Christina's Birthday! and experimenting with the new camera

Christina's birthday was about a week before Christmas (Dec 19th). In order to celebrate I baked some yummy cupcakes. They are chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and an Andes mint baked into it (and on top of several of them). There was a mixture of mini and regular cupcakes.

We invited several of Christina's friends over to celebrate. It was a lot of fun to take a break and enjoy our friends' company.

Jackson was so excited he even made fishy faces for the camera.

Earlier that week we received our new camera in the mail, a Canon Rebel T3i. I was very excited to use it. Below are some random pictures from Christina's birthday and other shots around the house. 

And my favorite!

Other Random Happenings

Here is a compilation of other random photos/events from the past month or so. 

Jackson being silly.

Fun at the park.

We had fun at the BYU @ San Jose State football game even though we lost (sigh). We were on the third row right near the 40 yard line. Pretty good seats, even though the stadium was falling apart.

Christina's amazing cake she made for my birthday. It's Reese's Peanut Butter Cake. Chocolate cake with Reese's mixed in. Then a cream cheese peanut butter frosting and chocolate frosting. Topped with a few peanut butter cups. Mmm.

Walking Boy!!

Jackson is now walking. He reached this milestone right before 14 months. For several weeks he had been taking a few tentative steps, progressing to several steps, then to the Frankenstein walk, then to walking fairly easily. I probably shouldn't be, but I was very surprised at what a progression it is. Usually when hearing from other people it seems like it's one big moment when all of a sudden, "He's walking!!" And you have the camera out and everything to record that one big moment. But that definitely is not the case. The first time I noticed it was a few weeks ago at church he took four consecutive steps without holding on to something. Then he slowly took more and more steps and became more sure of it. Here are two videos to mark the occasion. The first from about two weeks ago and the second from the beginning of this week.

Pumpkins, Costumes, and Festivities!

I'd like to think "better late than never", but sometimes when I'm THIS late I almost reconsider that theory. Oh well, the pictures are uploaded to the computer so the hard part is done and now for the fun!

For Halloween this year, I had a great idea for the family costumes...but last minute (or so it seemed) it turned out we wouldn't be able to make it to the ward Halloween party. As a result, I only got around to Jackson's costume in time for his little friend's costume birthday party. We were going to be Alfaba, the Scarecrow, and the cowardly lion.  

Here's Jackson as the cowardly lion:

...he truly looked cowardly with all those tears, haha. He didn't really like the mane hat.  

After he got a bit more used to it, he wasn't so distraught. 

And he even started to pull some cute faces :P

The week before Halloween we carved our pumpkin!   

Daddy and Jackson...

Jackson was a BIG helper. He wouldn't have anything to do with the "guts", but he sure LOVED playing with the pumpkin seeds!

"You mean, I can touch and play with the pumpkin seeds!"

The finished product!

We could barely hold Jackson back, haha...

Halloween Date Night - created by Jordan. Jordan came up with the idea of making chocolate covered Halloween strawberries. We made ghosts and jack-o-lanterns!

For dessert we had some homemade hot apple cider - YUM!

And of course, we needed to commemorate the evening with us both!!!  

I sure am a lucky girl to have such a GREAT husband!!!  And we have such a GREAT little boy!!!  I love my family and all the fun we have together :)

We Cut Off Jackson's Curls...

With Jackson's 1st birthday come and gone we realized that it was probably high time we gave him a hair cut.  His lovely locks were starting to look a bit "Raggedy Ann-ish"- not a good thing for a little growing boy! 

(Sorry this photo is a bit blurry...his smile here is just too sweet to pass up!)



After dinner (which the remains of are spread all over his face)
we decided to give him a bath and cut his hair in the tub.


  

We figured the distraction of splashing in the tub would help keep him happy and being in the bathtub would help with clean up.

...next time I think we'll just do it while he's strapped down and eating in his highchair :)

 

Here's a great photo showing how curly and long Jackson's hair was.  

Jackson just getting into the bathtub.  The little cutie!

And here's one of the proud stylist (Jordan was doubling as camera man) with Jackson!

 
The next morning we trimmed his left side a bit more.
You can see where we missed a little long piece, haha.

A side shot of the new style!

Jackson was quite the trooper during his 1st haircut.  He didn't exactly sit still...but what one-year-old does?!  Overall, he was very curious about the scissors and a happy, smiley boy!  Who could ask for a more joyful kiddo?  We love our little Jackson and all the great adventures he brings into our lives.

Jackson's 1st Birthday!

Time has just flown by! I can't believe my little baby is already 1 year old!!!  

How did he grow so fast? 

Because of the extent of photos we took, and my inability to narrow it down further, this is going to be mostly a photo update with a few remarks here and there...of course, I've found those are usually my favorite type of blogs to view :P

To start off the festivities - Nana and Grandpa Hochstrasser came into town!!!  Jackson had so much fun playing with them and getting to know them better.  Unfortunately, we didn't capture a good photo with them on our camera. 

For Jackson's celebratory luncheon we took him to a restaurant called Scramblz.  It's a breakfast food place (which is, naturally, Jackson's favorite type of food!) that tastes divine!  It's located in San Jose, CA, so if you're ever in the area you should stop by there. 

Jackson was in breakfast food heaven!!!

He got a sampling of all the things we ordered: 

pancakes, omelet, honey ham, assorted fruits, and bread pudding French toast!  

I don't think I've seen him more excited to eat before :)

Jackson was very happy to even try some breakfast foods he'd never had...and loved them.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!  This is such a great birthday!"

I couldn't believe a place like this even did birthday cakes and singing!  The cow bells that accompanied the singers almost scared Jackson, but the sight of the cake was too much a distraction.  It was a tasty banana bread with ice cream and strawberries - the perfect kind of cake for Jackson.  We only gave him the banana bread, which he stuffed down as much as possible even though he'd already ate quite a bit.

I couldn't resist putting this photo in because they are both making such silly faces!

Here's the "better" photo.  Jackson loves spending time with Daddy!

Jackson loves being with Mommy too...and his food!

That night we had a family birthday party with Nana, Grandpa, Mommy, Daddy...and Jackson!!!

In place of a cake, I made blueberry muffins with a whipped cream frosting.  Here they are before being frosted:

The completed muffins, ready for consumption!

AND...Jackson's very own, extra-large and decked out blueberry muffin!!!

"Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Jacksooooooon...HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!"

...he just wanted the cake already!

 This frosting is pretty tasty...

...but the inside is sooo much better!!! 

Unlike the cake, Jackson didn't quite know what to do with the presents.  

He was happy to see all the colors, but didn't grasp the concept of ripping off the paper.  

So we had to help out.  He did love discovering that there were fun things to play with inside.  Here's Jackson and I reading a book he got:

Playing with his first mega blocks:

And, of course, it just wouldn't be the same if he wasn't trying to eat the presents too, hehe. 

By bedtime, Jackson was worn out from all the attention and playing.  It was a FABULOUS day!!!  I still can't believe that my little dude is growing up so fast, but I'm so grateful to be able to spend my days with him.  I love to hear his laugh and see his smile - he fills our home with joy!