Birthday Boy

November 24th, this last Wednesday, was my wonderful husbands birthday. He turned the big 26, he thinks he's getting old, but I like to reassure him that he's still in his prime! Ry got off work a little early, so we went out shopping for a bit then had a delicious dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I told our waitress that it was his birthday, not knowing they had a birthday saddle, haha, I was loving every minute. He's such a trooper.

I love Ryan so much. I could blog about him every single day about nice things he does or says. Since it's his birthday I'm going to take advantage of the excuse to brag about how lucky I am. Ryan is: ambitious, smart, funny, sensitive, goofy, sweet, kind, generous, handsome, strong, honest, charming, and on and on. Ryan is always thinking of others and hardly puts himself first. He has been so wonderful these last few weeks with our little girl and me. I love how much he loves Olivia. He does what he can to help around the house and relieve me from a screaming baby. He cares so much about our family and works so hard at his job to make sure we're taken care of and happy. He loves to joke around, but is never rude or offensive. He loves sports but he never makes me feel like ESPN is our only TV channel. He randomly brings home flowers and loves to make me happy. I love my hubby and couldn't be any happier. I can't wait to spend many many more of his birthdays with him :)

Grammy

My mom is so wonderful. I figured I don't have to wait till mother's day to say this. I've always heard it, but it's true, you don't truly appreciate your mom until you have a child of your own. There are several times a day that while I'm attending to little Miss Olivia I think to myself "My mom did all this with me. She had to sacrafice a lot for me. She was so patient with me. My mom has really done so much for me." And the first two weeks after Liv was born she was here holding her so that I could get a little bit more sleep. My mom did the dishes, the laundry, went grocery shopping and it was all so wonderful. I don't think she'll ever know how much it meant to us. Even now she is still such a huge help, bringing me medicine when I'm sick, bringing Liv the humidifier when she was sick, and everything else to help our little family. Love you mom!

6 Week Peak

It should be called "The 6 Week Peak - of Death". If any of you have read a baby book, or had a baby, you may be familiar with this 6 week peak. Up until this point the baby progressively gets more and more fussy. Cries for no reason - often. Doesn't sleep as much, or for as long. Takes twice as long to go to sleep because they have to be soothed until their eyelids no longer flutter. Then "they" tell you that it's not when their 6 weeks old, but it's 6 weeks from their due date. So our sweet Olivia still has "one" more week of this increasing fussiness craziness. Then after those 6 weeks it's supposed to gradually get better. Oh goodness. I don't want to wish time away because I am loving this sweet little baby time, but at the same time, I count down the hours of every day.

BUT... on a more positive note (minus all that fussy business), little Liv has the cutest darn smile I've ever seen. She is finally getting more responsive and will smile back (prompted with a hight-pitched tone of voice, and a humungo smile, then she'll maybe smile back). She is much more alert, noticing lights, fans, and mobiles. We love this girl. What a doll.

Also... on a side note, I had the most amazing workout today. I finally got cleared to exercise, and I could actually go running (for the first time since like June)! I was exhausted, could hardly breathe, my muscles and joints all have forgotten how to move, but it felt amazing.

Liv's first photoshoot

Liv had her first photoshoot when she was about 10 days old. My friend Shannel just got a new camera and she wanted to test it out, so she came and took lots and lots of darling little pics of our cute girl. These were just a few of my favorites.

1 Month

One month has already gone by, but it has seemed like an eternity. The days go by quickly - even though I feel like I have done nothing but feed her, change her and rock her almost asleep little body. Baby Liv has gone from newborn to size 1 diapers, grown out of a few of her onesies and nighties, and she wants to eat every two hours (or less). We've braved out to the grocery store a few times, a stroll around the mall, and of course to visit grandparents, but I have discovered there to be nothing wrong with hanging out at home all day. She gets fussy almost every evening around 8 or 9, she refuses to sleep longer than 3 hours at a time, and she's made putting her on a schedule nearly impossible for the time being. Olivia is always moving her arms and hands giving us reason to believe she's going to be super coordinated and love sports ;) We love our baby girl and we are so excited to see her grow, but still taking advantage of cuddling this sweet little bundle.

I can't complain

So people really aren't lying when they say being a mom is hard. They aren't lying when they say you don't get any sleep. They aren't lying when they say all you feel like you do all day is feed your child. They aren't lying when they say you seriously change a dozen diapers a day. Being a mom is not an easy thing. I have had my 3 a.m. moments of tears. I have had projectile poop cover my shirt, and buckets of spit-up puddle in my lap. I have had nights when she wants to eat every other hour. I have had my moments of complete frustration-confusion-exhaustion.

But the thing is ... after looking at this cute face how can I ever complain? We tell Olivia everyday that it's a good thing she's cute because she makes the most stressful moment bring a smile to my face. I love her cute face and chubby belly. I love how heavily she breathes when she sleeps. I love the way she squeals in her sleep. I love the way she rolls her eyes and smiles when she's half asleep. I love the way she stubbornly puts her lips together when she's done eating. I love the way she puts her arms up like she's showing off her biceps when she sleeps. I love the way she squeezes my fingers so tight with her strong little grip. I love that she's my baby and she'll always be mine.

Halloween Festivities

I loved having a whole weekend of Halloween. Ryan started the weekend off by running the Halloween Half Marathon down Provo Canyon. There were over 2500 racers and the majority of them in costume. It was so hilarious to see what people actually ran 13.1 miles in (bunny suit, large banana suit, etc.). Ryan had a great run - the weather was really good for being the last day of October in Utah, there was beautiful scenery, and there was no uphill climb! Olivia and I loved watching him come race to the finish.

That evening we went to Malawi's Pizza with Ryan's family for a yummy dinner. Ryan's brother Jared and his family are here for a few weeks, so it's been fun to have a big crowd at the Jackson's. We welcomed the few brave trick-or-treaters who came out in the rain for some candy, and then we watched the new Robin Hood movie. For Halloween I didn't want to buy a costume, so I decided to make one for little Liv. What's white, orange and yellow and a favorite Halloween treat ... my little candy corn.