Pictures and stuff

I have finally put a LOT of pictures up. I even put up our Christmas pictures even though it is almost March. I'm a little behind (we also have yet to take our Christmas lights down!). Right now I'm in upstate New York for work and I miss my little Gianna, Jamison and Jay so much. But I get to go home TODAY and I can't wait. :)

Since it's been awhile since I've posted about the kids, I thought I'd update on how they're both doing.

Gianna is really close to crawling. Actually, for all I know, she may be crawling... I haven't seen her since Monday! But last I saw, she gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. She also tries to crawl and ends up pushing herself backwards instead. This makes her very angry and she usually starts to cry at this point. For the last couple months, she's been going to the daycare that Jamison went to as a baby. She does pretty well there, but I can tell she misses the attention she used to get when she stayed home with me or Staci (who used to be our nanny). And of course, pretty much as soon as she started daycare she also started getting sick. She's had horrible colds for the last 2 months and has had 2 sets of ear infections. She's been on some sort of medication almost non-stop and has just in general been miserable. I really can't wait until the weather gets a little better and hopefully she can get better. I feel so bad for her! Other than that though, she's doing well. She loves to dance to every kind of music she hears and she absolutely loves Jamison. On the days she's been really sick, he's the only one who can make her smile.

Which brings me to Jamison. Lately, he seems to think that it is part of his job to entertain Gianna. He talks to her, plays with her, makes faces at her, and if she cries, he immediately runs to her and tries to make her happy. And it usually works too. He really gets down on her level which means that he will lay down and put his face right next to hers and scream. She then laughs and screams back. They repeat this a few dozen times. It's quite loud but they both love it. Jamison has switched schools now and is doing incredibly well. I was a bit worried about switching him since he has grown very fond of riding the bus and really liked his teachers and all 'the friends' (those are his words). But logistically, it just didn't work out so we now have him at a school by Jay's work. He LOVES it! Every day, Jay takes him to school and Jamison tells him that he has to go do his 'work' now. He's learning a lot and his teachers love him there. Jamison has also finally learned the meaning of the word 'why'. That's fun. Actually it is pretty cute and conversations with him are hilarious most of the time.

K, that's all for now, but if anybody is bored, check out all their new pictures in the 'Picures' section. I added 4 new folders starting with the 12/11/2008 one.

6 Years!

Today is mine and Jay's 6 year anniversary! :) There were a few reasons that I chose January 11th for our wedding date, but one of those reasons was that I thought it would be fun to have a winter wedding with some beautiful pictures in the snow. I even had a gorgeous fur-lined cape to wear over my wedding dress for some outdoor pictures. But January 11th, 2003 turned out to be an overcast day with absolutely NO snow on the ground. But there was plenty of haze around so along with the snow missing from my pictures, the mountains are also missing. Regardless, my wedding day was one of the best days of my life. There's very little I would change about that day and I have no regrets. Well... maybe we wouldn't have stayed in the same hotel on our wedding night as Jay's entire family. It also was a little wierd flying out on our honeymoon at the same time and one gate over from Jay's family who were flying home. But other than that, it was great. I still like to watch my wedding video from time to time and I still enjoy looking at my wedding pictures. Probably because I had a LOT of work done that morning to be to get me to look like that and I'm not sure I'll ever look that good again. One of the other reasons I thought a winter wedding would be nice was that I thought it would be a great excuse to celebrate our anniversary in some sort of warm tropical place. I imagined that every year would be spent in Hawaii, Cancun, on a Carribbean cruise or somewhere else where we could escape the cold weather. But, as it turns out, we haven't even made it as far south as St. George to celebrate our anniversary. And many of the years, one or both of us have ended up sick (as we both are now with colds). Oh well, one day in the future, I'll be on a cruise for our anniversary... although at this point it's looking more like it's going to be a Disney Cruise, but that's okay, I'll take what I can get!

Anyways, I'm sure I could spend a lot of time reminiscing about my wedding or listing the reasons that I'm so happy I married Jay, but I'm not going to. I will, however, answer the #1 question I'm asked about mine and Jay's relationship... How did we meet? I get asked this ALL the time which is wierd because I rarely ask that question to anyone else. Maybe I'm just a little too self-involved or something? Or maybe people ask me because they know Jay's not a Utah-native like myself. Well, to answer anyone's question, we met at a wedding in Minnesota. Actually, we were kind of set up. My mom is from Minnesota so I have family out there. I went out there for my cousin, Emily's wedding. My other cousin, Carolyn, was dating Jay's best friend Chaz. She spent quite a bit of time talking Jay up and telling me that we really should meet. I could only imagine that they said similar things to Jay so when we actually got introduced at Emily's rehearsal, it was a little awkward. I had just started dating someone here at the time, so I really wasn't interested, but as soon as we were introduced, it was love at first sight..... Okay, so that's not true at all. It was awkward being introduced to someone who I thought might be interested in me since I knew I was not interested in him, but Jay shook my hand and promptly ignored me for the rest of the night. It even seemed like he made a special effort to not sit by me at the rehearsal dinner. Despite my attempts at flirting, it appeared that my worries about having to 'let him down gently' were all for nothing. So I tried harder. And we've been together ever since. :)

