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!

Trip to Utah

So I (Jordan) haven't written a blog posts in months! Christina's written a few to keep people updated on Jackson. But tonight's the time to catch up!

Last month Christina and I went on a trip to Utah for some Ernst & Young recruiting events. It was a very busy few days, but a lot of fun! The recruiting event on Saturday was called "The Ernst & Younger Games." It was pretty much an enhanced game of capture the flag up at Aspen Grove. The weather turned out to be ideal for it. Then Christina came up for the lunch afterwards.

Bwood and Sarah watched Jackson while we were at the lunch. They said they needed some practice before their baby came. Jackson had a fun time with them. Afterwards, we went to Sammy's for some pie shakes. Yumm!

We also visited my brother Ryan and his wife Karin that evening. They were on their way to a ball at BYU. They took the pictures for that one and haven't sent any too us yet! So no pics there.

We also tried to go swimming with Jackson but were very disappointed to find the pool was closed for maintenance. Jackson was so sad.

On Sunday we visited my Grandma and she got to meet her great-grandson for the first time. 

We also stopped by Christina's brother and sister-in-law's place. Jackson had fun and got to see his younger cousin.

While I was back at recruiting for most of the day on Monday Christina met up with some friends, including Tiffy. They went for some Kneader's french toast, but didn't even take full advantage by getting seconds.

Christmasy Timey-Time!

Christmas Vaca in Cali

Although we traveled to Washington State for Christmas, Jordan, Jackson and I were excited to have our own family Christmas.  Well, Jackson was happy, but I'm not sure how much of that had to do with celebrating Christmas early or the fact that we were playing on the floor with him, haha.  

Anyhow...

For the past two Black Fridays I have made a Christmas shopping list and hit the sales.  I love shopping sales!  I can spend the same amount of money, but get many more gifts :)  This year my major goal was to buy a Christmas tree.  Last year we tried to get one after Christmas vacation, but there were only pink and white Christmas trees or "California palm" Christmas trees (both a bit on the abnormal side for me).  I wanted a tree that looked real!  And I found one at MICHAELS!!!

It may only be 4 feet tall, but it's ours and we love it!  There's something about lit Christmas trees that always speak to me!  It's that special Christmas glow of having the lights out and the tree lit that just gets me tickled about this wonderful season. 

This is Jackson "opening" his first present.  

He was having a bit of trouble and asked mommy for help :P

And I know he's a boy...but don't all kids just love sticking the bows on their head?!  It's like a 3D sticker, right?  ...Or a huge band-aid :)

Jordan headed up the "scissor required" presents:

The day after "Christmas" we headed out on our first flying trip with Jackson.
Here we are, waiting in the airport after getting through security.

I was so happy he stayed groggy till take-off.  Jackson is a pro flier!  He ate for 5 minutes at take-off and landing and slept the rest of the way.

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's

For the Christmas half of our vacation we visited my side of the family, the Allen's, aka Grandma and Grandpa's.

And I must say, Jackson LOVED the attention.  He was held almost every minute of every day!!!  Ok, that's an exaggeration, but you get the picture.  One of the most important visits we made was visiting my Grandma Willey!  She is soooo excited that Jackson is here!  As number one great grandson, he inherited her favorite baby outfit from when my dad was a baby! Here's great Grandma Willey holding Jackson:

My Grandma and Grandpa Martinson and Great Aunt Peggy stopped by a couple times and couldn't get enough of Jackson!




We also enjoyed spending time at my Aunt Patty's home.  We enjoyed games, dinners, and visiting.  Jackson fell in love with my cousin Jill too, haha.  Here they are:

And I can't forget cousin Tommie either!  He loved chilling with her, hehe :P

For Christmas Eve my family has a tradition of getting together at my Aunt Patty's home and having a huge Christmas dinner.  Afterwards we just hang out, sing Christmas carols, and then SANTA COMES!!! Jackson wasn't scared at all, he likes Santa.

Santa Clause also gives each child their first Christmas gift.  Jackson got a board book called "Goodnight Moon".  I love that book!  Jordan and I had so much fun showing off Jackson!!!  I call him my angel baby, hehe.

Christmas morning dawned on a Sunday.  And it was quite a busy morning.  We decided it would be best to postpone opening Santa Clause gifts and what not until after 11am church.  So, we set about getting dressed, eating, and making it to church on time!  Jackson was ready first...and I must say he is quite the looker in his Sunday outfit!

And he was quite content hanging out with Uncle "Rick"while the rest of us (my younger brother, older brother, sister-in-law, baby cousin Zoey, Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandpa and Grandma Allen, Jordan, and I) finished prepping ourselves for church.  

After church, Jordan thought it would be a good idea to re-dawn our Moose PJs (thanks Ryan, Karin, and Hochstrasser boys!) to better relax and enjoy the Christmas festivities.  I thought it a good idea too.  Here's our little Moose family!

(...Grandma gave Jackson a moose hat which just added to the whole effect of our outfits, hehe)

The rest of the week we enjoyed spending quality time together: 

Playing with cousin Zoey! (We are all very excited to have cousins soooo close in age)

Uncle Tanner acting as book holder so that Jackson could enjoy a bit of light reading!!! 

(Yes, we have a genius baby)

Playing games!

And, of course, enjoying Jackson and the time we have together as a family!!!
 Jackson looks surprised here from the flash, but he LOVES it when Daddy plays with him :)

Overall, we had a wonderful Christmas and loved spending so much time with family.  

Blog post to come: New Years Eve with the Hochstrasser Side :)

Thanksgiving Weekend

Things have been pretty busy around here, so I'm just now getting around to blogging about Thanksgiving. My parents flew down because Jackson's blessing was that weekend. This was Christina's first time preparing an entire Thanksgiving meal and I think she did an excellent job (I helped out with some things). It looked great and tasted better!

That evening (along with most other evenings) we had fun playing games! This is a really fun one that Christina got me for my birthday--Dominion.

Christina got Jackson all dressed up in his Christmas outfit on Friday.

Christina made a yummy carrot cake to celebrate my birthday that had been on Monday, the 21st.

On Saturday we all took a trip to the Oakland temple. That evening they had a concert and lighting of the christmas lights to open the Christmas season. They have concerts almost every night leading up to Christmas at the auditorium and stake center next to the temple. We took advantage of having out parents in town and when into the temple.

Family pictures

Jason's Visit and Santa Cruz

A day after I got back from Utah my brother Jason came to visit us and to see the Bay Area. He actually got engaged that evening! Then he got on a plane and flew out here for a 5 days, haha. So we got to hear a lot of the wedding planning as they Skyped with each other. Unfortunately, I couldn't get time off that week, so our only day to go out and do something fun with him was on Saturday. We decided to go down to Santa Cruz, California. Our first stop was a really yummy Brazilian restaurant called Cafe Brasil. Christina and I had been there before and really enjoyed it. Jason ended up really liking the food too. We got the exact same thing we got last time. Here is Jason and I outside the restaurant.

After that we went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.

Jackson slept pretty much the whole time. This was his first all-day outing.

We walked on the giant pier and saw some sea lions.

We also found some cool beach art.

We also took Jackson for a ride on the beach.

All in all it was a very fun day!