Pictures!

Here are the pictures I meant to post on the last post. We haven't taken many since these ones, but we've been having fun testing out our new video camera! We're so excited that we've got one to record our precious baby girl when she comes. The camera came with a USB cable so that's how I'm putting these ones on here.





Ken Griffey, Jr. - Cool, but no great hits came out of him this game.


The foul ball we caught.



Mariners win! Yay! These next ones were just some random ones we had Valerie take for us a couple of Sundays ago. Had to get some good family and belly shots!





Also, since the last post, we've had some 4th of July fun with the family. In the morning we got up and went to the flag ceremony at Gram's stake center. She was being honored by the mayor of the city for her help in establishing this flag ceremony 50 years ago. It was pretty neat!


She got a certificate signed by Sam Reed, the Washington Secretary of State, and a flag that flew over the state capitol! What a great honor for her! Then we went home and bought our crib and things online so we're really excited to get that this week! Then Nate made homemade ice cream, homemade root beer, and a couple of dutch oven desserts (I helped a little with the desserts...lol) and we had a BBQ with the neighbors out in the coldesac. It was lots of fun and the food was great! That night Nate and I went over to a lake nearby and watched the fireworks display there. It was actually pretty good considering it was only put on by the city. It was really fun to get out, ride the shuttle bus, be with the crowds and enjoy the summer night! Hope everyone had a happy 4th!!

The Busy Month of June

This month has been a busy one and it has just flown by! We did a lot of things and took some pictures too, but now we can't find the USB cable to put the pics on our computer....grrr...bummer! So sorry but no pics for this post. We'll have to post them once we find the cable....I know it's here somewhere! Anyways, this month we went to a Mariners game, birth prep classes every Tuesday night, celebrated Mama Jackson's birthday, Kaylee's graduation, and Father's Day, and we bought some fun baby stuff including the car seat and stroller, cute clothes, and a camcorder. We don't actually have the camcorder yet, but we're supposed to get it tomorrow from UPS. Nate is especially excited to get it all figured out before the baby comes. This little girl is going to be so spoiled with attention...I love it! I can totally see it too...we'll probably back down on camera time when other babies come and our kids will grow up jealous that Emma got the most camera time as a baby...lol. I guess we'll see how it all goes. The Mariners game was lots of fun. We got some pretty good seats through my work for an awesome price. I swear I have one of the best employers ever as far as benefits go sometimes. We were down on the first level at the top of the section behind the Mariners' dugout. The game was a good one because we won, but we also got to catch a foul ball! Nate and I have never gotten one before so we were pretty syked when it came right to us. One of the Minnesota Twins players hit it and it came over to our section. It bounced off of a guy's hands quite a few rows in front of us and then hit the cement in front of some empty chairs and bounced in the opposite direction right to Nate. Totally random! We decided Emma was our good luck charm. So it was a great game! Nobody hit any home runs though, but I guess we can live without that. :) The only bad part was that we were going to ride the train up to Seattle, but we just barely missed it. So we had to drive and park at extravagant prices, but oh well...what do you do? Our birth prep classes have been so nice for me and it makes Nate excited for the baby every time. I learned so much about what to expect at the hospital and how they do things there. I've also had a lot of questions answered about newborn care, breastfeeding, how labor works, and what my options are with pain management and anesthesia. I was seriously so uninformed before taking this class and now I feel so much better having some preparation for what is to come. How come sex ed never covered the stages of labor and how birth really works?? ...lol. Anyways, we have our last class this Tuesday and this one is going to be a tour of the new birth center at the hospital and then we will be learning breathing and relaxation techniques to cope with pain. Should be fun! As far as all of the celebrations, they were nice and we enjoyed the occasions and ate some good food. So our busy month of June is coming to a close soon and now we're going to be starting the last month of this pregnancy...yay!! We feel like we really don't have everything we need yet for the baby so we're not ready for her to come yet, but we also can't wait to see her and hold her in our arms. We've also been waiting to hear back on our offer that we made on a short sale home here in Covington. Our real estate agent told us last week that we should hear more tomorrow so we are really hoping we do! The house is supposed to go to auction on July 6th and the mortgage company that holds the loan has to get back with us before then. So here's hoping!! We would love all of the prayers and faith we can get too!! Most likely we won't be in a house, even if we get this one, before Emma's born so it'll be fun to add her to our already crowded room until we are able to move. Yay for the joys of transitions! It'll all work out I am sure, but I find that I am a worry wort about such things. Anyways, I'm really excited for July and all of the fun things we'll be doing then. We've got the 4th to look forward to, a baby shower put on by our ward, me quitting my job on July 10th, Harry Potter 6 coming out, and the possibility of the baby being born. I'm so excited!! Life is wonderful!

