Jackson's 2 Year Stats

Jackson's 2 Year Well Check:
Weight: 23.6/5%
Height: 34/50%
Head Circumference: 19.50/75%
Shoe Size: 7/8 toddler
Diaper: size 3 (although you could easily wear 4 and are right on the edge of needing to)
Clothing: 2T... and sometimes 3T (definitely not in pants though... in pants you still sometimes need 24 mo which has a smaller waist size (if it doesn't have an elastic band), although 24 mo is starting to get to short)

Jackson @ 2 Years Old

• Favorite Food: brown rice, chicken noodle soup... pretty much just the noodles, chedder cheese, waffles, french toast, toast with butter and honey OR garlic toast, pretty much any bread, corn, fruit (especially grapes), pasta with butter and salt (no sauce), potatoes in any form, popcorn (your favorite is kettle corn), pretty much any snack type food, and ANY sweet. You are still a very picky eater and don't eat very much when you do eat.
• You pronounce candy, "kia" ... like the car.
• Your most used phrase during the day is, "Up please!" (request for us to hold you)
• Your current favorite DVD is "Ratatouille." You always point and say, "cook". You also still like watching Barney, Sesame Street and Baby Einstein.
• You are pretty meticulous about where things go and love to put things away. You pick up an item that's out of place and say "away?" (hope that lasts!)
• You are such a little character and have us laughing throughout the day.
• You love books and going to the library. You particularly love going to storytime and jumping onto the beanbags.
• At bed/naptime you have to have Mr. Bear, Elmo, and your books in bed with you. Every night we help you get under the covers (Elmo too) and you give us kisses and we say goodnight (after both mommy and daddy sing to you).
• When we come to get you in the morning, you always get a huge smile on your face. Recently you like to take Elmo, Mr. Bear, and your books out too.
• You love getting into mommy's purse... especially for chapstick, mints, and if you had it your way gum!
• You now let us know when you have a poopy diaper... you point to your diaper and say, "poopy, I change it"
• You love when all 3 of us lay down in bed and get under the covers. You'll pull up the covers to your chin and say, "night, night!"
• You love helping me with chores... laundry (separating colors and pouring the detergent in), sweeping, dusting and cooking/baking.
• You love running around the island screaming and laughing... especially with daddy's chasing you. You scream "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
• You love making loud, silly noises and laugh in delight when we copy you.
• You copy EVERYTHING we say.
• You love looking at pictures of pple you know and things you've done.
• You pick up on things really quickly and are a smartie pants. We pretty much think you are a genius:).
• You love going to Grandma and Grandpa's house.
• You enjoy going to the mall and observing all the commotion and people (especially during the holidays and also when you get to play at dino land)
• You love all balls and know which sport they belong to.
• You love Buzz lightyear (even though you've never seen Toy Story), but there is one in nursery class you love. Before you got one for your b-day you would say, "Buzz... church" just to let us know you know that Buzz is at church. You would say this at the most random times during the day.
• You love bubbles.
• You love flashlights.
• You love turning anything/everything on and off.
• You love this little flying saucer thing that Grandma and Grandpa Bevans gave you last Christmas... and particularly love charging it;P
• You love animals
• You know all your letters, some numbers and colors (red, yellow, green, blue, purple).
• If asked how old you are you will say, "I two!"
• You love to cuddle and give hugs to mommy, daddy, grandma and grandpa, and sometimes your little friends in nursery.

It's Good To Be TWO

On December 19th Jackson turned 2! How did he go from this...

to this very busy toddler SO QUICKLY?!



