Every 2 Weeks Baby!!!

                                                               That was a smile... I think

I am floored that I have kept up my resolution to Blog every 2 weeks for 1 whole month!  I think having my resolutions posted on the fridge keeps me in check.  Jay celebrated his 34th b-day this weekend.  We had a good day relaxing and I made all the bday food he requested, ham biscuits for breakfast, meatloaf and homemade mac and cheese for dinner, followed by lemon chess pie.  He got some new fishing stuff which he tried out on Sunday.  He also was "off" Jack duty, meaning he didn't have to change any diapers.  He missed out on some good ones. 

                              He is wearing a Purdue sweatsuit that I got my  cousin Blake when he was a baby.

                                             snow storm in Missoula, there is a car somewhere under there

I am getting very stoked for February 10th.  I am heading to Las Vegas, baby and husband free, to meet 4 awesome friends that I have known for 20ish years.  We are staying at the Palazzo (new tower connected to the Venetian) and we are planning on having a weekend filled to the brim with FUN.  I took Jack to Missoula a few weeks ago.  I did a few experiments in the lab I used to work in.  My sister watched Jack all week while I worked.  It was great being back in the lab and doing science again.  The stuff I did was a success which is even better.  Kiley learned that watching a toddler for 5 days is a great form of birth control.  She had a lot of fun with him, but was amazed at how busy of a job watching him is.  We also got a GIANT snow storm while we were there, like 2 feet of snow over 2 days.  It was crazy.  We eventually made it home to Jay, just a few days later than planned. 

                                                Idaho Highway on the drive home

Jack has been a little sassy this past week.  He yells at you if you do something to him that he doesn't like (wipe his face off, take something from him).   One thing driving me bananas is that he started dipping his hand into the dog's bowl of water and sipping the water.  It is SO gross.  We have started leaving the water out of his reach while he is awake.  You can ask him what basically any animal says and he will make the sounds (don't even have to show a picture of the animal).  The snorting like a pig and gobbling like a turkey are 2 of my favorites.  When we had snow we did lots of sledding.  It was so much fun for me and brought me back to my childhood to jump on the back of his sled with him and fly down the hill.  He is getting pretty big, wearing size 18 month clothes and he just went up to size 5 diapers.  He is starting to like carrying around fuzzy blankets.  He also has been helping me feed the dogs.  He scoops their food out and dumps      it     into their bowls and is VERY proud of himself.  We are basically down to 1 nap a day for 2-2.5 hours.   He still loves making messes everywhere he goes.  Today we read many books, played with stickers, drew with crayons, and now I think he is waking up from his nap so we will head outside to take a walk and play.  He keeps me very busy and oh my is he precious!

                                                        LOVES reading!

                                                     

                 Head to toe camo-He his thinking about joining an Idaho Militia group :)

XOXO-Emily

Happy 15 Months Mr. Jack

So one of my resolutions this year is to blog twice a month.  This is not because there will be anything insanely neat going on in our lives every 2 weeks, but because this is now my "baby book" for Jack and any future kids.  I was very good about filling out his real baby book during his first year on earth, but now the only pages left in the book are for 2 years, 3, 4 and so on. What about 15 months?  16 months?  17.5 months?  He does so many interesting, cute, new things that I need to record and want to remember.  This is why I am wanting to blog every other week, so I can have all the silly adorable things that go on in our life recorded for me and Jay to someday look back at and reminisce (not that y'all will think any of it is halfway as awesome as we do!).  This year I put my resolutions on paper and they now live on the fridge for me to look at every day.  This seems to be working for me.  I have started doing Yoga most days of the week and I am officially obsessed.  I do not feel normal and good until it is done.  I feel a lot happier and peaceful about life since starting Yoga.  Another thing I have started doing is baking homemade wheat bread.  We go through a lot of bread in our house, Jay eats like 6-8 pieces a day and Jack eats a lot of it too.  I figured it would be healthier and cheaper if I started making it.  The guys love it, it is really good bread, and I find that I really enjoy making it for them. 

