Christmas

Another Christmas has come and gone! This was a fun year, with our pre-Christmas with Keegan a few weeks ago and then actual Christmas morning Jen, Ben, Austin & Spencer were with us and it is so much having kids there opening presents. Austin was super cute, he kept saying more presents! And he actually got excited about opening them.

Cute little Spencer, looking like a little elf.
And it was fun to have toys to assemble (well for the guys to assemble)

And of course, I didn't get any pictures of myself. Which in hindsight, I'm way bummed about. I had on a cute new necklace and sweater on - oh well. New Years resolution- get more pictures taken of me!

Funny Story

Just cleaning up our annual Scone Breakfast at work and then I'm off to enjoy the holiday with the fam.

But I wanted to share a funny little thing that just happened. A sub just call me to get my email to send some invoices in and says to me, "So you're back already? How long'd you take?" "Yep, I was gone the end of August and came back about a month ago." "Oh, so you're back from maternity leave for good?" "Uh- I wasn't on maternity leave!!" "OH!? I thought I heard you left for maternity leave." "Nope! No babies for me." "Oh, sorry, have a Merry Christmas." click...

Awesome! I had maternity leave without all the work of taking care of a baby.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! And enjoy your time with family and loved ones.

Christmas Came Early

Let me rephrase- Christmas came early for a little, spoiled boy!

Josh, Nikki and Keegan came up last week, I think it was Thursday, and since they were here on Sunday with the family, it was decided that Keegan would open his presents from all of us so that we could see his delight, or indifference- But first.....

Last Friday we had our ward adult party and so I spent last Thursday baking, arguably one of my best cookies- my homemade oreos, with festive frosting (homemade as well!)
I ended up not even going to the party because last minute Lamont and I got an invite to go to the Jazz vs. Magic game (thank you Cole's) and of course I didnt think to take a picture of us at the game.

Now on to our early Christmas!

Keegan so kindly gave Austin a stuffed Elmo! Austin was so excited and kept yelling Elmo, all night. Here the boys are playing out in the backyard.

You'd think we'd learn- you never give the best, most exciting, most anticipated gift first! Nothing else matters once the best one is opened. Regardless, Keegan opened up his walking/talking/shooting Iron Man- and was thrilled!

I got him some trucks



Jon got him some movies, I believe Scooby Doo and Sponge Bob


Jen & Ben got him a cool play-doh kit and a cute dinosuar outfit, I don't know why I didn't get pictures, probably holding Spencer...


Keegan playing with Iron Man, it was kind of funny, Austin was pretty scared of Iron Man once he started moving, so I'm amazed he's sitting this close to it.

Later that night he opened one other present from me- dinosaur pj's and as he looked in the box he says "oh, more clothes." Totally unexcited about it. It made me laugh. What does he expect, only toys?

All the while grandma got to have some time with this little man.

We asked Keegan if he wanted to hold Spencer and after we convinced him, and told him he had to be sitting, in a chair and not just on the kitchen floor, Nikki snapped this photo for me.

And don't worry- Spencer is fine, he usually looks like that- he has a few "cute" names- most notably: fuss-bucket.
Altough, not to pat myself on the back or anything, I don't seem to have trouble with Spencer. Granted, I'm not with him 24/7, but I have watched him for 4-5 hours at a time and he's never been bad for me. I've been offered free room & board at The Jameson's if I'm on Spencer duty. It's tempting!! I love the little guy, he's quite a snuggler for me.
The other night my mom and I were watching him and when Jen dropped him off she said that he'd been screaming for 3 hours straight. The only time he cried/fussed the whole night is just when he was waiting for us to warm his bottle and then for a little when my mom had him, but after a few minutes I stole him and he stopped.

We started to joke about it- for all the Friends lovers- I'm like Monica in The One Where Emma Cries- I guess I have magical powers! I'm Jacey, super-aunt.

THANKFUL

Happy Thanksgiving!

I thought that I'd share some pictures of those people that mean the most to me! I'm going to apologize right now, some of these photos are not the best but as I've been looking through my picture folders, I've come to realize I don't have 1 single picture of my entire family - or even individual families so that's going to be something I work on.

I have one of the best familes in the world! We definitely have had our fare share of issues and drama but I love each one of them, they are a HUGE part of my life and I love them all!

Jon! I couldn't ask for a better brother. He is one of my very good friends and we've enjoyed many good times together: Mexico, Colorado, road trips to Seattle, ReAL games, just to name a few.


Jen & Ben
I've learned so much about Jen in the last few years and she is such an amazing example to me. Ben has been a great addition to our family and is always fun to play games with on Sunday nights.


Josh & Nikki

I've had many good times with Josh and Nikki, especially going to visit them as they've traveled around. I will admit Spokane tops my list of memories, with the $30 trip to get candy & sweets, the fire/sprinkler alarms going off at night and waiting outside in single digit weather & the boys with their head bands made from the bottoms of my work out pants!

I've been blessed to have some of the BEST friends.

Kristal, Julia and I have literally been friends for over 20 years.

Kristal is my very best friend in the entire world. I don't know what I would do without her. Even though she's married, with a child, we still try to get together a couple times a month to just hang out, vent about our lives and just be together. She's been there for me through thick and thin and I'm so lucky to have her in my life.

photo courtesy of Sarah Helland/Julia Wade
Julia has also been one of those friends that even though she's married (with child) and been living outside of Utah for many years, that when she comes to town and we get together, it's like no time has past at all!

I love my nephews!

Austin is such a goof, he is constantly making me laugh, and I love that I get to see him all the time.


