Let's Rejoice!

 

This week started out with the "National Day of Rejoicing", aka my birthday.  It was a great day and Adam left work early to take me to a movie and out to dinner before family home evening.  It was a pleasant surprise because I figured we would just be having an at home party as part of our FHE.

I hit the big 3-7 and bumped back up to Adam's age category. He's 5 months older and he says being 37 is great and I believe him. It's going to be a great year.

 

I don't really like birthday cake so Adam got me something a little different this year. 

 

 

Cinnamon rolls from Great Harvest! So yummy. We didn't have a number 3 candle so we made do with 3 match sticks (you can hardly see them) and then the number 7 candle. I had already blown out the match sticks when he took the picture.

Adam's youngest brother got married on Friday in Salt Lake and we were all on hand for the big occasion.

Stephen and Hailey at the luncheon following the wedding

 

8 out of 10 siblings

Adam's sister Kim had a baby 2 days before the wedding so she wasn't able to make it, but all of the other siblings came for the day.

 

Here are a few of the cousins at the Salt Lake Temple

 

 

The kids had a great time at the reception when the dancing started.  They had such a great time we ended up staying until the very end. We look forward to getting to know Hailey now that she is part of the family.  She is the oldest of 5 kids in her family, and Stephen is the youngest of 10 in his.  Kind of funny. Her parents are the same age as Stephen's oldest siblings.

Yesterday was Britton's last soccer game of the fall season.  The weather was awesome and they finished off the season with a victory.

 

 

One of Jameson's favorite pastimes is seeing himself in pictures.  He will cheese it up big time and then instantly want to see the playback view.  If you really want to brighten up his day show him a video clip of himself.  He will instantly laugh and cheer and start clapping.

His other favorite pastime it to take a big bite out of the cheese when no one is looking.

Hmmm, reminds me of another "mouse" back in the day. Remember Korinne doing the same thing?

Jameson and Korinne are a lot alike, actually.  They are both very animated and love to have fun at all times. Life is a party and they are in the middle of it.

After Britton's game we went to the famous Pumpkin Walk.  I'm always amazed at what people can do with pumpkins and other gourds and squash.

 

 All of the figures in this display were made out of pumpkins and squash!

 

Jameson loved it and found it very entertaining.  It was a gorgeous fall day and a perfect (and free) family outing.

 

That's all folks! Congrats. You finally made it to the end of this long post!

Party Hardy

We always go to St. George for the UEA break in October.  Adam's parents were supposed to leave on their mission in September, but they were called to Brazil and right now a Brazilian Visa is pretty hard to come by so the church moved their departure date to December 9th.  This meant they would be around for our annual October visit after all. Always a plus.  We arrived late Wednesday night and by breakfast on Thursday Bonnie was already on the phone with her party planning daughters planning a cousin Halloween party for that night.

 

 

This is Adam's sister Jaclyn. If party planning were an Olympic sport, she would be a gold medalist. She loves to plan parties so when cousins are in town she pulls out all the stops.

 

Jameson checking out a decorated table in the back yard.

Walking into Jaclyn's home this time of year is just like walking into a Halloween boutique.  She has more Halloween decorations than anyone I've ever met.  I didn't get any good pictures but this one gives you an idea.

 

It was a costume party so the cousins dressed up.

 

 

 

Jameson wasn't sure about the Halloween piñata at first, but he liked it when everyone cheered him after he tapped it with a stick.

 

 

Halloween is synonymous with sugar and he was definitely a fan of all of the treats. This picture just says it all.

 

As part of the party they sang to me for my birthday and gave me a few presents.

 

 

"It would be sooo funny to put a BYU football helmet by her in a picture!" hee hee  Yeah, that's hilarious alright.

 

On the last full day of our trip we went to Jumpin Jacks with cousins.  It was late on a Saturday and we practically had the place to ourselves.

 

 

Bethany and Jaclyn

 

It was the perfect activity and they even had some new stuff since the last time we were there.  The kids really loved being able to play with cousins and I loved that it wasn't crowded at all.

 

All too quickly it was time to head home.  Jameson doesn't have a great travel record, but we were pleasantly surprised when he slept for 3 hours on the way home.  Ahh, that was nice.  He did much better on this trip than he has in the past so I'm glad things are moving in a positive direction when it comes to travel.

 

Now that Jameson can get in and out of his crib at will it's hard to keep his room clean.  For the most part he likes sleeping so putting him down and night and for naps really isn't a big deal.  We haven't gotten his toddler bed out yet because he will stay in his crib most of the time. On the days when he doesn't feel quite ready to sleep, however, it gets a little crazy in there.

 

 

When I opened the door yesterday, this is what I found.

And this is what his room looked like. Drawer pulled out, clothes all over, books scattered and diapers laying around.  He loves to jump in his crib and crawl out to get toys and stuff and then crawl back in. This was actually the first time that he fell asleep without crawling back in. During all of this non-sleeping time he doesn't usually cry for us to come and get him. In fact, I've opened up the door a few times to check on him and he just smiles at me, climbs back in his crib and lays down like he is suppose to. Silly boy.

 

His vocabulary is finally starting to expand and each day it seems he is trying to say a new word.  He has around 20 words right now like bubble, apple, car, cheese, dog, stinky, and baby.  Every time he sees a train he says, "Choo Choo!".  He has really become a fan of Thomas the Train and loves to play with trains and cars.

 

BFF's Jameson and Jenna

 

Fall

Ok, so I haven't taken a picture in about a month.  Sheesh. What a slacker. In my mind no pictures = no blogging.  How am I supposed to remember what has happened if I don't have photo evidence? 

 

So, it has been a typical fall season around here.  Lots of soccer for Britton, homework, violin for the girls, constantly saving the house from Jameson, you know, just the usual stuff.  This morning Jameson was on a roll. While I was getting ready he went into the laundry room, climbed up to the counter top (he's part monkey, remember?), and turned on the water in the sink.  It wouldn't have been so bad except for the fact he turned the faucet so that it wasn't running into the sink it was running on the back of the sink and spilling over to the counter top.  By the time I found it we were in flood mode. The water was all over the counter and pouring onto the floor. About half of the room was covered in water and it was spreading quickly. Fortunately we have a tile laundry room and it didn't go into any other rooms. If I hadn't of found it when I did it could have gotten really bad. After cleaning up the "flash flood" I went downstairs to get dinner going in the crockpot.  While getting things together Jameson emptied out a bunch of drawers, climbed in the open bottom drawers to get closer to the counter top, hung on the opened upper drawers and swung back and forth (yeah, they aren't built for that), crawled all over the counters and tried to climb up the oven.  All safe things except for that they're not.

 

So proud of his messes.

He laughs and giggles a lot. So many messes to make, so little time. It's a tough life for a 21 month old.

 

Last night we went to a local corn maze and they had a monster redneck slide.  Jameson loved it and Jenna was nice enough to carry him back up the hill several times.

 

 

Now that's a nice sister! It was a long way up.

 

 

The weather was so beautiful and it was very fall-ee.  Fall is my favorite season of the year.  I'm definitely a big fan.