Remembering our family veterans...

Just to set the record straight, it was me that snipped the blanket for Emma. Sure Amy did the sewing but I had to do the painstaking effort of cutting up the edges. This was a pure act of selfless love for Amy and Emma and resulted in some temporary nerve damage in my finger and thumbs. I had numb-thumbs for a few days. Oh and I set a record by doing it within 45 minutes. :-)

On the day before Memorial day, we went to visit the graves of my two grandfathers at the Tahoma National Cemetery. The weekend prior, we attended a ward service project to clean the headstones in this area. Fortunately most of the stones were still clean but the birds did get a few. It was neat to be able to clean these for the families of those that did so much to preserve our freedoms and liberty.

Grampee's headstone. We were able to see many other family members at the cemetery as well including Gramee, Jeff and Shirley, and Brad and Andrea. The weather was just absolutely perfect, which apparently is very rare for Memorial day in Washington.




Me trying to get Casey to walk.... He still prefers to crawl though.
We also stopped by Grandpa Jackson's grave and saw that other family had already visited. They left flowers and a balloon.


It was cool to see all the US flags lining the streets and next to every grave, especially with Mt Rainier as the backdrop. It invokes a sense of patriotism and solemn gratitude for the sacrifices made for each US citizen.


And of course for those of you wondering, this is a random side-profile of Amy to show how big the baby is getting! She's gi-normous!!

A Blanket for Emma

I've finally completed the rag blanket for our sweet baby girl! The embroidered E took me the longest but I'm really happy with how it all turned out. I used purple and green instead of pink because she just seems like a purple and green girl. Once we have a room for her, those are the colors I want to use.

Our First Anniversary - Day 2

Our second day turned out to be a beautiful sunny day, which is a rarity there in Forks. We stayed the Dew Drop Inn (which was quite nice and Nate and I very much enjoyed it!) and I loved what they had on their sign:

Across the street from our hotel was the Outfitters store. It was where Bella worked in the book. It really is the biggest store they have in town.
The night before, we got the Twilight sub at this Subway. We also saw some high school kids all dressed up for prom there and they were apparently having it at the Quileute tribal center that night! Nate and I thought it would have been great to crash the party, but we decided not to...lol. It was just ironic that we were there prom weekend because prom was the event at the end of the first two books.We left Forks that morning and headed back. On our way we stopped at Lake Crescent again to get more pictures and to take a short hike to Marymere Falls. Here are some pictures of the view driving there:


This was a little view spot we stopped at and learned that this lake is a glacial lake. It is apparently 624 or so feet deep in the middle. Deep lake!



Here are the pictures of the hike and the waterfall:




This was the creepy tunnel we had to go through that went under the road to continue the trail.


The trees were SO tall and really big around. The pictures don't do them justice. It was absolutely beautiful!

After the hike we headed into Port Angeles to get some pictures at the dock. We then had a little picnic that we brought with us and ate it on the benches there. It was a really nice day so there were a lot of teenage kids out doing stuff on the dock. There were definitely some interesting ones there and a cop even drove out onto the pier to stop some of them from riding their bikes in places they shouldn't...lol. We also walked around the little free marine aquarium they have. It was neat to see and even touch some of the sea animals (sea cucumbers, starfish, etc.). I thought it was so crazy that in 20 minutes we went from mountains and lakes to ocean and ships. Washington is great!

Those mountains in the distance below are actually Canadian mountains. The border is somewhere over the water. There's a ferry that goes from Port Angeles to Victoria in Canada quite often without needing a passport. Starting June 1 this year they will be requiring passports though.




This was my attempt at getting the "Welcome to Port Angeles" sign. It didn't work very well:These were my souvenirs. Yes I am a dork!
Our anniversary was really fun and it was so nice to be alone together and get away from the hustle and bustle of work and extended family. I can't believe it has been one year since we got married. It has all gone by so fast. I have been so blessed to be married to Nate. I love him with all of my heart and he loves me more than I know. I can't imagine my life without him. He is my best friend, lover, confidante, protector, provider, and spiritual leader. He is everything I could ever want and everything I need. I love you Nate!! We've had a great and eventful year together and we're so excited to be growing our family by one this year!