Cousins

As a young child, I lived to see my cousins. I had a quite a few--only 50 or so 1st cousins. As a 12 year old, I had this crazy epiphany, that my children wouldn't have many cousins unless I married someone from a big family--since 3 children spread over 8 years does not equate to many of their own children. A large family was never an actual requirement for a spouse, but it was pretty funny that I married Mark--3rd of 7 siblings.

Luckily, he and his two older siblings got married the same year, and we all had babies around the same time. Over Christmas we had a little family reunion with just his family.

How did Jackson feel about his cousins?

We learned he is very social and loves to babble to them--generally enjoying their company a lot...

Addie was generally tolerable of his immature ways--

but other times--she seemed to prefer solitude.


Cole didn't seem to care one way or the other--as long as he was fed and had room to roll. We had fun dressing them up in the matching outfits Grandma Beverly gave to both of them.

I was SO excited about all three of them taking a bath together! Addie didn't seem to enjoy the idea of being in the tub with the boys. So she didn't last too long.


The best part was watching the three in their different stages. Addie crawling, almost walking, Jackson sitting, Cole rolling. We could already see the mother hen coming to teach her little pupils.... It's only fitting to bring in some solid Steven R. Covey advice when trying to mold youngins. (Please don't mind my embarrassing commentary and ridiculous laugh)

Here's one that shows the friendship we might force upon these two kissing cousins: (again disregard the embarrassing narrator)

The camera was out a lot, here are a few other shots we grabbed:

Addie enjoying a new style

Santa found his beard in time for the Christmas party
(Mark and Karen attached it to his pacifier)
His eyes told us he had no clue why everyone was laughing and staring at him

We successfully took a family picture with all of us smiling!

Hope 2011 is merry, bright and full of light!

Preparation

Next week we will be visiting Mark's family. Jackson has been getting ready for his first Christmas in numerous ways.

He's getting ready to meet Santa:



Learning what snow is: (notice the ripening tomatoes in the window--from our garden)


Practicing his horsemanship: (g'pa Norman will be so proud)

And rolling onto his stomach (so he's not too embarrassed by his younger cousin Cole):


Merry Christmas and happy paper eating for all!

Things we Play

In our house, we play. Many things.

We play, "look at Daddy and laugh hysterically":
(Mark really was only looking at him with raised eyebrows)

We play contemporary music:
(I'm fairly certain I studied techniques similar to Jackson's in my advanced music theory class at BYU. Definitely categorized as original and innovative. We just need to move to notation.)

We (meaning Jackson) play, "peak a boo" every day, at least 5 separate times throughout the day:

He totally picked this up on his own. The full body smile at the beginning (arms moving in and out with excitement and anticipation) is quite normal. Just about eats your heart out.

Last, but not of least occurrence, we play, try to touch your tongue to your nose (or chin, or cheek, or... any object within reach).

;)