Thanksgiving

Sorry MOM! I know I'm a slacker. Okay, Jaci is getting so big...I know I say that every time, but it's true. She does so many things and says so many new phrases. There are cute ones like "I love you sugar mommy" and "don't worry mommy, I'm okay" and the not so cute ones like "No, don't touch me, stay there" and "MINE!" And, she has started saying our evening prayer...she's still very stuck on Halloween and her prayer sounds something like this, "Dear Heavenly Father, thankful for this day, thankful we can go to bed, thankful Jaci was a witch, and Grammy was a witch, and Daddy was a cowboy, and Mommy was a cowboy, name of Jesus Christ, Amen." She has said that same prayer since Halloween...I guess we need some other fun memorable things to happen!

I don't have much to say about these first two pictures. I think Jaci was singing in the above picture and the one below I thought was just super cute of her profile. She was very intent on coloring a picture of Mickey Mouse.

Anyway, for Thanksgiving, Bill's parents came into town and we have had a great time together so far! We've had dominoes and Wii bowling tournaments and have just had a lot of fun... even if Bill has had to study the whole time. It's mostly been me and Jaci and the in-laws. Luckly, I was very blessed with in-laws and we get along really well.

For Thanksgiving day we went down to the New Orleans area to spend the day with my mother-in-law's family. We had great food and a lot of fun. One of Melanie's nephews has a son a little older than Jaci, and the two of them hit it off. They drove around in Logan's power wheels car...well, Jaci drove Logan around, and around and around...moslty in circles, but they had a lot of fun. I also caught them sneaking off upstairs and holding hands! They also hid under the table telling everyone it was their clubhouse.

Aren't they cute!

Below is a video of Jaci and her Grammy (Bill's mom) playing with a singing Christmas puppy that she brought...and is taking home with her for Jaci to enjoy when we come to visit! She was so silly with it.

Happy Halloween

I'm finally getting back to life! We just got back from Arizona where we had a GREAT time and we've just been going going going since! I'll be putting up our pictures from Disneyland (hopefully) sometime this week...once all the commotion dies down! Melanie (Bill's mom) got here the same day we got back and we've been having a great time with her. She has family here from England and we've been spending time with them as well. I love it! I could listen to them just talk all day long!

Anyway, if you can't tell Jaci was a witch for Halloween. And if I do say so myself, she is the cutest little witch to ever fly a broom! I dug stuff out of my closet that I actually used to wear and was a cowgirl. Bill had a few things, and a few he borrowed from my dad to become Sheriff Bill. Jaci has a cowgirl outfit too and we thought it would be fun to all match, but she looks so cute as a witch and I worked hard on that costume (yes, I made it), so we decided not to. Jaci had so much fun getting dressed up in her costume and LOVED going Trick or Treating. She'd go up to every person and say "Trick or Treat...Thanks". And she is very protective of her candy! But, she's going to have to give up most of it to the GREAT PUMPKIN so he can give her a prize in place of all her candy. He's a little too busy tonight, so we're going to call him and reschedule for tomorrow!

This is one of our Disneyland pictures. We got to got to Mickey's Trick or Treat Party at California Adventure one night after the park closed. We got to meet a few characters that night including Leo and June from Playhouse Disney's Little Einsteins!

Okay, my Daddy always has some of the best costumes. While we were in AZ we went to our big annual Mortensen Halloween Party. Daddy is like one of the only adults to dress up, but he's always got an amazing costume! This year he was a scarecrow. Perfect picture right?!!?!

This is me and my Nana! I love Nana and I miss her so much when we're in Louisiana. Nana is one of my very best friends in all the land! She taught me to sew, and to cook a lot as well. Love you Nana!

My little girl is so big! She's not my baby anymore, she's definitely a little girl! She loves playing pretend and dress up these days. I'll have to take some more pictures in some of her costumes. She found her tinkerbelle costume from last year and had to put it on, and another time she found my old cowgirl belt with my name on it and made me put it on her, then she went and found boots, and I let her wear my cowboy hat. She ran skipped around the house yelling "Yee Haw"! She is so silly. She even sings in the shower!

