Happy Birthday Jackson!!

Today my baby turns one - I can hardly believe it has been one year since this precious little baby was placed in my arms. I never could have guessed that I would be lucky enough to have a baby like Jackson. He is such an amazing boy! He is always so happy and so much fun to be around. His smiles and giggles just melt me every day.

As much as I'd love to focus my entire day on Jackson today, I can't. As much as I'd love to post a well written summary of his 1st year of life, I don't have the time. I am running around the house to get ready for Girls Camp in a few hours. I am the Ward Camp Director and camp starts this afternoon and lasts throughout the weekend. It's not a big stake camp with dozens of leaders working on it, it's just our ward, and just me. I am in charge of food, certification, activities, devotionals, and all the planning. (Well basically everything other than picking which day it starts on...) It's been quite the challenge but I'm excited to get to camp and make all my work worth it!

I'll have to update the blog in a few days with pictures from his amazing birthday party and other birthday events but for now here are a couple pictures from this morning.

We gave him a birthday donut and he ate some of it ...




but was much happier when we put sliced bananas on his tray.



Love my healthy little baby, Happy Birthday Jackson Tyler Jennings!

March Update!

Life is great in Florida during the month of March! We're smelling orange blossoms in the air, enjoying the warmer weather, and getting ready for some fun times ahead.

Last week we spent some time with our friends from Utah, Jeff & Erin. Jeff was the one who introduced Tyler to the company he works for, so we owe a lot to him! We met up with them at DisneyWorld last weekend and had some good times at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom.

Now I'm spending my time getting ready for my family coming to town next week, Jackson's Birthday Party, and Girls' Camp. Sadly, the camp is taking up most of my time at the moment (it actually starts on Jackson's birthday). I am the "Camp Director" for the ward this year, and we're spending 2 nights camping at a ranch in tents! It is a completely different experience than that of mine at Camp Lomia in Arizona, but hopefully I'll make it a good time for the girls in my ward! Since it's so hot here in the summers, they decided to have camp during spring break this year. One bad thing about Florida, there are no mountains to escape from the heat during the summer. I guess instead of cabins, people just have beach houses. For now I'm spending most of my free time planning stuff for camp. It will be nice to have some more time when camp is over :-)

Ok Ok, here is the real reason for the post (or at least the reason our family members come to the blog) some recent pictures of Jackson!

He's starting to become interested in the garbage can - I sense trouble with this fascination in our futures...


You can't really tell but Jackson went down the stairs today! This makes me a little less worried with him playing on the stairs.


Someone wasn't ready for the camera to be whipped out I guess! Such Big Eyes! In this pic you can see how long his eyelashes are - they're killing me!


Jackson eating breakfast Sunday Morning ...


& Jackson eating lunch Sunday afternoon!


Notice anything different? Maybe the huge bump on his head????

He's still a happy smiley baby though, but the huge bruise/cut on his head happened when he fell into a sharp corner of the wall. A traumatic experience for him, me, but most of all his Daddy who just hates to hear his baby boy in pain.


He loves looking at his family photo album! I'm trying to remind him of all his aunts and uncles!


Last but not least, we got his passport in the mail this week. So stinkin precious - Look at that face! How could someone not let him in their country with that smile??


And one more video of the little guy walking at Downtown Disney when we were hanging out with our good friends John & Semra. And please don't think I'm a bad mother for ignoring he and Tyler. I really couldn't hear him at all.

11 months

Jackson is 11 months ... just one month away from turning one - where did the time go! Our baby is not a baby anymore! He's walking, talking, and getting into everything! He has changed so much in the past year, but he's still the same happy, smiley baby we've always loved.



He still loves eating fruit and veggies more than anything else. Bananas, Grapes, Blueberries & Watermelon are this guy's favorites! He also eats asparagus, peas, carrots, and corn. Just this week he tried strawberries though and was in heaven! He's getting better about eating other foods though, he also eats yogurt, bread & peanut butter, chicken, turkey, pasta and the occasional cracker.



He is a walker! In the past two weeks he's transformed from a baby who is taking steps to a walker. He now walks more than he crawls and can even stand up from a sitting position, without pulling himself on anything.

He claps, waves and gives high fives and always gets a big grin when he performs his new tricks.


He says hi or hey constantly! He's shy for the first 30 seconds after meeting someone new, but then will start smiling and saying hi to them. He is such a happy baby and LOVES going on walks, going shopping, going to Disney - anywhere where he can see new people. He's a pretty social guy just like Tyler :-)

Speaking of Ty, the next word he's learned is Daddy! I've been hearing him say it for a while now, but Tyler finally admits that he hears it too. It's a little different because it sounds more like "addy" than "dada" but he's starting to add that "d" sound on the front, so there is no denying who he's talking about!

He loves giving hugs and kisses! I am the lucky recipient of most of these, but he also loves other babies, stuffed animals, pictures of babies, and his reflection in the mirror (or dishwasher).


When he walks to me and I'm sitting on the ground, he'll always do a nose dive into me at the end and then start kissing me... it's pretty dang cute :-)


He loves reading books. When he gets up to his room he will just sit and page through his books





He gets into evvverything. He loves to open drawers, cabinets, and doors - if there is any new box or bag on the ground he notices it immediately and goes over to investigate.





