September Happenings

Our September was a fun one.

We did so many things!

- Jack had his first ever toddler melt down complete with light head banging on the floor at IKEA. haha

- Jack was pictured a lot while he was enthralled with his "Melmo" movie. I hate to have him watch TV but sometimes a mamma just needs a minute!

- We went to our great friend Braden's birthday party and had a blast!

- Jack was so in love with Ute football. Steve loved dressing him up in the attire too!

- We tried more sensory play, this time with "Moon Sand" but Jack just wanted to eat it. Yes we are still in the phase, its going on about 9 months now. Please let it end soon!

- Daddy is always the softie and buys him slurpies when we go to Target.

- Isn't he so cute cuddling his Elmo!?

- He is talking up a storm now! He says things like Airplane "bee" (yeah I know its a stretch but it's consistent when airplanes actually do fly by) Dog is always "wa wa wa" (barking) Bird "Buu" (haha ok I'm seeing a theme here) 

- He now learned how to kiss and it is the CUTEST THING! He puckers up full kissy face and says "mmmmmmAAAA" haha it's so cute. He also now has to kiss everything he sees. Mostly the animals in his books. 

- He now climbs on the couch! I was so freaked out the first few times he did it. But now he knows he could fall off and is more careful.

- He knows how to fold his arms for a prayer! Oh it just melts my heart. too stinkin cute. 

Steve went to LA for some interviews while Jack and I spent the entire day at The Irvine Spectrum. Which is like the coolest mall in existence. I didn't have the greatest time ever because it was deathly hot and its an outdoor mall. also Jack just wanted to walk everywhere and he didn't nap. But we had fun on all the cool rides and especially the splash pad!

We went on Labor Day weekend to Sea World and saw the Shamu Rocks show! It was one of the last shows of the summer and totally worth it!

My cousin Kaylee and her husband Gus along with one of their kids Beckham came to visit us! We had so much fun with them. I swear Kaylee and I are long lost sisters. The boys had a blast too! Jack thought Beckham was the coolest thing ever because he was an older kid. haha we loved going to the beach as the sun went down!

Speaking of the beach. There are so many amazing beaches here! We just love exploring new ones all the time! 

The coolest part of the month was watching my brother open up his mission call! It was so fun to face time and get to see it as if I was there. The craziest part of the whole thing is he is going to the California Redlands mission which is like 2 hours away from where we live in SD!!! Crazy how that works. We are so happy for him and can't wait to her all about his wonderful adventures here in Cali!

Our Summer

Yeah yeah I get it... I gave up on the blog.

 But I'm back! And hoping to catch up today!

I started doing Project Life scrapbooking and have been seriously preoccupied with that lately. I have done pretty much all of Jack's life up until now but I realized I love the blogging aspect of our life because I like to remember the things he did or said and the only way to remember is to write! 

So lets make this quick.

Our summer.

We pretty much spent our entire summer exploring! 

- The biggest news: Jack started WALKING!! He was officially off and running at 13 months.

- We went to the beach a ton! The summer started out with Jack eating the sand like non stop so I got frustrated and we didn't go back for like 2 months. But then he grew out of it and we started having a blast!

- We took swim lessons for two weeks strait every day. He kinda hates the water but never complained

- The title of our summer would be exploring. We spent the majority of our time outside just exploring the cute little grassy area right in front of our house

- We also spent some time indoors with cool toddler things like colored noodles

- We went to the Del Mar horse races and dressed up all fancy for it. It was hot, but we had a great time

- We of course participated in 7.11 Slurpee day! We went with friends Charlotte and Amelia

- We went to the Chargers family opening day thing (don't know what its actually called) Jack got his face painted and loved watching the team practice a game!

- Speaking of football... Jack is so obsessed! Steve taught him to say "Go Utes!" with a little fist pump and he says it every time any sort of sport comes on. He actually watches football too! (not my kid)

- He is obsessed with dairy and would giggle any time cheese or yogurt came out. haha

- He started saying so many words! He says things like Thanks "dis" Lion "roar" Monkey "oo oo- aa aa" or Snake "sss" haha

We had an awesome 4th of July spent down in St. George! We had homemade Popsicles and a homemade firework show! Winston had such a fun time with Barkley and Jack loved spending time at Grandma's house! 

He has become a little bit more than obsessed with Elmo. Steve started him on this craze when he introduced him to Elmo in Grouchland and boooooyyyy is this kid obsessed. We got him a stuffed Elmo and he loves that thing so much! He calls him "Melmo" :) haha We went to Sea World and there was a whole Sesame Street land complete with a life size Elmo. The picture explains his serious love for this furry red guy. haha

We had a little photo shoot of his exploring. I love how the simple things are so fascinating to him! He loved watching this colony of ants climb that wall outside our house all summer! Also you can kinda see our house in the bottom left pic.

