Children's Museum

We went on a field trip with the MBA Spouse Association to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum in SLC today. Other than Jackson not getting a nap at all today, he had a great time. I think if he were are year or two older he could have gotten into it a lot more, but he still had fun.
One of his favorite parts was the water area. He loved putting the balls into the tubes and splashing around.

Playing with blocks...

and gears...

Celebrating knocking over his lego tower

He had fun with the mini kitchen in the baby/toddler area where he didn't get run over quite as much.

Driving with his friend Justin. Oh, the orange vests were to identify all the MBASA kids...they do that for day care and school field trips so the leaders can identify their kids easily...we were all moms with our kids, but they got to wear them anyway. A lot of the kids took them off, but Jackson must not have noticed he was wearing his.

Working in the grocery store

Shopping with a grocery cart just his size

Fireman Jackson to the rescue!

Playing music with mom

He also really loved the ball area. There were tubes and pipes going all over the place; you could put balls down the holes or into vaccuum tubes that would suck them up into tubes above your head.

He really doesn't look too excited in any of these pictures because he was so tired. Whenever I'd pick him up to move on to the next area, he'd lay his head down on my shoulder. He did great though, and had lots of fun "discovering" at the museum. It was fun for me to watch him try to figure things out and learn how things work. It also reminded me of going to a children's museum when we'd visit my grandparents in Ontario, though I think this museum was a lot smaller.
It was fun! Hopefully we'll get to go back some time when Jackson's not so sleepy!

We're alive

I don't really know why I haven't been in the blogging mood lately (like for the past four months). I should write more. This is pretty much it for the record of my life. But I'm not going to make any promises for more frequent postings or anything because I'm afraid I'd only break them.
As I was emailing my great aunt today I gave her a general update on our lives...it kind of sounded like a Christmas letter (which we never got around to writing) or a blog entry (also lacking lately). I've already typed it all...may as well modify it a bit and share it with the rest of the family and friends so they know we're alive too.

Things are going well for us here. Busy, but good. Jack is staying very busy with school, homework, extra curricular activities, and internship searching, plus now he's debating about doing a PhD so he's trying to do some prep for that. Add in scouts, diligent home teaching, YM president, and well...lets just say I value my time with him :) I sometimes celebrate that we're more than 1/4 through this MBA thing, and think that I'll get to spend more time with Jack after he graduates, but then I realize he'll either be working or doing a PhD program then working after MBA... Only 35ish years til retirement! I'm really not wishing our lives away. I am happy with this stage of life. I just really like my husband and like to spend time with him. I'm grateful for all his hard work though!
I'm in the Primary presidency now and am enjoying that. We've got a fairly small primary---28 kids on the roll---and we've been working on activating some of the kids/families in the ward. I don't really know that it's anything we're doing, but so far two of the less active families have been coming so we're glad about that. I'm trying to find more opportunities to do things during the day with real people who can hold a conversation with me. I love being able to stay at home with Jackson, but I've recently decided I need more adult interaction. I do some stuff with the MBA spouse group and try to go to our ward's playgroup, but sometimes that just isn't enough.
Jackson will officially be in nursery in four weeks and we're all looking forward to that. It gets to be challenging to try and entertain him quietly and keep him from distracting the kids in primary, plus trying to do opening exercises or sharing time. I think once he is in nursery I'll be able to be more "active" in primary on Sundays. Right now I feel like I spend half the time out in the hall with him. Jack takes him during Sunday School, but then he has to be in YM and teaches frequently. We took Jackson into nursery and stayed with him (can't leave him til he's 18 months) this Sunday for the first time. Other than being way overdue for a nap, he did pretty well. I'm not sure how to manage the nap situation on Sundays with our new schedule. He usually goes down for a nap around 11:30, but now our church starts at 11. Hopefully it won't be too big of a problem though if he's playing in nursery. He's the smallest little person in there, for sure. He got run over a few times on Sunday but didn't seem to mind too much. It'll be good for him to learn to sit and listen to the short lesson and stuff. He participated some, but didn't really know what was going on for some of it. I tried to kind of stay in the background so he doesn't expect me to be there with him all the time in nursery. Fortunately he will usually go to anyone and loves some of the nursery workers. Unfortunately, they're moving soon....the same family that babysits Jackson all the time. Not sure what we're going to do when they leave!
In other news, my latest cereal of choice is Cinnamon Life (on sale for $1 a box, so I love it even more!), Parent's Choice changed their diapers and now they're less absorbant, and Snuggies may be funny but they sure are functional!

We are alive.

Christmas

We were able to go to Georgia to be with my family for the Christmas break and we had a great time! It was so nice to be there all together with my whole family. Besides for my brother's wedding in September (I've decided weddings don't really count as the whole fam being together because it is for such a short time and is so hectic) it's been two years since we were together at the same time.

On Christmas Eve we did the traditional acting out of the Nativity. Bently & Bonnie weren't able to make it in time for that, but here's the rest of the group:

Mary, riding in style on the back of her brother-turned wise man-turned donkey...Jackson was so cute, sitting in a little chair listening to the story. Don't you just want to eat him up?
Mary, Joseph, and baby

It was really strange being on the grown-up end of things this year. Last year we were with Jack's family so everything was new to me, and the year before when we were with the West family I was still way more of a kid than a grown-up... but this year was very different. Amy and Jackson went to bed, and then the rest of us stayed up really late. I helped put the presents out, I made Santa's "snow" footprints, I partially filled our stockings. I tossed the reindeer's carrots to Ryan and Jack and they attempted to catch them in their mouths. They succeeded a few times...and Ryan got a bloody lip. Oops. We played games with Bently & Bonnie. Finally, we all decided we should go to bed. It really was fun to hang out and play together. I think I like having a more grown-up family.

Christmas morning we always line up youngest to oldest and then all go in the family room at once.
I got exactly what I asked Santa for! A hard-boiled egg slicer!
I was really confused when I opened my present from Jack...a computer? No, that was his computer. He said to open it. He had put our wedding pictures together in a book to be printed! He didn't have time to actually have it printed, but we will soon. I have such a nice husband! He loves me :)

Mom & Dad got us girls matching fleece jackets.
Christmas dinner

Jackson had a horsey ride on Grandpa's back as he vacuumed up the snow from Santa's foot prints

We made gingerbread houses that evening... between putting Jackson down for bed and helping Amy assemble hers so she could go to bed, I got a late start on mine and never finished decorating it. It was still fun to just be together!

The rest of the trip to come!