Long time...no blog...

Wow. It's been quite a while hasn't it? I guess I kinda fell off the blog bandwagon. Let's see if I can get the basics caught up....

Back in October, we found out we were finally expecting baby #2! We were pretty excited since we had been trying for over 2 years. Nothing too exciting happened during the holidays, just the same old stuff. In January, Jackson turned 4 years old. I can't believe I have a 4 year old! He grows too fast! At the end of January we found out that we needed to change our mindset to pink, because we're going to be having a baby girl! Jackson wasn't too sure how to take it at first. He was pretty adamant that he was going to have a baby brother. When the ultrasound tech said it was a girl, Jackson said, "No, it's a boy!" Funny kid. I think he's starting to grow to the idea of having a sister though.

Not much else has really happened recently. Just keeping it low key and spending time as a family. When I get a few more minutes, I'll try posting some pictures. Then the question will be, can I keep the updates coming? I guess we'll see!

Prayers

Recently, we've been getting Jackson to try and say his prayers. He always needs a little help, so we will whisper things for him to say when he stops or says he needs help.

Earlier today at lunch, at some point in the prayer, he stated, "Please bless our bones..." ?! Where did he get that?!

Then tonight at dinner, he told Forrest that it was his turn to say the prayer. Forrest is about ready to say it, but then Jackson starts off, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day...." At this point he gets stuck and asks for help, so Forrest whispers ("Please bless the food") Jackson then says, "Please bless the food to make me big and strong so I can drive...." He pauses, so Forrest whispers ("Please keep us safe") Jackson continues, "Please keep us safe while I drive." And then proceeds to close the prayer.

Forrest and I were dying! We tried real hard to keep our laughter concealed while he was finishing. It was hilarious! Don't you just love how sweet and innocent little kid prayers are? :D

Catching Up

Now for the rest of the random tidbits to catch up on.

Jackson has been saying some pretty funny things lately. I will try to recount them, that way I'll have somewhere to look and remember as well!

Back in January, we went to Walmart and were getting back into the car. The conversation went as follows:

Forrest: It's freezing cold outside!
Jackson: It's freakin' cold outside!
Me: No, it's FREEZING cold outside!
Jackson: NO! We say, 'it's freakin' cold outside'!
Forrest and I both: NO! FREEZING! FREEZING!

I think we can thank Mandy for that one! ;)

A little while ago, Jackson was talking to me, and he started stammering, so I said, "Just spit it out!"....so what does he do?! Spits on the floor! Forrest heard it from the other room and just started laughing! Gotta watch what I say!

Then there was a day recently when he blurted out, "Dammit!" Uhhh, yeah, definately need to watch what we say!

And the most recent one - He's been watching Emperor's New Groove lately. While Forrest was driving home, and Jackson was with him, here is what was said.

Jackson: Where's that llama?
Forrest: What llama?
Jackson: Where's that demon llama?!?!

LOL! It took Forrest a minute to make the connection, because it had totally taken him off guard! Hilarious!

He is definately a talker, and very social, which is strange coming from two parents who are not very outgoing and shy! He is a very busy little boy. He can't wait for the snow to go away so we can go camping, and ride 4-wheelers. He looks forward to the day when he is big enough to ride the motorcycles like his daddy. (Which is great incentive to get him to eat all his food to help him grow!)

Oooo, which reminds me! The other day, Jackson and I were getting in the car to run some errands. Before I got in, I went to get the garbage can off the curb, and Jackson had gotten into the driver's seat with 'his' keys. He told me he was going to drive. I said, "I don't think so!" I took him out, and told him he was not big enough or old enough to drive yet. Then, he burst into tears. He seriously thought he could drive! I had to calm him down and explain to him that he had to be 16 years old to drive, and that his cousin Jaylan wasn't even old enough to drive yet. After a few mintues of talking it out with him, he calmed down and accepted the fact that he just wasn't old enough. It was so sad, but what a determined little boy!

Forrest - After being laid off twice last year from 2 different surveying jobs, for lack of work, he started working with a local farmer with grain harvest, and then driving truck during the winter. He has gotten a new job offer for a full time surveying job. He has decided to take it. I know he will enjoy that work a lot more than what he is doing now. We are now hoping that everything will turn out like we are hoping and that all goes well.

As for me, I'm still staying at home with Jackson, and I am very blessed for that. Even though he drives me crazy most days, I'm still grateful that we are able to make it work this way. I've been trying my hand at making homemade bread, not bread machine bread, but real homemade stuff! The first batch didn't turn out too bad, but it made way more bread than we could eat! I'm hoping to whip out another batch sometime this week, and possibly try some other things like cinnamon rolls! Mmmm.

But other than that, all is going well here!

Jackson playing The Biggest Loser on the Wii with me! Crazy kid!

