Merry Christmas

We had a very nice Christmas this year. Larry and I had to work so we stayed in Reno and celebrated with just the three of us. Even though we were in Reno without family, we were able to skype with some of the grandparents and that made it seem almost like we were with those we did it with. Jackson is starting to understand the whole unwrapping of gifts and a little about Santa, or as he calls him "Hanta." When he woke up on Christmas morning and saw the living room full of presents he said with a bit of a giggle "woooh." He still doesn't understand that he needs to keep opening gifts instead of opening and playing with all the toys right away. He also got a car that he did not want to get out of so he unwrapped a lot of his presents from the seat of his car. I can't wait to see how the whole process changes each year.

I will try to post pics when I can. I got a new camera and took all the pictures in RAW form like the guy taught me on the CD that came with it but now it doesn't want to download the pics. We have converted them to JPEG but they are still not downloading. ERRR.

Santa

We went to visit Santa on Sunday. There were only three families there since the roads are still a little icy. But we braved the storm and made it in to see the big man. Jackson has been saying Santa lately but we aren't really sure where he learned about him since we don't really talk about him. Probably at daycare...because that's where we think he learns everything we didn't teach him. Anyway, Jack was very shy and didn't want to look at Santa or really anyone else. The picture that we got that was the best was one we took. Oh well. At least there were no tears and Jackson got his candy cane. I told Santa for him that he wants anything Choo-Choo. I'm sure Jackson appreciated that.

Mall Photo:



Larry's Photo: (good job Lar)

First Winter Storm 2009

So it has been snowing here since afternoon yesterday and it is still going strong. We have gone out in it a few times and Jackson is not sure what to think of it. He wants to go out, he wants to touch it but then after a few minutes he is done. We took him out on a sled last night and he was giggling and saying "weee." It was very cute. Then today we walked to the store to get some lunch and he lasted only a few steps and then I carried him the rest of the way. It sounds like the snow is here to stay for a while so we'll keep trying and see if he starts enjoying it a little more once it stops snowing so hard.

Larry digging out the car this morning.

Jackson watching all the action in the warm house with his breakfast.

All geared up for our walk.

Oh Christmas Tree

We were suppose to go up to Squaw and get a tree with some friends, but on our one day we have off together, the highway was shut down because of snow conditions. I guess it is a total white out up there. It is snowing here and that helps us get into the Christmas spirit as we put up our little fake tree. Here are some pics of the event with our little helper.

Untangling the mess.


Jackson trying to blow out the lights on the tree.


Santa's little helper.


A family picture once we were done.

New Baby Jelly Beans Website

We are now updating everyone about the new baby on our new baby jelly beans website. Here is the link:
http://www.babyjellybeans.com/web/do/site/home?ID=578484
We will still update here on other family adventures.

New York

We recently went to New York for a psychology conference. Well Larry had a conference and the rest of us went along for the New York experience. We invited Grandma Trudy along with us to help is with Jackson and enjoy the city with us. We had a great time discovering the sites and sounds...well sort of. It is so noisy and busy there and we tried to add to that as much as we could!

Updates

So we have been absent from the blogging world for a while since I have been feeling so tired and nauseous since were having a new baby in May...if you didn't already know. Jackson and this baby will be two and a half years apart and were just hoping that this is a good spacing. We have been trying to prepare Jack by bringing him to the OB appointments so he hears the heart beat and sees the ultrasounds. We also got him a baby doll that he likes to feed and hold by it's head or arm to take him places. I have been trying to show him babies at every opportunity, friends babies, babies at the store, babies on t.v. He now says baby and will point to my belly but he does that to Larry and to himself too. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes in May.

In other news, Jackson is getting his ear tubes placed tomorrow. His pediatrician finally said that he should get to an ENT and she recommended the tubes be placed. Mostly because this was his fourth infection in a year and it was not just in the winter. So we head to the surgery center at 6 am in the morning and his procedure is scheduled for 8 am. He will only be put under with a mask and not intubated which I'm happy about and it should all take about 5 minutes. I'm sure it will all go well and he will be home playing like normal the rest of the day. I will post again after the procedure. Wish us luck!

Halloween 2009

Jackson was Thomas the choo choo train this year. Since I worked all day we decided that we would go to a couple of indoor events. The first was trick or treating at Rayley's grocery store where all his friends at the store gave him apples, juice, a balloon and some candy too. I was surprised when he knew to put all his treasures in his Thomas pail and keep on walking to the next person. He seemed to enjoy himself. Then we went to the Automobile Museum for more trick or treating and games. He did really well walking around to all the different candy stops and even tried his hand at fishing for pumpkins. It will probably be a bit more fun when he is a little older and able to participate in more of the games. Then we went to a few more stops at the next door neighbors. He first stopped at our neighbor John's house where he kept giving Jackson more and more candy while Jack tried to get into his house. We need to work on this it seems. Then we were off to Mary's. Jackson managed to get into her house and she was very happy about it. She gave Jackson a special treat bag with homemade cookies and a coloring book. Jack knew how to say thank you with somersaults and hugs. He is such a good boy. By the time we got home we were all tired and didn't even eat much candy. All in all a good Halloween.

Trick or Treating at the grocery store.


Taking a break from all the candy collecting in the Automobile Museum.

A little girl who saw Jackson walking by, got out of her little car stroller and shared a dum dum sucker with him. So cute.

Posing with Daddy.

Checking out the shag mobile from the Austin Powers movie.

He kept posing like that and I tried to get him to put his foot down but it actually turned out pretty cute.

All of Jackson's treasures.

Preparing for Halloween

We visited another pumpkin patch in Reno with a hay ride and farm animals...and yes more pumpkins. We were surprised at the cost of a pumpkin doubled in Reno as compared to Washington but you gotta do it. So we picked our pumpkins, the boys carved them and I baked some seeds up which we all enjoyed. Jackson gave us some lively entertainment once he was hopped up on gooeyness and seeds. Enjoy!


Checking out the sheep, goats, and pigs. They were all munching on pumpkins.

An exhilarating hay ride!


He love "driving" the tractor.

"Just have to push this lever."

"I'll take this one."

Cleaning the pumpkin. He kept saying "ewww."

Helping Daddy carve.

He didn't like the scary face on this one so I had Larry do a nicer face on the other one.


My famous pumpkin seeds that Larry didn't think we would like but we ate them all, including Jackson.

Ten Year High School Reunion Trip

A few weeks ago we took a trip up to Washington for our 10 year reunion and packed it full of activities. We went to Payton's soccer game, got my hair cut, went to the reunion, went to the pumpkin patch, and visited with friends and family. Busy, busy, busy. Here are some pics of our adventures.

















And here is a video of Bronte and Jackson riding ponies at Spooners Pumpkin Patch. Jackson thought it was really funny that the pony was sneezing or blowing his nose and Bronte kept singing "do, do, do."