Raspberries and Limes

Oakley blessing

2011-10-09T07:56:00.008-06:00

Well today we got the joy of blessing our daughter Oakley. It was a very special and emotional moment to hear Joshua speak those sacred words to our little angel. Many friends and family came to support us, even my parents and siblings came to sacrament :). We held the luncheon at Gma VomDorp's house. We did pot luck but asked some to help us with the main dish, burrito bowls - cafe rio style! It was delicious and everyone was so wonderful for coming to be there for Oakley's big day.

Oakley at 1 month

2011-09-19T11:41:00.006-06:00

My little monkey is a month old! I can't believe it! And she still is wearing newborn outfits that are too big for her. HAHA.

She loves her toys that make noise. While her arms are still randomly flailing around, whenever she bumps the toys and it makes noise she loves it! She also loves to watch the butterflies on her mobile

Bath time is one of her favorite times! Ribbit!

Mommy loves to take sleepy pictures.

Burping isn't so bad. At least she gets a veiw out the window!

She has learned that it is fun to pee as soon as the diaper comes off. Thank heavens for the water proof pads we bought.

She has also learned to sleep anywhere! Even leaning on daddy's arm.

Butterflies! YAY!

Overall, we have a very good and very happy baby!

First Trip to the Park

2011-09-13T14:02:00.004-06:00

On Sunday we took a walk to the park so the girls could play. It was Oakley's first trip to the park. It was fun!

Recap of the first three weeks

2011-09-11T17:59:00.012-06:00

Just a quick recap of the first three weeks!

Mommy and I had some fun photo shoots!

Football games in daddys arms

My two week doctors appt. Dont I look cute!

First family pictures!

So sleepy in mommys arms

Mommy and me!

Oakley at two weeks

2011-09-06T17:35:00.014-06:00

Well we had Oakley 's two week appt today. All is well! She weighs 6 lbs 10 oz, so not quite her birth weight yet. And she has grown an inch longer. They want me to bring her in next week for an extra weigh in though. But other than that she is doing great!

Oakley's first bath at home :)

With my Papa!

With Granny

Meeting my auntie Toni and cousin Velise for the first time.

Sleepy with Daddy

Mommy and Daddy's bed is so comfy

Pink PJ's, pink bed. Lovin life!

Daddy that tickles!

Sleepy monkey

My swing!

Oakley Ella Jackson

2011-08-20T16:38:00.033-06:00

Well, she is here. Born yesterday at exactly 6:00pm. Weighing 6lbs 12 oz, and 19.5 inches long. She is an angel. She came out with a head full of dark hair, which Josh and I thought was funny. But I LOVE her hair! I think she looks so cute with it and I'm glad she isn't bald. HAHA. Well, here is the story, so we have it for the memory books :) Wednesday (August 17th) during the day I called my docs office because I had experienced some diarhea the night before (yes, gross) and out of curiosity I had googled if it had any connection with labor. Of course, it does, so I decided to call. They had me come in right away and checkedme. Still dialated to just a 2.5 but at about 50% effacement. Not too alarming, so I went back to work the rest of the day and was told to keep an eye on it and come back the next day for my regularly scheduled appointment. I also went into work the next day, had a pretty normal day (besides some new types of contractions that felt more like menstrual cramps). Josh picked me up for the appt and I was dialated to a 3 and at about 60% effacement. The doc also said no work the next day (Friday) and if the baby doesn't come over the weekend, he would induce me on Monday. Wowsa! So I let work know, and Josh and I decided to run around and get the rest of our errands taken care of just in case. I think we went to like four different stores, and the bank. My feet were killing me and I couldn't keep up with Josh walking. It was weird. My whole pregnancy I have been great, and then all the sudden this day I was all waddling and slow and aching. BLAH. Well, I should have taken that as a warning sign :) Josh and I joked around about different ways we could induce labor. We settled on on e method *cough cough* and it's good we did cause after the next day Josh would be with out for a while. HAHA. About 4:45am the next morning my body woke me up (which was not uncommon considering my bathroom habits the last 9 months) and I ventured into the bathroom. Well this time was a little different. My liner had a thicker red mucus substance (sorry for the graphics), and I was having much stronger contractions, about every 10 minutes. I couldnt go back to sleep, so I decided to just get ready for the day. Josh woke up about a half hour later and I let him know it was about time. I also called my dad (5:30am is the best time to reach him :)) and let him know we were probably going in that day. We drop Kim and Shay off to Ashlee every day at 7:00am, so we got everything we needed for the hospital before we left. It was odd how casual and relaxed we were. In the movies people are usually running around and screaming. HAHA When we dropped the girls off we let Ashlee know we were headed to the hospital, just in casewe couldn't pick the girls up. She was way more frantic than we were, she hurried the girls out of our car so we could go. I remember talking to Josh about how funny it was that we were the ones headed to the hospital, and we were so calm. When we got there, the nursing staff went ahead and put us in a room, but sounded iffy on keeping me. They seemed to think I wasn't in labor enough to be admitted. WRONG! lol. They kept me about 1.5 hours to "observe" my progress, then called my doctor. Right before they called him they again sounded like they were going to send me home. Thankfully, my doc knows my case and told them to keep me because I progress fast. YAY! I probably would have had a crappy day if they sent me home.

They had me walk the halls to speed up my labor until I was finally in enough pain from the contractions that I wanted my epidural. It was 10:30 by the time I got it. That also meant I couldn't get up to pee, so they tubed me, which was fine - I couldn't tell if I had the urge to go or not... I no longer could walk around, actually I could barely lift my legs an inch off the bed, so instead Josh hung out in the room with me and we talked and napped a little. All I could eat were ice chips and popsicles - I took advantage of the popsicles! Josh ordered lunch from the cafeteria and I was a little jealous. Around 2:30 I started to notice I could feel my contractions a little bit again. By 3:00 my legs weren't really tingly anymore. I tried to push the button to get a dosage boost, but it wasn't helping. We called the nurses in to check the machine, and it was fine so they called the epidural guy back in. He gave me a shot straight into the tube on my shoulder connected to the epidural spot on my back. We had to wait 10-15 mins to see if it helped. It didn't, and I was in so much pain I was crying. The guy came back and did another boost shot... same thing. By now I was all but screaming. My pain was at a 12 on a 10-point scale, and my contractions were coming every 1.5 minutes. The epidural guy came back and this time decided he would check the needle in my back - and found the problem! It had slipped and the meds were going into a nerve and not where they should. He adjusted it and voila! in about 10 minutes my contractions became mild and my legs started to tingle. He gave me extra dosages of meds to counteract the pain, and before I knew it not only were my legs tingly, I couldn't feel them at all. AT ALL. I was laying a little sideways on the bed, and my right leg kept slipping off, it was weird and funny. They also had a lady come in and break my water for me, and I felt it gush out. Very weird feeling. After the epidural fiasco was over, it was about an hour and I went from being dialated from a 4 to a 10, and effaced all the way. YAY! It was 5:00pm and it was time to start pushing. PUSHING? How was I to do that when I couldn't feel any thing? Josh was on one side, and the nurse on the other. They both had one of my limp legs, pulled it up, and I was told to hold my thighs, lift my torso up, take a deep breath and hold it while I "pushed" as hard as I could. I definately had no idea if I was doing it right, but they said I was. I could only push during a contraction, and after about four of them the pressure was too much for my tummy. I was suddenly sick and Josh barely got the puke bag to me in time. Wow there was a lot of ice chips and popsicles in my tummy. (sorry again for the graphics) And it was like water - Ive never had puke so non-solid HAHA. Well, after that was done I felt MUCH better. We pushed a couple more times and then had to stop and wait for the doc. Once he got there, I pushed a couple more times and they could see her head - full head of dark hair! Josh and I thought that was funny. We are both blondies! A couple more numb bum pushes and I could actualy feel her head pop out. Kinda like squeezing a bubble out of the end of a tube - it was weird and cool. He had me wait so that he could clean out her nose and mouth super quick. It also looked like she pooped inside me so they had a special team ready to help clean that out of her, if needed. Then he had me push again and I felt her come out. Again, so weird but so cool. I'm sure it took her a few seconds to cry, but all I remember is seeing her perfect little face. Josh got to cut the cord, and they put her on my tummy while he did.

Then they had to clean her and I needed to deliver the placenta. I did NOT want to see it, and thankfully it was fast. Then they brought her to me and it was the best moment. She is amazing and perfect and a miracle. We did the skin to skin contact and it was the best moment, getting my first cuddle from my little girl.They took her to clean her up a little bit more and I got stitched up. Then they brought her back to me and I was able to nurse her for the first time. She latched right on and it was very interesting. She fed for about 10 minutes each side. By that time my parents had arrived and wanted to see her. I spent time relaxing while they held her. Josh met up with the girls' mom and brought them up as well. Then it was time for me to get cleaned up the rest of the way and move to my new room for the rest of my stay. My dad held the baby most of that time and then when it was time to move, I was put on a movable bed and I got to hold her while we went down the hall.

Our new room was much smaller, but it ended up being just fine because most of the time we were there it was just Josh and I with the baby. I ordered dinner from the cafe and was so happy since I couldn't eat all day. It was amazing! My grandparents arrived about the time we got settled into our new room, and McKay and Rachel showed up a little later that evening. We loved having visitors! I fed the baby again after McKay and Rachel left and then it was time for her first bath! I think it was about 11:30pm, and I still wasn't able to walk on my own, so they took me in a wheel chair. The hospital didn't allow anyone to carry the baby down the hall, so Josh got to wheel her little bed. It was fun seeing her first bath, and she LOVED it. Didn't cry at all, just was calm and happy. I got to pick two bows for her head, and then back to the room we went.

Oakley fell asleep and we tried getting some sleep as well. The nurses came in every few hours to help me feed her and to check our vitals. In the morning Josh left to pick the girls up from my grandparents and drop them off to Ashlee. It felt like he was gone forever, probably because I was so worried about not knowing what to do with Oakley with him gone, so I thought about the time constantly. Eventually he was back, and I was totally fine while he was gone. :) Josh's parents, Rhocki and Auriyana, and Darin and Chandra all showed up that afternoon. It was fun seeing them all and I'm glad they came all the way down to the hospital to see us. Again, I enjoyed the food from the cafe, but felt bad that Josh felt like he needed to get dollar menu drive through. Again, that evening he left to pick up Kim and Shay so they could go to his parents' house for the night. That night the nurse visits were less frequent, but they still helped wake me up and get me feeding the baby. The next morning, Sunday, Josh drove all the way to his parents to pick up the girls, and then to Ashlee's to drop them off. It was the longest he had been gone the whole time (about 3 hours) and I was quite sad. I missed him and wanted him to stay with me, but knew he needed to go get the girls. While he was gone, some church members brought me the sacrament and I was impressed with being offered that opportunity while in the hospital. I watched a movie and some boring Sunday morning TV. The doctors also came in and talked to me about discharge from the hospital and taking care of Oakley once we leave. Josh finally got back and we were able to relax during the afternoon.

We planned to leave around 6:00pm, unfortunately Oakley was having a bit of a hard time eating this last day and her blood sugar was low. There was an RN on duty that was a lactation specialist, and she came in to help me a bit. Finally, we got her to eat using a syringe taped to the side of my breast that gave a little drop of formula to help her latch on. They checked her blood sugar one more time and approved us leaving. We were told to go into the pediatrician the next day to have Oakley checked again, just to make sure. We were so happy it was time to leave. All we wanted was to go home to our own house and get settled. Josh carried all the junk to the car and brought the car seat up. He had to go back down and move the car to the emergency area, but they let me walk. the nurse took some pictures of us leaving and then we were finally on our way! I was a nervous wreck, thinking every car was out to get us. Once we got home we immediately showed the baby to the cats so they could start getting used to her. Heidi and Jordan came over and we compared Paisley to Oakley. It was so cute! My grandparents also came over for a bit. It was an enjoyable evening and we were so happy to have our new little monkey home.

