Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey everyone!  Happy (belated) Thanksgiving!!!  It's technically Black Friday (and no, I didn't shop this year-- I'm just not as in to it now that it encroaches on Thanksgiving- not to mention we didn't have the funds this week!)

So Thanksgiving Day last year we were bringing our little Turkey home from the hospital!  Now this year I have a silly, sweet, energetic, happy 12 month old!

I didn't do the "30 days of Thankfulness" thing on Facebook but I thought I would make a list of 30 things today that I am thankful for!

1. First and foremost, I'm thankful for my Lord & Savior Jesus Christ, who paid the ultimate price on the cross so that I can have eternal life!
2. I'm thankful for my son Jackson!  He is most definitely a gift from God.  He has brought so much joy to our lives and our little family.  I love him more than I could ever say and I feel so blessed to be his mommy!
3. I'm thankful for my loving, supportive, hardworking husband Brew.  He not only is a wonderful husband but he is my best friend and an amazing father!
4. I'm thankful for my parents.  They raised me & my brothers in a loving, stable, Christian home.  I really appreciate them even more now that I am a parent myself. 
5. Also I'm thankful that my mom is able to care for Jackson while I'm working.  I hate the fact that I have to work outside the home anyway, but it really gives me peace of mind knowing that Jackson is well cared for by someone he loves & I never have to worry about a thing.  I know that I would probably go insane if he had to be in daycare.  Not to mention-- she does it all for free! :)
6. I'm thankful for my parents in-law.  They have treated me like a daughter from day 1, and they are always helping us out in one way or another.
7. I'm thankful for my brothers.  We fought a ton when we were growing up (especially my middle brother who I am closest in age to)  but now I'm close with both of them and it's good to know that no matter what your siblings have your back!
8. Along those same lines I'm thankful for my two sisters in law, Brew's sister Mandy and my brother's wife Amanda.  I always wanted a sister growing up and never had one until I got married (and my brother got married just a couple months after).  They are two of my best friends!
9. I'm thankful for my three beautiful nieces and handsome nephew!  I love that Jackson gets to grow up with lots of cousins all close to his age.
10. I'm thankful for my husband's *new* job.  I think he's really enjoying it and he is able to bring home a little more money and there are opportunities for advancement.  
11. I'm thankful for MY job.  Even though I wish I didn't have to work, I'm thankful that I am able to at least do something I enjoy.  Teaching little ones and even better getting to share the Gospel with them.
12. I'm thankful for our extended family-- grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins-- on both sides of the family.  We are so blessed to be in such a loving family :)
13. I'm thankful for our home.  Many people don't get the opportunity to buy their own home and we did.  It may not be my dream house but we can make it into that over time.  And in the meantime I'm happy to live in a nice house with enough space for us.
14. I'm thankful to live in the USA.  Things are by no means perfect with the government and economy now but even still I'm so blessed to be able to live in the land of the free-- BECAUSE of the Brave!  
15. This goes along with the previous- but I'm thankful for our troops who are fighting for our country and those who have fought before them.  Also their families-- I can't imagine how difficult it must be to have a loved one so far away for so long and with them being in constant danger.  They make so many sacrifices and some don't even have their loved one return home, so I'm thankful for them as well.
16. I'm thankful for all my friends!  I'm fortunate to have a few close friends that I can share most everything with!
17. I'm thankful for my church family.  I have grown up in my church, was baptized, confirmed, and married there, and Brew and Jackson were baptized there too.  I love being a part of a church that teaches the Gospel without compromise!
18. I'm thankful for technology-- as annoying as it gets sometimes-- I'm thankful for social media, skype, my iphone, and email.  All of these things allow me to stay connected with friends/family far away (especially my cousins!  Hi Stef!)
19. I'm thankful for my good health.  I'm fortunate to never of had any major health issues.  I'm also thankful for the health of my baby boy!!!
20. I'm thankful that I got the opportunity to travel to a few other countries.  Brew & I were able to visit Thailand in 2010 for my cousin's wedding & then visit three countries in Europe in 2011 to go see those same cousins-- haha thanks Stefani ;)
21. I'm thankful for photographs/videos.  Perfect ways to capture and save memories.
22. I'm thankful for our vehicles.  They aren't perfect (and we are trying to sell one lol) but they get us where we need to be!
23. I'm thankful for music
24. I'm thankful I have more than enough food to eat
25. I'm thankful we live in a good school district.  I won't have to worry about that or trying to send Jackson somewhere else when he starts public school.
26. I'm thankful I had the opportunity to earn a college degree.
27. I'm thankful for my dogs.  Yes I complain about them a ton.  Their hair everywhere, them getting into stuff, etc.  BUT I'm glad they are our little protectors and that Jackson has the opportunity to grow up with dogs to learn to care for and such.
28. I'm thankful for the four seasons we get to experience here in WV.  
29. I'm thankful for central heat, extra blankets, and hot chocolate!
30. I'm thankful for our family doctor.  I knew that I wanted to take Jackson to him instead of a pediatrician.  He is a wonderful doctor and a nice, upstanding, Godly man.  Lucky to have him caring for my son (and us!)

I hope every one of you has a happy, safe, and blessed Thanksgiving.  Enjoy the day with your family & friends!

For this child I prayed...

So I've been working on a little project the last few weeks...

I compiled a bunch of video/photos from pregnancy to Jackson's first birthday party and edited it all together to make this:

It def. makes me tear up watching it-- I'm so glad God blessed us with this little boy.  Love him soooo much!!!

Monster First Birthday!

We had Jackson's Birthday Party yesterday!  I'm still in awe at how many people love our little guy... and at the amount of toys this kid got!  (Seriously, my living room has been taken over...)  Everything went great, I had fun planning it all.  Big thanks to my mom for all her help!!!