As the summer continued we kept on enjoying that sweet San Diego sunshine!

- We decided to paint with water outside to see how well he would do with paint in the future. Yeah... this kid is never getting real paint. haha

- We got the cutest little pool from my mom and we loved filling it up and having a pool party! Of course our apartment complex has a pool and that one was actually more fun, but I forced Jack to like this mini pool. haha

- Steve went back home in August to hopefully gain some new contacts in the world of sports so we could move back home. We were so sad to see him go and so excited to see him come home! The top right was us waiting in the park and wait for his plane to land. 

- The bottom right pics crack me up. There is this tiny patch of dirt and of course he always finds it. I decided to let him try it out for once and his face says it all. He hasn't bothered it since then. 

- August was his first official skinned knee! I'm surprised we lasted that long for how much he loves being outside. 

- We finally had molars peeking through! Two top ones now and still no bottom ones yet. 

This summer was filled with some of the best memories we have ever had! I love being a mom to such an awesome little dude! We are just glad it still feels like summer in October because we have been outside pretty much every day since summer ended. We love you San Diego! Also isn't he such a little stud? Man he melts my heart P.S. those shoes he is wearing is some moccasins I made. I fell in love with some handmade ones that were $65 and decided to just make my own. haha (and yes he's holding a whisk. Silly kid.)

Jack is 12 Months

Well it's official...

We have a toddler on our hands.

I am not happy about my baby growing up this fast at all! But of course everyone always says that time really does fly. We have had the best first year as parents! Jack has taught us so much and we are so thankful to be his parents. I absolutely love being a mom and am so happy I get to stay home with this little bean and play all day!

I already did an entire birthday post, so this will be more about what else we did that month.

(Are you ready to spend 3 hours reading this post?....Sorry....)

This month brought us back to the homeland! haha We got to go back to Utah for 2 1/2 weeks and we loved every minute of it! We started off the trip with Steve because his dad got married and he wasn't about to miss it! 

Once our bags were packed we were on our way!

The wedding was a beautiful outdoor wedding at the Grand America. They had a great party and even better food! We had fun meeting all of Melissa's family! Pictured here is Jack with all of his cute cousins! (Or I should say ONLY cousins!)

We stayed at the Little America right across the street for that weekend and we made the most of our time with Steve before he went back to San Diego! We opened a few birthday presents, went to Jersey Boys for our FOURTH anniversary! (Wow really!?) And even had some friends come over to our hotel for a few hours. Jack had so much fun with Mary and loved showing her the Trax that would come by! haha His little strike a pose thing kills me...

Once daddy left we headed up to my mom's  house for the remainder of our two weeks and we did nothing but party the whole time! We visited Grandparents and some of my friends as well as party at my mom's house! Here you see Jack tearing apart grandma's house, at my little sisters' pool birthday party with some cute girlfriends, at my dad's house to see the chickens and to even pet one! (sick) and of course eating waay more sugar than he should be eating. (The ice cream was his official birthday so I justified that one. haha)

June is a crazy month in my family. We have my sister Brooklyn's birthday on the 8th. Our anniversary and my step dad's birthday on the 11th. Jack's birthday the 12th. And my sister Halle's birthday on the 23rd. So to celebrate both of my sisters birthday I took them out for actually all our first pedicure! (I know right... what planet do I live on!? Poor planet... haha)

From there on out I really didn't take that many pictures. (I know right? That doesn't sound a thing like me!) But I did manage to snap a few of us at Lagoon. My entire extended family (all 50 something of us) go to Lagoon for one day in the summer where we can all party and have a great time! I loved feeling like a kid again and that was the last day I got to see my cute cousin Dillon before his mission! (he officially leaves TOMORROW!!) Also I got one last picture of Jack with all my family on the day we left. I was glad I got them because I think they are all so cute!

Finally it was time to say our goodbyes. By this point we had been away from Steve for a full two weeks and were anxious to hear all about his Dominican trip! It was just me and this little peanut on the flight home and he actually wasn't all that bad. Thankfully we had a nice gentleman sitting next to us because he poked him like a million times with his pretzels trying to give him some! haha

Once we reunited with daddy we decided to once again celebrate Jack's birthday by going to Disneyland. We decided to take advantage of our dog free home while we could! (He was with Steve's mom during the trip.)

On the way up we noticed Jack was really quiet and I looked back to find him completely EATING his book!! He is a nut I tell ya.... He eats every book he ever comes in contact with. Usually I stop him before this madness happens though! We had fun doing all of the "off" things and Disneyland because it was way too crowded to do any of the cool things. We loved it nonetheless! 