It is INSANE how FAST it went! Jackson is such a good little boy and is an absolute sweetheart with a heart of gold. For his birthday we had a little party over at my mom and Robert's where he got completely spoiled (not to mention he was also spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa Bevans! He is one lucky boy!). As you can see, Grandma and Grandpa Jensen's main gift was a tricycle... I think it'll take some practice this summer to get the peddles down (Every time we try to put his feet on the peddles, he says "no, no." I think it's a weird feeling for him to have his legs stretched out), but that doesn't stop him from riding it. He LOVES it and was grinning from ear to ear when they brought it up (all assembled thanks to Grandpa (Mark was particularly excited about that one).
The cake was kind of a disaster (or at least the decoration part). I had bought black icing to draw a basketball, but when I was ready to start drawing the lines it was nowhere to be found. After DIGGING through the trash (yes, I actually did, thinking it was mistakingly left in a grocery bag) I found the receipt and the icing was not listed... which meant it's in a Harmon's cart somewhere... probably frozen. So, I just dyed some icing blue (it was all I had) and went with it. Oh well. I do have to say the cake itself was the best cake I ever made... thanks to a Good Things Utah recipe:). As long as it tastes good that's all that matters, right?
Jackson had a blast "riding" around on his trike and eating cake (he didn't care about blowing out the candles, just eating the cake... which he asked for every 5 minutes). :) It was a really great day! Happy 2nd Birthday my sweet boy!! We love you!!!!!!!!

Bevans Christmas Card 2010

This year I'm being lazy (no real excuse) and "trying" something different... a blogger/e-card:). I will return to the normal mailing out of cards next year! ;P

2010 has been a wonderful year for us and definitely busy. Mark had a CRAZY semester... with a Master's class, an hour long commute, planning lessons for Spanish 2 and 3, doing other required things for school, oh and having a toddler (and wife:)) shadow him around when he gets home every day... he definitely deserves this week and a half winter break! Mark decided to take a break from master classes until summer (especially since a newborn will be added to the craziness in April! We're loving being home right now (the best part of him being a teacher are the holiday breaks) and Jackson follows him around EVERYWHERE like a little puppy dog! Mark is pretty much his hero... it's Mom, who? whenever Daddy's home! I welcome the break at first, but then start missing my little side kick! Although, he still comes up to give me lots of hugs, kisses and smiles... he seriously is the best little boy in the entire world. We're loving the age he's at right now... he's a little sponge and just soaks up EVERYTHING!

Here's to 2011!!! YAY!! I love the fresh start each year!

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Differences... so far...

Although I was a tad bit more nauseated with this baby (I threw up twice with this pregnancy and 0 with Jackson's), the main differences are...

1. This pregnancy is F L Y I N G by, Jackson's seemed to take F O R E V E R. I'm thinking it's because I now have a little toddler to LOVE on and keep me busy, busy, BUSY AND I know how hard the first 3-4 months are... and how LITTLE sleep I will be getting (plus this time I'll have a busy toddler to look after too), so I'm enjoying and savoring the one-on-one moments I have (all day) with my little guy and the SLEEP I am currently getting while I still can:).

2. Jackson was a MOVER... I mean he moved all day long (sometimes all night)... not just little movements, either... BIG movements, like "HEY, Mom! I'm here!!" He hasn't changed at all and has been an active and alert little guy since he's been born. This sweet little girl barely moves at all and when she does it is small, little (dainty:)) movements. It makes me paranoid... but it doesn't matter what I do, she only moves when she wants to... and that's not a lot. Maybe it will change as I get further along? I can't remember. But, I'm kind of crossing my fingers that she's calm and an amazing sleeper:).

3AM

Yep, 3 AM and I am not sleeping... and haven't even fallen asleep even for 5 minutes since going to bed at 11:30 (and I thought that was late!)... and it's not because of a crying baby... but because of sterioids. I've had pretty moderate-serious asthma since I was 5 (resulting in several hospital trips when I was younger, one of the trips included a collapsed lung). However, most of my life it really hasn't effected me besides taking inhalers... I've always been very active and done whatever sport/activity I desired.

