 |
| Four Generation photo |
Christmas was great! Since both of our families are in Boise we get to see them both for the holidays. We even got to see Tiffany, Adam and Rock who came from Texas and Jason and Grace moved to Nampa so they were there too! We started at the Laney's and spent about a week and a half there. The boys (Gary, Todd and Adam) went to the Las Vegas bowl to see Boise State play. Of course, we won!
 |
| TJ's favorite present, the Exersaucer |
TJ missed his first Christmas morning. He was taking a nap, of course. While we were at the in-laws, Rock and TJ were on opposite schedules. Rock woke up early, 5 a.m. (6 a.m. Texas time) and played until about 7:30 and that's when TJ would wake up for the first time. TJ would stay awake for about 2 hours and sleep again and Rock would wake up from his nap. We wanted to take a ton of pictures with the two boys, but they hardly ever saw each other. But we made sure they matched, just about every day. We got a few photos in though. We ate a lot of food and too many sweets, but that's what makes Christmas, right!?
Todd also helped teach Cali how to shoot her shotgun. They were throwing clay pigeons. Cali needed a break and they asked if I wanted to shoot. I said, "Sure why not!" I pulled the gun up and closed one eye (the wrong one) and I was like, "I can't see down the barrel of the gun! Wait! How do you do this?" Then I figured out it was the wrong eye. :) My bad. I hit all of them but like 2, doing much better than Cali was doing. I felt bad. They kept asking me what I did and how I aimed and where I put the gun and I just said, "I just point and shoot. I don't really think about it." I probably shouldn't have even shot because it made Cali a little bummed.
 |
| Todd's side on TJ's blessing day |
We blessed TJ (finally). He was about 3 months when we did it. We waited because we knew everyone would be in town for it. It was beautiful and special. He wore Todd's baby blessing outfit (made by Calista), I added a vest and bow tie and my mom made a blessing blanket. It was a wonderful day!
 |
| At the Steelhead's game |
At my family's house, we played a lot of games. My dad won a XBOX360 with Kinect and we played that a lot. I got so sore from dancing and doing track and field. Kristin, Jason, my dad and I went to an Idaho Steelhead's game. I've only been to one other hockey game I think and I don't remember it at all. My dad was explaining a few of the terms like "power play" and such. Kristin really liked it when they broke into a fight! She was thrilled that it was "allowed" for the most part, at least much more than football. She added something else to her bucket list, "Have 2 boys fight over me." It was nice to have a night out while TJ was home with Todd and my mom.
We were away from home for about 3 weeks. We left home and TJ was 3 months and got back and he was 4 months. Crazy! He has definitely changed a lot since the last time I posted. It's been about 2 1/2 months, my bad. I'll do a separate post about all the fun things he does now.
Overall, Christmas was fun and definitely a vacation from school and Salt Lake. Don't get me wrong SLC is great but it's just not Rexburg, or anything like Rexburg...at all. I don't care that the headquarters of the Church are here. Our ward is about 900 members, but only about 150 attend. We have 10 or 11 couples of Church service missionaries in our ward because there are not enough Priesthood holders for leadership or enough stable, non-transient, righteous people for major callings. It is a nearly dead ward. Not newly wed, nearly dead, just nearly dead. Well, there are about, let me count, like 5 couples our age with a little kid or just married, but we just got 2 more which is nice. On Sunday we had a combined meeting with the Priesthood and talked about home and visiting teaching. There are not very many women who can visit teach. It's not like in normal wards where if you are in R.S. you are automatically a V.T. All the older women teach each other because many of them can't leave their apartment complex. They have about 98% V.T. each month. Outside of that complex, there are 24 visiting teachers. 12 companionships for 214 other sisters. That's NUTS! I'm one of those girls and it's crazy. We have 9 homeowners and about 30 (that's probably pushing it) cars in the parking lot for our whole ward. Everyone uses public transportation or walks. They don't have cars. One week they asks for sisters to work at the cannery and many wanted too but none of them had transportation to get there. One sister who couldn't help out, said she could at least drive all the ladies to the cannery and back. There is 1 deacon, 1 priest and 1 miamaid. Pretty sure that's all the youth. Anyway...I wasn't planning on ranting and raving about our ward, but ... oh well.
Other sweet pictures:
We just love our guy to pieces! And I think he loves us too! 
We visited Boise for Todd's "fall break". It was a nice getaway! I love the pictures of Todd sleeping with TJ. It's just adorable, don't you think!?
I don't know why these pictures came up crooked. They aren't like this in my folder where I uploaded them from. Dumb. Well, turn your heads! TJ and I went for a nice fall walk and I had some fun taking pictures of him. He is such a good model for my photography.
I guess leaves don't taste as good as breastmilk. hehe
Love those cheeks!
My grandparents who live in Bountiful had a 30th anniversary surprise party that we attended. We missed the surprise part, but it's much harder to get out of the house when you have a baby and when you wake up from your Sunday nap right when you are supposed to leave and still need to feed the baby... :)
Todd and TJ have started some acrobatics! Todd throws TJ in the air (not too high though) and holds him like this. TJ becomes as stiff as a board so it makes it easier. This is just a super cute picture of them!
Todd went to Dallas for job interviews (he got a job offer in Dallas and we will be moving down there the beginning of the summer!!) and my mom stayed with me. We headed down to Nephi, UT to visit my other grandparents who hadn't even met TJ yet. This is our very cool 4 generation photo. I'm really starting to see the resemblances but only from one generation to the next, not so much skipping generations...
Such a smily happy boy! He smiles at pretty much everyone now. He loves life!
We also went to Chili's to watch the Utah vs. TCU game! We knew it was going to be a big game since both were undefeated and it was #3 vs #5 in the BCS rankings. This game, however, was the start of Utah's stupid football playing...we had fun though all decked out in red.
He's found his hands, but doesn't stick his fingers into his mouth...he just sucks on the sides of them!! haha
He's got huge eyes!
Our first family picture
And his dad!!
