Snow

So I am not really sure why I have been so bad at blogging lately.  Uggg...I have mostly been in a funk about things.  It's a "me" problem.  But I am hoping to get back on track.  Which means a lot of catch up posts!

I have been wanting to do a post about Jacob for awhile and to spotlight his best friend and biggest comforter - Snow.  Snow is Jacob's polar bear that he got when he was eleven months old when we took our family vacation to Ohio and went to the Columbus Zoo.  He has been attached ever since.  These two are best buddies.

I love Jacob so much.  This has been such a stressful year for our little family and he really has done his best.  He's had to grow up a lot.  With Sarah's birthday it has reminded me especially of that - of all the change that he has experienced over the last year.  I am glad that he has his buddy Snow to help him through it all.  Love you Jacob. 

11 Months

We love this little girl.  She is happy and sweet and brings such a wonderful spirit to our home.  

She continues to grow and grow!  She is 29.7 inches tall (84%), weighs 23 pounds 4 ounces (90%), and has a head circumference of 45.5 cm (73%).  

Sarah got another tooth this month.  She now has six teeth - four on the top and two on the bottom.  She puts anything and everything in her mouth and is definitely getting more and more ready for "big kid" food.  

Sarah does not like to be confined.  This little girl is all done snuggling and wants to be on the move all the time!  Even at night time she will start crying and we will find her with her eyes still closed but standing up in her crib.  It's like she can't help herself from wanting to stand up and move.  

She is becoming a professional at walking around all the furniture and definitely can't wait to really get moving on her own.  

Sarah has started making a clicking noise with her tongue and it is one of her new favorite ways to communicate.  She is always clicking away and loves it when you click back at her.  She loves to make all sorts of noises and I definitely think we've got a talker on our hands in the future.  

The only time Sarah doesn't mind being confined is when we are outside.  She seems to really like her stroller or being in the backpack looking around.  She is also quite a fan of sitting up on Daddy's shoulders.  

We love our happy, active little girl and can't wait to celebrate month #12!

Railroader's Festival

Today we went to the Railroader's Festival at Golden Spike National Historic Site.  We have wanted to go over there for awhile and today was the perfect opportunity!

We got there just in time to watch them bring the exact replicas of the two engines that met for the ceremony of the joining of the transcontinental railroad back in 1869.  The engines are amazing and beautiful.  It was so neat to hear all of their noises and watch the steam.  Jacob was in heaven and could not get enough of them when they were coming in.  

Once they brought them in they let you walk up into them - which was pretty neat - and take pictures.  Then they did a re-enactment of the ceremony when the "golden spike" completed the railroad.  

We walked around the visitor's center a little bit and then went and had a little picnic at the trail head of the hike that they have there.  After our lunch though it started to warm up and get a little late so we decided we would do the auto tour instead which was still interesting.  

It was a great morning and we enjoyed getting to know more about this event in our nation's history and, most importantly, spending some time together as a family.

Licensed!

It is official - Mark is now licensed to practice as a pharmacist in the State of Utah!  

I am so proud of this man of mine.  He has worked so hard over the last four years to prepare for this, and worked even harder the last several months to study and take his exams to get licensed.  He is our rock and we love him and can't wait for the opportunities ahead!

North Arm Wildlife Trail

Yesterday we decided to head out and explore some of the area around Ogden.  We drove over to Eden to do the North Arm Wildlife Trail.  When Mark and I read about this trail online it had all of these positive reviews and we were really excited.  

But the trail was a complete BUST!  Mark and I love hiking and I don't think I have ever been on a trail where I really couldn't say anything positive about it.  It was completely overgrown and at first we thought it was fun, pretending like we were walking through a jungle and then it got...a little too jungle-y.  We were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, getting stuck by thorns and then we started seeing snakes!  

I think the snakes took me more by surprise than anything.  The area was a "wetland" so I thought about the possibility of seeing snakes but the area was so overgrown you couldn't see anywhere you were stepping most of the time and were just pushing stuff out of your face to even pay attention to anything else.  But then all of a sudden Jacob calmly pointed to a snake right by his foot.  Uggg...we then saw several more before what little trail we had completely disappeared and we had to go back the way we came.  It was a bummer.  We were all wet and didn't really get to "appreciate" nature as much as we wanted to.  But it was definitely an experience!

P.S.  The pictures I took do not at all give an accurate description of how overgrown the trail was!  I took the pictures when it was still fun and jungle-like - not during the snake infested, not so fun part of the trail!

Cecret Lake

Last week we headed down to Draper to spend a couple of days with my family.  It was nice to catch up and we were able to see everyone while we were down there.  

One morning we decided to go hike to Cecret Lake up Little Cottonwood Canyon.  We had tried to do this hike before but the road was still closed so we were excited to finally make it up there!  

The hike was beautiful and cool and we had a great time trekking up there.  Both Jacob and Sarah love being outside in nature which is so perfect for Mark and I because we love it too!  The wildflowers and lake were beautiful and we enjoyed some quality family time together.  

Pioneer Day

We had a great, low-key Pioneer Day.  The night before I realized that we hadn't really planned anything to do.  So I set down and started looking up some of my pioneer ancestors and found that both Mark and I had pioneer ancestors buried in the Willard Cemetery - which is only about fifteen minutes from where we are!

The internet is amazing and I was able to find out so much about my grandfather, Charles Wesley Hubbard, who came across the plains not once but twice!  He truly had an amazing life - full of ups and downs like all of us.  I love looking back on my family's history.  It really shows me that although many things have obviously changed over time that we all experience happiness and sadness, joy and disappointment, peace and uncertainty.  It is really inspiring to me to read about "real" people - people that I come from - and how they faced all of life's experiences.  

So we packed a lunch and drove over to Willard and set up camp in the cemetery.  We ate lunch under a beautiful tree and talked about our pioneer ancestors.  Then I walked around with Jacob and took tons of pictures of headstones for our family history records.  It is such a peaceful place.  Plus, it was really fun to think that most likely our families knew each other in this small town back in the 1850s and how things have come together in our family trees.  

I am so grateful for my pioneer ancestors.  For their faith and willingness to be obedient to the Lord.  I hope that someday my descendents can say the same about me.