However, it DOES really effect me when I get a cold... or more specifically a chest cold, which is why I always get a flu shot. Usually flu shots do pretty well keeping away the serious flu/cold illness'. However, this week I was hit with a really bad chest cold. For the first day I put off going to the doctor, but that night was HORRIBLE and I could barely breathe and was taking my inhaler every hour (and of course, the entire night I was thinking about what this was doing to my little baby). So, went to the doctor, she checked my oxygen levels which were low and I couldn't take a full breath... so she put me on a 3-5 day course of steroids. Today was my first FULL dose of steroids. I didn't think I was experiencing any side effects, but now I totally realize I AM. Because it is TOTALLY unlike me to be up until 3 AM willingly (I am so NOT a night owl and am usually the first to bed).

HOWEVER, I do want to say that steroids are a miracle for asthma. My lungs totally improved within even a couple of hours and today I felt like I could breathe again COMPLETELY normal!

Anyway, the END (of my middle of the night blog writings;P). Hopefully I'll get at least SOME sleep... PLEASE!

Ho! Ho! Ho! = Christmas Tree

A couple of months ago I pulled out this little bath toy Santa for Jackson told him it was Santa Claus and that Santa says, "Ho! Ho! Ho!" and "Merry Christmas!" So, every night at bathtime Jackson would talk about Santa and what he says.

About 1 month later, the stores started putting up Christmas trees... so Jackson points to one and I told him it was a Christmas tree... 2 seconds later he pointed to it and said, "Ho!". Yep. So every time he see's any Christmas tree... he points and says in a loud voice, "HO!"

The funniest Christmas tree or "Ho!" story:

We were walking into the library and next to our library there is a big Christmas tree. I point out the Christmas tree and say, "Look at the big Christmas tree." Thirty minutes later as we're walking out of the library, Jackson points to the Christmas tree and says loudly, "Big ho!!" Hmmmm... yep Jackson. No matter how many times we have corrected him, he never changes his word for Christmas tree (which is funny since he will point to normal tree's and say... tree).

{ think PINK }

If you haven't guessed by the title of this post already... we're having a

GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:::: SQUEAL::::

We cannot wait to meet her. I think Jackson is going to be the best big brother to his little sister... and Mark's going to the best overprotective father:). She's a lucky girl!

 It's crazy to me that in April we'll be meeting our little GIRL...have I said that yet?! GIRL, GIRL, GIRL:). And yes, I already went out and bought a girly outfit with some girly headbands to match:). I can't even tell you how fun it was to walk in the store and actually be looking at girl things for MY baby girl and not someone else's:).

Fall/Halloween 2010

2nd Annual Bevans Family Pumpkin Patch:)

I asked Jackson to sit on a pumpkin and was shocked when he actually did!:)

Jackson loved drivin' this tractor

Jackson got bubbles at a Halloween story time at the library... and he LOVED them.

MMM... Kettle popcorn!

We decided to add a new tradition... every year when we carve pumpkins we are going to get a pizza (I know, a very original tradition)! Papa Murphy's made this cute Jack O' Lantern pizza during the month of October. (Ironically, we ended up not carving pumpkins that night since we got busy/lazy/tired.... in that order). Jackson did eat his first piece of pizza that night (all other attempts at trying to get Jackson to try pizza has failed in the past... I guess he was hungry enough to give it a try... and surprise, surprise... he liked it!)

Jackson LOVED carving pumpkins... although he wouldn't stick his hand too far in and would grab Mark's hand to get him to do it instead. I think he was a little freaked out at the slimy guts of the pumpkin.

Jackson was a baseball player this year for Halloween (and so was Mark:)). He would only wear his baseball hat AFTER Mark put his on and we said "Look, Daddy has his hat on." Grandma Bevans made the cute uniform for him! She's an amazing seamstress (she even sewed all of the flower girls dresses at my wedding). I really need to learn how to sew.

Showing off the back of his jersey (actually he's crying and trying to take off the hood of his sweatshirt underneath... but whatever works, right?)

Out trick-or-treating in the freezing, cold rain and wind... but it was worth it. Every time we asked Jackson if he wanted to back inside, he would shake his head no. He was lovin' it.

