Our Simple Adventures

Having ourselves a Merry Little Christmas

2012-01-14T13:35:00.000-08:00

Alright... I official deserve the "attagirl" reward. After being behind on the blog all year long, I am officially caught up!! (yes, I am patting myself on the back as we speak) :)

As mentioned previously, we took our last long Christmas Break ever!! to head up to Illinois to spend Christmas with Justin's family. This was the first Christmas that Jordan has been home from his mission, and probably the last time the entire family will be together for Christmas. We really enjoyed it other than the sickness that made the rounds. (Yes literally every one caught it minus Justin, Jackson, and Brooklyn)

Christmas Eve:

Opening up jammies and ornaments from mom and dad

Matching football jammies!! What could be better?!

Along with every photo "session"... a silly one! (I love it!)

Traditional Christmas Eve reading of the stories.

Ella and I became good friends. She likes me, her parents(obviously), grandma & grandpa, and Holly(the dog). I am so happy I would be the one that she would come to every now and again!

We went to the mall that day and the kiddo's got to visit Santa again. Here they are coloring their coloring books that he gave to them.

The building of the gingerbread's didn't go to well for Justin and I this year... our idea of a pointed roof failed us. I think its because we got the first batch of frosting and it was a bit too runny. We tried many attempts to making it work, such as the blow dryer... didn't help. We finally just threw something together that would stand. I don't have any photos of the final product... but don't worry, your not missing out on much.

And the 17 stocking were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nick would find all the grandkids at Grandma and Grandpas that night!!

Christmas Day:

That Santa never fails!!! We were happy to see that he knew right where everyone was!

The boys got to open one present before church. Grandma and Grandpa Blake got them their adorable Christmas Church clothes to sport.

All the cousins looked so cute in their Christmas Outfits, and we didn't even have it planned for them to all match!

After church, we came home and enjoyed the chaos of opening presents. The boys opening G&G presents. (Poor Donna had to get the sickness on Christmas Day. She spent the morning resting while we were at church but at least was able to manage to come out and enjoy the present time)

Other happenings:

We did a lot of this... lounging around! It was so nice. I loved the picture of Jackson snuggled between his Aunt Jamie and Uncle Jordan.

After most everyone headed back home, we stayed a few days later. Donna took us to the Children's Discovery Center one afternoon. It is such a cool Children's museum and we all really loved it.

Their was a sports section and we had to get a picture of our football player in his uniform!

Jonah learning how to draw the "snoopy" character.

There was also this cool thing where you could stand in the middle of a bubble.

Look closely at Jonah's reaction... it was priceless!!

We finally decided to head back to Memphis after 10 days of fun.... Jackson somehow got a hold of the camera on the way home and amazingly took these crazy weird self portraits. I am not even sure how he could do this... thats talent right there people!

I snapped this random picture when we got home of the boys in their Jackson Hole Jammies from G&G Blake. I love them... so cute!!

Be Jolly, By Golly!

2012-01-07T19:25:00.000-08:00

Christmas is so fun with kids. The magic of it all is sparkles in their eyes.

A fun thing about having "Tender Tennessee Christmas's" is the holiday parades. (They don't have parades for the 4th, but they sure throw some good ones in December)
It is full of: Bundled up children, Candy tossing, Tractor pulling, Christmas Stockings, jingle belling ringing, Merry Christmas yelling, and the big guy in Red riding a top the Red fire engine!

When Justin got the tree set up Jonah exclaimed, "Wooow!!" and Jackson said "It's beautiful". Those words say it all...

Santa came to our ward party and the kids were so excited!! He came in at the end of the night when the program was about over. As soon as Jackson saw him he gasped and said, "Santa's here!!" He then ran from the back of the room where we were sitting right up to him. It was so cute to see his excitement. Here he is standing in line to sit on his lap.

I wondered how Jonah would do this year as last year he wanted NOTHING to do with him... he got right up there, but seemed a bit nervous.

Late the month we also took the boys to the winter wonderland at Bass Pro Shop. We just heard about it this year and was disappointed we didn't know about this the other years. They have free activities for the kids to do and free pictures with the big guy... that's right people, FREE!

Cookie decorating

Shot gun shootin' (come on, we were at Bass Pro Shop...)

We spent our Christmas vacation in Illinois with Justin's entire family. The night before we left, as the boys were cleaning up their toy room, they found a surprise package under the tree. There was a note saying that Santa heard we were going to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas and he thought the kids might enjoy this gift for the ride there. He then told them that they had to keep being good boys and he would bring the rest of their presents to Grandma's on Christmas Day.

Any guesses at what it could be???

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That's right! Duel Screen DVD player!! :)

A Day of Thanksgiving

2012-01-06T12:04:00.000-08:00

Justin's parents and brother Jeff came to spend Thanksgiving with us. I was excited to try to do most of the cooking myself (or course Donna helped) and to host the feast at our home.
I bought some nutter butter crackers and kisses and let the boys make some mini acorn cookies while we were cooking in the kitchen.

Jackson is really into helping cook things, so he had a lot of fun with it... Jonah had fun eat the kisses! ;)

We had a yummy feast and I got a lot of compliments from everyone about the meal... especially the delicious marinated turkey (the BEST way to cook a turkey) and my amazing gravy (which even though I don't like gravy, apparently I make some good one). Thank you to the Johnson's for enjoying it with us!

Later that night we had to do our traditional turkey bowling. Here's Grandpa helping JoJo roll the ball down the lane.

Fall Flashback

2011-12-31T21:10:00.000-08:00

We signed Jackson up for soccer this fall. He loved it!
He was actually too young by about a month, but we still thought he would love it and do great. We inquired and found out as long as Justin helped coach his team, they would let me play. Since it is my blog, now is my time to brag. Although he was the youngest and littlest on the team, he was probably the star player. We kept little stats (cause that is how Justin and I are ;) ) and he was the lead scorer with 11 goals.
(Justin missed team pictures because of a work meeting, but he was co coach all season long)

We were excited because the first game he played they whistled the beginning play, he got the ball, kicked it past everyone and went and scored a goal! It was awesome. There were a couple games where he didn't score at all and he would whine and cry because he didn't score. Although he have fun watching him score goals we constantly reminded him that he doesn't always have to score and that as long as he tries his best that's all that matters. He would also cry often after games because the game was over and he wanted to keep playing... that boy, he's our sports lover! ;)

And look how dang cute he is in that uniform!

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Another great idea via Pinterest. Cold fall/winter days can get hard on the kids. I thought we would have a little fun one afternoon cooped up in the house. I made a car track with masking tape.
It was fun and it kept the boys occupied for a little while anyway.

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My mom was visiting when "Knee Deep" came on the radio and we both started dancing and singing, which led to our proclamation of love for Zac Brown Band. I mentioned the concert that was coming to Memphis around Justin's birthday and how we had looked into tickets once, but ruled it out cause of cost. She then had the brilliant idea to get us a couple of tickets so we could go out and celebrate Justin's birthday.

ZBB puts on a rockin awesome concert and we LOVED it!!

Jonah's 2nd Year Birthday

2011-12-30T12:09:00.000-08:00

Jo Jo turned the big T-W-O on Halloween. He had a good day I think, celebrating with family. His Grandma Blake was able to be there again this year to celebrate.

He woke up nice and early and we had him open presents right away so Daddy could see it before he went to work.

He jumped right up into his "bee car"

Look at that happy boy! (Don't mind the puffy- sleepy eyes... I told you it was still early!)

He got to hang with Grandma and Mom all day long. We took him to McDonalds for a kids meal in his Woody costume.

Later that night before too many Halloween festivities got in the way, we had cake.

I tried my hand at making a dump truck. I thought it turned out cute, although the frosting of the cake didn't go so well. That's okay, I just told everyone that the truck had been working in the construction zone so it was a bit dirty. ;)

This year Jonah really went from baby to full grown toddler. At two years old Jonah:
-talks a lot. He speaks sentences that are very clear for us to understand.

-likes to drive cars around, read books, ride bikes, color, and play sports

-is a mini Jackson. He mimiks everything Jackson does, and pretty much has the same interests Jackson does. A few weeks ago Jonah said a little smart-alec remark to me (a phrase that Jackson says to me) and I said, "Oh no Jonah! You are too young to be acting like that!" In which Jackson proceeds to tell me in a proud little 4 year old voice, "I teached him that. I teached him everything."

-is a sweet a holic! He has the BIGGEST sweet tooth I have ever seen. He knows which cupboard our treats are stored in and anytime he enters the kitchen he starts asking for a treat.

- gives the sweetest hugs and kisses in the world!

We love our little 2 year old!!

Happy Halloween!! (only a couple of months late)

2011-12-29T19:48:00.000-08:00

The Toy Story gang. Jessy, Buzz, Woody, and Sid.

I found Jacks and Jo Jo's costume at a consignment sale but made mine and Justin's costume so that we could match at the ward party. A lot of people didn't know that Justin was dressed up, but let me tell you that is a genuine sid skull t shirt right there.

The Woody costume didn't come with a Woody hat.... lame. Jonah wore the hat all the way to the party, but as soon as we got there he wanted nothing to do with it. This is the best shot we could get with it on.

Jackson made the mask at a Halloween party and wanted to wear it cause it matched the costume.

These were one of the best costumes of the night: Our good friends the Beazers and the Derrs as the Rubbles and Flinstones gang. (I helped sew Barney's shirt... pretty cool if I say so myself)

Pumpkin Patch Take 2

2011-12-29T15:00:00.000-08:00

We enjoyed the pumpkin patch again this year. It had everything a pumpkin patch needed:

pony rides

Some of these things that make nice picture props

A corn box

A toddler full of smiles

A tractor... er, I mean train, ride

A feeding/petting zoo

Hay tunnels

Hay Mazes (not sure why my boys look like monkeys there haha!)

More hay to climb on

A smiling 4 year old

Oh and lets not forget... the pumpkin patch!

General Conference Weekend

2011-12-29T07:11:00.000-08:00

As I was browsing Pinterest I was noticing a lot of fun ideas about involving children in General Conference. I took a few ideas and came up with something like this and we LOVED the way it turned out.

The kids woke up and were so excited to watch Conference and try out the activities. In fact, after the Saturday afternoon session was over, Jackson cried because we told him he had to save the rest for Sunday.

We have all of the apostles taped on a bag, and as they took their turn to speak, the boys got to do their coordinating activity.

Jackson really got into it. In fact, we had a few that just had some coloring pages, and Jackson colored all of them so well. He took his time and probably colored these pages through two or three speakers.

We loved this and will keep this as a tradition during conference. In fact, this is the first time in a really long time where I felt I was able to listen to most of the talks. I took Elder Holland's challenge from last conference to truly pray for something specific that I needed to hear. It was amazing as the two things that I prayed for were confirmed and answered through the Lord's chosen servants.

I know that God lives and that Jesus Christ is my Savior. I know that Christ's true gospel was restored and is on the Earth. I am grateful to be a member of this church. I also know that President Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and speaks to God to deliver His message to the world. This conference was such an uplifting and spiritual experience for me to listen to His word through His apostles. I testify that message from God were spoken DIRECTLY TO ME through their words.

***I had a couple of people ask what the activities were, so if you are interested here they are... if not, you can skip this part. We basically took random things that they could play "quietly" with while watching. And some weren't even activities, they were snacks that they could sit and eat while watching. (one bag had apples that I cut up when it was time, popcorn that I popped, fruit snacks, a cup of cereal, etc.).
We laid out a blanket and the rule was that they had to stay on the blanket and eat their snack or do their activity. This helped control the play and helped them to realize that it was quite playtime.
Some activities were

1-hot wheel cars (they love to line them up and drive them around on blankets)

2-play do

3- stickers and construction paper

4- construction paper tie to decorate (I cut out polka dots and put crayons, glue sticks, and yarn in the bag)

5- books (I just put a couple in the bags, but then when they picked that one they were allowed to get more books to look at)

6- we have some connecting toys (similar to legos) in one

7- a couple "learning games" I made with a color wheel, flashcards, and clothespins

8- those craft pipe cleaner things (can't think of the real name)

9- LDS coloring pages printed online somewhere

Hope that helps give you an idea!!***

Summertime Randomness

2011-12-28T20:13:00.000-08:00

Since I am so behind in my blogging, this will be a jumbled post about some of our randomness through the summer. (No particular order)

One day before Daddy got home from work we decided to surprise him with a backyard picnic. Jackson helped me set it all up so when Justin got home it would be ready for him.

We made hamburgers, french fries, and fresh fruits and vegis. It was fun until the mosquitoes started having a picnic of their own on the bottom of my foot!! I literally looked down and there were 3 of those nasty buggers sucking away at me.

One day Jackson came inside from playing in the backyard to inform me he found a frog. I said, "Oh I want to see it." So I go into my room to get my shoes, thinking I would go outside to see it, but as I turned the corner to head back into the backyard I see him holding the frog in our kitchen! I hurry and tell him to get it out of the house, but in the meantime decided I wanted a picture. Well he let go of this fat toad and it started hopping away IN MY HOUSE! I don't do great with those sort of things, so secretly as I am freaking out in the back of my head I'm acting like its no big deal so that Jackson wont get freaked out and he will catch it. As Jackson chased it around, it jumped behind the fridge.
I did finally get it out with a broom and Jackson's quick hands and he took it outside to torture...er, I mean play, with it some more.

There was a lot of this this summer: Playtime in the backyard. (LOVE having a fenced yard!!)

Against Mommy's approval, the boys decided this is their "sandbox"... its actually a big pile of dirt that they like to get dirty in. *sigh... boys will be boys I guess*

I snapped this picture because I love to see them play so well together.

In the super hot summer months, I bought a backyard sprinkler for them to play in. We made a "waterpark" in our backyard a lot this summer. Jackson however, did not want to run through it on the grass. He liked it to be on the cement so they could ride their bikes through it. I'm happy we found a way for them to enjoy the outdoors and stay cool in the meantime.

