Newest pictures

When Jackson turned 4 months old we got these great pictures, they are a little old now, but still super cute right?

Christmas Parties!

Jackson has absolutely loved Santa. Everytime he gets with him he comes up with the happiest biggest smile. I guess he knows where the good stuff is.

The MBA put on a great party for the students and spouses. We listened to a John schmitt concert and ate great food. We are loving our new friends through the program and are happy to get to spend fun time with them.

It is always nice to have an excuse to get dressed up!

12 events of Thanksgiving

12 siblings gathered

we missed Tyler and Kacey, but Ry and MaryAnn (plus Dayton!), Shane and girlfriend Kim, Carly and Doug, Melinda, and Marcie all joined us on Thanksgiving day. I love having family so close in location and so close in relation. I love you guys!

11 pounds and gaining!

We had an amazing turkey dinner on Thanksgiving. I made a sweet yams and sweet potato crunch that I think will become a yearly tradition . . . it's vegetable that is also dessert! THEN we ate at Schnieders (at Zermatts) an All-you-can-eat Seafood buffet complete with Sushi, shrimp, crab, all types of fish AND a 3 table dessert bar. The following day we at "big platters" at Matty's Bistro (also at Zermatts) and finished it off with another Turkey dinner at Dave's parents.

At Matty's German style Bistro.

10s and 100s of blessings

As we said our "Thanks" around the table this year I found it hard to choose just one thing to be thankful for. My life is full of good friends, close family, a wonderful marriage, a beautiful baby, a job I thoroughly enjoy, a comfortable home, a ward family, good health, and many more blessings. I am so thankful to Heavenly Father for taking care of us so well. I know that life isn't always so peachy, so I will enjoy and relish the time I have with so many blessings. I feel happier than I have ever been before.

My two greatest loves . . .

9 carols a singing

The Messiah sing in is one of Dave's favorite events of the season. WE get to listen to the Utah Symphony, stellar soloist and OURSELVES! Yep, they let us try and pick out our part in Handel's Messiah and sing along with the choir. I think I am getting better every year (It helps to sit next to a strong alto to follow her lead!)

(BOTH of my sister in laws are expecting . . .yeah! more cousins!)

8 Touchdowns!

Post turkey dinner football bowl was exciting and shocking. Despite Dave's go-go gadget arms, we lost due to Shane's secret weapon girlfriend. Having 10 people playing in a narrow backyard made for some great plays and fun times. (We didn't get a pic, so here is our future NBA star palming a basketball (pay no attention to the hand beneath the ball . . .))

7 games of racquetball

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning were all spent in the racquetball courts. I love to play different people. Racquetball is always new and exciting and fast paced. I love to play. I have a championship racquetball game with a partner from the MBA program this week. wish us luck!

6 hours of sleeping (without baby interruptions!)

enough said!

5 AM SHOPPING!

Yep, we were among the MANY crazy people out and about early in the morning. We got all the deals we wanted and a few extra ones we didn't know we wanted until we got there . . .

4 hot tub soakings

We used the gym's hot tub, then the hotels. Plus, we got upgraded to the penthouse (Thanks, Marc!!) so we had a hot tub in our bedroom looking over our 4 poster bed and fireplace. It was awesome. Here is the view from our 5th floor room. This is elegant Midway.

3 Games a playing

Checkers, chess and shuffleboard are all the rage at 5 star hotels (at least they are the free activities!)

2 Years of marriage

December 1 marks our 2 year anniversary. Zermatts was the most romantic and relaxing place to spend our weekend. It was nice to have some alone time away from Jackson (Thanks mom!) and remember all the wonderful reasons we are married. We really love being together and building our marriage. I love you Dave!

1 BLACK EYE

Playing racquetball with Dave gave me a black eye. Somehow the ball went from Dave's racquet straight into my eye without giving me time to blink (or move at all for that matter). However, the game continued and I am proud to say I still beat him in all my one-eyed glory.

This is the grossest picture of me (do I say that about all of my pictures?) but it shows the damage. Now the eye just looks like I smudged my masscara. but it was swollen for a couple of days!

motherhood

I love this list of 15 things that change when you become a mother. Life really has changed for the better and I hope I am becoming a better person because of it!

1. You finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms.

2. Where you once believed you were fearless, you now find yourself afraid.

3. The sacrifices you thought you made to have a child no longer seem like sacrifices.

4. You respect your body ... finally.

5. You respect your parents and love them in a new way.

6. You find that your baby's pain feels much worse than your own.

7. You believe once again in the things you believed in as a child.

8. You lose touch with the people in your life whom you should have banished years ago.

9. Your heart breaks much more easily.

10. You think of someone else 234,836,178,976 times a day.

11. Every day is a surprise.

12. Bodily functions are no longer repulsive. In fact, they please you. (Hooray for poop!)

13. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.

