A merry, little Christmas

We started our Christmas season celebrating with my family in Florida. Most of my family has never seen our sweet boy before, so it was so fun to see them all go baby-crazy. Among other things, we had a gingerbread house competition. Even though there were no 'actual' winners, Jake and I knew that ours was the best.

Anyways, we left sunny Florida for windy Chicago.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Thanksgiving

So it's Thanksgiving. I am not feeling well at all (just a flu, not a baby)! I barely eat at dinner. We leave before dessert. On the way out to the car I know it's coming. I look around and see a storm drain covered in snow. I run to it and lose my entire Thanksgiving dinner. I turn towards the car and have to turn back to the storm drain just in case and my wedding ring FALLS into the storm drain I was just using as my personal barf bag. To make a long story short. Annie (my pregnant sister-in-law) comes out with a wire clothes hanger, lays down on the snowy ground and fishes out my ring. Needless to say, I've had better Thanksgivings.

The World of Playtime

These are just some pictures of my sweet boy playing and flirting with the camera. Thought you guys would enjoy them.

Baby Food

For about a month now Jacob has started to eat baby food. This is a video of his first bite! Rice cereal and milk. He likes it now but in this video it looks like he likes it very much.

Homemade Bread...yum

You're not a real mom until you've made homemade bread!

It took me several hours (mostly because I had to keep stopping to entertain my baby) and a very, very messy kitchen (flour EVERYWHERE) but I finally did it. I immediately called my Mom and told her what I had accomplished. She was so proud... and really surprised. haha.

TRICK-or-TREAT

So I know I've been pretty lame and haven't blogged in months! My bad friends. So let me start with Halloween.

(see the MOHAWK?)

Jacob was a Rockstar! We had family, friends and lots of neighborhood kids come over to share in the festivities. We decorated our house with spiderwebs, ballons, and black crate paper. Not to mention all the snacks including hot apple cider, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and a huge bowel of CANDY! We spend the evening pigging out and playing Beatles Rock Band. It was a blast!

Jakey Boy!

Just because he's cute.

Teething...i think

I 'think' Jacob is teething (hopefully nothing more serious)... and it really stinks! My boy has always been a wonderful sleeper, a champ at the breast and a very lite crier. Tonight he won't sleep, won't eat, and will not stop crying! My poor, sweet boy. I've given him Tylenol, rubbed numbing tablets on his gums, let him suck on a wet,cold washcloth, and he is STILL not getting any relief. What else am I suppose to do?! Just let him suffer? Take him to the doctor in case it's not just teething? And what about eating? If he's hungry enough will he eat even if his mouth still hurts? What do I do if he doesn't start eating soon? I need help.

10-10-10

Happy Anniversary to us!

This weekend was insane. Jake works late on Friday nights. I called him around 9:00 and told him that I wasn't feeling well. By the time he got home it was clear that I had a very violent flu! I spent the entire night on the bathroom floor. The sickness continued to the next day. I tried to sleep as much as possible. Jake and Annie took care of Jacob all day, only bringing him down to me to be fed with the little milk that I was producing. We tried to give him some stored breastmilk from a bottle. He HATED it! He went to bed frustrated.

The next day was our One Year Anniversary. Jake went to church without me. I was still feeling really weak. When he came home I went upstairs and there waiting on the table for me was a card, a box of cake mix, and a dozen white roses (my favorite)! My sweet husband spent the next hour baking a delicious chocolate cake that I actually was able to eat. The rest of the day was spent sitting on the couch together (I was still re-cooperating)

Thankfully, I am feeling a lot better today!

4 Months Old

Height: 26 1/4 in. (90%)
Weight: 17 lbs 1 oz (25-50%)
Head: 41.8 cm (25-50%)

We've had a Birthday! Shout Hooray!

This year Jake's birthday happened to fall on a Sunday. Therefore we spent the entire weekend celebrating! On Saturday, Jake really wanted to go on a hike for his birthday activity. So hiking,our little family went!

We hiked up and down on a trail that lead to Stewart Cascades, a huge waterfall in the middle of the mountains.

On the trail back, I was tired, Jake was hungry, and Baby Jacob was ready for BED!

The next day, we had a birthday celebration at Annie and Quinn's house (decorated in pink and purple). We enjoyed a meal of steak and potatoes (in honor of Jake) and a homemade chocolate cake made by me ( A little lopsided but delicious!) The rest of the evening was spent playing Jake's new games, Guesstures and Rack-o!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

A Sunday Afternoon at Temple Square

We thought it would be a fun Sunday activity to spend an afternoon at Temple Square. So we called up our BEST friends Quinn, Annie and Baby Belle and loaded into the car and drove to Salt Lake. Two men, two women, two babies. We got to walk by the Temple and go into the old Assembly Hall. Baby Jacob demonstrated the acoustics in the Tabernacle by deciding the be a stinker the second we walked in. We saw The Mini Replica of the Salt Lake Temple gave us an inside look at the temple. To end the afternoon, we stopped by the visitor's center and were just in time to see a showing of the Joseph Smith movie (at which time, Jacob took a little nap and Belle did laps in the front row). On the way home, both babies were ready for bed and cranky. All in all it was a FUN, little adventure.