Baby Showers

2011-08-18T06:18:00.015-06:00

So, back on July 16th my family threw a baby shower for me. It was held at my gmas house in Bountiful and it was way fun. I was able to help decorate and get things ready. My gma, gpa, Josh and I made a diaper cake that turned out super cute, and everything was pink. Yay! My gma let me pick my own menu and we had chicken saladon croissant, grapes, jello salad and pink punch. My gma had a cute idea to decorate an actual umbrella, and I was able to decorate the back yard just like I wanted. Thanks to everyone who came!

On August 6th my mother-in-law threw a baby shower for me. The boys all decided to go camping, so us girls had movie night and a sleepover. We watched Soul Surfer and Shaylee was so funny. She kept asking why the girl wasn't using her other hand and we had to keep reminding her it was eaten by a shark and still in the sharks tummy. About 2/3 through the show Shaylee yelled "she doesn't have an arm!" and we again reminded her the shark ate it. She said "I'm never going surfing" and then fell asleep in like 2 minutes. HAHA. Oh, we also had pizza, breadsticks and ice cream. Yhanks girls! it was fun! The next day was the shower. We had it at Heidi's house and it was a ton of fun! It was hot though, so we moved it inside. We were crammed, but it didnt bother us, we still had a great time! We had some of my favorites- jello salads and ramen noodle salad! Oh, and peach sugar-free punch. YUM! Thanks everyone!

The home stretch

2011-08-17T11:58:00.002-06:00

So I haven't posted an update in a while. I'm sorry. Its partly because things are changing both very fast and very slow, all at the same time. I want to make a separate post all about my baby showers that will do them justice. So for now... on at 39 weeks, just had an extra appt due to labor signs, on watch - she could come today, and very ready. I'm going to miss her little twists and turns in my tummy. But I'm so excited to finally have her in my arms.

A few updates :)

2011-07-14T12:37:00.006-06:00

Alright, we are almost there for this baby extravaganza! I just thought I'd put in a quick update bfore things start rolling out of control :) First of all, my boss Coco who was due a week before me (I'm due August 26th) had her baby last week. He was 6 weeks early and weighed just 4lbs. 12oz. He is still at the hospital but doing great! They named him Patrick Justin Quillen. AWWW. Second update, we had an appointment this week (week 34) and everything is going great! Baby girl is still right on track and seems healthy. Our next appt is week 36, and starting then we will have appts each week. We will get an ultrasound at week 36 to make sure she is upside down. Hopefully I'll get a few last pictures of her in the baby oven before she comes out in a few weeks :) Josh and I are steadily getting things prepared for her arrival. He put up the changing table Heidi and Jordan gave us, and it is so dang cute! We have also started cleaning out closets, reorganizing rooms, and getting our hospital bag ready to go. I have pre-registered at the hospital, and am working on some cute little map cards to give to those we want to visit us at the hospital (LDS hospital is kinda hard to find). My sister and gma are throwing a baby shower this Saturday, so I'll be sure to update you with all those details. One of my cousins and my aunt couldn't come, so they dropped by last week and let me open my gifts early. It was like a baby shower all by itself! They were so generous and brought some of the cutest outfits! Also a bottle warmer and wipes warmer... awww. So nice! I'm way excited for the hair clips my cousin made, and I already told Josh this will be a hair bow baby! HAHA I'm so thankful for those who have been so supportive to us so far! Okay, now for the baby update :) Our baby is about 18.5 inches and around 5 lbs. Roughly the weight of your average cantaloupe! She is constantly wriggling around and trying to find a space big enough for an arm, or a leg, or a bum... lol. Sometimes she jabs me in the wrong spot, and it kinds hurts, but she is so dang cute, it's okay! Her lungs are almost fully developed, and even though she still has 6 weeks to go, it's been said that if she came now, she would be okay. But we are crossing our fingers that she holds out a while longer :)

Baby Update

2011-06-30T20:10:00.005-06:00

Who's a little annoyed I haven't updated in a month? (I'm raising my own hand). Yes, I need to update, so here I am. We haven't gotten any new ultra sound pictures since our appt at the beginning of April, but He said I'll get some at my 36 week appt. YAY All of our pregnancy updates are saying different weights and sizes... so I"m just going to take an average! Our baby girl is 4 lb.s and about 16 1/2 inches long. She is about the weight of a Jicama amd the size of a watermelon. Skin is smoother and she is gaining the layers of skin needed to fatten her up and get her ready for birth. She has turned head down and continues to move around like crazy, kicking and elbowing me all day long :) I get swollen feet and ankles almost every day now, and by eating more bananas I have avoided charlie horses in the middle of the night. Heidi said she would help take some pictures of me with my cute belly in the next few weeks. And my first baby shower is July 16th. I'm so excited! We are 32 weeks along, 57 days to go! (thats about 8 weeks)

Anniversary Fun :)

2011-05-22T15:36:00.022-06:00

This year for our anniversary we decided to have a stay-cation and do lots of fun things around the Ogden-Salt Lake-Provo area. We took two days off work, and had the weekend, so we had four days to have fun! The first day was our actual anniversary, and Josh was in charge of planning that day.
**Fair Warning - May Get Photo Overload!**

Day 1: May 12^th, Actual 2 Year Anniversary

We slept in a little bit, got up, got ready, and headed out. Today was a complete surprise for me, so Josh drove and I rode along. We stopped and grabbed some breakfast at Smith’s since we were out and had breakfast in the car. HAHA we are cool like that!

Josh’s first activity was going to Thanksgiving Point Gardens, where I had my bridal pictures done. The tulip festival had just ended, but the tulips were still in full bloom. It was a great opportunity to try out my new camera! Enjoy this set of pictures...

I love this green blossomed tree and the shady flowers underneath.

Pretty bird!

Check out my focus on my new camera! YAY!

Love this color!

You could pay a quarter for fish food and these Koi fish were going nuts!

More focus fun! I love my camera!

Here we are! Another one of those green blossomed trees in the background!

Josh entering the secret garden

This is one of my favorite spots

Josh found a birds nest!

This fountain is so cool!

Here we are again!

Panoramic...

Baby bump picture! HAHA. Just to note, I was 25 weeks along in this picture!

After the gardens, we were hungry, so we headed to Jason’s Deli and ate some yummy yummy lunch.

Then Josh planned to have us go to a movie. We decided on Thor, and it was a really awesome movie.

After that we went home and relaxed for a couple hours, watching some episodes of Smallville. Then it was dinner time. YAY! Josh took me to this restaurant near our house, Lorena’s Mexican Restaurant. Oh it was yummy. Big planner all smothered in sauce and beans and rice… yum yum. It was so good. And Josh ordered two appetizers and it was so much food! Three meals worth for my part of it. HAHA. It was so good though.

Day 2: May 13^th

First off – Happy Birthday to Heidi !!

I was in charge of planning this day, and I had no idea what to choose! I spent a good 30 minutes in the morning pulling up some things online to make my final decision on what to do. YIKES! But it turned out really great! We started off by going to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. It was actually really fun! Here are some pics for you to enjoy **my camera got angry with the low light building and high light aquariums, so some photos came out crappy**

Seahorses!

This little guy popped out of his hiding place for me. So I made sure I snapped him a good pic.

DUDE!

I love the black and white stingray!

Old man...

The penguins were so cute! And so fast, it was hard to get a good picture of them.

These scorpions were in like a barrel. You look in and can see them all brown, then you push a button and a black light came on and they glowed. SICK! Josh loved them...

Gecko!

After the aquarium, we headed off for some games and mini-golf at Boondocks in Draper. WAHOO! We are awesome at mini-golf, and won some candy and a cute giraffe finger puppet at the arcade. HAHA. We are so cool. :)

Then we took a drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon and found a nice little place to have a picnic. It was perfect! So relaxing… and our homemade sandwiches, chips, and soda definitely hit the spot. We even found a pretty waterfall nearby :)

After we came back down out of the canyon, I had Josh find the nearest Red Mango. Neither of us had been there before, but I kept hearing it was good. Oh it was so so good! I got these little Japanese balls that popped open and had mango stuff inside. We will definitely go back again.

After that I didn’t really have any plans besides dinner, and it was still kinda early, so we decided to go see another movie. We decided on Fast Five, which was also very good. It made me laugh a little because it was like they had to get one guy from all of the other four movies in this fifth movie. Like a Fast and Furious reunion. LOL. But it was good.

Afterwards, we decided to have our left overs from Lorena’s the night before, since we had so much food. HAHA. It was a good day.

Day 3: May 14^th

First thing we got up early and drove up north so Josh could play basketball with the guys. Afterwards we went to Jeremy and Hillarie’s so I could get my hair colored and cut. MUCH NEED, thank you Hillarie!!! Afterwards Josh surprised me with lunch at this place I love but is usually way out of our budget. It’s called the Pita Pit and they only have them in Provo and Ogden. It’s kinda like subway, only in a pita… and usually they cook the meat. YUM!

For most of the rest of the day we just hung out at home. Josh’s parents were going to stop by and say hi since they were going to be in the area, but it seemed like Josh didn’t know what time they were coming. I kept asking him and he said we just need to get our house clean before they come over. We cleaned for a couple hours, then I was exhausted. We had rented Super Mario Bros. Wii so we started playing that and having fun. Josh had secret dinner plans and said our reservations were at 6:30. Well, that time rolled around and he was like, we have to go now! So we scrambled to leave and jump in the car super fast. Then he drove up the hill, and not very fast, so it was really confusing. But I didn’t say anything cause it was supposed to be a surprise. He seemed kinda lost, then finally asked me where Little Caesars was at. We found it and he went in alone, but came out with just bread. He said he had ordered a special pizza with pepperoni’s in a “2”, but it wasn’t done yet. So it would be another 20 minutes. I suggested we go to a store nearby to browse while we waited. While we were there he got a call from LC’s that the pizza was done, but they ended up doing it with the wrong toppings. He got kinda upset and told them nevermind. He was really frustrated the day didn’t go how he wanted. He said we could just eat the spaghetti at home and started driving home. I suggested we go to Papa Murphy’s and since they make your pizza right there, we could ask for them to do a number 2. He said okay, but we should use the coupons we have on our fridge. So we headed home and I offered to go up and grab the coupons. He was in a pretty foul mood so I was trying to help. But he said no, he would get them. Well, he got up there and ended up calling me because he said he couldn’t find the coupons. So I grabbed some things we needed to take in anyways and came up to the house. When I opened the door, our table had been pulled into the living room and a beautiful candlelight dinner had been set up. His parents had ALREADY come down and set this all up while we were running around. Josh confessed he had been faking his bad mood, and he never had an order at LC’s. So the phone call at the store was pretend. HAHA. The dinner was salad, Papa Murphy’s BBQ Chicken pizza, and Cherry Cheesecake. Topped off with bubbly yummy juice. While we had the pizza cooking Josh put on our wedding mix on iTunes and pulled me up to dance. Well, that did it, I started bawling. He doesn’t dance! The only time he has ever danced with me was our wedding day. AWWWW. The dinner was so good! And while we ate we put on our wedding video to watch. It was another good night.

Happy Two Year Anniversary !!!

2011-05-12T09:29:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to post a quick little HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my sweetheart Joshua. It has already been two years! Wow, it feels like barely a few months is all. We must be having an amazing time, because time is flying! I love you Joshua so much! Our decision to get married two years ago today was the absolute best thing we have ever done. Dispite the devil trying to stop us in the most hurtful of ways, we perservered and did what we knew was God's desire for us. I love you so much! MWAH!

