Thanksgiving 2010

We had a very relaxing and fun Thanksgiving!  John was able to work a half day from HOME on Wednesday (one of the many wonderful things about his new job that is SO much better than PwC...never would have happened there!) so we were able to leave after lunch this year and miss most of the traffic! Wahoo!! The past 2 years we have sat in hours of traffic since we would leave around 6pm like everyone else on the busiest travel day of the year, so it was such a nice break to leave earlier this year, miss traffic and get to the Grahams in Glide by dinner time instead of around midnight!  So nice.  Anyways, we had a great weekend away with family:


***Thursday- THANKSGIVING DAY!!


Got to sleep in, watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, make the super yummy Baron family recipe of Guliver's Creamed Corn, play some basketball with Heather and Gale and headed on down to Eugene to have the feast with the Graham's up there!  Unfortunately, we didn't even bring out the camera the entire day :(.  I guess we were too busy having fun, especially with the traditional Bingo games after the feast :).  This year I am very thankful for:


*John's hard work and continued patience.  He is the best.  Honestly don't know what I would do without him.  SO glad I decided 5 years ago to marry him and follow him to Oregon! 


*John's new job!!!! Can't even begin to explain what a HUGE blessing his new job is and what a great place it is to work, especially compared to PwC.  The people he works with are a million times better and more honest and fun!


*My two little guys that are honestly sometimes the only way I have been able to make it through some difficult times and come out on top.... they really do keep me laughing and smiling and make me proud.  I feel so blessed to have such sweet and good little boys!!


For family night before Thanksgiving we talked about the things we are grateful for and each came up with 3 of our favorites for this year.  The above 3 are mine, but here is what Jackson came up with (and I promise he came up with them on his own!):

Jackson is grateful for:


*Swimming
*Baseball
*Baron  (made me so happy to know how much he truly loves his brother!!)


back to our weekend though....


***Friday- Shopping, Christmas Tree Hunting, GAME DAY, & some B-ball!


Didn't get up and make it into town until after 7:30, but still got all the toys and good stuff (like nice new sheets for John and I that were SO needed) that I wanted! Walmart wasn't even packed at all- in fact I have seen it way more packed than that in Roseburg.  I just went to Walmart and Fred Meyer and that was good enough for me- I am really not a huge Black Friday shopper- my family/parents never went growing up.  John stayed home with the boys of course. 


 Friday afternoon we went and chopped down our Christmas Tree! It's always a tradition to get it from the same place out in Glide the day after Thanksgiving and it is always fun, especially with the boys being old enough now to really enjoy it! Then, we got back home just in time to watch THE DUCKS play some football and extend their winning streak!   After the game and dinner we all headed back over to the gym to get some more basketball 2 on 2 in.  It was fun (even though I still have to hop around on my knee like a gimp) to shoot some hoops again.  I really miss playing.  John and I met playing ball.  It is something that comes naturally and is fun with being an awesome workout, so I really really miss playing and being in shape (and having the full use of my left knee).  

Aunt Heather and Baron

Grandma Sue & Jackson with Papa in the background going after a tree

These 2 are good buddies

Bear kept wandering off on his own to explore

Heather with her sweet beanie (that's her beanie, not her hair)

The whole Christmas Tree Hunting Gang

Eating ice cream and watching Elf (the ice cream always seems to happen at Grandma's house now :) )

***Saturday- HP7, Christmas Music and More Good Food! 

Saturday we got to sleep in a little again, hung out and then the Graham's were super nice and watched the boys so John and I could head into town and see HARRY POTTER 7!! It was SO intense and SO good! It was my favorite by far and we both absolutely loved it and would definitely recommend going to the theater and seeing it if you read the books or saw the other movies or just want a good movie to see.  I thought they did a great job staying with the book and getting the most important parts in there.  The rest of the day we hung out, turned up some Christmas music and just had fun not having the work or worry about anything! That night Sue made yet another mini Thanksgiving dinner for us.  It was wonderful and so delicious once again!

