What's New With Jackson

Just thought I'd take this time (while Jackson is sleeping) to write down a few things about Jackson. I'm always hearing how important it is to write down everything about Jackson at this age because I'm going to forget so fast! So my response is always that I might not write it down, but I blog! Already I've experienced forgetting all the little details, and I am so grateful that I have them on my blog. For example I was reading through my blog book (just ordered my first one, yay!) and remembered that when Jackson was a newborn he had the cutest raspy cry! But I digress.

Jackson loves it when he watch us talking in our normal voices and laughing together. Often when Brian and I are cracking up about something we'll look down and see Jackson staring at us and smiling and laughing. He's so used to our baby voices that I think he likes it when we're just ourselves also. There are a few ways to tell that Jackson is happy. First, when he's laughing/smiling. Second, when he's growling. He'll often be growling so loud and so constantly that its hard to hear anything but him! Third, you know he's at his happiest when he's whisper growling. It is SO funny when he's just growling under his breath with a smile on his face, its like he's too happy to even do a real growl! When Jackson wakes up he will always reach up and grab my face and growl under his breath, its my favorite!

My favorite time with Jackson is when we're getting him ready for bed. We turn on the nightlight and turn off all the other lights and lay him on the changing table. I don't know what it is about that changing table that he loves but he just goes crazy when he's on it! So that added with it being a little darker than usual he just has a ball before bedtime! Last night I could hardly get his pajamas on because he was kicking his legs and arms so hard and growling like crazy! He also started doing fishy faces where he kind of smacks his lips over and over like a fish under water. When we're putting on his pajamas its hard to get his arms through because whatever arm you're working on he instinctively clenches his fist on that sleeve and puts it in his mouth, so you literally have to switch back and forth between arms just to get his hands through! He has the strongest grip too! Sometimes he will actually hurt Brian and I from grabbing the back of our arms or hair and we can barely get it out of his grip! But he's just too cute you can't stay mad for long.

Jackson loves playing games now. One new fun game that we've been playing is peek-a-boo. You put a blanket over his face and take it off real quick and say "boo!" But the blanket has to be over his face, not yours! He may not be ticklish but he loves it when you growl on his stomach. Then to make him laugh even harder is when you start to put your head down and stop, then go a little further and stop, then finally eat his cute little tummy!

Jackson is rolling over a ton and these days when you put him down he can be across the room in a matter of minutes! I think he's going to start walking pretty fast because his daddy was walking at 8 months and Jackson seems to be following in his footsteps. He can stand up pretty much on his own, he just need someone to balance him. Its the same thing with sitting up he can do it, he just likes to throw his head back so we need to be there to catch him.

I love how excited Jackson gets when daddy gets home. You can tell there is such a special bond between them and that Jackson loves his dad so much. His eyes light up the first time he sees him and its like he can't keep his eyes off him after that! Even though I'm at home with Jackson all day and Brian's busy at work and school you can tell Jackson loves his dad so much and Brian doesn't skip a beat once he comes home he just plays with him and lays on the ground with him and holds him the rest of the night. Mommy's old news once daddy gets home and you can tell Jackson is so excited to be with  dad again!

Jackson's hair is getting longer and I decided to play around with it a little yesterday! Of course it fell back down and laid completely straight about 10 minutes after this picture but it was still fun!

 Jackson and Boston McCauley are about 10 days apart so its fun to see similarities and differences in their developments! They've been friends since birth and Boston's mom, Cindy, and I joke around how these pictures are going to be in their yearbook 18 years from now with a caption that says "Boston and Jackson, friends from birth!"

Thanksgiving 2010

This year for Thanksgiving Brian and I went to my sister Michelle's house in Gilbert, AZ. It was so much fun to be with family and for Brian and I to take a much needed little vacation. Brian and I have been so blessed to be related to 2 amazing photographers so we are pretty much set on family pictures for life! Brian's sister Lynn took Jackson's blessing pictures, our engagement pictures AND wedding pictures (talk about going above and beyond!) and my sister Michelle took Jackson's 1 week old pictures and so many others at countless family events. So while we were visiting, naturally Michelle took some new pictures for us, this is Jackson at 5 months.