 

Jack got his first bloody nose the other day.  I heard a "THWACK" in the hallway (tile floors) and long pause then a giant scream.  I ran in and he was face down, he tripped and his nose broke his fall.  Poor little baby.  I cuddle and distracted him and got the bleeding stopped pretty quickly.  I am sure it is the 1st of many bloody noses he will see.  My little fellow turns 15 months tomorrow.  I can not believe it.  He has added BaaBaa to his words when he sees a sheep, he says "up" to go upstairs or to open his toy box.  He says a word that sounds a little like Giraffe when he sees a giraffe.  "Hut" is Huck and he says "Mar Mar" for Marshall.  He likes to point and touch me and say mama and touches Jay and says dada.  Then we say Jack Jack and point to him.  He says Jack when he sees a picture of himself, it sounds more like "Dack".  We will ask him where "Jack's chair is?" and he runs over and jumps on his chair.  Jay thinks it is funny/cute to try and get him to say hard words like elephant and Thompson.  We have had such sunny, nice weather and have been spending hours outside every day.  We got a snow dusting    last week, so we have been sledding a lot in the yard and Jack loves it, even if some of the ride is on grass.  Jack and I went and had tea and snacks at a neighbor's house with all the retired woman that live on our street.  It was very fun and they got a big kick out Jack.  He was into EVERYTHING, but they didn't mind.  We got together with a friend last week and her 2 boys and went to the park in Grangeville.  It was fun and Jack really enjoyed playing with the other kids.

Jay went to Eugene, Oregon for a few days this week for a logging conference for work.  It was a 10 hour drive, but very pretty.  He said Eugene was a great town and it is only 1.5 hours from coast.  He learned a lot at the conference too.  Jay is taking Jack to a retirement party for one of his coworkers this afternoon.  I think I am going to stay here to have a little alone time, because I am rarely alone.  I made my wonderful mother in law's famous Mac and Cheese for Jay to take to the party,  I bet he will claim he made it :)  

XOXO

                                                                                                       Christmas Morning

                                 

Blog Blitz

I am playing major blog catch up now that the holiday season is over so here goes.

Travels

We traveled in November a lot.  Jack and I went back to Indiana to visit my family at the beginning of the month.  We had such a great time.  My parents took over all things Jack (which is fine for me to have a break :)  My Gaga and the Smith family (my aunt, uncle and cousins) came over for a visit which was so nice for them to travel over to see us.  Cousins Maddy and Blake are so good at playing with Jack and taking care of him.  I am trying to convince their mother to let them drop out of school and come nanny for me.  I don't think she is going to allow that unfortunately.  The trip was lovely and we all loved spending time together.  The airplane rides on the way there were good.  Jack was a delight.  On the way home, not so much, not totally his fault though.  He is very active now so he though it was pretty funny to touch the men sitting next to us.  At one point he sneezed right on our neighbor's hand.  I felt awful. Then we had plane problems which lead us to miss our flight in Salt Lake so we were going to have to either spend 9 hours in the Salt Lake airport and drive 2 hours home very late or stay the night in Salt Lake.  9 hours caring for Jack by myself in an airport sounded like a nightmare so I eventually chose the 2nd option, hotel.  The hotel was gross.  They brought a crib in the room that looked like something you would torture someone with, metal rickety and it had a reddish brown mystery goo all over it (I am thinking blood or poo from the last lucky baby to sleep in it).  Needless to say, Jack didn't sleep in it.  He "slept" and I say "slept" very very loosely with me.  It was a very long night/2 days for both of us, but we eventually made it home.  Thank God.   We have gone back to Missoula a couple times which have been great trips.  I love going back there to visit so much.

