Fourth of July Weekend

Happy Fourth of July! Jackson looked so cute at church in his little sailor outfit!




After church we drove over to the Tampa Bay area where we stayed for 2 nights in Clearwater. It was kinda rainy all weekend, but we made the most of the time it wasn't rainy!

Sunday night we walked around Clearwater Beach.




The sunset looked so crazy!


So since it was rainy most of the time on Sunday, we just chilled in our hotel room and took pictures of Jacksy with us.








It stopped raining just in time for all the fireworks so we were able to watch the fireworks over the Bay. Jackson did great for his first fireworks show. It might help that we can hear the fireworks from DisneyWorld every night when he's going to bed, haha.





Tyler had the day off on Monday, so we were planning on going to the beach during the day, but it rained all day so our plans were ruined. We ended up going to a movie, and Jackson sat on my lap for the whole movie. We're enjoying these times while they last, Jackson has been to 4 movies with us!



On Monday night we got to the main event, the event that instigated our trip to the Tampa Bay area was the Red Sox game! They came to town July 5th and so it worked out perfectly to take our trip this weekend. Ty became a huge Sox fan when he lived in Boston during the summer of 2004 - when they finally won the World Series.

It was fun to take Jackson to his first baseball game! He did great, we stayed for 7 innings, when we left it was tied, but sadly the Red Sox ended up losing by 1 :-(

3 Months

I don't know when it happened, but Jackson isn't a newborn anymore! He's turning into a little boy and getting so big and so much more interactive.

He has gotten really good hand-eye coordination. His favorite thing to do with his hand, however, is to stuff it in his mouth. Here's how it usually happens...

Step 1 - Stick hand out in the air. Make a fist and stare at fist for at least 30 seconds.

Step 2: Bring fist to mouth.


Step 3: Fit as much of fist in mouth as possible!


The scariest part about all this sucking is because he's teething. I can feel a little something coming to the surface in that cute little mouth of his, and yes he's only 3 months. Way early for teeth, but hey - he weighs as much as a 6 month old, so i guess he should teethe like one too.


Here are some of my favorite photos from his 3 month old photo shoot










He's looking like such a big boy in his church outfits!



Other skills he's developed are ...

Sitting up on the couch, and holding rattles.


Grabbing the toys on his activity mat.


Holding his head up and starting to roll over!


Everyone always says to enjoy the time with your newborn because it goes by so fast. Tyler and I really did enjoy the first months with Jackson, but what we weren't ready for was how quickly, almost overnight, he stopped being a newborn! When did this happen? But we're SO in love with this little guy and loving the changes he's making :-)

More Photos From Our Trip

My favorite Pic - Mark Mabry snapped this candid pic after we finished shooting our family photos in Arizona.

Wrapping up the trip

After we dropped of Michael at the MTC we stayed in Utah for the rest of the week with Tyler's family.

One major accomplishment was encouraging our friends and family to have babies, since Jackson was such a good little boy!

Exhibit A - Carly :-)


We took him to BYU - more specifically The Tanner Building - where I spent most of my college career and his mommy and daddy met!


We also stopped by our first apartment in Provo


Jackson spent time with his Great-Grandpa Harline, and even fell asleep in his arms :-)


Jackson met his cousin Reese


We even got amazing massages by this Hungarian woman, thanks to Tyler's mom! The interesting part is that she does them out of her basement... kinda random. Jackson was a little unsure about what was going on (as evidenced by his expression) haha. But they loved meeting him.


We finished the week in SLC for Kristi's Birthday. We stayed the night at the Sheraton downtown, went to the Gateway and Temple Square.



After a fun trip in Utah, Tyler flew back to Florida to get back to work and Jackson and I drove back down to Arizona to spend another week with my parents, sister and brother.





Jackson went to his first swim meet, he cheered on his Uncle Steven!





Lots of time spent out at the pool


We went on nightly walks


Jackson got to spend a lot of time with Uncle Steven :-)



It was so fun for Jackson to spend so much time with his family! He misses everyone, but at least we have skype!

MTC to the MTC

After Jackson's blessing we spent the next 2 days with my family and my brother Michael before he began his church mission on June 2nd.

We had our "last supper" at my grandparents house in Salt Lake City. They ordered these cute cupcakes from The Sweet Tooth Fairy.




Then the next day we dropped off MTC (Michael Thayer Christensen) at the MTC (Missionary Training Center). I'm so glad he was able to get to know Jackson before he left for 2 years. It was definitely an emotional day, but I'm so proud of him! I can't believe my little brother is really old enough to be on a mission!




He's going to Utica, New York and has actually already been there for his full 3 weeks and heads to New York on Tuesday!

I helped my mom set up a "mission blog" for his friends and family to keep up with his latest letters and pictures from the mission field. www.eldermichaelchristensen.blogspot.com