Sledding on Ski Hill

On Tuesday December 30th, we rode down to Oak City with Jerry, Michelle, and Will to go sledding. We picked up Brody and Eliesia when we got to Oak City. We didn't have snow clothes for ourselves or for Ryan so I was a bit worried that we would freeze. I called my dad and asked to borrow his ski pants and coat that he got when he helped with the Winter Olympics. He also brought us some gloves. Turned out that it was sunny and about 40 degrees in Oak City that day so we were fine. The only thing we did need was a snowsuit for Ryan and boots. He was dying to play in the snow but we only had sweat pants and socks on his bottom half. I thought if he sat in it to play he would get wet and cold. We did try to find a snowsuit in Spanish Fork the day before, but we couldn't find anything. I guess you should buy snowsuits at the first of the season :) I'll remember that for next year.

We had a lot of fun sledding. Jerry brought his 4-wheeler down so we wouldn't have to hike up the hill--lazy sledding, that's my kind of sledding, haha. I even took Ryan down the hill a couple of times. We went pretty fast, too. He only got scared when I would scream. I couldn't help but scream :) The only thing that would have made it better would be a couple more inches of snow. We had a good time even with the lack of snow :)

Ryan all bundled up ready to play

Jim & Ryan waiting

Brody and Will getting pulled up the hill.

Ryan playing in the snow. We finally decided to let him sit and play. I had brought extra clothes for him to change into.

He was having a blast

Brody and Will running back up the hill

Jerry taking me and Ryan up the hill

Jerry holding the sled while Ryan and I got on. We only went halfway up the hill. It was pretty slick.

Ryan & I coming down the hill

We were going so fast I had to put my legs out. We would have went a lot farther if I wouldn't have put them out, but we were seriously cruising :)

Aunt Michelle holding Ryan. I went down the hill one more time with Will

Jerry getting Will ready to go down the hill by himself

Will bit his lip when he went down the hill himself :(

After sledding, we went back to Jim's parents house for Chili. It was yummy and warmed up right up--even though we weren't that cold :) We had a fun time sledding. I'm glad Jerry organized such a fun activity.

Christmas

I'm finally getting around to blogging about Christmas. I was waiting to have my mom send me the pictures she took on Christmas Day (she's been out of town) because I was too busy with the video camera filming so I didn't get any pics. Anyway, we had a wonderful Christmas.

We spent Christmas Eve at Jim's parents house. Jim's dad cooked prime rib, Richard cooked crab legs and lobster, and we brought shrimp. Luckily Guin had made twice baked potatoes and we also brought green bean casserole or I would have starved :) I don't do prime rib or seafood, haha. Jim's dads friend Phyl also joined us for dinner. He said the funniest thing so I had to write it down so I would remember it forever. First I have to say that Phyl has long hair--not extremely long, but it's to his shoulders or so. Anyway, he was talking to Ryan and Ryan was giving him a weird look. Phyl said to Ryan, "I think you're confused--you don't know if I'm a mommy or a daddy do ya." I almost died laughing. It was so hilarious.

Richard also tortured Widget on Christmas Eve. They have a little jacket for Widget to wear and she absolutely hates it. When they put the jacket on Widget she shakes and growls. SO, Richard decided to put the jacket on her. It was comical.

Widget in her jacket that she HATES.

Festive Widget in a Santa hat. According to Crandall, we were disrespecting the dog, haha.

After dinner and visiting, we drove to Levan and spent the night at my parents house. My sister Molly and her husband Scott also spent the night.

I thought Ryan would get up around 7am, as usual, on Christmas morning. But he actually slept in until about 8 or 8:30am. I was surprised. Molly was happy though. She asked us to wake her up when we got up so she could see Ryan on Christmas morning. She wasn't too thrilled when I told her when I thought he would wake up :)

Ryan playing with his new toy that Santa left him

Playing with more toys--yes, I know, I look fabulous (note the sarcasm, haha)

After Ryan played with his stuff from Santa for a few minutes, we decided to open presents from under the tree. Here is a picture of Ryan opening his first present. I thought he would tear into his presents. I actually did most of the opening for him.

He didn't know what to think of all of the toys he was getting.

