Easter Baskets and Eggs

This weekend was so much fun.  It was full of time with my two favorite boys and I loved every moment.  We decided to do our Easter baskets on Saturday.  Pretty simple - Mark and I's was pretty lame.  I think the Easter bunny might have been a little too distracted by our little man.  But the Easter bunny had lots of fun with Jacob's basket.  He got some new books, his first toothbrush/toothpaste (to help with the many teeth that seem to be popping out left and right from Jacob's gums), and some bubbles. 

Of course, the string was the most appealing thing about the whole basket!

I kind of anticipated that Jacob would go straight for the "grass" in the basket but he was by far most excited about his new books.  Proud Mom right here.  Starting him young.  But we had lots of fun going through all of the things and just letting Jacob explore. 

After lunch, Mark set up our balcony to dye some Easter eggs.  We all pretty much loved it.  It was a beautiful day and felt perfect outside.  We will have to spend a lot more time out there. 

Yes, we are one classy bunch over here! :)

And, of course, we had to play with Jacob's new bubbles.  To be honest, I don't know who had more fun - Mark or Jacob?  It was pretty cute to watch.  Love my boys.  So happy. 

9 Months

I love this happy boy.  He seriously makes my day - every day.  I cannot believe he is nine months old - that sounds so old!    I am loving every day and every minute with my wonderful, little boy.  And today, he is nine months old.

This has definitely been the month for teething.  I swear it felt like those two bottom teeth would NEVER pop through.  I am sure Jacob felt the same way.  But as soon as we got those finally in, in came a top one.  Now that that one is through, another top one is trying to join the ranks.  Oh brother...it's been rough.  Though, it seems to get easier with each one so that is definitely a blessing for everyone.  Plus, his little teeth just look way too cute.

So the last couple of weeks we have been trying to teach Jacob to clap.  He loves it when you clap for him.  He smiles pretty much from ear to ear.  Except for instead of him clapping, when we stop he will grab our hands and make us continue clapping.  Oh my goodness...what a kid.

Jacob is also rolling over finally from him back to his tummy.  Now, we haven't actually seen this.  But we have come in multiple times to his room when he was in his crib and found him on his tummy.  I guess he is a little shy about this development.

Speaking of tummy time, Jacob still isn't crawling.  I am so excited for him to start crawling, but I am not stressing that he isn't at all yet.  But he is liking tummy time a lot more.  It's so funny because he just kicks his legs like crazy but he doesn't do anything with his arms.  That kid will be flying once he figures it out.  That, or a really good swimmer.
 

Jacob has pretty much two volumes, either random yelling or "whisper talking."  That's what we call it anyway.  He pretty much is talking in a whisper.  It is adorable.  He pretty much says every consonant before an "a" sound (ta-ta-ta, ga-ga-ga, da-da-da) except for ma-ma-ma.  Come on!  Geez, I guess I will just have to wait. 

Pretty much we just love our little man.  Every day Mark and I are just so grateful to have him in our family.  He brings us so much joy and happiness and is just the sweetest little man.  Life is good. 

Garden of the Gods

After our train ride on Monday we went and got some lunch and then drove through the "Garden of the Gods."  It's a beautiful area in Colorado Springs.  I was a little bummed because I had completely forgotten to bring our stroller...uggg.  So we weren't able to walk around at all.  But it was probably all for the best, I think Jacob was a little pooped after our train ride. 

But they did have a road that loops all around the park and so we were still able to see lots of beautiful things - all from the comfort of our car!

We also got our best picture of Pikes Peak from Garden of the Gods - crazy to think we could have been on top of that!

This is yet another thing we want to come back down and explore a little more.  I love that we have the opportunity to see such beautiful things! 

Pikes Peak Cog Railway

On Monday we all got up early and made the drive down to Colorado Springs.  We had made reservations to go up Pikes Peak on a train.  How cool is that?!  I had never been on a train before.  I was pretty excited.  Pike's Peak is one of many "fourteeners" in Colorado.  It has an elevation of 14, 115 feet.  And this is the world's highest cog railroad.  Pretty cool. 

The ride up was beautiful.  There were lots of rock formations and beautiful trees to look at.  Jacob, of course, was a gem the whole time.  We unfortunately only went up to 12,000 feet.  They were having really high winds and for safety reasons that was as far as they would go.  But they also said it was -26 degrees on top and so maybe it's a good thing.  We would have frozen our little cabooses!

It was so much fun though to do this and to do it with my Mom there.  We thought this would be something we only did once, but we are pretty sure we will have to do it again.  We are thinking September would be a great time.  So if anybody wants to come visit us - you can come! :)

The Flatirons

My Mom was able to come visit us this last weekend and it has been so much fun!  She left today and it was so sad to see her go.  We love her so much and really appreciate her making the time to come and see us.  We miss her already!

My Mom got here late last Friday and insisted that Mark and I go and spend a day together.  It was a great little treat for us.  We had planned to go up to Rocky Mountain National Park but the weather was just really cruddy.  But we really wanted to go on a hike still, so we decided to head over to Boulder. 

We really haven't spent that much time in Boulder so it was fun to "experience" it a little more.  In the morning we decided to do a hike around The Flatirons.  We only went about two miles in so we still weren't really close but we thought four miles was enough round-trip, especially considering how cold and windy it was that morning. 
 

It was beautiful though and it was just nice to enjoy being out in nature together holding hands.  I loved it. 

After we had changed our plans from going up to the Rocky Mountains, Mark decided that he really wanted to go miniature golfing.  It was so cold and windy I wasn't sure if it was really going to be much fun but we decided to go anyway.  And I'll tell you what - it was a blast.  We had the whole park to ourselves.  They had three different miniature golf courses and we did ALL THREE.  And yes, for the record, Mark beat me at all three games :). 

