Glimpses of November

A few favorite snapshots from November. But first, one of our favorite Jakey videos. We rode Trax up to City Creek to do some birthday shopping with Christian, and Jake was happily walking around a tree while we waited for our return train. And then our favorite part came after the 40 second mark. Observe:

That boy kills me, he's so cute. The scared pose followed by the question and the nervous, "Oh, okay, I knew that" laugh. I could watch it a thousand times.

And apparently, puppies kill him with their cuteness because Jake.is.obsessed with the puppies. He could watch them (specifically, the "Puppy Love" videos) a thousand times.

If only we had an iPad, too.

Heading to City Creek.

Looking out the window...

Trains!

Check out that big boy smile!

Restaurants are hilarious.

Playing with straws is super fun, did you know?

Ah, yes, my picky eater. Refusing the oatmeal that he had previously loved for months.

The mini-blankies my mom made for Jake have definitely come in handy!

Jake loves baths so much that he also loves towels by extension. And his uncles like to wrap him up in big blankets.

Jakey loved the fish in the waiting room. He also loved the baby he found in the preschool room (why the preschoolers left said baby doll naked, I do not know). Jake said, "Baby!" and gave it lots of hugs. Which is a big deal, since "baby" was his first word but he abandoned it a couple months later, presumably due to his apparent belief that he is no longer a baby.

Church with Great Grandma Smith!

Apparently, Utah thinks winter begins at the start of November instead of December 21st like the science books say. But it sure is pretty, right?

He's cool and stuff.

Progress!

Late-night puppy-watching snuggles.

Good morning cuddles are the very best!

Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving! We enjoyed a lovely holiday dinner with a few cousins at my aunt Kim's house. The food was delicious and the company was even better. I'm really lucky to have such an amazing extended family!

We are so blessed in so many ways, and it's nice to take a day to reflect on everything we are grateful for. Most of all, I am thankful for my handsome, hardworking husband and our happy baby boy, our wonderful families, and the gospel that brings so much peace and joy to our lives. I'm also very grateful for our house that is almost completed and for the normalcy that will finally resume in that home in a couple weeks.

And right now, as I type this on my brand-new laptop, I'm thankful that my technological nightmares (namely, two broken hard drives, a broken laptop, and a semi-broken DSLR) and nearly two months of computer-less-ness are coming to an end. Perhaps I will embrace the modern world again at last.

Sub Zero

My little brother Christian was the manager of a cute little ice cream shop called Sub Zero, where they make custom ice cream in 30 seconds flat with liquid nitrogen. It's pretty cool stuff. He's now moved on to bigger and better paychecks, but before he left, Matt and I snuck away for a little date night at Sub Zero.

Kiken made us the most delicious ice cream and then we went upstairs and played arcade games for an hour. We tried our hands at a few different games (um, the shooting pictures should explain to you why I tend to stay away from guns) before settling on our favorites. Matt fell in love with some random safari-animal-catching game and I got serious with my favorite, Cruisin'. My uncle had Cruisin' World in his basement while I was growing up, so my cousins and I all became quite proficient at driving fake cars on different continents. Matt caught lots of animals and I cruised the whole world until I met President Clinton in a hot tub. (Please tell me someone knows what I'm talking about?) Good times, eh?

Jake's 1st Birthday

Jake's first birthday was such a happy little day!

I sort of loved the life-sized #1 full of memories from his first year.

We had big, adventurous plans for his birthday activities, but the poor guy was in the middle of a week-long fever so we laid low at home instead. It ended working out just great, though. And even though he didn't have nearly as much energy as usual, he was still his happy little self. Jake was thrilled to wake up to a room full of balloons! He spent quite a bit of time chasing the balloons around that morning and over the next few days.

Jake and I spent the rest of the day hanging out around the house, making his cake, and playing outside. Matt came home a little early so he could join in on the celebrations, too. Jakey got a kick out of opening all of his presents and playing with all of his new toys. The biggest hits were the $1 light-up bouncy ball and his much-loved stuffed golden retriever. Jake is obsessed with puppies, and gets the most excited over the golden retriever variety. Trust me, we're working on Matt for the real deal. :)

Jake beamed when we sang "Happy Birthday" so we repeated it a few times for his enjoyment. Then he had his first bites of cake and did a decent amount of damage, especially considering that his fever was 101 at that moment. Once the yawns started, we let him play in the bath for awhile. Baths are his favorite. And then instead of bedtime, we let him stay up to play a little longer. You only have one first birthday, you know? Many rounds of peek-a-boo later, we snuck in a few more cuddles and then finally put our tired little party animal in bed.

Happy birthday, baby boy! We love you more than you'll ever know.