update from okie

it is very weird being without the two main boys in my life. but it has been a fantastic trip so far:

bekah and i have gotten many projects done that have been looming over her head, and we have had a great time in the process. i have been getting as much done as possible on my LAST independent study class. i have spent my days with three adorable little girlies. oh, and on top of all that, i have been {almost entirely} vegan! how's that for branching out?? i've gotten some awesome vegan recipes and i've already warned danny that he may have to get used to the idea of having a vegan wife :) but seriously, i've tried some yummy things and have a greater resolve to eat healthier...because i have definitely been slacking in that department.

also, i just finished the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society

{phew! that is one loooong title, but so appropriate}

and it was absolutely, positively, one of my all-time favorite books. ever.

the writing style. the way i fell in love with each and every character. the fact that it talks about WWII. the letters.

{i want to write letters again, the old fashioned way! who wants to be my pen pal?? :)}

have any of you read this book?? because if you have, i need to know what you think!

p.s. speaking of my independent study class, i need a little help. i have four short questions to ask on the topic of divorce. if you would be willing to fill out a little survey for yours truly, i would be so appreciative! i just need FOUR people to help me out...let me know in a comment if you are interested and i'll send the info your way. thanks in advance :)

OK

you guys, i leave for oklahoma TOMORROW morning!!!

i'm driving down with my sis-in-law bekah, and her three little girlies tomorrow at seven a.m.

{we'll arrive at their place sometime saturday night.}

i haven't done a road trip like this in quite some time so wish us luck!

it's just starting to sink in that i won't be seeing this guy:

{picture taken back in 2008 at cascade golf course}

or this little munchkin:

{yes, he really is putting the syrup bottle into my dad's boots...}

for an entire week!

i'll survive right??

i just keep telling myself that when we are back together again, we'll appreciate each other so much more! :)

{as long as max still remembers who his mama is...}

no, really though. i'm super pumped that this trip has worked out! i have been wanting to go down and visit my brother and his fam + we just so happened to have sky miles that were going to expire soon, so i'll fly home next friday. it'll be a great experience for all of us.

miracles

miracles still happen.

we are living proof of that over at our house.

max, our fifteen-month-old little boy, has FINALLY decided that he can sleep through the night!! it is miraculous.

over new years, we decided to finally implement the cry it out technique, since it was taking us 30+ minutes every single night to get max to go to sleep. we would read, sing, pray, and then rock...and rock...and rock...until his little eyelids finally started to droop. then we would carefully carry him to his crib and hope and pray that no little noises would wake him up.

yeah. it was bad. i don't know how we got sucked into that but after a few months it was really starting to wear me down. especially when it was taking 30+ minutes to put him down for a nap...and he would wake up twenty minutes later. top it off with me being pregnant and it made for a very cranky jessie.

so, after a few nights of letting him cry for five minutes, and then going in and telling him that it was ok, and letting him cry a little bit more, he would eventually fall asleep. now we read, sing, pray, say good-night, and he's in his crib blowing kisses to us. i am one amazed mama.

he cries for maybe three-five minutes and sometimes not even that.

i wish we could have learned this sooner!! however, i'm so extremely grateful that he is sleeping so well now. his nap times have increased tremendously and he is sleeping 12-13 hours a night. it really is a miracle. i guess this is heavenly father's way of saying, "enjoy it while you can, because another little one is on the way...very soon!"

p.s. this video is SUPER dark...but max's laugh is too cute, i couldn't help it.

april 2011

april is going to be a BIG month for us:

danny and i will both celebrate our birthday's

our brand new baby girl will join our family of three

...

and i am GRADUATING from BYU!!!

{i'm a little excited at the moment!}

i finally got everything taken care of and, as of today, my paperwork is complete for graduation of april 2011.

i couldn't be happier.

now, all i have to do is take a final and finish one more independent study class...i can do it, right??

christmas recap

how is it already the ninth of january and i still haven't uploaded christmas pictures??

oh well, better late than never, right? i've got close to 1,000,000 pictures {maybe that is a slight exaggeration...} from our christmas vacation so prepare yourself for picture overload. we had a wonderful break and loved spending so much time with family and friends! danny took a week off from work so we had plenty of time to do all of the fun things that we had been wanting to do. it was perfect!

we decided to do our own thing christmas morning and it was magical. christmas this year was completely different than last year {see pictures below...} and we loved every second of it.

max was so thrilled that he could finally touch the presents under the tree and he had no problem learning how to open them up. max woke up around seven {he must have felt that something special was going on...he rarely wakes up that early!} and we read the christmas story in luke and had a yummy breakfast before heading into the living room. of course, we had to do the choo-choo train tradition and since max is the youngest, he led the train. he LOVED it. he was also so excited about his new blocks and piggy bank. {hopefully we can always keep christmas this simple!} danny and i both got gifts that we had been secretly hoping for: danny=a tie rack for his 20+ ties! and me=pureology shampoo...i am in heaven!

after cleaning up and getting ready for the day, we said good-bye to our home for a week and headed to provo. we spent the day with my family, eating a delicious brunch, opening gifts, playing games, and having fun. my parents got max a cowboy hat just his size and he is obsessed!! we have a true cowboy in the making. he also got an alphabet book that has quickly become his favorite and some new jammies. we headed to mike + bekah's around five for a special christmas dinner and played games into the night. my mom got this game called telestrations and it was a blast! we were dying of laughter. since we put max to sleep in a crib there, we decided to stay the night ourselves. danny and mike stayed up until midnight playing wii {in our bedroom!} while i started reading the potato peel pie society. i can't wait to finish it! the next morning, we helped laney get ready for the day so max + laney got a lot of quality cousin bonding time...including some bath time! haha they are two cute little kiddos.