Our neighbors have the most friendly black cat that comes around every now and again. As soon as the boys see him in the front yard they want to run out and play with him. Jo Jo is so funny cause he gets soooo excited to see the kitty, but as soon as the cat gets close to him he runs away and gets really nervous. Unless I am there to help him pet him, he wont touch the cat.

Jackson thinks its fun when he rubs up and down his leg like cats do.

Maybe someday we will get a cat or our own... I sure hope so!!

Jackson's Birthday Continuation

2011-12-28T12:57:00.000-08:00

Jackson's birthday celebration actually started the weekend before his birthday. His Uncle Jeff came to visit us and we packed in some fun while he was here.

We took him to a few of our favorite places such as:

Gus's fried Chicken

Jerry's famous snow cones (Its pretty much a hole in the wall, but, yummm... look at that goodness!!)

and Shelby Farms new amazing park

But our favorite activity was the Ole Miss Vs BYU football game! We decided to buy Jackson a new football and tickets to the game. He was so excited to open it.

The game was the first game of BYU's season and when we heard it was in Oxford (about 2 hrs away) we knew we wanted to go. Of course Jackson loved it, and Jonah did too.

We ended up with awesome seats right behind one of the field goals in a huge BYU fan section. I was actually quite surprised at how many BYU fans there were.

The seats were so good in fact that we made it onto National TV... see here we are! ;)

This is what he thought of his present and the game... a big fat thumbs up!

4 years old!

2011-11-06T19:47:00.000-08:00

Jackson turned 4 on Sept 7th. Hard to believe I have a 4 year old.

He requested a football cake (of course) and helped me bake it the day before. He loves to help in the kitchen!

The easiest way to do a football cake was with cupcakes, so this is what I came up with.

The goal post banner was my favorite.

He had his first day of Preschool on his birthday. He was very excited to go. He has LOVED school so much and does a great job with everything that he is learning. He loves his teacher and his friends.

I surprised him at the end of class and brought his cake for him to share with his friends.

Here is his little class (minus Dani who was sick... she is a little girl who's the teacher told me has a crush on Jackson. Jackson really likes her too... so cute!) Avery, Andy, Josiah, and Hadley.

After preschool we met up with another friend and had a happy meal at McDonalds and played on the play area for a while. Its always a special treat to go there to play :)

Jackson and his friend Duncan.

After Daddy got home we opened presents and then he had a special night out with mom and dad. We had a friend come over and watch Jonah while we went to Kung Fu Panda 2.

Some tidbits about 4 year old Jackson.
1- His ALL TIME FAVORITE THING EVER... anything sports! He is our sports FANATIC. His very favorite is football, but he also loves: basketball, soccer, baseball, tennis, and volleyball. He loves to watch it. He loves to play it. He even talks sports. Common phrases we will hear, "I fumbled at the 3 yard line." "He got a field goal" "He got a 3 yard touchdown" "Holding on offense (along with the motions)" "Hut hut hike" "Jonah, tackle me!" and my favorite, "I got a alian motion (meaning illegal motion)"
He loves it. Period.
2- Is super smart. He is the youngest in his preschool class, but keeps up just as well if not better than some of the kids. He is learning how to print really really well (uppercase letters), knows how to memorize, and is starting to read sight words. He is very inquisitive and will ask lots of questions about things.

3- Loves to play on the computer. He can turn it on and navigate exactly where he wants to be. He likes to play his computer games, but mostly he likes going to ESPN or BYUTV to watch football game replays.

4- Really enjoys coloring and is getting very good at it. He colors really well in the lines and he also likes to "draw" his own pictures (but rarely tries to draw a real thing besides people and the sun).

5- Loves oatmeal and corn dogs

6- likes to ride his bike

7- favorite color is blue

8- Did I mention he loves sports... cause he does!

Part 3--- The Aquarium

2011-11-04T07:35:00.000-07:00

The little town of Gatlinburg is pretty much owned be Ripley's. There are about 7 different Ripley's attractions. The one I really wanted to go to was the Aquarium.

(Jackson was getting pretty good of taking Justin and I's picture... finally we can be in a picture together! ;)

We had a lot of fun looking at all the interesting sea life.

Jackson and Jonah found some familiar fish. Nemo and Dora from Finding Nemo.

We also enjoyed a couple of diving shows at the coral reef and sting ray bay. The boys gave the divers high fives through the glass.

But my favorite was the underground shark tunnel. There were hundreds of shark swimming around us!

My FAVORITE picture of all time... Justin and Jackson don't seem too sure about a sharp toothed shark swimming to get them....

Jonah enjoyed looking at them up close too (or maybe it was his reflection he was enjoying)

After the String Ray Dive show, they let us touch the rays... Jackson was nervous, but he did it. Jonah cried when we helped him touch them

And our last night we walked the "strip" of downtown Gatlinburg. We walked by all the Ripley's museums and took pictures of the things we could see from the outside.

Here we have Ripley's World Record Museum with the worlds tallest man. He was sitting in a chair and when you walked up to him he stood up.

This was Ripley's famous car museum. Anyone remember Kirby?? This is the original car. Jackson took a brochure of the place and carried it around all weekend... such a boy! ;)

We loved our Smokey Mountain Vacation!!

Cades Cove (Part 2)

2011-10-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

The next morning we headed a different direction in the Park to a place called "Cades Cove". This one of the lowest points in the park in a beautiful valley. It used to be an old farming community. There is an 11 mile loop that we drove with different stopping points along the way. They had some original structures that you could go into and read some history about. It was really neat!

Left to Right: 1-John Oliver cabin, built in the early 1820's this is the oldest log home in the cove.

2- The Methodist Church was built in 1902 in 115 days for $115 dollars!!

3- A sourghum mill was used to squeeze sugary juice from stalks of cane. In the background is the Gregg-Cable house. This house is believed to be the first all-frame house in the Cove

4- A part of the loop surrounded by beautiful, tall, green trees

The structure of things were a little different in the oldtime South than they are in the oldtime West. This picture is mostly for my dad to see. Interesting way to build a fence huh?!

The views in the valley were incredible-- I think it was my favorite views in the park.

There was a visitors center halfway through the loop that we stopped at and ate our picnic lunch.

There was also a walking tour of some more buildings from the old community. Here are a couple of old barns, again very interesting structure compared to the West

This is an old water-powered saw mill. It was cool to go inside and see how water provided power to the buildings.

Cades Cove is also where they say you will have the most chance of seeing wildlife. As you can see from the pictures in the previous post the views are very full of lush trees and plant growth, therefore it doesn't leave much room to spot animals. So because there are more clear areas here we did see all of our wildlife here. We saw deer and wild turkeys:

And our favorite of course was the Smoky Mountain Black Bear!! We were driving the loop and came across a little creek where about 3 people were out of their cars looking at something. We didn't spot the little guy at first so Justin pulled over and I hopped out of the car to walk down and see if it was anything worth pulling over for. Once I saw this adorable baby bear I ran back and got the boys.

He was super little and just so adorable... he didn't seem to mind at all about the people who were close by. Seeing that he was so little, I asked the Ranger who was there if the mama was near by, but he said that he was big enough that he was independent. That really surprised me cause he looked super young. Jackson had been wanting to see a bear so the kids were pretty excited about it!

On the way back to our cabin we pulled over to get some more beautiful scenery pictures:

The Smoky Mountains (Part 1)

2011-10-16T18:27:00.000-07:00

There are so many cool places here in the South that we live fairly close too that we wished we could take more advantage of while living in Tennessee. However, most of the times we have a break we go see family. During Justin's August break we finally decided to head to one of our many destinations we want to visit. We made the trek across the state of Tennessee and spent some time in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and Gatlinburg.

The first day we checked into our awesome cabin, went grocery shopping, and walked around the Gatlinburg streets. The next day was our day in the park.

We found a 1.5 mile paved hike to Laural Falls. We tried to find hikes that were doable with the little boys and that allowed us to see cool parts of the park.

Laural Falls:

After the morning hike we headed back to the cabin and ate lunch. After lunch we traveled about 45 minutes to our next hiking destination: Clingman's Dome.

There was some really pretty pull offs along the way that we stopped to snap pictures at. This pointy part of the mountain was called Chimney's rock. I loved how lush and green everything was!!

Jackson wanted to practice his rock climbing at one of the pull offs

Clingman's Dome is the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains and one of the highest peaks in the Eastern United States. The trail was a paved 1 mile hike to the top, and although it was paved it was VERY STEEP! Poor Justin had to push Jonah in the stroller the whole way.

This is the observation tower at the top of the peak that takes you above the trees to see a 360 degree panoramic view of the Smokies. On a perfectly clear day they say you can see about 100 miles off in the distance!

This is what the views looked like... pretty incredible. I love how each "layer" of mountain can be seen rolling around. The further distance they were away the more faint they look. (look closely for layer 4)

The day we were there was very clear so we got to see one of the furthest peaks away. Mt Mitchell is 73 miles away in North Carolina's Black Mountains and is the highest peak in the Eastern United States. (Look closely... its there, I promise!)

After hiking in the park all afternoon, we headed back to the cabin for dinner and then went to Ober Gatlinburg. It is a ski resort with some water slides and an alpine slide. It was my first time doing an alpine slide. We decided the water slides didn't look like they were worth the money so we did the alpine slide a couple of times. The boys loved it!

They also had a little play area these huge steep nets. We were really impressed with how Jonah could climb it all on his own.

They also loved the slide. Here is a video of them having fun:

When we booked the vacation, we knew we wanted to get an affordable room with a kitchen in it so that we didn't have to spend any money on going out to eat. After searching for awhile we found a great little cabin. It was actually what they called a "Honeymoon Lodge" but it worked perfectly for us. And because we went during the "off" season, it was a 40% off!

Check out the video if you want to go on a little tour of the place with me.

Day at the Lake (part 3)

2011-10-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

Alright, it is the last part of the Blake Family Reunion, and just like I was sad to end it when it was over, I am sad to be done posting about it and remembering the fun time.

The afternoon at the lake was one of my favorite parts. It was so nice and relaxing and water always is always entertaining to me.
We had fun paddling in the paddle boat. My dad brilliantly thought of tying a big rope to the back and securing it on a tree stump. This allowed the kids to get it freely, and paddle around without taking off too far in it. Ingenious I do tell ya.

There was plenty of canoeing (out on the water and sitting on shore)

And wading in the water with buckets and toys. (Uncle Bub snapped this picture and when he was reviewing it he started busting up because notice the little bucket head in the background)

Jonah apparently not only loved to fill the bucket full of water, but he also thought it would be fun to fill it with his head. Peek-a-boo!!

And my personal fav... enjoying the scenery while floating in the inner tubes.

Awwww.... doesn't get much better than that!!

"Are we going to climb a mountain today" --Jackson Johnson (Part 2)

2011-10-03T18:40:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of the reunion was hike day. Jackson woke up that morning so excited exclaiming, "Are we going to climb a mountain today?!" Each year we hike the blacktail butte in memory of our loved ones. Years ago my Uncle Dayle's ashes we spread upon the top of the mountain and each year we make a memorial hike for him, and now in memory of my great grandparents.

Justin is always a trooper carrying one of the kids upon his back

There are two "meadows" upon arriving to the top. As we crossed through the forrest into the first meadow the view was spectacular! In all the years we have been going none of us remember the wildflowers being this grandeur.

Seriously, look at this!!!

I am always in charge of making a bouquet to place upon the top for Uncle Dayle, and this year all the colors made it easy to come up with something beautiful.

The whole hikin' crew.

The grandkids takin' a break with G&G (Jonah apparently didn't want to sit and take a picture... other than him I LOOOOVE this picture!!)

The "Moulton" posterity. A huge shout out to my amazing Grams who always hikes with love and excitement in her heart. She has never missed a year and climbs like a mountain goat!!

First Annual Blake Family Reunion (Part 1)

2011-10-02T19:37:00.000-07:00

The end of July we got to spend a few days at one of our all time favorite places,

looking at this incredible view,

with some of our most favorite people: My FAMILY!!

That's right, my parents finally got smart and decided to "book" some time at the Ranch for their own family each year. This was the first year we were all able to get together and have the place to ourselves. We loved every minute of it.

On our way from Denver to Jackson Hole we scored first class tickets. Justin saw on the screen that they were looking for volunteers to take a later flight. He inquired about it and they said they no longer needed anyone for that, but because he was willing they would bump us up to first class. Not sure how the others sitting in first class felt about two little children up there, probably wondering how "these people" made it up there, but we enjoyed the extra luxuries. ;)

We did a lot of hanging out at the Ranch, happy to have it to ourselves and enjoying one another's company.

Grandpa pushing the boys on the giant stride.

Jackson's favorite activity: playing in the sand

Exploring around the ditch. I have many memories of me, my brothers, and 2nd cousins playing in this ditch. Its fun to watch my boys doing the same things I enjoyed as a youngin'.

Taking walks to down the ole' dirt road over to Great Grandpa's barn. And anyone who knows Jackson knows he is happy if he has something to pull or push a long.

Side walk chalk with Grandma

Four-wheeler rides with Grandpa

Trips to ditch-crick to throw rocks into the water.

Can't forget to make new measurements on the wall. (The marks on the left have my father, his brother, and cousins, me, my brothers, and 2nd cousins all growing up. The marks on the right are now my parent's posterity, starting with their grandkids. Such an amazing treasure to have!!)

Sunday was dubbed as "Grandparent Day." Great Grandma Gardner, Great Grandpa Blake, and Great Grandpa and Grandma Purcell all came to enjoy the afternoon with us. It was so great to have them there and I love that my kids get to have these memories with their Great Grandparents.

The kids were happy to just hang out, but we also came up with some fun activities for them to enjoy. I created a "scavenger hunt/bingo" game for the boys and Aunt Amy put on a fun relay race for them.