For Thanksgiving we traveled as a family (makes air travel with a 1 year old way more tolerable with a spouse) to North Carolina.  Jack was very well behaved on all the flights.  We stayed in a beautiful house on the beach in the Outer Banks.  Watching the sunrise out of the ocean every morning was pretty special, along with the dolphins jumping right in front of our house.  We hot tubbed, relaxed, played, and enjoyed spending time with Jay's awesome family.  Grandaddy and Grandma took Jack from us a few nights so we got to have a much appreciated break, this allowed us to hang out with all the cousins.  It was a holiday full of wonderful food and wonderful people!

Christmas

December was filled with holiday joy in the Hedrick household.  I love love love Christmas and having a child makes it that much more special.  We started by cutting down our Christmas tree and getting it decorated.  There is nothing better to me than listening to Christmas music, having a few Winter Ales and decorating the Christmas tree with my awesome family.  We had a lot of fun, all December long.  My family came out for Christmas and we loved having them.  It was a weekend of Christmas music, bon fires, food, and hanging out.  We really had a great Christmas.  Jack enjoyed opening all the presents and playing with his new toys and the wrapping paper and bows of course.  He also really liked Christmas cookies.  He would yell at you if you were eating one and he didn't have one.  I feel like having a child is allowing me to relive all the Christmas fantasies I believed in and loved when I was young.

                                             Jay teaching Jack about chainsaws

 Jack Update

Jack is quite the little fellow.  He is walking everywhere.  Around the 14 month mark he just took off and hasn't stopped since.  He is saying mama, dada, apple, banana, hot, oof off (dog barking), open mouthed cat like hiss/growl when he sees a picture of a lion, mooooooo when he sees a cow, and a few other things.  He chats constantly.  He is 24 pounds.  His new food that he loves is peanut butter oatmeal.  He is pretty much a vegetarian (by his choice) so I was glad to find out he likes peanut butter.  He likes pancakes, especially ones with chocolate chips and bananas in them, fruit, yogurt, bread, applesauce, and milk.  He is basically off the bottle now.  I am having a hard time giving up the morning bottle b/c that is my favorite time of the day when we sit in the dark after he wakes up and he drink his warm milk and I drink my coffee.   It is called warm snuggle and I love it.  He doesn't sit still very well with out a bottle so I know this special time is coming to an end.  Jack loves to "read", he flips through books a lot through out the day.  He loves romping outside and playing in the mud and rocks.  He can do this for hours and gets very mad at me when I take him inside.  He has started the fun toddler stage.  He yells and throw little fits if you take something from him that he likes.  He is a tornado and makes messes all day long.  We do lots of art work, he is quite the Picasso.  I am so happy I get to spend this precious time with him, watching him grown before my eyes.  It is incredible how much love I have for this child.  Jay and I are so blessed by having him in our lives, and each other of course.  Jay's job is still going well.  Learning so much.  His weekends are spent playing with Jack, last weekend they went sledding, built forts, and made a puppet show stage so Jay could perform a puppet show for him :)  Best dad ever. 

                                                        Finger painting/eating finger paint

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, Cheers to 2012!

Emily

                                                          pretty winter sunset

BOOOOOOO!!!!

Happy Halloween!  We have had a busy few weeks.  My friend Anne and her daughter Dotty came over for a visit a few weeks ago.  Dotty and Jack love each other, they are a month different in age and went to the same school in Missoula, so they spent a lot of time playing together.  We miss them a lot.  We had fun doing some crafts with the babies and we went to some hot springs about an hour from the house.  You have to hike in about 1.5 miles and there are some beautiful hot springs in the middle of nowhere.  The babies loved it, kind of like a big hot bathtub outside.

Jack hit a big milestone on October 15th, he turned 1!   He was sick with a pretty high fever so he didn't enjoy the day too much, but he did like opening presents and eating cake.  He is now waving, at everybody, including dogs, horses, everybody.  He points at everything.  He took his 1st 2 steps the day before his birthday, but since then he mostly monkeys around on all fours.  He shakes his head "no" which is actually pretty cute.  We spend our days together taking lots of walks and wagon rides, feeding the horses behind our house apples, baking, playing, crafting, reading, and exploring.  Our days are very full.  He loves feeding the dogs his food and taking things out of cabinets. 

