December with Jackson

I am really loving Jackson right now. OK I am really loving him all the time, but the past few weeks he has been very easy going and so much fun. Since I've been pregnant I've really started analyzing Jackson and wondering how he's going to act with a baby in the house and how am I going to handle 2? There have been good and bad weeks - meaning some weeks I think I'm crazy for having another baby when I can't handle one & some weeks I think it will be great. Ever since Jamaica (and at some moments even during our trip) I'm thinking this is going to be a good thing - the kid is getting mature.

He slept great in Jamaica and has slept perfectly since we got home. He sleeps from 8 pm to 7 am or later every day and hasn't cried once while putting him to bed. He's taking 3 hour naps (sometimes longer) every afternoon and hasn't had a bad one in weeks. As he's able to understand and communicate better now, things are really going a lot more smooth. I've been trying to give him his binky only at nap and night time for a while now, and finally that is becoming more normal. Sure there is the occasional emergency "need to binkify" moment as Tyler and I call it, but he's pretty content without it during the days.

He wakes up happy every day. I think he probably plays around in his crib for 20-30 minutes before I go upstairs to get him. I'll hear him talking and rolling around but I won't get him until he starts shaking the side of the crib or I can tell he's talking to me saying, "I'm ready" in his own language. He is always happy and super talkative when he wakes up, it's still mostly gibberish but more and more words are surfacing. He normally is pointing out all the toys and books in his room that he wants to play with. "train" "boat" "chair" "stuck" "broke" "flag" and "the end" are all recent words, but I'm still waiting for him to say Mama! Normally he runs right over to his wooden train or grabs a book that he had spied from the crib.

After he plays with his toy(s) for a bit we will go downstairs and he'll immediately look for the "mote" aka remote control so he can turn on his Disney shows. Once he finds it (doesn't normally take more than a minute even when I hide it behind different pillows each day) he hands it to me and then starts playing with toys. After about 20 minutes or so he'll let me know he's hungry by running over to his high chair and starting to climb up.

Then when it's time for his afternoon nap or nighttime I tell him it's time for "binky, blanket, juice, and books" and he heads upstairs with me. After reading a few books and cuddling with his blankie he'll have one last drink of juice and get in his crib. He cuddles right in and doesn't fuss about it. He loves his crib - which is making me think about what we'll do when baby sister arrives...

But he has been doing something lately that I love - now as I'm leaving his room after putting him down for a nap or the night I'll always say "goodnight" one last time as I shut the door. Now, he's started saying "byebye" right as I shut the door, and I'll peek back in the room and he will be lifting his head up, looking at the door smiling at me. It's one of my favorite parts of the day as we look at each other smiling for a few seconds.

I think having little routines like this are really good for him and I hope that he can get into a good groove while we're visiting home for the holidays. We actually leave for Arizona next week and will be there until Christmas Day. Then we'll be in Utah until the start of January. We are excited to see our family and friends, especially since we haven't been back since last Christmas!

We've been able to do some fun Christmasy stuff in Florida, but really we haven't seen much of Tyler since we got back from Jamaica. He needed to be in Puerto Rico last week and he had to go to the airport right from our ultrasound, about 16 hours after getting back from Jamaica. Then he had school last weekend and finals this weekend. Throw in study groups, a trip to West Florida, and South Carolina & you've got one busy guy leading right up until we go to Arizona.

We were able to go to both Epcot's Candlelight Processional, and Hollywood Studios' Spectacle of Dancing Lights this week.




I was surprised how well Jackson did sitting through this concert, about an hour long! I love it though because they have a celebrity narrator read Luke 2 and a choir and orchestra perform classic Christmas songs. It's very emotional and religious for being held at a theme park and worth the line to get a seat.



Tonight is our church's Christmas Party, and tomorrow I'm baking up our Christmas treats to give to our friends neighbors! Ooh and we also just got our Christmas Cards so I'll be sending those out soon too. We have some addresses gathered but email / message us your address if you don't think we have it and would like to get one :-)

The ultrasound

12 hours after we got home from Jamaica we headed to the doctor for our babies ultrasound. I was 20 weeks and 1 day along and we (ahem ... Tyler) couldn't wait any longer to find out if baby was boy or girl!

After 10 minutes of studying the brain, heart, spine, etc. the tech told us she knew what it was ... and since we hadn't seen any "indicator" on the screen we were pretty sure too -

IT'S A GIRL!!