Baby Girl Update

2011-05-06T21:18:00.004-06:00

Hey Everyone! Alright, well we are due for an update :) We had an appointment this week, and everything is great! Baby girl is healthy and good, she is still right side up, so the doc is watching that and making sure she turns in the next month or so. I get to start taking classes and going in for a hospital tour over the next couple months. I'm excited and scared for them at the same time. I have no idea what I'm doing, HAHA. But I guess I'll learn, all new moms do. Our baby is 24 weeks, 13 1/2" and 1 1/2 lbs. Her hands are her main excitement right now and she is using them to explore her little world. She is the length of an ear of corn, but since she is all bundled up she is the size of a head of cauliflower. 112 days to go!

Baby Update - April 11

2011-04-11T21:15:00.005-06:00

Alright, update for the week. :) We are now 20 weeks and 5 days along. Our baby girl is 10 1/2 inches and 13 oz. big ! 137 days to go! We have a couple of sources for our baby's size this week. The countdown at the top of our blog says a melon. My pregnancy email says she is as long as a banana. and another source said she is as big as a large heirlom tomato. I like all three, so we will have a little fruit basket below :)

And we are having............ A puppy!

2011-04-11T20:40:00.002-06:00

Haha. Considering it was April Fools day when we found out, we thought it would be funny to tell everyone we were having a puppy. Well, Heidi and Toni didnt like that much. But we also wanted to tell our parents first. We ended up getting some plastic Easter eggs and a basket. Inside the eggs we hid a newborn bootie that was the right color. We made them go through all the eggs and find the one that had the surprise inside... ITS A GIRL !!! HAHA... so Happy April to everyone.

16 Week Appointment 3.7.2011

2011-03-09T18:56:00.005-07:00

This week we went in for our 16 week appointment, wahoo! I didn't think we would be doing an ultra sound, but we did! :) At first he did just the little heartbeat machine, but then decided to do a full ultrasound just to make sure baby is doing good. It was really fun to see. The baby was kicking its legs like crazy and the doc was like "its doing the can-can in there". HAHA. I've got myself a dancin baby! We got a couple of pictures, and he scheduled us for the BIG ultrasound where they do all the big tests and measurements and we get to find out the gender of the baby. I'm so excited, just three weeks!! Okay, and the ticker this week says our baby is 5 oz. and growing fast. Limbs are lengthening, almost reaching birth proportions. 170 days to go!

Baby Update

2011-03-05T20:06:00.005-07:00

Alrighty, we have now officially entered the second trimester - WAHOO!! 15 weeks this week, and my baby is the size of an apple. Considering what I have been craving, this size makes me happy. Now when I see a nice, juicy, lucious green apple I simultaneously salivate and get warm fuzzies thinking of my coming little one. Love it. Other than that, my symptoms have mostly subsided. Still no morning sickness, and smells have to be really strong again to bother me. YAY. On the other hand I'm starting to feel more awkward and bulky, though I'm not hardly showing at all. I have to sleep on my side most the time, with occasionally sleeping a few minutes on my back. Turning over is terrible, it sends sharp pain through the side of my tummy. I have to be careful sometimes. I have also hit the chronically tired stage. I could seriously go to bed at 7pm each night. My nose has also been super over active as well. Stuffy, clogged sinuses, a little bit of pressure through my ear and jaw as well. I was worried it was a sinus infection so I made a quick visit to my doc this past Monday. No infection. After speaking with him and reasearching a bit, IT hink it's regular pregnancy symptoms, especially since they were absolutely terrible three days straight, and now today it's only mucus in the back of my throat. All well. :) We have a regular appointment this coming Monday, and if there are any developments, we will let you know. THis week my countdown says the baby is 5" and 3 1/2 oz. Movements are coordinated and eyebrows and eyelashes appear. 15 weeks and 3 days along! The baby is the size of an apple.

Samuel Curtiss Bingham

2011-03-05T19:56:00.005-07:00

Well, of course my last post was done on Feb 16th, and the next day, Feb 17th, Mr. Samuel Bingham entered the world. I haven't seen him yet, but I hear he is such a cutie and a really good baby. Hopefully I will get to meet him in person soon. BTW, my neice/nephew count is now up to 19, then add our three and thats 22 grand kids between our two familes. Whew!

Trent - 3

Rhocki - 2

Ben - 3

Toni - 3

Jamie - 5

Darin - 1 (and 1 on the way)

Heidi - 1

Plus we have Kimberlee, Shaylee and one on the way.

New Baby Developments

2011-02-16T21:09:00.006-07:00

This week Josh and I made the decision to sign a lease extension on our appartments for anopther 3 months. We are still not quite where we need to be to get into a house, but we are SO CLOSE. A couple more months. This decision will hopefully work well, as long as we find the right house deal :) This way our lease will end at the end of July, and we can move and get settled in right in time for baby to come. Other than that, just to report on our ticker. Today it says our baby is 3 1/2" big, and 1 1/2 oz and it can make sounds (baby giggles anyone?). Its possibly starting to suck it's thumb - which is very common in the womb. Even though the ticker on this blog says its still the size of a plum, my weekly email I get said it was the size of a lime. :) Since my blog is "Raspberries and Limes", I thought that was super fun. So today, it's all about limes.

12 Week Appointment

2011-02-16T21:01:00.006-07:00

Well, not too much to report on the baby front. The little squirt seems to be growing great and is getting bigger every day. We went in on February 7th for our 12 week appointment. No ultra sound, but we got to hear the heart beat. It was amazing, it was so fast and cute. In March we will have our 16 week, then in April our 20 week. The 20 week appt. is when we will be able (hopefully) to find out if it is a boy or girl. When I checked the status last week, it said the baby is the size of a plum, the intestines are mostly all formed and moving from the umbellical cord and into the baby's abdomen. Its little hands open and close and it has started swimming and moving around, though I probably wont be able to feel it move for a while. :)

Paisley Marie Bodily

2011-02-16T20:52:00.004-07:00

Well, of course I'm behind on my posts, so I'm sorry I didn't get this up earlier. But I wanted to highlight the arrival of Miss Paisley Bodily. She arrived on February 2nd, and is an amazing little girl. Heidi and Jordan couldn't be more proud and awed by her, and the rest of the family adores her. Heidi and I are planning on doing a super cute photo shoot once all of the sicknesses and such calm down. But for now, we have just a few pics. :)

Heidi's Baby Shower

2011-02-16T20:06:00.005-07:00

For Heidi's baby shower, the party was held over at the house of the family she nanny's for. The host, Sarah, was amazing and put together a really wonderful party for Heidi. There were two parts to the party, the morning was an open house for friends and neighbors. Myself, Candy, Jamie, Chandra, and Tiff all came to the whole day. We were in charge of helping out, and I of course had photo duty :) Sarah had bagels, quiche, juice and fruit. It was all so good. The second half of the party was more of a sit down lunch for family. Sarah had gotten this amazing pasta and salad. There were also a number of sweets and desserts. Candy and I both made a bunch of mini cheese cakes. Everything was a lot of fun and Heidi was showered with so many helpful gifts. Thanks to everyone for coming!

New Years

2011-02-16T20:04:00.007-07:00

For New Years this year we had the party over at Darin and Chandra's house. We did pot luck and all the food was amazing! We spent the evening playing games and having a really good time. It was a very fun holiday.

Christmas 2010

2011-02-08T15:51:00.010-07:00

Yep, I missed updating about Christmas, so I thought I would throw it in here... a month or so late :) Our Christmas was really fun this year. It was the first time we had the girls sincew we have been married, and we did a lot of fun stuff to make this Christmas special for all of us. On Christmas morning the girls had a fun time seeing what Santa had brought for them. The kitties even got a stocking and love thier new little outfits. Josh has spent many hours building a cedar chest for me and it is absolutely beautiful. We decided to show the girls what we were giving to grandma and grandpa this year. It wsa the little wrapped up onesie to announce we were pregnant. The girls were so excited and kept asking us all day if they could say something yet. They did a good job of keeping a secret. (We had done this for my grandparents the night before and they were so excited!) After we got ourselves ready for the day, we headed to my parents house for breakfast and presents. We ate first and then my brother Ben showed up with his family. We visited for a while until after they left. Then we did presents just between Mom and Dad, Toni and Kids, and us. We have always been closer, so doing presents all together is special to us. We decided to give the onesie gift last, and to have the moms open it. When my mom opened hers, she was confused at first, thinking it was for her dog. HAHA It was only about 2 seconds of confusion until she understood, but then she was so excited she couldn't talk. My sister realized this was something big and grabbed the onesie so she could see it. Both of them started freaking out and by then I was crying. It was so fun to announce it this way! A while later my sister Rhocki showed up with her family and we gave my mom permission to show her the gift. She seemed more excited than the first two HAHA. It was really fun to see thier reactions and not have to actually say "Guess what..." The gift said it all. After we got done there, we headed to Josh's families house for Christmas with them. We were there forever before we ended up doing presents. We were waiting for Heidi and Jordan but they finally said they would still be awhile and to start without them. Same thing, we waited until the end of the gift giving to give our one last gift. We had Josh's mom open it and the first thing she asked was if it was a joke. LOL she was so excited she was telling everyone. When Heidi and Jordan got there she had them open it and all Heidi said was "I knew it !!!", and all Jordan said was "I knew it too cause Josh already told me." JOSH - YOU BRAT! mwah mwah. It really was a ton of fun and a great Christmas. We ended the day watching movies at Josh's parents house. Thank you to everyone for such a memorable holiday season!

Baby Update - PAISLEY BIRTH

2011-02-02T17:03:00.006-07:00

**First of all - Miss Paisley Bodily arrived today. I hear she is very healthy and just over 7 lbs. I don't have all the details yet, but we are headed up there to visit in a few, so I'll update more on that later**

Alrighty, a little bit of an update for you. I haven't had another appointment yet, but a few things have been going on. First, I've been very sensitive to twisting movements. Like if I try and flip over while sleeping, if I do it just right I get a painful little jab in my side tummy. Fun... I have been having some sore back problems already, which I half way expected considering my back history (love thosae cortizone shots and MRI's). So to help with it, I have been sleeping only on my sides, with a pillow between my legs. Helps a ton! Also had a yucky reaction to some food this weekend. Threw up once on Saturday (ugh), but thankfully it wasn't morning sickness (yay). Its gone now, YAY! Other than that, not too much to report. My count down says the baby is 2" big and about the size of a plum! Weighs about 1/2 oz and lungs are functioning. Awww... I'm 11 weeks today, so only about a week or so left of my first trimester. WOW... that went fast. I have an appointment next week and I hope our ultrasound pictures are more clear.

Second Appointment and a picture!

2011-01-20T17:25:00.006-07:00

Over the last four weeks we have had Kim and Shay a ton. Between Christmas, New Years, Ashlee having to work and Ashlee going to Hawaii, we have had a busy few weeks. It has finally settled down a bit, and I thought I better update about our 8 week appointment we had last Monday. It was pretty quick and painless, just checking vitals, making sure I'm feeling okay, and then on to the good stuff. The ultrasound! The baby is 7 weeks and 6 days old, and doing great! I saw it's little heartbeat and it was fluttering very well. I can't wait until we find out if it is a boy or a girl :)

Nothing else has really been going on. I still haven't had any morning sickness, though the smell issue is still there. And some food still sound terrible to me. But I have been doing great! The only new thing I have noticed is an increase in nightmares, but I heard that can be normal.

And it Will Be Announced...