So, for anyone who is reading this (still) and is married, please comment and let me know how you all met your spouses. And Jay, if you read this, HAPPY 6 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! Next year, I'll answer the 2nd most asked question of me and Jay: How does he put up with me? :)

What's in the water lately?

I just got back from my cousins baby shower today. She's having twins. One day in the not so far future she is going to go from no babies to being outnumbered by babies. It makes me tired to think about it, yet I kind of admit I'm a little jealous that in 3 years, her boys will be playing trains with EACH OTHER. And it's not that I don't enjoy playing trains... it can be pretty fun (especially when Jamison is in a chatty mood), but Jamison wants to play trains 24 hours a day. And I don't even get to play with a train. While Jamison has about 15 Thomas characters connected in one looooong train, instead I am given the role of the truck. The truck drives up to the train track and stops and waits for the train to drive by. The truck then is instructed to shout out in excitement ('Look, a train!') and then properly say goodbye to the train when it has passed. Then the truck drives in a circle and stops again to wait for the train to come by. Over and over and over and over again we do this. For hours. And I SWEAR that I was given a book that states very clearly that a 3-year old has less than a 10 minute attention span. Due to Jamison being the only child in my family and friends (well, in this timezone at least), a playmate has not been an option. But FINALLY and slowly, babies started coming. Starting with my cousin's baby Jaxon, then my own Gianna. And now it seems as though the entire world is pregnant! I feel like every time I see someone, I'm constantly trying to remember when they are due, trying to calculate how far along they are, and thinking about whether I know if they are having a boy or a girl. Let me just recap here:

50% of the women I work with are pregnant
67% of the female cousins on my dad's side are pregnant
Of the 7 (well, 7 that I know of) pregnant women at the baby shower today, 71% of them have names that start with the letter 'M'
Of these same 7 people, 58% tried for well over a year (some for several years) to get pregnant and then they ALL got pregnant at the same time!
100% of all the people I know named Mindy are pregnant
Less than 10% of the pregnant women I know are having girls (although not everyone knows yet what they are having)

Crazy. It's like something happened to the water here in Utah or something. And I know 11 currently pregnant women that I talk to or associate with somewhat regularly right now. That's a lot of hormones to watch out for. Fortunately, none of them seem to be as crazy emotional as I got, especially with my first pregnancy. I think I was a little nuts. Oh, and mean. I didn't want to be mean, but I honestly believed that with each passing day of my pregnancy that people just got stupider. And I just wasn't in the mood to deal with stupid people. Well, needless to say, I am absolutely THRILLED about the fact that there are so many babies being expected this coming year. I'm excited to be an aunt for the first time (well, sort of, I did marry into being an aunt). And I'm very happy for all of you out there who are currently expecting. Congratulations to all of you!

*** Disclaimer: I would just like to state for the record that I am NOT one of these pregnant people, nor do I plan on becoming one of these pregnant people anytime in the future. ***

Jamison & Gianna

I know that I haven't updated in quite some time. I do have tons of new pictures from Christmas to post, but I'll do that later. We did have a great Christmas though and both Gianna and Jamison are doing well. Can you believe Gianna's almost 7 months now??? Anyways, here is a video of my little people. Gianna got a little dog that makes music and she's learning to dance (while being interrupted from Jamison). They are so cute!

This is my first attempt at a video so hopefully it worked!

Hello.

Okay, I know that I was really bad this month with updating, but as it turns out, sometimes my life just isn't all that interesting... :) However, I do have more pictures to update. Both Jamison and Gianna are doing well. Gianna is really getting big. Sometimes she looks like a little girl more than a 5 month old baby. Must be all the hair... :)

She is actually sitting up on her own, although she tips over easily. Strangely, she doesn't care much for rolling over, but she can sit. I feel like she's close to getting a tooth. She bites on everything and drools quite a bit sometimes.

She also experienced her very first Presidential Election (and at the same time, her first snow storm) and even got to participate in the voting process. The voting people thought she deserved her very own 'I voted' sticker.

