I have no title

Yeah to the New Year. To start off the new year I read "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller, and I strongly recommend it. It is a great non-fiction about a man, Donald Miller, who writes books and one of his books is going to be made into a movie. Through the process of making a "good" movie, Donald, looks at how to make a "good" life, how to live a "good" story. The book is fun and it definitely has a lot of good stories in it. If you like to read I think you may enjoy this book. It has motivated me to try to live a better story.





That book was one of my Christmas gifts, among other wonderful gifts. For this Christmas the Jackson family went to Washington. I have to be honest it is really hard for me to vacation anymore, it doesn't necessarily feel like a vacation, it kind of feels like more work. It may have been easier if Grant was healthy (he was sick for our stay in Washington), probably, but still vacationing is hard. Do any of you guys feel that way, and what do you do to make it easier, or more enjoyable.










Anywho, not to complain too much; it's always a treat to go home and see family, and Edwin loves it. He loves to see his long lost family, especially his cousins (we're sad we missed the Jackson cousins). This year we had two Christmas's, which was awesome, we visited the beach, Tillamook Cheese factory, ate food, went to Crown's Point, a lot of Burgerville visits (local YUMMY burger joint), had snow, walked around a Historic National State Park (the one my parents live on, Fort Vancouver), played games, ate food, watched a lot of youtube, and enjoyed one anothers company.



Overall it was great, and now it is great to be home. Edwin was sooooo excited to play in his backyard, and see his friends, and I was sooooo happy to let him run free.






By the way I'm a horrible blogger and I do not know how to work with my pictures and text, so if you know, please tell me.

Happy Thanksgiving

Things I'm thankful for:

• how strong Edwin is
  

• how smart Edwin is

• how curious Edwin is
  

• and how helpful Edwin is

Photo Shoot

I love doing photo shoots of my family. Especially little handsome Edwin. I'm definitely a mom who adores her baby and takes tons of pictures just because he is so cute. Most of these pictures are the latest photo shoot I took of Edwin, the lighting was so good and Edwin was so cute I couldn't resist.

As for the rest of life things are good. Grant is crazy busy at Stanford, our usual schedule with Grant is in the morning go to school, then come home for dinner, leave to school after dinner, come home to put Edwin to bed, back to school work until about midnight or so, sleep, and start the day over again.

Grant's first day of school picture, and a pumpkin jar I made that, with a candle, glows at night.

Now onto cute, adorable, handsome Edwin

He's 15 months now and loves exploring his little world.

He loves living at Stanford, especially because he has a huge backyard, two playsets, and a whole group of friends that come with the backyard and playset.

I love living at Stanford, because Edwin naps so well because he plays so hard, and I too, have friends that come with the backyard. It's going to be hard to move. If I want to talk to someone, all I have to do is go out my back door and their is another mom of a munchkin to talk to.

August has been CRAZY

Well hello to those who check this blog. I'm rededicated to doing a better job of keeping this blog updated. Now I would like to share with you that AUGUST HAS BEEN CRAZY! Now this blog will be very real and candid. It will include a hospital visit, wisdom teeth, and much more!

At the very end of July my Mom, Dad, and little sister called up on a Wednesday morning (I think) and said they would like to come visit and arrive Friday morning. I of course was pumped for the visit, but it did make my schedule a little more full (no complaint though). While they were here we did a lot of sight-seeing and fun activities. Saturday we went to Yosemite, below are pictures .

After sightseeing there we decided to go sightsee the coast, going to Carmel-by-the-sea and Santa Clara. In Santa Cruz we went and saw sea lions up close and personal, there is a boardwalk that you can walk down that has stairs down to the dock wherethe sea lions sun bathe on. Also in Santa Clara we went to the beach amusement park, and Edwin went on some rides all by himself. This was awesome to watch because he wasn't scared at all, and had such a good time. My parents watched Edwin for a little while so I was able to go on the "big kid" rides with my sister Mary Rose, which was awesome. Below are pictures from Carmel and Santa Cruz.

This video above is of a little sea lion trying to eat, it's quite interesting. If you have a weak stomach you might not want to watch this.

After my family visited a week later Grant's cousing Greg and his wife Sue and their baby girl Lyla came to visit. It was nice to hang out with them we became really close when we all lived in Provo. While they were here we went to In-n-Out, and we took them to Stanford campus to show them Grant's new school. Below is a picture of Edwin and Lyla.

After they left I packed up stuff to get ready to go to Mexico for my best-friend from High School's wedding. Venessa is her name and the wedding was beautiful and she was beautiful. It was nice to be there for her and to support her while all the chaos goes on in wedding preparations and she definetily had some chaos, so it was nice to be there for her; but it was hard. This is where I get a bit candid, to be honest I felt like I shouldn't go and for reasons, I'm not going to mention, I went. While I was there I tried very hard to eat a strict diet to stay safe and to not drink the water. Unfortunately my efforts failed. When I got back from Mexico, that evening I went to the hospital; for 3 LONG DAYS! It was so hard to be away from Edwin but he did, suprisingly, pretty well. Each day I asked the doctor if I could go and was tempted to go against medical advice and go, but I decided to listen to them and stay. It was good for my body to stay and fight that nasty bacteria. FINALLY, on August 13th, Grant and my 4th year anniversary they let me go. It was quite a mellow anniversary, we went out to dinner and then played it low key that day and for several days to follow. I definitely learned my lesson that I need to listen to the promptings I recieve.

During this whole time Grant was amazing taking care of Edwin 24/3, mentally handling having his wife in the hospital, and running a ton of errands for me.

Below are some of the pictures from Mexico, but NONE from the hospital, who would want them anyway (not me).

After the hospital experience things were kept on a down low, and soon came Grant's birthday so I made a donut cake for him since he loves donuts. The picture below is of Edwin trying to get a bite of the donut cake before the birthday boy does.

A very selfless thing happened on Grant's birthday, he ran to the grocery store for something and returned with these, our special flower, we had them all over our wedding reception.

After that I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed, which was a funny experience. I was gased for the experience to relax me, and by the end, my dentist was finishing up and I asked if I could give him a HUG for doing so well in taking my teeth out. It's not like I completely didn't know this dentist, he's a good dentist and he's seen me several times. Still though reflecting back on what I did, I just laugh.
Okay lastly, there have been loads of stuff; before all this, like EDWIN WALKING, in between, and in the end. I will add some videos and pictures of all the cuteness of Edwin.

EDWIN DEVELOPING A FRIENDSHIP WITH YODA

EDWIN WALKING!!!! AND DANCING!!!!

Edwin doing dishes with daddy and hanging out with his stuffed animals.

Oh yes one more think to top it all of; Grant and I are moving to Stanford this Saturday, so lots of packing amongst the chaos.