Double Birthday Dinner Date

Since our birthdays are so close together we decided to go on a DOUBLE BIRTHDAY DATE to celebrate. As a real treat to ourselves we decided to go out to eat at not just any restaurant but at TUCANOS BRAZILLIAN GRILL! A place where they carry around skewers of meat and you get to eat as much as you want. Needless to say, it was delicious. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!
I love you, Jake!

Fancy Baby Pictures

Photography has been a passion of mine for some time.

Yet I never really have taken time to acquire any skills in the area.
But, I have recently found the most BEAUTIFUL model.

Colored

Black and White

(Be on the look out for more! Hopefully they'll get better the more I practice)

2 Months of JOY

Two Months ago our boy was born.

Before two months ago we got to go where ever we wanted. Do whatever we wanted, when ever we wanted. Sleep for hours at a time. Live each moment by the seat of our pants.
But...

We never got to see anything as BEAUTIFUL as this.

Jacob's 2 Month Check-Up: Height-24 inches (75-90 percentile), Weight- 14 lbs 8 oz (>95 percentile), Head- 39.4 cm (25-50 percentile).

Sweet, Happy Baby Boy

I was finally able to catch Jacob smiling. I have yet to capture it in a picture because when Jacob smiles, his whole body smiles so all the pictures come out fuzzy. Oh well, videos are better anyway. Enjoy!

First Smiles and Tender Mercies

In Seminary I remember studying a talk by David A. Bednar entitled "The Tender Mercies of the Lord". He described that "the Lord’s tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts...One of the ways whereby the Savior comes to each of us is through His abundant and tender mercies."

Here is mine.

Last Saturday night, I was sitting on my bed, holding my baby boy. It had been a long day and of course I was exhausted. My mind was on grocery shopping, cleaning our messy apartment and the long night of feeding and soothing that was ahead of me. Then I looked down at my sweet boy and he gave me his first real smile! It was a large, open-mouthed, toothless grin...and it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. At that moment I was no longer tired or dreading the sleepless night ahead. My only thoughts were of how much I loved the little person that was laying in my arms and what a gift he is to me.

(I haven't been able to capture his smile with the camera... yet)

Over the River and through the Woods...

To Grandma's Farm! This past weekend, Lauren brought her girls to visit us from Colorado. We decided it would be fun to go up and visit Jake's Grandma's Farm in Layton. After a long drive and a short stop at Ikea for lunch, we were there!

This is Baby Jacob's great-grandma Sarah

Jacob slept the whole time but the rest of us had a blast!

We found a tree swing!


Jacob got to swing too

And a Hammock

Here are some of Jacob's cousins and Aunt Charie! At this point Jake, Annie, Quinn, Belle, Baby Jacob, and myself went to check out the horses. Sadly I had handed off my camera so there are no pictures of them. Jake and I also found (and climbed) the biggest haystack I have ever seen!

Lauren's daughter, Elisabeth (about 18 months old), loved Jacob's car seat. While I was holding him she put Baby Dolls into the seat and tried to strap them in! Later she used it as her own personal toy chest. When I finally put Jacob back in his seat she kept coming over and looking at him like he had stolen her toy.

On the way home everyone was exhausted (including Baby Belle) and took a nap in the car, except Jacob who finally woke up.

Summer in Provo

To some people SUMMER means a break from school, going to the beach (for my Florida friends) and enjoying the nice tan you get from soaking up some sun by the pool. To us with a new baby, SUMMER means sweating in our un-air-conditioned, old Provo apartment. For Baby Jacob is means enjoying the pleasure of sleeping in his diaper.

Last week we finally got an air-conditioning unit (Thanks Mom Gillespie)! It is in the front window of our house, which makes the family room extremely cold but pleasant when the oven is on. The rest of the house is finally livable and Jacob no longer has to sleep in his diaper (which I think he is not too happy about because he loves laying around in his birthday suit. He doesn't get to do this often because he has developed the habit of giving his Mommy a sudden surprise every time she takes his diaper off).

Four Weeks Old

We can't believe it! Our baby is already a month old!

Over the past month it has been so fun to see him grow and see his little personality develop. Here are some of the things Jacob LOVES...

Snuggling with his Daddy

Lovin on his Mama

Napping with his Mama and laying in the grown up bed
(he has to be tricked into sleeping in his bassinet)

His play mat.
(He already likes to wave his arms about to try and whack the colorful lion. Most of the time he succeeds)

And last but definitely not least...Jacob loves his pacifier.

Bath Time!

After my first day home I got my very first bath!

I didn't really like it.


...until they got out the hair dryer and got me all toasty!

But even then I still needed a little comfort.

Then it was time to get ready for my first night at home and we learned I was the cutest baby EVER to wear DUCKS!


Just look at my blonde hair!





Finally Bedtime, where I let Mommy and Daddy sleep all night...well almost.