My mom got them shirts to paint and decorate.

Some of MY favorite things we did was baseball in the yard, corn hole, and our minute to win it game. My mom put it together and it was seriously sooooo much fun. And I will tell you what, when it is my parent's game the competition comes out because they know how to supply prizes. I'm talkin' no dollar store cheap prizes, but more like a $30 iTunes giftcard.... that's right, Justin won that grand prize! ;) And I am happy to say I made it into the semi-finals.

4th of July Weekend

2011-09-19T14:48:00.000-07:00

It was the first time in 3 years we have stayed in Memphis for the 4th of July. As we started to search for the normal 4th of July activities we found out that #1- there is no parade ANYWHERE nearby and #2- The fireworks in Bartlett were on Saturday July 2nd and Memphis's show was on Sunday July 3rd. Needless to say we were pretty disappointed in staying and Justin claimed on Facebook that Memphis was not American because of their lack of 4th of July activities..... however, we got creative and found some fun ways to celebrate all weekend long. We ended up having a great time.

Friday evening we found a little "bike" parade in a small town called Hernando, MS. Basically it was a chance for the kids to ride in a parade around the town square. After the short parade they had a movie on the lawn of the city hall. It was a really fun town full of Southern hospitality.

We had fun decorating the boys bikes

Saturday night we headed over to meet some friends at the Redbirds game. They had their great firework show after the game. The ball game atmosphere never disappoints.

For some reason, no matter where we go, Jackson seems to find an older kid to become friends. He doesn't care about the kids his age, he likes those older elementary school children. This kid was really sweet with him and let him tag along with him. We all joked that this guy was initiating him into his "gang", but really he was a sweet kid. He introduced himself to me, told me his name, and always came up to me to ask if it was okay for him to sit with him or take him to the play area. (and don't worry... we had an eye on him the whole time)

Monday we had a BBQ with some friends and let the kids play in the sprinklers and kiddie pool in their backyard. I made these festive 4th of July jello cups. They were delish.

After hanging out with them we headed to another town in MS that actually held their firework show on the actual holiday. We weren't sure where they set the fireworks off at but we ended up picking the perfect spot and were one of the closest to launch site.
Jackson loved the fireworks. Jonah cried at first until I started making all sorts of "ohhs and awwws" and "boom!! This is so fun!!!" type comments. He was then mesmerized only if I had him in my arms.

A Tribute to Grandma Alice Johnson

2011-09-17T11:36:00.000-07:00

(Written by Justin)

For almost seven years after the passing of my Grandpa, my Grandma lived by herself. In her late 80s she was still driving, cooking, and enjoying time with her kids and grandkids. In 2007, she had an accident that resulted in a broken back. My parents took her in and nursed her back to health. Fearing another accident would occur she made the decision to move to an assisted living center. I remember those first few years of being at “Independence Village” she was determined to always take the stairs to her third floor room. She also wrote letters regularly and tried her best to remember all fifteen of her grandchildren’s birthdays. In time, health problems arose. Her eyesight began to decline after developing an eye infection. She also fought through another broken bone – her wrist. Though other aspects of her health were declining, her faith and her mind (for the most part) remained steady and consistent.

On June 2nd, I received a phone call from my mom that Grandma had a stroke while playing cards (one of her favorite activities). She laid in the hospital bed for a day or two with no signs of improvement, then one morning she seemed to show signs that she was getting better. However, by the end of the day it was obvious that her time on earth was coming to an end. I was able to talk to her that night as Jeff held the phone to her ear. I told her I loved her and that she had been a wonderful Grandma. I thanked her for everything she had done for me. Although she couldn’t speak clearly, I could tell that she knew I loved her and I knew that she was trying to tell me the same. Early on June 9th she passed away, and was reunited with Grandpa!

As I thought about it, I couldn’t think of a more perfect ending to her life. Just a few weeks prior Jordan had returned home from his mission and a third of her Grandkids were in town to visit. Her loved ones were able to say their goodbyes during the week she was in the hospital before her passing. Maybe best of all, her passing brought together all of her children (3)

(from left to right: Mary (oldest daughter) Bill (youngest child) and Ginger (middle child)

and grandchildren (15),

(The boy cousins: Daniel Allen, Paul Allen, Ryan Gooch, Jeremy, Jeffrey, Jordan, and Justin)

and 10 1/2 of 19 1/2 great-grandchildren (#20 came just months later). Her funeral weekend became a family reunion. For the first time in 21years (and only the second time ever) all fifteen grandchildren were together. Perhaps it will be the last until we are all reunited with Grandma and Grandpa on the other side.

We love Camping!

2011-08-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

So last year our camping experience was... interesting. Ok, ok, bedtime was a nightmare and we were questioning if camping was really something we wanted to continue. Of course memorial day came along and we were yearning for a re-do. We called up a classmate of Justins who lives in Mississippi and they agreed to come enjoy a last minute camping trip. We like to go to different sites and this time we found an old civil war campsite called Fort Pillow.

It was great except for the BUGS! We had called a bunch of campgrounds and all of them were saying the same thing. The mosquitoes weren't the problem, it was the gnats! I thought, "Aw, how bad could they be?" Let me assure you, they were BAD! They swarm your face and it is so annoying... We tried to take this picture and I look like a squinting freak because they were all over us.

The kids had a ton of fun. It was especially nice this time for Jackson because he had a friend there to play with. Him and Kinsley were so cute together! Here are the kids hanging out in the tent and playing around the campground. Also, we just let the kids stay up and play until we all went to bed, so they did much better than last year.

The next morning we went on a little walk around the campground and then went to the little museum they had there and made homemade ice cream. We also tried to watch a movie about the history of the battle, but I had to look up the info online because lets be honest, the kids didn't really sit through a movie.

The Confederate victory at the Battle of Fort Pillow (April 1864) ended in the killing of 229 black and white Union soldiers out of 262 engaged in the battle. This slaughter by the Southern troops under Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest has been labeled a massacre; confederate apologists still debate how much "slaughter" actually took place, and some believe the reports were exaggerated. While the Union casualty count for the battle does not indicate that the Confederate forces took many prisoners, Confederate records show about 200 prisoners were shipped south. In any case, "Remember Fort Pillow!" became a battle cry among Black soldiers for the remainder of the Civil War.

Here are the Pierces. They were great camping partners and we were glad we convinced them to come! :)

May: Fun with the Fam!

2011-08-08T09:18:00.000-07:00

May started with a Family Reunion of sorts with the Johnson family. Justin's youngest brother, Jordan, returned from his mission and the whole family surprised him by coming up to see him. We had a lot of fun visiting with him, having a homecoming party, and just hanging out at Justin's parents house.

Welcoming home Elder Jordan Johnson

Grandma taking the kids on a tractor ride. (Of course Jackson has to drive!!)

Jackson warmed RIGHT up to Jordan even though the last time he saw him he was only 20 months old. I loved this picture of him holding onto his hand looking up at the new RM. He held his hand all the way out to the car and told him all about his computer games and anything else he could think of. He was so excited to see him.

Here is a comparison picture of how much he has grown up in those 2 years.

We also had some fun updated pictures taken of the family.

Later that month we had some unexpected fun visitors come! My brother Bryce and his wife Jamie were moving from California to Virginia. Since they were going to be driving through Memphis they decided to take a little break in the middle to hang out for a few days with us. We had a good time visiting with them and showing them some of the sites. In fact, this was the month that we had some record breaking flooding in the Mississippi River. We hadn't really ventured downtown to see it all, so while they were here we took a drive to the River Sunday evening and walked around for a while. It had already gone down a lot, but you could still see quite a bit of flooding that isn't normally there.

Bryce and Jamies favorite thing we took them too was world famous Gus's Fried Chicken. We have been wanting to try it for a while, but when we mentioned it to them they remembered it from "Man v. Food" so they were stoked for it. Basically it is a hole in wall, served on paper plates and plastic forks, but it is GOOOD stuff! Bryce pretty much would have moved to Memphis just for this stuff ;) If you haven't eaten fried chicken at Gus's,

you've never had fried chicken.

It was fun to have them visit. OH and I can't forget that they are so awesome that they treated me out one afternoon to a mani and pedicure... much needed when you have 2 kids and never take time for yourself!

April Update

2011-07-14T11:54:00.000-07:00

Besides Easter, here are some other events of April:

1- We had the Southern College of Optometry Senior Sendoff. This is the last night that all the seniors will probably see eachother until Graduation. We are officially in our last year and externs have begun. Many people leave and go to other places in the country to complete their externships. We are sticking it out here in Memphis.
This is our "group" of LDS students that we got together with often through out the years. Left to Right we have: Jason and Christina Kowallis, John and Rachel Erikson, Us, Buddy and Becky Beazer, and Josh and Whitney McAdams. We missed the Olsens that night.

Most of the LDS SCO wives... Its true, these boys couldn't have done it without us! :)

2- Jonah turned 18 months at the end of the month. He transitioned awesome into nursery. It was weird because I wasn't as anxious this time to get him in there, but I must say it makes fulfilling our Young Women and Primary callings a lot easier without having to bring him. (The best picture we could muster of his first day of nursery)

3- The Memphis Grizzlies made it to the Playoffs!! We were so excited about it. We went to the first playoff game, and they won! Even though they had made it to the playoffs twice before, this was their first playoff win...and we were there! They beat out San Antonio (only the 4th time an 8 seed beat out a 1st seed). We tried as much as possible to watch all the playoff games, unfortunately Memphis didn't make it past the 2nd round. We were really proud of them though.

Easter

2011-07-14T11:08:00.000-07:00

We had an enjoyable Easter this year. It's so fun to see the boys (especially Jackson) get more and more excited for each holiday.
We have some neighbors from our old ward who do an annual Easter Egg Hunt. They have a mini petting zoo, hundreds of Easter Eggs, face painting, games, and the Easter Bunny himself! Jackson loved it... Jonah's facial expression with his basket is about what he looked like the entire time. haha he's not so sure about it.

Later we dyed Easter Eggs. This one was a tie-dye kit with plastic bags instead of cups of vinegar.

Easter Morning they had fun seeing what the Easter Bunny brought them in their baskets. Jackson's most exciting thing was "Tangled". We had gone to see it in the theaters and had redboxed it at one point, and just knew it was one we had to own. Jackson and I LOVE it!

Other March Happenings

2011-07-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

Other Happenings in March:

1- Jackson got a haircut. I can't believe how long it was getting. His whole look changed after we chopped it off.

2- My boys being cute! Jonah climbed onto the shelf so Jackson followed his lead. I love it too because the are dressed a like. :)

3- Justin finished Part one of National Boards. He studied for months and months for this test. January and February were especially packed with studying, so we were thrilled when he didn't have to worry about studying anymore! We made him this candy bar poster when he got home from his 3 day test. (By the way, he did pass with flying colors!!)

4- A missionary themed family home evening. Donna was actually here for this one. She had them dress as missionaries and roll played them out tracting. Really cute! :)

5-We went to the Memphis Children's Museum for the first time. It was so cool and the kids LOVED it! Jackson's favorite part was the grocery store. He got to pick out his groceries and scan them into the checkout. Jonah's favorite was all the cars that he could climb into and drive.

March: Jonah's adventures

2011-07-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

Anyone check my blog anymore?? Yeah, sorry about the lack of blogging, I am now attempting to catch up. Here is an update on Jonah's eventful month of March:

This little guy spent many months on antibiotics and doctor visits for ear infections. Finally after one didn't clear up after 10 days of antibiotics they decided he should see an ENT and consider tubes. The ENT I saw decided to first try to remove the adenoids and forgo tubes. He felt like too often people resort to the tubes, and found that just removing the adenoids usually clears up the problem.

I was a bit nervous for the recovery of this, so Donna was so nice to come hang out for a couple of weeks to help out with the kids.

Little did we know the recovery wasn't that bad at all! After the surgery we went back to the recovery room as he was waking from the anesthesia. He was having a really rough time with that and we couldn't do anything to help soothe him. He screamed for well over an hour. They took us into our own private room, so the other poor people in recovery didn't have to listen to him. Finally the nurse broke down and gave him some pain meds and he fell asleep. After that I was sure he was going to be miserable for a few days, but after coming home and napping for a few hours he was back to his normal self. In fact that very day we found him exploring and getting into trouble as he decided to swim in the toilet!

About 3 days after he did end up suffering from one of the side effects, a stiff neck. That was the worst part of it all, cause you could tell he was in a lot of pain and we had to be really careful with him. Jackson was sweet with him. Here they are "camping" in the toy room.

The stiff neck lasted for a good week, but then later that month he was back to his happy fun self.

Too bad that didn't last too long... 2 weeks after this surgery he had yet another minor surgery. One day while he and Jackson were playing Jackson got too rough and pushed him over straight onto his back. I ran over there and he looked as if he was choking on something. Immediately I had the thought that something was in his mouth (I'm constantly having to watch this kid as I am fishing one thing after the next out of his mouth). I turned him over and start smacking his back. Finally he starts crying, so I was able to take a sigh of relief. But after watching him for a short while I noticed that he kept swallowing hard and making a gagging face. I felt that whatever it was must be stuck somewhere. It was on a Saturday that Justin was working, so I packed both boys up and took them to the Children's Urgent Care. Once we got there he really seemed to be acting fine, and Jackson was being a nightmare as we had to wait FOREVER in the waiting room. At one point Jackson found a light switch and flipped it off and the receptionist basically yelled at me asking to control this kid. (haha yeah right!!) I was almost to tears and about to walk out because at that point Jonah was acting fine, when he started to gag again and spit up a bunch of drool. We finally got called back and the nurses were trying their best to help me out with Jackson (giving him stickers and Popsicles). The Dr comes in and I tell her the story. She seemed to be skeptical because of how Jonah was acting, but she asked me if I wanted to have x-rays taken. Yup, thats why I came! Once she saw the X-rays she finally started to get concerned. Right in the middle of the throat you could see what looked just like a coin. She ordered the ambulance from LeBonhuer Children's hospital to come pick him up (as she was afraid of the coin flipping and cutting off any airway). Luckily we had some friends who didn't live too far away come pick up Jackson right as the ambulance was arriving. Justin met us at the hospital and we spent hours and hours in an ER room. After a 2nd x-ray to make sure the coin hadn't turned (it was stuck in the esophagus) and seeing 3 different Dr's, we were told surgery to get it out probably wouldn't be until the morning because their surgery room was too full that night. They checked us into a room, hooked Jonah up to an IV and oxygen monitor, Justin went home to spend the night with Jackson, and I spent the night with Jonah. The next morning they put him under and got that darn penny out! Luckily this time he handled waking up from the anesthesia a lot better and was comforted by mommy right away. However, being in a hospital means everything takes FOREVER to complete. I waited around literally all day long waiting for the Dr's to check on him and give us the okay to go home.

