So many fun things!

There have been so many fun things that have happened recently that I haven't had time to blog...sorry! But, get ready to have a serious Jake fix here, because basically this entry is going to revolve around him.

First of all, Jake and I had a spur of the moment and way too short trip to Michigan. One of our good friend's sister lives in Iowa City and she called me up just a few days ago and said that she was going up to Michigan to visit her sister and wanted to know if Jake and I wanted to go along. Of course we jumped at the chance! Unfortunately, it was a very short trip so I didn't get to see all the people and do everything that I would have liked, but we'll be up again soon, hopefully.

When we first got to Michigan, my mom and I spent the day in Ann Arbor where we took care of Jake's cousin Isaac. Jake really loved Isaac, but Isaac was pretty scared of Jake. After all, he is a pretty rambunctious kid and Isaac just isn't used to that kind of thing. Here is a picture of my mom with her two grandkids (Jake's face cracks me up...):

(Disclaimer on the following photo: My son is NOT hitting Isaac. He was showing him the rattle. I'm not the kind of mom that would just sit around while her son beats up his helpless cousin.)

On Friday night we went to Trenton's basketball game. It was Jake's first basketball game, and I think he had a pretty good time. He's making improvements at sporting events. When he was about six months old he got really scared and started crying every time we took him to a sporting event and there was loud noise and yelling. Poor kid...he's much better now and had a great time watching and cheering for Uncle Trenton! He also enjoyed drinking his gatorade...

This is a picture of Jake sitting on the "time-out" chair that we used when we were kids. Notice how the chair has a picture of two people holding hands. Accident? I think not.

On Sunday we celebrated...are you ready for this?....Jake's first birthday! Can you believe it's been a whole year since he was born? I know, I'm having trouble wrapping my head around that one too. We celebrated by having a wonderful dinner then cupcakes. Jake was a little uncertain about his cupcake at first, but once he realized how good it tasted he dug right in.


After he had a cupcake, we opened presents. He got all kinds of cool things from Grandma and Grandpa, including a play piano, cell phone, and book. They certainly helped keep him entertained on the car ride home!

Here is a little video of his first cupcake experience. There's a lot of laughing because for a long time he was just looking at the cupcake and kind of picking at the frosting. We were all excited when he finally dug in.

Jake, we are so glad that you were born into our family. Here are some of the things that we love about you:

1. Your "dynamic" and energetic personality. From the very beginning we knew that you were going to be an intense little kid. You know what you want and go for it, and you don't let anything get in your way...literally.

2. You crack us up all the time. You find the strangest things absolutely hilarious, and it makes us see the humor in life.

3. You sleep through the night.

4. You eat the black olives off our pizza. Both your mom and dad don't like them, but you eat them like they're smarties.

5. You have the cutest smile in the world. It's in your nature to be happy, and it's SO hard to be mad at you when you flash that six-toothed grin and laugh.

Happy birthday little guy. Although, can I even call you that? You're hardly our little guy anymore, you're a walking toddler. *Sigh...* We love you!

Sleeping woes

I'm sorry to say that Jake's naps haven't gotten much better. I've tried switching to the one nap thing but he still seems so tired and cranky. So, my solution thus far has been to keep him in his crib for at least an hour twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. If he sleeps then he's gotten a good nap. If he doesn't sleep then he's gotten some good quiet time. Nice, right? Well, today Jake really tested my patience. He was in his crib this morning for two hours and slept for half an hour. This afternoon, Jake was in his crib for the same amount of time and didn't sleep at all! I feel bad leaving him in his crib for so long, but if I don't he just won't fall asleep, and by the time I come to the conclusion that he just isn't going to fall asleep half of the day is gone. So this afternoon when I went in to get him out of his crib, this is what I found. Notice how tired he looks. Also notice how he refuses to sleep. But he's also so cute...What is a mother to do???

Jake's first steps!

We can't believe it, but Jake is actually taking his first steps! Within the past few days, Jake has really started walking all on his own, and we are so proud of him! All of the sudden he just seemed to get his balance a little better and now it looks like we have a walker on our hands. He still prefers to crawl because it's faster, but if we bribe him he'll walk. He is still pretty wobbly, but walking nonetheless! Here is a video of his first steps.

Congrats Jake!! Good job!

Anti-anxiety pills needed here

I have been very frank about how much I enjoy donating plasma. It has been a time to relax, and I look forward to dropping Jake off in the play area and getting some much-needed quiet time. This being said, I don't know quite what is happening to me.

My iron count has been low in the past, and therefore it requires me to take iron supplements, and still sometimes it's too low to donate. I always get a little bit nervous before they take my blood because I'm just hoping that my iron count is high enough. Well, a couple of days ago my nerves got the best of me and my heart rate was a little high. I actually didn't even know that they checked your heart rate, but they do that while they're checking the blood pressure. So all of the sudden now that I was aware that they checked the heart rate and that mine was high and it freaked me out. They told me to go sit down and relax and they would recheck it in 5 minutes, but instead of relaxing I was just freaking myself out. Of course, my heart rate had risen. So now that I was aware of what was going on, I started really psyching myself out. The next day I tried to donate and it was 139!! Off the charts high! I got it down to 118, but it was still too high to donate. Now I was really freaked out. The next day I went in and tried my hardest to relax, but it had the opposite effect. Now my heart rate was 147!!!!! AUGH!!!! That is dangerously high...as in, I'm stressing myself out to the max about this. My heart rates in the past had always been in the 70's.