2011-01-05T19:56:00.003-07:00

So, since pretty much our entire family knows and some friends know... Josh and I think it's pointless to try and keep it a secret anymore. So I decided to tell my work today... well besides Coco, Martin and Bill who already knew. We had a department meeting today, and even had Chandra on the phone all the way from California. Coco and I joked yesterday about me adding it to the end of our meeting, and I figured WHY NOT! So when Coco asked if anyone had anything else to discuss or add, I said "I do..." and of course Coco knew so she was like "yes....." and I said "I'm going to have a baby!" and the girls were all so excited! Veronica wanted to shout it from the rooftops and get baloons and streamers and stuff. HAHA Silly girls! A little while later I went down to Coco's office to dropp off some papers and Katie was in there. I figured that since she knew about Coco, I better tell her about me too. She freaked out and wanted to tell her dept. Coco jumped up and was like "yes! lets go tell them right now!" LOL I let them and it was a little awkward but fun. All the girls were very excited and asked me a bunch of questions. :)

Okay, so update on me and whats going on. I have noticed cravings for things like chicked fried steak with gravy, grilled cheese sandwiches dipped in marinara sauce, and chicken patty sandwiches (like the Original Chicken Sandwich at Burger King). Smells are still bothering me a ton, as is the look of food. Mushy food in particular grosses me out. But I'm doing good with all fruits, mac and cheese, peas, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, soup, chicken nuggets or any breaded chicken (grilled, boiled, or similar chicken gags me), frozen burritos, pizza - OF COURSE, toast (but not cold bread), pickles, cereal, juice, and I'm craving milk like I can't get enough. I'm finally not sick anymore, so I can breathe all through the night. I'm still able to do most of my exercize routine, except the ones where I lay on my stomach and have to lift my arms and legs alternatively. My tummy hurts when I tried like I'm squishing something I shouldn't be. So I'm skipping those ones from now on.

Oh, and according to our little countdown, our baby is the size of a raspberry today. :) My fave!

First Appointment, First Few Weeks

2011-01-03T20:28:00.003-07:00

We had our first appointment last week on Monday. Our doc did an ultra sound, but we couldn't see much so we didn't get a picture. I fainted (twicw) while trying to get my blood work done, and was re-assured that I can continue eating and doing all the things I have normally been doing. That was a relief considering I love my Wild Strawberry Crystal Light !! But we get to come back on the 10th for our 8 week appt and he said we should be able to see the little heart beat and get a picture or two. YAY As of right now I have not been sick at all, I have a very tender *cough* chest *cough*, I have to pee 8,000 times a day, certain foods sound absolutely discusting to me (though so far I have avoided them - so no sickness), and millions of non-existent smells all the sudden are affecting me in a million ways (mostly negative ones). But again, no sickness yet. My mom told me she was hardly sick at all with my older sister, but when she had me the nausia never went away, hopefully I get more of the first one throughout all my pregnancies. It's kinda weird, but in a way the back of my mind is still worried I'm not really pregnant. With this lack of "normal" symptoms, its easy to be skeptical. But it's been a week since my blood work was done, and if there was a problem, I'm sure they would have told me by now. Right? Sigh...

Family Addition

2011-01-03T18:52:00.009-07:00

It has finally happened, Josh and I are expecting a little addition to our family. And we couldn't be more excited. We had been working on this for quite a while now, and each time another month went by without results, we kept asking "what are we doing wrong?" Was there some special secret we didn't know about. Everytime we prayed about it we got the same answer, we needed to be sealed in the temple first. Well, we kept trying, just in case... but of course we got nothing... As it got to be fall time, our lives got busy getting things done around our house and hanging around with family. At the beginning of November we were so excited to find out that our temple sealing was finally approved. We got excited and got things ready for that big day, and only a couple days before it, we were (of course) visited by our favorite Aunt Flo. So even though we hardly had a moment to think about anything, the back of my mind was still hopeful for the next couple months to bring a big change. About a week before Christmas, the usual monthly disappointment didn't come...and after 5 days we were too anxious to wait any longer... to our excitement, the test was positive! We were ecstatic and crying and talking non-stop. But my skeptic brain kept nudging me saying to get a second opinion. So three days later we took another test, a different brand just to be sure. It also was positive, and no sign of a visit from Aunt Flo... It was enough to convince us. We talked about waiting to tell our family, but Christmas was two days away and the temptation to announce it on such an amazing day was too much for us. We found these cute little outfits and wrapped them up like any other Christmas gift we were giving our family. We saved it for last and it was so fun seing thier faces when they opened it and figured out what was going on. My mom thought for a split second it was a sweater for her dog until she read what the outfit said. And Josh's mom thought we were joking (again)... My grandma couldn't believe it and was so excited, and Heidi kept saying "I knew it!". It was so fun! So, the moral of this little story is that getting sealed in the temple is one of the most important things you will ever do. It will determine your entire life and once you have achieved it, the things you want in life can be yours if you are living God's way!
Well, the counter at the top of the blog will keep you up to date on how far along we are, and I will continue to update with all of our appointments, milestones, symptoms, and aversions... such a lovely place to document this incredible journey!

TEST # 1

TEST # 2

The gift... surprise!!!

Josh's mom opening "the gift".

My grandparents opening "the gift"

Holiday Time 2010

2010-12-23T16:38:00.013-07:00

We had quite a few parties to attend this year, and each one was a blast. Thank you to all of the hosts for such a great time!

STEPHENS FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY

Tiffany and Mom did this amazing painting thing. We couldn't
tell what it was until like right at the end.

ANDREASON FAMILY CHRISTMAS
(my camera was doing funny things...)

Look at my HOT SANTA~

DAVINCI HOLIDAY PARTY

(Cucina Nassi)

JACKSON FAMILY PARTY

(pizza contest and photo scavenger hunt)

Koy 11th Birthday

2010-12-23T16:31:00.009-07:00

My nephew Koy turned 11 this year. How weird is that? I remember being in high school, coming home to have my nephew there, playing hide and seek throughout the house, being the cutest little monster ever. When he was two years old I tested him on which DVD cover was which Lord of the Rings movie. He aced the test. :) I'm a proud aunt! He isn't the oldest of my neices and nephews, but he was the first that I was close to. Its hard to believe he is so big! 5 years and he is driving... weird!

Getting Trees

2010-12-23T16:28:00.009-07:00

We were able to bring my sister and Koy along this year to pick out thier own Christmas tree. Koy thought it was awesome to cut down his own tree. It was a ton of fun and they had a good time.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-23T16:22:00.003-07:00

I didn't take any pictures this day (weird, huh?) but we did have a really great day of remembering everything we are grateful for. Early in the day we went to the Jackson "lunch" and it was really nice to be around all those family members. Many of them we haven't seen in a while. Later in the day, after we had dropped Kim and Shay off to thier mom's, we headed to my grandparents house and had a cozy second Thanksgiving with my parents, sister and her kids, and my grandparents. It was very nice and relaxing.

Temple Sealing - November 20th

2010-12-23T15:55:00.015-07:00

What can I say..... he's finally mine forever!!!!!!!!!! HAHA. This day was so wonderful. It was a day I had looked forward to for more than a year and a half, and all of the anticipation and nervousness, and anxiety over planning a SECOND wedding day was worth it. The day went perfectly! So many people we love were there to support us, we got some amazing pictures of everything I wanted, and the rain didn't come until AFTER we were done. A couple funny stories, we got done with the ceremony and as I was getting dressed Heidi came in to help me as I had asked her. She brought the cape that her and Josh schemed to get for me and my grandmother exclaimed "Oh Tacy, you look like you came right out of Dr. Shivago!" It was so funny! Also, while we were waiting to come out the front doors the worker let us know there were 52 wedding scheduled that day. WOW! Thank you to everyone, this was one of the most amazing days of my life. I love you Josh! FOREVER!

P.S. I freaking love my photographer - check em out! Creativ Productions (Sandy, UT)

Jazz vs. Suns - First Home Game

2010-12-23T15:53:00.008-07:00

Josh and Darin rallied together to get us all to go to the first home game of the season, against the Phoenix Suns. It was a ton of fun, even though the Jazz didn't win. I'm glad we could get together for such a fun day!

Here is the arena - ready to go for the first game.

Take a look towards the ceiling - see all those balloons???

Here is a better look at the balloon nets - I was so excited!

They released them right after announcing all the players!!!

Of course, just my luck, they only fell on the lower bowl. LAME

But it was cool to see everyone play with them!

Halloween 2010

2010-12-23T15:49:00.007-07:00

This year for Halloween we didn't have the kids, darn it! But we were able to go to the Jackson family Halloween party and had fun playing Minute to Win It games. Check out Heidi's blog for the awesome videos.

Josh and I were Dorothy and the Elphaba

Tiffany was a dancing Zombie

Heidi and Jordan were a plug and a socket

McKay and Rachel were a football player and a cheerleader

Darin and Chandra were Greeks

And Mom and Dad teamed up with Lennie and Brenda to be KISS

Bodily Photo Shoot

2010-12-23T15:47:00.009-07:00

Back in October I took some photos for Heidi and Jordan. They wanted some new pics as well as some really cute pregnancy pics for little miss Paisley to have when she's older. We took them up near Lava Ranches and then at a rest stop on the way back home. I think they turned out pretty dang cute :)

Vernal Trip Oct 2010

2010-11-03T07:54:00.002-06:00

Yep, thats right. Our vacation this fall was to Vernal. Wahoo! Now before anyone starts knocking our choice, you have to understand how fun Vernal is to our family. :) My sis-in-law Jamie lives down there with her husband Jake, thier kids Spencer, Baylie and Jaxon, and then Jamie has a little boy on the way. We rode motorcycles, four wheelers, jet skiis (yes, we did this on the river), Jamie and I made a HUGE batch of salsa, we made freezer jam, the kids played and played (and fought) and played, and basically we had quite a good time. Its always a great adventure to go down to Vernal. :)

My Amazingly Talented Husband

2010-11-03T07:49:00.003-06:00

My husband Josh is amazingly talented. I don't think people realize quite how talented he is. When he asked me what project I wanted him to make next, I said my dream entertainment center. Which, by the way is a HUGE 3 peice thing that has a center section customized for all the DVD players, Wii accessories, decorations, etc. and has two matching book shelves on either side that I can fill with DVDs, decorations, books, etc. Well, he started it, taking care of only the middle section for now. We probably wont do the book shelves until after we move so we don't have to haul them. Look at what my love made for me out of a simple sheet of wood. :)

BYU vs. SDSU

2010-11-03T07:47:00.002-06:00

We love going to games!

Josh's work buddy Adrian and his sweet wife Caitlyn

Yep, we like to kiss

And yep, I like taking pretty pictures

This is how close we were... 11th row baby!

Wow... they finally won! HAHA. Josh's boss gave us some tickets to the BYU vs. SDSU game. They were GREAT seats. 11th row on the side, kinda close to the end zone. Thanks!!!

Jazz Scrimmage

2010-11-03T07:45:00.002-06:00

Josh and I at the Jazz Scrimmage Game

Koy and Dustin - random - we didn't even know they would be there!

Josh and Darin

Dallin and Colby

McKay and Rachel

This is our veiw after we moved seats

We were part of the commercial they filmed for a fly away to see them play the Lakers. It was kinda fun! Oh, gives you an idea of the veiw before we moved seats. The other seats were way better.

Them unveiling the new court... ohhh.... ahhh!

Pulling back the huge plastic sheet.

Josh found out the Utah Jazz were having a free scrimage game at the ESA... of course, we had to go... :) Oh, and randomly we ran into my nephew Koy and my sister's friend.

Bingham Photo Shoot

2010-11-03T07:44:00.001-06:00

I took a bunch of pictures for Jamie so she can make some canvas frames for her kids' rooms. Here is some of my favorites from the shoot.

Spencer and Jaxon Birthday

2010-11-03T07:39:00.004-06:00

Spencer Opening Birthday Gifts

Jaxon Opening Birthday Gifts

Kids (and Jamie) with Chuck E. Cheese

Mole Wacken' 101

Get 'em Kim!