Poor boy had quite the month... We love our JoJo!

14+ inches

2011-03-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

Having not cut my hair (besides the occasional trim and layers) since moving to Memphis, my hair was getting LONG! I liked it only when I took the time to actually style it. My favorite way to wear my long hair was curled.
However Justin kept subtly mentioning that he wanted me to cut my hair and that he likes it short (that is how he met me after all) So I secretly decided while in Idaho I would take the plunge and cut it all off. I didn't tell him about it and so when he came to pick us up from the airport it was a surprise for him! :)

Before shots:

After:

The ponytail alone was about 13 1/2 inches plus she probably cut another 2 or 3 inches off after that point as well.

Justin likes it a lot. My mom really likes my hair short too. I like it better some days than other days. I miss being able to wear it curly. And I HAVE to style it everyday or it is a huge huge mess. Some people in my ward say the short hair makes me look WAY younger (which I am not sure if its a good thing at this point of my life...maybe when I'm actually older I will want to look younger.)
But it is the new me and I will probably wear it this way for a year or so and then try to grow it out again.

Idaho Trip

2011-02-21T12:30:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of the month Jackson, Jonah and I got to take a special trip to Idaho to hang with my fam! Justin of course was(is currently) busy studying away for National Boards (coming up in March), so he didn't miss us too terribly.
Here are a few highlights:
Seeing such awesome people that we don't see all the time. We got to spend a few hours with Great Grams and Grandpa Gardner. They boys really love them and its so sweet to see them interact with my guys! We love you!

A couple of days were spent with these guys!! Jackson's best buddies Noah and Easton.

Sledding! Who goes to Idaho without being able to play in the snow. Jackson had a BLAST sledding.

Jonah lasted for about 15 minutes before Grandpa took him back home and put him down for a nap.

And although the playground was covered in snow, it didn't stop these boys from playing on the toys!

And the cousins just chillin' and playin' at Grandma and Grandpas:

On my list of things I wanted to do was take a trip to Rexburg to see all the changes at BYUI. Wow things look so different! I was a bit jealous remembering all the construction that I dodged while I was going to school and then seeing what the students get to enjoy now! It was so fun being able to reminisce on the good old days at the Burg. Here we are in front of and inside the new BYUI Center.

We ate at the new Crossroads cafeteria and then walked back to the car in the snow (and of course catching the flakes in our mouths!).... yes I remember the days! :)

Our most favorite part of the trip though of course was spending time with Grandma and Grandpa (and my best friends-my parents)! Jackson loved hanging out with Grandpa watching basketball on the TV or watching his concerts online with him. His other favorite thing was playing football down the hall with Grandpa.

Grandma Blake spoils her grandkids with all her love! She had some fun projects planned to do with Jackson throughout the week. His favorite one was these "noculars". After they were done, they played "I spy". Jackson wore those noculars around for about 2 days straight! :)

Nothing better than being at "home" with Grandma and Grandpa!

Jonah- 15 mo.

2011-01-23T17:46:00.000-08:00

Our little guy is 15 months and has changed so much in the last little while. At 15 months:

-Jonah is officially classified as a walker. He took his first steps forever ago and I was certain he would be walking all over the place within a few days of that. Well he took his sweet old time, but as of this week he has taken off with the walking.

-He is a happy camper if he can hold something in his hand while he cruises around the house or if he can find something little enough to suck on and have it hang out of his mouth. His FAVORITE thing to walk around with is the bottle of Children's Allergy medicine. (Don't worry...we've made sure the child proof lid is working) :)

-Doesn't really say any words, but signs a lot of words. Please, thank you, all done, milk, eat, cracker, more, bird, dog, cat, grandma. He does say "ma ma" and "da da"
-Recently learned the word "Uh Oh" and likes to play the "I drop it, you pick it up over and over" game.

-Loves his brother Jackson

-likes reading books

- loves to color, even though this is a battle because he likes to eat the crayons while he colors.

-Gives the BBBBBEEEESTTTT kisses and hugs

-Smiles, laughs, plays and brings so much joy to our family.

-Getting a little stubborn streak in him. He gets mad if you take away what he wants to play with and keeps going back and back for more even after being told "no".

-Is becoming a monkey! Loves to climb on chairs, boxes, and basically anything his level (even the dryer)

LOVE him!

SNOW days!

2011-01-22T11:20:00.000-08:00

It's true... snow in Memphis! And quite a lot of it lately. Last week we had about 2-3 inches fall overnight, closing down the city and giving Justin a day off. We then had another snowy day 2 days ago. Not as much as the first, and only delaying schools the next day.

First thing in the morning Jackson wanted to go out and play. Now, we don't really have snow clothes so we do our best to improvise. We layer on at least two pairs of pants (and try to find the most waterproof ones as the top layer). Then check out their hands... this was ingenious of me if I do say so myself. They do have knit mittens, but as soon as they put their hands in the snow, it soaks it up, leaving the hands wet and cold. So we took some plastic bags and rubberbanded them onto their hands over the mittens. It worked great, and they didn't have wet hands! :)

Jackson wasn't so sure what to thing about it at first and Justin says we are "ghetto" haha!

Jacksons favorite activity and thing to do in the snow was SNOWBALL fights! What a boy!

I tried building a snowman for the boys, but it wasn't working out too well. The snow was great for snowballs, but it wasn't really sticking great when I tried to roll it into a big ball. I blame it on the fact that we were out so early and it was still too cold.

Yes, thats our snowman... not even taller than Jonah. But don't worry, all Jackson cared about was making sure he could put a carrot on for a nose.
A few hours later, our neighbors across the street showed us up as I looked outside and saw a good 5 foot snowman... yeah yeah yeah!

While I played with the kids, Justin was brooming off the cars... he did leave me a little love note though! :)

We don't get snow often so I was excited about it... but now I'm ready for spring :)

New Years 2011

2011-01-10T18:05:00.000-08:00

The day after Christmas we decided to head to Illinois once again. It was good to take a little break during our Christmas vacation. Jeremy and Morgan met up there with us for a few days. Jackson was in heaven spending time with his Grandma and Grandpa and his cousins (especially Sadie)
Here they are New Years Eve tooting their blow horns

Once the kiddos got to bed we had a good time playing games and bringing in the New Year.

Great Grandma Johnson came over to spend new years day with us. Here is the "gang" watching Despicable Me.

Here's to hoping 2011 is a great one! :)

Other Christmas Fun

2011-01-04T19:40:00.000-08:00

Here are some other things we did to celebrate the Holidays around our house.
Decking the Halls. Jackson had fun helping decorate the tree even though he was fighting off a fever that day. Jonah had fun rolling around in the ornaments. (Good thing they are shatter proof) :)

A few days before Christmas we had a little bit of snow fall. (Look closely... its there I promise!) We dressed the boys up in their coats, hats, and gloves and took them out even before we ate breakfast to let them play in the flurries. Its a good thing, because I think it was all melted after we got done eating.

We enjoyed a ward Christmas party. This cracked me up because for part of the program they had all the little kids sit on the ground as the bishop read a Christmas book. They all gathered round and the next thing I knew Jackson was climbing onto the stage and just planted himself onto the couch next to the bishop. Apparently he couldn't see the pictures if he was on the ground :)

Our traditional gingerbread houses. This is the first year we did a store bought one and the first year Jackson got to help. He loved it!

We went to a "Christmas festival" that I heard advertised on the radio. I thought it would be cool. It was way expensive and really lame. They did have a little "petting zoo" with some interesting animals, such as this one below. This is a Watusi, which is a cow from Africa. Those horns have it's own blood supply to help it stay warm... interesting eh?

We payed to go see Santa. Jackson loved it. Jonah wanted NOTHING to do with it. As soon as he felt me about to set him on his lap he started bawling! Needless to say, we got a picture with just Jackson on his lap. (I will have to scan it in and post it later)
We did "splurge" and buy a ticket for this one ride... then after the cost of admission, seeing Santa, and this one ride we had to head home. Jackson screamed the whole time cause he wanted to stay. Yeah, we wont be doing that again.

I'm sad Christmas is over for another year, but we made some good memories this year.

First Christmas at Home

2011-01-01T21:14:00.000-08:00

Well we did it; we had our first Christmas at our own home with our little family. And we LOVED it!

I made my first Christmas Eve feast and it turned out soooo yummy! I am sticking with my mom's tradition of cooking the big meal on Christmas Eve so that Christmas day I don't have to spend all day in the kitchen and we can eat leftovers.

After dinner, Jackson made some cookies for Santa.

Then they opened up their Christmas Jammies, took a bath, and waited with anticipation to see what the morning would bring them. Jackson did wake up in the middle of the night to go potty and as he was half asleep he told me he wanted to go out and see his presents. I was a bit worried he wasn't going to go back to sleep and that we would be up at 4:30 am. Luckily I gave him some milk and he went to sleep till 7:30.

Christmas morning was really fun with the boys. Jackson was so excited about opening the presents. In fact I don't think he really had time to look at what he got until the end because he was just so excited to unwrap the next one.

He even made sure he helped everyone else open theirs. Here he is "helping" dad.

Jonah on the other hand loved climbing on the boxes! :)

It really has been one of our favorite Christmas's thus far.

Off to the Races

2010-12-29T20:18:00.000-08:00

The past few months Justin and I have been trading off "running" times to make sure that we were good and trained for our upcoming races. The first one we ran was in November at the school's Eye 5K race. This was our pre race for our bigger race in December (the St. Jude Marathon). I was planning on running the 5K and Justin was signed up to do the half. I was glad the Eye 5K was a pre race because I did not perform up to par. Plus it was raining the whole race, so you can't tell in the picture but we were soaked.

The weekend of the official race came and Justin convinced nearly his whole family to come down and partake in the maddness with us. Morgan (sis in law), Bill, and I did the 5k. (Jeff had to opt out because of a back injury), and Justin and his brother Jeremy ran the half. Here we are at 5 AM getting ready to head downtown.

The 5kers started before the half marathoners so Justin and Jer came to the starting line to see us off.

Everyone did really well. I was happy I did better than I did in the Eye 5k, but still missed my goal by 6 seconds! (But I blame it on the fact that mother nature wasn't too friendly and sent me my period the morning of the race. Sorry if that is tmi, but its true. It wasn't helpful cause I was on pace to beat my goal by a minute, until the 3rd and the unpleasant side effects kicked in). Bill beat his goal by 2 minutes and Morgan came in 10th out of 240 in her age/sex group! AMAZING!

After the race I ran into some of my friends that I got to cheer on as they ran the half. They were sweet and let me jump in a picture with them, but they are the real runners, and I'm kinda the fake one in the middle! :)

Justin and Jeremy also did great. Justin didn't beat his PR, but he still did great. Here he is at the 13th mile. This was Jeremy's first race ever and during his training he was having major knee issues. The most he ran during training was 8 miles. He (along with the rest of us I think) was pretty nervous about it. He did amazing!! He finished in 2hrs11mins, and he felt great at the end!

Justin's mother may have had the hardest race of all-- watching the 5 grandkids all by herself! She said her only payment would to get a cool t-shirt like the rest of us. So we surprised her at the end of the day with this Tshirt we found and had embroidered. We thought the back was clever "working toward 26.2 Grandkids" :) The front said "Grandma-K"

The race was great, but we also had a great time with the family visiting. We took them to Rendezvous for some famous BBQ.

Jackson and Sadie being cute. Jackson LOVE his cousin Sadie.

Jonah is our southern boy at heart and loved the BBQ :)

We also took them to the Peabody to see the ducks march on the red carpet. I love the Peabody at Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-12-29T14:45:00.000-08:00

Well, I figured that I should get one holiday blogged about before I started the next... so here I am backtracking a little bit.We spent a week in Illinois this year for Thanksgiving. We had a good time. One of the kids favorite thing they did is make these super cute reindeer sweatshirts with Grandma. They painted their feet and hands to make them.
Front View:

Back view:

Jackson had a good time helping Grandma and Grandpa prepare the turkey for the feast.

Here is Jonah with his first Thanksgiving Feast. He was going through a growth spurt I think so he was packing his food down... he really enjoyed Thanksgiving! :)

See what I mean... he basically ate that WHOLE plate of food!

The food was Jonah's favorite part of thanksgiving... Jacksons was the football! He is going through such a football obsession.

And of course we had to do my tradition-- bowling! This was the first time Jackson really bowled and he loved it for a while. Then he became more interested in the arcade games.

Great Grandma Johnson even came with us to enjoy watching the game. Jackson was really cute with her.

And for bragging rights... I smoked everyone in bowling. (Thats a first for me) I won this hat for getting a strike! :)

One. (Well actually 13 1/2 mo.)

2010-12-14T10:01:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to do a one year old post of Jonah for quite a while and am just getting around to it. So he's actually almost 14 months old now, but It's better than nothing.

