Mother's Day Weekend

We decided to go to Burley for Mother's Day. It had been three months since our last visit, so it was good to see everyone. There was much ooohhh-ing and ahhhh-ing over Jack and he ate up all the attention. On Friday night, Jack wasn't sure if he liked Grandma's playpen, so I crawled in and laid next to him and he instantly calmed down (it didn't last and he ended up sleeping with us all weekend - no judging...you do what you gotta' do!). Brandt thought it was funny I could fit in the playpen so easily so he snapped my picture.

 On Saturday we went to lunch with Sammy at Taco Bandido (LOOOOVE Taco B!). Afterwards, Brandt and I got some treats (DQ blizzard for me, Snoasis for Brandt) and walked along the river while Jack took a nap in the stroller. The city just recently built this walkway along the river and it's beautiful; river on one side and golf course on the other (though Brandt felt the view was spoiled by all the noxious weeds he couldn't help point out along the river.) Afterwards we went and saw my dad for a bit before heading back to my mom's for a barbeque.

I'm terrible and didn't get any pictures on Sunday. My plan was to have some family pictures taken but it didn't happen. It was still a good day though. We went to church with Brandt's parents and then had dinner with them and his aunt and uncle. We had a busy weekend and it was great to spend time with everyone.

My boys spoiled me with a new purse! It was a fun surprise; I felt very loved on my first Mother's Day. Being a mom is a tough job, but I love it and am so grateful for Jack in my life. I often feel inadequate, but I am learning so much as we work our way through each stage. Jack is such a joy and I am lucky to be his momma.

9x9 May

1. Jack has had some terrible mood swings lately. One minute he's giving me smiles like this...

2. ...And the next minute I get faces like this. He gets really emotional when we leave the room for a minute. I don't get it - he used to be so content to just play on the floor by himself. But now, the instant we leave the room he freaks out. Can anyone else relate? Please tell me this is just a phase.

3. Reading a story before Jack's morning nap. This is a cute book - the illustrations are beautiful.

4. Inside the freezer at work. The girls like to tease me about how Jack's milk is taking over the top shelf. I can't take it home though - there's absolutely no room for it. I have this same amount in our freezer at home (plus a bag at daycare). Moo.

5. Kickin' back with a cold one after work. It was one of those days.

6. So much in fact that we ended up going out for dinner. Neither one of us could muster the energy to throw a meal together. 

7. I love this picture - I can't help but think of The Joker ("Why So Serious?!"). Jack was being cheesy at dinner. Every time I held the camera up he gave me this goofy grin. Don't you love the double chin? He gets that from his father.

8. Speaking of his father, here he is, enjoying a BLT and bottomless steak fries. Yum! I had the cod sandwich - also Yum! Although my hands smelled like tartar sauce for the rest of the night, regardless of my attempts at getting rid of it. The sandwich was HUGE, and I ate the whole thing plus a second helping of fries. As I was finishing up, Brandt pipes up and says, "You know, a lesser woman wouldn't have been able to eat all that." And he meant that as a compliment. I then proceeded to give Brandt a lesson in how to properly compliment his wife (i.e. "Your hair looks nice today." or "That shirt looks great on you." and NOT "Wowzers girl! You can really chow down!").

9. Watching one of our favorite shows. Does anyone else love Modern Family as much as we do? Hilarious! (sidenote: I think we are the only ones left on the planet that still have an old, "square/tube" TV. And no satellite or cable. Am I wrong? It may be time to upgrade to a widescreen though, seeing as how most shows/sporting events are now shot in widescreen and it's becoming increasingly evident (when we watch sports,  we can usually only read half the score since they put it up in the corner).

A Case of the Ickies...

...makes for a crummy vacation.

We have been working our way through some illness over at our house which has been less than fun as I'm sure you can relate.  It started with Brandt about two weeks ago, so we blame him for the fiasco. He came home from work on Tuesday and went straight to bed as soon as he got home at five. And that was his routine for the next three days straight: work, bed, repeat. I started to feel like a single parent, and it wasn't very glamorous. That weekend was our mini-vacay to Utah, which we had really been looking forward to, so I was hoping the ickies would stop with Brandt and we could enjoy our trip.