McKay, Rachel, Jordon and Heidi

Jaxon learning to drive... at 2 years...

Camille - Fast and the Freaking Cute

Jamie was up with her kids to celebrate Spencer and Jaxon's birthdays. She took them to the circus, and then met the rest of the family at Layton park for some ice cream and a pinata. We then all headed over to Chuck E Cheese to play some arcade games and have some fun. There was one game there that I fell in love with. Basically, it's just a screen and when you put your money in, a maze appears on the screen. You have to follow the maze with your finger as fast as possible before the time runs out. And as you get closer to the end, the time goes faster. You get a few tickets if you get close, and a jackpot if you make it. I won the jackpot once, and I think Heidi did too. But we all thought it was so fun!

Utah State Fair 2010

2010-11-03T07:36:00.004-06:00

At the concert...

Fluffy bunny!

I LOVE the flowers...

You could pay to take your picture with these sea lions...

Nice cake! I like the contrast between layers,

Baby piggies!

Josh and I went to the state fair again this year. It was fun to see all the animals and be in the atmosphere. Josh won me a stuffed animal, we got a free Dance Heads video if us being dorks, and we saw a kid that used to be on Hannah Montana perform. He definately has broken out of the "Disney" super star roll... Wow... it made me a bit uncomfortable to sit and watch as the concert went on...

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-28T16:39:00.013-06:00

Josh and I Camping in Lava !

Rachel is a kid magnet, the girls all love her!

Cheese!

Caught Ya!

The boys had the awesome idea of climbing up this waterfall... it was freezing and thundering down at I swear 100 mph

After the waterfall...

How did McKay talk you into that, Rach?

Mouth of the cave we went into....

We heart caves !!

Last Chance Bridge/Canal

I don't know who's sick idea this was, but who the heck wants a huge spider anywhere near them?

Cute family pic... this was the prettiest little area for a walk.

Mother and Father Jackson (Work and the Glory is rubbing off on me...)

Beautiful stream with wild summer grass and flowers

The girls collected snail shells

Geyser in Soda Springs, ID

This year for Labor Day we decided it would be great to go camping with Josh's family. It was such a blast! We ate lots of campfire food, enjoyed watching the stars, climbed through a cave in the dark, came back and climbed through the same cave with a light (we got smart), and generally had a great time! Here are some pics from the trip! I'll probably add a couple more once Heidi sends them to me.

Some Fun Pictures

2010-09-18T16:01:00.005-06:00

The weekend of McKay's homecoming we took a few cute pics of all the cousins. Here they are for you all to see :)

Treehouse Museum

2010-08-12T12:24:00.005-06:00

This past Saturday we met up with Darin, Chandra and Camille and went to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden. I had never been there and it was free that day, so we thought - WHY NOT! :) The kids all had a great time and learned a lot of fun stuff. This is definitely a great place to take the kids. Maybe pick a less busy day next time so there is more opportunity for them to do everything.

Kim and Shay Photoshoot - August 2010

2010-08-12T12:05:00.015-06:00

We took the girls out for a long overdue photoshoot to get some updated pictures of them. Some didn’t quite turn out, but some were super cute! Enjoy!

Snowbird 2010

2010-08-12T12:05:00.008-06:00

Snowbird time! :) We had so much fun hanging out at Snowbird and playing games galore! We went on the same little walk/hike we did last year and took another picture at the same spot. I think we should do this every year and see how we change. HAHA. We missed you Heidi Jordan Jamie Jake Spencer Baylie and Jaxon!!! Thanks Ernie for letting us use the condo (McKay, there is no “m” in the word condo…).

Camping at Lava

2010-08-12T08:21:00.005-06:00

We decided to head up to Lava Hot Springs and go camping with Jordan and Heidi. We only were there one night, so it wasn’t too eventful. But we did spend the day at the swimming pool and the girls had a fun time sleeping in the cabinet of Jordan and Heidi’s trailer. HAHA. The cabinet actually folds down into a bunk bed, but we decided to leave it folded up so the girls didn’t roll off. They thought it was so fun!

24th of July

2010-07-27T10:54:00.019-06:00

For the 24^th of July we went with the rest of Josh’s family to the Ogden Parade. Tiffany was going to be in the parade with her Danze Company, and Josh’s dad was pulling their float with his truck. The parade was lots of fun and Northridge High was in it – YAY! They had their marching band and their color guard is all, no cheerleaders or SBO’s or anything. However, it was strange cause back when I was in HS, Northridge didn’t have a marching band OR color guard. So, it was cool to see that. We spent most of the afternoon hanging out and playing games at the house. For fireworks we all decided we wanted something a little more low key. So we went to a place we call Rose Park that is beautiful and a prime spot to still see the fireworks, but not be down in the busy area. We took some nice pictures before it got too dark, and it was a really great evening.

Extreme Home Makeover - Jackson Edition

2010-07-27T10:54:00.016-06:00

In June, all the siblings got together and decided to re-do some parts of Josh’s parent’s house. We re-painted the living room, put down new carpet, put hard wood in the entry way and down the hallway, replaced the dining room chandelier and swapped out a lot of the decorations in the living room, and installed brand new kitchen cabinets and countertop. It was a lot of hard work and late nights, but it was so fun to do something all together with everyone working together and doing something so great for people we love. We felt like Extreme Home Makeover… wish we had a bus we could move…. HAHA

P.S - check out the other sibling blogs for more pictures!

Living Room BEFORE...

Living Room AFTER

Kitchen BEFORE

Kitchen AFTER

Elder McKay Jackson - Homecoming

2010-07-27T10:53:00.014-06:00

On June 9th, we had the amazing experience to welcome home Josh’s youngest brother, McKay, from his mission. He was serving in the Antofagasta Chile mission. Funny thing about it, I had never actually met McKay. He left at the beginning of July 2008. And the first time I ever talked to my hubby was on July 24th 2008. So I missed meeting McKay by about 3 weeks is all. It was crazy! On Labor Day, he was flying from the MTC in Provo to Chile, and had a layover in Los Angeles. He was able to call home to his family to say hello. That was the first day that I met Josh’s family, and then BAM! here is McKay on the phone and they hand the phone to me and tell me to talk to him. Talk about awkward moment. Do I talk to him and feel dumb? Do I refuse and offend this entire family I JUST met? Has this kid even been told who the heck I am? So… I talked to him for a few minutes, and yes – it was awkward. HAHA. but almost a year and a half later, a similar situation happened on Christmas day. Once again, McKay was calling home, this time from Chile. And once again, the phone was being passed around so everyone was able to say hello. This time, I had been able to speak with him 2-3 times more and wasn’t so worried about him thinking I’m dumb. Also, he had over a year and a half of letters from his family that sporadically had talked about me and Josh…. Oh – and besides the fact Josh and I had gotten married that past spring. ;) So this time, we joked about how awkward that first phone call was, about what was new for Josh and I, and about us finally getting to meet each other in person. As winter melted away and spring slowly popped up… and then summer started to hit us with full force. It was almost time for McKay to get home. His sisters were all a flutter, getting misty eyed anyone mentioned a missionary, Chile, serving, baptism, preaching the gospel… etc etc. Josh and Darin were excited to hang out, play soccer and basketball, and just have their brother home again. Curt and Candy were just overjoyed to see their youngest son again, and proud as can be to have yet another son return home valiantly from a mission. For me, I was excited, but nervous all at the same time. The last few days before, I fretted about what outfit to wear and how to do my hair. I was nervous he wasn’t going to approve of me. The morning McKay’s flight came in, all of us siblings, mom and dad, and of course all 6 of the kids, gathered together in the Salt Lake International Airport terminal. We were early, but it didn’t take too long and his flight had landed and we were waiting anxiously to see his face pop around the corner. Josh saw him first, coming down the escalator way down in the restricted area. He let everyone know he could see him and that he was wearing a pink tie. Darin could see him too. Instantly Heidi and Tiffany began tearing up. Candy kept it together pretty well until McKay rounded the corner with his camera on video recording us all. He switched it off and went straight for Candy – who of course could no longer hold it in and was openly emotional. Curt got his giant man to man hug in next, and then McKay went down the line hugging everyone. When it was my turn, he didn’t hesitate, he came right in and gave me a big hug and said he was so glad to meet me. He told me later that was a moment of nervousness for him, that he wasn’t sure if he should hug me or not, but he decided “why not” HAHA. After hanging out at the airport for a little bit, we grabbed his luggage and drove back up to Farr West. Tiffany and Avery had painted a huge Chile flag on the front lawn and Candy had helped put up a Welcome home sign. McKay went through all of his stuff he picked up while there, and gave all of us some gifts he bought. After a little while, he went with his mom and dad to get released and we all hung out at the house. His best friend Samuel came over and waited with us. We ate some pizza and had great rest of the day hanging out and enjoying time together. We stayed over at Heidi and Jordan’s house, and the boys got up and played golf early in the morning. Heidi had a pretty bad morning sickness day and wasn’t able to come hang out with the family later. We had a BBQ at Josh’s parented house, everyone had a pretty emotional and frustrating day, and then we went back to Heidi and Jordan’s and took the kids for a walk to a pond while Jamie, Jake, Candy, Curt and McKay went to the temple. Heidi was still pretty sick, and so Jordan decided to take her in. We all stayed at their house again that night, but were fast asleep before they got home. They found out Heidi and the baby were okay, just excessive morning sickness. We all went to Josh’s parents ward together and heard McKay speak. Then it was off to the house for some homecoming grub. YUM YUM! Tiffany had invited her dance instructor who was a doll. They wanted to set her up with McKay, and I think they could be cute together! It was a pretty good day, hot but good. We played some games inside for a while, and then it was time to head over to WSU for some fireworks. McKay is an awesome guy and already just like a brother to me. I’m proud of him for going to Chile and serving a mission. I have never had a sibling that has gone on a mission, so the whole mission experience is new and strange to me. But I learned a lot from McKay, and from hearing Josh and Darin talk about their missions. I hope to learn a lot more about them all. I’m thankful for the opportunity for missionaries and for the amazing message they carry throughout the world. I pray they will always be watched over, in all of their trials and tribulations, so that the people who need to hear their message will get that chance.

Fourth of July

2010-07-27T10:53:00.009-06:00

This year for the fourth of July, it seemed like an extended holiday. The actual 4th was on a Sunday, and since we live in Utah, that just wouldn't do. So the holiday was celebrated before and after! On Saturday, the 3rd, Josh and I hopped up to his parents house and did some last minute texturing on McKay's room. We only had a week before he got home to get it done! Afterwards, we went home and got some food and munchies and took off to meet Tiff, Mom, Darin, Chandra and Camille in Provo for the Stadium of Fire. Carrie Underwood was the main event, and we were so excited! The evening was great, even though my feet hurt so bad! But Carrie was great, and the fireworks were fun!

On Sunday, the Fourth of July, we didn't do too much celebrating. We went to church, hung out around the house and just relaxed.

Monday Josh and I headed to pick up my sister and my mom and go over to the Layton City festivities. They are my favorite, and I was so excited for BBQ pork on a stick! HAHA We got some yummy food, walked around to all the booths, and I bought a watch face for my watch bands I made. It was a good time, and I'm glad we got my sis and mom out and about. I miss my dad coming though. He has had to work the last two years. Later that day we went up to Josh's parents house, hung out playing games, and then all headed over to the Farr West park for the fireworks. It wqas actually a pretty good show, considering the town is quite small. I love the Fourth of July, and I'm so glad we got to spend it with family and friends.

