Finding me | The ups, the downs and everything in between

Snowy Days

Posted on July 7, 2023 by Jamie Nicole Sessions

In January of 2019, we got a little less than 2 feet of snow in 2 days. The kids had so much fun playing in the snow, shoveling, making a fort, slides, snowmen, and snow angels. Of course they were thrilled at the snow day from school! It brings me back to my childhood when we got massive snow storms and enjoyed playing out in the snow all day long.

One of our favorite activities in the winter is doing hikes in the woods. The convenience of having the woods in our backyard makes winter hikes easy. We also like to go to Indian Brook Reservoir, which is where this picture was taken. It’s an easy walk and a good distance where it tires the kids out, but they can still make it on their own. It’s also beautiful, especially in the summer.

Maxwell loves to be outside. He often asks to play outside with Isabelle, Mommy or Daddy. He loves going on walks, playing with balls and other toys, or simply just running around.

With all the snow we got this winter, there was a lot to melt so the snow lasted into the warmer days. The kids had a blast playing out in the snow even with the sun out. The company that plows the driveways always made the best snow piles on the sides of the driveway.

Time spent with family

Posted on July 7, 2023 by Jamie Nicole Sessions

It has been such a blessing living in Vermont and getting to spend lots of time with family. The part I love most is seeing my Dad, Pat, sisters and grandparents with my kids and watching them love on them and watching my kids love them. There is just something so special about watching people you love connecting and making memories.

Nana Long loves to treat the grandkids and spoil them. She took Isabelle out for a pedicure. Isabelle loves her special time with Nana. There is something so sweet about the relationship between a grandparent and your kids. You get to see a bond being created right before your eyes. It’s also amazing seeing the impact that bond has on your child’s self-esteem. They get this feeling of being important and special that a parent just can’t give them in the same way. I love the look on Isabelle and Maxwell’s faces when they get one on one time with Papa and Nana.

The kids and I went to visit Grandma Turner at “The Residence” on Shelburne Rd. We met Papa and Nana there to go swimming in the pool. Unfortunately Gram wasn’t feeling up for swimming. The pool was gloriously warm because it is intended for residents in the nursing home to do water aerobics. The kids had a blast swimming around.

We went to visit Grammy Ashe at the nursing home in St. Albans. We would typically go around lunch time and sometimes eat with her. Other times we would go and sit in her room with her and look at pictures or just chat and reminisce. Isabelle and Maxwell had a hard time with these visits most of the time becasuse she had a hard time hearing and they needed to speak loudly, which they didn’t like to do. I hope they still were able to create some positive memories with her. She is such an important person in my life and I would love for my kids to feel that too.

Isabelle and Maxwell hanging out with Auntie D. Danielle likes to spend time with the kids and make memories with them.

The kids and I were at the watch tower waiting for Daddy to fly in. He went out to Salt Lake City for a work trip. The kids get so excited to see their Daddy when he comes back from being away. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does you can tell so clearly how much they love him and enjoy him being home.

Homebodies

Posted on July 7, 2023 by Jamie Nicole Sessions

We love being at home. Though there are times where we really, I mean REALLY, need to get out of the house. For the most part though, we enjoy just being together hanging out, playing, watching a movie, cooking, baking, doing projects, etc. The kids love playing. Isabelle is a very independent player and Maxwell is a very social player. So the two don’t always mix well, but when they do it’s so fun to watch them spend time together making memories.

Max is our little engineer. He loves building his own creations. He was so proud of this tower and that it was taller than him.

This cool little man is rockin’ the shades and a sweet face bandaid. I love my time spent with Maxwell. I’m grateful for the time that I got with him before preschool when it was just him and I at home.

I love seeing the creativity spark in these two. They will randomly just decide to play the piano and of course if one gets on, it’s not long before the other comes in for a duet. Hopefully some day one of our kids will take lessons so this piano will become more than a toy.

Nothing like nap time with Daddy. Most Sundays we have movie time with our family. Matt typically uses this for nap time, unless he chose the movie. We’ve enjoyed the snuggles and family time.

Isabelle, Maxwell and Jack have always had a close bond. He loves snuggles with them and is always on the look out to keep them safe. Isabelle is our little animal lover. She loves her time with Jack.

Isabelle also loves building with legos. She has taken more to building with sets with the instructions. She loves to sit down and make these fun creations. This one was given to her by Aunt Jeanie and Uncle Alan for Christmas.