I have to go see a doctor now before they'll let me donate again. I went to see the nurse and was in tears because I was trying so hard not to stress myself out and in turn stressed myself out to where I can't even donate anymore!! So now what? I totally have a mental block. I guess I just need some anti-anxiety pills or I will stress myself to death here.

The only nice thing that happened while I was in the nurse's office was that she commented on how pretty my new ring was. It made me smile. :)

A Valentine's day, Birthday, and Christmas present

Here's the story:

I was at the mall a while ago and I went to Fred Meyer Jewelers just to look around (I'm a girl, I can do that). I came across a gorgeous wedding set that I just couldn't take my eyes off of. Joseph had always said that the ring that he gave me when we got engaged was a "starter" ring and we would upgrade in many years when we were a little bit more established. So when I went to the store, I admired and put it on my fingers then put it back and thought to myself, "give it ten years, then come back." The lady who was working at the store obviously saw how much I liked it, so she offered to put the name of it and code on a card with my name so that if Joseph ever went in he would see the kind of thing that I liked. As she did this I thought that it doesn't matter what she does because it's not like Joseph would ever do anything like that at this point in our lives, and in ten years from now it would be long gone.

Fast forward to Wednesday. I was freaking out because I was positive that my wedding ring had vanished down the drain. I couldn't find it anywhere. I thought I was going to have to find a fake ring to wear for about ten years and I felt just sick about losing my wedding ring.

Fast forward to Friday. I had left my phone in the bathroom to charge, and I heard that I had gotten a text message, so I went in the bathroom to check it out. Sitting there, where my other ring had been before it "fell down the drain" was the brand new, shiny, gorgeous wedding ring set from the jewelry store. I about fainted. I never thought that he would actually get it, but here it is (sorry it isn't a very good picture, it's very hard to get a good picture of small things):

Joseph said that he went in there to see what kinds of things they had for Valentine's Day and found my card and laughed because there was just one thing on it. The ring was on clearance and he negotiated with them to get the price even lower, then turned in my other ring to get it even lower, and eventually got a fabulous deal.

I'm not gonna lie, I feel a little guilty. I know that he had to dip into our savings a little bit to get it. But, this constitutes a Valentine's present, birthday present, and Christmas present all rolled into one for the next few years. Of course, I don't feel guilty enough to stop admiring the gorgeous ring on my finger.

Awesome weekend

I love the weekend. Especially ones like this. We had a great time with both family and friends, and AWESOME weather! What more could a girl ask for? I guess maybe shopping...

First off, as I said before, the weather was beautiful this weekend. It was such a welcome relief from the -20's that we've been experiencing. In the sun it was about 60 degrees!! You just can't beat that in February.

Friday night we went to Texas Roadhouse for some savory steaks. YUM!! Actually, the reason that we went out was because I had tried to donate plasma earlier that day and I couldn't because my iron levels were too low. I was pretty depressed about it, so Joseph suggested that I eat a nice steak, which has two benefits: 1) Steak has plenty of iron to get my levels up and 2) I LOVE to go out to eat (it's one of my absolute favorite things) so that helped my mood in itself. That evening was game night at one of our friends houses. Jake fell asleep there, so it left Joseph and I without having to take care of a baby. It was like date night without having to pay for a babysitter.

Saturday was our $50 plasma donation day. Joseph and I both donated, so that means an extra $100 in our pockets between the two of us. I love donating...

Then after I donated plasma I went to the tanning salon. Please hold your criticism, because I really know how bad it is, but it just feels so GOOD!! My friend and I had coupons for a free week of tanning, so we took advantage and intend to go every day this week. Don't worry, we'll be careful.

On Saturday afternoon Joseph and I went to Grinnell to spend some time with his parents. We enjoyed good food, movies, and company. The weather was so nice that Nana took Jake out for his first walk in months. He loved it. He really loves his Nana and Papa.

We stayed the night in Grinnell, went to church with his parents the next morning, then came home in the afternoon to host a birthday party for Taysia! Here are all the people that we managed to fit in our house:

A couple of funny things about this picture:
1) Please excuse the placement of my hand. I swear I didn't mean to be grabbing Joseph's butt in front of the camera.
2) Robyn is apparently so perfect that the camera caught the halo over her head. She'll probably be translated here any moment.
3) Random cup in the window. Taysia said she did that. Since it's her birthday we'll let it slide.
4) Jessica and Joe look like little midgets in the back corner of the couch, and Jamison, Joseph and I all look like giants.
Happy Birthday Tay-tay!! We love you!! And thank goodness for awesome weekends, they make the weeks a lot more bearable.

Getting a head start in reading...or making a mess

Jake loves his books now! He loves to sit and look at the pages of the book and have me read to him. Don't be fooled, though, it's not like he actually LISTENS to me read. He likes me to read to him while he turns the pages so the book makes no sense. But, of course, he doesn't care. One of his absolute favorite things is to open the door to his bookshelf and take all the books out of the shelf one by one. Then he sits in his pile of books, opens one, and begins to turn the pages. I can't tell you how many times I have picked up these books and put them back on the shelf. I have been waiting a while for him to really enjoy books, so this is a fun stage for him to be in.