Jamison is still enjoying school. He's learning so much and his teacher, Miss Catherine, is just great! She's been helping with his speech and Jamison can now make 'y', 'k' and 'g' sounds which have been missing from his little vocabulary. Interestingly enough, he still has his old habits so all familiar words are still missing these sounds (for example he says lellow instead of yellow), but for new words, he is learning them correctly. He also got new hearing aids since somehow his old ones broke and were not helping him too much so we sent them in for repair and ended up with brand new ones. He seems to like these better and even tries to put them on himself sometimes.

And also, my kids have a new cousin! My sister-in-law Tracy had baby Alayna Rose on 10/21/2008 weighing in at an impressive 8 lbs, 12 oz. and 21 1/2". Congratulations Tracy!!!! Isn't she cute???

If you want to check out all the pictures I've added, click on the 'Pictures' section. :)

Another post already...

Look at this, two posts within just a few short days of each other. :)

Saturday morning, we ran in a 5K up at the University of Utah. My cousin, Jasmine, won the event for the girls with an amazing 19:29 time. 2 weeks ago, Jay and I started jogging again by running a 5K on the new Legacy highway before it opened. I did not do too well (35:14) so I was very happy with my time of 27:44 at this 5K. It was a lot of fun... even the half mile straight uphill. The best part was that Jamison took part in this event by running the kids 1K. He was so excited. About a quarter mile into it though, he made me carry him while he yelled "run mommy run!". He did run again though at the end so he was able to cross the finish line. All the kids got a medal so he's pretty proud of himself for "winning". :)

^ - This picture makes it look like I'm ahead of everyone... It's not really true, but I still like it!

Also on Saturday, we took Jamison to see the circus at the Delta Center (excuse me, Energy Solutions Arena). He has such a good time, although for almost the first half he sat on my lap with my arms securely around him. He just wasn't quite sure what to make of the whole thing at first. But we gave him some pizza and he loosened up a bit and really got into it. It was fun to see him enjoying himself so much, but after we left, he showed the same amount of enthusiasm when he got to see a TRAX train drive by so I guess we don't really need to go to such great lengths to entertain him.

And as of today, Jay officially has Sunday's off again so he's able to attend church with us. He's been working Sunday's for the last several months so I'm pretty excited that he gets to go with us again. And what better day for him to be able to go to church since today Jay and I participated in the Dedication of Jamison and Gianna to to the Lord. In case you don't know what that means, it is an act that symbolizes our committment to raise Jamison and Gianna in a way that honors God. We never got the opportunity to do this with Jamison when he was a baby, but that's okay because this way we got to dedicate both of them together. :)

If you have time, I did post more pictures in the 'Pictures' section again.

Lots of updates

Wow, it's really been awhile since I last updated. We've been so busy in the last month. Gianna is getting so big; she's almost 4 months now and she still is such an easy baby. Her hair is getting longer all the time! I've posted a lot of pictures in the 'Pictures' section.

I'm back to work now. So far just 3 days a week which is nice. I started back about a month ago and have already gone out of town. Fortunately, I just went to Flagstaff, Arizona so I was able to drag the whole family along with me! :) For child care, we have hired a nanny to come and take care of Jamison and Gianna on Monday's and Wednesday's. Her name is Staci and she is GREAT! Jamison absolutely loves her and tells me all about the fun they have. I'm so grateful to have her. She has a 8 month old little boy who comes along and he is such a little cutie. I think him and Gianna could end up being friends when they get old enough to notice other people in their little worlds. So far, it's all going pretty well. Since I'm still nursing Gianna, it does always cause a bit of a logistical situation sometimes, but my work has been pretty good about it (mostly because I keep them out of the loop..... it's for their own good!).

Jamison has started preschool! It is so so cute! He goes 4 days a week from about 8:30 - 1:30 and he loves it. His backpack is almost as big as he is, but he wears it proudly. He also is a very big boy and rides the bus to school. He really enjoys taking the bus. It's extremely convenient for us too since it comes right to our door to pick him up and drop him off. Since his school is about 20 minutes away, it's nice not to have to worry about transportation. It's a little wierd sometimes being home when he's not, but I love having some one on one time with Gianna so it all works out. Everyone keeps asking me if I cried the first time he went to school, but the answer is no. Maybe it's insensitive, but I've been dropping Jamison off at daycare since he was 12 weeks old so I'm pretty used to it. He's doing well with it though and seems to like his teachers and seems to like being in the 'preschool' environment again.

Well, that's probably enough for today. I promise not to let such a long time go before updating again. :)