Our family sure does love spending time together. It is a joy to watch these kids play, grow, learn, and develop their own senses of self. I love our family so very much.

Winter Time Fun 2019

Posted on October 20, 2022 by Jamie Nicole Sessions

In Vermont, if you don’t find some way to have fun in the snow and cold, you’ll have a very long 6 months. There are many ways to go about this, but here are some of our favorites. Going on winter hikes in the woods is good exercise and a beautiful way to explore. The trees are covered with bright white snow that hasn’t been tainted by dirt. It’s really the best place to get that winter wonderland feeling. While living in Vermont, we’ve been lucky enough to have a trail in the back woods right in our neighborhood. It’s the perfect length and difficulty for the kids. We have also loved going to Indian Brook Reservoir and hiking the loop there. That is where the following picture was taken. Jack loves going on nature walks with us because he loves to just frolic in the snow and run around the woods and come check in with us every few minutes. He is really in his element on these walks. It’s fun to see him having so much fun.

To our surprise, we have found that the kids actually like shoveling. We will send them out to play in the snow and find 30 minutes later that they have been just shoveling the driveway. What good kids we have! haha The thing I love most about watching them play out there in the snow is watching just where their imagination and a bit of hard work takes them. They love making forts, slides, snowmen, snow chairs, etc. The list goes on and on what they will come up with when they’re out there playing in the snow.

Then comes late winter and despite the awful state of the snow all around with it’s dingy brown color, we get pretty excited to get a head start on biking, scootering and breaking out the soccer ball. When a good warm late winter/early spring day comes you can’t pass it up. After a long long winter, you have to take advantage of those days to bring you hope for spring!

Echo Leahy Center

Posted on October 18, 2022 by Jamie Nicole Sessions

When we found out that Echo’s latest exhibit was dinosaur themed, we knew Maxwell would have a blast! They had a humungous T-Rex model that Max couldn’t stop going up to and staring at. They had dinosaur bones and other robotic animated dinosaurs. Maxwell was in heaven!

A huge hit at Echo is the kids imagination center. They have an incredible variety of themes from boats to kitchens, grocery store, veterinarian center, etc. They also have stairs that you climb to go over a bridge to reach the slide, which brings you down right in front of the water table. The water table has been the favorite of each of the kids. They could spend forever there just playing with the waterfall, boats, and water tornado.

Another area that is fun to venture through is what we call the shipwreck room. The lights are turned down and you can go into this shipwrecked boat in the middle of the room. All around the room are tanks with various fish species in them. The kids of course love the sturgeon tank because they are ginormous looking.

One event that Echo put on was a glow in the dark party. They had different areas filled with glow in the dark activities. One room was pitch black and had a bunch of hula hoops, hopscotch, and bowling games in the dark with glow paint or stickers all around to light up the room. They get so creative with their activities and events.

We have had a blast going to Echo over the years. The kids enjoy the exhibits that change every few months and watching the fish and turtles. They have so many different STEM stations where you can learn as you play. I’m so grateful for a fun educational place for my kids to play and learn.

Back to school

Posted on April 15, 2021 by Jamie Nicole Sessions

We knew school was going to look a little different this year, but the unknown was a little worrisome. From masks to somehow maintaining 6 feet distance we weren’t sure how it was going to work. It did prompt a good opportunity for Isabelle to pray for answers and comfort and feel the spirit. We asked her to pray about whether Heavenly Father wanted her to attend school or do remote schooling. Then when she got her answer, we told her to pray for comfort. The one thing we did not expect in this whole experience of returning to school was how amazing our kids are at being flexible, adaptable and go with the flow. They took the changes like champs.

Isabelle’s teacher from 1st grade, Ms. Tracy taught 2nd grade this year and so Isabelle was able to have her as a teacher again. I think this helped in the challenges of the pandemic to have a little bit more consistency and stability. Isabelle has always loved animals, but this year she has developed a big love for horses. It’s been fun to see her come home with library book after library book learning more about horses.

Isabelle has such a fun fashion sense, she loves flowery things and pink and purple and teal. She loves wearing things with horses on it and with the reversible sequins that change color. She started wanting to pick out her own outfits and her choices often make me smile. I love her unique and often unmatching choices. She is gorgeous no matter what she wears. She loves to have her hair down and hardly ever lets me put it up, probably because I’ve pulled at the tangles one too many times. She has the most gorgeous long locks of wavy light brown hair.