Oregon Coast Trip - Day 5 + 6

2010-06-02T20:25:00.012-06:00

The next day we woke up and had to put away our soggy camp. Thankfully the tent did a good job of keeping out the rain, and we really only had wet tent and wet tarp to deal with. It was pretty early when we headed out and found hundereds of people taking advantage of the early morning low tide. They were digging for oysters and we were amazed at them all out there in the mud. It was pretty cool. Maybe next trip we will try this sport out! Our first stop was at the Cape Mears Lighthouse and the octopus tree. Both were really cool. The lighthouse was super short, I could hardly imagine seeing it from way out at sea. But then again, it is the only lit beacon in the dark night, so it's height wasn't really an issue. Before entering Tillamook a tire blew on my car and we had to stop and change it. DANG. Thankfully Oregon loves Les Schwab :) There was one in about every town, including Tillamook. After our second stop at Les Schwab in three days, we were off to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Yum yum! We had a good time there, got some goodies and ice cream, and then headed out to the next adventure.
Clamming in Oregon

Cape Mears Lighthouse

Octopus Tree

Tillamook Cheese Factory

At Cannon Beach we found Haystack Rock and between there and Seaside there were so many tourists finally popping up for the Memorial Day weekend, that it wasn't even fun to drive the boardwalk. Sadly, we didn't stay long in the area, and headed up to Astoria pretty quickly. The bridge was amazing, and we couldn't resist going over the bridge and the Columbia River into WA state. We flipped back around and headed up to the Astoria column, which Josh had never seen. It was pretty early in the day still, and with no more coast to see, we decided to head into Portland. After turning around a few times, we finally found the Portland temple and got the chance to walk around it. We also found a nicer restaurant so I could have fish and chips before we left our coastal trip behind. At about 9pm MST, we left Portland with the intention of driving through the night. One last stop at Mulnomath Falls for some Twilight photos and then we were on our way. I slept fitfully, and Josh wouldn't sleep at all. He got some nice pictures of the Idaho sunrise. We drove right on through and got home at about 8:45am Sunday morning. We were so tired that after meeting with the bishop and getting called as joint nursery leaders, we were excused from church and went right home and slept until about 7pm. Then went back to bed at about 10:30 and slept until 7am the next morning. HAHA - so tired! Overall, it was a really great and relaxing trip. There was so much to do and see that we will definately be going back soon!
Haystack Rock

Astoria Bridge - across the Columbia River into Washington state

Astoria Column

Astoria City from the column

Portland, OR Temple

Multnomath Falls, OR

Idaho sunrise

Oregon Coast Trip - Day 4

2010-06-01T18:23:00.012-06:00

Most of the morning we spent in Newport, walking the boardwalk and enjoying the harbor. We saw the Yaquina Head lighthouse, which is more like a house. But we didn't go inside, it was too early. There were a bunch of harbor seals right along the dock and some star fish stuck to the dock poles. It was fun to see them so close up in the wild! Once the shops and attractions opened at 10am, we did a bit of shopping and then headed to the Aquarium and discovery center. The star fish here were not in the wild, but it was fun to touch them. The shark tunnel was pretty cool as well.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Shark tunnel - looking up!

Jellyfish!!

Three Amigos...

The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse was nice and it was the tallest one that we saw. Off the cliffs thre were some Naturalists set up with high tech binoculars and we could see baby seals with thier mother's on the Pebble Beach shore below. It was calfing season, so nobody is allowed down on the beach. Up the freeway a little bit was the Devil's Punchbowl and the Whale Watching Center. Josh had so many questions about whales that we were there for almost an hour! We only saw a couple of whale spouts, but no flesh. Darn it. We did some the cutest squirrels taking off with string cheese though! In Pacific City we stopped and saw the Teacup Rock and found some starfish in the wild. YAY! However, to get there were had to wait for the waves to go out and basically leap from rock to rock to get to the higher rocks where it was safe. The starfish were down close to the waves and there was no way we could reach them. But they were so pretty. Probably the craziest thing we ever did, considering the tide was quite violent at that time of day and with the storm coming in.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Devils Punch Bowl

Eating string cheese... see the wrapper by his foot?

That night we stayed at Camp Lookout State Park. Again, lucky to find an available spot. It had started to mist/rain/sprinkle before we even got there, so the site was soggy wet. The cloud cover was too much for a decent sunset, so instead we just walked the rocky beach and visited with a local who was looking for sea crystals. He was nice and told us the best place to find sand dollars was in Long Beach, WA. We hunkered down in the tent early that night due to the rain and played a game of questions. Reminded me of "The Newlywed Game" where we tested each other on if we knew certain things about each other. It was nice to just spend time together and we were so exhausted, we fell asleep pretty early.

Teacup Rock

Bright Starfish :)

Oregon Coast Trip - Day 3

2010-06-01T17:50:00.016-06:00

On day 3 we woke up, and went over to the Cape Blanco lighthouse. It was too early to get close, but it was still pretty. We found a few tide pools at a pull off a bit down the road in Bandon, and also got a pic of Face Rock and one of the many beautiful beach houses. In old town Bandon we stopped and got ice cream and it was soooo good! We crossed the bridge and went to visit the Coquille Lighthouse... there were tons of high schools kids there, so we didn't get to tour it... so this far away pic is the only one we got of it. :)

Cape Blanco Lighthouse

Horseback Riding on the Beach

Coquille Lighthouse

In Coos Bay we ran into a problem... bald tires. Thankfully they had a Les Schwab and we were able to get two new tires put on quickly. The only major rain storm we experienced was while were were waiting for the tires to be changed, and it stopped by the time we were done. YAY! We backtracked to Shore Acres State Park and were able to see the beautiful gardens there. Mostly Rhododendrons, but a few roses and other flowers. I think I have a new favorite flower. :) Rhodies are incredibly gorgeous. We never did find the Cape Arago Lighthouse though. At the Sea Lion caves, instead of paying $15 each to go down below, we instead pulled off the road a bit and saw the sea lions down below on some rocks, sun bathing the day away! SO cute.... and loud!

At the Umpqua River Lighthouse we were able to tour the lighthouse as well as see the Oyster beds that are in the jetty. It was very interesting! Before the end of the day, we pulled off at a couple more places and found some tide pools. No Starfish yet, but the Anenomies and clams were very interesting. We found our stopping place for the night, the South Beach State Park. The campground here was a bit more expensive, but we were lucky to find a spot. We didn't realize that we may not find a camp spot since it was Memorial Day weekend. The beach was a bit of a hike away from this site, and not realizing that, we walked... the sunset was gorgeous though and we got some fun pics of the boats coming into the Newport Harbor. That night we had yummy hot dogs and milk and treats.

Umpqua River Lighthouse

Oyster Harvesting in Man Made Jetty

Camp Spot on night Three :)

Oregon Coast Trip - Day 1 + 2

2010-06-01T17:00:00.016-06:00

Finally :) Our trip to the Oregon Coast came! I won't bore you with pre-trip preparation. On to the good stuff!!! On Tuesday May 25th we got off work by 3:00pm, packed the car, got gas and ice and were on our way to the California Redwoods by 4:45. Woot woot! Our trip across Las Vegas was minimally interesting. Lots of desert, hills, blah blah blah. We made it into Reno at about midnight, stopped for gas, and got yelled at by the guy at Chevron for using the bathroom together. The lines was huge! Hotels were outrageous, so we decided to drive on and not sleep here. I do not like Reno. I had slept a little bit earlier, so Josh and I switched drivers about 30 miles outside of Susanville, CA. The hotels there were expensive too, so we decided to drive to the next rest stop and sleep there. Little did we know that after the last building in Susanville the altitude jumps thousands of feet. Before we could get to a rest stop, it was snowing like crazy! With white knuckles, we finally made it, and were able to sleep for a few hours. But it was a bit crazy.

ACCOMMODATIONS OUR FIRST NIGHT :)

The next morning, we got up, and took off for the final leg of our long drive to the coast. Outside of Redding, CA the Google Map instructions we were givin told us to turn north into the Hoopa Reservation and then east again onto a road called Bald Hills Rd. We have fondly named this route the Hoopa Trail... cause it really was like a trail... paved for part of the windy steep climb up to the summit, then suddenly dirt road for miles. On the reservation it was common for roads to have no street signs... and we drove this road for about 45 minutes with no confirmation that it was the right way. But we did see a bear cub right off the side of the road.

Bear in Hoopa indian reservation

Thankfully Josh spotted a ranger who let us know we were going the right way. WHEW! about 20 minutes later we ended up in Orick, CA and the beginning of the Redwood forest. We had a great time wandering through the enormous ancient trees. In Klamath we went through a drive through tree and got some pics. And before entering Oregon we found the Trees of Mystery and got some pics by Paul Bunyan and Babe. :)

Redwood Forest!

Rhododendrians !

Upon entering Oregon, we also got our first glimpse of the coast and had to stop and document it. So beautiful !!

The first thing we did after that was get on the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor. There were many pull offs, but we only chose a few.

Arch Rock

Natural Bridges Cove

At Harris Beach State Park we got down to the beach and found some sand dollars. the rocks here were gorgeous.

That night we camped out at Cape Blanco State Park, which was one of the greatest camp sites we have ever been to. They had hot showers, electricity, and a very nice and clean site. Good prices too! We had canned Dinosaurs and bread and it was yummy. It was chilly, but a nice night.

Before going to bed we drove over to the beach access area and were able to actually drive the car on the beach. She looked so cute out there I had to take a picture! AWW.

Sadly, we also were not watching a wave and when it came in close Josh grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the shore. It scared me so bad I screamed, jumped, and my little point and shoot camera fell out of my pocket. great... we pulled the memory card out first, then the batteries. Then once we were in the car again, Josh took it apart and blew it dry and got all of the sand out. No luck... it was toast. Thank Elyon that Jamie was wonderful enough to let us borrow her SLR camera. Otherwise we would have missed one of the most gorgeous sunsets I have ever seen...

Bella Boo

2010-05-14T21:46:00.006-06:00

As promised... more pics of little Bella Boo. :)

One Year Anniversary - May 12, 2010

2010-05-14T17:18:00.011-06:00

This week Joshua and I celebrated our one year anniversary. First of all, I want Josh to know that I love him a millon times more than the number of stars in the sky. He is the most amazing husband, best friend, lover, father, companion, exercize buddy, dreamer, person in my world and nothing that could ever come between us will separate us far enough to fit even a peice of paper between us. He has become my partner in crime in everything that I do, and to know I have someone with me every step of the way, right beside me and ready to catch me if I fall, and him being there GLADLY... that is a love I never dreamed would happen to me. But it did, and here we are now, a full year into this wonderful lifetime on Earth and forever in heaven. Its weird actually to think about, one year ago we were experiencing our wedding day, our first few days of being ACTUALLY married, our honeymoon trip to Yellowstone... and I guess I have to say that it really doesn't seem like it was that long ago, and I think I know why. Time flies when you are having fun. And boy oh boy have Josh and I had one fun year! Most of our fun was on road trips to Vernal, weekend get togethers with family, movie nights, date nights, and enjoying every second that Kimberlee and Shaylee spent with us. Our first year of marriage wasn't extremly monumental, but we did have a few milestones...

We realized we both love airplanes
We saw Josh Gracin in concert (Josh's first time, Tacy’s 3rd time…)
We went to Lava over our first Fourth of July together
We found out we love to go grocery shopping... a lot
We had our first REAL fight, like one when we don't talk for a couple hours...
We bought a kitten named Keoke
Tacy experienced “Snowbird Week” for the first time
We bought a "nice" TV
We discovered that Josh likes socks with colored toes
Kimberlee started kindergarten
We learned some good communication skills
Shaylee was potty-trained
Took our first “family” pictures
Went and saw New Moon together (Team Edward!!)
After three attempts, Josh found a job at a place he loves
Tacy still has not met McKay in person (a month and a half to go!)
We bought a couch
We learned to budget our money
Josh came closer to being debt free
We bought a Wii
We discovered there are two different ways to do chores
Small water heater = shower together, save water :)
We drove to Las Vegas for a trip
Tacy went to her first Jazz game
Tacy received her Endowment
We moved to a larger, lovelier apartment
We bought a kitten named Bella

Plus a lot of other crazy fun days that were very exciting. This year was packed with some of the best moments of our lives, and we hope our blog entries help us to remember them in the many years to come.