We once again hit the road and went BACK to Utah! This time to pick up our pooch. We spent the 4th in St. George aka Death on a Stick Valley. It was so stinkin hot we basically just stayed indoors. The hottest temp while we were there was 117. Yeah you read it right... nuts. But we kept cool with homemade pops and splash pads! The dogs enjoyed their frosty paws and we enjoyed the free babysitting! We saw Thoroughly Modern Millie (which I adored) and also went out on a couple of movie dates. Like a true American, Jack rode around on his motorcycle while still trying to learn how to walk. 

We rounded out this month with our last trip to the beach we will ever take as long as we have kids. haha Jack would. not. stop. eating. the. sand. 

I couldn't do anything to stop him!! So like I say after every beach trip, this one will be our last one for a while. haha 

 But come on? Isn't this the most adorable sandy face you have every seen? 

Love my baby boy.

And yes he is still a baby in my eyes.

Jack's First Birthday

Jack is now 1! We celebrated way more than any baby ever should. But we had a blast doing it! I'll keep the wordage short, because the pictures do the talking!

My heart melts :) 

Oh he is just too stinkin cute!

We did a little celebrating before the big day with Daddy before we went to Utah and he went off to the Dominican Republic. (more on that later)

I love that he is feeding Steve some of his cake fingers!

And don't worry, he didn't eat that whole cake by himself! He mostly ate just what you see. 

I die!

His actual party was so much fun! We did a nautical theme and I had a blast planning it! I had a collage of his month by month pictures as well as some from his little one year photo shoot. We had great food and fun treats like "Oyster pearls" "Catch of the day" and "Saltwater Taffy" haha

This kid was a pro at eating all things sugar by this point so he enjoyed his very small cupcake/smash cake. He got so many fun presents and I loved watching him open them and get all excited!

So many wonderful people came to his party! He is sure one loved little boy! :) 

Here with Great Grandma Taylor, Grandparents: Shelly, Jared, and Connie. Aunties Brooklyn and Halle. Lauryn and my cousin Kaylee with her sweet twin girls who are just a month younger than Jack!

We had such a fun time celebrating! We were just sad Daddy wasn't there for some of it. Good thing he won't remember any of it anyway. :)

Jack is 11 Months

This month was full of adventure! We spent our time at the park, at the library story time, the beach, and hanging out with friends! Jack has such a spunky little personality and I love waking up every day wondering what kind of silly things this kid will get into!

Life in Instagrams.

I captured the moments where Jack was in his true element. He is so curious about the dog and I can't keep him away from his food! He also gets into lots of trouble. this month was all about baby proofing!

This month was my sweet man's birthday and we celebrated with a visit to Seaport Village. We ended the day with a man's dinner. We had bacon popcorn (cooked in bacon grease), cook your own hunk of meat on a grill, and an extra tall (extra gross) bacon chocolate cake! haha 

We also had a visit from Jack's only cousins! Steve's sister was in town and of course we went to Disneyland! I'm sad these are the only pictures I got... I like to think that I was just enjoying family instead of taking pictures ;) 

Look at Jack on the Merry-go-round! He just decided to throw those arms up and kept them there! haha He also had the most serious face while doing it. Funny kid.

We had some fun date nights and one of them included a trip to downtown San Diego to eat some killer Indian food and some amazing frozen treats from Ghiradelli ice cream shop :)

The highlight of this month was when Jack got his first haircut!! He was such a trooper and even got a cute little certificate afterward! He looks so grown up and I actually miss his sweet little locks.

This is all I have been witnessing lately. Jack loves his doggie and Winston loves his big brother! They get along great because Jack gives Winston all his food! haha They are so sweet together and I'm so thankful Jack will grow up with a dog!

Jack is 10 Months

BREAKING NEWS!!!

I actually posted on time for once! Whaaaat? haha I know...

Please tell me this is someone else's baby because mine certainly isn't 10 months old! (P.S. this really was the best picture I could take of him. He is a busy boy! No time for pictures!)

This month was probably my favorite one since Jack has been born! He has hit so many exciting milestones as well as we celebrated two holidays and a week and a half of family in town! Gosh I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

A cute girl that we have met down here took some pictures of him for Easter to send out to family. This one is my favorite :)

We got to go to Steve's uncle Mark's lab/office where he creates the biggest and baddest fountains in the world! (no seriously, he has made the biggest ones in the world. including Bellagio!!) yep. That's right. We have fame in the family! haha His lab was by far the coolest place I have ever toured. He had chemistry and engineering rooms all over the place! including his own shop where they make all the parts. And what cool office wouldn't be complete without a foyer with grass??? So.Cool. 

But the best part of the tour was when Steve got to stick his bare hand in legit fire and water!!

He is a brave man.

Then came the crazy fun week!

