Wonderful Holiday

Jude's first Christmas was a wonderful time. Being home with both Garrett's and my family made it so special. We spent Christmas Even with the Higerds and then Christmas Day with the Paynes and finaly coming together as one big group for Christmas dinner. There was a lot of laughing and a lot of gift opening. But the best part of the day was seeing how much joy my son brings to the grandparents. Each of them, all four, interact with him so sweetly, yet so differently. I can only imagine the kinds of relationships he will have with them. But I have to admit it has been super fun for me to see how my mom interacts with Jude. Most of the time all I can do is laugh at her and her silliness. But as each day passes, I am learning about the kind of mother she was to me by her actions with Jude. Her playfulness is contageous.

Christmas Eve with Grandmomma opening his First Christmas Present.

YES! A Toolbench.

Christmas Morning.

Inspecting the cool books from Care and AB.

Chiristmas morning with Daddy and Grandpa.

Riding the Lion with Grandma. Garrett and his Siblings
My Uncle Ron, Francine, Kaycee and Chandler
Grandpa and Jude playing with his Lion washcloth. One of many presents bought for Jude that I was told after the fact that were for "Grandma's House." HAHA

Jude and Chandler Bing eating dinner.

Jude's first Christmas was super fun, and it was great to be with so much family. As the years progress, I am looking forward to having our own family traditions and creating a holiday culture that is uniquly ours. Garrett and I have some ideas about family traditions we want to create, with emphasis on the "I"..., and I am anxious to implement them in the coming years.

New Years Promise

Here is my attempt at a public promise with some background info...

I have been feeling prompted by the Lord for some time to begin my day at 5 am. Now that idea in and of itself must be a holy one because nothing in my person-hood thinks a 5am start time sounds like fun. But as I began thinking about it seriously, I saw all the benefits of redeeming two hours in the morning before Jude is up for the day. He wakes up to nurse around 5 anyway, so its not like I have to pull myself out of my warm bed for nothing right... Its almost comical how easy the Lord has made it for me to obey him here. Now I realize that there might be mornings that I need that two hours of sleep and if I go back to bed every once in a while I believe that will be ok. After all Jesus cares about my heart and its motives, not my legalistic self-inflicted rules.

So this extra time I have decided will provide uninterrupted time for my devotionals, time to exercise, and to blog. "YEAH BLOGGING", I can hear my sister Bing say. She is always nagging me that she knows more about my nieces that about her own nephew... But seriously how I compete with SuperMom Mari...

So here are my ideas:
I am thinking that one day a week I will post some family anecdote including pictures. This will hopefully give everyone their Jude fix and give me something to show my son how I chronicled his life. Because it doesnt look like his Baby Book will ever get filled in. But you never know what I'll be able to accomplish in two hours...

Next, since I love to cook and am always experimenting and finding delicious recipes, I thought I would share one cooking related story a week. This will help me to be more like my amazing friend Lydia, who will be SuperMom #2 when her peanut Ruby is born.

And lastly, I am hoping to share something that the Lord is doing in my life. I am constantly amazed by the grace that is lavished upon me by the Savior and so I thought this would be a good place to share some of the amazing things He does. I am thinking I will share teachings that I have benefited from, scripture passages that I find helpful and general devotional type stories. Basically anything that helps me see and know Jesus better.

So there it is. My New Years Promise... At least 3 blogs a week... Any one care to hold me to it?

Pictures for Chandler

Here are a few pictures from when Mari and her girls visited last week. It was so fun to have them around. I cant help by wonder what Christmas will be like once they are all mobile... What fun we are in for.

Finally a good family picture.Unkol Grant

Annabelle is sad...:(

Serious Son

Chandler, this is for you! I hate your stinkin guts!

Meek's Bay

On Sunday we returned home from a four day camping trip in Meek's Bay at Lake Tahoe. Garrett's Mom's family has been camping at this same campground every summer since Kathy was in High School. Phil reminiscently said, he has been there every year for the past 32 years! Talk about a family tradition. Garrett, Jude and I joined in the fun this year and had a wonderful time.

I was a little nervous taking my 11 week old son tent camping, but like always he was great. We took a Pack-n-play and set it up in the tent and he slept wonderfully, just like we were at home. I had been reading about establishing a nighttime routine with familiar smells and such, so I brought a few of his toys and a blanket he had been sleeping with in his crib, so he would recognize his things and feel comfortable. I was pleasantly surprised at how well he did. I kept telling him and Garrett, that I am hoping Jude has fun because if Jude doesn't have fun nobody will have fun... Let's just say that this Higerd Family will be traveling to Meek's Bay every August we can!