New Decorations and Fun at the Park

2010-05-02T12:19:00.005-06:00

So Josh's family has a friend that does vinyl lettering, and boy oh boy do we appreciate all she does! We ordered some new things from her and put together these plaques that we painted for the girls' room. Enjoy!
Oh, and we had some fun at the park a couple weeks ago - here are some pics!

BYU Women's Conference 2010

2010-05-02T10:53:00.009-06:00

This week I went for the first time to Women's Conference down at BYU. Josh's family goes every year and I was so excited to go with them. It was Candy, Jamie, Heidi, Tiffany, Hilarie, Grandma Dance, Janine, Shelley, Joanna and me. All ten of us had a wonderful time together. All of us except Jamie drove down together in a suburban and had such a great time on the way there. We got there and met up with Jamie who had driven up from Vernal the night before. Opening Se3ssion was great and Julie Beck (Relief Society General Pesident) was a great speaker. Our firt class we went to on Thursday was "There are Two Lasting Bequests We Can Give Our Children: One is Roots, the Other is Wings". It was pretty good and was given by a woman and her two adult daughters. Then Jamie, Tiffany and I tried running to the next class we wanted, "The Work of Creating SomethingBeautiful", but we couldn't get in. So we had lunch and went early to the next class. The class was good, "Choose Your Love, Love Your Choice." It was about loving your spouse in all kinds of life situations. I enjoyed it. Then closing session came and Renata Forste was the speaker. She was hiolarious and I enjoyed her talk very much. She spoke about self esteem and how commercials were geared towards women improving themselves, but men commercials are about recreational acivities. It was a very insightful talk. Before she started,an namd Daniel Beck sang a couple songs and he had a great voice. Afterwards we grabbed some dinner and then headed to lower campus to do some service kits. Janine, Joanna, Shelley and I boxed up hygeine kits for a while, then met up with everyone else. They wanted to go back and do more kits. So we went back and got split up. Jamie, Tiffany and I end up on an assembly line for school kits and it was a ton of fun. Hilarie had been walking a ton that day and ended up having swollen ankles. We grabbed some EMT's and asked for an ice pack. They asked why and we showed them cute pregnant Hilarie's swollen ankles. AWW! They helped us out and we made sure she was taken care of. We had to go to the concert, so we tied them on with some caution tape. HAHA. Hilarie was a great sport about it though, I'm glad she had such a good time. We took off to the concert and got there just in time. The other ladies had saved great seats. Hilary Weeks, Alex Boye, Dallyn Vail Bayles, Michael McLean, Mercy River, and the Fab 5 (cloggers) performed. My absolute favortie was DAllyn Vail Bayles. His voice is very similar to Josh GRoban, and his performance was amazing. His wife had thier baby like the day before and so he had such a cute story to tell about almost not coming to perform nd how she told him he needed to stay and being on the phone during the birth. He only sang a couple songs so he could get on a plane and home to his family and newest little boy. He sang this song about his son that was wondeful! I'm going to try finding it online. I also enjoyed the Fab 5, they are great dancers! It was a great first day and we all fell asleep very quick! Well, except Jamie who had to stay up to write a paper. YUCK! Sorry Jame...
Friday morning was little bit of a slow start, but it was good. I had mini waffles at the hotel that were wonderful. We were a tad bit late toopening session, but it was okay. The speakers were Barbara Thompson and Silvia Allred. They spoke about humanitarian efforts and charity works. They shared tos of videos and stories about Haiti, Chile, Katrina, Samoa, some parts of Africa, and the Dominican Republic. The stories were incredible and I really enjoyed both of thier talks. Our first class we all went together to do service and listen while we did it. But once we got there they only had one room open, so only one class was being broadcast. Darn. Heidi and I decided to g to another class instead, "Sacrifice and Selflessness in Marriage". Jamie and Tiffany met us there after staying behind to proof read and turn in Jamie's finals paper. The talk was good, but not what we expected. It didn't seem to fit the topic we thought it was about either... so it was a bit confusing. But all well. We skipped the second class again and had lunch instead. The third class we went to was by far my favorite of the whole two-day conference. It was called "I'm Thankful to be Me" and was given by Janet Preece Gleave and Rosemary Thackeray. It was amazing, and we took like 5 pages of notes. I learned a lot about loving myself and not putting myself down. The biggest lesson I learned was if I wouldn't say it to my best friend, don't say it to myself. And also, to learn to take and give compliments without saying things like "thanks but I wish I would have...". Be sincere! We headed to closing session, but grabbed ice cream along the way. I got a ix of cookie dough and peanut butter cup. My two favorites besides vanilla :) Clossing session was really good, and the speakers were Elder Dallin H. Oaks and his wife Kristen M. Oaks. She is the cutest lady ever! Such a sweetheart! Thier talk was enjoyable and really captured the theme of the whole conference, which was "Choose Ye This Day to Serve the Lord" Moses 6:33-34. And then we sang I Know that My Redeemer Lives. It was a wonderful ending to such a great conference. Thanks to everyone for coming, I hope you all had as great of a time as I did!

Tacy 26th Birthday

2010-05-02T10:30:00.006-06:00

Josh and I celebrated my 29th birthday over a couple of das, because that weekend was SO busy. On saturday he took me to lunch at Rodizio Grill. His friend from work, Adriene, and his wife Caitlyn came with us. We had a really great time and got super full ! The best thing we ate was bacon wrapped turkey. I also enjoyed the roasted pineapple, roasted tomatoes with parmesean cheese, capresse salad, and sweet and spicy chicken. That is definately a place we want to go back to someday. We also went tothe Ogden temple with Josh'd parents. I'm glad we went because they are going to be doing a major reconstruction on the temple soon and it was nice to go there before. On Monday we made home made pizza, and that was divine! Birthdays are always so fun! Oh, and you get one blurry pic thats cute, and one clear pic that we are making goofy faces.

Velise and Zander Birthday 2010

2010-05-02T10:22:00.004-06:00

So my neice Velise and my nephew Zander are 11 months and 2 weeks apart from each other. And my sister usually does thier birthday parties together, for now anyways. Once they are a bit older she will have to split them up. This year she had a BBQ at the park and was generous enough to feed everyone hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats. Along with homemade pasta salads and chips. It was wonderful! We didn't get to eat much because we were so full from our lunch earlier (see next post!) but it was really good. And the kids had a great time. Here are a few pics I got. (I should have taken more!)

Josh's 29th Birthday

2010-05-02T10:11:00.004-06:00

I know I am a bit behind, so I thought I would catch up really quick. A couple weeks ago we celebrated Josh's 29th birthday. He requested lasagna for dinner and Tiffany came down to hang out and spend the night. We were able to have Kim and Shay that weekend too, and Josh loved having them there on his special day. We spent the weekend playing heroes, being lazy and spending time with family. Josh really had a great birthday.

Newest Member of the Jackson Family

2010-04-16T17:28:00.003-06:00

Meet Bella... more pictures to come!! She is either always sleeping, or bouncing around like crazy. It has been hard to get a good picture of her. HAHA She is 10 weeks old and is a Tortie colored Lynx Point kitten. We love her so much already and her and Keoke have already started to be close buddies. They play together everyday, eat each others food, chase each other around, and are just so funny together. Keoke has never been around other animals and he has been really good with her so far. He plays a little rough sometimes, and tends to put her entire head in his mouth at once... but he is learning. He's about 3x's her size, but he is barely only a year old... so he is still a baby too.

Easter Weekend @ the Binghams

2010-04-16T16:50:00.005-06:00

We spent Easter weekend in Vernal with Jamie and Jake and thier family and everyone had such a good time! The kids got along great and we only had one tiny pants wetting incident. WAHOO!!! I huge improvement from when we were there six months ago and the girls wet through every pair of pants we bight. SIGH. But this weekend was great! On Saturday we took the kids to the Dinosaur Mueseam for an Easter Egg hunt and they had a ton of fun. We stuffed all 10 of us into Josh's car since Jamie's was having trouble. We did pretty darn good! The kids got lots of eggs and then cashed them in at the end for prizes. Afterwards we went to the park for another Easter Egg hunt. There were thousands and thousands of real dyed eggs all over. There were also tons of kids. I was with Shaylee and Josh was with Spencer. The rest of the kids were at thier own start lines according to age. When they finally said GO! it was madness!!!! we ran so fast and ended up getting just three eggs. Spencer and Josh got two, Baylie and Jaxon got two or three each and Kimberlee got just one. She was quite upset until we let her know everyone got just abuot the same amount. This hunt seemed like it would be fun, but didn't turn out quite that way. It didn't seem too well orchestrated. HAHA. But all well! This weekend was also General Conference and so we got the chance to listen to our prophets and teachers. There were some great talks and some very inpiring testimonies. We all enjoyed it very much. Heidi and Jordan drove down Saturday afternoon and it was really fun to have a bunch of us there together. We missed Dad, Darin, Chandra, Camille, and of course McKay. On Easter morning the kids had a fun time doing an Easter hunt we put together at the house. Jake got everyone together for some very meaningful scriptures and a video about Easter and what it means. The kids seemed to enjoy it a lot, and I thought it was a great Easter morning message. We went to Scott and Debbie's house for lunch, all 13 of us! They prepared an amazing Easter meal and it was just wonderful! The potato salad was amazing. Shaylee discovered she likes cooked cabbage and artichokes. She was eating them like crazy! And Josh tried asparagus and liked it. YAY. We watched the last session of General Conference there and it was great. Afterwards we put the pinata Jamie made up and the kids took turns hitting it. They love pinatas! Sadly, we did have to head home. So after a few more minutes of playing on the four wheelers, we said goodbye and got packed back in our car. We really did have a great time. Thanks to Jamie and Jake for having us over!

A Song for Josh

2010-04-02T14:40:00.002-06:00

This song has kinda been haunting me for the last few days... it has been running through my head, though I couldn't understand some of the words. Today I finally made myself look up the lyrics and I had to add it here. It is a song that reminds me of Josh, and I want to make sure he knows how much I love and appreciate him and am thankful for him everyday. Thanks baby!

"When I Look at You"
Miley Cyrus

Everybody needs inspiration
Everybody needs a song
A beautiful melody
When the nights are long

'cause there is no guarantee
That this life is easy

Yea when my world is falling apart
When there's no light
To break up the dark
That's when I
I look at you

When the waves are flooding the shore
And I can't find my way home any more
That's when I
I look at you

When I look at you
I see forgiveness
I see the truth
You love me for who I am
Like the stars hold the moon
Right there where they belong
And I know I'm not alone

Yeah when my world is falling apart
When there's no light
To break up the dark
That's when I
I look at you

When the waves are flooding the shore
And I can't find my way home any more
That's when I
I look at you

You appear just like a dream to me
Just like kaleidoscope colors that cover me
All I need
Every breath that I breathe
Don't you know you're beautiful
Yeah yeah

When the waves are flooding the shore
And I can't find my way home any more
That's when I
I look at you

I look at you
Yeah
Whoa-oh
You appear just like dream to me

Jazz Game

2010-03-30T09:29:00.004-06:00

A couple weeks ago Josh’s boss surprised him with tickets to a Jazz game. It was a Monday night so we made a family home evening out of it. J It was really fun to go to the game with Josh. This was only my second Jazz game ever (my first was last month with my work) and I really had fun. Oh – but the nose bleed seats can be taken very literally. I indeed got an actual random nose bleed while sitting there. HAHA

Kites and Swings Weekend

2010-03-30T09:21:00.004-06:00

Well a couple weeks ago when we had the girls we planned a ton of fun things to do and hoped that the girls would think it’s as fun as we did. I found a ton of Easter crafts and Josh and I prepared supplies to make our own piggy banks at home. First thing first though… Josh had an eye doctor appt. His doctor is in the vision center at Wal-Mart – which turned out to be a blessing for the girls and I because we were there for two hours! We wandered the toy aisle, the clothes section, the Easter stuff and the pet department before going to check on Josh. He still hadn’t been called into his appointment. Well, I got some Easter browsing done and got an idea of what the girls were interested in getting in their baskets! On Saturday we headed up to mom and dad Jackson’s house and were able to spend some time with the family. Tiffany and I took the girls shopping for a new dress for Kim, while Josh helped his dad fix the wood machines. After we got back we got ready and went over to Heidi and Jordan’s house for a BBQ. We had a great time all together and even got to watch New Moon!