After the first outing of the houses on one side of the street we came back inside to get Jackson warmed up (he wanted to put my hat on, which I think is a fabulous addition to his costume). About 10 minutes later Mark and Jackson went out again for about 20-30 minutes. **This picture is hilarious because Jackson FINALLY gave in to Mark's pleadings for an M&M (Jackson had probably eaten about 6 M&M's in a row before giving him one. By the way, at the end of the night after having about 3 or so pieces of candy Jackson was SOOOOOO hyper... he was jumping off the couch into Mark's arms and screaming. We have NEVER seen him SO hyper and so excited. It was hilarious... we have a video... if I can figure it out I'll have to post it.

I forgot to get a picture of the cooked version of our traditional Halloween dinner (which I've been having since I was a little kid). It's not really that big of a deal, but Halloween just isn't the same without it!

We had a really fun Halloween this year... and we can tell that each year it is just going to get better as our kids get older and start getting excited and understanding what is going on. Mark and I felt like we were kids again!

{two please}

T W O...

the number of KIDS we'll soon have come APRIL

which means, we'll be havin' TWICE as much fun, TWICE the C R A Z I N E S S, and most of all TWICE the LOVE, HUGS, and KISSES:)

Updates to come on whether our sweet baby is a BOY or a GIRL.

Although I don't think Jackson fully understands, he already points to my tummy and says, "baby!" and then puts his head on my tummy and gives the baby some lovin'. I KNOW he's going to be an INCREDIBLE big brother. It already brings tears to my eyes...

Jackson at 18-22 months

WAY late on posting Jackson's 18 month stats/ information... but better late than never (which seems to be becoming a common phrase on our blog:).

** warning... this is a very long post with A LOT of details for our own memories of Jacks as the perfect little toddler he is... I don't really expect anyone to really want to read this :-)

18 month stats
Weight: 22.3, 10%
Height: 33, 75%
Head Circumference 19, 75%
Shoe Size: 7


Jackson at 18-22 months

• You are slowly getting better at eating regular food. Some days you do awesome and some days you could care less about "real" food.
• (sadly) you already love and recognize McDonalds (you dad and I got a little excited when you actually ate 2 chicken nuggets and not just baby food for dinner)
• You will sometimes (if your in the mood) eat an almond butter + jelly sandwich (your allergic to peanuts), grilled cheese sandwiches,  french toast, and whatever we're having for dinner (if we can actually get you to try it)
• Your main diet most days is filled with yogurt, cheese, fruit, cereal, and bread.
• You LOVE fruit... pretty much any piece of fruit, but your favorite is grapes.
• You love pretty much any snack food or cereal
• If you're feeling outgoing you will randomly say hi to people.
• Your favorite word and toy is ball.
• Sesame Street, Baby Einstein, and Barney are shows you like to watch.
• You LOVE books... especially if they have animals, people and Sesame Street characters.
• When we ask you a question and the answer's yes you nod your head and give this little sound "uhhh"... no.... you shake your head.
• You love the park... especially if it has sand to play in... and the pool
• Every time we've gone to the beach (all of 2-3 times), you've been totally enamoured with all the sand and water (a mix of your two favorite things)
• You love Disneyland... on your first trip you never got scared (except for the characters) and were excited and pointing at everything!
• You love being around other kids.
• You love to color
• You're very curious and pretty social... if it's a small group or one on one you'll usually go right up to kids your age.
• You love giving hugs to other kids (although they don't always want hugs:))
• You react so much to music... every time you hear an upbeat song you start dancing and smiling.
• You imitate everything! If I sigh out of frustration, you sigh, if we say a word you think is funny, you'll try to attempt to say it... some words off the the top of my head... "ridiculous," "alright," and "humongous" (from a Sesame Street episode)
• If you can't find me, you walk around the house calling out "moooooomm, mooooommm!"
• You HATE going to bed and start crying and shaking your head the moment I say "time for bed"
• You love all sweets
• You're allergic to peanuts
• You have a special bond with daddy and LOVE to play anything with him.
• When you fall or get hurt you look for mom for some sympathy.
• You're becoming very independent and will push us away when you want to do something by yourself.
• You're super cuddly and affectionate... you give us lots of hugs and kisses throughout the day. When we're out shopping you'll randomly touch my face, smile and cuddle into me... which absolutely melts my heart and I always soak it all in (since I KNOW one day you'll be too embarrassed/ too big for giving hugs and kisses to mom).
• Lately, one of the 1st things you say when you wake up is, "I eat!" Other phrases I can think of... I touch it... (used as a question of whether you can touch something or letting us know you touched something... sometimes something we told you not to touch), I shoot it (for basketball, although it sounds a lot more like a certain 4 letter words, which your dad and I find pretty amusing)
• Lately you've been pointing to items and saying "mommy's" or "daddy's"
• When mom or dad walk through the door after being gone you say, "Moooooooommy" or "Daaaaaaaddy" in a high cute voice
• You love putting on your socks and shoes (and daddy's and mommy's shoes as well...)
• Your favorite toys are blocks, your barn, bat, plastic golf clubs, any ball, basketball hoop, cars, and books, books, books.
• You are fascinated with letters and know pretty much all of them (you get a little confused with M and W).

