too much fun

thanks for the great idea staci! this was addicting . . .

Heavenly

guess who slept from 7pm until 5am? yep, baby joe. miracles can happen. :)

200th post

here it is. my 200th post. and to commemorate the occasion, i'm going to list 200 things about our family. JUST KIDDING!!! 200? i would kill myself. and then you would kill yourself for reading it all. and then that would be awful. how about i just post some cute pictures we took this morning. okay, sounds like a great idea!

week in review

this week-

1. mason is now peeing standing up. silence. erupt into thunderous applause. words cannot describe my ecstasy. no more underpants and jeans flung to the murky bottom of the target bathroom stall.

2. not a fan of the baby spoon feeding phase. gonna be honest. i loathe the gross multi-colored spit up on his clothes, blankets and my clothes. i really enjoy the phase when they wake up, you feed them the same breakfast as everyone else. they take a bottle for a nap. wake up, same lunch as everyone else. bottle for afternoon nap. same dinner as everyone else. bottle for night night and they sleep 12-13 hours. that is my favorite-est time of babydom.

3. i hate my hair. the last time i got it done was a week before joe was born. its been a while people. tuesday. that is the day my gray hair will disappear, my ends will no longer look like wire and i will once again have a hair-style instead of the shapeless form i am currently sporting.

4.i am addicted to facebook. there you have it. it is like a drug to me. i can't stop. in my defense, i have good reason. growing up in the 80's and early 90's in germany was kinda like growing up on a different planet. the vast majority of our friends were military, ie they move A LOT. so keeping track of a current physical address was difficult. anyway, i have had virtually no contact with most of my germany friends for over 15 years. until facebook. this past week, i found so many germany friends!! i was talking with my mom about this and we both agreed, its like christmas morning. to reconnect after all these years, see photos, relive memories, well, its been pretty dang cool. especially to know that they have remembered me and wanted to find me too.

5.phrases that have been running through my mind include, "nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels," and "if you don't go shopping, you won't spend money." hence my avoidance of costco, target et al. so far so good. saving my nickles for a little get-away with travy for our anniversary this year. i can close my eyes and feel the sand between my toes already.

2008 books

i needed to put this into post form instead of having it remain on my sidebar. that way when i ultimately print my blog, my list won't get lost. :)

Books I've Read in 2008

• Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiana
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
• Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
• Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen
• Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
• The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
• Dragonwyck by Anya Seton
• Fablehaven 3 by Brandon Mull
• The No.1 Ladies' Dectective Agency 1, 2, 3, and 4 by Alexander McCall Smith
• Whacked by Jules Asner
• The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
• The Secret Lives of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• In Walked Love by Marisa De Los Santos
• Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
• I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
• Eye for Eye by Orson Scott Card
• March by Geraldine Brooks
• Crossing to Safety by Wallace Earle Stegner
• Gracelin O'Malley 1,2 and 3 by Ann Moore

some books . . .

some books just are amazing. our january book club book was "the book thief" by markus zusak. it was phenomenal. it was set in germany during WWII. and while themes like death, genocide, brutality and hatred were dominate, it was not an oppressively sad book. i did cry but it was okay. the author was so very clever with his choice of narrator, i won't reveal more than that though. and his use imagery! to quote from something he said himself, "there is a gem on every page." how true. i loved this book. its one of those books that sticks with you for a long while after you read it. i can not recommend it highly enough. i don't want to over-hype it, but i would go as far as saying it is life altering. his characters are so very real, very human and one can not help but champion them as they make their way through the pages. alright, i'll hop down off my soap box. i'm done.

5 months

my baby turned 5 months old this week. 5 months. i cannot believe it. it seemed like the twins were infants FOREVER!! i remember having conversations with travis about how they would never walk, never talk, always just lie there and need us to feed them. the first year was rough, i'm not gonna lie. but . . . we all survived and now they will be 5 in may and i can't believe how the time has flown. anyway, back to joe. i can't believe how fast the time is flying by with him. it seems like yesterday we brought him home to love and snuggle. and now here he is, sitting up in a bumbo!

joe's 5 things:

1. loves getting undressed and into his jammies at night time. taking his onesie off over his head sets him into a fit of giggles every single night. it is hysterical!
2. is interested in food. he has been tasting lots of things and wants to eat when we are eating. he is so-so into baby food, really into table food. smacked his lips over pancakes and oreos. :) (hence mr.chocolate face in one of the above photos)
3.had an ear infection when we went into his latest well baby check. poor guy. i knew something was wrong because he was grumpy and that is soooo unlike him. he is so happy and easy going normally. put him on some anti-biotics and ibueprofin and the grumps were gone. he is feeling 150% better.
4.becoming a grabber. my hair, my clothes, my spoon, etc. wants to grab it all and stuff it in his mouth. its so cute to watch him actually "play" with toys now. you can practically hear his wheels turning inside his head.
5.favorite past time is watching mason, marissa and squirty. i think he is slightly terrified of mason and squirty because they are loud and move unpredictably. but he still is enraptured by them. and he loves marissa. he busts out the biggest grins when she comes to play with him. it is melt-my-heart cute. sigh. they grow up way too fast.

2009 here we come

2009 is going to be a big year in the jackman house. i will turn 30 (hold the fanfare please), we will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary, joe will turn 1, and mason and marissa will start kindergarten. wow. where has the time gone? here are 10 goals i have for the new year

1. make more cupcakes
2. blog at least once a week
3. have a different family over for sunday dinner once a month
4. write more real handwritten letters to my family/friends
5.do more outdoorsey things with our family here in southern utah
6. have game night with friends over at house once a month
7.get on top of our food storage/emergency prepardness
8.attend the temple once a month
9.read read read
10. play with my kids and do fun things with them, ie library, swimming, park, etc.

2008 in review

10 things i did in 2008 i've never done before:

1. had just ONE baby

2.been to the alamo in texas

3. been to disneyland with travis and kids

4. joined facebook

5. had a baby sleep in my closet (please don't call social services. :)

6. gone out to dinner with a big group of friends for our birthday

7. had a child sick in the hospital over night other than at birth

8. read the book club book every month

9. blessed a baby at home instead of church

10. been pregnant and flown on a airplane

christmas day 08

brief re-cap: grandpa and grandma jackman were supposed to come but called on the day before christmas eve and said that due to horrible weather/road conditions, weren't coming. we were sad but agreed that it wasn't worth the risk. so it was just our own little family for the big day.

mason
buzz and woody
toy story 2 dvd
lincoln logs
cars
bathrobe/slippers
toy tool set

marissa
aurora barbie
beauty and the beast dvd
bathrobe/slippers
aurora tea set
dora and horse
china girl dress up outfit with sun umbrella

joe
jumper exercise station
bumbo seat (thanks grandparents' morris)
jammies

travis
pysch season 1 dvd
video games
dunder mifflin tee shirt
big fuzzy blanket
clothes

anne
new books (love love love them)
cupcake cookbook
purse
clothes
mixing bowls

thank you santa!!

12 Days of Christmas

(for what its worth, the title of every post lately could be "better late than never" but for variety's sake, i'll try to come up with something different)

1.every year we head to the annual "dickens festival" that is held at the dixie center the first weekend in december. we love it! not only do we get to see "father christmas" (as he is called there) but we get to immerse ourselves in the christmas spirit. everything is done to look like old london, all the shoppe keepers and food vendors have to dress the part and there are street lamps and even queen victoria herself. it is so festive! and of course, we get our picture taken in keeping with tradition. this marks year 5 for the twins. this was the most exciting year to date for them as they practically raced to sit on his lap and pepper him with questions about the north pole and rudolph. when asked what he wanted for christmas, mason responded, " toys." well, my boy, i think that is possible. :) marissa, on the other hand, wanted several things that do not exsist such as an aurora rocking horse and a real aurora girl. (for those individuals who need a quick disney princess tutorial, aurora is sleeping beauty) good thing santa is all knowing and delivers the sort of thing that mom and dad AND marissa would like for marissa to have. :)

#2 christmas eve. this was our first ever jackman family nativity. we had all the principle players; mary, joseph and baby Jesus. they were so cute! that night we were at a friend's house for a get-together (more about that later) and marissa kept talking about how she was going to play mary when we went home. the fact that she was more excited about mary than santa coming, at least for that small moment, was so heart-warming. she relished her role and took it very seriously. the rest of the cast enjoyed themselves as well. however, baby Jesus didn't last very long.







