Blog Resurrection

Hello Friends!

I am attempting to blog again. One of my favorite things to do in my spare time is to journal. I have a "marriage journal" that started when Brice and I got engaged, and a "baby journal" that started shortly after I had Jackson.

I figured a good resurrection would be to add some recent journal entries. Beware: If you choose to read my blog, you will really be inside my head. When I journal, I just let the words flow...it's going to get personal...

12.23.2011

Dear Babies,

You two are sleeping so soundly in your beds...Dada is at work, and I wanted to take some time to "be still," which is sometimes hard to do; especially at this time of the year!

Jackson, this year--I see that you are starting to get interested in CHRISTMAS. You have been excited to hear Jingle Bells and Christmas songs. I think you're more into presents too. You haven't gone overboard...yet. I hope that Dada and I teach you to be excited about giving gifts...more so than receiving gifts.

Jaelyn--you don't really have a clue about gifts...I think you will be more excited to rip the paper and bows than to actually open gifts and realize you are going to keep it!

It has honestly been pretty easy this year. We haven't bought a lot since we are low on $...which has made it a whole less busy. Luckily, you are young, so you probably won't really notice. I am excited to be able to enjoy what it is really about. I hope we can talk about Jesus' gift to us; coming to earth to be our Savior. And of course, I want us to enjoy each other.

Tomorrow, we are going to be with Auntie, Coley, G-Pop, and Nana Chris! I hope Dada can get some/all of work off.

Love you, Mama


12.24.2011

Merry CHRISTmas! Today, we were at G-Pop and Nana Chris' house. We opened presents and had lots of fun. My favorite part was taking a nap all together in Nan's room. Jackson-you are so cute...no matter how BIG the bed is, you always squeeze in right next to me. I love it!

I enjoyed watching you open presents. Jackson-you enjoyed opening gifts. Jaelyn-you liked playing with the bows. You had a "Mackeen" car you were playing with--you were content the whole time we opened gifts with that.

My other favorite part was going to church as a family. Poor Dada had to work all day today. :( I hope he doesn't work in retail next year...we will see about that!

My other-other favorite thing was getting to just be a family. We were invited to a friend's house for a nice dinner, and I am actually glad we didn't go. I know we would have enjoyed if we did, but, to just be was perfect. We just picked up a pizza on the way home from church, and sat around the table.

I prayed over dinner, because Dada was changing his clothes...I said a pretty quick one, since it was late for you guys to be eating. We started digging into our pizza, and were suddenly interrupted. "WAIT, WAIT!" you said (Jackson). You put down your pizza, folded your hands and said, "And thank you also for the cross, and please help Nana Barbie feel better. Amen." It was so thoughtful for you to pray that way. I usually say, "And thank you for dying on the cross to save us," at the end of each prayer, and I didn't this time. It was so thoughtful, I was almost in tears.

Then after dinner we showed Dada all our presents, and all 4 of us played on the floor. We were all laughing and being silly. OH MY...I LOVE you guys SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much. Jackson, you have been initiating hugging and kissing more, and Jaelyn, you have just started kissing. You two make me melt!

Merry Christmas, Babies!

Love, Mama

P.S. I can't wait to open stockings and presents as a family tomorrow.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXO



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JJ's 1st Birthday

Home

It has been many moons since I have written...and time has flown by oh so quickly! Jackson's first birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and it was so much fun...Here's a couple of recent pictures: One of him in the bath, one playing on a car at church, and the rest are from JJ's real Bday. Brice, JJ, Grandma, and I went to Longhorn's BBQ in Castaic, and it was yummy!

It is so hard to believe that he's already a year old. It really goes by so fast! We are so blessed to have such an amazing son. Brice and I keep talking about how he seems to be getting more and more fun! He is growing such a good sense of humor. He thinks everything is so funny. I just love the sound of his voice! He is so precious. And now, thinking of him being a big brother. He is going to be such a good one for his little sister! We are enjoying him so much, and want to soak him all up. Blessings until next time...

Here are some pre-Halloween pictures. We took JJ's first trip to Lombardi's Ranch. He had lots of fun. As we sat him by the pumpkins, he loved to touch them, and also he loved playing with the hay. He even went on the very top of the huge stack of hay (with Da-da's help, of course). For those of you that don't live out here, they have a little train, petting zoo, animals, and even a "scarecrow alley".

I love this picture of JJ with mama, and JJ and daddy. Unfortunately, we weren't able to take a family picture all together. Next year we will for sure. I can't believe we are starting to celebrate the holidays for the first time as a family. It is so cool to be a mama! I can't wait until my favorite holidays: Christmas and Thanksgiving. We had lots of fun on his first trip to a pumpkin patch!


Here are some pictures taken on Halloween. He started the day in his "I love my Mummy" shirt. He's was so cute in the shirt. Then, it was off to church for the "Harvest Hang Time."

