Brett's baby blessing

Brett had his baby blessing this past Sunday.  It was a great time with lots of family.  

My family with my dad's parents and sister and my cousins family at the Temple Christmas Lights

So sweet in his blessing outfit

Brett with his Great Grandpa Stan

Grant and his cousin Jackson were side by side the whole day

My grandparents with our boys.
They came all the way from Colorado!

My beautiful mom with Brett

My cousin took some great pictures of Brett and all of our family on the blessing day.  So you can look forward to more pictures later!  I can't wait to see them myself.

HO HO!

 Thought I'd show off Brett in his cute Christmas outfit.  Grant loves this outfit too because the bum has Santa's face on it.  Whenever the bum is showing, Grant points to the Santa and says, "HO HO!"  It's so cute!  I'm glad he recognized Santa on his own.  Maybe this year he won't be afraid to sit on his lap, or even get near the guy.

"Look at how cute I am!"

"HO HO!"

"It's fun with this cool hat too!"

Okay, just for fun, let's look at one of last year's attempts at having Grant sit with Santa.  In the first picture we're thinking that maybe if I held him he'd take a picture of us standing next to Santa.  No way! He threw a fit and "accidentally" hit me in the face right as the camera flashed.  (I know I look pretty funny)  Look at Santa's expression...I think he'd had enough too!

"Oh brother, let's get the show on the road!" - Santa

Crying on daddy's shoulder

I'm remembering other attempts at taking pictures with characters:  

Not too happy about standing next to a big furry whale.

Poor Goofy

Pluto felt heartbroken

So we'll see how this year with the jolly old elf goes.  Wish us luck!

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

My cousin is so clever.  She created a Thanksgiving character for each family member, at our delicious Thanksgiving dinner, and made them into magnets for us.  She also cooked almost all of the food.  And it was way yummy!  I wish I had a copy of everyone's funny Thanksgiving character.  There were some pretty funny ones.  I think Grant's expression looks great on his!

What's going on around here?

Well, time has just flown by since Brett was born.  He'll be 7 weeks tomorrow.  Aside from the occasional major spit up, he's doing great.  He's still trying to figure out napping during the day, but he usually sleeps very well at night.  I hope I'm not jinxing myself by saying that!  

Grant loves his brother.  He does get a little jealous sometimes, and he occasionally pokes Brett in the eyes.  Yesterday Brett was in his swing and Grant decided to sit in the swing too, right on top of his brother.  Brett had a very confused expression.

At this point I feel like we survive during the week and then we love having Keith home on the weekends.  This week should be a lot more fun with Thanksgiving mixing things up a bit.

Thumbs up at the park

Growing boy

Grant jumped in to pose next to his brother

A little excited

Helping with dinner

Family Home Evening "camping" outside (for about an hour)

What's camping without s'mores?

Baking Therapy and Christmas Shopping

Baking is so therapeutic to me.  I've been feeling slightly overwhelmed lately, so I did a little baking last week.  And it totally helped.

This is my grandma's gingerbread recipe.  It seems like she always has these at her house when we visit.  They are one of my favorites.  I think I need to roll them out a little bit thinner and make the glaze a little bit thicker and then they'll be just like hers.  I decided to cute them out in Christmas shapes.  I'm so in the mood for Christmas.  I realized yesterday that Thanksgiving is just next week.  And my sister is due with a baby girl the next day.  And then before we know it, Christmas will be here!  

I like to make my Christmas lists for my family throughout the year.  I like to put thought and purpose into each gift.  And then I try to get my shopping done early.  I usually do pretty well at this.  I especially like shopping online and having it come straight to my door.  No busy parking lots, no busy stores, no long lines, and sometimes when there's no shipping charges that's nice too.  

How do you like to do your Christmas shopping?  Early?  Closer to Christmas?  On Black Friday?  Don't like shopping at all?

My Grandma's Ginger Bread

Mix together: 1/3 cup butter

                      1 cup brown sugar

                      1 cup dark unsulphured molasses

Stir in: 1/2 cup cold water

Sift & stir in: 6 cups white flour

                     1 tsp each: salt, allspice, ginger, cloves, & cinnamon

Stir in: 2 tsp baking soda dissolved in 3 TBS water

Add: 1/2 cup more flour

Roll out on floured surface to about 3/8 - 1/2 inch thick.  Cut into desired shapes.  Bake on lightly greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes.  (Test like cake- by touching lightly & no print should remain.)

Frost, with a glaze made from powdered sugar, vanilla, & water, while still warm.  (Start with about 1 cup powdered sugar.  Then stir in a little water and vanilla at a time until you reach your desired consistency.

