Christmas

We woke up Christmas morning to a little winter wonderland and I was so happy.  We had our usual descent down the stairs to a tree truly overflowing with presents.  We are so blessed. 

We got so many fun things and we were very lucky.  We got so many things that we just love, but we also got a new camera, which we are SO excited about!  

We spent the rest of the day being lazy, looking through our new stuff, playing games and, of course, lots of food.   

We also were able to chat with Gus and Darlene and missed being able to see them.  We are so grateful for the example they are to all of us though.  We love and miss them and thank them for all that they do for our little family.   

Hope you all had a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve was full of fun, family, and food.  We had a "special delivery" from Santa and we opened up some new Christmas pjs and a new Christmas book.  After Jacob's bath our little family went downstairs and read our new Christmas book and the Christmas story from the scriptures.   

I feel like I say it every post, but I really am so grateful for my little family.  And I am very grateful that we have this wonderful time of year to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  
 
After we put Jacob to bed, we had our annual Christmas Eve buffet full of every goodie and yummy food you can imagine.  We watched some Christmas movies and enjoyed time together as a family.  

Once everyone went to bed Mark and I were able to play Santa for the first time.  It was exciting to be able to do our little family's stockings.

Temple Square

Last Friday afternoon we headed up to Salt Lake to look at the lights.  We parked down at City Creek and it was a lot of fun to look around.  We both wished that we could have spent some more time looking around but we just didn't have the time.  It was pretty fancy schmancy though.  We ate at the food court (with the whole rest of the valley it seemed) and then headed over to Temple Square.  

It was beautiful.  I loved being on Temple Square with my two boys.  I had so many memories and emotions just thinking about how that is where our eternal family began and thinking about how much I love seeing it grow.  I am grateful for forever families.  

We met Mark's brother, Grant and his family while we were up there.  Jacob and I huddled up downstairs in one of the Visitor's Centers so he could have his bottle and everyone else went out and walked around some more.  

Afterwards we headed up to Kaysville to stay with Grant and Kristen.  We had fun just relaxing with them and their family watching movies and playing games.  Mark's other brother, Brian, also came up Saturday night and it was fun to spend time with him.  We headed back to Draper Sunday morning but we loved being able to spend some time with Mark's family.   

I'll Be Home for Christmas

Last Thursday was definitely a very long day.  We were packed up and ready to go and pulling out of our apartment by 8:00 AM.  We had been checking the weather very frequently the past couple of days because there was a big storm and we were definitely tracking it.  But everything seemed good to go - cold, but blue skies.  In fact, I remember that we used the word "perfect" to describe our traveling weather.  We had seen a "wind advisory" for Wyoming before we left, but there is always a wind advisory in Wyoming, especially in winter, so we really didn't think anything of it.  

So we started our trek and headed north.  Things were perfect, until we hit the Wyoming border.  It was actually a little bizarre, still blue skies but the wind was just crazy.  Since it had snowed the day before the wind was just blowing all of the loose snow making it a whiteout.  Then we saw that I-80 had been closed between Cheyenne and Laramie due to the weather.  It was about ten o'clock by this time, and they said that the earliest it would re-open was noon, but even that wasn't a guarantee.  

Ugg...so Mark and I sat at a gas station in Cheyenne trying to figure out what we wanted to do.  And there really wasn't any good choice.  As we saw it we had four options: 
1)  Wait at the gas station and hope that the pass opened soon.  
2)  Back track an hour and go through Fort Collins over the mountains and into Vernal and hope for clear roads.  
3)  Back track two hours back to Denver and go over the mountains and into Grand Junction and, again, hope for clear roads.  
4)  Drive back home and try again the next day.

We definitely did NOT want to start all over again the next day.  So we decided that the best chance we had was to back track to Denver and go over I-70.  So by the time we got back down to Denver it was 1:00 PM.  And THANK GOODNESS for our sweet little Jacob who was literally a perfect little angel during the whole day.  In fact, once we decided to head back Mark and I were pretty frustrated, but once we stopped and had lunch with Jacob he just seemed to make everything okay.  

The drive was beautiful through the mountains and despite being five hours behind schedule, things went fairly smooth after that.  The roads were mostly clear the whole way.  We ended up not getting to Draper until just before midnight.  It was a long day - a sixteen hour driving day.  But we made it safe and sound and we are grateful for that.  And luckily, we were "home" for Christmas.  

The Simple Life

The best way I can think to describe this week is simple.  Mark finished his last two finals on Monday and Tuesday.  I am so proud of that man of mine.  He ended his semester with great grades and I am just so proud of all that he does. 

But basically the vast majority of this week we have just been doing a whole lot of relaxing.  I spent every spare moment working on Jacob's Christmas stocking.  And it is DONE!  WOOT WOOT!  I finally finished it last night!  So, Mark and Jacob's stockings are done...mine just isn't going to happen.  Next year though, next year :)  But they turned out so cute!  I love them.  Even though they are a ridiculous amount of work, I think it is worth it for something that we will have for a long, long time. 

Mark and I also played a LOT of games this week.  Pretty much if Jacob was taking a nap - Mark and I were playing board games.  We also worked on some Christmas presents, which we are pretty excited about.  And we went on a bunch of midday walks just to get out of the house.  I, of course, am absolutely loving life because I get to spend so much time with BOTH of my boys.

Mark and I have spent a lot of time just cuddling and talking this week (which I also love!).  One thing that continues to get brought up is how grateful we are for our little family.  There is truly nothing I would change.  I feel so blessed in my family life. 

I realized I haven't put many pictures on for a couple of weeks.  So here are some - of course they are of Jacob - he is our life!