Last weekend Jack and I went to Missoula for a few days.  It was wonderful to be back, I miss it dearly.  We stayed at Kiley's and had a fabulous time.  Some of his teachers from his old school came over for dinner one night, along with some friends.  He got his year old pictures taken and had his year old doctor appointment.  It is very hard for me to believe a year has passed since he came into out lives.  I know it is cliche sounding, but my gosh his first year went by quickly (too quickly for me).  Jack was a monkey for Halloween (celebrated in Missoula).  In my opinion he was a pretty darn cute monkey. 

Jay is really enjoying his job.  It was a good change for him.  He has been fishing a couple times too.  His favorite hobby at the moment is playing with Jack.

Hope everyone has a SPOOKTACULAR Halloween! (I know I am not funny:)

Emily

Life in Kooskia, Idaho

                                               view coming up the driveway

 Can't figure out how to rotate this.  Marshall and Huck mud wrestled and played in the rain yesterday.

                                                                  Our House

Well folks, we are here.  We made our move from Missoula, Montana to Kooskia, Idaho last week.  My sister helped me move Jack and the dogs over last Friday while Jay finished up with the house, he arrived in Kooskia the following day.  The trip is only 2.5 hours so it wasn't bad.  We had a moving company move us which was super nice to not deal with that.  Moving with a baby is definitely more challenging than moving with just grown ups.  Jack took about 4 days to "adjust" and he is still doing so.  He is finally sleeping a little better and his attitude is back to his cheery normal self.

The house we are renting is absolutely beautiful.   It is just outside the town of Kooskia, population 675.  We are up on a ridge with 2 acres fenced in, outdoor hot tub, gardens, ponds, a small orchard, and a stunning mountain view.  The town of Kooskia is very interesting to say the least.  It is a far cry from being anything like Missoula.  It is very small, very rural, but the people are very nice.  We are hours from an interstate and 1 hour and 45 minutes away from a town over the size of 3000 people.  It is quite different, but we have high hopes that it will be a good experience.  We already got invited to square dancing lessons down at the middle school by our 70 something year old neighbors.  So we could have permanent Friday night plans if we wanted to :)  Despite Jay's love of square dancing, I have a sneaking suspicion we will probably not  be able to make it to square dance lessons.  There are lots of outdoor activities to do here.  Our house is just a few miles from National Forrest land for endless hiking.  We are just a couples miles from some of the best Steelhead and Salmon fishing streams.  People drive from all over to fish these rivers.  Marshall "caught" a duck this morning in our yard.  Jay stopped him from killing it and it flew over to the neighbors pond.  The dogs are in heaven here.  With 2 acres to run and explore on, they have hit the jack pot.  I am still working for my boss at the University of Montana.  I took one of out computers from the lab with me and have remote access set up on it so I can work from home.  This is great for me to be able to work my mind some. 

Jack has been on lots of walks and seems to be enjoying it here now that rooms are unpacked and he can roam around.  He is standing up on his own and will almost take a step, but not quite.  He has decided to become a picky eater.  His diet lately has consisted of cheerios, toast, yogurt, and fruit.  He spits out then throws on the ground anything with protein or any veggie.  I will post some house picture soon.  We are going to meet some of out Missoula friends on the river today to try out some steelhead fishing, fingers crossed.  Jay starts work Tuesday which I am sure he is going to love.  I will be updating you guys a lot more often now that I have the time.  Love to everyone!

Emily

To Idaho We Go!

Well.....I was going to apologize to the 2 or 3 of my loyal blog fans for not blogging lately (busy busy summer), but it looks like in about a month I am going to have MUCH more time to blog and make Jack videos because we are moving to Idaho.  As most of you know, Jay took a job in Grangeville, Idaho.  It is about 3 or 4 hours from Missoula.  It is a very small town (3000 people small), but in a beautiful area with lots of outdoor activities in every direction.  I am very sad to leave Missoula, I have completely fallen in love with this town and the surrounding areas, but this is a great job opportunity for Jay.  I will be staying at home for a while with Jack (no jobs for me in Grangeville) so I am excited about that.  We are now starting the fun process of moving, I am discovering that there is so much to do before October 1st. 