Summer 2010

California Here We Come!

Back in August we went to California to visit family and to go on a mini vacation (a very much needed one! The trip was AWESOME, but the road trip out there was pretty much he**. Jackson did not sleep the ENTIRE 12 hour drive out there and the last 2 hours (out of sheer exhaustion and frustration at being in his car seat he was crying/screaming (which I'm pretty sure almost caused a nervous breakdown in all of us, but especially my mom who is no longer used to screaming/crying kids... especially for 2 LONG hours, but really who is?).





DISNEYLAND

I'm pretty sure I love Disneyland still as much as I did when I was a kid. The happiest place on earth? Absolutely! We were a little worried that Jackson would be too young to really enjoy Disneyland, but we had nothing to worry about... he loved EVERYTHING and never showed any signs of being nervous/scared on any of the rides. I think he was pointing at everything and smiling the entire time we were there!

Jackson's cousins, Grandma Bevans, and Aunt Lisa were also at Disneyland! Love this picture!

Jackson's face after we were leaving Autotopia. Definitely his favorite ride.

So true:)

Our favorite picture of the entire trip (thanks to Mark's excellent picture taking skills)



Jackson loves his cousins, especially Ben



 LAGUNA BEACH

Jackson LOVES the beach just like his mom! It was a little cold that day at the beach (CA had a weird summer this year). But, we still had a lot of fun. Sand, water, and waves= one happy little boy!

We learned from the trip out to CA and decided not to drive all the way through on the way back home. Jackson was SO happy to be out of the car! He was jumping up and down on the bed.

Lots of yummy fruit salad this summer!

Always trying to be like Dad:)

First drink of champagne! Nah, don't worry... it's sparkling apple cider!

The family at my uncle's wedding in Park City

 HOGLE ZOO

Had to make one more trip to the zoo before it turns cold outside!

Jackson loved the elephants... I think they were his favorite animal he saw that day. Do you see the baby elephant with it's momma? So cute!

MMMM ice cream.... despite being a very picky eater, this kid will eat ANYTHING sweet.

Jackson randomly and completely on his own decided to climb on this bench and take a break (we were in the middle of walking up a big hill). It was pretty funny.

And Jackson's favorite part of the zoo... the playground of course (although he also loved the little train as well). You can see how thrilled he is that I am interrupting his play time to take a picture.

And of course, we spent a lot of time playing outside with bats, balls, and golf clubs in the park:).

hot dog!

I have a lot to catch up on since I've been a horrible blogger (mainly because our computer has a virus... so I hate going on it to post pictures, etc.). But, for a quick post (for memories sake)... today Jackson and I were playing playdough at the kitchen table. I made a hot dog and said, "Look Jackson, a hot dog!" and he went... "Ruff, Ruff". I started laughing hysterically... for like 10 minutes:). Jackson cracks me up every day... his personality is coming through more and more every day. I cannot believe how fast he is growing!