All along I've said that I don't have strong feelings either way and I really didn't have a preference at all! But as soon as she said girl I was shocked. I guess since all I know is boy - the reality that it really is a girl this time hit me harder than I thought it would. All of Jackson's baby clothes, blankets and accessories are going in the attic and it's time for a whole new world - and shopping spree!

Tyler is absolutely thrilled (about the girl part, not so much about the shopping part). He wanted to have a girl so bad! He really didn't care when it came, as long as he gets to have at least one little princess - he's got her now and he's already smitten with her and giving my tummy kisses. All along he's called this baby "the sweet pea" so he is proud of his intuition.

As soon as the ultrasound started and I saw that cute little profile of our baby, I thought - that baby looks like a girl. I didn't say that out loud, but wish I would have! I wish I could have an ultrasound every appointment but I only get to have 3 during my pregnancy. It was so much fun seeing her move around, see her heart beat, her little fingers and feet and her cute little face.

My doctor had always referred to this baby as a girl, like as soon as we heard the heartbeat he said, "there she is!" But I'm realizing that deep down I must have always thought it would be a boy because it really is crazy for me to say "she" and "her" now. My mom screamed, my grandpa hooted and hollered, and everyone has been so excited with the news. I don't think I would have received the same reaction with a boy.

A boy would have been easy, familiar, and I would have allowed myself to go into 100% boy mode for everything I buy Jackson for Christmas. But now I'm looking around at all of our toys realizing how much boy stuff we have. I tried to be really gender neutral when getting baby gear (mostly red, and browns) and the nursery (black & white) but everything else - all boy. We have trains, cars, balls, and dinosaurs all over the house. I hope baby girl can like some of that too!

Most important is the relationship that Jackson will have with his sister. I have visions of him being such a great big brother to a little girl. After reading The Birth Order Book, it scared me a little about the competition that can arise from 2 boys 2 years apart. But normally brothers and sisters have much easier relationships. Tyler has a sister Kristi who is 21 months younger than he, and they had a great relationship growing up. I hope Jackson can have the same with his sister.

He is such an observant boy and can tell when I'm sad or sick. He was especially watchful of me in the mornings of my first trimester when I'd often need to run to the bathroom. During these times he always wants to be close to me (which wasn't always great when I'd be throwing up) but he was really concerned about me. He would rub my arm and back to comfort me. It's one of my favorite things he does and I am thrilled to see him be the protector of his sister too.

One boy and one girl, wow. we're so excited for our growing family...

Jamaican Thanksgiving

We really like to switch it up at Thanksgiving. Our past 4 married Thanksgivings we've been in London, Arizona, a Caribbean Cruise, & New York. Last year we had the perfect traditional thanksgiving in NYC with my family, watching the parade, shopping at Macy's on Black Friday and getting into the Christmas Spirit! This year for our 5th married Thanksgiving we switched modes completely, and spent the week in Montego Bay, Jamaica!

Tyler needed to go down there for work one day this year and he scheduled it for the day before Thanksgiving. But other than his few hours away, we spent the rest of the week together relaxing in the sun. There was basically no internet or phone (unless we wanted to pay an arm and a leg) so we were able to enjoy a week with almost no iphones :-) Jackson and I actually didn't leave the resort all week, we spent our days hanging out at the pool, at the beach, in the ocean and eating yummy food and drinking strawberry daiquiris. Jackson loved all the daddy time and had so much fun at the resort. Most people we met knew his name by the end of the week and couldn't get over how cute he was - and how much he looked like his daddy!

Here are some of my favorite moments from the week.

Beach Time











Lots of good meals together (aka lots of rolls, watermelon & hot dogs for Jackson)




Boat Time (Jackson loved pointing out the boats he'd see in the ocean and we got to take out this kayak a couple times)




Pool Time




Ball Time

(Here we are at the Towel Hut that we ended up calling the Ball Hut because Jackson kept going back to look at the different balls available to check out)



Pink Drinks - The Kid is obsessed! He had at least 2 a day...



(he was super spoiled on this trip, this is the treatment he got so we could enjoy our dinner. Tyler holds out Mickey Mouse & a pink drink for the buddy)


Thanksgiving Dinner






Playing in the lobby after dinner every night





Jamaica Beauty




I also have to remember "Ya Man". Jamaicans seriously say this at least 10 times per minute. I realized it can mean Yes, Thank You, You're Welcome, What's up, How are you, Ok, etc etc. They basically will say it to answer any question and at the end of any phrase haha. I loved it though.