Putting together a puzzle with Daddy

Jackson and me

3 Years Old!

Happy Birthday! Jackson turned 3 years old in January. I can't believe I have a 3 year old! He is such a boy and definately keeps me busy! We had a pretty low key party for him. We invited over a few friends and some family and had cake and icecream. The next day, we planned on going swimming up at Green Canyon then Big Jud's for lunch afterwards. Well, we attempted to go to Green Canyon, but the weather was so horrible that we didn't make it. The wind was blowing so bad that it was making huge snow drifts on the road, along with the already icy road. So we turned around and just went to Big Jud's. Even though it wasn't completely successful, I still think he had a good time.

Here are a few pictures of my baby boy.

3 days old

3 years old

Christmas

Whoa. It's been a while since I've updated anything! So my goal is to catch up, and hopefully stay caught up!

On Christmas Eve, we went bowling, one of our newer traditions. It's something that I've started looking forward to the last couple years. This year we invited Forrest's cousin Tyrel, his wife Lindsay and their daughter Madison to come along with us. I think it makes it more fun when you have others play with you. But as always, we had a blast, Jackson especially!

This year we just stayed home for Christmas. It's nice to have our own little family Christmas together, and then be able to get together with the rest of your family afterwards. The day started out when Jackson woke up. (No early risers here! At least not yet!) We were able to go at our own pace, which with Jackson, is slow surprisingly! He likes to pick a present, and take off one piece of paper at a time. Just taking his sweet ol' time! It's nice not to feel rushed! I think he enjoyed every minute of it, because I know I did! Poor kid got a TON of clothes, but also got Buzz & Woody from Santa. He got quite a few new books, coloring books, shoes, and a few toys. Forrest got a new pair of work boots, and a game he'd been wanting for the Wii, along with a few other odds and ends. And I got a bunch of books I've been wanting (woohoo!) and some soaps from Bath & Body Works....I love that stuff!

After the presents were opened, we munched on some Monkey Bread while we waited for our omlets to cook. Then we played it pretty low key and helped Jackson open his new toys to play with.

Later in the evening, we had some family come over for Christmas dinner. Forrest's parents, Audrey, Mandy, Todd, Kadee, Rylan and Todd's sister Monica came and we all enjoyed a delicious dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, rolls, salad, and all the other big feast fixins! We then proceded to exchange gifts, and I think we even finished the night by playing some Hand & Foot!
Overall, it was a very enjoyable Christmas!

Alas...

It's happened. The 3 words that you never want to hear from your child's mouth, "I hate you!". I figured it would probably come eventually, but not this soon. Of course, I don't think he really understood what he was saying. I can think of 2 kids it may have come from, or of course he may have heard it from Nursery.

After taking a time out, he came out to say sorry (smiling, and just as happy as could be), then I asked him if he knew what he said. "I hate you," he said. I told him it meant he didn't love me. He then replied, "But I love you mom!". So that made it better. He now knows that those are mean words and it's not nice to say them.

Here's to hoping I never hear them again...(yeah, right!)

Another update

Thanksgiving has now come and gone and we are well on our way to Christmas!

For Thanksgiving, we were able to go down to Utah and have it with Forrest's family and my dad. I was looking forward to taking pictures this Thanksgiving day (since in years past I've been bad at it) but I ended up leaving my camera in the office with the sleeping babies, so I didn't get any! Ooops! We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Forrest's parents house, then we went to my Grandma's later that evening for pie! That was the best apple pie I have ever had! I was also able to see my Aunt and Uncle who I haven't seen in, I believe, 2 years! So it was nice.

Friday, we did participate in some Black Friday shopping. It was Jennifer, Mandy, Forrest and I. We started at 6:30 am and hit Walmart, Target, Smiths' Marketplace, then K-Mart. Overall we didn't do too bad I think. We were able to get Jackson's Toy Story pj's at Walmart for Christmas Eve, a pair of snowpants for him for $8 at K-Mart, as well as a carpet-type car mat for him for Christmas. And I know that Jennifer and Mandy also got some big items they were hoping to get. Certain things we were hoping to get were gone, which I guess is what we get for not going out when they opened at like 5:00 am! So it wasn't a complete bust.

Overall it was a pretty good Thanksgiving.

Now onto Christmas. Jackson is getting really excited about Santa Clause! It's been a great way to get him to behave as well, or at least try to! He helped me put up the Christmas tree and decorate it. He also loves to wear his "Santa's helper" hat. He keeps wondering when he'll get to open presents, but he's being very patient!

I've been trying to explain to him what Christmas is all about, how we are celebrating Jesus' birth. When I showed him my little nativity set and explained who all the people were, I got to Mary and Joseph. After saying Joseph, he questioned, "Joseph Smith?" Lol, gave me a good chuckle, but at least now I know he's paying attention in Nursery! It's so much fun to see him get excited with all the Christmas festivities. And now I'm looking forward to the look on his face Christmas morning!