Maxwell started preschool this year! It’s hard to believe, but he was so very ready. He was very excited to get to meet new friends. He has always been pretty social and wanting to get out and play, so we were excited for him to have this opportunity. We were so lucky that Max got a spot in the preschool through the school district, it’s such an amazing program! Ms. Kati and Ms. Jen, Max’s teachers have been amazing through this year.

Maxwell loves graphic tees with all his favorite things, Monster trucks, dinosaurs, super heros, or paw patrol. He is pretty much fearless and loves a good challenge. He has gorgeous curly locks that I love to let grow out a bit. He usually doesn’t like me to cut his hair, but instead wants me to gel his curls up. Though just recently Daddy wanted to try cutting his hair like his, very short on the sides and longer on top. Maxwell of course loves it because it’s just like Daddy.. Anyone that touches his hair he tells them not to ruin his curls haha. Yeah he might have gotten that from his mommy.

Max’s favorite person is Isabelle. He looks up to her so much and anything she does or wants, he follows right after her. She has been so supportive and helpful to Max in starting school, especially through all the craziness of the pandemic. They don’t always get along, mainly because Max wants to be with Isabelle 24/7 and Isabelle likes some alone time, but during the pandemic when time together has become more abundant, they have really gotten a lot closer. They both so amazing. We are so grateful to have them.

Another person Max looks up to so much is his Daddy. He wants to do anything Daddy is doing. When Matt is working on the cars, Max is right there by his side. When Matt works, does work on the house, does a puzzle, goes mountain biking, goes out on a walk, etc. Maxwell is wanting to be right by his side and who could blame him, Matt is an incredible man.

Maxwell loves his Mommy. I love his sweet caring spirit and how he runs to me when he is excited, sad, or hurt. We are alike in many ways and I am grateful for all he teaches me. Love this boy!

Fall is in the air

Posted on April 13, 2021 by Jamie Nicole Sessions

Fall is such a magical and beautiful time of year, especially in Vermont. We realized how grateful we were to be living here during the pandemic where the case counts were much lower than anywhere else and being in a state where being outside is the culture. We got to do lots of fun things this fall to enjoy the beauty of Vermont. Matt took a few days off work so that we could have some family time to do “fall things”.

One of the activities was going to Stowe and riding the gondola up the mountain. It was so beautiful with the colorful trees and being able to see for so long into the mountain range.

We also took a quick drive past the Trapp family Lodge. Someday when things are less restricted, we’ll go there and do a tour, it’d be fun to watch The Sound of Music and then go, probably when the kids are older haha.

Apple picking is a given in Vermont, it’s just something you have to do in the fall. There are so many apple orchards here and they usually have fun things to do to make it fun. Most of the activities were put on hold because of COVID, but we still had lots of fun. I believe this was just after Isabelle lost her two front teeth and so she struggled a bit with apples this season. 😉

We went apple picking a couple of times, one earlier in the season with just our family and once again with my Dad, Pat, Sam, Kyle and Addie. It was fun for the kids to get to do something special with them. We all went to JP’s restaurant after for a late breakfast. It almost felt normal, despite the mask wearing and having to eat outdoors. It was nice to just spend time together.

Another activity we did on our fall vacation was go to the Isham family farm for a fall festival. Turns out it wasn’t much of a festival and more of a pumpkin patch and hay ride with some cider donuts as a bonus. It was still a fun ride around their farm and the cider donuts were delish as always.

Another fall adventure that seems to be a given each year was doing a corn maze. We went with Sam, Kyle and Addie this year. Addie had lots of fun walking around the corn maze. It’s so funny, she always has to be holding something in her hand as she’s on the go, usually a stick, but this time I think it was a little piece of corn stalk. Sam Mazzas has animals at their farm to pet and see. Isabelle loved seeing the pony and Max loved the goats.

Of course the end of fall means Halloween! Isabelle’s costume was a given. Pretty much the whole year she knew she wanted to be Ginny from Harry Potter. She got the robe and wand for her birthday. Maxwell had planned on being Harry Potter for halloween but at the last minute (and I mean really last minute, like 10 minutes before we left to go stop by families houses) he decided he wanted to be a skeleton instead. Luckily I had some white face paint that we threw on and it came out pretty good. He was excited about it.

We left our pumpkins outdoors on our front steps and forgot to bring them in to thaw them out so we could carve them. So we painted our pumpkins instead this year. The kids had lots of fun with that, and honestly it was easier! We usually have to take over the carving for the kids at some point so this way they could see their pumpkin project through from start to finish this year!