Jackson and his cousin Dallin are less than 2 months apart so its so fun getting them together and seeing the slight differences in development between these two. We had no idea they had matching pj's till we got there and just HAD to take some pictures, and while taking pictures they just started holding hands, no parent interference at all!

 The holidays are bittersweet for our family because on the one hand, we get to see everyone, but on the other hand we are reminded of the fact that my mom is not here to enjoy it with us. It makes me sad to know that she didn't get to meet Jackson (at least here on earth) and I know that she would've given anything to do so. My dad is a wonderful grandpa and he's so close to his grandchildren, we wish my mom was sitting right next to him in this picture with a beautiful smile on her face.

 The story of where these pictures were taken is a funny one! The day before we were supposed to leave we knew that we wanted to go to a nice mall in Chandler, but we also knew we wanted to take family pictures. The problem was we didn't get to the mall until about 2:30 and Michelle kept saying the perfect time for taking pictures was 3:45-4:30, after 4:30 it gets too dark. Of course while we were at the mall we completely lost track of time, and before we knew it it was already 4 o'clock! So we're waiting out in the car for Scott and Brittany, knowing that the sun was going down as we spoke and the place that Michelle wanted to take pictures was 20 minutes away. So as we looked around we realized there were some perfect spots there at the mall to take pictures! My amazing sister Michelle was careful not to include the parking lot, cars, passing pedestrians or anything else you'll find at malls and voila! Perfect family pictures with different scenery and the lighting was great!

 I absolutely love this goofy picture!! It looks like Jackson is doing an Elvis impersonation, its so cute!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

The Best Part of My Day

Sometimes its lonely with Brian leaving by 6:45 am every morning (and I, being one of the few lucky moms that gets to sleep in till 8 am every morning, don't quite get up that early). Luckily I have a cute little boy sleeping in with me in replacement of my hard working husband. Jackson makes sure to get me out of bed on a happy note each morning, talking to me and cooing so loud! I spend an average of 10-15 minutes laying in bed with Jackson every morning because he is usually his happiest as soon as he wakes up (its hard to tell because he is almost always happy!)He yells, he laughs, and he mimics mommy's high girly voice, as opposed to daddy's low voice. Its funny how he is already such a boy! His favorite thing to do is growl, and you know Jackson's a happy boy when he starts growling. Some examples of when he growls you ask? When:

-He gets his diaper changed

-Mommy feeds him

-He's chewing on his favorite football teether toy

-He first wakes up

He's definitely experimenting with his voice and the fact that he can whisper, then turn it into a growl, then turn it into a yell, then he can scream and slowing bring it down an octive. He's learning how to move his mouth and form different sounds like "b's" and "r's" and "m's" and "d's". The other day I swear he reached up and said "ma!" when I walked into a room (but its still probably a little early!)

I just love waking up to this cute boy's face and his sweet babbling!

Sunday Scooting

Sunday was a really big day for Jackson. He's been rolling over from his back to his stomach quite often and pretty quickly but he had only rolled back onto his back a couple times. At mima and papi's house this past Sunday (November 14th) we laid him on the ground and let him go crazy. Not only did he roll from his stomach to his back multiple times but he also SCOOTED! Granted, it was only an inch or so but I'm counting it! He's been sticking his butt up in the air when he's on his stomach fairly often but it usually didn't amount to anything. On Sunday he was able to scoot forward after putting his bum in the air AND do a little bit of the army crawl! I can't believe he is growing so fast! We've also been sitting him up on his own which he is able to do temporarily, but eventually will throw his head back at which point we'll catch him. Still progress though! We're so proud of the handsome, big boy he is!