Halloween and Montana

It's about time for an update! This is the 4th time I've tried to update in the last month but have given up due things going wacky, so hopefully it'll work this time!

Halloween has come and gone. Jackson was so excited for it! He was a lion this year, and we got his costume at Old Navy. I love how they are so fluffy and warm!

This year Forrest decided to use our little 4-wheeler trailer to tote us around with. We went over to Mandy's neighborhood this year. We had us, Mandy, Todd, Kadee, Rylan, Todd's sister Jodi and her 3 kids, and yes, we all piled onto the 4-wheeler and trailer at one point!

Jackson made quite the haul this year...a whopping 8 pounds of candy! However, we did hit 2 trunk-or-treats before doing the actual trick-or treating. It was kind of funny becuase the older kids were tired and done before the younger ones were! But all in all it was a success and Jackson had a blast!

So tired after all the festivities!

For work, Forrest has been hauling grain to different places. For a while, he was having to hual a few loads up to Fairfield, Montana. We were lucky enough to go on a trip with him. You'd think having an 8 hour truck ride, sleeping in the truck, then having close to 10 hours of driving the next day would not be a lot of fun with a 2 1/2 year old and having to make potty stops, but it wasn't too bad! He was pretty stoked to be going on a trip in a 'semi-truck' with daddy. Of course we had lots of snacks and his portable DVD player with us which helped a ton! But he did great!

Frightmares & Pumpkins

We went to Lagoon for Frightmares a couple weeks ago. We went 2 years ago, but Jackson was too little to really go on any of the rides. This year we were excited to be able to watch him go on the rides. We weren't sure how the day was going to go since he had thrown up that morning. The very first ride we went on was Puff, so we could go with him. While on it, I asked him if it was fun. His answer, "Yeah." Not much thrill in his voice and no real smiles! Then we started putting him on rides by himself, and after a few, I think he started warming up, because then we could actually see him smiling! He did really good for being a little bit sick! When we asked, he told us his 2 favorite rides were Tilt-O-Whirl, and the new Jumping Dragon one. It was a lot of fun.

Today we carved our pumpkins. We showed Jackson how to seperate the seeds into one bowl, and the pumpkin "snot" (lol!) into the other. He was a little hesitant at first, then he dove right in! When it came time to carve them, I asked Jackson what he wanted, and he told me...He wanted triangle eyes, a pig nose, and vampire teeth. So I did my best to accomodate his request! All 4 of our pumpkins were home grown in our garden. I was quite impressed how well they came up (since last year they didn't turn out at all).

And now we are waiting on Halloween to come. We bought his costume about 2 weeks ago, and he has been itchy to go Trick-or-Treating ever since, so it will be quite a relief when the day finally gets here!

And a couple random pictures...

Potty Trained!

Yes! Jackson is officially potty trained! Okay, so it's been close to 4 weeks, but I'm still stoked about it! It only took us 5 days to get it completely down. And since, he hasn't had any accidents during the day, and only 2 accidents in the mornings, I believe. I had bought extra sheets and pads preparing for the night time accidents, but while training him, he didn't have any. Overall I'd say it was fairly easy, but we did have one hard day, which ended up being the last day he had an accident. I'm glad the process is over. I still catch myself occasionally thinking I need to change his diaper, then I think, "Wait! No more diapers!".

So that is our latest good news. We are going to be going to Lagoon's Frightmares Saturday, so hopefully after that I'll have some fun new pictures to share.

I'm a terrible blogger!

I really need to get my butt into gear and post more often!

Summer has now come and gone. We didn't get to take any big vacations or anything, but we did make quite a few trips to Malad to camp, work, and play!

June was the birthday month. We have 5 family birthdays in June, 6 if you count Sami's at the end of May. One of those birthdays was my new niece. Jennifer had Aiden Nicole on June 17th, one day off from my birthday!

July...we camped in Malad over the 4th of July weekend. It was a nice relaxed weekend full of nothing! We didn't do any work, we just played and relaxed. It was nice. Then I went down to Utah to see my friend Holly at her mission farewell. It was great to go and see her before she left. She is in the Nashville, Tennessee mission.

August we had a family photoshoot with my dad's whole family. That same weekend we hit one of my friends wedding reception, and also got to see my mom in SLC. We were also asked to speak in Sacrament, which I always dread! But it turned out pretty good. Forrest and I also celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. I can't believe it has been that long! We didn't get to do much due to finances, but we were able to at least go out and have dinner together at Texas Roadhouse....mmmm! And then the end of the month we headed down to Utah again for Jefferson's ordination.