Love our baby boy :-)

Fillmores in Town!

Another weekend, and another successful Disney adventure with friends! Last weekend we had the Fillmores in town - Brian, Jill & 2 year-old Cedric! Jill and I are friends from high school and were freshman roommates together. Her husband Brian also went to school with us at Mountain View and she waited very faithfully (i would know, i was there!) as he served his mission in Georgia. Now the funny thing is, they live in Georgia as he attends school in Atlanta! They drove down for the holiday weekend and we were able to spend Friday and Saturday at DisneyWorld!

Cedric is just starting to discover Disney characters and is really into Toy Story Characters, so lucky for us we were able to meet Buzz Lightyear a couple of times!

Tyler had to work on Friday, so I was their tour guide at Epcot and the Magic Kingdom that day. The weather was PERFECT, 80 degrees, sunny with a light breeze. Heaven. I even wore shorts for the first time in months. I didn't take any pictures so Thank You to Jill who just sent me some of hers from that day!

We spent our time doing rides for Cedric that day (minus a little Space Mountain for me and Jill while he napped). Fantasy Land was packed for the holiday weekend, but we waited in the long line for Peter Pan -- Cedric's love for Peter Pan and Jill's enthusiastic narration made the 60 second ride well worth the wait!


During the weekend Jackson learned how to give high-fives! I think it was due to Jill and Cedric's coaching!


He hasn't quite gotten the hang of the fist bump yet though...


And yes, we realize they are wearing basically the same outfit, but as you can see from the lovely legs in the pictures above, plaid shorts are a must at Disney.

Jackson and Cedric love books! They look a little annoyed in this picture though, as Steven would attest, they're probably thinking ... "Don't you ever interrupt me while I'm reading a book!"

Anyways, Tyler came with us to Hollywood Studios on Saturday morning - with some sneaky maneuvering and insider info, we were able to get the Fillmores on the ride Toy Story Mania 4 times that day while waiting no more than 10 minutes each time! (Tom and Ashley would maybe appreciate this fact more than anyone) But FYI - the average wait time on that ride is over an hour :-)

We were able to meet Buzz and Woody that day!


Tyler had to leave in the middle of the day to host our ward's "Guac Off" BBQ! The guys in our ward brought their best guacamole or salsa to be enjoyed and judged! Tyler also grilled burgers for everyone out back. He took a coulple pics to document the event.



He said there were about 12 different dips in the running, and Tyler won in the "best salsa" category so not too shabby!


While he hosted the party, we went over to Animal Kingdom. Brian and Jill rode Everest, we saw the Nemo Show, went on the Safari and played around on the BoneYard. But we didn't take any pictures other than Jesus in sky...



We ended the day with Tyler rejoining us at Hollywood Studios for the Finale of the American Idol show and a ride on the Rock'N Roller Coaster. I hadn't ridden this ride since we moved here because I was either pregnant or recently, kinda wimpy. But I'm so glad I rode it with Jill because it's so awesome!

(if you couldn't tell by our faces...)



It was nice to relax at home and church on Sunday after our busy two days. I think Jackson was grateful to be out of the stroller, and able to show us his new walking skills! His record is 30 steps!

SIX YEARS after living together as college freshman, it was so fun to see Jill again and to spend the weekend as Moms with babies! Cedric and Jackson played together really well and I hope they'll always be buddies when we get together in Arizona in the future!

FOUR YEARS

Yesterday Tyler and I celebrated 4 YEARS of marriage!! Sometimes I think it has flown by, but then again, so much has happened since then. We have graduated, moved away, and grown so much closer together. We know each other pretty well nowadays and we are discovering our new role as parents together.

It also seems like a long time ago when I look at this picture and see how much younger we look!



We've had some amazing years together, but this 4th year has definitely been the most eventful. With having a baby and buying a house, we feel like we're real adults now -- forget this newlywed stuff! We have been so incredibly blessed this year and are excited for the years to come.

We spent the day at home in the morning, went to a golf course for lunch and then Tyler hit some range balls while Jackson watched. It was pretty fun seeing my two boys out on the range for the first of many times to come.









Then last night we went to dinner and a movie and had a babysitter for Jackson (which we've only done a handful of times). He's normally pretty easy to take along with us, but Tyler convinced me to leave him at home for this special night :-) We went to The Melting Pot which is one of my favorites and we hadn't been there in a couple years.

My two favorite foods are cheese and chocolate. Tyler loves their meats and dipping sauces, so put it all together and you've got one happy couple.




We'll leave you with a couple videos.

The first one is Jackson walking in the first few seconds ... I attempted to get him to clap for himself, but it wasn't about to happen. So feel free to stop watching as soon as he falls down.



This next one is a little bit longer, but worth it in the end. Jackson walks a little bit in the middle of the video, but then gets distracted by a certain someone coming through the door near the end ...


can you tell how much this little boy loves his daddy? he crawls so fast! and no this wasn't staged, I didn't know Tyler was coming home and he didn't know I was filming.