No such luck. On Friday, I woke up with whatever crap Brandt had been harboring, but it wasn't too bad. I kept myself drugged-up and got through the work-day. Then when I got home from work, we finished packing and got on the road. We stayed in a hotel in downtown Salt Lake for Friday night, and as soon as we got there I just layed on the bed and didn't move for the rest of the night, other than to take a bath to try and warm up. We had planned on taking Jack swimming in the hotel pool, but there was no energy for that. Jack was still feeling and looking good at this point, so he got his picture taken in his cute pj's:

Poor guy...he has no idea what's coming...

On Saturday we had Walk MS. I asked Brandt to give me a blessing that morning so I could make it through the day and I know it helped. We participated in Walk MS last year and had a great time; it's a great opportunity not only to raise funds for a great cause, but also to reconnect with our friends from high school that we don't get to see very often. Sadly, no pictures, but check out Tiff's blog post for some cute pics from the event. Jack wasn't feeling great either and was running a fever, but he was a trooper.

Saturday afternoon we drove up to Park City to spend the rest of the weekend with Brandt's family. Again, no pictures. But it was great to see them. Again we missed out on taking Jack swimming, but we figured it was probably not the greatest idea. 

Sunday was the worst day for me. I just layed on the  bed all morning until it was time to check out of the hotel. Luckily, it was going-home day and I was thrilled. We had planned on stopping to see a friend of mine and her sweet new baby in Logan, but we figured she wouldn't appreciate us bringing her all our germs, so we had to bypass that which was disappointing.

So that was our exciting trip to Utah! It definitely wasn't what we had expected. We were so looking forward to our little getaway, but being sick really but a damper on the fun. Oh well, not much you can do about that. Since then, we've been on the mend. Jack has had the worst of it this past week. I tried taking Monday off from work, but couldn't work it out, but I had Tuesday off which was nice. My mom was able to come spend a few days with us and it was great to have an extra set of hands to take care of the little guy. We've been blessed in that Jack is normally pretty healthy; this was his first real bout with the ickies, and I must say it's not fun. But he took it like a champ and the last couple of days he has been getting back to his happy-go-lucky self. By the end of the week, I was pretty worn out, so I took Friday off to recuperate. It was fabulous.

So that's that. Sorry for a downer post. It definitely isn't what I had hoped to write. I had plans of showing off cute pics from the weekend and write about all the fun things we did on our trip. Oh well, can't win 'em all, right? Here's to a better week next week!

6 Months

My baby is six months old! It seems like just yesterday that this little guy joined our family, and yet at the same time it's hard to remember what life was like without him. I have noticed the greatest change in Jack the last couple of months. He is so much more aware of his surroundings. He is interested in everything! It's so fun to watch his eyes dart from one thing to the next as he discovers the world. I often wonder what thoughts are going through his mind. He has completely mastered rolling over and uses that as his mode of transportation these days. He can sit up by himself for short bursts at a time before he topples over. He started eating baby food a couple of weeks ago and it has been fun trying out new foods; for the most part he gobbles everything up. He is usually in a great mood - happy and smiley all the time, yet he really makes us work for those giggles (either that, or maybe mom and dad are just not as funny as they think they are).

5 Months

6 Months

 6 Months Stats:

Height: 27.5 inches

Weight: 17 lbs. 2.5 oz

About four weeks ago we finally moved Jack into his own room. Yes, I know it's about time. Don't judge us - there are several reasons why we waited, but I'm not going to take the time to explain. We got a video monitor so we could keep an eye on him and one of my favorite pastimes is watching him on that thing. I could sit and watch him sleep all day. The other morning, Brandt and I both woke up around 7:15 and turned the monitor on to check on the boy. He was wide awake just laying in his crib, content as could be just playing with his feet. I have no idea how long he'd been awake, but he stayed that way for another 45 minutes before he finally decided he wanted to get up. It was fun spying on him and watching him play.

This picture was from his first night in his crib. At the time we had him sleeping in his car seat because he was going through a phase where he was waking up ALL.THE.TIME. (one awful night, no exaggeration, he woke up every 20-30 minutes). The car seat seemed to help get him through that rough patch, but now he's back to just lying on his back. And he's doing MUCH better (knock on wood!!). He usually goes to bed around nine and sleeps until about 7:30-8. Some nights he'll go the whole night without waking up, or if he does wake up he'll put himself back to sleep. And other nights we may have to get up and give him his bink 2-3 times during the night.

