Date Night

One of the great things about being home is that we have a whole house full of very willing babysitters!  They have been itching for Mark and I to leave Jacob!  Mark and I were pretty excited to go on a date as well - actually a couple dates!  But we had a big date yesterday.  It was the first time Mark and I have been able to go on a date since we had Jacob and it was wonderful.  Not that we didn't miss our little man, but we knew he was in good hands :)

We decided to go ice skating up at the Olympic Oval.  I have only gone ice skating twice before and I am definitely not an ice skater.  And I'll tell you what, I didn't think that I could get any worse, but I think I have actually gotten worse at ice skating!  Mark was the absolute perfect partner and we just laughed as we very slowly made our way around the rink.  And I think I can honestly say that I was lapped by every toddler in the place!  It took me a half an hour to make it around the rink!  And granted, it's a big rink, but holy smokes, I am AWFUL! 

 
We had a really good time though just laughing and spending time with one another.  I love that man of mine.  We then headed to dinner and continued to enjoy our time together.  We then went and saw "Lincoln" and we both loved it.

Thank you to all of our wonderful babysitters! 

Six Months

Jacob turned six months old on Christmas Day!  How perfect is that?!  We continue to absolutely LOVE our little boy!  He has had so many fun changes this last month!

The biggest change in Jacob is just that he is lots more independent.  He likes to try and do things by himself, which is so much fun to watch. 

Jacob has completely embraced solid foods.  Pears are his favorite thus far - he loves them!  He also loves his toys.  If he can stick it in his mouth, it is a winner!  He is very easy to please!  He also loves to hold his binky and try and put it in his mouth by himself.  He always manages to get the binky facing out and he seems to think that if he opens his mouth bigger he will get the binky in right.  It cracks us up.  When he gets it in, he is pretty pleased with himself :)

He also just recently can sit by himself which has been so much fun.  He gets more and more solid in his sitting everyday and can definitely go a couple minutes now which is just way too much fun.  He continues to just chat away the day and is even giggling now which may be the best sound I have ever heard.  I can't get enough of it.  He definitely makes you work for his giggles though but it is worth the work!

We love our little man.  Can't believe he is half way to a year! 

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!