Christmas!

Christmas.  What can I say? It was fabulous.  I knew that it would be a good one--the first with our little son Jacob.  But then, it ended up being truly memorable.  We found a great deal on some flights to Virginia, and my good husband agreed to jump on board with me and surprise my mom on Christmas Eve.  We stayed for 10 days--and they were so wonderful!!!  if you want to see my moms shocked reaction to find us standing in her kitchen right in time for Christmas dinner, you can find it on my sister sydney's blog.  I have about a hundred pictures I wish I could share with all of you from the holidays, but that would be insane. Also, I doubt you really want to look at that many.  But I will post up some of them, with little blurbs underneath.  I hope you like them!

Jake was so excited for the trip to Virginia! Well, at least if he knew thats what was happening, I'm sure this would've been his exact reaction.

Helping us pack.  Or chewing on the suitcases..

"Come on mom, let's go let's go!"

Since we flew out on Christmas Eve, Jake got to open his presents on the 23rd.  I think he was mostly excited about the wrapping paper. 

At my parent's house, Christmas Eve-- Brats & Sauerkraut- mmmboy.

Jake was so excited to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa!  He loved all the attention, and seemed to remember them from thanksgiving still, which was cool. I'm sure all the web-chats helped too :)

We did New Years Eve tepanyaki-style again, and it was sooo good. Wes and I are thinking about continuing the tradition every year!

A trip to Fredericksburg wouldn't be complete without an afternoon downtown. I love that place!

In front of Eileens Bakery--the most fabulous pastry shop on the East coast, in my opinion. 

I love how my mom propped up our box of pastries for the picture.

maybe next year Jake will enjoy the pastries too?

One day we went to Williamsburg.  It was so much fun!  Everything was so Christmasy, and there are a few streets with all original homes and buildings from the Colonial times. Also it was like 60 degrees--very refreshing after the 15 degrees we were doing in Utah.

It was so wonderful being able to spend 10 full days with Wesley.  He has been working a lot and it was just great for Jake and I to see so much of him over Christmas.  

These were not very comfortable-- This would have been a sucky punishment for sure.

Jake loves playing this game with his dad.  An awesome shot by Sydney.

The trip came to an end of course, and now I am just trying to get back to the old routine.  I've been thinking a lot about all the things I have to be thankful for.  It's just amazing how much can happen in one year. Just one year ago, I was growing a belly, and we had just chosen a name for our soon to be son.  Now little Jacob is about 18 pounds, has 6 teeth, and is getting very close to walking.  We are truly grateful for how much we have been blessed this year.  I'm starting to forget what life was like before I was a mom.  And you know what? thats alright, because with all the challenges of motherhood, the rewards have been incredible.  I am so lucky to have such a sweet little boy and such a supportive husband.  I love them both very much.  I'm sure this New Year will bring with it many new trials and surprises, but I'm not worried--With wonderful family and friends, and the gospel in my home, I know that I will be blessed with all the love and support that I need.  Happy New Year everyone! 

3 Cheers for 3 Years!

This past Wednesday Wesley and I celebrated our anniversary.  I just wanted to give a shout out to my great husband--Wesley, I am so happy that we got married that snowy December afternoon 3 years ago! You are the love of my life--you treat me so well, you are such a great dad, and my love for you just continues to grow.  Thank you for being so wonderful, for sweeping me off my feet, for being such a hard worker, for taking care of me when I was a miserable pregnant lady, and always indulging my excessive need for attention.  Jake and I both adore you and are truly grateful to have you leading our family.  I can't wait to see what the future holds, and I look forward to the many adventures to come! Love You!!!!!

Curious Jake

Lately, Jake has become obsessed with climbing up the hearth and looking into the fireplace.

I suspect he is looking for Santa. 

Merry Christmas!!!

Thank You!

Once again, I'm sitting here with a pile full of blogworthy stories and photos.  That's what happens when you wait a month to update right? Actually, the real reason is that I had the most wonderful Thanksgiving week!  I was showered each day with reminders of all the things I'm so thankful for--Jess and Nathan came up from Arizona, and Mom and Dad drove all the way from Virginia! So between those 4, Sydney, and then our usual party of 3--we had a full house for the whole week!  It went by way too quickly.  It was so nice to just hang out together, eating our weight in German chocolate and peanut M&M's.  Not only that, but Jake was surrounded by so many loving arms (sometimes a few to many--Jake gets a bit skiddish in large crowds), which was a great break for me--all in all just a wonderful vacation. I have tons of pictures I want to share, but I tried my hardest to narrow it down. Enjoy!