At age one he:
Has so much personality! He is always making all of us laugh, and I honestly feel like he knows he is funny so he loves to put on a show. Jackson thinks he is funny too.

He has 6 teeth, and has had a harder time with the teething process than Jackson ever did.

Loves and know how to EAT! When we first introduced him to solids and table foods I wondered if he would eat anything and I totally thought he would be a picky eater. He pretty much packs in anything you put in front of his face. (we went to a restaurant here and he loved fried okra. Yuck! Who loves okra?!... I guess he is our southern boy after all)
Loves to dance. He shakes his little body and hands whenever he hears music. SO CUTE!

Is a mommas boy, but loves his daddy too!

Poops a lot. I know that is a funny fact for you all to know, but its true... he poops much more than Jackson ever did! :)
Says mama and dada in context (i think??)

Waves Hi and Bye.
Pretends to talk on a cell phone.
Likes to play and push cars around.
Mimics most noises. (his little lamb sound is my fav)
Loves bath time! He is our little fishy, he'll splash and fall face first in the water and not think twice about it. He just loves to be in the water. Oh and loves to be naked... but what little boy doesn't?!) :)

I will have to get the year stats later, but he is still in the less that 10% for weight and average for height. He really is a small little guy
And last but not least, he is even walking! He took his first steps 2 weeks ago and I thought he would be running by now. He totally can walk, a lot if he puts his mind to it, but for now he thinks that crawling is much more efficient).
Here is a video of the day he took his first steps. His Grandma Johnson was lucky enough to be here and witness it all.

Fall Flashback

2010-12-13T20:02:00.000-08:00

I am copying my sister in law who just recently did a post with some fall pictures. If she can do it, so can I :). In order to keep up with our fall pictures, I need to backtrack a ways too.

We went to the Memphis Botanical Gardens for the first time. It was a really pretty day and we enjoyed the nature and Jackson loved running around.

We had our annual vision walk in October. Jackson got his face painted (don't let the sad face fool you, he loved it.)

Who needs a double stroller when you can shove them both into one?!

AND I wasn't 9 months pregnant this time so the walk wasn't near as bad this year! :)

We found a much funner pumpkin patch this year in Mississippi than the previous one we had gone to in the past.

It had a petting zoo (aka feed the animals through the fence zoo)

A train ride. (aka being pulled on the back of a tractor around a field)

Pig races... enough said!

One of these cool things where you can stick your face into. Yes that is Jojo's little head in the cow :)

A corn box

And a BUNCH of little kids on school field trips. Look at that little white boy at the end of the class... Jackson thought he would just make himself at home with these guys. haha I thought it was a funny picture.

We did some serious pumpkin searching. (I didn't know Just was taking this picture... all I know when I saw it was that I looked SERIOUS!)

Grandma Blake also came in October. Boy were the boys happy about that! Jackson wanted her attention constantly. Here she is playing baseball with him in the backyard.

Halloween Hoopla

2010-11-10T16:26:00.000-08:00

Halloween went on for a long time at our house... but we loved it!
Our Halloween Party:
Justin and I have made it somewhat of a tradition of ours to host a little get together with friends around Halloween. This year we invited our school friends over for a Halloween dinner party. Most everyone dressed up and then we provided the most delicious chili.
Here is our family: The tortuous and the hare, a witch, and a mime. (I came up with Justin's costume about an hour before the party started) Jackson was so funny and would say all night, "My mom's being a witch!" I told him he was only allowed to say that on Halloween! :)This is the goblin cheesball we made. I thought it turned out so cute!!Here is just a few of the families that came:
The Beazers: Peanuts gang. Lynus, Peppermint Patty, and Charley Brown.
The Ericksons: An Eye Ball (on the baby bump) :) and an Eye Chart.
The McAdams: Witch, Fall Fairy, and a Memphis Burglar Carving Pumpkins:
Jackson wasn't into the goop and guts like last year when we carved pumpkins. He actually didn't have much to do with it and thought it was disgusting when Daddy pretended to eat it. I got the perfect picture of prove this point.

So he had a good time painting his own little pumpkin instead.Jonah however thought it was pretty fun to stick his hand in the hollow pumpkin and examine some guts.I ended up carving both the pumpkins this year. Ward Party:

We had the ward party on Saturday. Unfortunately we had a really busy day that day and the party in my opinion was too late for little kiddos. Jackson was exhausted and really didn't enjoy all the excitement. Here he is with a couple of his pre school girlfriends, Kaylee and Hadley.

And here is Justin's creative costume that night. :)

Trick or Treating

On Sunday we were sinners and took the boys trick or treating to a few houses on our street. Jackson was so excited about this and called it "Going to the neighborhood and ring on bells!"

However when we got home he had just as much fun if not more, handing out candy to the trick or treators that "rang on our bell".

They came home with a bunch of candy and for about 3 days straight Jackson had such a fun time just looking at it all and playing with it. Here he and Grandma lined it all up in line that crossed our whole family room!

One Year

2010-11-08T17:47:00.000-08:00

October 31st we celebrated Halloween, but more importantly we celebrated Jonah's first birthday!Here's the little man with all his presents. We are so lucky to have grandparents and great grandparents who spoil our kids! Thank you to all of you!

He wasn't too sure what to do with the brightly wrapped presents and wasn't too interested in tearing the paper...Good thing he has older brother though who waited pretty patiently but just couldn't wait to help out! Jonah didn't mind as he would rather play on top of the big boxes.He was also pretty spoiled this year as he had Grandma Blake visiting from Idaho on his special day. Here they are playing in his new "Cars" tent.And who wouldn't be excited to have a whole cake all to himself?!?At first he got his hands gooey from the gel, then he started to pick off the reese's pieces, and then he discovered the goodness of cake and started shoving it in!By the end of the process he was so excited about the sugar high that he just couldn't contain himself any longer!! :) We love our one year old!

My New Business: Custom Made Holiday Cards

2010-10-18T18:45:00.000-07:00

I hate to use my blog as a way of advertising... but since I am BRAND NEW at this, the best way to get the word out is through YOU (my family and friends)and my blog readers.
I am launching a new business called "Haylee's Holiday Greetings: Custom designed greeting cards made for you" And its hard to believe, but it is that time of the year again!

I would love if you all checked out the website to see what it is all about, and if you like my work I would love to design your christmas cards this year! Here are just a few examples of some of my cards... to see more, you gotta go check it out! And as a special bonus I will offer you a 10% discount for making a blog post about my Holiday Cards and link it up to my website (hayleesholidays.blogspot.com). To make your post even more appealing, feel free to copy and paste ONE of my custom design cards to use as an example in your post!

Thats not all, if you also add my button to your side bar I will offer another 10% discount. That is a total of 20% off your custom made Holiday Cards.
To add it on your side bar simply go to "Design", "Add a Gadget", "HTML/JavaScript" and copy and paste the code. (see my side bar to find my button)

Please spread the word to anyone you know! :)
Much thanks!!

Terrible twos?!? More like Terrible (times 3) THREES!

2010-09-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

Okay okay... I know Jackson has only been 3 for a few weeks, but he has been a difficult child the past month. Without going into too much details (I hate to be a complainer on the blog that I brag about my children) :) lets just say this mom is pretty drained (emotionally and physically)!!

He is really into doing things that are very interactive (which is good for his development but sometimes hard on me when he literally demands my attention his entire waking hours). He LOVES things like, coloring/painting, projects of any type, puzzles, games, play dough, etc. Things that are fun, but require some adult supervision.

Anyway, I would like to spend some time doing things with him on a regular basis, but I am laking on the creativity.... this is where YOU (my fellow blog reader) comes into play! I know a lot of you are mom's of young children, and I am just wondering if you have found some websites or blogs you love that spark your creative side.... little projects or games you can involve your children in. I know I can google things, but then I end up spending too much time on websites I don't like trying to find something I like. So if you have a blog or a website that has been helpful to you, I (and Jackson too) would love if you could pass it my way!

Late is better than nothing right?!

2010-09-16T17:40:00.000-07:00

Remember how a few posts ago I said that Justin had a semester break? Yeah, well I'm just getting around to posting some of the fun we had as a family.

Our 2nd time at the Zoo this year. I really love the Zoo and all the animals. This day was perfect because it wasn't very crowed, the animals were pretty active, and the weather wasn't as bad as it has been this summer.

And what is a Zoo update without some pictures of the animals we saw?! This Gorilla was HUGE! I love this pic.

But our favorite was the new Teton Trek. The Grizzlies were especially playful. We got there at the perfect time to see them swimming in the water and this guy came and gave me a kiss! It was pretty crazy being face to face with a Grizzlie. Thank Goodness for the glass! :)
Here is a video of our playful bears!

Another day we headed to the River Walk Park and let the boys play around in the water. While we were there a reporter from the Memphis newspaper was doing a story and since we were literally one of the only people at the park, he followed us around taking pictures and we made our debut in the newspaper the next day.

This was our favorite part though. They have a huge hill that I have seen people sliding down... so we thought we would give it a try. It was really fun! Jackson loved it!

I love in the video how you can hear Jackson just laughing the whole way down and then at the very end he says, "Lets do it again!" The little bird sound in the background at the end of the video is Jonah! :)

And although this little guy didn't slide down the hill, he still enjoyed himself as well!! (*sigh*) Gotta love school breaks!!

He's 3!

2010-09-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

I wish I had a picture of him holding up his 3 little fingers to tell you how big he is (he thinks that new trick is so fun)!! :)
Tuesday was the official day, but this boy is so spoiled and got to celebrate all weekend long!

Saturday we held a Backyard Birthday Bash for him and his little friends. I had such a fun time planning it all and he had such a good time! I am so glad it went so well. Nine of his friends came, it ran perfectly (we were able to do everything I planned on), and I think everyone had a blast.We had a lot of fun games for the kiddos including, a homemade bean bag toss game, a cake walk, a balloon popping game, and a pinata. I had a bucket full of little prizes that the kids got for participating in the games. I loved this picture of Jackson hitting his pinata.We then served a little lunch. I made BBQ pulled pork sandwiches for the adults who stayed and pb&j's for the kiddos.And of course there was cupcakes with candles! It was funny because that is really all he requested was candles for his birthday. Here he is with a frosting mustache and all!Jackson was also spoiled and lucky because he got to celebrate with a few special guests. Grandma and Grandpa Johnson and Uncle Jeff came all the way from Illinois to celebrate. Since Monday was Labor Day they were here and Justin had school off so we did our family celebration then. Look at that loot of presents! He is loved by his parents, grandparents, and great grandparents! (Thanks everyone for spoiling him!!) :)After opening all the gifts we pulled out the last one of all, his first bike! He LOVES it! The first day I wondered if he was ever going to learn how to pedal, but by day 3 he has it mastered. And he looks so cute in his helmet from G&G Blake. We love our 3 year old!!

Swagbucks!

2010-09-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law told us about this new website a while ago called Swagbucks. Have you heard of it? It's awesome! It's kind of hard to describe until you just get in it and start playing around, but I'll do my best.

So it's basically a website that rewards you for using it. There are lots of different things to do on it: take daily polls, an occasional survey, do your online shopping through it, and probably most of all search the web. They reward you with "swagbucks" for all the things you do their site and you can eventually redeem them for prizes. Justin and I both signed up and we are redeeming all of our points for $5 Amazon giftcards. We signed up like six weeks ago and together we've already earned about $65. No, not a ton of money, but for people like us who are broke, every little bit helps - especially when Christmas is coming up! So those of you expecting a gift this Christmas you may want to check out Amazon for your gift ideas.

Sorry this isn't much of an update. I've been such a slacker lately, but I promise to do better.

The Boys

2010-08-26T18:31:00.000-07:00

I know I just did an update on them... but seriously who can't get enough of them? Certainly not I (and its my blog and I can do what I want to!) :)Jonah is 10 months! Wow! I truly can't believe how fast time has flown with this little guy, 2 more months and he will be a year. Ten months old and his new tricks include waving and standing on his own A LOT. He still doesn't crawl on his hands and knees, but he can pull himself up onto most anything and get in a standing position. He is even starting to cruise along the furniture.
He can't crawl but he can do this: He has discovered his favorite toy of all, the dishwasher. He makes an army crawl dash for this thing whenever I do the dishes. He got himself onto the top of the lid all by himself today.
Gotta love the boy!

And then there is this charmer:
He cracks us up everyday. He discovers new words and things all the time... half of the time we don't even know how he knows these things. Example number 1: I was in front of the mirror messing around with some blemishes on my face (aka popping zits haha) and he says to me, "Mom, you have pimples?" This one cracked me up because I have no idea where he even heard the word pimple (I call them zits) let a lone knows what they are.
number 2: Justin and him were playing soccer the other day and he slipped and fell on the ball when he was trying to kick it. He bounced off of it and said, "That's my pogo stick." What?! Who knows where he discovered the word pogo stick.
number 3: We were sliding down a huge hill the other day (another post on that) and as we were climbing up he said, "I'm so nervous!" Again, I didn't know he could express the word nervous.
And one other Jackson funny. We were in the car driving downtown and Jonah had been fussing a bit. He finally stopped and Jackson said, "Jonahs not crying anymore. Hes not screaming and barking either!"
Here is a video capturing some of his silliness. He uses the curtain rod as a microphone and rocked out to none other than "Follow the Prophet." (Sorry for the horrible video quality)
My favorite is at the end when he starts cheering and screaming as if he was at a rock concert! :)

He started his pre school group this week and here are his first day of school pics. He was so excited and loved it. On our way home he told me all about what he did and learned. As a group of moms we each picked some things that we were going to teach during our rotations and we are working on numbers, colors, and shapes. Well the mom who was teaching this time was doing Blue and had a paper that said color everything BLUE (in big letters). Apparently Jackson said to one of the kids, "Color that B" and she was shocked he would know that. (He is the youngest in the group by quite a few months) Anyways we may be learning the alphabet now too since he already knows it :)

We've been enjoying Justin's semester break, so another update is on its way.

