P.S. ....

Probably from lack of sleep and it being late right now I forgot a very important part! We went to Jake's family's house after my family. They gave us some fun gifts also. Then Jake and I made breakfast while everyone played with new toys and with Jarren. It really was such a good Christmas.

A Very Merry White Christmas

The snow started sometime Christmas Eve afternoon and did not stop until sometime early Christmas Morning. It was a very beautiful COLD morning this morning.

We woke up at 5:45 to get ready and go over to my parents house. We had to be there by 7 because my siblings have a very hard time waiting to see what Santa brought (as I'm sure most kids have the same problem). From the time we left the Apartment until the time he fell asleep on me after presents, Jarren was wide awake from excitement. Aunts and Uncles screaming with joy, and giving him lots of crinkly wrapping paper to shove in his mouth. He got to be held by his Grandma Hunt for the first time in 2 1/2 weeks and was so excited he gave her a hug!

Out of all of Jarren's Christmas gifts I believe the wrapping paper was his favorite. His second favorite would probably be the Hokey-Pokey Elmo. And then his new playmat. We still haven't put together a few of his new presents so his favorites might change.

Jake was a very spoiled man this year. But he deserves it so I went all out. He got a Wii (which his brother helped me pay for...thanks Rob!) and a bunch of games to go with it. Jake got me a new ipod shuffle, and Rob got me the armband case to put it in so I can use it while I work out! I'm so excited. After all of the presents and a very exhausting morning, I started dinner. (yep...we had our OWN dinner this year) and took a nap. Then I woke up and finished dinner. We had a very good ham. After dinner was over we went to the movies and watched Alvin and the Chipmonks. It was a pretty funny movie, we enjoyed it and laughed a lot.

This was one of the best Christmas's in a long time. Having Jarren with us this year made it even better. We love him and are so thankful that he is in our family. We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and was able to feel the love our Savior has for you.

Love you all! Merry Christmas!

Spiderbaby...spiderbaby...

Today we learned that Jarren is Spiderbaby. We already knew that he loved to be upside down on our knees or just tipped upside down, but Jake decided to hold him up to the ceiling and LOVED it. When we brought him back down he kept his head down cause he didn't want to come back up. We decided to pull a "Spiderman Kiss" with him. :)

Other things spiderbaby has learned lately: Pulling himself up in his swing! So we decided to finally put his swing in an upright position when he is awake and he loves that also.

Oh one more thing...SNOW

We got soooo much snow over the weekend. The tree outside our balcony looked so cool, this picture doesn't do it justice but I thought I would share. It looked like this most of the night and then some kids came and shook the tree, it was disappointing.

Big Boy!

Jarren is getting so big and learning so many new things I can hardly believe it!

Some new things Jarren is doing or has been doing for about a month:

1. Holding his own bottle (most the time)
2. Laughing really hard when we do something funny or undress/dress him
3. Grabbing everything and shoving it into his mouth
4. Putting his arms out when he wants us
5. Rolling across the floor
6. Eating cereal and last week the doc had me start him on veggies (we've been trying out peas)
7. Talking really loud so everyone will pay attention to him
8. Raising his eyebrows for certain expressions
9. Sitting up on our laps on his own (he doesn't like leaning back he has to be leaning forward)
10. Standing on the ground holding onto our fingers

He is such a big boy and he knows it. He wants to be doing all the big boy things. Doesn't like just sitting there if he can help it. Tonight Jake was standing Jarren up on his lap and Jarren would bend his knees and Jake would "blast" him up into the air and Jarren thought it was so funny! He would come back down and bend his knees again cause he knew that meant he would get blasted off into the air. Jake probably did this about 20 times over and over again then his arms got tired and had to stop, Jarren was upset about that.

Christmas Cards

This is to everyone we didn't get Christmas Cards out to. We are sending them today, so I apologize if you didn't get one.

Merry Christmas Everyone! We love you!

Thanksgiving in Arizona

We got back yesterday from AZ, it was a fun trip! Although I somehow have this TERRIBLE cold. I think it started before I moved and then got worse while I was there, I lost my voice and couldn't stop coughing. I also passed this onto Jarren and Jake. Jake got over it fast but me on the other hand I've had it for a good week now.

We spent Thanksgiving with my Uncle Hersch and Aunt Jeri and their family. It was really good seeing them, I haven't seen Hersch since I was about 3 and I don't remember ever seeing Jeri. I loved it there and will miss them a lot. Thanksgiving dinner was really yummy, Hersch made these yams that are to die for, and the turkey was yummy too! They had a park near by, my dad took the boys there often and decided to take Jarren too one day. He didn't have a hat so this is what he looked like. haha

This is their dog Sasha that wanted in on the food too but couldn't have any. They called her an "angry old woman".



Anyway, then we went my Grandma Hunts house Friday morning and were there all day. It was a party for her 80th birthday. I saw many cousins that I haven't seen in a long time. We have a lot of family. My Grandma said that in May when my Cousin has her baby she will have 80 children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren all together! That is SO many!

They had a Mexican buffet for dinner, it was pretty good. Then my Aunt's/Uncle's put on a skit for my grandma and it was pretty funny. I can see where my dad gets some of the things he says and does.

