Catch Up Time!

It's been a little over a month since we last posted so now we've got a LOT of catching up to do. So here it goes:

Nate's 28th Birthday

Nate turned 28 this year! Yay for Nate! For his birthday I got him a Chamberlain 3/4 HPS Belt Drive Garage Door Opener System. Actually he was going to get it anyways for our new house, but it was so much more fun as a birthday gift! We also had a family get together for his birthday and had pie and ice cream. It was lots of fun!


Emma's Adorable Toothless Smile

We randomly caught these pics of Emma one night. It's not often we catch a smile on camera so this was perfect!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was at Mom and Dad Jackson's house this year. It wasn't as large of a group as it usually is with Nate's family since many people had other plans, but there were still a lot of people. We had a great time with everyone and the food was awesome! Valerie did a really great job on the turkey and everything else was delicious! Heidi and Cirdan brought their Wii and the new Super Mario Bros game so we had a blast playing that. Emma had a great time with everyone too. It's too bad she wasn't old enough for the food yet! Here she is with Aunt Heidi:

Ella, Heidi's little girl, had a rough time when she first got there from being woken up from her nap. I just couldn't resist getting a picture of her sad little face. So cute!

Here's the group of us!

The missionaries came to eat with us too. I think we were their second house that day so it was round two for them!

Our cute little family. I'm so grateful for Nate and Emma and I'm grateful to have such a wonderful family!

We Moved!

Nate and I got the keys to our new house on November 24th. It was so exciting! We didn't get the keys until after 5 so needless to say it was a late night. We were just itching so bad to move that we wanted to go right away. Some friends from the ward helped us out so that was nice. The first night in our house we didn't have the crib set up yet so Emma slept with us, but the second night Emma slept in her own room all by herself and she slept soundly through the night. I think she really likes her new room!

I don't have any pictures to show of the house yet because we're still trying to get it organized. We'll get some up soon though!

Family Pictures

We finally all got together to take some family pictures over at Heidi's house. For some reason it's so hard to get everyone together at the same time to take pictures so it was almost a miracle that we got these...lol. These particular pictures were taken with our camera. The first couple were taken at the same time as another camera so that's why everyone's looking somewhere else.

Meema and Papa with all of the grandkids!

Emma's First Mohawk

Emma's hair is long enough now that I could put in a little mohawk after her bath. So cute!

The View from our Room

We are able to see the beautiful sunrise from our bedroom window every clear morning. It is just breathtaking! We love it!

Decorating Gingerbread Houses: A Jackson Family Tradition

It's been a busy Christmas season so far what with putting on the Ward Nativity Program and Nate accompanying our friend Jenni the violinist at a stake Creche Exhibit. We were so busy we missed the first round of gingerbread house decorating, but we made it for round two. Here are Daddy and Emma having fun decorating together:

Our gingerbread house. It wasn't really complete because Emma and I weren't feeling too well and my creative juices weren't flowing. At least it got all put together!

Everyone elses houses looked awesome! The one on the left is Craig's and Stacey's. The one in the middle is Kaylee's and Valerie's. And the one of the right is Heidi's and Cirdan's. Good job guys! They look awesome!

Emma Meets Santa

This is Emma's first time to meet Santa! He came to our Ward Christmas Party to take pictures with the kids. Emma was asleep when I handed her to him, but she woke and started freaking out. So we put the binky in and she went back to sleep. No awake pictures with Santa this year!

When I took her back she accidentally grabbed onto Santa's beard...haha! Let's just say he had some readjusting to do when she finally let go. She must already be testing to see if it was the real Santa. Either that or she really wants coal for Christmas this year!

Our House is Almost Done!!

Just wanted to post this picture of our house. I swung by yesterday after work and snapped this with my work cell phone. They've poured the concrete for the porch and driveway and finished the painting too it looks like. We heard that they are hoping to be done by the 19th of this month!!! We are definitely hoping too!!

Halloween 2009

For Halloween this year Emma was a flower and Nate and I were bees. Emma looked absolutely adorable in her little costume!


After getting all dressed up, we went to our Ward Halloween Party and Trunk or Treat. It was so much fun! There were tons of people there and everyone looked so great in their costumes. We didn't take Emma outside for the trunk or treat, though, because she's had a stuffy nose lately and we didn't want her getting sick.


They also had a chili cook-off for the guys and a dessert cook-off for the women. Nate decided to make a really hot chili and he ended up winning 1st Place! I was so proud of him! :) The chili actually had a really great sweet and spicy flavor so that when you first tasted it you thought "Oh yum! This is good!" Then the heat would hit you like a punch...lol. It was awesome!