sunday afternoon we made our way up to layton where we celebrated our third christmas! {being married is the best!} we had a delicious christmas dinner with the whole family and opened even more gifts. we are so spoiled! max got some awesome new books, and the cutest stuffed puppy, along with some alphabet magnets. we stayed in layton until wednesday and while we were there we went to see tangled at the gateway...such a cute movie! we had to buy a bag of popcorn for $5.50 {since when did popcorn get sooo expensive??} but it saved us since we had max with us. he just kept shoveling it in :) after the movie we went to temple square with danny's parents. it was FREEZING but worth it. the lights are always amazing to see and we got to see the new replica of the salt lake temple. that alone was worth the trip!

oh, and on top of all the festivities, danny grew out his "beard." he was SO dang proud of those few hairs that made their way through :)

wednesday max and i came back to my parents, and danny stayed up in layton one more day for dental work + a ski day. he joined up with us thursday night and we spent the rest of the weekend with my family working on a 2,000 piece puzzle, playing lots of fun new games, {including bang!} and eating a ton of delicious food. we spent new years at mike + bekah's again ringing in the new year and had a great time, as always.

on our way back to nephi, we stopped at my grandparents where they let us borrow a new carseat for max!! our little chunk has finally upgraded to a front facing car seat!! hallelujah! he doesn't look super thrilled about it in the picture...but believe me...he is!

phew! that was a lot. congrats if you made it to the end :) we hope you all had a fantastic christmas holiday {even if it was a few weeks ago...} we sure did!!

love

i must say, danny's parents completely surprised me for christmas.

i told them that a sewing machine was on my "wish list" but there were plenty of other things on our wish list for the new baby + max, so i wasn't even hoping that a brand new sewing machine would be wrapped up with my name on it.

{ok, i might have been hoping a little bit, but they weren't realistic hopes :)}

...little did i know...

it was such a fun surprise to get something that i wanted and they even surprised danny! it was great. after a bunch of research and looking through reviews, i decided to upgrade to the brother innov-is 40, and i am so. so. so. excited about it. i have been finding tons of cute patterns on-line and i have quite a few ideas swirling about in my little head.

ever since my friend dayna's post on adorable baby shoes {check it} i have been dying to make some of my own. i've been drooling over these patterns from joyfolie and can't wait to get to the fabric store so i can whip up some of these beauties. so i don't leave max out, i better make a pair of these {or two or three...} and these little open-toed shoes are right up my alley.

oh, and i'm pretty sure these barrette's are the cutest things i have ever seen. i'm trying to figure out exactly how they stick on a babies head...is it just velcro? {i don't have much experience with hair accessories...}

homemade by jill is a personal favorite, and the ruffle leggings that she made for her little girl are amazing. my daughter needs some. little baby girl also needs some of these. i can't believe how cute every single headband is. seriously, homemade by jill is amazing.

aside from baby things, i am working on a master bedroom makeover {since it is desperately in need!} and my good friend brittany brought to my attention this beautiful quilt. we are going to tackle it one of these days in the very near future. i couldn't be more excited.

as you can tell, i am stoked about my christmas present. {thanks again mom + dad!!}

we are going to organize the
dungeon
downstairs bedroom and turn it into my little crafting/sewing room. right now it is a complete disaster, but not for long.

it has been so much fun looking around the internet for ideas + patterns, but i'm sure i've skipped over a bunch. do you have any patterns that you can't live without??

cutest baby contest!

have you checked out belly mama's lately??

we are having a cutest baby contest...and your baby could be the winner of a one-hour photo session with the incredibly talented lindsey orton!

see our blog for more details.

you know you want to.

p.s. check out the post below...

gingerbread extravaganza

it's a big deal around these parts.

ever since i can remember, christmas time has involved decorating gingerbread houses.

some of my fondest memories are when we went as a family to our friends, the parrotts, and decorated beautiful, home-made gingerbread houses. there were bowls and bowls of candy, plenty of icing to go around, warm wassail, christmas tunes playing in the background, and lots of creativity floating around.

it's been a few year since that has happened, but i still try to carry on the tradition. this year, a few days before christmas, we had some of my good girl-friends down for dinner + gingerbread {aka graham cracker} decorating. i grew up with these girls in the slate canyon second ward, and amazingly our birthday's are all within two weeks of each other. we thought we were pretty cool back in the day :) i'm so happy we were all able to get together with our spouses + babies and have such a fun night together in good 'old nephi. thanks again girls, for making the trek down here! we had a blast.

not only that, but over the break, we had a gingerbread decorating party with my family. my mom ordered two gingerbread houses from bountiful baskets and we decorated to our hearts content. it was wonderful!

we each took a side of the house to decorate and it turned out pretty cute. we had a good time, and max especially loved the endless supply of treats and pretzels that came his way!

{above: my contribution to the gingerbread house}

max and cute baby sally {7 months}

p.s. have i mentioned that i am going to oklahoma for an entire week at the end of january?? my brother and his family live out there while he is going to dental school, and bekah could use an extra hand around the house. i'm glad i can help before this little baby arrives. it's going to be slightly crazy though...max isn't coming with me! pray for us all :)