We sure do love our little Jackers. It's crazy to think we've had him here with us for six months already. And yet at the same time it seems like he's always been here. Each new phase is so much fun. It passes too quickly. The other day I was setting up a patient for their next appointment in six months, and it happened to fall on October 22nd. I said, "oh, that will be my son's first birthday!" and, out of nowhere, tears sprang to my eyes. Those of you who know me well know that I am not typically a crier. But for some reason, the thought of my baby being a year old...I was overcome with emotion. My patient was this older lady (the grandma type) and she just smiled and said, "oh now, don't worry, that's still six months away! That's a long ways off still." And she's right. But I know it will be here sooner than I would like. I try to savor each day with him, because, as cliche as it sounds, it's true: they grow up too fast.

Easter

We had a great Easter weekend this year. Our Bishop counselled us to celebrate the commercial side of Easter on Saturday, so this year the Easter Bunny brought baskets of goodies Saturday morning. Missing from this year's festivities was the drama we experienced last year when Brandt found out his basket would not be sitting on the couch waiting for him (I call it "The Great Easter Basket Fiasco of 2011"). This year was much more pleasant. Having been forewarned that his basket would be hidden again this year, he happily commenced his search. And with just five minutes of diligently searching, he found his basket behind the bookshelf! Way to go Babe! I knew you could do it!! Jack was not exempt from having to look for his basket. The Easter Bunny is no respector of persons. Kind of like God. But with obvious differences. Yes, Jack must search for his basket as well.

Granted, The Easter Bunny realizes Jack is just 5 1/2 months old - so hiding the basket in plain site just four feet away from him seems fair.

But even then, Jack still needed some enticing to roll his way over there. Dad set out some eggs to help Jack get excited about his basket.

"Look Mom! I found it!!"

 Brandt got tickets to go see the dinosaur exhibit at the museum and Jack got new binkies, swimming trunks, and a movie. I wanted to find good, quality baskets like what I had as a kid, but every store we went to only carried those cheap, flimsy baskets. I guess you could say I'm an Easter basket snob. We traipsed all over town before we finally found these at Michaels (which is, ironically, within walking distance of our apartment).

Just enjoying the spoils. He started sucking on his new binkies before they were even out of the package.

Ready for church!

On Sunday we went to church. It was Fast Sunday, and not only did we not have any Easter talks, but we also did not have any Easter lessons, which was kind of different. But the church has made some great Mormon Messages videos about Easter so Brandt and I spent some time watching those that afternoon. It was a great reminder of the true reason we celebrate this holiday. Watching those videos gave me an opportunity to contemplate the sacrifices that Christ has made for me and how grateful I am for Him in my life. It encouraged me to try harder to remember and strive to be more like Him.

I should have put on a roast or something fancy for Easter dinner, but I didn't think about it until it was too late. Whoops. We had corn dogs and fries. Pretty slick right? Oh well, better luck next year! The weather was absolutely perfect, so after our Easter feast we went on a long walk. It's always nice to get out and enjoy the good weather. We had a great Easter weekend. It's so fun experiencing these holidays with Jack.

Splish Splash

Jack loves bath time. Even if he's fussing like crazy, just plop him in the water and he's perfectly content. We usually do Jack's bath as part of his nighttime routine and it's one of my favorite things to do with him.  His newest trick is splashing, which makes a great mess, but is a lot of fun!

After bath time, it's diaper, lotion, and pj's. There's nothing better than cuddling with my fresh, clean, sweet-smelling baby doll after his bath. 

9x9 April

1. I finished {this book} last night. I really enjoyed it. Some day I may get around to doing a post about the books I've read recently. Maybe. Maybe not.

2. Monday mornings I usually go over what I call our "expense reports". It's our way of keeping track of our money in vs. money out and takes about 20 minutes when I do it every week.

3. We skyped Grandma Bev this morning so she could see Jack opening his Easter package we received in the mail this morning. Jack's spring wardrobe is all set thanks to Grandma!

4. Daddy making Jack giggle.

5. Eating lunch before mom heads off to work. On the menu: Peas. Mushy peas.

6. Jack: "me no likie peas!" (I don't blame him, they smelled awful.)

7. Dinner was much better. Jack had rice cereal which he likes and mom and dad had Cheesy Spaghetti Bake with breadsticks. Cake for dessert. Yum!

8.  Jack sporting his new fishing hat from Grandma. Adorable right? Love it!

9. I love my boys!