Surprisingly I ended up getting 2nd place in the dessert cook-off! I thought that was kind of funny just because it was my first time making the dessert, which was a black forest cake with chocolate covered cherries on top. I really only made that because it just sounded so yummy that I really wanted to eat some! So the night turned out really great! The party was actually the night before Halloween so on the real Halloween night we went over to Nate's sister Heidi's house and played games with them. It was tons of fun eating goodies and hanging out! I love Halloween for that reason! :)

What Kind of Mother Am I?

Emma has decided that she can wiggle her way out of her car seat if she's not strapped in. I was fixing dinner, talking on the phone to Nate, and had my back turned, when it all happened. I heard her fussing a bit and then realized it had stopped so I turned around and found her like this!:


She was just kind of looking around like "what just happened?" and then she saw her blanket and decided to start eating it:

I guess the stationary days are over now! I better keep a better eye on her from now on like a good mother...lol.

Happy Three Months!

Emma is three months old today! She is getting bigger and cuter all of the time. This last month has been so fun with her because she is starting to interact so much more with Mom and Dad. She smiles to us a lot, especially when we put her in front of a mirror or we hold her up in the air. She has also shown us her little opinionated personality. She definitely wants what she wants when she wants it! But she's just so cute that she gets away with it. Emma is also starting to reach for her toys and loves to watch them and listen to the rattles. She does not like to be on her belly on the floor, but she has learned to hold her head up in this position nonetheless. Since she doesn't like being on her stomach, she has learned to roll back over onto her back if she's only part way on her belly or side. She can't roll all of the way yet, but she's working at it. Emma also talks...A LOT! She loves to make noises and tell us her baby joys and woes. It's so fun and cute to hear her! She's starting to get little laughs out every now and then, but we have yet to hear her truly laugh. One of her favorite activities is her bath. She loves to splash around and gets really mad at me when I take her out. Here she is enjoying her bathtime. She's kind of got the "deer in the headlights" look because of the camera flash, but she really was enjoying the bath!:


I also took some pictures of her in a couple of my favorite outfits. I couldn't really get her to smile big because she's been kind of grumpy today. Changing her and doing a photo shoot wasn't in her plans for the day apparently...lol. I got a few cute pictures, though, so it wasn't all a lost cause. :)





We love our cute little Emma! Happy three months sweet pea!

In other news, Nate and I have both received new callings in our ward. Nate is now 1st Counselor in the Young Men's and I am an Activity Days leader. We're both pretty excited about our callings and are happy to be working with the youth and primary. We're also both going to be busy. Nate will be working with the Teachers and they do a lot of camping and scouting. There's already a camping trip planned for November. I guess on those weekends I'll have to spend time with the in-laws or with girl friends! But girl time is totally fine with me! We've also been assigned to put together the Nativity program for our Ward Christmas Party this year. It will depict the Christmas story in both Judea and in the Americas. The youth and primary kids are playing the parts and singing the songs. It's going to be so great and we're pretty excited about it! Doing this project with Nate has been so fun and I've gotten to see his "artistic director" side. He has so many good ideas it's a wonder that he doesn't direct movies or something...lol.

As for our house, it's coming along very well. Inside it looks like all of the walls are done and the light fixtures are in. The finish date is coming up on the 23rd of November so just a few more weeks!! Then a week after that we close and move in! We're so excited about it! We've already bought our washer, dryer,
and refrigerator (they're being stored at the warehouse until we move in). It's loads of fun getting ready for a new home!

House Update

Well, our house is continuing to progress! Yesterday we went over there to check it out and saw that they had put the siding and trim on and that they are halfway through with the sheetrock inside. Yay! It really looks like a house now.


This is picture of the sheetrock in Emma's room:

We also had to take this picture of some hot sauce a worker left there. Somebody likes it hot! ...lol.

2 Months Old and Oh So Cute!

Emma is 2 months old today and as cute as ever! I can't believe how much she has changed in just a month. Babies grow so fast! Just to show the change, here are a few pictures of her at about a month old, courtesy of my wonderful friend Jocelyn.




Now here she is at 2 months:






Big change! At least I think so. :) She is smiling and cooing up a storm now and we just can't get enough of it. She had her 2 month appointment today and she weighed in at 11 pounds 5 ounces and measured at 23 and a quarter inches long. As far as length goes, she is in the 90th percentile, well above average. Nate and I think she better enjoy being tall while she can. It's not going to last long with us as parents! :) She also got her 3 vaccination shots today and has been a little fussy because of the tenderness in the shot areas. Poor baby! It's so sad to see her in pain!! At least she is healthy though and these shots will help her stay that way. For that I'm very grateful! I also wanted to share these last two pictures of her sleeping on our bed recently. Her sleeping position was so cute and we had to get it on the camera. I love her squished face and cute little hands! Such a little angel!