***Sunday- Pictures, Church and Going Home!

Tried very hard to get a decent picture of the whole family before church... did not have very much success. It is really hard with 2 little boys!  Went to church with the Graham's in Roseburg (Jackson loves going to their primary because Grandma Sue is their music leader!), came home and had a delicious dinner of Thanksgiving leftovers and then packed up and headed home! 

Playing the piano before church

Our attempts at a family picture... impossible to get both to look and smile at the same time! (Hopefully some photoshop magic will do the trick so we can send out some Christmas cards this year

I sure love these two!! 

One last try... it was just not going to happen!

It was a great weekend!! Can't wait to head back down to Glide for Christmas in just a few weeks, especially because we found out that NICK AND CHRISTI and their CUTE CUTE GIRLS are coming this year!!!!!! It is going to be SO SO SO SO much fun and we are so excited!!  Hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Rocket Ship Cake

When asked what kind of birthday cake Jackson wanted, he responded with, "A rocket ship cake!"  So, not being all that experienced in making cute cakes, I turned to my good friend, Kim Janeway, to help me out! Though it took a few hours and a lot of, we'll say "learning experiences" with the fondant, this is what we came up with:

No, it definitely wasn't perfect and the real reason there are so many stars was to cover all the rips in the fondant from making it too thin. BUT, it was a ton of fun to make, we were pretty proud of the outcome, and most importantly, Jackson absolutely LOVED it!!  After singing to him his only request was for the rocket ship on his piece of cake, though I got him to settle on the cool flames and part of the bottom of it since it would have been a ginormous piece had all the rocket been on it! 

I also made some chocolate cupcakes (his cake was 3 layers of confetti cake) spent a long time frosting them dark blue and put some cut out fondant stars on top to match the cake!  The kids mostly ate these.

We took him to Our of This World (indoor space themed playground) with a few friends and him and his buddies were running around like crazy having a blast! He talked about it for days afterwards!! I cannot even tell you how much fun he had! He kept saying, "Mom, Dad, you're the best! Thanks for my birthday!"  We had a great time celebrating with him!  He definitely deserved to have a great day!! 

 Singing to him

 Blowing out the candles

He sure was a happy little 4 year old!!

 Going down one of the slides on the playground... him and his buddy Jack had a lot of fun racing each other down!

Going down the blow-up slide... he was a little scared at first, but once he climbed up it and slid down it by himself once, we couldn't get him to stop! 

It was a very very fun night!!

A BIG BIG thanks to Kim for helping with the cake!! You are awesome!! It was so fun to learn how to do fondant!!

Jackson Turns 4!!

My Jackson Jeffrey is now officially 4! How on earth do I have a 4 year old already?? Crazy, but exciting! I have really enjoyed watching him grow up and discover new things about himself and his world around him in the past 4 years.

Let's start at the beginning though.  Jackson sure gave us a run for our money in the beginning:

A 52 hour constant labor
Many sleepless nights with a screaming gassy baby in the first few weeks
A grumpy infant who would go up to 10 days without pooping
A super sensitive baby who was a horrible eater and hated solids
Many stubborn battles for control and independency at way too young an age
A super emotional toddler who easily broke down in tears when put in the spotlight or when he fell down or got his feelings hurt
Etc., etc, etc.

BUT,  4 years and many battles and sleepless nights combined also with many many fun and tender moments, Jackson has sure turned into a good little boy who is so super sweet, smart and caring, which makes those difficult first few years worth every second!!

I LOVE THIS KID!!

 We went to Red Robin last night so they could sing to him! He loved the balloons they put on his ears and he especially liked the ice cream they gave him for his birthday! And, the Red Robin bird was there and he got to give him a High 5!


My newly 4 year old, Jackson Jeffrey Graham is:

**SMART!  He absolutely loves doing preschool and I have really really enjoyed our one on one time learning together!! He is getting down his alphabet sounds and writing them down SO well! He asks everyday if it's a preschool day. And we have so much fun doing arts and crafts together during that time too!