Jim made me a cedar chest. I was way surprised. He is pretty sneaky :) He also gave me a jewelry armoir. I got Jim some new shoes, some jeans, a subscription to the SL Tribune, and a gun. I don't know if he was too thrilled with the shoes, etc. but I know he loves the gun :)

Ryan was way off schedule on Christmas morning. He usually eats breakfast around 8:30-9am. He didn't get his mush until 10:30am. After he ate his mush, he was pretty tired. He usually takes his first nap around 10am so Scott held Ryan in a blanket and he went right to sleep.

While Ryan was sleeping, we made a big breakfast--pancakes, eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage, juice, and milk. It was really good. Ryan woke up shortly after breakfast though--he didn't sleep very long. We got him in the tub and ready for the day. He was the only one that got ready on Christmas, haha.

The rest of the day we just lounged. My mom received "Mamma Mia" as a gift so we watched that. I would recommend the play but not necessarily the movie ) Afterwards we watched "The Bucket List." That is such a great movie; I cried at the end. Other than that, we didn't do much. I think Ryan took a total of 4 naps on Christmas Day. Believe it or not, he actually slept the whole night, too. While we were at my mom's, Ryan got into a great habit of going to sleep around 8pm and waking up around 9am.

We stayed in Levan until Sunday. It was a great vacation from real life. On Saturday night, we played a game of Scrabble and watched Lawrence Welk--my dad's favorite show. Amazingly, Ryan LOVED Lawrence Welk. He sat on my mom's rug in the kitchen and was glued to the T.V. It was hilarious.

Ryan glued to Lawrence Welk :)

Another picture of Ryan watching Lawrence Welk

We had a great Christmas. I was sad to leave Levan--it reminded me of when I lived there. I told Jim if we could sell our house today, I would move back to Levan in a heart beat. He said he would, too. Maybe when the housing market goes back up, we'll look into things :)

Jackson Family Christmas Party 2008

On Saturday December 18th, we went to the Jackson Family Christmas Party in Nephi. We always have yummy soup, salads, rolls, and desserts. We play bingo and a fun gift exchange game, too. I didn't take very many pictures though. As soon as I got my camera out for the event, the battery light started flashing and I didn't bring any extra batteries. That always makes me angry. Anyway, here are a few pictures that I did take:

Baby Ethan in his festive shirt and Santa hat

Ryan in the Santa hat and not liking it. As soon as we stopped trying to take a picture of him in the hat, he wore it just fine. I had to take it off though. It was 75 degrees in the building and he was roasting.

Ryan enjoying the treats from Bingo

The Roper's playing Christmas Bingo

Update on Ryan's Crawling

I just thought I'd update my blog on Ryan and his crawling abilities. He is crawling like a maniac now and has been for some time. He is getting pretty fast, and he is even able to go over obstacles :) If Jim or I go in the kitchen, Ryan is right behind us as fast as he can go.

Most people don't like it when their kids can finally crawl. I actually don't mind it. I'll set him on the floor while I make the bed in the morning or while I pick things up and he just motors around while I do so. Before he could crawl, he would just sit by his toys and whine--he could hear me but he couldn't see me so that really irritated him. I'm glad he's a little more mobile, as long as he stays away from the stairs.

Ryan has his snow hat on in the video. I put it on him to see what it looked like since I had just bought it and he just left it on. I thought it was pretty funny so I just left it on him. Unfortunately, I cannot find that hat. I think it fell out of the truck when I got out at Wal-Mart the last time we went :( I'm pretty bummed about it. We'll have to get another...

Mittens

My friend Lacy had told me about these baby size mittens she had for Kam when he was a baby. I was always going to get some for Ryan, I just hadn't got around to it. I went to Costco with Lacy on Monday December 15th and Lacy gave me these mittens for Ryan.

I thought there was no way I was going to get the tiny gloves on his little mitts--especially getting each finger into the right slot, but I did. I was amazed. When I first put them on Ryan's little hands, he didn't know what to think. He kept opening and closing his hands while he looked at them. He even kept them on while we were out running errands. I didn't have my camera while we were out so I hurried and got a pic when we got home.

Ryan in his winter coat, hat, and gloves :) You can't really see the gloves; I just loved his little smile in this picture.
You can kind of see his little glove in this pic...

More pics of the gloves...

One last pic of his gloves

I wish everyone could really see how cute the gloves are on his little hands. You can't really tell in the pics how tiny and adorable they are...I least I think they are. Thanks Lacy for the tiniest mittens ever. We love them!

