dear jake,

hi my baby boy. today is your birthday and i can't believe it. you are growing so fast. you are so independent and busy. every once in a while you wander over to me, squeeze my leg and kiss my knee and then off you go again. it melts my heart. you are mine and i am yours. you have made me into a mother. did you know that has always been my dream...and you fulfilled it. it is more than i ever imagined. even through colic, teething and the occasional stomach flu, i felt blessed because i am your mom. you have changed me. i thank your Heavenly Father each day that He sent you to me and i ask Him to help me be the kind of mom that you need and deserve. thank you for being my boy. you make me smile, you make me laugh, occasionally you make me frustrated, but you always make me a better person. i love you so much!!! happy birthday sunshine!




i took about a thousand pictures of you today. i can't help it, you are so cute. i will enjoy every day and every stage, but i want to never forget the way you are right now.

dinosaur museum

we had a great weekend! we went to salt lake for my cousin cody's wedding. that was beautiful and fun to see and spend time with family. stacy kept jake (thanks sis) and her comment was, "he never stops eating." true so true! he wanders and eats. that is what he does. we stayed at stacy's house friday night. i always love that because we talk and talk and matt watches t.v.
saturday morning, stacy's family headed off for the ski slopes and we headed slowly for home. on the way we did some shopping, had lunch at my favorite - chipotle (surprise, surprise shannon) and we stopped at thanksgiving point to take jake to the dinosaur museum there. he LOVED it! i think he might have wore his neck out, looking up and pointing. he wandered and wandered. when i say wandered, i mean he wandered, but it was at a quick pace, almost a run at times. it was interesting to keep up with him. matt would say, "oh wow. look at that" and i would say, "i can't. i have to catch jake. he's about to climb inside that exhibit." it really was fun watching him explore. i love being a mom so much! tomorrow is his birthday. i can't believe that a year has passed. i love to see him grow, but i want to keep him small. he is so much fun! i am so blessed to have jake and matt in my life!

cars are so cool and they make the funnest noises

sledding

once a month we try to get together with matt's brother and sister (and their families) for family home evening. it was our turn to plan it, so we celebrated our civil liberties (no school on martin luther king day) and went sledding. we had a lot of fun! there is no sledding like sledding on tridell hill.


jake and jason, just chillin'.


he' is getting so big, i hate it.

everything was so cool. jake loved it.

he went down the hill a couple of times with matt, but this was by far his favorite thing to do. he loved laying in the sled, while we pulled him around. he wouldn't move a muscle as long as it was moving, but if we stopped, his legs started kicking until we would get going again.

jake had so many layers on, we couldn't do up his pants.

jake, katie and kacie.

life is good in the great outdoors.

handsome boy

some christmas pictures

trouble maker

i love this kid! he is so much trouble, but so much fun.


nothing is safe. he gets on his tip toes and will get whatever he can find. he has figured out how to open all the cupboard doors by backing up (while on his tip toes).

he makes me laugh everyday!