**AN AMAZING SWIMMER AND SUPER COORDINATED!  We have had him in swimming for almost 4 months now and the kid is amazing.  Of course his super lean and tall body (he is still SO tall for his age!) and long narrow feet make a perfect combo for a good swimmer, but he also loves loves loves swim lessons and loves learning new things in the water! He can successfully jump in the pool, do a few arm strokes, tread water for 10 seconds and then turn onto his back and do wings and kicks back to the wall- and all that in a row completely on his own! It amazes me everytime! He is also really good at the backstroke! His teacher always has the other kids watch him as an example! He comes home so excited tell his Daddy all about swimming that day and practices the different strokes all around the house and in the bath!

Jackson also started soccer a few weeks ago and he loves it! The kid really is naturally coordinated (how could he not be with Graham/Baron family genes?) and picks up all sports super fast.  He will go weeks and weeks without playing baseball and then one day pick up a bat and when you pitch it to him- not only does he hit it almost every time, but its usually a home run!  I cannot wait until he is old enough to play on teams because I know he is going to shine and have SO much fun with it!

**A WONDERFUL BIG BROTHER!  He has been so patient with Baron's new terrible 2 stage and is really good at sharing and forgiving his brother.  He also always makes sure Baron is with us, doesn't run away and get lost and freaks out if he thinks we are going to leave Baron behind!  I also absolutely love that they will spend hours giggling and wrestling and jumping on their beds together and flying all around being superheroes with their capes.  It makes me SO happy to see how much they really love each other and how much fun they have together!

**MY LITTLE HELPER!  I cannot make anything in the kitchen without Jackson running in with his stool saying, "I want to help you!"  He loves to help with anything and everything.  And if you ask him to get something for you or clean something up, he is really good about just saying, "ok," and getting right to it without complaints! He really has turned into such a good little boy!

**A PRIMARY & FHE LOVER!  Jackson loves primary! He loves learning the new songs and talking about the gospel.  He always asks to do family night and his favorite story is "when Heavenly Father and Jesus came and talked to Joseph Smith" as he says.  His favorite primary songs by far are Book of Mormon Stories, Follow the Prophet and Scripture Power.  He sings those throughout the house quite often.  It always brings a smile to my face! He is getting really good at being reverent and listening in church too! I am SO proud of him!


These are just some of my favorite things about Action Jackson.  He is so good and sweet and we feel very blessed and lucky to have him in our family!  It makes staying up one night until midnight to make his requested rocket ship cake one night and then the next staying up until 1 am wrapping presents, frosting cupcakes and setting up his new train table (the table was all John's work), totally worth every second of lost sleep and tired and sore bodies.


WE LOVE YOU JACKSON!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!

Halloween Fun!

Since Halloween was almost 2 weeks ago, I think it's about time to post the costume pictures. The boys were really into Halloween this year which made it a ton of fun! Friday before Halloween we carved our pumpkins and Saturday we baked sugar cookies all day, went trick-or-treating to the homes of families in our ward and then watched the Ducks kick some USC butt with some good friends while the kids frosted cookies and played!  At half time we put some dry ice and a glow stick in our pumpkins and turned out the lights to watch the glowing smoke come out of our pumpkins.... Jackson thought it was so cool and Baron was scared to death!  It was a VERY fun night!

Baron went right in for the guts....

 But was not a fan

 Jackson sure thought they were fun though!

 Jackson and his good buddy, Brayden.  Jackson was a Dr. because he has been really into playing Dr. lately and when we saw the costume at Target he was in love with it!

 They had a lot of fun trick or treating!

Baby Bear was our little superman

Can I just say how much I LOVE the Fall in Oregon?? The trees and leaves are amazing.  So pretty and fun! 

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! Can't wait for next year!!

Pumpkin Patch 2010

A few weeks ago, we were really lucky and got a beautiful weekend in October without any rain!  So we headed on over with our good friend's The Janeways over to Sauvie Island only to discover that our favorite smaller, less crowded pumpkin patch at Sauvie Island Farms is closed this year.  Luckily, there are pumpkin patches ALL over Oregon, so we headed 5 mins (though longer with traffic) the other direction on the island to the more crowded and much bigger pumpkin patch.  It was still pretty fun though and the boys loved it and had a blast together! We even got some good family pictures, which never happens! Seriously, we have like 1 good picture of all 4 of us in the past 2 years.  It was a very fun day!