The latest and greatest

I know... it's been awhile. But in my defense, alot has been going on. The fairly short version is Jake got a new job and we were willing to relocate... so we've relocated to Northern Cal. Lucky us! It was a whirlwind summer consisting of Jake being gone alot for a program that helped him get this job and then training for the job. I was a single parent for all of June, half of July and half of August, and let's please keep in mind I was responsible for packing up an entire house while raising our adorable son, who got hand foot and mouth disease (i hate calling it a disease) two weeks before we moved (insert huge sigh of relief, nerves, stress, sadness and excitement). Like I said... it's been crazy.

Now things have shifted slightly to - I have absolutely NOTHING on my plate. Everyone tells me to enjoy this time of nothing because it won't last long, but to be honest it's been a little boring and lonely at times. I actually absolutely love our new location - 1 mile from downtown, run/walk/bike path right in our backyard, park next door and BART station right down the street. It's perfect! What I need on my plate now is some sort of something. When baby J (now 11 months old and super adorable) is awake we run errands, go to the park and go on walks, but he's in that oh-so-fabulous stage of two lengthy naps a day and I get bored. I don't want to cook and clean and organize all the time, so I'm finding downtime to be a little on the dull side. So I've come up with a list of things I want to do and I'm going to make use of baby J's awake time to explore and enjoy the millions of activities that surround us. And if a nap or two is missed so be it... at least I'll have something great to blog about, rather than explaining the most recent re-run on Matlock I watched. We are 30 minutes east of San Francisco, so if you readers "hello? do I have any readers anymore?" have any suggestions for FREE fun with an 11 month old I'd love to hear from you!

And now a Jonathan update:

This blue-eyed, chubby cheeked baby keeps my days filled with excitement, smiles and lots of laughs. JJO knows how to melt my heart with his snuggles, cheer me up with his open-mouthed sometimes tonguey kisses and wear me out with his constant mischief. He is in the 'put everything in my mouth' stage, so I am constantly finger swiping paper, sticks, rocks, sand, carpet strings and toilet paper from his mouth. He is a one knee and one foot crawler, but he cruises at high speeds. He walks around furniture and sometimes forgets that he doesn't know how to walk and lets go of furniture, balances for a few seconds that smashes down on his bum. He fake cries and then smiles at me because I laugh, then he fake cries again and again because he thinks it's funny (it really is). He LOVES playing with dad. He always finds his mini basketballs when dad gets home so they can play catch... love this! He loves looking at books himself, but my favorite is when he has a book, then kindof throws it to me because he wants me to read it to him. Then I snuggle him up on my lap and we look at books over and over again. Jonathan has discovered that he can play with his food rather than swallow it... so he'll take a bite of food then stick his hand in his mouth, grab the food and shake it onto the floor... where Louie is waiting to clean up the mess. He loves walks... sometimes they calm him and he's quiet the whole time and other times he bounces up and down in his seat, squeals really loud and brings alot of attention to himself. The grocery store is always fun because Jonathan enjoys talking (his own language) up and down the aisles... the ladies love this and he makes lots of friends wherever we go. He loves pulling/petting Louie and playing tug-o-war. He loves being chased up the stairs, caught and tickled (laughs hysterically at this). Loves bathtime. Loves knocking blocks over. Loves the ceiling fan in the bedroom and points to it every time he wakes up as if it's something new. Loves when I come in the get him in the mornings... jumps up and down in his crib and laughs. I can't believe it's almost been 1 year since this little man changes mine and Jake's lives. We feel like the luckiest parents in the world!

You want to kiss this face... don't you?? (notice the curls growing on the sides - hoping it stays curly)

Not quite sure what happened to my hair... I guess a windy day in SF will do that to me:-)

Farmers Market at the Ferry Building in SF... favorite Saturday morning activity!

Excited to watch his first Utah Football game with Dad and the only other Utah fans in our ward.