Finished

 I finished Jared's Baby Book today!

Back in high school and college I was really into scrapbooking. It was relaxing and I could work on it for hours.  After I finished my last year of college I decided I was going to give up scrapbooking.  I had a digital camera so I wasn't developing pictures like I used to and it gets to be really expensive. I didn't even make a wedding scrapbook.  Same thing with Egypt, although I did make a large photo album of our 2.5 years there.  But I knew that once I had kids I would want them to have at least one special photo album that was all their own so I decided I would make a "First Year" Scrapbook for all the kids we have.  My goal was to have it done before we had our next kid or they turned two, Jared will be 15 months in two weeks and we are NOT having a baby in the next 9 months.  So I am starting the New Year off well ahead of schedule! It's great.  It was really nice to scrapbook again.  I am not going to pick it up again but it was really fun to look at pictures and see how Jared has grown. 2010 was a nice year for us.  I tried to look through it with Jared but he lost interest pretty quick.  He probably won't really want to look at it until he is much older but that's okay.  I will enjoy  it until then.  I love this little boy and am so happy he is part of our family.
Sample Pages:

 

Here's to a New Year full of more fun memories. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

P.S. Does anybody have any simple journal writing ideas?  I have been writing in a word document each Sunday for the last few years but I have really not been interested the last 6 weeks or so.  I know lots of people use their blog as their journal but I am just not sure that is the route I want to go.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Some Christmas Cheer

We had a very nice California weather Christmas here. I was hoping we would have a White Christmas but no such luck although we did enjoy watching that classic film on Christmas Eve.  Last year we were in California surrounded by family and this year we were the extreme opposite, just the three of us.  We missed visiting with our families (we didn't miss the 20 hour drive) and I would have loved for the Grandmas to get to watch Jared play with the great toys they got him. He was so excited.  But we had a really nice day together.

We started unwrapping presents after the traditional orange rolls and hot chocolate breakfast.  Jared half way unwrapped one present and then decided he wanted to go play upstairs so he took off and Mark and I stayed downstairs and opened our presents.  Then Jared decided to come back down and this time he was more interested in opening his presents.  After we finished it was time for his nap so we took him upstairs and while he slept we put together said presents.  Once he woke up we brought him down and he was so cute walking from one toy to the next. 
Here are some pictures of our Quiet Christmas festivities.

 Christmas Eve Dinner.

Ham, Funeral potatoes, rolls and stuffing with Pear Pie and ice cream for dessert. Some friends invited us over for dinner Christmas day and we had essentially the same meal and then we ate it at our house for dinner last night. It was still yummy.

 Merry Christmas!

For Mark

 For my Dad.

Thank you Marmee!

Mark's Mom and Dad made each one of the kids in his family this same poster.  

We are so happy to have a current picture of all of Mark's family members.  Everyone who has come over likes to check it out and guess which are his siblings.

Earlier in the week we went out to look at Christmas lights with some friends.  Whenever we go we like to hand out one or two "Best Christmas Lights Award" to the house we like the most.  I print out a little certificate and get a bag of Christmas candy. The friends we took with us this year could not believe that we would go up to random people's homes and ring  their doorbell to give them a certificate.  The man we gave it to this year was so happy!  He was an older man and after we explained what it was he invited us in.  It was nice  I think we totally made his day he certainly made mine.  It is one of my favorite traditions we do.  Christmas Eve we read the Nativity, sang lots of carols and finished our Advent calendar.  I am so grateful for this special time of year. 

Only 363 days till Christmas!

A Shout Out...

To my fabulous sister Susanna!  

She made Jared a Winter quiet book and we LOVE it.   She continually amazes me.  She is so generous, creative and talented.  Thanks so much Aunt Susanna!

 

He loves the cookie page. 

We have placed it under the tree and he will often walk over and grab it, it's fun. 

♥ GREAT job Sister! ♥

Just passing the time

Here are some pictures of a very cute little boy just passing the time.

 Jared loves our water bottles.  After we pick up Mark from school Jared always wants to carry Mark's water bottle and roll it around.  He has still been teething some and so he loves to chew on the straw on mine.  This was after we went on a walk one nice mild day. 

Playing in our little sandbox.  We are trying to teach Jared to keep the sand in the sandbox but it's not going very well.  Oh well.  It's really not that hard to sweep up some sand.  And one day we will be able to play outside again. 