"I'm a monster!"

2010-08-18T10:35:00.000-07:00

Jackson is still keeping me constantly on my toes! The other day he found the stickers and came up to me looking like this declaring, "I'm a monster!"... you can say that again, I thought! :)
So this is what my monster has been up to these days:

He is talking more and more and says the funniest things sometimes. His naps have been hit and miss and the other day I asked him why he didn't take a nap. He said, "Its not dark. See the sun is up. The sun says for me its time to wake up!"
We have celebrated quite a few birthdays all in a row. He has been to 4 birthday parties since July and he is anxiously waiting for his to come (in a couple of weeks). While we were in Wyoming and Utah with family last week he was constantly going up to everyone and saying, "It's my birthday." He stated it so matter of factly you wouldn't have known he wasn't telling the truth if you didn't really know his birthday. He knows it is in "September" but he has no idea what that means.
If you ask him what he wants for his birthday all he says is candles! I better not forget to put candles on that boys cake or he will be one disappointed birthday fella. Hey, it makes it pretty easy on me right?! And I asked him, "Jackson do you want to spend your birthday with your friends or with just Mommy, Daddy, and Jonah?" He thought about it for a sec and said, "Umm, my friends." Yeah Yeah Yeah, go figure!
He is starting a pre school group next week. 4 of us ladies in the ward are getting together to trade off "teaching" pre school with the kiddos. He is SO EXCITED! I have been telling him about it and he can't wait to go to school with his friends. He said to me today, "Mom, I'm going to school. You can't come with me. I am going by myself. Don't help me at school mom." He is Mr independent let me just tell you... ready to grow up, move out into the world, and leave this poor old mom to sit at home without him!!
He loves ABC's "Wipeout".... actually we all do! We have let him stay up later with us on Wipeout night and watch it and he loves it. Now he has been jumping on our chairs and couches saying, "I'm doing my wipeouts!"

Speaking of him being a monster, check out the next project he completed on his body.

Good thing they were washables! I was driving from Provo to SLC by myself with the boys. I had markers in his backpack that apparently was placed a little too close to him. He got them out and started coloring all over himself. I honestly couldn't do a thing about it since I was driving in heavy Utah traffic, so I told him to have fun! Fun did he have! This was on our way to pick Justin up from the airport so this is how his 2 year old greeted him!

Later that weekend, while we were staying at Justin's grandparents house, we tried to give him a nap in the spare room. We shut him in there a lone and little did we know he was going to find some scissors and try another art project. This time he snipped up the bedspread pretty dang good. Justin's mother ended up buying new bedding for that room.... dang child IS a monster; and really into arts and crafts! :)

He is a handful, but we love him SO MUCH!!

Jonah- 9 mo.

2010-08-15T16:15:00.000-07:00

Its true... Jojo is already 9 and 1/2 months!

9 mo stats:

18.1 lbs- 10th percentile

28 inches- 32th percentile

(I am so sad because I lost a BUNCH of pictures from the last little while, so you only get a couple pics) At 9 months Jonah:

Claps his hands.

Scoots around everywhere! The way he moves really is quite hilarious. He pushes off with his left big toe, and uses his right arm to help pull him forward. He has been doing this for over 2 months and has figured out how to get around. He is quite fast doing this little army scoot.

He is just recently getting more and more onto his hands and knees. He has actually done just a few real crawls, but then realizes it is much faster to just scoot on his belly, so he quickly flops back down.

Because he can move around so fast he is my little puppy dog. He is constantly following Mommy around the house and tends to be right at my feet.

He does a cute little fish face and sucks in and out. When he blows out he makes a whistle sound.

My other favorite sounds he makes is a click with his tongue and when I make a "Neighh" sound (in reference to a horse) he tries to mimic it.

In the past week or so he is learning how to stand up on things. He scoots up to the item on his tummy, reaches up as high as he can, gets his knees under himself, and finally gets up on his feet. He isn't quite stable on his feet though so I am sure there will be quite a bit of tumbles for the little guy. In fact, the next picture is a perfect example of said subject:

He pulled himself up on the side of the tub and the next thing I knew he flipped over into the water... He didn't think it was too funny at first (notice the red bump on the head), but as soon as I got the camera he thought it was pretty fun to be bathing in his clothes. :)

And we can't forget to move the crib mattress down after we found him like this after one of his naps

In other news: I know this blog has been horribly neglected and we have been quite busy since the last update. We moved into a new house a few weeks ago. We love it and hopefully will have an update about that soon. We also just got down with vacation. Me and the two little boys were able to spend a week in Jackson Hole with my parents. We had a lot of fun but unfortunately those are the pictures I lost so I don't know if we will have an update about that. I then drove down to Utah, Justin flew into SLC, and we had a family reunion with his family. Grandpa Steven's turned 80 and we had a birthday bash for him.
Please stay tuned...

Cherish These Moments

2010-06-28T19:50:00.001-07:00

I called my mom in tears this morning after I got word of some sad news. I serve in the primary presidency in our ward and a sweet 5 year old girl has been battling neuroblastoma cancer for the 2 years that I have been here in Memphis. She wasn't in primary a lot, but when she was she brought a whole new Spirit to the room. She loved to tell stories, and she was a sweetie to everyone. I truly did love her.
Last night she lost her life to this awful disease. She has one little sister and her father was an optometrist student (he just graduated). Our Relief Society president was there in the time of the passing and posted the whole story on her blog. I'm not going to link it though just because it was a lot of detail which I feel is kind of a sacred/personal experience. After reading it though, my heart just broke.
I was in tears and Jackson asked me what was the matter. I knelt down and took him in my arms and told him that a sweet little girl was very sick and she went home to her Heavenly Father today. He just looked at me (I'm sure not knowing what I was talking about) dropped his ball that he was playing with, gave me a hug, wiped my tears from my cheek and said, "Its okay Mommy." That simple thing from my precious boy really brought peace to me in that experience. I feel for her parents, because I can't imagine the trial they have been through and the grief they will feel as they lose her on this Earth; but in the eternal realm I know she is in a better place, she isn't in pain anymore, and she is returning to Heaven as a perfect spirit.
Anyways, with all this happening it made my trials in life seem extremely trivial. I spent the rest of the day cherishing the moment I get to have with the two joys of my life. And here they are for your viewing pleasure (we got a new camera) :)

Is that smile not the sweetest thing ever?! He is the happiest boy and these pictures are proof

I LOVE seeing Jackson learn new things. He knows all his letters, most numbers 1-10, most shapes and colors. He amazes me everyday on how smart he is. Here is one story:

The other day I was cleaning out one of my cupboard and I have two round cake pans. He took them, banged them together and said, "These are cymbals." Then I realized that he has a Baby Einstein video that is called "the Orchestra" He has learned his instruments and thought that these cake pans looked like cymbals (ya know those big loud things you bang together).

Here he is playing on PBS kids. He loves all the "letter" games. (don't worry, (cause I know you were) I know his hair is a bit out of control. He got a haircut today)

And here they are at the end of the day... all squeaky clean. Bath time is a favorite for both of them. (And again, speaking of letters Jackson LOVES his bath time letters)And I just love this picture for some reason. They were smiling at Daddy :)

Stuff....

2010-06-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

Both of our boys have reached new milestones in their lives.

Jonah:
He is finally becoming mobile! This week he started to "scoot" all around. He can hold himself on his hands and knees (if I put him in the position), but is doing the army crawl all over the place. He is getting faster and faster. Jackson isn't going to like a mobile brother as Jonah wants to be where he is and play with his toys. :)

Jackson:
Remember this post?! Well...we took the plunge again this time and it was a success! Jackson has officially been potty trained for 2 1/2 weeks! I would honestly say that it took one day for him to really get it and he has had but a few accidents since. But really, I think he could have done it the first time we tried, but it was me who changed a few things this time. All my changes were little things that made a HUGE difference. For example, instead of saying "Don't pee in your underwear" (I don't know how many times I said that the first time around) but say "Jackson, you are a big boy. I know you can keep your underwear dry" etc. The other difference is that the first 3 days or so I took him to the potty every hour. On the hour I told him it was time to go potty... I didn't leave the decision up to him.
The other thing I did was when he had an accident I put him in the shower for a minute. Then he had to clean up his wet clothes and put on new clothes all by himself. He HATES the shower (it scares him) and so after doing that just a few times he caught on real quick.
Now, we are STILL working on night training... the book I read ("How to Potty Train in 3 Days") is big on NO diapers or pull ups EVEN at night. He has had maybe 4 or 5 nights where he has been dry... the past 3 nights in a row has been good so I'm hoping he is catching onto that too.
Now he tells us every time he has to go... even when we are out and about and in public. We are so proud of him! :)

My favorite quote of the process:

Me: Okay Jacks, lets put your undies back on.
Jackson: UNDIES?!? (said in a disgusted tone) Not undies. Underwear! (he corrects me)
Me: Oh okay. Lets put your underwear back on.
Jackson: Good Job saying that Mommy.

In other news...
We "won" some tickets to see a movie screening of a new movie called "Despicable Me" It officially comes out on July 9th. Its an animated movie with Steve Carell as the main voice. We took Jackson to his first movie and he had a lot of fun. We bought popcorn and soda, so he was in heaven! It was also Justin and I's first 3D movie (awesome!) Anyway, we highly recommend the movie... it was HILARIOUS, and it even made me cry (a happy cry!) Go see it when it comes out.

Oh yeah, and Happy Fathers Day to all you Daddies out there! Justin is a great father and we love him!!

My Camera Broke

2010-06-18T14:01:00.001-07:00

The pool has been open for a few weeks and that is where we have been living lately. (okay not really.... BUT we have been enjoying it during this heat wave!)
And, I got these fun pictures when the incident happened... the camera got moist from the pool water and is now out of business for us; thus the lack of updates. Okay Okay that isn't entirely true either, but I'm going to use it as an excuse instead of my normal "I am a bad blogger blah blah blah" excuse.

When our pool opened we had a few visitors. A momma duck and ten babies made our pool their home. Here are the kiddos having fun watching them.

We came back the next day to SWIM and they were still there swimming right a long with us. Unfortunately a community pool isn't the place for duckies and we had some pretty rude people trying to chase them down and splash them. etc. They lasted for a few days and then I never saw them again.

Speaking of swimming, Jackson has become our little fishy. He has always been a bit timid about water being in his face (he hates washing out shampoo in the bath and he is scared to death of showers). So, the first few times we went he did great with his floaties, but still got nervous if his face got in the water. Then we took him to the ward swimming party and he became a new kid. He saw all the big kids jumping in the pool, going under the water, going off water slides and diving boards and realized that it isn't too bad to get your face wet. Soon enough he was jumping into the water (over and over again) going off the slide and jumping off the diving board. Now he has no fear. (which could be a bad or a good thing) He loves it and I love watching him have fun!

Stay tuned for more updates (unfortunately without pictures)

5 years

2010-06-02T18:14:00.000-07:00

May 27th was mine and Justin's 5 year anniversary! Wow, its hard to believe sometimes. When we were talking about it Justin was like "5 years... that's like 2 and 1/2 missions that I have been married to you" We had an enjoyable evening. Our friends babysat the boys for us and we were able to get out on a date (which lately has been way too few and far between that we get to do that) We went to a fancy restaurant called J.Alexanders. It was THE best stake I ever had and the rattlesnake pasta was pretty divine as well (it wasn't made with rattlesnakes, it was just the title). The steak was so good I didn't even put ketchup on it (yes, I put ketchup on my steak). We splurged and spent the most on a meal than we ever had (I'm sure we've had more expensive... we just weren't paying for it!) :)

Then Justin took me shopping and I got this little outfit at Old Navy. (We have both been in need new clothes and for some reason we spend all our money on two little boys and not ourselves... hmm...)

And here's the big 5 year shebang... a 2nd car!!! I guess this wasn't officially for our 5 year Anniversary, as we had planned on getting another car sometime while in optometry school, but we'll just pretend. We have gone 5 years with only one car and with people moving and Justin's crazy summer school schedule, the car pool was no longer working. We both realized that I wasn't about to be stuck at home all day without a car and so we got me this baby.

It is called a Kia Rondo. It is one of those crossover vehicles so it does have a 3rd row (a tiny one) and can fit 7 passengers. We figured it will work for at least one more kid and then maybe when/if the 4th comes along I'll suck it up and become a mini van mom! :)

I had to throw in this last picture because if you look in the window you can see Jackson's cute little face poking out! :)

I am so grateful for such a great husband. He has been wonderful to me. He is loving and supportive and such a hard worker. He is also an amazing father to our little boys and I couldn't be happier with anyone else! I love him!

Update on the boys (along with some other randomness)

2010-05-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

I love my boys! And they love each other. Jackson is usually so good with Jonah. Here are some cute photos of them together (sorry its so small) 1st- playing cars. Jonah likes to reach for them but Jackson gets mad if he ruins his line of cars or messes up the way he is playing with them (he's very particular) :) 2nd- watching a show together. Jackson thinks its fun when Jonah watches too. 3rd- Reading books. Jackson sat down and started reading him all the stories; it was cute!And I had to throw this one in because I think it is a funny/cute picture of them.

