Merry Christmas Michelle (and everyone else)!

Even though last year was TECHNICALLY Michelle's 1st Christmas, she was too small to appreciate any of it. This year she has really had a ball! Though she is still only a year old, she loved Christmas and was cute about loving it.

First she got to enjoy some early presents from Grandma Jackson (pre-Christmas day).

Christmas Eve we were at Grandpa and Grandma Moore's.

Sitting on Grandma's lap with cousin Morgan . . . stealing HIS toys!

Daddy and Uncle Trevor are just watching.

Then she got to the BIG DAY!

Thank you SANTA CLAUSE!

Thank you Grandma Jackson!

Thank you Grandpa Jackson!

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Moore!

Thank you to everyone! Michelle also got awesome wood blocks from Uncle Gary, soft blocks from Uncle Trevor and Uncle Travis and Legos from Mom and Dad. She got a musical train from Aunt Madison, a See and Say from Grandma Jackson, and a Shapes and Melodies piano from Grandpa and Grandma Moore. She loved all her toys so much she couldn't decide which one to play with. She was all over the place between them and it was adorable!

Brooke and Jim got some great stuff too! We both got some very nice clothes. Michelle got Jim a new wallet and a tie. Brooke got Jim a GPS for the car and a Star Wars Movie. Jim got Brooke 2 beautiful new coats and a Wii arcade game. Brooke would like to thank her mother and father-in-law for some very nice, sparklies (a.k.a. jewelery). And Gary generously bought Jim and Brooke a hiking pack for Michelle!

The Moore's tried for a homeade holiday so we also received a nice handmade throw blanket from Madison, a family calender from Trevor with photographs he took, and a picture slide show from Travis (which we haven't seen yet but I am sure will be impressive as Travis is impressive!) It was a lot of fun to make and paint wood carvings to give out as gifts this year.

Needless to say, we have been spoiled and we have spoiled and it was a WONDERFUL Christmas. And it is not over, as tomorrow we head for Grandma and Grandpa Thompson's in Tremonton.

Thank you to everyone, if I left you off it is not out of lack of gratitude, merely out of a need to end this post so I can eat Christmas breakfast that my mom and Madison have worked hard to prepare and to play Wii with my dad and husband and little brothers!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

And the Ultrasound says . . .

It's a girl! Michelle will have a baby sister sometime around May 2. Her name . . . well we have debated on the spelling but her name will be Lena (pronounced lee nuh) Mae Jackson.

Give Thanks for Happy Birthdays

Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Birthday to Brooke! Happy Birthday to Michelle!!!!! It has been a busy time for us. Of course, it always will be with all the big events in our lives that come at the end of the year. We went to St. George for Thanksgiving and my parents had a full house. It was a lot of fun. While there we celebrated Michelle's 1st birthday, then we had a little party for her with just the 3 of us on her actual birthday (December 3rd, for those of you who were confused). It was fun to watch Michelle with the other kids. I loved the "food chain" of toy taking. Summer's son, Morgan, would start with a toy, then Michelle would take it, then Maya would take it from Michelle and finally Ryan would take it from Maya. I had to chuckle at them. Don't worry Morgan, very soon you will not be the youngest. Little Andrew is coming any day now . . . and in May we are having Baby Jackson #2.

Michelle got VERY spoiled for her birthday! She has more toys now than we have room to put them, but that's okay, I can always figure something out!

Maya, Morgan and Michelle play outside. (Morgan is in the pink jacket--one of Michelle's because Summer hadn't brought one with her).

Ryan joined the group too. Guess he's not too old for all the babies yet!

Michelle's Pixie Hollow Birthday Cake.

She loved the baloons, but not as much as the cake, and the FROSTING was the BEST OF ALL!

A natural born drummer . . . I think she got Grandma Jackson's love of music!

Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Moore . . . this garden toy is SO COOL!

On her actual birthday Michelle got her Little People Farm in the mail from Grandma Jackson and she did NOT want to stop playing with it (before we even put the batteries in, I can't wait to see how much she loves it when it makes farm noises!)

Michelle's favorite for her birthday dinner . . . Spaghetti a la face, and the floor and everywhere else . . . and plenty in the mouth too! Yummy!

At this birthday celebration the cake and the frosting were beat out by the ICE CREAM! YAY ICE CREAM!

Snow White and the Wicked Witch

Halloween was a frightfully fun holiday this year. Michelle was the most adorable Snow White EVER! I was a wicked witch, Jim was . . . a graduate student . . . I guess. Our friends came over from Reserve and went trunk-or-treating with us and stayed over. We had a BLAST!

First we went to Show Low Lake.

Michelle didn't get much trunk-or-treating in . . . she got a little sleepy. But the trunks she went to, they all admitted she was the cutest thing they'd ever seen. Sleeping Beauty or Snow White? Ashlyn and Kadyn were also quite cute in their costumes.
But that Michelle . . .