The night my parents arrived we went to Nathan's sisters wedding reception.  They had it in this greenhouse up in Sandy.  It was sooo beautiful! Jake cried for about the first 10 minutes there--too many people, too much noise.  He is a total lightweight--but with a little food in his belly and 20 minutes to adjust he did just fine!

Like I said before, Jacob is a total lightweight.  His main area of terror involves men.  With the exception of his dear old dad, he won't go near them.  I was a little worried about how he would do with his grandpa.  But my dad went nice and slow with him, no quick movements, and after about an hour Jake allowed himself to be picked up, and then discovered something wonderful about his Grandpa--Whiskers!!!  Jake loved tugging on his whiskers! This was the icebreaker, and it didn't take long for him to feel comfy and happy playing with grandpa. 

One afternoon we made a family outing that I had been looking forward to for months--yes, we went to see Twilight.  It was so fun! Us girls wore our Twilight gear, and I even dressed Jake in the twilight colors. (poor kid, if he had a say I'm sure he would've voted against that move--dressing up for a chick flick.  But hey, he's 7 months old, and most definitely has no say.)  I thought the movie was great, and you know the best part? My mother let me be selfish and enjoy the entire movie! She took care of Jake for the whole thing.  The whole week was truly a vacation for me.  Thanks mom!  (sidenote--what is it about grandmothers? my mom has an amazing way with Jake.  Even though he doesn't get to spend much time with her normally, I felt like he was just as happy and content with her as he is with me...and for my super-sensitive child, that's saying something!)

My mom and I always agree that Jake looks good enough to eat--after watching Twilight and becoming vampires, we decided to have a taste! :)

A lot of the week was spent around the house.  As for me, I did more relaxing than I've done since Jake was born.  It was so wonderful! Jake was passed around like a hot potato, and we used our famous Schindler teamwork to do just about everything.  (incase you were wondering, that basically means that my mom did about half the work, Jessica was right behind her, and sydney and I dragged our feet pitching in when necessary :)...it was great! thanks again mom!) It was lots of fun cooking thanksgiving dinner together too--the first time in years :)

Jake learned to crawl about a month ago, and has thrown himself into the business of standing and walking.  we have a lot of scary crash landings around here, but I'm learning that my son is a little tougher than I thought!

Wesley giving me love while I slave away at Thanksgiving dinner.

sydney--one serious turkey coma.

Nate and Jess showing off their baby bumps.  That's another thing--It was so fun to see Jessica with her cute lil belly.  And then we found out that Jake gets to have a little boy cousin to play with!!  Yet another thing to be grateful for this year :)

Jake enjoyed reading the Martha Stewart magazines with his Aunt Jessica--should I be worried? :)

This picture pretty much sums up Sydney's relationship with her brothers. 

On Black Friday, Jessica and Nathan were already gone, but the rest of us went to this opening celebration of the season in our little town of Salem.  It kind of reminded me of the festival on the movie Groundhog day.  There is this little pond in the middle of town, and they put a bunch of christmas trees on the water.  They lit it for the first time that night and along with our fellow citizens of Salem, we sang carols, drank hot cocoa, and even met Santa! Jake was a little unsure of the large bearded man, but was very excited about all the Christmas lights on the water.  It was such a fun and festive way to begin the season! 

Whew! another insanely long blog by Kristie.  Thanks for reading. I'll try to pace myself in the future and avoid these super long posts. Merry Christmas!

Holiday Mishaps

(yep, he actually slept that way.)

We are well into the fall now, and I think it's time for a little update.  I just LOVE this time of year.  The Christmas music is on, my house smells like cinnamon, and I've pulled all my christmas dvds from their alphabetical homes, and made a neat little stack near my TV.  We have had one snow day, and I've decided that dressing babies is more fun when it's colder outside--i love all the layers, and the hats are to die for.  Jake is now past the 6 month mark and is actively crawling, teething, and babbling more nonsense than ever.  I just gave him probably his tenth haircut last night--he has this bald patch right over his soft spot that makes having long hair look kinda dumb.  I have been contemplating the usefulness of some sort of infant rogaine :)  But we love him like crazy, and I actually adore his peach fuzz head.  

Wesley has been working A LOT, in preparation for the holidays. I admire his dedication but really I'm selfish and would much rather just have him hang out with Jake and I all day long.He says that more work now equals more play time during Christmas.  We'll see if that's true.  But, life goes on, and I just keep busy with all my silly projects.  A couple of months ago I was called to be the Activity Day Leader for the 11 year olds in Primary.  So I get together with them a few times a month for fun-filled afternoons.  I love the girls, but as the weather turns colder, I am having a hard time coming up with really fun, low budget activities to do with them indoors.  I mean, we can't bake and scrapbook every week.  If anyone has any suggestions, I wholeheartedly welcome them.   