Jackson at 4 months

Jackson's 4th month has been full of firsts for him and we are having so much fun with him! I know its a little late but Jackson had a pediatrician appointment on October 20th and here are the statistics:

Length: 26 1/4 in (90th percentile)

Weight: 16.0 lb (75th percentile)

Head Size: 43 1/2 cm (75th percentile)

When Jackson was born his head size was in the 50th percentile so we joke that he's a little more proportionate these days.

Exciting news! Jackson finally rolled over and he is doing it like crazy now! The only problem is that he can only roll from his back to his stomach (not the usually way babies do it) and not the other way around. So whenever I lay him on the ground to clean or work he's always rolling over and getting stuck and isn't happy about it. So about every 2 minutes I'm getting up to roll him back over, but he always has a smile for me when I do! He's really quick at it and I'll look away for a second and he's already on his stomach again. He has rolled over the other way a couple times but hasn't quite got the hang of it.

One fun thing that we've been enjoying is Jackson's new laugh. He giggles like crazy now and it is so much fun! At night we'll lay him on the bed and tickle his stomach (apparently the only place he's even remotely ticklish) and he will laugh like crazy and get all worn out for bed. I swear not a day goes by without someone saying "He's a happy baby!" He's very social and has a big smile for just about anyone.

We finally got jackson to start sleeping in his crib after the pediatrician got on our case about him sleeping in his carseat. (Hey, whatever works!) It was touch and go at first, but he was already not sleeping that well so we figured it couldn't get much worse. The first night was a long one and we had to go in his room about every 2 hours but from then on he got used to it just fine! And now he has been sleeping 7-8 hours a night occassionally and we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel (again). We started his bedtime at 9:00. The ideal bedtime would've been 8:00 but he was just not having it that early so we settled for 9. Being the sneeky parents we are at daylight savings time we kept putting him to bed at 9, but its 8:00 the new time! So we'll see how that goes!

This is the only way Jackson will let me take a shower or get some work done, if he's got his pacifier, blanket, and a couple friends to keep him company. This duck is so funny we started calling it his "girlfriend" because he absolutely loves it and he's constantly cuddling with it and sucking on the beak so it looks like he's kissing it!

We have to watch out for these two.

Brian the Stud

I was thinking the other day about how studly and athletic my husband is, so just to embarrass him I decided to blog about it!

Brian's been skiing since he was 3 and snowboarding since he was 8 and he is AWESOME! As modest as he is about it he IS amazing and really talented! This is us when I was first learning how to snowboard, something I picked up fairly easy because of my amazing teacher, Brian.

 I took this 6 days after we met, the day after he asked me to be his girlfriend (we moved really slow). It was fun going out and riding these quads, it was my first taste of how athletic my future husband would be!

Wakeboarding is one of Brian's favorite activities and he's GREAT at it! In case you're wondering, yes that is him doing a backflip in the first picture! We went wakeboarding together the day we got engaged and on our one year anniversary, we really want to get a boat one day to take our kids on.

 Brian's always up for anything, including a little

weekend trip to Montana for some white water rafting! As a side note I was actually about 8 weeks pregnant in this picture!

This was in Moses Lake Memorial Day Weekend 2009 doing our first 5K.

 I just love this picture of Brian and his 2 best friends in High School! I remember in High School hearing about how cute Brian Welty, Vince Freitas, and Cody Gang were and this is the epitome of football studs!

Brian also coached a football team at BYU-Idaho. It was amazing to see how much respect he got from his players, something a lot of the coaches didn't receive. He also had a great record and had a lot of fun doing it.

 Also at Moses Lake, Brian was a natural at this! You'd see guy after guy falling down on this thing and Brian picked it up right away. I don't have a picture of him surfing yet but this reminds me of how great he is at surfing also!

 Basically what I'm getting it at is how athletic, active, talented, and SEXY my husband is! Not everyone is as active as Brian and I consider it a blessing to be married to him. Hopefully we're passing the athletic genes and we've got a football star in the making! (Brian thinks Jackson's a quarterback, I think a receiver like his daddy)

Is there anything that he doesn't do??