We only stayed for a little while to make an appearance and take some family pictures. When JJ gets older, he will enjoy the Harvest Hangtime more, when he can play in the bounce houses, play the games, and get candy. :)

Our cute little dinosaur was quite the hit! He's about the cutest thing Brice and I have ever seen. I can't imagine having another baby...I'll be too worried that he/she will never match up to how amazing JJ is. He is such a good baby, and starting to be even more fun as the days go on. He now interacts so much, and brings so much joy to our hearts.
Thank you Lord for such a huge blessing. Just last night, Brice went into kiss JJ after he was asleep. He took a while, so I went in his room to discover Brice crying tears of joy. He and I both are so overwhelmed sometimes by the joys of parenthood. We couldn't ask for more.

I will write more soon to give some more updates of events that passed.

Pray!

Pray, pray, pray!

Brice takes the written test for the LA County Fire Department next Wednesday...Pray that God will help him think clearly, and do his best, and of course, pass!

I'm praying, and believing God has great things in mind for us.

Our Sweet Chickadee

~Our little chickadee is so precious! Here are a couple of adorable pics of JJ right after bath time. He loves baths, and that happens to also be one of mama's favorite part of playing with little Jackson.
~It has been quite a while since I've posted...our sweet boy is already over 4 months old!

How time flies! Right now, we are hopeful that I may be able to stay home in the future and not have to work full time anymore. Brice got a letter from Los Angeles County Fire Department last week, inviting him to take the written test on September 30th.

We have been praying for about a year that God would direct Brice to the career path he should be on, and the Lord has seemed to be quiet for a while. We know He is still there, but we (especially me) have been really struggling with me having to work full time. I have really been about at my whit's end and really trying to lean on faith that God knows my heart and my strong desire to be at home with this amazing, sweet blessing from above.

Then, out of the blue, God opened this door. From what we here from other firefighters, getting a letter from LAFD is almost the same as winning the lottery. It doesn't seem to matter what background you have, what education you have, or who you know; it's really luck. We know luck had nothing to do with it. Grace has everything to do with it. So, we now have a glimpse of hope as this could be in our grasp. We are moving forward, believing God will work it out. Brice also takes the CPAT test next week, which he's already passed once. Brice feels very confident that he'll pass with no problems.

So, I will try to post more often, especially adding more pictures of our sweet boy. Jackson is just amazing. He ate a full serving of rice cereal for the first time tonight. He didn't really love the idea of eating slowly from a spoon; he'd rather just drink out of the bottle. But, he did really well! He is rolling over both ways now, and still learning to laugh. He doesn't really belly laugh yet but I can tell that he wants to laugh. I love to tickle him and kiss him!

Until I write again...

Laundry

So, who would have thought that laundry would all of the sudden get enjoyable? I just can't get over how cute baby clothes are! I know JJ will out-grow so many of these oh-so-precious outfits very soon, so I have got to enjoy it while I can. I love him so much and want to document that he smiled at his mommy for the first time this week. It just made me melt! I love all of these "firsts". Yay for him being 5 1/2 weeks already! It's going too fast...

Introducing...

We welcomed Jackson Jett to the earth on April 23 at 9:05 a.m. His birth was text-book, and we felt it went great! Contractions started around 9:00 a.m. on April 22nd, his due date. We kept track of them, and they started progressing throughout the day, and at 6:00 p.m. they were about 6-7 minutes apart. We had not eaten dinner yet, and I wanted Panera, so we headed off there. I thought, "I'm not gonna eat until after I have the baby, so I want one last quality meal before we head to Kaiser. So, Panera it was. As we were driving, the contractions got more severe due to the bumpy roads. They were about 5 minutes apart while we dined...so, we ate fast and headed back to the house to grab our stuff. (P.S. We saw Renelle there with her study group, and the ladies were freaking out saying, "Lady, you better get to the hospital!" But I knew we'd be ok from what we learned in our class...We also saw Nick Wasniak there, one of our dear friends. He was excited that we were getting so close!)
Here's the last pic of me before we left for the hospital...my last prego pic! So, we arrived at Kaiser in Panorama City around 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. and they checked me out. They monitored me for a while and then had me walk around for a while to help move me along. Brice was an amazing coach...He helped me the whole time. He was encouraging and did everything we learned in our class. After getting an epidural, they broke my water around 6:30a.m. and I progressed very fast after that. I went from 6 cm dilated to 10 cm in about an hour, which was awesome, and they had me start practice pushing around 8:00 a.m. He was born only an hour later. I actually couldn't believe it when I heard him scream. I thought it would take longer. So, he was 5lbs 15oz and 18 inches long. He's just a little guy, and oh so cute!

Here is a picture of my First Mother's Day, which was nice. It was a beautiful day. We relaxed and watched the Lakers at my parent's house. Brice and my family made it special for me with gifts and cards...Thanks guys!

Brice and I were just talking today about how much he's already grown. We can't believe that next Thursday he'll be a month old! Wow! He is gaining a little personality too, with fun faces and noises. We are in wonder as we look at God's creation...the connection between a parent and child is indescribable.

We do want to always protect our marriage and have time for us in this new journey. We believe the example of a godly marriage will be invaluable for him, and an important piece to him understanding God's love. (We will soon attempt to go on our first date without Jackson...We've agreed to go a minimum on once a month.)

More than anything, we pray often that JJ will meet God at an early age. And that we will be godly parents; loving, patient, gracious, kind, fun...that we will only aide him in knowing Him. That's our goal. Our new purpose in life.