BABY BLESSING!

Oops I forgot to post about Jakey's blessing! He was bless on January 2nd, 2011. Shaun did an excellent job. It was a beautiful blessing and we loved having so many friends and family there to support us. Here are a couple pictures of the big day. Jakey wore Shaun's blessing outfit that he wore when he was blessed. His Mom made it for him. I wasn't so keen on the lace at first but I kinda like it. :-)

DISNEYLAND!!!!

So every other year we have a family reunion at Disneyland. We really wanted to go but weren't sure if we were going to be able to afford it. I had saved the money from baby-sitting/house-sitting jobs but we talked about how we would probably need that money for bills. We talked about it and after a few times of crunching numbers on Excel we decided to go and make the memories with our family.

He was hungry so he didn't like the Carousel all that much!

We had a really good time. It was a little hard sometimes because I have a baby now. It's amazing all of the adjustments you have to make when you have a baby. I was always used to just going where I wanted.. riding whatever I wanted.. hanging out with the older kids. But this time it was different. My parents took him two different times so we got to ride the big kid rides but both of those times we couldn't really catch up with everybody. So we hung out with Chris and Julie a lot. I think that the whole trip would have been really boring if Julie didn't have a baby too. We hung out a lot. I was a little sad not being able to spend time with some of my other family but I got some good moments in with them. Hopefully next time we go Jakey will like it a lot more. Although he did seem to enjoy the rides we did go on. He wasn't so sure about Pirates at first but after the drop he calmed down and seemed to enjoy it a lot. I also found him a really cute beanie that had Mickey ears on it. He looked so cute. I love Disneyland and can't wait to go again!!!

After Aladdin at California Adventure!!

 

I have no idea what he is looking at?

 

Mickey Mouse trying to get Jakey to smile!! So cute!!



His super cute Mickey ears!!



Shaun next to his favorite movie! There is going to be a sweet ride coming to California Adventure in 2011.

Tori getting Jakey to smile!! Super cute!!

"Curse you tiny toilet!"
This was one of the toddler potties in the baby care services at Disneyland!! So cute!

Trying to break out of jail!

Shaun's new favorite! Seriously everytime I asked what he wanted to do he said "Captain EO"
Now he wants to grow out his hair and be Captain EO for Halloween! I don't know about that?



Our first family pic with Goofy and Mickey!!

Shaun had to buy Fuzz Ball from Captain EO for Jakey but really he wanted it for himself!!



The whole family!!



MORE PICTURES FROM DISNEYLAND!!







New Years Eve!!

 For our Christmas present from Scott and Lisa (Shaun's Dad and Step-Mom) they got us tickets to the Cirque Dreams Holidaze at the Sacramento Community Theater. I wasn't sure at first what it was about but I had heard good things so I looked it up and I got super excited watching some of the previews. It looked like it was going to be a really good show. Lisa arranged for my Mom to watch Jakey and it was weird to think I would be without him for more than three hours but I was excited.

We went to dinner first at Tres Hermanas. It was a pretty good Mexican Restaurant downtown. Then we parked in the garage at the Hyatt and walked to the theater.

It's hard to describe all of the things in the show but it was amazing. It was almost like they took a whole bunch of people with weird and crazy and amazing talents and put them all into one show. It was amazing some of the things that those people could do. I think one of my favorites were the bikes. These 5 girls did these amazing things all while riding bicycles. One of the coolest was there were two girls riding the bike one in front of the other. Then there was a girl standing on the back of the seat of the girl riding in the bike. She jumped over her shoulders and landed on the girl's shoulders who was riding in front of her. It was absolutely insane. And there was this guy who did some cool tricks with a smaller boy on his feet. He flipped around and around on his feet. It was impressive. I would highly recommend going to the show if you ever get the chance.

By the time the show was over I was missing my baby. And I needed him to eat. I called my Mom and she told me that he had just eaten so I hand-pumped in the car on the way back to Elk Grove. It was kinda weird but it was dark enough so I don't think anyone noticed. :-)

My parents were at the Montgomery's house to celebrate New Years so we met them there and brought in the New Year with them. We had a good time and I took some fun pictures of Jakey. I don't think he really like the hat.