Store in tight container between wax paper.

A few things

I picked up Cars 2 at Target the other day.  I also got 2 pairs of great boots while I was there.  I love that store!  I've been there twice since Brett was born.  Each time I felt like a kid in a candy store.  There's something about staring at the walls of your house for a month that makes a simple trip to the store more like a field trip.  

As you can see below, Grant was entranced by the movie.  He had his Finn Micmissile car with him the whole time.  Now that he's watched it one million times you can find this little man not only rolling his cars around the house, but now making them fly.

Notice the white armoire?  That's our TV's new home.  I found it on craigslist a while back and recently my brother and Keith spent a long days work on a Saturday to lacquer it white.  It's so nice to have a place for our T.V.  But mostly I love that I can close the doors and the T.V. magically disappears.  Oh, and I love that all of our games fit in the bottom cabinet.

In other news, Brett is getting bigger.  I went through his drawers yesterday and bagged up most of his clothes.  He barely wore any newborn sized clothes, and now he's starting to wear 3 month clothes.  Here he is modeling his favorite 3 month guitar one-piece.  Isn't he cute?

Halloween 2011

I had this Curious George theme idea for a couple years and Brett arrived just in time to add the finishing touch.  Keith- The man with the yellow hat (and shirt, and tie, and pants....it's funny how they only mention the hat.).  Grant- Curious George.  Brett- A Banana.  Me- One tired mom in a yellow jacket.  I was going to put a little more effort into my costume and at least wear a wig, but when I went to find it I realized that I'd packed stuff like that away when we made room for baby #2's bedroom.  Oh well!

Luckily I'd gotten the costumes for Grant and Brett a couple months ago.  And Keith pretty much took care of his costume with the help of my mom.  They found the clothes and hat at Goodwill.  Then Keith died them yellow all by himself and spray painted the hat.  I whipped up his tie out of some felt and hot glue that I happened to have on hand.  Ta da!

Grant had so much fun cruise'n around Grandma & Grandpa Jackson's neighborhood in a wagon with his cousin Jackson.  Doesn't Jackson make the cutest little nurse?  His parent's were dressed up as nurses too.

As cute as our little monkey and banana were, Keith got the most comments on his costume from other trick-or-treaters.  We heard lots of, "Hey, it's the man with the yellow hat!"  Not once did I hear, "Hey, it's the woman with the yellow jacket!"  I feel so overlooked!  ha ha ha!  :)

I think he pulled off the look very well, don't you?

Grant LOVED his monkey costume.  He loved everything about Halloween.  Well, except for the guy at one house that had a very scary mask on.  And the best part is that Grant doesn't even realize that all his loot is in a bag on top of the refrigerator & Mom and Dad are eating it.  He loves M&M's so I give him a few of those each day.  I think we'll need to get rid of it soon or I'll never lose the rest of my baby weight!

Hope you had a fun Halloween too!

The saddest face ever

Isn't it funny how babies facial expressions can change so quickly?  The picture below was taken just seconds after the one above.  Oh, how I love this boy!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

In honor of the Cars 2 movie...

...here's Grant and his cars.

Cars lined up on the couch.

Cars lined up across the hall.

Cars lined up to go down the ramp.

Little cars lined up across the piano.

Cars lined up down another ramp.

Cars lined up upside down (shhhh! that means they're sleeping).

And yes, the Car's 2 movie comes out on DVD this week.  Can't decided if we should get it and watch it right away, or wait to have Grant get it for Christmas.  It was the first movie we ever took Grant to see in the theatre, and he loved every second of it.  It would be a handy time killer to have around our house at this newborn stage of life we're in right now.  Hmmmmm.

Graduating

Last night Brett graduated from his basinet in our room to a crib in his own room.  Our baby boy is growing up.  ha ha ha!  :)

Big Brother

Grant adores Brett.  It's sort of like the way he adores puppies.  He's quite entertained by the little guy.  Especially when Brett cracks a smile or sneezes.  Last night Grant held Brett and helped feed him a bottle.  Totally on his own, Grant started doing "This Little Piggy" with Brett's toes.  It was so cute!  We got it on video too, but I don't really know how to upload that, sorry.

Grant is all about Mom at bed time.  He'll barely let Keith help him get ready for bed.  Last night I was feeding Brett and Grant came running in, calling my name, and had to hop up on the chair with us.  Oh boy, what am I going to do?  I was worried about having a newborn in our home again, but it's the two and a half year old that's giving me a run for my money!  Good thing he's so cute!  :)

Yes, that's Brett's pacifier in Grant's mouth.  He thought he was pretty cool.