I have been wanting to let Jared play in the sink with some water for awhile but have been too chicken.  Now that his balance has improved so much with his walking I finally felt brave enough to let him play in the sink.  I had also just cleaned it that morning.  (I think kitchen sinks are disgusting and love how shiny they look after I clean it.) He thought it was pretty cool.  I think it will work better if I do it in the bathroom sink next time.

Got Milk?

We finished all of our holiday baking today. It was fun. We made so many cookies! We also made some chocolate covered pretzels. We did milk chocolate but I think I like the white chocolate ones more.   Tomorrow night we are going caroling with some people from church. I haven't been caroling in a really long time so I am looking forward to it.  The lady who organized it was telling me how 13 - 14 families signed up to go but a few of them said they didn't want to go if it was cold.  Ummm... do they realize they live in Colorado and its December?  Anyway.  I am excited.

I love this vest. (And this boy.) Too bad it is almost too small.  I wish companies made 15 month clothes.  Jared has outgrown all the12 month stuff but the sleeves and tummy are too big on the 18 month stuff. The length is perfect ( I think Jared is pretty tall)  Why don't they make 15 month old clothes?

14 month old Jared

At 14 months Jared:

Walks 98% of the time.  For the last 2 weeks he has been really thinking about walking.  Watching him learn how to walk has been fun and exciting!  It's so darn cute.
Has mastered sliding down the stairs.  He has been doing this for about 2 weeks also (maybe I should have done a 13.5 month post?).  For a long while he would sit at the top of the stairs and squawk for help. Now he just slides right down.  It is also very cute!  He will crawl backwards till he gets to the first step then slide down.  It reminds me of the trucks that beep when they back up.  It's really nice to not have to go rescue him from the top of the stairs. 
Signs:  More, all done, and yes.  He loves to blow kisses and wave good bye or hello.  This week he has been starting to give us "high fives" if we ask him and prompt him.  Once he does he will do it again and again.
Says: Mah for bananas mostly but also for other foods he really likes and get for blanket. I love it when I hear him talking (babbling) to himself in his room or crib. 
Is actually a good listener.  Example: when we were putting up the Christmas tree anytime he tried to grab an ornament we told him No, that's not a toy then put him in time out (It's like 1-2 minutes in his pack in play) Since then he has never tried to grab anything on the tree.  I am so proud of him.  I really didn't want to just decorate the top of the tree.
Has decided parks are pretty cool.  Too bad it is now cold out and he will have to wait to go again but we will try to go any warm day we can. 
Still loves his blanket and reading books.
Has 6 teeth that have broken through.  2 on the bottom and 4 on the top.  They other day I got a really good look at his mouth and was surprised to see 4 teeth there.  I knew 2 were coming through but didn't know about the other 2.  Poor little boy.

His favorite foods are: cheese, peanut butter sandwiches, avocado and spaghetti.  He gets really excited when he sees that he gets to eat one of these and waves his arms all around.
His new favorite household item is our laundry basket.  He love pushing it around. I think it has replaced the strainer. He also really likes to put things in the dryer and pull things out. He loves to try to play with the dishwasher as well.

I took some pictures of him today (Or attempted to but he was all over the place and none of them turned out very well) and couldn't believe how old he looks!  I will miss my sweet little crawling baby boy but Jared is a super cute little boy!

 

For the longest time Jared would throw his blanket onto his back and crawl around with it. Now he can and does walk with it.  In the morning when I get him out of his crib he loves to play peek-a-boo with his blanket.  It's pretty fun. (and cute of course; I should have titled this: Jared at 14 months is still so cute!)

Light Up The Broadmoor

We went with some friends over to the Broadmoor Hotel and Resort last Saturday and enjoyed their Christmas tree lighting ceremony.  The Broadmoor is a super fancy hotel here and they have a huge lake on the grounds.  We went over and checked out the Gingerbread village and then went outside to see all the trees lit up.  The lights looked so pretty on the trees and reflecting in the water.

  

 I so wish I had my matching scarf.  

Water (ie the lake in this circumstance) makes everything feel so much colder.

Hope you all are enjoying the holiday season thus far!!

P.S.  I just got an email back from my stake Primary President and she said the Quarterly Activities are NO LONGER HELD! 

To quote:

"Your are correct.  The guidelines now state that the quarterly activity days are no longer held.  From my understanding, the church is trying to scale back on meetings where possible.  Hopefully this will allow us more time to spend with our families as well as attend the Temple and do our visiting / home teaching."  

Makes perfect sense to me!  They could be fun but were really chaotic too!  So if you are in a presidency I would totally bring it up to your leaders.

"There is Safety in the Handbook." Amen to that.