Then they did Talents where a couple of my cousins showed off some skills, and my brothers got to perform some of their karate. Then they did presentations of their gifts to my Grandma that was fun, to see of the things people gave her. After that we watched a video of a bunch of pictures from her life, it was fun to see her younger, she is so beautiful. We got a picture of her and Jarren together, which will have to go into his scrapbook, I love it.

So the next day everyone just hung out, all the guys went to my Uncle Doug's pretty much, along with my mom and a few aunts. They watched the BYU/UTAH game. BYU won of course :) GO COUGARS! While they did that my cousin Colleen, Ben, my sister Brittney, Jarren and I all went to lunch at Cafe Rio. It's not nearly as good as Utah's Cafe Rio, but it made do. Jarren LOVES Ben. Ben could look at him and Jarren would just start smiling. It was awesome.

Well that is the jist of our vacation. We spent the night in Page Sunday night on our way home, it was a nice vacation by ourselves, our little family. Then we drove the rest of the way home yesterday. Besides my cold, it was an awesome trip.

Here are a few more pictures I like:

Jarren in the sink at my Aunt and Uncles house.

One of our Cousins and Dallin taking pictures of each other.

Chinese Tourist Brittney.

My Aunt Jenny trying to eat a sandwich the size of her face.

Sorry the bottom pictures are messed up it wont let me change it.

Frustrations

This week for Thanksgiving we are going to AZ, my Grandma's 80th birthday party is on Friday and we will be spending Thanksgiving with my Uncle Hersch. Jake asked for Wednesday off a little over a month ago. Because this is a new job he doesn't have any paid time off so any time he takes off is a "personal" day. They also don't schedule a week in advance or anything like that. You find out the time you work the day before (All the time not just for holidays).

His work told him they don't know if he gets it off, because all the PTO requests get granted before his personal time. It doesn't matter if they ask for the PTO the day before, they still get it off before him!! So Tuesday night we find out if he works Wednesday. He even asked if he could switch days so he works Monday and gets Wednesday off. They said they couldn't do that because the don't know 100% that he will be working Wednesday, and because Monday's schedule isn't made yet he wouldn't know who to switch with. I hope this all makes sense, they know what days they regularly have off but they don't know if they get a requested day off. UGH! I'm so frustrated. I wanted to be able to follow my family down and now we don't know if we will be able to. Who makes schedules the night before for EVERY DAY??!

Thanks for letting me vent.

SAHM

Tomorrow is officially my last day of work at XanGo. I have been here for 3 years (in december it would have been), it's going to be hard to leave the friends I see everyday, but not so hard to leave the work. :)

I can't wait! This week has been dragging out forever, I just want to get home and be with my baby. I will be working from home for my parents, but it will only be part time and at least with that work I can have Jarren there with me. I have a hard time leaving him at the babysitters every morning, but it is people I trust. (My mom and best friend)

So starting right now I have 29 hours and 42 minutes left until I am officially a SAHM! (Stay at home mom) Who wouldn't want to stay home with him?

Week of Halloween

This week has been a busy Halloween week. We went to the corn maze again (not the haunted part though) with my family, and took Jarren. It was fun, there was a big slide that the kids loved to go down! And Brittney talked Jake into going down it with her. Then for Halloween, Jarren and I dressed up as devils, he was my little devil. :) Jake dressed up (kinda) as a cowboy. We took Jarren trick or treating at my work, they do it every year for the kids. So we got free candy and everyone held Jarren. Then that night, my mom watched Jarren while we went and hung out with our friends. We carved pumpkins (I haven't done that in years!) and watch 1408. That is a scary movie! At least when you haven't watched scary movies in a while. Over all it was a fun week. A Late Happy Halloween to everyone!

Haunted Corn Maze

This weekend we decided to go to the haunted corn maze up the street from us. Jake and I went with his brothers and sisters. Before we went in I was joking around about getting hurt because I'm so accident prone (not thinking I would actually get hurt)...YEAH ran into the door frame and about knocked myself out. I am aMAZEing.

Here is what happened: I was basically holding Jake in front of me the whole time but holding his jacket, we went into this dark room and I assumed that some scary guy was going to jump out and scare me so as soon as we entered the room I started pushing Jake and yelled RUN! He happened to go out of the room at an angle through the door way and I figured the door frame was at an angle....I ran smack dab into the door frame. My sister-in-law was behind me and came out LAUGHING! She said I looked like one of those cartoons where they run into the wall and then go FLYING backwards. So now I have some war wounds. I big knot in my arm that is turning a beautiful blue color and a goose egg on my head. I got a cool picture with one of the goons though.

The name game.

1.. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car): Sugar Cavalier
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie): Strawberry Oatmeal Rasin
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name):JOLI
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal): Red Dog
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born): Ann Chandler
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first): Olije
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink): The red sobe
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers): Bruce Herschel
9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy): Chanel Cookies 'n Cream
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ): Ann Bruce
11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Dikeman Dallas
12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower): Summer Calla Lily
13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”): Strawberry Socky
14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Hashbrown Weeping Willow
15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) The painting rain tour

Everyone do it too!