It was such a great week to spend together as a family. Jackson loved being able to spend so much time with daddy. Now these next 3ish weeks Tyler is going to be super busy traveling and finishing up his first semester of school & finals. So it was great to spend an entire week together because we won't be seeing much of him in the coming weeks.

Trav, Alise & Avery visit

We just spent a fun filled week with Tyler's brother Travis, his darling wife Alise and Jackson's precious cousin Avery! We had been looking forward to their visit for so long and it turned out great. The weather was awesome, no rain, sunny days, and we even got really cold a couple nights! It was so much fun to see them again and to have Jackson and Avery get to spend so much time together. Jackson only has 2 cousins (but 1 more on the way!) so it's good for him to get to know Avery who is only 6 months younger!


Not sure if it is an activity our neighbors appreciated, but Ty and Trav had fun hitting balls into the lake behind our house.



We hit up Epcot and Magic Kingdom on our first Disney day and it would be an understatement to say that Jackson was difficult... He was finally over the majority of his illness but after several sleepless nights he was not his normal easy going self. This led to me understanding what it would be like to have a difficult child and taking basically no pictures. But we were still able to have a pretty good time! Highlights at Epcot were the Aquarium, Test Track, Soarin, feeding the ducks, enjoying good food, and riding the boat ride in Mexico.



We headed to Magic Kingdom after the kiddos got some much needed naps back at our place. The evening began with a fun show in front of the castle that Avery and Jackson both loved!

We were able to ride Small World, Dumbo, the Carousal, Winnie the Pooh and the boys hit up Space Mountain while the moms and babies toured around on the people movers. We were able to watch the Disney Wishes and Firework show right in front of the castle and it was awesome! The babies did great and stayed awake until we got in our cars at about 9 pm.

The next couple days we took it at a much slower pace. During the weekend we went to the park, drove around Windermere, a high school football game, the mall, and Tyler and I were able to attend the temple while Travis and Avery graciously stayed home with the kiddos.
Saturday evening was lots of fun when we went mini golfing at Disney. J & A had so much fun with their little plastic clubs. I didn't know if we'd be able to golf the complete 18 holes with the little ones running around, but they did so well! We were able to golf the whole course and Travis is happy to say that after a fierce competition with Tyler ... he came up on top.





After our golfing we went over to the Disney Boardwalk area and walked around the beautiful Beach and Yacht Club Hotels. We had dinner on the Boardwalk at a great little deli and headed back home.

Our next big Disney day was Monday and we visited the other two parks - Animal Kingdom & Hollywood Studios. Can I tell you how much better behaved Jackson was this day?? So glad to have a happy and healthy baby again and I'm so glad Avery never got sick!

Anyways, we had lots of fun at animal kingdom on the safari, checking out gorillas, rode a "choo choo" and saw our friend perform in the finding nemo show! the boys rode Everest and Dinosaur while the moms and babies took the less thrilling rides in Dino-Land USA.









We didn't end up leaving the park til after 1pm and the babies were both so tired. Avery fell asleep in about 45 seconds and Jackson took about 4 minutes. Then Alise and I turned around and saw this...


That evening we went back over to Hollywood Studios and introduced Avery to Winnie the Pooh! She was so stinkin cute with him! She blew him kisses, gave him kisses hugs, and was so happy to see him. And then there was Jackson. Terrified, wouldn't touch him, wouldn't give a high five and didn't want to even stand too close, as the bottom picture portrays...




The boys hit up Rock'N, Toy Story, we saw the Indiana Show, Disney Jr Show, American Idol Finale Show, then got to walk around the Festival of Dancing Lights!





They left yesterday and Jackson has been looking very lonely walking around the house by himself. He might not have always been super gentle with Avery (as he tried to play catch and threw the ball at her face, or tried to give her a bottle but shoved it into her arm) but he really loved having her around.

My favorite moment was yesterday morning. I had to wake up Jackson at 7:30 so we could get ready to take them to the airport. As i walked in his room, Avery came with me. At first Jackson stayed laying down and was acting pretty tired. But then I said, "Jackson, guess who is here to see you --- Avery is in your room too!" At hearing this he immediately sat up looked out of the crib and got the biggest smile when he saw her. He then says "Hi! Hi! Hi" and begins waving excitedly. It was pretty dang adorable and I'm excited to reunite these two when we get to Utah for Christmas :-)