told me that he was offered the job.  The kids had been waiting on the edge of their seats.  I told them the news and we all yelled as loud as we could!  We were so excited!

In the fire industry, being hired for one year is a big deal.  For the first year, you are on probation.  You're the 'boot'.  You show up earlier than everyone else and leave last.  You do all the jobs that nobody else wants to do.  You work your hardest to prove you can do this job and that you deserve to stay.  Johnathan also had to read a HUGE firefighting book and take lots of tests on what he read.  If he got less than 80% on 3 of them, he would be fired... No stress :)

Well, I'm happy to say, Johnathan made it through!  He is no longer on probation!  Today is the day he has been counting down to for an entire year!  He remembered the exact date all year, which is a big deal for him to remember.  He still has to think about our children's birthdays.  It doesn't bother me, I know why.  I had to work for our children to get here (labor), so I definitely remember the dates.  Well, he has had to work hard for this date, so that's why he remembers it.

It's been really neat to see him grow through this past year.  A year ago, he was unsure if he could really save someones life.  He didn't like to step up and take charge, and would second guess himself.  I think this is common in the medical field.  The only solution is just getting experience, which is what the last year was.  I really admire people who literally have people's lives in their hands.  They have such a huge job, and I know I could NEVER do it!  Now, Johnathan is so much more confident in his abilities.  He's really shown the guys he works with that he can do his job and that he loves his job.

We are so proud of you Johnathan!  You've worked really hard!  We're so glad that you've found a job you LOVE and are good at!  We love your schedule that lets you be home a lot more so we can do lots of fun things together.  CONGRATULATIONS! 

To celebrate, we are going to have dinner with Johnathan (who's at work) and bring some peanut butter bars for us and his crew.  Tomorrow we'll go skiing!

Family Pictures!

We recently had our family pictures updated.  We called someone from my home town who does an AMAZING job to take them for us.  We are so happy with how they turned out!  Here are our favorites!

 Our favorite!

 Here's the Dutson side (except for 1 brother who couldn't make it)

If anyone is wanting to have some professional pictures taken, I HIGHLY recommend calling Jeremy Stowell!  Here's his website: http://www.stowellphotography.com/  He was so easy to work with and I can't say enough about the quality of the photos he took!

Eden

The day after school got out, we headed out of town to kick summer off with a family vacation!  We went up Ogden Canyon to a little town called Eden.  It was one of the most fun vacations we've ever been on!  I want to make it a yearly tradition to start summer that way.  We'd never been to Eden before, but we loved it!  It's so green there, and is in a quiet spread out community, but it's close to Ogden so we had lots of fun things to do.  We stayed in the World Mark Wolf Creek Condominiums.  They were so nice!  My cousin and her family came up with us and stayed in their own condo, which is what made this vacation so much fun.  They have kids within one year of each of our kids and they get along so well!  Both of our kids LOVED playing every day with their cousins!

One day we headed down to Ogden and went to the Treehouse Children's Museum.  The kids had a BLAST!  There were a lot of different stations there (like a China house, a hero section, a castle area) that the kids could dress-up in costumes.  Here's some pictures from there:

 John is so proud!

 Playing with parachutes

 Dressing up

 The Music Room

 Jayden's favorite was the giant Chess board

 The kids put on a play for us

Several days we went swimming at the pool at our condo.  There was a giant "kid" slide that shot the kids out super fast.  The kids definitely had to warm up to it.

All the kids brought their scooters and right across the parking lot there was a really fun ramp that they had fun riding down.  I think this might have been their favorite thing to do  :)

In my last post, I forgot to put pictures of Jacob's party.  He turned 4 when we were on vacation, so we celebrated it in Eden.  He was so cute all day long!  He loved us singing Happy Birthday to him and helping to make his cake.  The next day he was heartbroken that it was no longer his birthday.

 This was the cake he chose.  He wanted a "num-a-num" cake (aka M&M's).  

Don't tell him I used Reeses Pieces so I could have some.

We also went down to the Ogden Dinosaur Park.

 Here are the crazy kids we spent the week with!  Thanks for going with us Gibbons Family!

 (Oldest to youngest)

Don't they just match up perfectly?

Best Friends!

End of School

 I just wanted to do a little post about the kids teachers this year.  We feel very lucky to have had such great teachers!  The kids had a fun year at school and learned a lot.  They love summer break, but they also love school a lot, so it's very bittersweet!  In fact, Ashlyn came home on the last day of school and 30 minutes later, I found her in her bedroom crying because she was already missing Mrs. Weight.

Ashlyn's teacher Mrs. Weight

 Jayden's teacher Miss Cook

Our end of school tradition!  Here comes the BUZZ!

Jacob's Birthday!

On May 31, Jacob turned 4 years old!  On his birthday, he was so happy that the day was all about HIM!  After we sang Happy Birthday to him, his reply was "That's a really great song!"  He also informed me that now that he's 4, he needs new shoes (because he apparently grew overnight) and he needs a big sword so he can fight all the bad guys.

Jacob has sure added character to our family!  He really loves to make us laugh and always seems to be talking.  His favorite things to do are play the wii, play games, and helping mom in the kitchen.  Jacob is our first child who LOVES to be the center of attention (most of the time).  The easiest thing about Jacob is putting him to bed.  He still takes really good naps almost every day and when he's tired, he'll usually tell me he's ready for bed.  When we've been gone from home, he gets excited about being in his own bed and will usually smile or giggle when we tuck him in.

Here's our favorite pics of Jacob:

These are some "Jacob faces" we caught during family pics a while ago.  These sure show his personality!

 Thanks a bunch Jacob for being so much fun & keeping us on our toes!  We love you!