14. You become a morning person.

15. Your love becomes limitless, a superhuman power.

Sushi is not for wimps!

Friday night we had Dave's school "team" over for "make your own sushi" night. I love to pull out my Japanese souveniers (dishes and serving trays) to make the night a bit more authentic. We did include raw salmon and tuna (nope, NO ONE got sick, even from fish shipped all the way to Utah!) but also had some mellow rolls with fake crab or (cooked) chicken. I think everyone liked the raw fish! I absolutely love the taste of sushi and sashimi. I love the Japanese feel of the night (although the eggnog definitely put a different twist on things!)

The night was topped by amazing cheesecake made by one of the groupies wives. I really love getting to know the guys and the spouses of those on Dave's teams. It is nice to be in the same boat with other people. Each of the people in Dave's group has one kid, except one guy has 3 kids! =So we had quite the full basement apartment (which is not yet baby proofed- but everyone and everything survived).

Members of Dave's team include some of the new blogs you will find on my "friend" list. Namely,

Oliver & Kristen (They're preggo with #2 girl);

Dave & Mandy,

Ken & Emily,

Scott & Kristen (not converted to the blogging world as of yet, I am working on her!)

TV addict!

November 10, 2008

but it helps him learn to sit so it is ok right?

Can you help but smile?

One of the things I love most about Jackson is the pure joy he gives off. His whole body smiles and laughs. You can't see that and not feel happy yourself.

Nov. 17, 2008

Big mouths are good for lots of thing!

November 14, 2008

Daddy gets most of the really good laughs! Lucky!

rollin, rollin, rollin

November 19, 2008

Taking after Daddy

Dave enjoyed his johnie jump-up back in the last millenium, but I would have to say Jackson LOVES his.

The progression in Jackson's thoughts: "What is THIS?""Wait a second, I can MOVE! "

A"re you kidding me, no restrictions? jump as much as I want???"
"Yeah baby!"

Four months of life

Stats
Height: 25 1/2 in (73th percentile)
Weight:13 lbs 6 oz (24th percentile)
Head: 16 in (20th percentile)

milestones:

*Jackson loves to grab anything close enough to touch. He especially loves bringing it to his mouth to savor the flavor.

* He is happy and content most of the time. He loves to give anyone and everyone smiles. When he is really tired he laughs at things like lifting his legs up, putting a blanket on his head, clapping his hands together and laughing at him

* He is curious and always likes to be held out so that he can look around. HE cries when the lights go off.

*This month he became a worse sleeper than before. My hypothesis? He is strong enough to break out of his swaddle and is too active to stop moving and thus wakes himself up. We were given (Thanks, Shel) a swaddle blanket and so far sleep is improving!

*He brings joys and happiness to us everyday. He improves our lives by helping us learn love and patience and how to sacrifice for others. We are so grateful Heavenly Father sent us Jackson!

psych!

Well, turns out, the external drive where I saved everything was just not hooked up properly. The stuff IS actually there! I appreciate it so much more now!
P.S. the pictures were safe, but I should definitely make a back up huh? should you? This is your friendly neighborhood reminder that computers DO crash!

Thanks for the sympathy!

Digital downers

So I just found out that I lost every bit of scrapbook paper/ supplies AND every page I've been working on (including the ones I posted). I guess that is the downfall of doing it digital. Thought I would throw my frustration out into cyber space and see if it helps me feel better about starting over or just giving up . . .

Jumping Jacks(on)

Do you think you know what Jackson is getting for Christmas?

It's official?

If Jackson rolls over 5 times in a row, does that mean he has officially learned to roll over? This morning I am watching him try to fall asleep (which is a very difficult task for someone who doesn't stop moving). He does a stomach crunch, but can't get all the way up, so he rolls to the side and then over. His arms push him up when he is on his stomach so he can't go to sleep. Poor kid. I kept putting him back on his back, he kept rolling over. (video to come) So I guess he's gotten his morning full of sit-ups and push ups. Daddy would be proud!

Here is a picture I absolutely love (Thanks Candida!). It shows off Jackson's eyes. I have so much fun with this kid!

Missing in Action

I haven't blogged much in the past few days. . . why? I have a new digital addiction. . . digital scrapbooking! You wouldn't believe the hours it takes to download and create a page! I hope I get a little faster as I get more experienced! Here are my first (and only) creations . . . well, lets be honest, they came from someone else's templates!

Happy,sad and spooky halloween

Jackson sports his new "future MBA" shirt and is happy about it!

This is just spooky! Thanks Aunt Carly for coming to visit!