Speaking of play dough... Jackson is great and pretending to eat all sorts of food with play dough (and will even stick the play dough in his mouth... yuck... something were working on). I wish he would do the same for real food... he is the PICKIEST eater EVER!!!!!!

July '10

Jackson and I... in semi-matching shirts (by random chance... we went on a walk and some lady in her car rolled down her window and was like awww... did you dress matching on purpose? I looked down and realized that we both had yellow shirts and blue shorts on... so cute;P)

July 3rd- went to I-HOP... Jackson was a pill the entire time we ate... a childless couple next to us kept looking over at us with judging eyes as if to say, "would you PLEASE keep your child quiet!". I pretended I didn't notice them giving us a stare down.  I hope I was never like that before I had Jackson... I don't remember being like that, but after after Jackson I don't remember a lot of things:) 

Later that day we went to my mom and Roberts for a pre-firework show BBQ (in UT they celebrated the 4th on Saturday and Sunday...)

We also celebrated their birthdays (Roberts on 7/1 and my mom's on 7/5... I think that having a birthday near the 4th of July would be fabulous!

Wating for the fireworks to begin!

Jacks waiting w/ Grandma and Grandpa

The FAM

For my mom's 50th birthday we went on an air balloon over Park City! Mark was supposed to go, but he ended up watching Jackson since someone would've had to watch him at like 4:30AM and everyone we felt close enough to to bug that early in the morning was either coming with us or working. I felt SO bad that he wasn't going and also panicked on the morning of thinking I was going to die in a hot air balloon and not be able to see Jackson grow up (I'm so not dramatic or anything). I'm probably one of the least risk taking people you'll ever meet so going on a hot air balloon was a big deal... let's just say I was hanging on the handle inside the balloon for dear life feeling nauseated for about half the trip until I thought to myself, I better start enjoying this! Which I did. Eventually. It really was gorgeous, but I was glad when I had my feet back on the ground. I know, I'm a wimp. Just say it.

Us. Really high. We just got higher.

My certificate I can show everyone proving I really did it!

We found this baseball bean bag on clearance for $7 at Target due to the fact it is FILTHY AND claims that you should only spot clean it, but one of these days I am going to unzip it and take all the stuff out, wash it and if it survives I'll put it back together. MARK was super excited at this find.

Sunday afternoon we all went on a walk... anyone who knows me or my family knows I am extremely clumsy. I fell. It happened in slow motion... half way through I thought I grabbed the stroller strongly enough to just stumble, but I was wrong. This scrape is now a scab and it is taking FOREVER to heal, but mostly I was just embarrassed since of course, there were several neighbors outside to witness this fall.

We still went on our walk. We take a lot of walks to parks... which is my favorite thing about living in our area!

RUNNING down the hill with dad...

Playing in the sand with mom... have you tried these spinny things? It's a lot of fun... that and the swings:).

We've also gone to the pool a lot! Jackson is so ready for a nap in this picture. I have yet to take my camera to the pool for fear that it won't come back.

Playing in the sand.

Bee's games. I love this picture because even though I know Jackson is pointing at something, I like to think of him sayin' we're #1! Although, everytime we go to a Bee's game it seems like we lose!

BEST BUDS

Jackson's cousins, aunt, and grandma came to visit on their way to a family reunion/camping! Jackson FOLLOWED Ben everywhere! Ben was such a sweetheart with him... always making sure he had a toy to play with:).

We are looking forward to Mark being DONE with his master's class this summer (almost) so Mark can be stress free again (well, at least for a couple of weeks) and we can enjoy the last month before Mark has to go back to school (both for teaching and as a student). We have a trip to CA to see family and Disneyland planned... we are SOOOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED! It's been way to long! Hopefully, I'll be better at posting so I don't have to recap 1 month in 1 post:).