#3 Our ward had its christmas breakfast party and that was a lot of fun. we had special breakfast and grandma toblers' orange rolls which is enough of an incentive to drag myself and the 3 kids to the church on a saturday morning. ;) travy had to work. anyway, the primary sang "away in a manger" which marissa has claimed as "her song." mason's song is "silent night" and "our song" is "the first noel." whenever we hear any of these songs, be it at the post office, grocery store or during church on sunday, they get super excited as if their special request has been fulfilled. very cute. and thanks to grandma morris for the cute frosty and reindeer sweaters. marissa was in love with her sweater.


at the breakfast, santa was a surprise visitor. mason was all over that and dashed over for his visit and candy cane. marissa wanted nothing to do with him, claiming she had already seen the "real santa" and told him what she wanted.

#4 christmas eve party at the shaws. second annual. i'm ripping a photo from staci's blog that shows the spread of eats, because, that what it is all about. i made stuffed mushrooms, paula deen's chocolate toffee pie and brought chicken wings, and crackers with jalapeno jelly over cream cheese. staci and i have joked about how its been a cream cheese and sausage christmas this year. i can't tell you how many bricks of cream cheese and how many pounds of jimmy dean i have used this holiday season. too many, that's for sure. but i have been very good watching what i eat so i was able to indulge a little. i live to eat party food! great time at the party. my kids love her kids and its a merry ol' time.




#5 we went out to dinner with travis's pharmacy staff at the pasta factory. we all love the idea of getting together and that no one has to have their home invaded or worry about making food for everyone. its a win/win. a night out without kids, good food and nice company. joe did come with us but slept in his car seat the whole time. nice baby. ;)

#6 book club christmas at mary ann's house. this was not a high point for me unfortunatley. travis sings in the ward choir and has been faithfully attending practices, getting ready for the christmas program. their last big practice happened to fall on book club party night. so i had a sitter for the twins and had to bring joe with me. he was a grumpy guster and i reached the point quickly where i realized we were both not having fun, lets just go home. so i did. there's always next year, right? i am excited to read the book i got though, its called, "the birth of venus."

#7 we always try to go the tuachan live nativity. its been something we've done every year that we've lived here. except this year. what with san fran, travis' work schedule, the baby, and mostly the yucky winter weather, we were unable to go this year. bummer. but we managed to go check out the lights at the temple and see the nativity there. even if it was the day after christmas :)

#8 marissa and i had our first mommy/daughter date to the nutcracker ballet. we went with our friends jen and brianne. it was so much fun! marissa takes ballet from westside dance studio and that is the company that puts on the production so she knew some of the big girls plus, her teacher was in it. it was very christmasy and i hope to make this a tradition. marissa did ask at intermission if we could home and she could go to bed. :) poor thing was up way past her bed time.

#9 christmas sunday- it was wonderful. simply wonderful. the choir did a fantastic job, filling the air with beautiful music. my favorite was the acapella (sp?) number preformed by a trio that included travis, my friend jen's husband dallin (who is the choir director) and dr.chalmers who delivered baby joe. :) anyway, they were excellent. i love listening to them sing. and i only had to leave once with a crying baby. not bad at all. i was able to come back and enjoy the rest of the program with a sleeping babe in arms.

#10 Every year we have a jacob drive neighbors party. we used to live on jacob drive before we moved and we have decided to keep the tradition alive even if we are no longer actual residents. we hosted the wildes, frys, dahls, and bonds at our house on christmas eve's eve. we decided to forgo our usual ham and funeral potatoes menu and opted for a little something different. feliz navidad it was with 2 don pedro party platters! good times had by all.

#11this about sums it up. i heart andy williams. i have grown up listening to his christmas cd my whole life. his songs ARE christmas. every novemeber i pop the cd into the van and the season has begun. my kids love these songs too. i think that is it so fun as a parent to watch your children learn to love and appreciate things that you love and appreciate. we can sing "happy holidays," or "i'm dreaming of a white christmas," or "its the most wonderful time of the year" whenever you need us to. classic. that is all i have to say.

#12in case we missed you, hope you had a merry christmas!!