Jackson has such a good temprament that even when he sad I can trick him into smiling with a happy animated voice and my own smiles. Sometimes it comes naturally because Jackson's sad face is so cute that I start laughing at it. He really epitomizes the "sad" look.

You're even more wrong!

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

You're ALL wrong!

Results are in and he looks more like me!

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

"Most Weird"

Dave and I won the "most weird award" at our Halloween party. We are not really sure what we are, but we just put some crazy wigs and hats on. Really we wanted to show off Jackson's monster costume (the picture is lacking his paws and claws). Jackson however didn't win best baby costume . . . the other monster baby did. Jackson was MAD! We really need to teach him not to be so competetive. Any ideas?

Strongest man in the world

This is one of my favorite pictures because Jackson's eyes are so big and blue. (Stop looking at his cleavage!) Everyone thinks Jackson's eyes just might stay blue. What do you think? Jackson is getting super strong. He likes to be standing on his two legs as often as possible. He pulls his head off the ground or out of his carseat and holds it up like he is trying to sit up. When he is on his stomach he can hold his head up (higher everyday) for a long time. He is amazing.

Here is a photo from our dating days (my 25th birthday) and then us hiking last weekend with one addition. Same shot, one new creation. Here is a visual of how kids come between marriages!

Joys of Motherhood

I feel like I prepared for the worst as I became a mother. I heard about the long nights, the post partum, the dirty diapers, the crying and crying, the pain of nursing, and the major responsibility of having a child. I tried to be prepared in every way for the "trying times" ahead.
However, much to the contrary (and to my surprise) motherhood has brought me more joy than I thought possible. I do understand that every woman has a different experience and a very different baby. My experience might only be because I had an easy recovery and a very easy "textbook" baby who responded exactly the way the books told me he would.
I wanted to give the shout out to others who may be thinking about having a baby: Being a mother is JOYFUL.
The rewards of a smile or laugh are indescribable. Watching a baby learn and discover is exciting and encouraging. (I also realize that I may feel this because I am a teacher and I get joy out of watching kids learn and grow, but doesn't everyone?) The first time Jackson discovered how to splash in his bath I was filled with such satisfaction and happiness.

Listening to him laugh, sing, coo or smile "with his whole body"- especially when his eyes light up,fills my heart. Even his tears and crying are "cute". My fears of being bored or feeling unfulfilled have never occurred. I love being a mother. I think the rewards are greater than I imagined. I recommend it to anyone! I give tribute to Jackson for making my transition into motherhood so easy and so fun!

I feel like I know why the church teaches so strongly about fulfilling our roles in our family. I know that being a mother was a part of my nature that I didn't even know was there. I feel being a wife and a mother is helping me to reach my divine potential more than anything else I have tried in life. I thank Heavenly Father for the knowledge of the importance of families in this life.

Tagged- 7 unique/ wierd things about me

I don't think I have 7, I am REALLY normal, but here's to trying to be unique (I tried to think of it from different people's perspectives because in everyone's eyes you have strange qualities:

1. What my husband thinks is weird about me: I am totally ok if he spends a couple hundred dollars on technology or other items, but I grill him if he spends a couple of dollars on lunch.

2. What my mom thinks is weird: I'm a believer! Whatever I read or hear, I believe. When I read that babies need a special detergent I was determined to get some for my baby. I have since found out that it is not necessarily true. I love to read and get knowledge about things happening in my life, the problem is that I don't read (or watch movies or TV) with a critical mind. I tend to take things as truth until I read or hear otherwise. My husband has started to help me to be able to critique movies and not just say that I like them all.

3. What my readers think is weird: I LOVE comments on my blog. I get satisfaction and pleasure over knowing people think my pictures or thoughts are funny. (Sandra, you think I am funny, right?) So I try to comment on others blogs hoping to give them the same happiness.

4. What my son thinks is weird: my face- it makes him laugh

5. What my students think is weird: I have a secret ambition to be an aerobics instructor, so I wear a headset and a box around my waist that will project my voice and make it louder while I teach PE. It sure saves my voice and commands more attention from those who suffer from attention deficit!

6. Secret weirdness: I secretly love watching "Law and Order" and CSI. I know they are morbid shows but I love all the plot twists and ways they solve the crime. This is probably why I have so many nightmares.

7. I spelled weird wrong (wierd) 7 times before I realized the red dots below it meant it was spelled wrong. Don't worry though, I graduated as a TEACHER magna cum laude from BYU . . . shows you how much that means!

Tagging 7 other weird friends: Tyler, Sally, Dixie, Megan, Kelly, Emily ( I love to read your funniness and there have been no posts for a while) and Kylee