The camp ground is very simple. It looked a lot like Mammoth except beautiful Lake Tahoe is less than 200 yards from the camp site. Having been there I can now see how much fun it was for Garrett to go an play there each and every summer. He still loves to swim in the lake and he is anxiously awaiting the time when Jude is old enough to go catch crawdads.

Kathy, Phil and Grant were there too. Actually we were there with them if you want to get technical, but I dont really think that matters. They were there from the weekend before, Phil came home to work during the week and then traveled back up with us. Kathy had a bunch of her family visit. Her parents were staying in South Lake Tahoe since they can no longer camp, so they camp by the camp once or twice we had a nice dinner with them and her sister Judy on Thursday. Kathy's other sister Susan and her partner Janine came and camped over the weekend we weren't there (I hope we get to see them soon, Its because of Susan that Garrett and I went to New Zealand on our Honeymoon) and ended up giving us their tent as a present for Jude. When Kathy told me that I had to laugh because Susan is so generous and non-traditional is made perfect sense to give us a tent for a baby present. And it was perfect too! Jude's pack-n-play fit great and it very nice and roomy. I love it!

On Saturday my parents drove up on the Harley. For all of you in shock and awe, yes my mother camped! It was only for one night and she slept so awful, she woke up my dad crying in the middle of the night because she was dreaming about not being able to find a place to sleep and she was so tired... Dad laughed and told me that he had brought her camping, secretly hoping she would sleep bad, so that she would be ok with his buying a trailer... I think my parents will be purchasing a travel trailer some time soon.

We had a great time at the lake and I look forward to make many memories there with my family in the future...

Here are some pictures:















Check Back soon for the Wood Carving Contest videos and our Oreo Moments...

More Beach Pictures

Garrett's Aunt Jackie took some great pictures from the Beach Day we had while on our vacation. I took them off her website here. Many thanks to her for capturing these great and very funny images.

Jude and Great Grandma Nana getting to know each other. He is at times very flirtatious.

And he can also be very attentive.

Mommies and Cousins

Ok, here is the beginning of a really funny photo montage. I don't think Mari or I knew but Jackie just kept snapping pictures as we tried to get at least one good one of all of us. It started with Mari and I and the kiddos, then the Grandmomma and Great Nana, and finally Hannah. Well lets just say getting that many people to look cute and pay attention for that long was quite funny. I hope you enjoy the photos!









As you can see by the end Care was over it! I am so thankful for these pictures. They are priceless to me and so stinking funny! Thanks again Jackie for taking them and also posting them so I can have them too!

In case you are wondering what Care is holding its her Daddy Doll. Mari had one made for each of the girls and they are the coolest thing. Gabe's picture is printed into the fabric on the front and its backed with an American Flag print. When they get dirty you just throw them in the wash. Such a great thing. You can see Mari and Gabe's walk on the beach here. She also has some more great pictures from our vacation!

Hot Water and a Frog

So Ginny, Mari's Mom, gave me a little frog pool to take Jude swimming in. Since I don't have a place to blow it up I gave it to my Mom figuring we could have some fun in the frog at her house. The other afternoon we took Jude swimming for the first time.

Mom blew up the frog and put it under one of her big shade trees in the back yard. We kenneled all the dogs and she turned on the hose. Mom told me that the water that comes out of the hose initially is really hot so we might have to cool down the water before we put Jude in the pool. It all sounded good to me until I felt the water. IT WAS FREEZING! Mom had left the hose running in the garden so the sun had not heated the water left in the hose. She tried to tell me it was warm enough for Jude to play in, she kept saying its a pool not a bath... I reluctantly got in the froggy pool with my son and watched him turn a faint shade of purple. I was right it was way too cold. I sent Mom inside for a large bucket of hot water to warm the pool because the hose water was so cold she had to make two trips. After I was satisfied with the temperature, she got in the pool and made a huge fuss about how hot the water was and how Jude was going to go to sleep because the water was making him lethargic. In my defense, it wasn't "hot" it was warm like his bath. And furthermore, I am his mother so I get to decide the temperature of the water. So there... :)

Jude seemed to really like the pool and the water. He wasn't as excited as he is in the bath, but I think for a first attempt it was a success. We will have to try it again and see if his daddy likes the frog pool as much as his mommy and grandma did.

Jude having some outside Tummy Time waiting for hot water...

Mommy and Son

Grandma and Jude splashing around.

Contemplating the fun of swimming...

Only on a baby are back fat rolls cute.

Playing in the Frog.

Mommy and Son take 2.

After the swim in our swim diaper...

If you would like to see some videos of the "Problems we are having at Grandma's house" Click here...

And here is a video of Jude in the bath... This wasn't his most exciting tub, but you get the idea of how much he likes it...