In early November, we met Dad, Pat, Sam, Kyle, and Addie at the Jericho Tavern for a dinner outdoors. It was so nice to get together and spend that time with them. It was one of the last get togethers we had before the weather got super cold, although the weather did hold out longer than usual before snowing or dropping to freezing temperatures.

Thanksgiving was a little different this year. We all wanted to try and figure out a way to get together to celebrate, but it just didn’t seem feasible. Not to mention, our governer mandated that people don’t get together with anyone outside their own homes for the holidays this year to help reduce the risk of the virus spreading. Dad and Pat were so kind and bought us Thanksgiving dinner from the Jericho Tavern so that we didn’t have to make it ourselves. Lucy’s due date was a few days before Thanksgiving so we had no clue where we would be or if our hands would be full with a new baby so it was so nice to not have to worry about cooking. The food was delicious!

Isabelle’s dream come true

Posted on April 13, 2021 by Jamie Nicole Sessions

Isabelle is our animal lover in the family. She has such a kind and caring heart and whole heartedly applies that to the love and care of animals big and small. She begs for her own dog consistently. She loves pugs and beagles. She has wanted to be a veterinarian since before she started school. Most recently though, she has focused her future career on being a horse stable manager or something of the like. She loves everything horses.

This Christmas Santa’s gift to Isabelle was 4 horseback riding lessons. He also got her gloves, tall boots and socks.

Isabelle was over the moon excited to ride a horse for the first time. She showed no fear in her first moments with the horse she would ride, Stormy. She is an older horse, about 27 years old. She has been the longstanding horse that first timer kids ride on as she is very calm, obedient and mellow.

Rebecca is her instructor and is great with Isabelle. She is kind and patient and so sweet to Isabelle, who is by nature timid and quiet around other adults. She pushes Isabelle to try new things but always makes sure Isabelle feels comfortable as well.

Our time with Addie Mae

Posted on April 13, 2021 by Jamie Nicole Sessions

We got the special privilege to watch Addie Mae once Sam went back to work in January. We watched her twice a week from January to March. After that Sam and Kyle’s work allowed them to work from home and have Addie with them.

Isabelle and Maxwell are both obsessed with Addie. They love her to pieces and can’t get enough of being around her.

Isabelle loved holding Addie and snuggling her, especially when she was asleep. On the days that I watched Addie, Isabelle would come home from school and be so excited to spend time with her.

We got to go out and do lots of fun stuff with Addie like visiting Grandma Turner. The ladies at Kings’ Daughters just loved seeing her and couldn’t get enough of her and Maxwell while we were there. Gram had a balloon that was inflated and Maxwell and her would swat the balloon back and forth. They both had a blast with that.

We also got to visit Grannie a few times. Grannie loved seeing and holding Addie. She would sing to her and coo at her. I will always remember with all babies Grannie makes this little clicking sound with her tongue. It’s so cute and the babies usually love it. I am so grateful that we were able to bring Addie to see her.

I absolutely loved my time with Addie and felt so blessed to be able to get that special bonding time with her. It felt so special especially because the next year after we were not allowed to hold her or anything. It was so hard to not have her get to know us and be around her a lot to see her grow.

Maxwell had lots of fun with Addie Mae while Isabelle was at school, he loved spending that time with her. They had a blast together!

Happy Birthday Isabelle!

Posted on April 13, 2021 by Jamie Nicole Sessions

Our sweet Isabelle turned 7 in 2020 and was in the middle of an obsession with Harry Potter. She was reading the books (more like cruising through them) and when she was in school her and her classmates would play Harry Potter at recess. Her whole class loved it. Isabelle played Ginny at recess and came to have a love for her character.

Since we couldn’t do a party or anything with friends for Isabelle’s birthday, we bought her, Maxwell, Matt and I wizard costumes for us to wear.

We had family over for cake, ice cream, and gifts. Isabelle had picked out her birthday outfit online this year, which was a little different, she sure picked out a cute dress.

Despite it being weird times with being 6 ft apart from all the family, wearing masks, having the party outdoors in the sweltering heat, etc. It was a blast to celebrate this little girl growing up.

Isabelle and I searched long and hard on pinterest for a Harry Potter Cake that I could actually make. The book looked easy enough and so began my first adventure with fondant. It came out pretty good and I was glad to make something special for Isabelle’s special day.