Jackson's 2nd Easter

Yesterday we celebrated Jackson's second Easter -- it's crazy that he's on round 2 of his holidays now. Last year he was 11 days old on Easter and this year he turned 13 months.

We celebrated by having an Easter Egg Hunt with some baby friends on Saturday morning. Jackson did really good at finding the eggs, not so good at putting them in the basket however. But hey, I was still impressed with his hunting skills!




All that hunting made our little guy really tired and he came home and took a 3 hour nap! We were planning on dying easter eggs as a family when he woke up, but since he slept so long, Tyler had already left for some church meetings and wouldn't be home until late. So Jackson and I (aka I) died them alone this year. Jackson was there of course, but he wasn't too into it. He was still trying to wake up from his marathon sleep.

He was really not to impressed with the whole process, but I was trying to take a little self portrait with the eggs, jackson and me - but it wasn't working. the best one i got was this shot of us ROFLing (minus the ROF) together. That's basically what we do all day -- just giggle together and i love it.



Anyways, the next morning was Easter Sunday! Jackson wanted an early start and woke up at 6:30 ... about 45 minutes earlier than normal ... but was excited for the big day! He ran right over to his basket and had fun finding his hidden eggs and immediately opening them to find the candy inside!







We had Stake Conference and Jackson did surprisingly well, he sat on our laps for almost 2 hours straight, but we had to go play in the hall for the last 15 minutes. We came home and snapped some cute pics of the little guy in his Sunday best!






He loved eating jelly beans and peeps! Our healthy little baby probably ate more sugar that day than any other entire week of his short life so far.

We finished the day with a traditional easter dinner of ham, cheesy potatoes, green beans, carrots and rolls. we invited some friends over and had a lovely evening that of course didn't get documented by photos...

Jackson was a lot of fun though and even started to learn how to fold his arms during a prayer that day. We hope that next year we can start to teach Jackson the true reason for Easter. Jesus lives and loves us!

Punta Cana

Last week we finally put that adorable little passport of Jackson's to use when we traveled over seas to the Dominican Republic! We stayed at the Hard Rock Resort in Punta Cana, DR - Had you ever heard of Punta Cana? Me neither. But wow what a place, it's beautifully lush and tropical, has some amazing beaches and ocean! There were 10 pools, including a huge kid water park area with a lazy river, mini golf, rock climbing wall, water sports, you name it this place had it!

But my favorite thing to do was lay by the pool and read my book :-)


Here's the deal -- Tyler earned this trip from his work. Last year, he was recognized as one of the top salesmen of the company and was invited to attend the "Circle of Excellence" retreat! This was sponsered by not just his company Wattstopper, but the mother company LeGrand North America. It's s $1 Billion Company with over 2000 employees and Tyler was selected with 60 others to join the Executives and Vice Presidents for the honor. So what I'm saying is ... it was kinda a big deal. Luckily for me, the company pays for the wives to come along too! So then the big debate we had was about Jackson... to bring or not to bring.

Children were allowed to come to, but Tyler hadn't heard of any one else bringing kids, let alone one-year old. I considered leaving him with someone, maybe flying grandparents in, or Jackson out with them, but when it came down to it - I didn't feel good doing that. So the Passport was ordered and Jackson joined us on another trip and his 14th and 15th flights!

He ended up being a really good boy, but we were limited in having him with us. I wouldn't have had it any other way, I love my baby!

First Night - Welcome Dinner.

Hotel Lobby




Intense Water Polo Games Amongst the Sales Team


Love my Ocean Boys!




Jackson was not a big fan of the sand, but got used to it by the end of the week.



Final Cocktail Party


At the final Awards Dinner




It was an amazing week and I'm so grateful to Tyler for earning the trip for the family!

1 Year Old Portraits

OK I realize this is a little bit much, but it's so hard to choose my favorites that I had to include 20ish pictures from Jackson's photo shoot. I've promised these to my family for a week now, so here they are!


























ps - can anyone tell me how to make pictures display bigger or side by side? all you professional bloggers do it - what's the trick?