We spent the first day at Universal. Sadly this was the only day Steve could spend with us because the rest of the week he had school. It's also so sad that these two pictures were the only ones we took at Universal! 

We have a hipster baby :)

We spent 3 days in Disneyland/California Adventures with my family of 8, My mom's twin and her fam of 6, plus my uncle and his fam of 6! To top it all off it was spring break and there were a million people there!!! They said the park was at 85% capacity. No thank you. The picture at the top was the ridiculous line just to GET IN to Disneyland one morning. So our trip consisted of waiting in lines that no joke took 2 to 3 hours. We waited in line at the Cars Land ride for two and a half hours and waited at the tower of terror for 3 hours! (the crew above in "Radiator Springs" was the 2 1/2 hour wait) 

But we made the most of our time there! Jack loved going on rides and I think Grandma loved taking him on rides more. It was weird because I was kind of a kid again going on rides with my siblings and cousins. My mom was more than willing to take Jack and go ride baby rides while she let me go ride the big rides with the big kids. It felt so weird to not have a baby or husband with me! But I had such a fun time hanging out with my siblings and cousins. All three boys are leaving on their missions within a year so it was kind of their last hooray as well!

Of course we got some awesome pictures of the rides :)

If you look at the center picture, this was my sisters first time riding this ride and you can totally tell by their faces! Brooklyn (2nd in line) was TERRIFIED! And Halle (3rd) was terrified of getting wet! haha her face mixed with her poncho covering every inch of her entire body is priceless....

This was after our day in Sea World back in San Diego. We went out to dinner for our last night all together and couldn't resist the rainbow pants picture. haha We are so trendy! ;)

Now on to the Easter festivities.

I honestly think I have more pictures of Easter than I do of Christmas. Crazy.

We took my mom and sisters up about 30 minutes north to a city Easter egg hunt that had 22,000 eggs! It was perfect because it was set up by age so Jack got to pick them up with the rest of the babies. We had lots of fun! My favorite part was when my mom and sisters went down the slide. My sisters over dramatic sliding was hilarious. 

Easter morning!

The Easter bunny brought Jack a whole bunch of great stuff! He got a book, sippy cup, beach toys, clothes, and eggs filled with puffs! Every baby's dream... (if you look at the top right picture he is holding a baby cookie and is signing "more" because that's the only sign he knows and he knows it gets him food. haha)

Winston also got some eggs filled with treats!

After church we went up to Mt. Helix. Which is the tallest point in San Diego! (or the tallest point you can get to) There is a huge cross up there and places to walk around. It's such a fun place because you can see down town as well as the ocean! 

Are you sick of this holiday yet? Last collage!

Of course I had to document my baby's LAST FIRST HOLIDAY! I can't believe I am even saying those words. This past 10 months has been filled with firsts and now holidays are checked off the list :( He is growing up too stinkin fast!

We had a great Easter! 

Now on to the random bits from this month:

The green shirt picture was taken on St. Patrick's day.

I don't know if I ever mentioned it but Jack now has 6 teeth! 4 on top, 2 on bottom.

This baby is so smart! He has learned how to crawl with ease and kinda speed crawls now! He also knows how to pull himself up and cruise on the furniture. He can eat like nobodies business! He just learned how to drink from a sippy cup and now takes bottles since I finally gave up nursing after a serious fight with nobody but myself. haha He eats chunks of food and is constantly signing "more" this kid is never full! He will literally eat anything we put in front of him. He sometimes doesn't even look before he shoves it in! haha some of his favorite foods are toast, cheese, chicken, beans, blueberries, cheerios, and yogurt. He ate his first lemon and didn't even make a single face. The only face he made was an angry one when I took it away from him! He could have bit right into it without flinching! Speaking of biting... this kid bites everyithing. His favorite thing is his books. There are full chunks missing out of the cutest (not cheap) books and it just makes me so sad! I guess I have to learn that having kids is messy and life isn't always perfect. He also bites my shoulder when I am holding him! He bites the dog's furry tennis balls too which sicks me out... haha He has found a way to get into everything and destruction is the name of the game he plays every single day. He is obsessed with being outside and screams with delight when we go out, and screams with anger when we come back inside! haha good thing we live in San Diego!

He is starting to have his little personality show and it just melts my heart! He gives me the cheesiest grins and then reaches for me to hold him. (LOOOOVE that) He says "uh oh" (his first word) "wow" and just started learning all gone. He puts his arms up like "I don't know" and says "uh duh" (all gone) haha He also is starting to wave bye! He mimics us and the dog and his favorite one is when I say Hi all dramatic he says it back! I just love this baby! He is always so happy and content! He loves his dog and his daddy. We are having so much fun learning all about the world with him! I am so glad he is ours forever. Because I don't want this cuteness to end!