Jakey's First Christmas-December 24-25, 2010

So Christmas is my favorite holiday but it was a little more difficult this year. First of all, I'm married and have Shaun's Mom and Dad to schedule in (which is totally awesome just hard) and I have a baby too. It's hard to juggle all the different Christmases and come up with a solution that works for everyone. I don't really care where I spend Christmas Day or the days after but I'm really greedy when it comes to Christmas Eve because that's when we doing everything with my side of the family.We have a bunch of traditions that we do and it's hard because it wouldn't seem like Christmas without the caroling, or the nativity, or the gingerbread contest, or the rice pudding, or christmas eve PJ's. But with new family comes new traditions and it's time to get used to doing new things. I don't think I'm quite ready to give up my Christmas Eve but I will definitely make myself available for all other days or traditions that my new family wants to do.

So this year Lindy and Cathy wanted to go to Vegas for Christmas so we did our Christmas with them on Monday. It was a little weird but I'm trying to be flexible right.. We had a really good dinner and I enjoyed talking and eating ham with them. Then Cathy and Lindy got us some stuff that we needed and stuff I wanted;. I got Psych Season 4 and a really cute apron. Shaun got some much needed clothing and a nice hiking backpack. Jakey got a nice thing that he can play with while laying on his back or doing tummy time. And then we did our Gift to Christ. I like this tradition. We write down one thing that we are going to do throughout the year as our gift to Christ and then the next Christmas we look back and see how we did. Overall, it was a really good time but kinda weird not spending the time with them on Christmas Day.

We ended up staying the whole week with my parents instead of driving back and forth from Elk Grove to Sacramento because Christopher and Shaunna and Chris, Julie, and Roxy were in town too. So we had a good time catching up and spending time with them.

Then on Thursday we went to my Uncle Kenny's house and we did our normal traditions that we do with my Mom's small side of the family. We played Guesstures and gave Uncle Stinkerpot some time with the little ones. And we ate yummy Lasagna and opened our "Grab Bags" (a tradition my Grandpa started a long time ago that still lives on)

Then Friday was Christmas Eve and we spent the whole at my Mom's. We did all of our traditions but it was a little different because now I have a baby. And he is more important so I was really sad when I missed the first part of the present opening because I had to feed him and I was sad because I didn't get to participate in the Nativity. I used to be the one to put it all together and narrate. Tori wanted to narrate this year so I said sure why not? Changing traditions is ok right? Well I still wanted to participate so I thought well I'll play the piano for when we sing the Christmas songs. But then they started the Nativity in the other room so that idea was shot. Then I usually make the Rice Pudding but Julie had a good recipe she wanted to try so I gave that up too! It was really hard but I love Julie and wanted to make her feel welcome and loved. It was hard not really having a "part" in our traditions this year, but I realized that that isn't the only thing that is important. My family is growing up and I don't have to be the one in charge anymore. They are getting old enough to be more of a part of everything and I had my time.. It's time to let go of some of the old things to make room for the amazing new things that are happening.

Pooped out at the end of the day!!! :-)

So Christmas morning we woke up and opened presents. I know my family loves each other because of the looks on their faces as they watch their siblings or their parents open up the presents that they thought so hard about or worked really hard on. It was a good morning.



Then we took off to Napa and spent a nice and relaxing couple days with Scott, Lisa, and the boys. They loved spending time with their grandson and nephew. We had a lot of fun catching up and spending time with them. My favorite part? The fires!!! I miss having a fireplace to burn wood!! It was so nice!

Jakey didn't really understand what was going on but I had fun taking pictures of him in his Christmas outfit. I acutally didn't take any pictures with my camera so I thank my Dad for letting steal these pics from him!!



Big smiles at Scott and Lisa's in Napa!!



Looking forward to next year when Jake will understand and appreciate a little bit more!!

  

Family shot!! See Jakey cry!!

The whole fam!!



4 generation shot with spouses!!




Four generations!! o yea!!



My beautiful family!!



Smooches for the babe!!




Trying to open a present! :-)




He got to be the first one down the stairs because he's the youngest now!!



First Family Photos and some of Jakey too- December 2010

Ok so I know that I have been a slacker but the next couple of posts are from past dates. I'm trying to catch up.
This post is our first family photos. We had a friend from our ward take them. She did a really good job. Jacob wasn't awake for the first part so we only had a few to choose from.. These are some of our favorites.