Harvest Festival

It has been more than a month since I posted. I am sorry . . . Michelle's x-rays came back completely normal, by the way. She is still only starting to try and crawl . . . she will do it when she is ready I guess.

We went to the Harvest Festival in Snowflake. The last 2 years we have been with my family (WE missed you guys!) Michelle had a good time though, as did Jim and I. She was so adorable in her Halloween clothes.

Anyway, the reason it has been so long, many of you already know, but I have been VERY VERY sick. I am now 3 months pregnant, due May 2. It was a surprise, but we are starting to get excited. Though the thought of 2 babies in cloth diapers is never going to be very appealing, I think. We are trying to figure out sleeping arrangements for Baby Jackson #2. Good times.

I hope you all have a happy Halloween!

A New Car? Not Quite.

I wish the picture above was a Dodge Avenger in my driveway simply because we decided to get a new car . . . it is not. It is a rental car. We have it for about a month while our car is fixed because last Saturday we were in a car accident on the 202 freeway in Mesa and our car is seriously injured. Fortunately, none of us were seriously injured. We were especially grateful that Michelle was perfectly fine, aside from being quite shaken up at the time it happened. We spent the bulk of the day in the hospital ER making sure I was okay, and I was except for a back sprain. We are so lucky that Mike and Jacqueline came to our rescue and took care of Michelle (and us). It would have been impossible without their help!

Anyway, this past week has been a lot of phone calls and meetings with insurance people and hopefully if it all works out right we won't have to pay for anything. Though we DO have to pay taxes on the rental car, which I think is LAME. Anyway, it has been an adventure.

Michelle went in for her 9 month checkup and the doctor gave us something else to worry about . . . since she is not crawling, and refuses to put weight on her legs when held in a standing position or put in a walker, and because she can completely fold herself in half, pulling her legs over her head when her diaper is changed the doctor ordered x-rays to check for problems. We will know the results of those sometime next week. It's a little stressful to worry about, but we keep trying to tell ourselves she is probably just moving along slowly because she never liked to be on her tummy when she was littler. Now she likes to be on her tummy all the time, as shown in the pic below.

Our friends in Reserve, New Mexico called Saturday morning and asked if we wanted to come over for the day. Jim said "We are bored out of our skulls! Of course we want to come!" Really we had planned to work on our new garden along the fence and I think he was ready for a break from the yard! I am so glad he was! We had a really great time! Thanks Brandyn and Jacqui (and Kadyn and Ashlyn) for a wonderful Saturday!

This is Michelle and Ashlynn playing outside on the patio. Both Kadyn and Ashlyn were so sweet to Michelle!

8 Months!

I took Michelle into the backyard for an 8 month old photo shoot and here are a few of the results.

Who do you know?

We know some pretty important people, or at least they know us well enough to send us mail. Michelle helped me sort through all our mail from people like Vice President Al Gore!

Some people who are pretty important to us: my brother Mike and his wife Jacqueline and their kids Ryan and Maya and "Baby Twelve" (which is the name Ryan has lovingly chosen for the baby they expect in December). Also, Jacqueline's parents, the Mionis, who have been so kind to us so many times! This week I had a conference in Phoenix for strategies to teach AP Government and Politics and Elvia, Jacqueline's mom, watched Michelle for us during the day. I have rarely met such wonderful people and am so appreciative of their kindness! Michelle was able to play with Maya, who just celebrated her 1st birthday. Hopefully this is one of only many times they can have fun together!

But we were pretty happy (Michelle and I) to get back home to the most important person--Daddy! Where we can play in the back yard that he has taken such good care to mow while we were gone. You can see from this picture it really needed mowing!

Hiking

One of our favorite things to do is hike, but we didn't go while I was pregnant, and haven't been since Michelle was born because it has been hard to take her anywhere for too long until recently. This weekend we were going to go camping, but decided instead to have a fire out back Friday night with tinfoil dinners and s'mores and then hike on Saturday. We drove to Greer, AZ to hike and it was worth the drive. It is truly a beautiful place. The trail was difficult at first but only for about 1/2 hour. We sat down to feed Michelle and got attacked by flys, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable day. After our hike we decided to try one of the top rated restaurants in Greer for lunch . . . and were extremely disappointed in the food. Still, the important thing is Michelle loved hiking almost as much as we do and we will definitely be going again (though for next time Jim says we need a back carrier for Michelle since the front carrier put too much strain on his neck).

We had to cross the stream to get to the trail

The extent of exciting wildlife we saw was this Horny Toad.

This would've been a nice picnic without all the flys buzzing around.

The scariest part of the day was posing for this family picture and the log fell underneath Jim and started rolling down. He was afraid it would hit him from behind, I was afraid he would fall flat on Micki.