Family Update

I figured that it's been a while since I've actually talked about my family (meaning Jeffrey, Jacey and Jaclyn and me) and it's definitely time for an update! Starting with the youngest member of our family... This little lady has been keeping me busy that's for sure! Not only has her sleeping-through-the-night pattern been disrupted by growing in teeth, making my nights a lot less enjoyable, but she is getting to be more active. She likes to roll around our house finding new things to play with! She is going to be crawling soon, I swear. She gets herself into this funny little position where she lifts her body off the ground and rests on her face and her toes. Then she pushes with her toes and scoots forward a few inches! She's managed to get up onto her knees a few times, but hasn't figured how to move with them yet! With her on the ground more, I have to be extra aware of what Jacey's up to. So he doesn't run her over! But I don't want to move onto Jacey yet. Jaclyn is the sweetest girl, she smiles at anything and everything! I love when Daddy comes home from work and she watches him from the time he comes in, as he makes his way through hugs and kisses from Mommy and Jacey, until he looks at her. As soon as they make eye contact, Jaclyn's face bursts into this happy, glowing grin, which melts us every time!!! She has this laugh, that is sooo adorable! It kind of reminds me of my sister, Elizabeth's. Not the way her laugh sounds, but that it can turn into a scream/laugh! Man, can Jaclyn squeal! Piercing laughter! Jeffrey and Jacey can make her laugh better than anyone, it's so much fun to watch! Every day at least once, I'll find Jacey and Jaclyn face to face laughing at each other. Hard. It is probably one of the happiest times I have had as a mom, just to watch them laugh together! And not only is Jaclyn just a happy baby, she is a snuggly baby. I've been lucky, Jacey was a snuggler too! Every time you pick Jaclyn up, she curves into your body to snuggle! It's so wonderful! :) I am loving everything about this stage in Jaclyn's life. With Jacey, I always couldn't wait for the next stage to begin, just to see what was next, but with Jaclyn, I would be so content to just stop here and have her like this forever.

I don't even know where to begin with Jacey. He is the funniest, most charismatic little boy! Obviously, I think that because he's my son! But he is, I swear! :) He is the smartest kid I have ever met (I'll get to that in a sec) but when it comes to walking and running, he's got a lot to work on! :) He falls down more than any child I know. I don't know if it's because he's not looking where he's going, or if he's just really clumsy, but he falls down all the time! And it's not always because he trips over stuff, he falls over nothing quite frequently! The greatest though, is what happens after the falls. Sometimes he'll just get up and keep going, but if he hurts himself, he will hold onto whatever he hurt, like his knee, and very slowly walk over to me while holding onto that body part. Usually he hurts both knees, so he'll walk to me, while squatting and holding his knees. And he looks hilarious! So I start laughing and then he starts laughing, but doesn't break his grip at all and continues to walk and laugh. He totally knows he's being funny! That is just one example of his funny personality! The best is when he hurts his feet. He tries to walk while holding his toes...hahaha! I laugh just thinking about it! But despite his physical trials, his mental abilities are above and beyond what they should be! This kid has known the entire alphabet since he was 18 months old. All uppercase and most lowercase. He can count to 10 in english and french. He knows his shapes and colors. And I don't mean he knows all these things by pointing to the right one when we ask "where's the B" for example. He sees them and tells us what they are on his own. He finds letters and shapes in everything. A roll of duct tape is an O. A vacuum head is a T. A hook for potted plants that comes out of a ceiling is an S. It's freaky sometimes how he sees everything as a letter! The best thing is that he is the one that wants to learn. I didn't sit down with him one day and make him memorize everything. He always asks!! His first words were "what's that" and he truly meant it!! He is so curious and never lets me ignore his questions! We are so proud of him!!!! Also, he is the greatest big brother! He loves Jaclyn so much!! Whenever we get ready to go somewhere, I always put Jaclyn in her carseat, then run around making sure I have everything I need for the diaper bag. Usually Jaclyn will start to get fussy while waiting and while I'm getting everything together, Jacey will kneel over her and kiss her or rock her carseat to make her happy! And it almost always works! In Jacey's baby blessing, he was blessed to worry about his siblings and to care for and protect them. And it's already started happening! I love watching them play together! I also love watching Jaclyn watch Jacey play. She ADORES him!! Seriously, she gazes at him like a lovesick puppy! That's the only thing I can't wait for Jaclyn to start doing...playing with Jacey for real! I know she wants to and Jacey can't wait for it either!

I know this doesn't represent me, but it's the closest I have to a picture of myself. :) That was taken in my dad's truck down by Cardston. We did a little off roading to look at some land he bought last year. Jacey had a great time bouncing all over the place. Anyway....me. I have nothing really significant to say about myself. I wish I could tell you all that I've lost 50 lbs and have finally gotten down to my pre-baby weight, but that would be a lie. I have however, started to work on it. I don't lose weight when I'm nursing very well, and ever since I was pregnant with Jacey, I've either been pregnant or nursing. With no breaks in between. And that's been 2 and a half years exactly. So I haven't exactly had a great window of opportunity to get into shape. I wish I could stop nursing Jaclyn already, but she hasn't taken to formula very well yet. I'm working on it though. It'll be a great day when I have my body to myself again and can do what I want with it! In other areas of my life, I'm loving my calling in my ward. I'm the Laurel Advisor! It's so fun to be with the Young Women, they are so much fun and always keep me laughing!! There are some changes occuring right now with the Young Women leaders and I just keep praying I'll stay put! I'm sorry, this paragraph about me is quite boring. :) My life is my kids, so please refer back to the previous two paragraphs for the real updates. :)

Jeffrey has a lot going on his life right now! He's very interesting to read about! :) He just started teaching seminary this year. He team teaches with Sister Layton and Sister Turner. He and Sister Layton switch off every other week from Monday to Thursday and Sister Turner focuses on scripture mastery on Fridays. He is LOVING it! He stays up rather late on the weeks that he teaches, preparing his lessons, but he loves the kids and he is loving the things he's learning! I don't envy his lack of sleep, but I'm happy he's so happy with his calling! He's still working as an Insurance Broker for Insurance Express and loves that too! What's great for him, is that he gets to help people in French every day! Although, most of the time, it's people from Quebec, and that French isn't as nice as the real deal! :) The biggest thing for Jeffrey is his new website! Some of you may have already checked it out from my facebook page, but if you haven't seen it, GO!! It's awesome, I'm so proud of him! He is such a wicked photographer and I know that he'll do well with it! He has a lot more pictures he needs to add to his site, but he's got some great ones on there to start! He really wants to get into commercial photographer/advertising. He was introduced to CJ Burton's work this past year, and that's the field of work he loves!! I don't doubt that he could do well in it! For example, the lovely new fall header above that he made for me. :)

I know that this was a pretty long post, but I rarely do major updates or at least not very often, so I had to get it all over with at once. We're heading down to Cardston this weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving. My whole family will be there, so it should be pretty fun! I hope it's nice and the kids can be outside most of the time! I know Jacey would love that! His favorite thing to do is to chase the puppy around. I say puppy, but really, Tillie, our beloved family dog, is almost 14 I think. Or actually, she is 14 and a bit already. She probably won't be around for much longer. That will be a sad day. Especially for my mom. Anyway, wow, that's a morbid way to end my post. :) Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Enjoy your long weekend!!