Jack has had quite the summer.  We took him on his very first camping trip to Rock Creek.  We chose a place fairly close to Missoula for his 1st trip in case something happened or if he couldn't sleep.  We had a great time.  Jack slept very well (that was my biggest concern) besides for the 3:00am diaper blowout.  I can now tell you from experience, it is not fun changing a messy diaper at 3:00am in a tent when it is cold outside.  Jay and I used good teamwork and got the job done.  We went hiking, relaxed, caught fish, and just really had a lot of fun sharing something we love to do with Jack. 

                                             camping at Rock Creek

My parents came to visit to watch Jack while Jay and I went on a backpacking trip to Boulder Lake.  They stayed in a cabin in the Bitterroot Valley with Kiley, Jack, and Marshall.  Jay, Huck, and I car camped 1 night then hiked to Boulder Lake to camp.  It was so much fun.  A lot of fish had really sore mouths in that lake :) I swear Jay caught 100 fish.  I relaxed a lot in my camping hammock, it was lovely.  We love Jack so much, but it is really nice and appreciated when we have a night or 2 away with each other with no responsibilities. 

                                                  Boulder Lake

                                                  Ahhhhhhh, bliss

Room with a view

Jack is a WILD little man.  He is sweet, funny, silly, and active.  He crawls everywhere like a maniac, he can pull 75 books off of his book shelf in the blink of an eye.  It is a work out keeping up with him, but it is truly so much fun.  He has 5 teeth now.  He feeds himself a breakfast of toast and a banana most mornings.  He loves eating all his other meals too, but still prefers yogurt or bananas to anything else.  He had his 1st taste of ice cream the other day and didn't know what to think.  He looked pleasantly shocked with every bite.  He loves playing with all his toys, balls, books, and loves being tickled (he chuckles and chuckles).  We miss you all and I will get another post up soon. 

Love, Emily

Oh the Milestones

Well Summer has finally arrived in Montana.  Bright blue skies, green mountains and hills, and sweet sunshine.  I can't express to you how special of a place Montana is, to me it really is one of the most beautiful places on earth.  I also love that Jack gets to experience growing up here.  We have been taking lots of hikes.  Jay and I took the boys (Jack, Huck, and Marshall) to Lake Como this past weekend.  It is a very scenic lake nestled in the Bitterroot Mountains just south of Missoula.  

We took a really nice hike along the lake, the hike leads to some nice waterfalls.  The dogs swam and Jack rode in his baby hiking backpack, which he loves.  Jay went fishing with some friends on Sunday so Jack and I got to spend the day together.  We walked around downtown and went the market.  I made him some beef stew and he seemed to like it.  For the 4th we hung out at home and worked in the yard.  That afternoon we went to a BBQ at our friend's house.  Jack and his lady friend Dotty went on a wagon ride and played a lot.  It was a great weekend.  

Jack hit a couple milestones lately.  The first big one was on the day after Father's Day, he was babbling and we heard him say dada so Jay got down on his level and started saying dadadada and Jack looked right in his eyes and with the softest, sweetest baby voice, he repeated dada.  It was quite a moment.  He has done that a few more times since then.  We know that he doesn't necessarily know that Jay is dada, but to witness him communicating like that for the first time was very neat. 

He spent last weekend  teething, not very fun.  But....all that fussing, whining, and congestion lead to his first tooth popping out!  I was at work a week or 2 ago and I got a text from his teacher at daycare, it was Jack standing up holding on to a table.  He started pulling up to standing and is doing it a lot.  He does it in his crib which is frustrating when he is trying to take a nap.  He is such a delight and we just love every minute we get to spend with him :)