Ok I have a couple stories for you, and now that it's been a few weeks and I've recovered from the trauma of the experience, I am ready to share them.  About 3 weeks ago, Jake gave us a couple big scares.  First, in the middle of October, I was at my sister in law's house helping her make a birthday cake for her 1 year old.  We were doing a Spongebob theme, and the cake was pretty involved.  Jake was sitting in his bumbo seat on her kitchen counter playing with some spoons, and generally having a grand old time. (as a disclaimer, yes I know that you are NOT supposed to put those things on elevated surfaces. But I never left him alone in it, and he couldn't even budge while sitting in it--plus, he absolutely LOVED sitting up there, eye level with me.)  Ok, so all of a sudden I see this blur and hear a noise that makes my stomach turn over in the worst way.  Yes, Jake had figured out how to climb out of his Bumbo all in one fatal swoop.  He hopped out and right off the counter.  I was pretty much hysterical, knowing how badly he could have been hurt.  I realized that he had miraculously landed face first on top of a cushy shoulder bag, thus absorbing his fall.  He cried for about 30 seconds, then started jumping up and down and laughing.  I was not so quick to recover, but was so grateful that he had landed on something soft, and not just the hardwood floor.  I've heard many people say, "You'll never forget the first time you drop your baby".  I always disregarded this, thinking I was much too  sensible for that sort of thing.  Well, apparently not, and thank goodness my little man was ok!!!

Next story--a couple weeks later, Jake started randomly throwing up--a lot. Within 2 hours he had thrown up about 6 times.  I called the doctors office and they said to bring him in to make sure he was ok.  So Wesley packed him into his carseat while I got dressed.  All of a sudden I hear Wes yelling Jacob's name.  I came out to investigate, and Wes was shouting right into his face, and pinching his cheeks.  Jake was slumped over in his seat, breathing, but barely responsive.  I'm so grateful that Wesley was home to drive us.  We called 911 and went about 100 miles an hour to the hospital, with our hazards on the whole way.  It was probably the longest 20 minutes of my life.  They gave him some anti-nausea medication, had me feed him a little at a time and watched him for a few hours.  The doctor told us that during the winter, about half the pediatric floor is filled with dehydrated Flu babies.  It's amazing how quickly they can become dehydrated.  Once again, Jake had a little guardian angel smiling on him, and we were able to leave that night, with a weak but relatively happy baby.  I want to give a shout out to a couple people.  On the way to the hospital, I called my sister Jessica in a panic, wanting to know how to do infant CPR just in case he stopped breathing.  Naturally, I was hysterical, but she calmly explained the mechanics to me.  (So that was strike two for me--First, I didn't know where the local hospital was and had to drive all the way to Provo, and then I didn't know how to do CPR--mother of the year, right here.)  As soon as we hung up, Jessica made a hysterical phone call of her own, to my cousin Jerai, who lives in Orem.  Within minutes of our arrival at the hospital, she and her husband Phil had packed up there 3 week old baby, and were on their way over.  Phil and Wesley were able to give Jake a blessing within the hour.  I'm so grateful for family, and the power of priesthood blessings.  Thank you Jessica, Jerai, and Phil for your prompt assistance.  

Ok. I know those were long stories, thanks for reading if you did.  I normally try to write the fun-jake stories, but I felt like I needed to record these ones too--for journal keeping sake. Some of you may be reading this and thinking, "my goodness, what an airhead mother".  But those of you who have dropped your baby, know that you are not alone! It happens to the best of us.  I'm sure he will have many more bumps and bruises in the years to come.  I'm not sure if it gets any easier to handle.  I had nightmares for about a week after jake's fall, and my heart skips a beat every time I see the smallest amount of spit up.  I like my child unbruised and hydrated thank you very much.  Well that's all for now.  I'm looking forward to a more relaxing holiday season.  Although, with a toddler on the loose, who knows if I will get my wish. Stay tuned!

Jake, sporting his new teeth, plus the usual drool

Halloweening

Halloween!!!! every year, I have high hopes that my family will go all out, themed costumes, the works. and most of the time, I end up procrastinating so badly that we end up just throwing on whatever we can find in the house on the day of. this year was really no different, except I made sure to at least get Jake a costume in advance.  Next year we will do better. I have every intention of dressing jake as peter pan, myself as tinker bell, and wesley as captain hook. maybe if I plan it a year in advance, it'll be ready by next october. for now, I just wanted to post jake in his CUTE giraffe costume. I wish he could wear it every day, because it makes me want to squeeze him!!  although, come to think of it, i always want to squeeze him. either way, here you go!