What a Crazy Year! - Part One

This year has been a little nuts for us with finishing my master's and having Parker, and because of all of that I have been HORRIBLE about blogging about the fun things we have done!  Since it is the last day of the year, I figured it would be a good time to recap the highlights from this year!

JANUARY

In January I started teaching the instructional materials I was creating for my master's project at Centennial middle school in Provo.  This began months of stress and craziness trying to balance school, master's project, teaching, being a mom, and being pregnant.  However, we were able to have some fun too!

On January 31, Jackson turned 2!  This is one thing I actually did blog about here. :)  Here is a picture, just to reminisce!  It's crazy how much he has grown this year!  

FEBRUARY

Jackson got a Mickey toddler bed for his birthday, so on the 1st we set it up and started getting him used to sleeping in it.  Jackson LOVED his bed, however teaching him that just because he could physically get out of bed now didn't mean that he should get out of bed at any point in the night took a while.  We ended up putting a door knob cover on the inside of his door (which we are just starting to take off) and teaching him to use this green light to help him know when it was and was not okay to get up.  We also put up some cool Mickey decals on his wall to celebrate moving to his new big boy bed :)

On February 3, we had our 20-week ultrasound and found out we were going to be welcoming Parker into our family!  Like his brother, he was a little shy/stubborn during the ultrasound.  The tech couldn't get a clear picture of his heart, so we had to go back at my next appointment for another ultrasound.  

Shawn's parents visited Utah later that week.  We celebrated Isabel and Arianna's birthdays at a fun center.  Unfortunately, we didn't really take any pictures (except this one, which isn't very good).  Jackson wasn't really interested in jumping on the toys, but had a blast sitting and bouncing!

Valentine's Day was on a Friday this year.  We got Jackson a card and a little stuffed monkey with some Reese's peanut butter cups.  Shawn was wonderful and made dinner for me, and then surprised me by getting a babysitter so he and I could go out for ice cream! 

My mom came to visit at the end of the month.  While she was here, we also got a visit from "flat Kaliah".  My niece, Kaliah, was doing a project in school where each child sent a life-size paper version of him/herself to someone that lived in another part of the country.  Kaliah picked us to send her flat version to!  We got to take flat Kaliah to the zoo with us and my mom.  The Stuarts came too.  We also made chocolate cookies with white chocolate and peanut butter chips her, since Kaliah LOVES chocolate and peanut butter!

One of my favorite pictures :)

Taking flat Kaliah to the zoo

Checking out the elephants

Jackson and flat Kaliah in the eagle's nest

Showing flat Kaliah the mountains

This picture perfectly captures Jackson's personality :)

Cookie time!

Jackson also learned how to take selfies on my phone in February, and thus began endless numbers of very silly and very odd pictures for the rest of the year!

MARCH

I finished teaching in Provo during mid March and took a little break from my master's project to finish up my last class.  I did a semester's worth of work in 3-4 weeks.  It was crazy!  

March was also filled with more selfies, block tower and fort building, the occasional trip to the duck pond, and silliness!   

Jackson got Super Mickey jammies from Nana Brown and wore them as often as he could!

On our way back from dinner at the Kaouks, and Jackson entertained himself with the oven mitts

Our little cougar

Honing his tower building skills

Daddy built Jackson a fort one night and Jackson had a blast driving trucks through

APRIL

Jackson and I went to the Natural History Museum in Lehi (at Thanksgiving Point) with my old teaching buddy Alicia and her daughter, Stella, on April 2.  He had a blast looking for dinosaurs with Stella!

He thought the spinning wheel was the coolest!

It was not easy getting a picture where they were both sitting and looking at the camera

The next week, Shawn had a couple of days off for spring break, so we decided to check out the newly remodeled aquarium.  Jackson had so much fun looking at all of the fish, sharks, penguins, and more!  He had just started watching Finding Nemo, so it was even more fun.  

Easter was on the 20th, and we had the Stuarts and the Kaouks over for dinner and an Easter egg hunt.  Jackson had a blast looking for eggs this year, and asked us if it was Easter again for a couple of months after.  

On the 29th we went to an Orem Owlz baseball game with the Stuarts.  Jackson had a blast watching baseball and playing on the hill!  We finally got him to wear a baseball hat by telling him that he was cool like Tommy. :)

MAY

Shawn and I celebrated our seventh anniversary on May 4.  We decided since we had a baby coming in a month and a half that we would take advantage and get away for the weekend.  Trisha was awesome and offered to watch Jackson overnight, and Shawn and I went to Park City on Friday evening.  We ate at an awesome Mexican restaurant, stayed in a nice hotel, and did some outlet shopping.  It was a relaxing, much needed weekend!

On the 19th, we had a 3D ultrasound of Parker to make sure everything was still looking good, and got a nice shot of his face!

Jackson also learned how to go down the slide by himself in May, and began to love going to the park!

At the end of May, I defended my master's project and passed with minor revisions!!!

To be continued ...