I was making a bottle for Jonah and Jackson was insisting he feed him. I layed him on his lap, propped up the bottle with a burp cloth and Jackson fed him his whole bottle. I thought it was so sweet. He has done it a couple times since then.Jonah loves to reach up and touch my face when he is nursing or drinking a bottle so he was doing it to Jackson and Jackson was getting really annoyed. haha And if this video works.... here they are "talking" to each other. Jonah has been really into this high pitched squealing (I call him my firecracker) And so Jackson thinks it is fun to do it with him. This seriously went on for about 10 minutes that day. :)

Little Jonah is getting so big!! We went to the park and he had fun sitting up on the slide and going down it (of course I was holding him the whole time). He's basically mastering the sitting up now.He is also getting a bit more mobile. He rolls over on his tummy and can turn all sorts of circles. You can tell he is so ready to be on the move and really wants to scoot. The other day I had him over by his blocks and soon found him like this. He had rolled over a few times to get himself stuck under the swing.We are working on a new "program" with Jackson. He has a Micky Mouse sticker chart that he gets to put a sticker on each night if he is good. After a couple of weeks he then gets a little "prize" (a little toy). He gets strikes for doing things that are bad and if he gets three strikes in a day he doesn't get a sticker and the whole process starts over. He has actually done really good with it and likes to put the sticker on. He says "No strikes!" However, there has been a few days that he has "striked out" and didn't get his sticker. So far he has earned one prize. And this picture is extremely random for this post... I threw my good friend, Becky, a baby shower on Thursday. Unfortunately she called me that afternoon telling me she was headed to the hospital and was likely going to be induced (mind you, this is 4 weeks early, so we thought we had plenty of time...she had some amniotic fluid that was leaking) But because we had all the food already, we had our shower without the guest of honor. The girl on the left was the other girl that helped with the shower. We had a good time, and Becky had her little guy the next day (a LONG labor... poor girl!!) Congrats Becky! :)

Jonah is 6 months old!!

2010-05-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

I am the worst blogger. Jonah is now 6 1/2 months and I think my last update was from 4 months. So I will now update months 5 and 6, and I'll be able to sleep happily knowing that this post will please the grandparents because of the plethora of pictures of our little man.

5 months:

Month 5 was full of lots of new tricks. Here he is discovering the joy of baby toes!! They sure are delish! And my favorite trick, learning how to roll over. For a long time this was the position he would get himself into. He would basically roll to the stomach but just couldn't quite figure out how to get that other arm under him. "Hey mom I wanna watch too!"He even sleeps in this position and I think he looks so cute. He arches his back and throws his head back, its a wonder how it can be comfortable.At 5 months he could sit pretty good with support.

6 months:
Stats: 15lbs (6th percentile) 26 inches (23rd percentile)He has mastered rolling over from his back to his stomach. Almost instantly you lay him down he is on his stomach. He is really showing interest in wanting to be on the move. He can turn himself in complete circles while on his stomach and can roll back onto his back every once in a while.
He is also sitting up really well-even without support. He is still learning this though as he can't sit up for very long.
He is still the happiest and smiliest guy! He is also beginning the babbling stage and saying things like "da da da da" and "la la la"He puts up a lot from his older brother. Here are two examples:Luckily he is so laid back and just rolls with the punches. Jackson really does love him.

He eats all sorts of fruits and vegetables and really packs them down (which is surprising because he is so little on the growth charts). I am still nursing, but I think my supply is slowing down because he has become more uninterested in it. At least he does take bottles of formula too when we need him to.
He is mostly sleeping through the night. We dropped his dream feed in the past month or so and he sleeps until about 6:30AM.

He has been the PERFECT addition to our family!We sure love him, but seriously, who couldn't?!!

Family Time

2010-05-13T20:45:00.000-07:00

Justin finished his 2nd year of Optometry School and had one week off before he began his 3rd year. We packed in a bunch of fun that week.
Our plan was to go with a couple of friends camping the Friday after classes got out... unfortunately throughout the week we realized that wasn't going to happen because of weather. Its a good thing we canceled because Friday night around 3AM we were awakened to the tornado sirens. They went off literally ALL day on Saturday. We never did have a tornado, but we did have some heavy rain that caused a lot of flooding around the area. (Nashville got badly hit with flooding, we didn't see much of anything around here, but we did hear about a lot of flooding in our area)
So although we weren't able to go with friends, we still decided to go with our little family on Monday. We had a good time, although we forgot the tin foil for our tin foil dinners and we had a heck of a time trying to start a fire with wet wood. Luckily we were prepared to be there until lunch the next day so we had hot dogs! :) We set up camp, ate dogs, and marshmallows, and had a fun time watching Jackson love every moment of being outdoors. Luckily we were LITERALLY the only ones in the campground, because bedtime with the kiddos was interesting. :)The next morning we woke up, had some breakfast and went on a walk around the campground. We were near a lake and it was really beautiful. I must admit, Jonah didn't LOVE his first camping experience... but he endured well. This is him in the morning playing in the tent. I think this pictures is adorable of him!!Tuesday we took advantage of the free Zoo day and spent the afternoon there. They have a new exhibit that just opened this fall called the Teton Trek. It reminded me of home. It had the Tetons, the Yellowstone lodge and Old Faithful. The animals they got are Grizzly Bears, Wolves, and Elk. I actually thought they did a good job with their display (notice the dead, fallen down trees, in the bottom picture) :) Jackson didn't want to sit in his stroller, because he wanted to push it (of course!!) He literally pushed that stroller around the Zoo for 2 hours! He was more interested in doing that than in seeing the animals.... haha that boy!Thursday we spent a long day driving to Cincinnati, OH. My older brother Lane graduated from Law School and we went to celebrate with him. My parents were also there so it was fun to spend the weekend with everyone. We are so proud of Lane and his hard work! While we were there they took us to a Reds game. It was a lot of fun and was such a nice evening to go. Although the Reds got smoked by the Cubs, we still enjoyed it. Jonah got to wear the reds outfit that Lane and Whit actually bought Jackson when he was a baby. He looked adorable at the old ball game! The boys were EXHAUSTED (especially JoJo) so we left before the 7th inning.

I then spent my Mothers Day traveling in the car back home. The boys actually do great traveling and Jackson took 2 naps!! (That was his present to me) When we got home Justin gave me a present! I nice electric skillet, since mine bit the dust recently. I LOVED this week!!!!!

Justin's 3rd half marathon

2010-04-22T07:58:00.001-07:00

This past weekend Justin ran his 3rd half marathon. This one was in Jackson, TN (about an hour away from Memphis). It was really low key so it was an interesting race. His goal was under 2 hours.
The starting line:The finish line was in a parking lot so we just pulled up the car right next to it and hung out in there a lot of the time while Justin was running. Here's JoJo sitting up like a big boy!Justin's cheering section. Donna was so awesome and stayed a few days extra to attend the race with me. I didn't know what to expect so I thought I would need some help with the kids, but I probably would have been just fine... I didn't realize what "low key" really meant. But we were happy to have her there!!And here is our future marathon runner... He had such a fun time running around our chairs over and over while we cheered him on. When we stopped cheering he said, "Go Jackson... PLEEEASE" (he wants all the attention) :)And here he is coming into the finish line. He rocked his goal and came in at 1:53!! Way to go babe!Jackson ran right up to him after and gave him a hug and kiss.We are proud of you Just!!

Boys Easter Pictures

2010-04-05T12:51:00.001-07:00

I thought our little Easter photo shoot turned out SO cute! (I thought they deserved a post of their own)

Are these two seriously not the cutest boys ever?! (okay I know I am bias)

Jack ManThese ones make him look so old and grown up...

(I can't figure out why blogger is automatically flipping this picture. It horizontal on my computer. Any ideas?)Jo Johaha not the most flattering picture, but the flowers were gorgeous!
As we went out we noticed that things are really starting to blossom and bloom. I swear to you the trees turned green over night. Maybe it is symbolism of Christ's Resurrection this Easter Sunday. I am so grateful to have these boys in my life and even more grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ who made it possible for me to have my family for eternity!

Easter Festivities

2010-04-05T11:45:00.000-07:00

It is safe to say that this Easter has been my favorite one thus far! This was the first real holiday that we spent with just "our little family", and I loved all of it!
A couple of weeks ago we had a Easter egg hunt at a member of our ward's house. They go all out with this hunt, with over 2000 eggs! Afterwords they had a few activities including a small "petting zoo" with Donkeys, Ducks, Bunnies, and little Chicks. Jackson is pretty timid around animals so he didn't really like all that. He DID however take his picture with the big Easter Bunny and he loved it! I was quite surprised he wasn't scared. (I decided to just do my scrapbook layout this time because of the multiple pictures) Saturday evening we colored eggs. Jackson was so excited about this. During the last little bit of Conference we told him he had to clean up and then we could color eggs. He cleaned right up and then shouted over and over "Color eggs! Come on guys! Color eggs!" When conference ended he went right over to the aprons and grabbed his and took Justin's over to him and said "OKAY! Egg time!"

We only had one mishap while dyeing. Justin didn't know that 2 of the eggs in the carton weren't hard boiled and Jackson dropped it right into the blue dye. :)After we dyed the eggs we told him that the Easter Bunny was going to come while he was sleeping and hide our eggs around the house. He woke up and told us the Easter Bunny came! He loved his basket. He got "Buzz Lightyear" aka Toy Story the movie, some pjs and clothes, 2 new cars, toy store fruit snacks, Elmo puzzle, and "treats." I think he basically opened each egg and ate the treat right away (good thing I only put one jelly bean in each egg)I cooked my very first Holiday meal. We had a really yummy honey ham, garlic parmesan rolls, asparagus, and twice baked potatoes. Yum!! Then after the last session of conference I let Jackson help make our ice cream cake. He LOVED helping in the kitchen. I call this "The Egg Hunt Cake" (the graham crackers are the dirt, the coconut is the grass, and the jelly beans are the eggs) :)

Hope everyone had a happy Easter!!

Last but DEFINITELY not least...

2010-04-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

Look who else came to visit?!

That is right, my dear old Mommy came to visit for a week. Its a good thing I have 2 of her grandson's to entice her to come. She called me in Feb telling me all about how she was going to visit Bryce & Jamie in California. Then she made her flights for May to Cinci to visit Lane & Whit. Then she was going to drive to Boise for the weekend to see Todd & Amy.... then proceeded to tell me that she has been looking for flights to Memphis and could find nothing that was a decent price (go figure).
However, about a week after than conversation took place she surprised me by calling and telling me she found decent tickets and was coming in March!! (She saw pictures on the blog of Jonah and couldn't stand the thought of him growing up without her)
We were excited to have her here!!

Most of the week was pretty chill. We hung out together, watched a chick flick, went shopping and ran errands, did some crafty things, and just enjoyed each others company. She spent a lot of quality time with Jackson playing "Talk to you" with his cars. (In case anyone cares to know what "talk to you" is all about, it is an annoying game I invented to spark his imagination that I never should have taught him because that is ALL he wants to do EVERYDAY and EVERY MINUTE!! :) He designates you a specific car--I am always Chick Hicks from the movie cars, and my mom was dubbed a big red race car. Then you are suppose to talk and drive and be this car character. Its quite exciting for a 2 1/2 year old boy) :)

I had to throw this picture in of my mom enjoying her afternoon nap under my quilt I am working on. She taught me to hand quilt and this is the project she helped me with while she was here.

On Saturday we actually got out and did something fun. First we went the to Circus. I was excited about this because I had never been to a real circus and I knew Jackson would enjoy it. We had a good time and he STILL talks about how he had fun at the circus seeing the Tigers, Elephants, Clowns, and Motorcycles.After the circus we headed down to Tunica, Mississippi. (My mom's first time to MS) We went to the River and did a 2 mile nature walk. It was really pretty and I would like to go again when the trees are in bloom...This picture cracks me up! Jonah never fell asleep but instead just kinda moaned the whole time. He looked miserable! I don't know, maybe he was stroller sick or something; or still over stimulated by the circus. Despite the misery on his face, he still was a perfect angel.And of course, what would it be like to go to the forest of the South and NOT swing on some big Tarzan vine?!?And who wants to just go UNDER the gazebo when you can climb up it and do the monkey bars across?! Thanks for the visit Mommy dear!! We LOVED having ya!

A Visit from Grandma and GRANDPA

2010-04-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

Spring Break part 2:
We LOVE having Grandma's come, but it isn't too often that Grandpas get to come too. Justin's parents decided to spend the 2nd half of Justin's Spring Break visiting us. Jackson loved having Grandpa's attention! :)
They have been before and we have done a lot of the "Memphis" tourist stuff, so we tried to find new things to do with them. Some of it worked out, some didn't.
The first thing we did was see the ducks at the Peabody. We had done this before but we never were there as they were actually walking down the red carpet. I thought it was so cute! :) Then we took the elevator to the top of the hotel where the duckys live. We hadn't done that before either. One afternoon we went to the Sam Cooper Area (a first time) and ate at a unique little cafe called "The Beauty Shop." It is an old hair salon (where apparently Priscilla Presley used to get her hair done) converted to a restaurant. The food was okay, but the portions were tiny (especially for the price). The chairs you sat in were the old hair dryers and if you notice in the back of this picture the sinks are still the old washing basins.
We then took a little day drive and went to the Casey Jones Village and train museum in Jackson, TN. We went last year but they were remodeling the museum so we thought Jackson would like the trains.

Another thing we tried to do take a tour of St. Judes Children Hospital. Donna really wanted to do this and we looked up online that we could take a self guided tour, only to find out that was old information and they only offered the tours M-F.... we went Saturday. They did have a little museum open and we went to the gift shop. Other than that we just had a good time hanging out. They brought their Wii Fit and we played that a lot. It was fun to have visitors!!

