Confession

Sometimes, when we get a late start on Jake's bedtime routine, this happens.

Mother Of The Year strikes again :)

videos and milestones

Jake learned how to count to three recently. However, I taught him by saying "one...twooo......THREEEEEEEEE!" all the time. And now he just likes just saying the THREEE! because it's just so exciting. I caught it on tape the other day and here it is!

We got dumped on with about a foot of snow last weekend, and took jake sledding for the very first time! I have a couple clips--mostly just for the grandmas. :)

I have a couple of other milestones to share. First of all, Jake has expanded his vocabulary to include the word YES! actually he says it more like "YESH!" But this one little word has made life just a little bit easier, especially at mealtimes. Now when I ask him if he wants a yogurt or a pickle, he can say NO to the pickle and YESH to the yogurt. Hooray!

And my favorite new milestone: Jake can say his prayers. Right before his bedtime he will fold his arms, bow his head, and squint up at us with one eye open. He is not always perfectly reverent for the whole prayer, but he starts them just right. A couple weeks ago Jake surprised me by folding his arms before I put him down for his nap. Now, we usually just pray with him before bedtime, but my little guy has decided that this is is definitely not enough. So when he folded his arms expectantly, I said "of course we can pray, would you like to say it?" and then Jake surprised me again by bowing his head, streaming about 5 seconds of gibberish, and ending with a loud AMEN. ha! My first thought was to feel so touched and humbled that my son is picking up on such a wonderful little routine, and somehow seems to understand that family prayer is an important part of each day. And my second thought was, Jake must be holding out on me. He doesn't talk very much yet, so I am never quite sure how much he can understand. But he seems to know a lot more than he lets on! Can we say "selective hearing?"

I love that kid.

Thanksgiving and such

Well, another month has gone by! It's hard to believe we are just a few short weeks away from Christmas!!! Although I've had a few noteworthy things to blog about in the past month, I've been suffering from a bit of writers block. I am actually still suffering, but it occurred to me this morning, that if I don't update now, I probably won't do it until after the holidays. So here I am.

At the end of October, Jake officially turned 18 months and was able to start going to nursery! I admit, we were a little emotional on his first day...It was so surreal seeing him run around with all those kids, and he did just fine! Initially he cried, but after a few minutes being distracted by all the wonderful new toys, I was able to slip out unnoticed :) We checked on him every so often but he seemed pretty content. It's a weird thing watching him in there...On the one hand, I keep thinking, "wow my kid is so old! He's in nursery!" But then watching him run around with 3 year olds, I can't help but notice how tiny he looks. Isn't he still my little baby?

This was his "first day in nursery" outfit

After church he got to see Aunt Sydney, one of his all time favorite people. He just loves it when she comes to play!! :)

Jake has attached himself to a few toys in the last little while. You'll notice that he is carrying a green blanket in almost every picture...that's because he is carrying that thing almost all the time. yikes.

Normally I wouldn't dare take a picture of a sleeping toddler. But I had to change a middle of the night dirty diaper the other day, and figured, what the heck? he is gonna wake up either way. I thought this was too funny.

Sydney spent the Thanksgiving weekend with us and we all had a blast! The 4 day holiday was filled with lots of eating, laying around, and shopping. I took sydney out on her very first Black Friday adventure. We started around 5AM and split up (such a rookie mistake) so that we could get to two stores right away. So I started out at Walmart. I have actually never attempted a big store like that, and let me tell you--I am no match for those bargain shoppers. I about died of claustrophobia and dipped out before I could even find what I was looking for. Holy cow it was a mad house. Then I called Sydney, who had gone to Kohls. She ended up with her pile of stuff in a corner, waiting for me to come help her. I don't think either of us knew what we were getting into. Although we didn't find everything we had set out to buy, we did have a lot of fun together.

Later that day we went back out with Wes and Jake to attempt ToysRus. Sweet success, we got one of the things I was looking for! We really had a blast running around as a family, and to top off a fun filled weekend, we even went to In N Out! that's right folks, for those of you who don't know (although I don't see how thats possible) We have our very own In N Out Burger right in Orem Utah!!!! I'm tellin ya, Utah is just getting cooler and cooler :)

After all the shopping and eating, there was nothing left to do but pass out on the couch--Jake was holding down the fort. Shopping doesn't drain you when you get to be pushed around in a stroller all day long :)

One morning Wesley and Jake were up before I was, and I came into the kitchen to find them getting breakfast.. they just crack me up--like father like son I guess ;)

We had our first snow day of the season! Jake loved it, and thanks to his many layers, wanted to play out there a lot longer than we did. I can't wait to take him sledding!

The last couple pictures are for Grandma Hurst. Jake loves when his cousin Scott comes over to play!

This wouldn't be a Thanksgiving post if I didn't take a minute to write how grateful I am for all the blessings in my life. I have such wonderful family. Although most of them aren't in Utah, thanks to webchats and cellphones I'm still able to keep in touch with the ones I love. And I am so grateful for my wonderful friends. When I first had Jake, I wondered in some ways if I would be too busy to keep my friends. It was such a big adjustment and I sometimes felt like I was losing my identity in a way. But, thanks to a loving and helpful husband, I've found that I can still have it all. He's been so good about hanging out with Jake whenever I need to get out and have "girl time". Life gets hectic, but I still feel like me--only better. Because I am surrounded by so much love. Even with the ups and downs, with family spread out all over the world, with the toddler tantrums and occasional chaos, I still feel so much joy. And for that, I am one very thankful girl.