Crib Transition

I remember the days when I'd listen for Jackson to cry from his crib. I'd go and unswaddle him and get him up.

Then came the days when he'd unwrap himself by pushing his arms and kicking his feet.

Next came the days of turning to his stomach and getting up on all fours.

Gone are those days. I've taken down the mobile. Because now, even after just one peep from this little one, I find this instead.

But oh, how I love those smiles he shares when I walk in the room!

Jackson

Usually I think that Jackson is still just my little baby. Today I looked over at him as he was using a box to stand up that he really is getting so big. 8 months. Everyone says it goes by so quickly, and it really does. I've enjoyed it all, though...except that one phase where putting him to down for a nap was an ABSOLUTE PAIN!

I figured Jackson would be an early walker since he has always loved being on his feet. When I would go to burp him over my shoulder, he wouldn't just lay against me, he'd push on his feet to stand instead. Later he would just enjoy standing on our laps. Then he would rock back and forth while standing on our laps. We'd call him our little sumo wrestler. "Finally", at 7 1/2 months, he decided to take off. Fairly unsteady at first, only making it a couple of feet, but now he moves so well. He turns and pivots. When he falls down he has figured out how to catch himself so he doesn't bang his head/face on the floor.



I'm trying hard to keep up.

Jackson's New Teeth

Jackson got teeth last week. After MONTHS of putting things in his mouth and chewing on everything, they are finally here. My little boy is growing up.

And here are some more just because he's so cute!

This is his Michael Jordan look.

Happy New Year

He didn't fuss when I put the hat on him. And he knew exactly where to put the noise maker since everything goes in his mouth these days.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Jackson's First Christmas

I fully understood that Jackson wouldn't remember his first Christmas and that we didn't need to make a big deal about it and spend lots of money on him. And then I realized something. He wouldn't remember, but he would expect to look back at pictures when he was older and see what he had done. The pursuit for the perfect picture began.

First, I knew I had to have a Santa picture. Everyone needs to have their picture taken with Santa. We had an amazing Santa helper that came to our house so I could take pictures. When he left Jeremy tried to look at the pictures I had taken and there were none. I hadn't put my memory card back in my camera. Santa was nice enough to come back again! Thank you Santa. Truly a Saint!

Second, my mom once had a doll, her "Suzanne doll." She had a pretty Christmas outfit. She was a large doll. When I was a baby, she took the outfit off Suzanne and put it on me for Christmas. My uncles still talk about that night and how cute I looked (as if anything has changed).  Jackson is about the same age I would have been around Christmas. My mom was nice and found the outfit and we dressed Jackson up to continue the tradition.

(my uncle that once held me in the same outfit!)

Third, my family would always read Luke 2 together on Christmas Eve, as I 'm sure many others do as well. We would always act it out when we were little. (I was sometimes frustrated that as the only daughter, I always had to play Mary. Sometimes I just wanted to be a shepherd!) Since Jackson is a baby, what better part for him to play than baby Jesus! We got dressed up and took the picture.

I'm pretty excited about the great results I got this year and the future memories Jackson will be able to see.

Next year we'll see if we can get a crying picture with Santa and life will pretty much be complete. :)

Pretty much a look of "I know I'm doing this well. So what."

Cousins

Due to differing nap schedules of the kids and the organized nature of their parents, all three cousins were never photographed together. But we did get two cousins together. Brilya and Jackson are about a month apart, though the difference doesn't seem all that big when it comes to size. Check it out for yourself!

When I look at Brilya, I see the very essence of "girl." She has the loveliest eyelashes. That caused me to look at Jackson, and I realized that he's all boy. Because of that, I laugh that the day we photographed these two together, Brilya was wearing her girly tutu outfit and Jackson was in camo.

Two more of Brilya before I leave you today.

My "Little Peanut"

(typical concerned expression)

I've always wanted to take this shot. I wish I could say the idea was my own, but alas, it's just a copy of an idea by someone else. I'm pleased with it though!

My New Guy

I have other things I could probably post, but none of my waking (or sleeping) thoughts revolve around anything else but my sweet Jackson.

I'm excited to have a live-in model, though I must admit that right now it makes me nervous to do too many pictures. That's only because with every move I make for him to pose or be in the right spot for lighting or on different/cute blankets, I'm afraid he'll wake up. And since I know the effort it took to get him to that state and how he'll only be hungry upon waking, I'm very careful.

In our lives for 2 weeks now, I am proud to present the little guy! We sure do love him!

American Fork

So I saw this awesome picture online of an old barn in American Fork so I told my friends we had to go there. Once there we found out they charge $20 to take pictures there. We opted to keep our money and look for a different place to shoot.

Luckily, with us that day was Jackson (below....taken a different day).

Jackson knew some other cool places to try out down there. AND we got to see cows!! How much better can it get? Here's our day of fun!