My boys

I included the picture below in Jackson's 7 month post. I was looking thru some pictures and found one of Adam in the same outfit.

Adam was almost 7 months old with this picture was taken. We were in Utah for the blessing of my neice Talia, and my mom bought both of her grandsons this cute outfit and a beautiful little orange dress for Talia and had pictures taken of the three of them. It was right before Easter 4 years ago.

It's so fun to remember Adam at the same age as Jackson is right now. Even better when I find pictures and get to compare how they are the different, and even more, how they are the same. How blessed I am to be the mother of these two precious boys!!

Jackson at 7 months!

I seriously can't believe that Jackson is 7 months old. I know I say this a lot, but he is such a wonderful baby! I fall in love with him more every day! I think he is starting to cut his first tooth - nothing has popped thru yet, but I can feel them under the surface of his gums. He hasn't started to move around yet, but he loves to sit in the middle of the room and play. We put all his toys in a box, and he'll pull everything out one by one. It keeps him entertained for quite awhile! We're still waiting for him to start moving, but he's just not interested. If he makes it to his stomach somehow, he starts fussing until someone sits him back up or Adam rolls him back over. Lazy boy! Below are some pictures from the past month.

Playing with his toys. Always smiling, this kid!

Jackson LOVES taking baths!
Always lots of splashing!

As always, he's a great eater! He's even figured out how to hold his own bottle. As soon as he sees the bottle, he starts breathing hard like he's going to hyperventilate and reaching for it while he twists his little hands around. I'll have to video tape it sometime - it's pretty funny!

Here are Adam and Jackson enjoying the presents from the Easter bunny. Jackson got a fun ball.

Jackson loves books. He enjoys laying in bed and reading a book before bedtime. He usually wants to hold the book, but he loves to look at the pictures.

He also still adores his brother.

Jackson continues to be a great baby! We feel so blessed that he is a member of our family!

Feeding the Lions

One thing about the Vancouver Zoo is that the animals are very close! When we walked into the zoo they told us that they were feeding the lions soon. So that's the first thing we did. It was a very cool experience to see these majestics animals up close. They were beautiful!

Vanouver Zoo

On Saturday, we headed to the Greater Vancouver Zoo. We had such a great time, and we didn't even get to see most of the zoo! Here are a few highlights!

The giraffes were beautiful! This one posed very nicely for picutres!

Adam enjoyed watching the ostrich.

I think they were having a staring contest.

We took a fun train ride that went around the perimeter of most of the zoo.

After the train ride, there was a bird show. It was such a great show. The birds were amazing! They flew right thru the crowd, and were very cool!

They even let people have a chance to catch a hawk. Scott went first...

...and I even gave it a try. It was a beautiful bird!

The last bird they brought out was the Peregrine Falcon. He was beautiful! The bird had only just started with the trainer, so they weren't sure what would happen - well, he took off and chased the seagulls around the zoo. He did finally come back - it was pretty cool to see the trainer try to bring the bird back.

As we were getting ready to go, Adam and this Yak had a staring contest. Adam had picked up a stick and the Yak started bobbing it's head like it was going to charge. It was kind of funny!

The last animals we saw were the hippos. They were laying out in the mud. We had seen them in the water when we came by them in the train.

The Vancouver Zoo was very cool. We will definatly take another trip up to finish our visit. I'm not sure if it was because of the weather (it was rainy and cold) or not, but all of the animals were out and it was fun to see them. We will definately take another trip up so we can see the rest of the zoo!

Swimming

We frequented the hotel swimming pool A LOT while in Vancouver. A friend had told me that they had bought a life jacket for their son for swimming, so we decided that would be a good idea for Adam. We were both so glad that we did. Adam loved being in the water and swam all over the place!

We also found this ring for Jackson. He enjoyed playing in the water too! The pool was a little cold, but the hot tub was perfect! It wasn't very hot, so Jackson had a great time lounging in the hot tub while Adam played in the pool!

Campbell Valley Regional Park

After visiting the temple in Vancouver, it was such a beautiful day, we decided to find a park for the afternoon. We had a map from the hotel that had a nice green spot on it that we decided to go check out. We found this great park with lots of trails and bridges that walked you through the Campbell Valley watershed near the Little Campbell River. The trails were nice and wide packed dirt and gravel that were perfect for the stroller, which was good since we didn't bring anything else for Jackson! We had a nice picnic lunch and then hiked through the watershed.

We found this very cool tree - is it two trees that grew into eachother, or one tree that split into two?

Adam got tired part way thru, so he ended up on Scott's shoulders for a little bit. He's almost too big for this sort of thing any more!

He also found two great sticks that worked perfectly for walking sticks.

They also worked as drawing sticks when we took a break so Jackson could have his bottle. Adam drew pictures on the path and talked to everyone that passed by. He's a very friendly boy!

Jackson and I enjoyed the sunshine!

It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon together!

One more funny thing from Adam

Adam is always making us laugh around here! This morning Adam went with Daddy to the gym (he loves to play at the gym while Scott works out). While they were gone, Jackson went down for his nap, and I decided to mop the kitchen floor - it was definately needed! So, I moved the kitchen table and chairs into the family room, swept and mopped and then headed out to the garage for my own workout on the treadmill. Scott and Adam came home just as I was finishing up, and walked in the house before me. According to Scott, Adam looked around and said "Oh, my heck - what's going on around here?" He then came out to the garage cleared his throat and asked me what I was doing and why all the furniture was in the wrong place. He wasn't happy until we moved everything back to it's correct spot.
Silly Adam!