After that we headed into Boulder to go and see a movie - and finally get out of the cold.  We went and saw Life of Pi and then went and ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen.  We decided we needed to get my Mom a treat to thank her for such a wonderful day and so we headed over to Jamba Juice.  Which was also conveniently located right next door to a Barnes and Noble so we spent quite a bit of time looking around in there. 

It was a pretty perfect day and it was fun just to spend time together.  Love this man of mine. 

Planning

This week has been full of planning.  I love planning.  That seems like kind of a weird statement, but I really do.  This week I have been planning TRIPS so that is the ultimate in planning.

First, it is Mark's spring break next week!  I am pretty excited.  I am also pretty sure that I look forward to Mark's spring break more then he does.  Is that normal?  Probably not.  That's okay.  He has all of next week off and I am pretty much giddy about the whole thing.  We already had a little overnight trip planned but Mark says he wants to "catch up" on school a little bit too so maybe a day trip would be better.  Bummer.  But I am just trying to focus on the money we will save from not having to stay in a hotel. 

SO...because of this change of plans, I am trying to find the coolest, most fun-packed day of activities.  I am excited.  There are so many things I want to do.  I told myself I have to stay within a two-hour radius from our house so that limits things.  Plus, I want to go OUTSIDE and do things.  Definitely ready to get out and about.  So this little lady is hoping for warm weather.

The second thing I am planning is our family trip - to OHIO!

I am excited.  However, I have kind of been putting it off.  Even though I pretty much had every second planned for our last two family trips, I feel like this trip needs even more planning.  Not only is it the first trip where we are flying, but we also have this little addition to our family, his name is Jacob :).  So, I am kind of trying to figure out how all of that is going to work out.  And I am sure I will read this in a couple years and think, "you only had one little kiddo to worry about, what are you worried about?!"  But, I am a rookie, and still just trying to figure it out.

ANYWAY, I am excited.  That trip is planned for the third week in May.  I am pumped.  I love these family vacations.  Anyway, I better go back to planning.

In other news, I should probably talk about what's going on with Mark and Jacob a little bit.  Mark is great, tired but great.  He works so hard.  He continues to do so well in school.  I love him.

Jacob has been a hoot lately.  I swear I am laughing constantly.  His little personality just cracks me up.  And he has become such a chatter-box - a very loud chatter-box.  If there is music playing, which is almost constant around here, he is singing along.  I keep meaning to catch it on video but I just think it is so cute that I just sit there and laugh.  I love him.   

Enjoy the Moment

This last week has been very normal. 

Mark works so hard.  I seriously don't know how that boy does it every day.  I am so proud of him.  I love the example he is of working hard.  He is a great husband and father.  Love him.  He has two tests on Thursday and a quiz on Friday - gross.  Last night I was helping him study for a few minutes and he just kept laughing because I was just totally ruining the names of the different drugs and diseases that he was studying.  Oh boy...I am very glad that he likes it - because it is over my head and then some!

My life is incredibly simple.  I get to play with Jacob all day, every day.  He is growing up so fast.  I love that little munchkin.  I am still working on finishing my class - it feels like it is taking me forever.  I am SO close to being done though.  I am also working on our wedding scrapbook and am ALMOST done with that.  I really like how it has turned out.  But, oh my goodness, 12 x 12 sheet protectors are INSANELY priced!  Seriously, they are going to cost more then everything else combined!  Just needed to vent that for a minute.  I feel better now... :)

I know I have mentioned this not too long ago, but I was again reminded this week of how important it is to "enjoy the moment."  Maybe this is a sign.

But I was reading this month's Ensign and there was a little article talking about President Uchtdorf's talk from last general conference that I just loved.  It mentioned this story from his talk.  It's kind of long-ish but I just love it.  So I am adding it.  Mostly because I have a funny feeling that I will need this reminder more times in my life. 

"My wife, Harriet, and I love riding our bicycles.  It is wonderful to get out and enjoy the beauties of nature.  We have certain routes we like to bike, but we don't pay too much attention to how far we go or how fast we travel in comparison with other riders.  

However, occasionally I think we should be a bit more competitive.  I even think we could get a better time or ride at a higher speed if only we pushed ourselves a little more.  And then sometimes I even make the big mistake of mentioning this idea to my wonderful wife.

Her typical reaction to my suggestions of this nature is always very kind, very clear, and very direct.  She smiles and says, "Dieter, it's not a race; it's a journey.  Enjoy the moment."

How right she is!

Sometimes in life we become so focused on the finish line that we fail to find joy in the journey.  I don't go cycling with my wife because I'm excited about finishing.  I go because the experience of being with her is sweet and enjoyable.  

Doesn't it seem foolish to spoil sweet and joyful experiences because we are constantly anticipating the moment when they will end?

Do we listen to beautiful music waiting for the final note to fade before we allow ourselves to truly enjoy it?  No.  We listen and connect to the variations of melody, rhythm, and harmony throughout the composition.  

Do we say our prayers with only the "amen" or the end in mind?  Of course not.  We pray to be close to our Heavenly Father, to receive His Spirit and feel His love.  

We shouldn't wait to be happy until we reach some future point, only to discover that happiness was already available - all the time!  Life is not meant to be appreciated only in retrospect.  "This is the day which the Lord hath made..." the Psalmist wrote.  "Rejoice and be glad in it." [Psalm 118:24.]"

I love this.  I think it is such a great reminder.  I have such a blessed life.  And I know that I will someday look back on these moments in our life - right now - and it will bring a smile to my face.  So instead of waiting until that moment to smile, I am making the choice to smile about it now.  

Because let's be honest...how can you NOT smile looking at that face all day?!