I love Spencer and just can't get enough of him. I can't wait to see him and his little personality grow.




And Keegan. I miss him! All the time!! My first nephew, he will always hold a special place in my heart. This video is from Spokane, so a little old but it makes me laugh everytime I see it.
My parents!

I have the most amazing parents. They love and are such dedicated to their family and are always trying to be there for each of us. They've done so much for me, and our entire family. I am definitely my mother's daughter, I see more and more of myself in her, which one day can drive my nuts but most days, I feel very blessed that she is my mom. My dad is such a hard worker and constantly amazes me with how much he knows- just in general- there isn't anything he can't fix or doesn't know the answer to.





And Lamont. We always have so much fun together, whether we're hiking, playing Boggle (which is our new obsession) or just hanging out.



I hope everyone has many wonderful people and things to be thankful for this year!

Grass

We finally got grass!

This is a little random, but thought I'd share my lastest craft I completed. This is probably one of the best crafts I've done completely on my own.

Randomness

I started work (again) yesterday. Same job, just 2 1/2 months off. I'm having mixed feelings about being back. On one hand, I am beyond grateful to be able to have my old job back; I have loved working at Watts and have been incredibly fortunate and spoiled in that I've been able to pretty much pick my hours, have flexibility with time off, and never having to work past 5, weekends or any holidays.
But after how things went down and how I ended up leaving, the end of August, to now come back- it's a little weird. I'd be lying if I said feelings weren't hurt, and along with that comes a little bitterness, anger and pure frustration. I keep telling myself (I know that sounds weird being, I've only been to work 2 days, but yes, I keep telling myself) that atleast I'm working, I know what I'm doing and for the most part, love what I do. There's just something about knowing that I know how to do my job, and I think I'm pretty darn good at my job: I'm productive, punctual, I do whatever is asked of me, I can multi-task, etc. But when I'm told I need to be more like someone else- I take it personally.
And to clarify, if the person I needed to be more like was doing their job better than I do mine- that would be one thing, but I (and others have agreed with me) don't think this other person does anything better than me! (not to toot my own horn) Ugh! It's so irritating, but I'm ready to show them that I don't need to be "like" anyone else. I can do my job and go beyond to proove that I got my job back because I deserve it.
Sorry for the little rant. But I feel a little better now.

Happy Halloween

It's been a busy, but fun couple of weeks. We went to our ward adult party and Jon and I were the only ones to take pumpkins for the pumpkin carving contest. So Jon took first (with his "The Great Pumpkin") and my frankenstein was runner up.

Last Wednesday the YM/YW put on a Halloween carnival for the primary age children and so we took Austin over, because last year Keegan had so much fun! Austin was a little too young for some of the games but he had no problem with them drawing on his hand.

Since he did well with the hand we decided to see if he'd be ok for some face painting...

Everyone thought he was SO cute!


And then today Jon and I carved the last of our pumpkins.
My scary scarecrow


And then in honor of Real Salt Lake being in the playoffs we decided to carve pmpkins showing our support.

I did the ReAL and Jon did the RSL.

Spencer

We've been watching this little guy for the last few days.....

Because Spencer Jameson was born yesterday!!

Little Cottonwood

Last week Lamont and I decided we better make a trip up the canyon to see the leaves changing before it really starting getting cold.
It was beautiful!

Lamont doing what he does best (checking his phone) while I'm taking pictures!

Unemployment

Back when we were remodeling our kitchen, I took some crap from my family that I didn't really help out and contribute to much of the work that my dad (and family) did rather than pay a subcontractor to do it. For instance, the tile, painting, laying the flooring, etc. Well, this week I think that I more than made up for it.
On Monday, my dad came home with 3 trees and over dinner we all ask when and where he's going to plant them, his response was merely "I was hoping someone would step up to the plate" So he marked where to dig and Tuesday morning I got to work.....

2 in the back yard. Man is our yard rocky!! After I dug for about 30 mins on this one, I gave up and waited for help: Lamont. We had a nice system after that. He used a big rod and broke up and loosened the rocks, ground and then I'd shovel it out. It was kind of funny, after we finished digging we were both pretty fatigued so we just left the holes empty, because I figured dad would just finish: place the tree in and re-fill around it. But then as we were walking in, dad came out and asks, "Don't you want the satisfaction of actually planting it? That way in 30+ years you can say that you actually planted these trees!" I hadn't really thought of it like that, but after he said it, of course I was like " heck yes, I want to say I did this!" So we finished the whole process.

Then yesterday I did this tree in the front yard, all by myself. Dad had removed the section of grass where to dig, but I did the hole 100% on my own and then later that night Jon and dad helped finish placing the tree and filling it in.

I'm pretty proud of myself and I think I proved to a few people that I am capable of doing yard work, and some manual labor! I'm excited to see these trees grow and appreciate the hard work I put in to planting them.

A Special Day

I've debated for the past few days about whether to post about this or not, because it was a special and personal day for Lamont and those in his/our life. So I've decided that I'll post a few pictures and simple statements but all the details I'll keep private.

(if you'd like to know more, you're more than welcome to ask)these are the sister missionaries that taught Lamont.

from left Sis. Ah Su, Josh Dean, Lamont, Sis. Tan, Sis. Christianson. (Tan and Christianson were the first companionship, after about 4 months, Christianson was transfered and Ah Su joined Tan)

Lamont asked Josh to baptize him. He's become a really good friend from the ward.

these 3 got a little restless while Lamont and Josh were getting changed- so cute. Austin and Josh & Jen Dean's little boys: Tom & Eli