"Come On Sadie"

2010-03-31T18:36:00.000-07:00

I am so behind... but here is Part 1 from Spring Break (yes, that was about 4 weeks ago).
We were able to make our way to Kirksville, MO to visit with Jeremy & Morgan and girls. We had a great time just relaxing and talking. The cousins had a BLAST together.
Jackson LOVED Sadie (thus the title "Come on Sadie"; we heard this phrase probably 100 times while we were there). Sadie LOVED Jonah. The last time we saw the twins they were 8 months old... they just turned 2! They were adorable. This is Kate. We were sitting together one afternoon just the two of us and so I snapped some pictures of her adorable angelic face. She is seriously a sweety!And here are all the cousins together Thanks Jer and Morgan for letting us come. It was fun to see the kiddos bond. Jackson still talks about going to "Sadies house"

The Other Boys

2010-03-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

Since the past couple of posts have been about little JoJo, I decided to do a post about what my other boys have been up to (and yes, Justin counts as one of my boys). This month has been fun filled and I have been (once again) a slacker with blogging.
The past couple of weeks in school Justin has been learning how to inject people with needles. He learned how to do intramuscular, subcutaneous, intralesional, and subconjunctival injections. In other words, they gave each other shots in the arms, in the eyelids, and in the EYE BALL!! He has been the guinea pig from his other classmates and this is what his eye looked like when he came home the other day. In a more up close picture you can see a white bump where the needle was injected. Jackson spent a good week sick this month. The first day I noticed, we had spent the morning with friends at the park. He just wasn't quite acting like himself. When we got home he ASKED to take a nap (he hasn't taken a nap in three months, so I couldn't believe this request). He did in fact take a nap but then woke up with a temperature of 104.5!! I called the Dr right away and took him in. Turns out he had an ear infection. The next day his fever never went below 101 and spiked again after his nap to 104. We headed back over to the Dr where they informed me that he probably had a bad virus on top of the ear infection. After 3 days of a high fever, he broke out in a rash for a couple of days. We researched it and we think it was the Roseola virus. He spent a lot of days doing this: laying on the couch and watching movies.

We played Volleyball at the church a couple of times with some friends. Jackson loves it. One of our friends had a walker for their baby to play in and before we were about to go Jackson decided he wanted a turn in it. Well it toppled over face first and he smacked his lip. It bled and swelled up pretty good. We came home and took pictures and by the morning it was fine.
I love watching Jackson play. He has quite the imagination these days. One afternoon it was all about "Bear." He decided Bear needed a diaper put on. So I helped him with that. Then he needed pants, a shirt, and shoes. He dressed him up and carried him around all afternoon. Bear was in the bumbo; in the exersaucer, put down for a nap, his teeth were brushed, he went potty, he had a snack, etc. It was pretty cute!
And last, do you all remember my post where we bid adieu to Jackson's binky? And remember how I have mentioned (more than once) about his lack of naps since the binky has been extinct? Well, he soon discovered that Jonah had a binky and its not half bad to suck on his. So, we were fighting him for a while about not stealing Jonah's... but soon the fight got old. I finally gave in and just gave it to him at nap time. And do you know what?! He has been napping for 3 weeks now!! Quite honestly I don't care that I failed at taking away the plug if he is going to nap. Prior to this new discovery he was the whiniest kid and I was really struggling with how to deal with it. Ever since he started to nap it has been SOOOO much better! So join with me, my fellow blog readers, and welcome the binky back into Jackson's life! :)
(This picture was taken on our way home from Missouri where he swipped it from Jonah's car seat and I looked back only to discover he was asleep. It was only 9:30 in the am)

Stay tuned for more March updates! :)

A month of firsts

2010-03-24T20:23:00.000-07:00

First taste of rice cereal:
The Dr told us to start him on solids this month so we gave it a try a couple of weeks ago. Of course most of it came back out and I'm not sure how much he even swallowed. He was more interested in eating the bib. I didn't give it to him again until this week and the past 2 days he has been a great cereal eater. (The lighting on this picture isn't good... his hair really isn't orange:)

First Haircut:
I kept putting it off... he is just too young to have a haircut! Jackson was a year old before we did that. BUT its kind of true, it really was a bit out of control. Here are the before pictures (notice the middle one where it literally was growing past his earlobe)

Nervous taking the first snip.And here is the pile. That is A LOT of baby hair! He isn't even 5 months old and we cut a pile of hair off of the boy.
BUT I've gotta say it... he sure looks handsome with his new clean cut do. I of course still left it long because I LOVE LOVE LOVE that hair!(and on a side note, I think he looks chubbier in this picture than in real life... although I do think he is putting on some)

4 months

2010-03-09T10:06:00.000-08:00

Jonah turned 4 months at the beginning of the month. I still love him everyday and can't believe what a perfect fit he has been with our family.

He is known for that hair of his. I don't think anyone can see him without commenting about it. It is a bit crazy but I LOVE it, and I can't bare to cut it when he is so young! In fact so many people have told me how he really looks like a big "kid" but in a small baby size. Its the hair! :)

The perfect word to describe him is "lovable." He is so easy to love when he is constantly flashing those adorable smiles at ya!

This is basically what he looks like all the time these days: hands in his mouth! They are his favorite toy and loves loves loves to suck and slobber on those tiny fingers. He is beginning to get a grip on some things and trys to bring them to his mouth. Pretty soon he will be liking more toys. He has even started to giggle! The other day Jackson got him laughing so hard. He was laying on a blanket and Jackson was falling down by him over and over. Jonah was cracking up at his crazy brother... (that was until Jackson landed on his arm and his giggles turned into a cry!) He really does love when Jackson plays with him (we still have to keep a pretty good eye on them though. Jackson does love him, but still tests his boundaries by being a bit rough sometimes.) I thought this picture was cute of the boys "playing"
He is super super tickleish! I barely need to touch him and he will start laughing. It is really cute!

His nickname has been dubbed "Jo Jo" compliments of Jackson. He just started calling him this and it has begun to stick with the rest of us. Justin says it is perfect because his name is "JOnah JOhnson"

We went to his 4 month checkup and found out he is still a small guy
12 lbs 14 oz (6th percentile)
24 3/4 in (29th percentile)

They weren't too concerned since he is still doing everything that a 4 month old should be doing and his muscles are strong, but they did say that I need to think about starting him on rice cereal and some solids in the next couple weeks.... I don't know if I am ready for that mess. I am perfectly content with nursing... but I guess babies have to grow up sometime right?! Which is funny because it seems with Jackson there were so many times that I couldn't wait for the next stage and it seemed he couldn't grow up fast enough for me; but with Jonah it has been opposite... I want him to stay this little FOREVER!

I {heart} Vday

2010-02-14T19:50:00.000-08:00

I really like to make Holidays special, especially for kids. So I got up and made some Valentine pancakes. I made them pink and added some sprinkles.I then cut them into hearts....Jackson thought it was pretty awesome eating a heart. If you notice in the above picture, our milk is also pink, and Jackson has pink, purple, and red eating utensils! :)When we got home the boys opened up their valentine packages and cards from their grandparents. This was Jonah's singing bear from G&G Johnson.We then made and decorated cookies.... Jackson loved it!! He signed a Valentine and took them over to our neighbors. Happy Valentines from the Johnson Clan!!
And here is the question of the day; Are you a biter or a sucker?! Justin is our sucker... he savors his candy by sucking on it as long as possible. I am the in betweener, I like to suck on it for a while but as soon as it starts dwindling down I bite it. And Jackson is our biter! As soon as he gets a hard candy in his month he starts chomping down. :)

An update on Jackson

2010-02-13T18:41:00.000-08:00

Jackson is a full fledged crazy, busy, funny, 2 1/2 year old!! Here are a few picture of what he has been up to in the last couple weeks (besides our whole potty training fiasco).

Here is a site you will see DAILY at our place. A row or line up of cars somewhere in the house. The arm of the couch is a favorite place. He loves to drive them down the "ramp". He has always loved cars; and all type of cars and trains are still his favorite toys bar none.

We made a fort the other day for him to play in. Once I got it all done I told him to get his cars to play in the fort with.... of course he didn't want to play IN the fort-- instead he drove his cars on TOP of the fort... haha silly boy.One of my pet peeves that he tends to do is get on our bed and pull all the pillows on top of him. Or he will throw them all on the floor. For some reason it drives me crazy!! I just want my pillows to be nicely in place on the bed. One day we made a "nest" for him.... he requested a picture (which is something he always does when he thinks he is doing something cute or cool; he asks for a picture! haha!!)

He has also been into his stuffed animals lately. They all sleep in his bed with him at night and one day while he was watching a movie he wanted all his animals to watch too. I thought it was cute how he lined them all up on the couch with him. (Oh and don't mind the ghetto towels on the couch... this was when we started potty training and I didn't want him to have an accident while sitting there) Justin and I have both been trying to be dedicated in running and exercising. Therefore, Jacks has seen us often get in our running clothes and head out the door. One day when Daddy left Jackson got on my running shoes and sunglasses and declared that "Jackson goin runnin! Bye Mom! See you later dude" (yes that was his exact sentence... he calls me mom a lot now instead of just Mommy)
He also likes to stretch with us when we get back from running:
And last, he LOVES pictures! Whenever I snap any type of picture he HAS to see it after. Now instead of just looking at the pictures he has figured out how to take pictures. He got a hold of the camera and started snapping some shots. Below is what is picture worthy to a 2 year old:

My favorite is the last picture in the bottom right hand corner. It is a picture of the TV.... whoever guesses first who it is gets a prize! :)

Jackson's imagination is beginning to really blossom and it is so cute. Here are a couple funny stories.

1- The other day he was looking out the window and started to yell down at the cars. This is what I heard. "Hey car!! Hey! Jacksons talkin to you! Mere (come here) car! Hey! [Where you] Goin cars?!"

2- We were having a fun at the dinner table one night and decided to tell a story and let Jackson fill in the blanks. He actually did a really good job with this so we wrote his story down. (The underlined words are his, and I had to add a couple of words to make it make sense)

Once upon a time there was a barn. And in that barn lived Mommy and Daddy. One day they went and got some milk to give to Santa. They took the milk to [the] table. But they thought that Santa needed something to go with the milk so they got him chips. Santa came and left something for them, it was a car! So they took the car drivin and went and saw [some] dogs. The dogs were [taking] a bath. And they all lived happily ever treat! The End

And there you have it.... our crazy,busy, funny Jackson in a nutshell.

And more pictures of ME because I'm too darn cute!! :)

2010-02-13T18:00:00.000-08:00

Yup, still sweet as ever!!

We took the plunge...

2010-02-11T08:54:00.000-08:00

Bye-Bye diapers and hello big boy underwear!

I didn't want to write about this on the blog until I was certain he was potty trained because if I had to give up I didn't want to admit failure.... but this is our history, so I'm blogging it.

During our winter weather weekend Jackson was acting very interested in the potty, so we decided to give it a try. We took him on a special trip and let him pick out his potty stool, his big boy underwear, some potty treats, and stickers. He was doing great the first three days and I thought "Oh he is gonna get this no problem." He knew exactly what to do on the potty and every time he sat on the toilet he did the deed. He even went poop on the potty multiple times.
But soon it started to become a struggle. He got burnt out of running to the potty all the time and didn't want to stop doing whatever it was he was doing to go to the bathroom. It ended up coming to the point where we had to drag him to the bathroom and wait for a long time while he messed around because he didn't want to take off his pants and sit on the toilet.... of course the more it got like this the more frustrated I got. (this frustration was probably the worst mistake I made in this process) I did try to get creative with it like for example the picture below:

He has been into his animals lately so we had a party one time. They all lined up to watch and cheer him on! :)

Well soon he decided instead of going to the bathroom so often he would just pee and poop in his pants. He started to do that frequently and I tried to control the frustration, but because it was happening so often and because I honestly think he was doing it on purpose, my frustration didn't always hide itself. And with his personality, because he was getting a reaction from me (even though it was negative) he started to do it more. (sometimes when I tell him not to do something he does it. It makes it hard to discipline him because he will act out for attention and thinks it is fun to go to time out)

I told myself I wouldn't give up. I had gone a week and a half and I didn't want to go back when we already started. I even said I would be cleaning up accidents for as long as it took but I wasn't going to fail! However I soon came to the realization that it wasn't working (with the help of the Spirit). I personally think he IS ready; he gets the process 100%, but I made some mistakes and it was starting to just become a negative situation and I knew it wasn't going to work if it was going to be like that.

He is back in diapers and I guess I have to admit failure (as much as I hate it) and try again another time....

*Our Simple Adventures*

Having ourselves a Merry Little Christmas

Be Jolly, By Golly!

A Day of Thanksgiving

Fall Flashback

Jonah's 2nd Year Birthday

Happy Halloween!! (only a couple of months late)

Pumpkin Patch Take 2

General Conference Weekend

Summertime Randomness

Jackson's Birthday Continuation

4 years old!

Part 3--- The Aquarium

Cades Cove (Part 2)

The Smoky Mountains (Part 1)

Day at the Lake (part 3)

"Are we going to climb a mountain today" --Jackson Johnson (Part 2)

First Annual Blake Family Reunion (Part 1)

4th of July Weekend

A Tribute to Grandma Alice Johnson

We love Camping!

May: Fun with the Fam!

April Update

Easter

Other March Happenings

March: Jonah's adventures

14+ inches

Idaho Trip

Jonah- 15 mo.

SNOW days!

New Years 2011

Other Christmas Fun

First Christmas at Home

Other Missed Posts

Off to the Races

Happy Thanksgiving

One. (Well actually 13 1/2 mo.)

Fall Flashback

Halloween Hoopla

One Year

My New Business: Custom Made Holiday Cards

Terrible twos?!? More like Terrible (times 3) THREES!

Late is better than nothing right?!

He's 3!

Swagbucks!

The Boys

"I'm a monster!"

Jonah- 9 mo.

Cherish These Moments

Stuff....

My Camera Broke

5 years

Update on the boys (along with some other randomness)

Jonah is 6 months old!!

Family Time

Justin's 3rd half marathon

Boys Easter Pictures

Easter Festivities

Last but DEFINITELY not least...

A Visit from Grandma and GRANDPA

"Come On Sadie"

The Other Boys

A month of firsts

4 months

I {heart} Vday

An update on Jackson

And more pictures of ME because I'm too darn cute!! :)

We took the plunge...

Our Simple Adventures