One more thing...

Brett is sleeping right now.  He just let out a belly laugh.  Apparently he thinks something's very funny.  I love it when he laughs in his sleep.  He does it quite often.

Dad and his boys :: Stripes

Bedtime Story

We think Brett looks adorable in these stripes.  I love that this is a side snap onesie.
We don't do any over the head outfits with newborns around this house.  Maybe in a few more weeks.  

Matching Hairlines

When Grant was born he looked a lot like Keith.  He still does.  We're thinking that Brett looks a lot more like me.  This is my dad holding him.  The hairline says it all.

Would you like to meet him?

Monday night.  Family of 3.

Wednesday morning.  Checked in.  Had a GREAT nurse.  Hooked up to IV.  Waiting...
Waiting...Waiting.
Doctor breaks water.
WOW!  OUCH!
Epidural.
Relax.
Wait for a little bit.

Push for about 10 minutes.
Ta Da, he's here!
Welcome Brett Dru Jackson
8 pounds 12 ounces (wow, he's BIG!)
21 " long
3:08 pm

Family of 4.  Um...Grant really didn't want to take a picture.  Can you tell?
He looks kind of crazy here.  He was so hyper at this point and just wanted to run around.
He didn't really get the fact that there was even a baby in the room.

Father & son bonding time.

Ready to go home.

Check out those big round cheeks.  And his dimple!  I was so excited that he has a dimple just like Grants.

Brett is such a good baby!  We love him so much!  He's very calm and snuggly.  He eats soooooo fast!  He sleeps great, and so far he only cries when he's hungry (knock on wood).  He shares his birthday with Keith's Grandma.  She passed away just last year.  Brett's middle name (Dru) is the nickname that my mom's dad went by.

Grant is getting used to having a new baby in the home.  He's not quite sure about it all yet.  He has been very much a mama's boy for the past little while before Brett was born and continues to be so.  This'll take some more adjusting for him.

Keith is very helpful.  He keeps Grant fed and entertained all day.  He also went to the grocery store and had the house all ready for when we got home.

I'm doing much better than I did after having Grant.  I felt like I'd been dropped into another world after having Grant, and that I was a different person.  It was very hard.  But this time I feel like I've already been in that different world so it's not much different.  So far I am enjoying everything as much as I hoped I would.  Baby blues stay away!

40th Week : A Quilt

This is the week!  Baby boy #2 should arrive on or before Wednesday.  I'm scheduled to be induced Wed morning if he hasn't made it here by then.  And let me just say that after the way I've been feeling lately, I can't believe he isn't here yet!!!  I'm sure he's good and ready for his big debut.  I can't wait to meet him!

Last week I finally finished a quilt that I started at the beginning of this year.  I think it's pretty good that I'm finishing it within the same year!  I picked a bunch of my favorite fabrics at the store, cut them into 4 inch squares, and then threw them into a bag and mixed them up.  Then I randomly pulled them out and sewed them together.  I love all the different colors and patterns.  It's so fun to look at.  The back of the quilt is a former denim duvet cover that I had from 12 years ago.  My mom came over and helped me hand quilt along every other row.  Now that it's done, I can't wait to put it to use as our official picnic/outdoor blanket!

The Baby's Room

Okay, here's the baby's room (previously our office).  I don't have a fancy schmancy camera so the lighting in these pictures is not the best, but it's not terrible.  We are thinking about getting a new camera before the baby is born.  Nothing super fancy, because I really don't think I'd take the time to learn how to use it.  But our camera is not performing as well as it used to.  Maybe being jostled around in a golf bag for a month didn't help?  Hmmmmm....  Do you have a nice camera, that isn't super fancy, that you like?  I need suggestions.

On with the pictures!

Window valance idea from here.

Inspiration for how to make this simple bed skirt came from here.
It was so easy.  And it's just put on with Velcro.  Genius!

Inside that big empty blue frame will be the first letter of whatever name we choose for our little bambino.
I'm just going to paint it on a big piece of art paper.

I love my diaper bag.  I searched high and low online for this baby.  For some reason it was sold out  everywhere except here.  Now it's back in stock in lots of other places for a little bit cheaper, but whatever.  I have it.  It's packed.  And I like it a lot.  I was a little nervous about ordering it online, but it had great reviews.  It turned out to be just what I was looking for.  Hooray!

I didn't clean the refrigerator today after all.  Cleaning the freezer last night took it all out of me.  I did, however, make homemade bread.  We ate about half a loaf while it was still warm.  Yum!