Helping With Laundry

Jared spends basically everyday following me around as I do my house chores and run errands; I like to give him credit for "helping" me as long as he does a good job of entertaining himself and staying happy. Then, when Ryan get's home, I can tell him that Jared "helped me clean the living room" or "helped me make a treat." Well, this weekend Jared "helped" me do the laundry. It's fun  having a little buddy! :)

He's in charge of his blankets when they come out of the laundry.

It's nice to have a little helper! :)

No Sleeping!

This is a really cute onesie that Grandma Mary gave to Jared. I think it's kind of ironic to have Jared wearing it though, because he lets us get all the sleep we want. For example, last night he went to sleep at 9:30pm and then didn't wake up again 'til I had to pull him out of bed at 8:15am so we could take Ryan to school. Otherwise, he probably would've slept another half an hour or so. He's been like this now for the past month. We can't complain. :)

Fun in the Snow!!

Jared hasn't gotten to see a whole lot of snow yet this season, but today there was plenty. Our upstairs neighbors and cousins, Jessie, Reagan, and Wyatt, invited us to come out and play with them. So, I bundled Jared up in his baby lion snow suit and we went out to play.

 Our little neighbor, Cara (left), came to play too.

 Jared was a little sleepy, but he was still interested in what everyone was doing.

Wyatt being a cute, little baby dinosaur!

 

 They built a pretty good snowman but...

 ... Then the girls had fun knocking it over. Jessie put it back together so we could enjoy it a little longer. :)

We mostly just watched, but it was still a lot of fun!

YAY!!! A Snowman!!

Once we were done, Reagan said she was going to make a snowman for Jared. So, she patted some more snow on the snowman they'd already made and said, "A snowman!" It was really cute!

Wearing Daddy's Clothes

A little while after we had Jared, Grandma Kris gave us a bag of Ryan's old baby clothes. (They were Ryan's and his brothers, but mostly Ryan's.) We've gotten some good compliments from friends and neighbors about how cute he looks in them.

 This is a hat daddy made a couple years ago.

He actually looks like he's posing in this one.

  Unfortunately some of the outfits didn't fit anymore by the time I got to them.

 We think he looks pretty stink'n cute! :)

Christmas Break

Christmas break was a blast! We had a lot of fun hanging out here in Provo, spending some time as a family, and then going up to Davis County to spend a week and a half with our parents. Ryan's last day of finals was on the 15th. That's when the fun began. Ryan got his first present in the mail, a little early. Kris called and told us we'd be getting a package and not to open it 'til Ryan, Jared, and I had our family Christmas together on the 20th. But, it's our been our fun little family tradition, almost since we've been married, to open presents early whenever we can. So, the day we found it on the front porch, we opened it. (We're soo pathetic!) But, the next couple of days, Ryan was able to enjoy his banana chair while playing XBox and didn't have to carry a chair in from the kitchen anymore. :)

 We ended up opening our presents to each other on the 17th, instead of the 20th, and then had a fun day.

On the evening of the 20th, we made two stops on our way up to Davis County. First, to visit my dad's mom, Grandma Gina. She enjoyed being able to hold Jared again. It was a nice visit.

  We then stopped to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square. We were also able to spend some time with my mom and give her a ride home from work.

 

Jared loved seeing the lights; he was so mesmerized by them.  It was fun to watch him enjoy them so much.

We stopped to play at the drinking fountain. ;)

Jared's new favorite tree. (the orange one)

 Once we got to Sunset, it was a long wait until Christmas morning, but we found ways to have fun.

Jared played with his play saucer for the first time.

 Christmas Eve was a lot of fun. We invited Ricky and Roni (my little brother and sister) over to hang out, eat dinner, watch movies, and play games.

Jared getting a nap in.

Ricky playing Halo, and kicking butt!

Roni talking to friends (special friends;D).

 Christmas morning, Ryan got us all up at about 4:45am. Apparently he wasn't sleeping very well (because of the big long Christmas Eve nap he had) so as soon as he heard Jared tussling around and waking up, he decided to wake everyone else up. It was a very fun day. This was a special Christmas. Being able to have Jared with us made everything more exciting! :)

Christmas morning!!!

Ryan playing with Papa Mark's new Kinect rifle.

Jared getting the hang of Christmas. :)

Us spending some Christmas time with the Jacobs.

Baby Santa's first Christmas!!

We went to church with the Jacobs' ward and were able to visit with a few old friends. We then headed over to the Jacobs' house to open presents and have brunch.

Daddy telling Santa everything he wanted for
 Christmas and Santa getting a little bored. ;D

Daddy cuddling with Baby Santa.

Aunt Roni wishing Baby Santa a Merry Christmas.

Grandma Mary adoring Baby Santa.

 

In the evening, we headed back over the Grandma Kris and Papa Mark's house. When we got there Tandalaya and Arri were finally there. After dinner, we played Apples to Apples and Imagine Iff. Ryan and Tandalaya owned at both of them.

Ryan attributing his outrageous wit and
 radiance to winning Apples to Apples.

 We visited with a lot of family and friends while we were in town. We went around to my old neighbors to visit and thank them for their baby-shower gifts. We made sure to visit Uncle Karl and Aunt Lesle and made it just in time to stop their house from burning down. ;D We were able to take Ricky, Roni, my mom, Jacque, and Rachel to go visit our old elementary school. The school was also the home of our elementary school principles, who we visited with for an hour or so. It was nice to see them doing just as well as when we last saw them. We let them know how we were doing, introduced them to Jared and Rachel, and got a couple pictures.

Us with the Helquist's, my elementary school principles.

Together at the Helquist's.

 New Year's Eve was a blast. We spent the morning and afternoon with Mark and Kris, relaxing and hanging out. We then went over to the Jacobs for dinner and to party the night away with my mom and dad, and Ricky and Roni. We had a buffet dinner and played lots of "Scum." When we were all starting to get a bit tired, we relaxed and watched "Murder 101." I guess it was a really good movie, because it was almost all Ryan could talk about for the next day or two. I wouldn't know, I didn't stay awake long after we had our New Year's kiss. :*

Grandma Mary enjoying being a grandma.

The next day, January 1st, we went to church with Mark and Kris and stayed long enough to see Aunt Connie and Uncle Dave and have dinner. Jared loved Aunt Connie. It might've had something to do with the fact that she looked a whole lot like Grandma Kris.

 We had an amazing Christmas break and want to thank everyone who made it so much fun and for all your generous gifts!!