Shy Baby

Still don't know what we're having. Uncooperative baby. :( Luckily I found out about a place where students training to be ultrasound technicians will do an ultrasound for free. You can bet I am making an appointment first thing Monday morning. I am too much of a planner to wait until the birthday!!

Jackson and Great-Grandma

My grandma is 92 years old. With both mom and dad gone I look forward to seeing her every Thanksgiving. Nothing has changed at her house since I was a little girl and it feels like home. Last year we were not able to go up since it was right after Jackson was born but I was so excited to take him up this year and for him to meet his great-grandma and have some authentic Italian cooking. (Yep, she still cooks) Grandma is really amazing. She is in excellent health for her age. She still gets out and works in her yard, goes to the store, and takes care of her house. She finally gave up her driving license at 90 because "90 is too old to be driving, and the gas is too expensive." I laughed so hard when she told me that. I never knew there was such a big difference from when you are 89 to the day you turn 90.
I tell her all the time that she is my hero and that if I live to be that old that I can only hope I get around as good as her.

Jackson was excited to show her his toy bag.



"Look at this one Grandma... it plays music!"



Grandma love :)


Jackson got the "Grandma approval" She said he was a good boy.

Catch Up Blog

OK, OK!! After getting an earful from many of you I decided it was probably time to update my blog. SO here goes.

I got a little ambitious and decided to make Jackson's halloween costume. I thought it might save me some money and I couldn't find anything I liked in the stores. Well, it cost me more than if I would have just bought one and of course I procrastinated and was sewing the night before halloween. I think it may be the first and last costume I ever make.
But he does look pretty cute!!

Here's a couple of pictures of Jackson's actual 1st birthday dinner. Turkey, mashed potatoes and carrots. YUM!

A couple of weeks later we had a little party for Jackson. Here he is eating his lunch.

Opening presents...

Can you say SPOILED!! (but worth every penny :)

I know what you're thinking..."Wow, Darci you made a great cake!!" Nope its from Costco.

Who gets cake in their ear?? Really!!

I promise I will do my best to keep this up better. OH, and in case you haven't heard...Joel and I are expecting #2!! I am due at the end of April and I have my ultrasound next Friday to find out the gender. So stay tuned!!!

Time to babyproof!!

You can imagine my surprise when I walked out into the living room and found this!! Now he is pulling himself up on anything and everything that he can get his hands on. (Even unsteady things which has resulted in a few tears and bumps) This kid is a mover! Once he started crawling he started chasing the cat around the house, he is walking along the furniture, and I don't think it will be too much longer before he is walking by himself! As you can see he is pretty proud of himself! Not bad for my little preemie guy!

Summertime=Swimming!!

Even though we don't have a pool we didn't want Jackson to be deprived of his first summer swimming experience. So we got him a little blow up pool. I think he thinks that he is taking a bath outside, but he seems to like it. Plus it gives me an excuse to get outside and try to get a little tan!

Such a good year!

Most people find out I teach 8th grade and have the same sort of reaction. "Oh, you are brave" or "How do you handle those kids?" or something to that effect. Before I started teaching I would have thought that I would have been scared of them myself, but I love my job! This year that just past has been my favorite so far. It went super fast, especially since I was gone for a third of it with Jackson's birth, and I had the greatest kids. I absoluetly LOVED my homeroom class this year. They were such a fun group of young men and young women and I really got to know each and every one of them. They are smart, respectful, (I never had any major discpline problems with them) and they were fun to teach. They even would get excited about the things they were learning. A teacher's dream come true!
The last couple of weeks of the school year were so fun. We have tons of special 8th grade promoting activities and it is fun to watch the kids be kids. Sometimes I have to remind myself that they are really just children in almost grown up bodies but being with them at Disneyland and playing games with them proves just that. I will really miss this group of kids and I hope that my class next year will be just as great.

Aren't they cute! This was right before the promotion ceremony in case you are wondering why they are dressed up.

Besides hoping to get another great class, I am excited about next year for another reason. I will working part time, 3 days a week, so that I can stay home with Jackson a little more. I think it will be a really good balance for me.

by the way- I'm not sure about the legalites of putting minor's pictures on the web. If somebody knows that its a problem please let me know. I don't want to get in trouble I just wanted to show off my awesome class.

Dodger Game

I know it has been a long time since my last post. Life has just gotten very busy.
Last weekend we took Jackson to his first baseball game. I don't know who thought this would be a good idea. It started at 7 and he starts to get ready for bed at 8, applause scares him, and he hates to be confined to sitting in your lap. But we went anyway!!! We only lasted until the 4th inning and even then we were up and down with him the whole time. Despite all of that I was super excited to see him wear his hat and carry his glove. He loves the taste of leather apparently!
We kept trying to get him on the jumbo-tron but were unsuccessful. Maybe next time if we stay for the whole game we'll get him on.