Ward Christmas Party

On Friday December 12th, we went to Levan and went to my mom and dad's ward Christmas party with them. We didn't go down just for that reason...Jim got me a Christmas present that needs to be put together (I have no idea what it is, by the way) and when he ordered it he had it shipped to Oak City. He needed a weekend to go to Oak City to put the present together so I decided I would stay in Levan while he went to Oak City.

The ward party was interesting--not quite what I remember from when I was a kid :) Dinner wasn't quite ready when the party started to they had a family band to entertain while we waited. Everyone looked like they were having such a good time, especially Jim and my dad, haha. We finally ate dinner and Santa came for a visit afterwards.

Jim, Ryan, and me at the ward party

My mom and Ryan

My mom, Ryan, and my dad

A kid brought this homemade lizard puppet to the party. Ryan didn't know what to think about it. I was cracking up...

Ryan sitting on Santa's lap. Again, he didn't quite know what to think of him.

He still didn't cry though :)

Welcome Home Shane

My cousin Shane came home from serving in the Rapid City, South Dakota mission today. My mom asked if I would come and drive to see Shane come home since she hates driving downtown. We gladly said we'd join them for the occasion.

Shane's flight was supposed to get in at 2:10pm. When Jim came home on leave from Iraq, his plane got in about 20 minutes early so his parents and family missed seeing him see Ryan for the first time. SO, we decided we better get to the airport early in the event that Shane's plane got in early. Well, the plane came in late this time :) All the kids were going a little stir crazy waiting, but around 3:30pm Shane came down the escalator. It was so much fun seeing him come home. After we left the airport, we went to Los Hermanos in Provo to get something to eat.

Cooper, Shane's nephew, with his welcome home sign

Ryan and my mom patiently waiting for Shane to arrive

Cooper and Savanah holding (of should I say fighting over, haha) the sign

Savanah, Brady, and Cooper waiting for Shane...

Finally--Shane comes down the stairs

Shane hugging Grandma J

FYI--all of my pictures of people greeting Shane are TERRIBLE. My camera decided to be slow and people would walk in front of me.

Shane with Grandma J again

Lisa, Shane, and Morris

The Blackett Family

Shane talking with is nephews and niece. They were SOOO excited to see him. It was pretty cute.

The Freshman

Jackson has played basketball since he was a toddler. He played Jr. Jazz and eventually got to the point where he was playing on very competitive All Star teams. Now he's a freshman, and where he goes to school, 9th grade is still in Junior High. He tried out for the basketball team and made it! (See my sister Amy's blog for more detailed info) The coach told him he would play on the Sophomore team, a little J.V., and even gave him a Varsity jersey. I felt so proud of him when Amy told us that he'd made the team--I hoped to make it to at least one game.

On Friday December 5th, we went to watch Jackson play high school basketball. His first game started at 3:30pm, the 2nd at 5:15pm, and then Varsity at 7pm. They call Jackson "The Freshman." I guess its because he is the only freshman on the team?? We stayed to all three games, which they won all 3. I didn't know how Ryan would do, but he actually did really well. He did get a little tired at the end of the Varsity game, but I couldn't complain. He was a trooper.

The best part was Varsity was killing the team they were playing so at the very end of the 4th quarter Jackson got to go in. We were all freaking out--you would have thought Jackson was playing for the Utah Jazz or something. We stood up and were yelling and taking pictures. It was awesome. Even better, Jackson scored in the Varsity game!! The student cheering crowd cheered saying, "Way to go Freshman!" It was seriously awesome. We had a good time, and I was so glad we stayed to the Varsity game.

Jackson in the Sophomore game

Shooting a foul shot in the J.V. game

Warming up for the Varsity game

Watching the Varsity game

The scary cheerleader mascot :) I had to take a picture, haha

Ryan at the Varsity game with his ear plugs in

Jackson getting ready to go in!!

Can you tell he's a little nervous?!?

Playing in the Varsity game

Jackson is such a good kid--he's a great basketball player and a good student, too. He even does chores around his house without being asked. When I used to go to Jack's house and watch him and his brothers, I would always tell Jack he is going to be a good roommate one of these days because he cleans up after himself :) He'll be a good roommate, that is, if his mom will let him leave for college, haha.