On Sunday I woke up and forgot it was stake conference. Dang! I didn’t wake up until about 9:45 so there was no way we would get ready and make it by 10:00am. SIGH. We spent the time all together doing crafts and making piggy banks. Everyone also had a blast playing the new mini-golf game on the Wii. We decided it would be fun to pack a picnic and go over to the park. The park was PACKED! It was crazy how many people were there. The girls didn’t get to do a whole lot because there were so many kids. After we ate, we pulled the kites I bought out and the girls had a really fun time flying them. So much fun that it was heartbreaking for us to get them to leave. But it had already been a long day and their alligator tears proved how tired they were. Both zonked out on the way home and Shaylee stayed asleep for another hour or so while we watched The Tooth Fairy. It was a really fun day. When we dropped them off Ashlee mentioned that she may be going to the Police Academy next spring, so maybe we will be able to take the girls for some longer stretches of time. That would be so wonderful.

Rest of the Weekend...

2010-03-15T07:35:00.006-06:00

I just posted about my first time going through the temple to receive my endowments. See last post to read about that. For this post I wanted to talk about the REST of the weekend. On Friday we went to Josh's parents house to celebrate Baylie's third birthday with everyone. It was fun and she is such a cute little princess! Jamie had made some yummy dinner and we also had root beer floats for Baylie's birthday. A couple weeks ago I had drawn a dress that Josh's sister Tiffany wanted to make for Prom. Well, her prom was on Saturday so she had just gotten the dress finished and was modeling it for us. Below are some pictures. This is the first time any of my designs actually came to life. HAHA. It looks great and Tiffany looks gorgeous in it. On Saturday after the temple we had a little luncheon at our church building. It was yummy and most people the went to the temple with us came to the luncheon also. My parents and sister were the last there and we ordered some flowers online for the funeral on Monday. All of my siblings are half-siblilngs. My oldest brother Trent has a different mom than me, Maralee, and this past week she was killed by her boyfriend. The funeral will be this coming Monday. After we ordered the flowers, my parents left and my sister and her kids came over to my house for just a bit to look at her camera and new computer. the batteries she had in there must have been bad because there was battery acid everywhere. We cleaned it out of the battery compartment and was able to turn the camera on. but it wouldn't do anything. Josh ended up taking it apart and the acid had burned through one of the ribbons. Sadly, it was not replaceable. After they left we headed up to Josh's parent's house to hang out with everyone for a while and all the men and Chandra were going to go to a "business meeting". It was nice to hang out for a while and spend time up there. Heidi and I ran to her house and got some things to make enchiladas and so we spent most of the time the men and Chandra were gone making dinner. But it was really nice. We had girlie talk the whole time. Though I'm kinda sad we got up there too late to see Tiffany leave for the Prom. It was a good day. On Sunday we decided to go to our new ward in Bountiful just to check it out. It was pretty nice and there were a couple people that came up to talk to us. We had a meeting with our regular bishop as well to further work on the sealing cancellation and that went well. The rest of the day we were lazy. And it felt great! HAHA. But this really was a great weekend and I'm so thankful for all of the loved ones in my life, especially my husband Joshua. He is always so wonderful to me and I'm so lucky to have found him.

Temple Day

2010-03-15T07:20:00.002-06:00

Well, I had better post about my experience this past weekend before I forget all the things I felt going through the temple for the first time. I pretty much was a nervous wreck all the way to the temple and while we were waiting to go in. I don't know why. Maybe because I was scared I would say or do something wrong and they would toss me out. HAHA. But we made it on time and got all of my paperwork in order. The ceremony itself was beautiful. People always say it's not what you expect. And so I tried going in with an open mind and such. Yeah, didn't help - it totally was not anything like I had imagined. HAHA. But it was wonderful. And the spirit was glowing all around us. Josh's sister Heidi was my escort so she was there helping me, and other temple workers too. The whole experience was very very wonderful, and I only fudged one part that got me a little embarrassed. But again, it was great. I was so lucky to have so many family members there to experience it with me. Most of Josh's family were able to attend, including Heidi and Jordan, Darin and Chandra, Jamie and Jake, his parents, his grandpa and his aunt Sherri. My grand parents also were able to attend which was very special to me. I didn't know my grand parents well when I was younger, but in the last 6 years or so we have become close, and I am very grateful to that. I think the church is something that we have in common that brings us closer together. One funny thing did happen while in the Temple. There was a man whose tummy must have been upset. The guys were all choking on the fragrant air around them. Josh ended up burying his nose in his sleeve and it got too warm and he got a bloody nose. YIKES! We will need to bleach his temple clothes. HAHA. Overall, my first time going through the Temple was amazing. There are so many blessings and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be there and have those blessings received. When we came out it was a blizzard, so I will have to take a picture the next time we go. :)

Shaylee 4th Birthday

2010-02-24T07:34:00.008-07:00

Little miss Shaylee Ash Jackson celebrated her 4th birthday last week, and boy has she grown! I haven't known her for her whole life, but i have known her for the last year and a half and she has grown dramatically sine then! She is getting so big and learning so much! We love her so much and were so glad we were able to celebrate her birthday this past weekend. We had a pink and white princess party for her and a bunch of her cousins were able to come play. We played musical pillows (like musical chairs, only with pillows), with play dough, pin the tiara on the princess (think donkey), and she was able to receive some very generous gifts from her loved ones. We had a bit of a fiasco with the cake, but it was a really really great day. Shaylee had a lot of fun and wanted to tell everyone thank you so much for coming!
Story about the cake: so Josh and I have this little dunky 3/4 stove in our apartment and the oven works like crap. Pizza crust is always doughy and such. Well, we tried baking the cakes the night before and they were golden brown on top and liquid on bottom. DANG! So we bought new cake mix and took it to Josh's parent's house to make before the party started. They turned out nice and fluffly.... TOO fluffy. They crumbled when you touched them... and I forgot to grease the pans so getting them out of the pans was terrible. We finally salvaged what we could and got the two cakes on top of each other. I wish I would have taken a picture before I frosted it. There were cracks and crumble places all over. We got the pink frosting on, but we couldn't hide the cracks. Josh had the great idea to make them a river with blue frosting. YES! so we made a river and a waterfall (over the crumbling side) and a pathway for the carriage and put the Cinderella toys we had bought on top. and Vioala!!!! you get the cake you see in the pics above. Really was a hilarious thing to go through. thanks Tiff for all of your unfailing support, even when Josh wanted to run and get a store bought cake. :)

Valentine's Day Weekend

2010-02-24T07:17:00.004-07:00

Ya ya, I know I'm a little behind in posting. But here you go! Valentine's Day weekend was a ton of fun for us. The 12th was our 9 month anniversary, so we celebrated all weekend! Josh planned Saturday and we went to eat at Olive Garden and then went to temple square to see the Joseph Smith movie. It was really fun. We got stuff to make shakes and went home and watched a movie and had yummy Oreo shakes. Sunday I got to plan and I amde sure all of our food was "red". We had crepes with strawberries and raspberry jam. And chicken quesadillas that had red peppers and such in them. I also had planned a dinner but we were so full ! On Monday, since it was President's Day and we didn't have to work, we went DI hopping and ended up with a Cranium game, a baby carrier (for the future - no I'm not pregnant), a hand weight (main reason we were going), and some shoes for Shaylee. It was a fun relaxing day. For dinner we made my planned meal of tortellini and salad. YUM! Overall we had a really great weekend! Here are some pics!

BUNK BEDS, KIDS BEDDING

2010-02-11T08:12:00.003-07:00

Josh and I are on the lookout for fairly inexpensive (or free!!) bunk beds. Also, we are beginning to decorate the room for Kim and Shay and are needing bedding for thier new beds. If anyone is getting rid of these items or knows where we can find these items, please let us know! Thank you!

Suberbowl Sunday

2010-02-09T07:01:00.006-07:00

This past weekend we had a really great time! On Saturday we loaded up and took off to see some apartments. Our lease is up the end of April and we are needing a place to move to. Preferrably with room enough for Kim and Shay to have thier own room and so we don't feel so cramped. We saw some good ones, and some really good ones out of our price range, and then some that work perfect - except that they don't allow pets. UGH. Apartment hunting is kinda frustrating. But Josh saw one by himself earlier in the week he wants to take me back to. They aren't open on Saturdays, so I may need to take a long lunch or see if they can stay late a day. We also stopped at my parents house and dropped an organizer off to my sister for her beads. She is into making some awesome jewelry with her work and she made Kim and Shay a necklace for Valentine's Day. She also made me a necklace with a black stone in it, I love it! Totally wearing it now! Later on, we met up with Josh's family and his sister Jamie was in town with her three kids. We sent all the kids off playing and had fun catching up with family. Jamie bought the McDonalds special of 50 chicken nuggets for $10. Yep - FIFTY! Between about 9 of us we ate them all. HAHA. A few of Josh's aunts came over, and by direction from Heidi we made a really fun Valentine's Day craft. We kicked the men out and made them go watch a movie, eat pizza, and watch the Jazz game (poor babies!) Then we gt started on our craft. It is a styrofoam heart and you take squares of fabric (we used a couple different patterns of red and pink) and push them into the styrofoam with a pencil and glue. It turned out really really fun. Some ladies did larger squares so thier hearts were bushier, some did smaller squares and it gave the effect of roses. I started mine with the larger squares, then finished with the smaller ones. It looks super cute. I love it! That night we crashed at Jordan and Heidi's house with the girls. We were all exhausted. On Sunday we got up and got ready and went to Josh's parent's ward. It was fast and testimony meeting and Josh's dad got up (which they say is rare for him) and bore testimony of his love for the gospel. I'll eave out the spiritual stuff, as it is too sacred to write here, but I thought it was great how he said that usually he is not a fan of the superbowl and hasn't ever really supported watching it, but that five of his six grandchildren were in the congregation right now, and if the superbowl is the reason for them all coming together and him getting to spend time with them, then he is thankful for the superbowl this time. He also made me cry because he talked about Josh and I getting ready to go get sealed in the temple and how much he loves me. Yep, cried. Darn father in law - making innocent women cry. HAHA. The rest of Sunday was great. We all gathered at Heidi and Jordan's house to eat food and watch the game. the food was really yummy and it was really fun to have everyone together. We left for about 40 minutes to run Kim and Shay to meet thier mom, and as always it is sad to see them go and miss them for another two weeks. We went back up to Heidi's and spent the rest of the evening with the family. We had a great time and loved being there with everyone. I'm thankful for the superbowl as well, and hope it always has the power to bring families together.

**I'll post some pics later today, as I'm missing some and I want to be sure you see our fun!**