Live and Learn

This has been an interesting week.  I don't really know where to begin.  It was SO wonderful to be able to spend some time with my parents just one-on-one.  That hasn't happened in a very long time.  In fact, I honestly don't remember the last time - probably pre-marriage.  I loved that they were also able to spend some time with Jacob in a more low-key setting.

And although that aspect of the week was truly wonderful we were kind of having a hard time in other ways.  Mostly Jacob.  I mentioned this a little in the prior post, but Jacob honestly never could seem to get into a groove there.  And let me tell you, that little boy of mine is a champ.  He was probably just acting like a "regular" baby, but he wasn't acting like my baby.  Does that make sense?  He was just a lot more temperamental and wasn't sleeping hardly at all.  I kept thinking he would adjust and it just wasn't happening.  His naps got shorter and shorter (going down to twenty minutes only - normal for him is about two hours) and he was waking up at least once an hour during the night.  It was exhausting.

Also, I was so frustrated with myself because of my severe mistakes in packing.  Do you remember that I am taking an online class at BYU?  Well, I think I mentioned a couple posts ago that I was trying to get a bunch of it done so that I could take both my midterm AND final while I was home.  So this is basically all I had planned on doing while home for this week and a half before Mark got here.  Well guess who forgot their book?  Me.  So basically, I could do nothing for my class.  It was completely my own fault and I was so frustrated with myself.

My parents were amazingly wonderful.  They had made everything as comfortable as could be.  But by Friday I was just thinking that maybe we had made a mistake by coming for as long as we had planned.  We are definitely first time parents and this was the first time traveling with Jacob and I think we just didn't really plan on Jacob having such a hard time.  Plus, we just decided that maybe five weeks away from home is just a long time for all of us.

So late Friday we made the decision that we were going to come back home early and we would come back a couple days before Christmas and spend about two and a half weeks there instead.  It was actually a really hard decision to make and it was definitely not made without some tears.  The only way we really felt okay about doing it was knowing that we would be back so soon.  But I know it disrupted some plans.

Overall, I am just calling this whole experience a "live and learn" type of thing.  It's just one more adjustment to parenting - which I know there will be many more.  We are excited to be able to go back and spend Christmas with family, but also be able to spend some down time here in Denver with our own little family as well.  Growing up is rough business.  And I guess this is just one more growing pain to go through.

So as of right now, we are ALL back home in Denver for now.  We love and miss you all.  

Holiday Traveling

Wow!  This has been a CRAZY week!  I spent the whole beginning of the week in major preparation mode for our trip back to Utah.  We initially weren't planning on coming out for another two more weeks but then I decided to come early with Jacob for a family thing (which ended up getting cancelled) but we already had the ticket and so we thought we might as well just head on out.  So we are actually going to be away from home for over a month.  Wow. 

Let me tell you, it is tricky figuring out what to pack for that length of time, and with a five month baby, over Christmas, and only with one bag.  Now I suppose this isn't entirely accurate because Mark is coming out in two weeks after his finals so he can bring stuff then, but I still had to have it all ready to go. 

Anyway, despite all of my planning and organizing I have forgotten A LOT!  For example, I packed ZERO pants (yep, that's great), also packed ZERO pajamas (seriously?!), no contact solution, you get the drift!  What was I thinking?!  I don't know.  Jacob has everything, his mom on the other hand...not so lucky.  Uggg...it will be good for Mark to come so he come help remedy some of these things.  Plus, I miss that boy like crazy. 

But Jacob's first airplane experience was great - I really couldn't have asked for better.  Every one around me was so helpful (found it interesting that everyone that helped me was a man - they are great!).  But Jacob was just a little gem.  Everyone as we were getting off the plane was commenting that they never would have even known a baby was on board - he didn't make a peep!  Seriously, I am so lucky to have such an angel child. 

I took this picture as we were waiting at the gate.  Definitely doesn't look very comfortable but he seemed just happy as could be.  What a trooper!

It was nice to get home and spend some time with my family.  We hadn't been back since last Christmas so it had definitely been awhile. 

Saturday, even though the initial family event I had come for was cancelled, I was able to go to my little cousin's baptism.  It was wonderful to talk with aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents (which means Jacob got to meet his great-grandparents for the first time!).  It was a great morning. 

Unfortunately, Saturday afternoon I just started to feel really crummy.  Headache, nausousy, uggg...  Oh well, I feel much better today but was really bummed that I missed a wedding reception last night that I wanted to go to.  Bummer.

Jacob hasn't slept well at night since we have gotten here.  Honestly - NEVER does that happen.  He has slept through the night since he was nine weeks old (I know, I am a very blessed woman) but since we have been here he has woken up crying for at least two hours both nights.  Poor little man.  And, honestly, I know I shouldn't complain but my little guy just doesn't cry all that often and so I feel bad that he is having a rough time - and I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say that it is not helping me sleep much either.

Church today was not the greatest.  It was the first time going back to my parents ward since I had Jacob and the first time we weren't just there for Sacrament Meeting in years.  So I felt bad that Church was such a hard time for Jacob.  Honestly, we hardly ever have to take Jacob "out."  But I pretty much ended up walking him in the halls the entire three hours. Which let me tell you, carrying a 20+ pound baby for three hours is a little taxing on one's arms.   I am feeling it tonight! 

Anyway, things have gone much better since we got home and we are crossing our fingers for a tear-free night and a happy boy in the morning!  Excited to get to spend all of this time with family.  Miss Mark a lot, a lot, a lot. 

Sorry, this post was mostly just the ramblings of me (in my defense I guess I am running on little sleep) but I wanted to make sure to get a post done once a week so here it is.  Hopefully more exciting, happy things going on this upcoming week!