Baptism

I have believed in Jesus Christ my whole life and have accepted him as my Savior, but have never been baptized. When my church mentioned they were going to be doing water baptisms I knew it was something that I wanted and needed to do. They emphasized that it was important to go public with your faith. I wanted to fully give my life to HIM and celebrate being a Christian by getting baptized. It was a remarkable experience. Hawaiian Falls closed down the water park at 6:00 p.m. for our church. There were over 100 people ranging from children to adults that got baptized that day! I was so grateful to have my husband, son, mom, Megan, and Topher there supporting me. So I am proud to say that on June 10th, 2012, I got baptized!!!

Jackson

Jackson will be 7 months old tomorrow! How has 7 months already gone by? I remember his arrival as if it were yesterday. We will soon be planning his 1st birthday, ahh! I am absolutely loving my summer time with him right now. He has done so many new things within these few weeks that we've been home. I have a feeling the crawling is about to start because he is rolling all over the place and cannot stay still! I'm already pushing the coffee table out of the living room because he almost rolled right into it the other day. Guess we need to start baby proofing the house! He has his 2 bottom teeth now and has been eating solid foods. We've only given him fruits so far and his favorite is bananas. It seems to be daddy's favorite too.. I have to tell Jack to stop eating it and to feed his son! As much as I've said "Mama" to him, his first word was definitely "Dada!" and he LOVES saying it over and over! It has been so much fun spending time with Jackson. Oh how I wish I could be a stay at home mom!

Father's Day

I could not wait for this day because Jack has been such an amazing daddy and he definitely deserved a celebration! I woke up early and went to pick up his favorite breakfast. I hung the Father's Day banner that I found on pinterest and placed his card and presents on the counter. I made him a Coupon booklet that included coupons like: a nap without any interruptions, a back massage, and so on. I also bought him the movie, Courageous, which is a must see for all dads out there! After breakfast we went to a wonderful Father's Day church service. Then the Burns' fam came by for lunch. His parents got him a Home Depot gift card and Jon and Brittany got him a book called, Why a Son Needs a Dad. Jack was very excited that Jon was able to be there. Overall, it was a great day! Although Jackson cannot verbally express his love for his daddy right now, you can already see his adoration through his eyes. There is something about the way he looks at Jack. He gets so excited when he comes home. He starts kicking his legs, waving his arms, his eyes light up, and the biggest smile stretches across his face. I just love watching the two of them together and cannot wait for many more father/son moments as Jackson grows up.

Mother's Day

Unfortunately, Jack had to work on Mother's Day, but I still woke up to a sweet gift left on the kitchen counter. He typed up a very sweet poem, put Jackson's handprints under it, and framed it. Of course the poem brought tears to my eyes! My mom and I attended a very special Mother's Day service at our church. They opened the service with a poem called, Before I Was a Mom. If you are a mom and have not read this, you need to! After church, Jackson and I headed to daddy's station. The fire fighters invited all the wives and kids for a Mother's Day dinner. It was super sweet for them to take time out of their work day for us! I really enjoyed celebrating Mother's Day because I am so blessed and proud to be Jackson's mom.

Daycare

I have really neglected my blog! Well, it is summer now and I have nothing but time so I've decided to update since my last post. The last time I posted, it was about going back to work and taking Jackson to daycare. THAT.WAS.SO.HEARTBREAKING. I cried everyday for the 1st two weeks. Being apart from my baby was very difficult! When you really think about it, I was with him for nearly 11 months.. carried him for 9 months and stayed home with him for about 2 months. I missed him every second of the day and could not wait to leave work to pick him up. I just hated the fact that I was missing out on quality time with him. By the time I picked him up, it was almost 5 and he goes to bed at 8. That is only 3 hours a day with my baby! It just didn't seem fair. The weekends were more than ever important to me now. Luckily, Jackson really enjoyed daycare and everyone there was incredibly sweet. After seeing how great everyone was with him, I began to warm up to the idea. Plus, my friend's mother-in-law was one of the teachers in his room so that made me feel better. I am grateful that my job allows me to spend all summer at home. Knowing that summer was just a few months away was very helpful. I'm sure most moms will agree that it never gets easy, but it does get easier!

Time flies!

I cannot believe how fast my little man is growing! He will already be 8 weeks old on Monday.. wow how time flies!! It has been so much fun watching him change and grow from week to week. He can already hold his head up, roll to his side, and grab on to things! The other day he yanked out his pacifier with his hands and held it. This week he was so hungry that he literally grabbed the bottle and held it by his self! He couldn't hold it for very long because it was too heavy, but I managed to get some pictures in before it started to fall! We also started putting him in his crib at night and he has done so well with it! I have enjoyed being home with him so much.. getting to snuggle with him all day, reading to him, listening to his sweet coos, and watching him smile. Tuesday is going to be one of the hardest days. It will be Jackson's first day of daycare and my first day back to work. Thank God my first week back is a short week! It is MLK Holiday on Monday and teacher work day on Tuesday so that leaves me with 3 days with my students. I thought it would be best to ease myself back into it. I just hope I can concentrate on teaching when I am there because I know my heart will be aching and my mind will be thinking of Jackson! Already counting down to Spring Break!! Here are some recent pictures of my big boy..

Thankful

We were happy Jackson was here just in time for Thanksgiving! We definitely had a lot to be thankful for... Thankful that although it was a tough labor, everything came out okay in the end. Thankful for such amazing friends and family. Jackson had so many people at the hospital waiting for his arrival. Everyone was so supportive and willing to help us out with anything we needed. He is definitely loved by many! Thankful that Uncle Jon was able to fly in from Arizona and spend time with his nephew/Godson. We can't wait for him to return!! Thankful that my family from Florida was able to be here for a whole week. We really enjoyed having them here and we already miss them so much! Thankful that my mom was able to take 2 weeks off to stay with us and help us out. We couldn't be more appreciative. The most important thing that we are thankful for is that God blessed us with a healthy, beautiful baby boy. Jack and I have spent many years talking about having a baby and wondering what he or she was going to be like. Our prayers were definitely answered because Jackson is everything we wished for and more.