Assembling the monster cupcakes lol

The spread!  (not including the pizza)

Why are these people singing to me???

I love this picture so much-- hate that it turned out blurry though!  (I forgot to flip up the flash!)

Haha my kid doesn't like icing on his fingers!

Mmm yummy cupcakes Mommy!

lol- at least the tissue paper was a hit!

He loved unwrapping everything- but hated when I took it away to give him the next gift!

My whole world right there!

I wanted to insert some video clips here but it'll have to wait... youtube/blogger are both being super annoying and slow tonight.  I'll get them up here soon!

I have a one year old!

Yes, yesterday on November 20, 2013-- my baby boy turned ONE YEAR OLD!  I seriously cannot believe it.  This past year has been a blur-- but a blur full of love and smiles and pure joy.  I am so thankful for this little man and I have loved watching him grow and learn and turn into the sweet little almost-toddler he is now.

I wanted to recreate some of his newborn picture poses but this one was the only one that I actually managed to somewhat capture lol.  It was easier when he was a week and a half old! ;)

Rotten happy boy!

So I took the day off work to spend with my little guy.  We didn't do a whole lot of exciting stuff but we did have fun :)  I recorded bits of our day though and am currently compiling it all into a sort of day in the life video that I will upload soon! ( When I get it done, I'll embed the link here)

His birthday party is on Saturday but on his *actual* birthday we had our own little mini-celebration with spaghetti for dinner and our own little cake/candle and singing :)

Happy Birthday, sweet boy!

 Here are some pics of Jackson digging into his first real bites of cake!  We found that he did NOT like the feeling of the icing on his fingers so I ended up flipping the cake upside down and then he went to town!

And I'll wrap up this post with the last of my monthly updates I'll be doing on this little dude!  (I'll still keep you in the loop with exciting goings on in the world of Jackson-- but since he's getting older not as much changes from month to month.)  Complete with our one year update videos embedded at the bottom.

Weight/Length: 22lbs 5oz, 29 inches
Clothing Size: 12 months mostly.  Can wear a few 12-18mo things.
Diaper Size:  Size 4
Feeding: He is still breastfeeding and I don't have any immediate plans to wean.  We are going to start supplementing with cow's milk and I'm going to start weaning myself from pumping while at work.  Not ready to be done nursing but I'm ready to be done pumping!  Then we will see how things go from there.  If he doesn't start slowing down by 18mo then we will start actively weaning.  Now though when he is with me he nurses in the morning, before his two naps, and before bed.  Then he still nurses 1-3 times a night (once on good sleep nights, more on bad sleep/teething nights)
Milestones: He waves bye bye, and will sign "more".  He has also started clapping this month (which he didn't really do before).  He is pulling up to standing more often (still not using furniture in the living room though).  He still just army crawls/scoots-- no traditional crawl from this baby boy!  I look for him to start cruising in the next couple months.  He's not really in a hurry to walk (which I'm sure is a blessing to me lol).  He says three words now: "Mama", "Dada", and "Duke" (referring to both of our dogs).  He also is just starting to understand SOOOO much more I've really noticed.  He has four teeth now, bottom two are all the way in and the top two are most of the way in.  I can see a top and bottom incisor getting ready to come through on his left side now though.  Fun times!
Sleep: This past month has been pretty crappy in the way of sleep.  I'm sure it's mostly due to teeth but he's only been sleeping in his crib for a couple hours and then waking more at night.  Blah.  We are still part-time cosleeping and we will most likely start trying to transition to sleeping in his crib all night when he gets back in a good-sleep groove (it seems to come in waves).  He will put himself to sleep now without fussing/crying if he doesn't nurse to sleep (so about half the time) for both naps and nighttime.  He still takes two naps usually around 10 and 2.  I think he may be starting the transition to one nap though in the next few months.  I've noticed this past week his morning nap seems to be getting shorter and his afternoon nap seems to be getting longer.  I guess we will see!
Likes/Dislikes:  He loves books, toy cars/trucks, little people toys, putting things in and out of containers, anything with buttons or knobs or switches, and music.  He has the little brain of a future engineer and loves exploring and manipulating things.  He dislikes sudden, loud noises (like the vacuum), and having things taken away from him that he can't have lol.

Here is a video of our day!



AND here are our ONE YEAR updates!  (Jackson's update, a breastfeeding update, and a postpartum update)

Christmas Card 2013

I'm actually semi-on top of things and took Jackson's Christmas picture today to use on our Christmas cards!  Last year I had a brand new baby and didn't get around to ordering cards until mid-December and so most people got them on or after Christmas.

The past three years I ordered them from Shutterfly...

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2011

Christmas 2012

But this year I went with Vistaprint.  Why do you ask?  Well Shutterfly doesn't have the option of making your own custom photo cards.  They have different layouts and designs to choose from, many of which I love but it just wasn't what I had in mind.  Thanks to Pinterest I had a specific very simple idea and Shutterfly just didn't have that option this time.  Sooo- I tried Vistaprint.  I have ordered from them before (business cards from when I subbed) and they had what I was looking for- A flat 5x7 Photo card in portrait orientation and that I could also print on the back.

So without further ado- here is our Christmas card for this year!!!

Here is the front

And here is the back!

I toyed with the idea of doing a folded card but decided it wasn't worth the extra money.  I'm so happy with this year's design and I cannot WAIT to get them here!  I will post again when I do get them in and let you all know what I think of them in person.

Oh and another bonus?  I got 4% cash back through E-bates!  (If you do any kind of online shopping, click here to sign up for e-bates.  It's free and there is no catch!  You get rebates and coupon codes for shopping online.)

If you do photo Christmas cards for your family link them in the comments if you want to share! :)