"I'm nervous"

I'm a bit behind in my blogging efforts - I have the rest of our trip to Vancouver and of course, Jackson's 7 month update - but I had to blog about a conversation I had with Adam yesterday before I forget. We were driving home from dropping off dinner to a friend who had just had a baby, and Adam started talking about school. It took me awhile to figure out that he was actually talking about elementary school and not the preschool that we are doing this year. Suddenly he said "Mom, I'm nervous!" I asked him why he was nervous and he said he was nervous to go to Wyatt's school and ride the school bus. I have no idea where this came from!! He did play with his friend Wyatt for a little bit on Monday while I was teaching a piano lesson to Wyatt's sister, but I don't remember any conversation about school. We had picked Wyatt up from school several weeks ago, well over a month ago! Who knows what triggered him thinking about Wyatt's school.
So, we talked about what Wyatt does at school - learns about letters and numbers, plays with his friends, colors, plays outside (Adam asked several times to make sure he got to play outside), and lots of others things. Adam asked me when he would get to go to "Wyatt's school" and I tried to explain to him that he still had a long time before he would go. He will be 5 in the fall, but his birthday is after the cut-off, so he won't start school until just before he turns 6. Then he asked me if I would be at school with him, and I told him that I would walk to school with him, but that I couldn't stay, but he would have friends there like Xander (our neighbor). This seemed to make him feel better. This conversation continued the whole ride home. After I opened his door so he could climb out of the car, he came over and gave me a hug and said, "thanks mom for helping me not be nervous" and walked inside!
I love that kid!!

Vancouver, B.C. Temple

Last year when Adam and I were down in Utah, we took an opportunity to go thru the Draper Temple before it was dedicated. In my lifetime, that was only the second temple open house that I have had the priviledge to see. Well, at the age of four and a half, Adam has now been to two temple open houses. The church has built a beautiful new temple up in Langely, British Columbia, which is about a two hour drive from our home, so we decided to take a trip up to Canada to go thru the temple. What a special trip it was. The temple is in a beautiful location! As we drove around the corner and saw the temple laid out before us, both Scott and I commented on the feelings of the spirit which we enjoyed.


We joined a tour group and watched a short video about the history of the church in the Vancouver area, and the building of the temple. As part of the video, they've interviewed several of the General Authorities. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland talks about the sealing blessings of the temple and about how he can't talk about all the glory of heaven without seeing his wife and children with him there. What a true statement that is! As we walked thru the temple and into the beautiful celestial room, I was overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude that I am sealed to my husband and our children are sealed to us. It was very special to stand in that room of the temple - all four of us together!
After the tour, we spent some time enjoying the temple grounds and smelling the flowers. We were lucky to have been there on a wonderfully sunny and warm day!

I love this picture of Adam smelling the daffodils! Not sure if he thinks they smell good or not!

Here are Jackson, Adam and I as we were getting ready to go. It was nice to sit and soak up the sun.

I feel incredibly blessed to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What a great reminder of the blessings that membership provides!!

Jackson's new trick

Why are babies so flexible? Jackson has discovered that he loves the taste of his toes. Every chance he gets, those toes are up in his mouth. What a silly guy!

When I grow up...

It's no secret that Adam ADORES his Uncle Brian. Uncle Brian has taught Adam everything he knows (according to Adam!), he can do anything, and Adam talks about him all the time! Adam even wants to be a chef, just like his Uncle Brian! (He's been practicing a lot with Ratatouille on his Leapster that he got for Christmas!)

Scott's mom was here for a visit back in March, and we met up with Brian for dinner one night. Here are a couple of pictures of Brian and his biggest admirer...

This is a classic Brian pose - Adam's learning quickly!

A photo contest!

I recieved the following email from Parents Magazine:

"Congratulations! Thank you for entering the American Baby Cover Contest! You're photo is currently in the running to become a weekly winner on Parents.com Photo Faves. The photo with the most votes in each category will take home the honors!"

Here's the photo!

You can all vote too! Go to the following link and vote for Jackson! You can vote every day until April 11th!

http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/191579

Easter

We have an awesome neighborhood! Our neighbor puts on a great Easter Egg hunt the Saturday before Easter each year. Adam had a great time once again! Here is the group shot before the hunt began. The weather was pretty nasty this year, so all the kids are bundled up nice and warm, and we didn't spend much time hunting. It all happened rather quickly! Not sure why Adam couldn't smile!! :)

Jackson enjoyed the hunt bundled up in his stroller. Adam even shared an egg or two with him!
Grandma helped Adam collect some eggs. Here's Adam with a basket full of eggs. I think the weather may have scared off some of the families that normally come. Adam had an overflowing basket of eggs, and he also managed to fill Dad's, Grandpa's and Grandma's pockets with eggs!

And here he is with all the loot emptied out of the eggs. He even won the big choclote bunny!

After the egg hunt, we joined our wonderful neighbors for the 3rd annual great easter egg coloring afternoon. Quyen found these great tongs for the boys to use. No dyed fingers this year!

It took a little practice, but Adam figured out how to use the tongs.

Jackson enjoyed playing with the tong packaging.

And here's the finished product!

We feel blessed to have such great friends to make memories like this with every year. What fun the boys have together!