This past weekend, Labor Day, Forrest's sister Audrey came into town for a visit. We all made a camping trip to Malad since she hasn't seen all the work we've done on it this year. Jackson and I headed down on Thursday and stayed til Monday. It was a nice weekend, but I was glad to get home. It was almost too long to be away! But it was great to see Audrey again, and we're looking forward to seeing her again at Christmas.

It seems like summer just flew past this year! But it was a good one. Now here comes fall...I love fall! :)

We've tried potty training with Jackson. No success yet. There are times when he seems ready, and others he's not even interested. It's a bit frustrating, but I'm staying calm about it and will just have to wait and see when it happens!

We planted a garden again this year. We have had our hands busy canning! Mostly we've just canned dilly beans. It's a recipe that Forrest's Grandma Infanger would do, and he absolutely loves them. Jackson has taken quite the liking to them as well. We've canned close to 45 jars of those, 12 quarts of peaches, a few bags of frozen peaches, raspberry jam, cherry pie filling, tons of zucchini bread, and we've attempted to make some dilly zucchini....not sure how that's going to turn out! We have had loads of zucchini and were sick of zucchini bread, so we decided to try something different!

Oh, and a funny moment from Jackson....actually two!

He was introduced to LemonHeads this past weekend. Well, today, he came up to me and asked for a "Yummy Head"! It gave me a good chuckle!

Today, he got one of my laundry baskets and placed it in front of the recliner. He stood on top of it, put his hands in the air and said, "To infinity, and beyond!" then proceeded to jump onto the recliner! I was laughing so hard! I guess he's watched Toy Story a few too many times!

Nothing much else is going on. Forrest is working grain harvest now, I'm still staying at home with Jackson, and Jackson is growing and getting smarter everyday!

And now some pictures for your viewing enjoyment! There are quite a few, but they are good ones... :)



Feeding the ducks at the river in June

Tautphas Park Zoo

Jackson fishing with his papa...I love this picture!

Jackson and Grammy

Grandpa and Jackson snoozing

Jackson and Papa napping in the hammock

Ready to ride!

Kadee giving Jackson a ride on his new trike

Motorbike ride up New Canyon

He put my slippers on, grabbed his cup and

chair and plopped himself in front of the tv!

Family Photoshoot....The rest of the following

Pictures were taken by Chelise VanDeGraaff

Recent Happenings

It's been a while since I posted last, so I thought it might be good to update! Nothing real big or exciting has happened lately, but just some fun updates on Jackson.

We've been going to Malad a lot the last few weekends to plant trees and build gates and a bunch of stuff like that on Forrest's parents property. We took our camper down there and parked it, so now we can go down and camp while we are there to do work! Jackson absolutely loves camping! It's perfect for him to just run around and wear himself out (that is until the snakes come out!) But he gets so excited when we go so we can sleep in our camper, ride the 4-wheelers, and drive Grandpa's tractor. It's fun to see him so excited.

Jackson also seems to be turning into a little man! The other day I was making dinner in the kitchen. Jackson had gotten in trouble over I don't know what, but after he got scolded by Forrest, Jackson turns to him and says, "Mommy's being naughty!" So Forrest asks him what I did. "She put her finger in the corn!" Which is true because I was checking to see if it was warm enough. I chuckled, and Forrest asked him if I needed to be spanked, to which he replied "Yes." So I got "spanked" for being "naughty". Jackson turns to me and spouts off, being completely serious, "Mommy! Go to your room and sit on your bed! Fold your arms! You're in time-out!" (pointing his finger at me and all). Forrest and I just started rolling! It was quite hilarious!

Another of his recent ramblings, "This is my freakin' dog Sierra!" I turned to Forrest and said, "Well, I guess you better stop saying that word!" I explained to Jackson that he shouldn't say that word. But it's kinda funny to hear him say it; he uses it in the most odd ways!

Oh, I almost forgot! We are proud to announce that Jackson has been binky free for 2 weeks! AMAZING! He was so attached to his binky, we thought it would be like pulling teeth to get him to wean off of it. One night, I decided to cut off the tip of his binky, gave it to him, he put it in his mouth, and immediately took it out. He said, "Mommy, it's broken. Fix it!" It was so sad! The first night it was tough to get him to go to sleep, but after that, he's done great! No more waking up in the middle of the night because he lost his binky. Hooray!

I've added some pictures of Jackson, some from Easter, and others of him just being goofy! Enjoy!

Coloring Easter eggs


He kept saying "Ooooo" to all the egg accessories. He had a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse coloring kit.

The egg hunt

I like this one. He was looking under the truck, but didn't even see the egg in the back of the truck!

Yeah, he actually tried to bite it. His mouth was blue for a while!

His crazy morning hair...

This one he said, "Look Mommy! I'm funny!"

Showing off with Daddy's hat.