Anyway, today she said she wanted to go pee pee on the potty, so I got her brand new potty chair that my mom bought her out of the box and set it up. She decided she needed to read a book while she tried. Nothing actually happened, but I'm proud of her for wanting to try. Although, I'd rather stick to diapers for a while. I'm not sure I want to go through potty training yet!

Yesterday, I finally finished this Halloween skirt I've been working on. I'll explain it more on my other blog. I love the colors for Halloween and it's my favorite holiday to decorate for. I made Jaci her Halloween costume, which I will show after Halloween, and then this skirt and bow.

Jaci and I are excited for next week! We are going to Arizona and then driving over to Disneyland with my family. It will be Jaci's first trip to Disney and I think she'll love it. She loves Mickey Mouse and Pooh, so I'm excited for her!

Water Baby

So, I decided to teach Jaci REALLY early about doing dishes....OR NOT! Every time I go to do dishes she has to be right beside me playing in the water. That doesn't last long though. She pushes me out of the way and most of the time I have to just move the dirty dishes out of the sink so she can play. She would do this for hours at a time if I would let her. The pros: it keeps her busy so I can get things done and she's happy and talking and singing "row, row, row your boat". The cons: she gets water EVERYWHERE, she SCREAMS when I make her stop, and then I can't actually DO any dishes!

She's just so dang cute, I just can't say no, so I let her 'do dishes' for a little while. She's playing in the sink right now and singing a bunch of songs, which is letting me get this done!

On another note, we had a BBQ in our backyard yesterday and invited some friends from our ward. It wasn't anything big, but we had a good time. Bill used the fire pit in the backyard to do hamburgers and he had some giant buckets of water (for fire safety) and the kids all played in those most of the time and came away SOAKED to the bone! There's just something with Jaci and water lately!

Two's the TuTu

Last week I started making Jaci's Halloween costume. It's a little early, I KNOW, but I knew if I kept putting it off it would never get done and Halloween would come too fast and then I'd be in big trouble. ANYWAY, I made her a Halloween colored tutu. It is super full, way fuller than it needs to be, but she loves it. She wore it all day the day I made it and then first thing the next morning she wanted to wear it again.

I didn't really want her wearing out this part of her Halloween costume too early, so I made her a pink and purple one she can wear anytime...and she does. Even over her other clothes! I made this one about half as full as the last and it's about perfect.

Jaci is such a little girl and loves to dress up like a princess! She had it on the other day and was playing in her room and I heard her talking in there saying "Here comes the princess Jaci". It was so cute!

2 Times the Owie

So, I see what happens when someone other than me watches my sweet little girl. She comes home with some sort of a scrape and a black eye on her left eye. Now, I'm not saying I'm perfect, but this has happened twice now. The picture above shows when she fell off of a diving board at my sister's friend's house and scraped her face along the brick. (Don't worry Kelcie, I'm still not mad at you!) Kelcie took her to her friend's house to go swimming and Jaci wanted to jump off the diving board like the big kids! Kelcie felt horrible and cried for like half an hour after it happened because she felt so bad. I love you Kelc!

This time happened last night. I went to Book Club with my friend Erin. (I don't normally go, but they were discussing "The Hunger Games" and I loved the book, so I decided to go.) Anyway, Bill took Jaci over to Adam and Erin's house to play with their son Daniel while we were gone. And I came back to Jaci with this little butterfly bandaid thing by her eye. Apparently, Bill had some ice cream in a mug and Jaci dove for it and hit her eye. It was a blunt edge, so she must have hit it really hard. Poor baby. When I tried to clean it she just sat still and whimpered. It was so sad!

This is what it looked like when she got up this morning. It spread into a little black eye. So now that's the 2nd one in two weeks! I asked her if she's a big tough girl and she says, "Yes, I a big tough girl". Luckily, it hasn't bothered her too much!

Mommy's Little Helper

Jaci has decided that mommy does fun things in the kitchen and she wants to help! She helps alright! She helps make sure that everything tastes okay before I give it to anyone else! In the picture above I was making some muffins and she kept grabbing the chocolate chips on top and also taking a big pinch of the dough and eating it! Therefore, some of the muffins turned out a little small and a little lacking in chocolate! But how can you deny that face anything!

She found out at my mom's house that she could drag the bar chair anywhere she wanted so she could be high enough to see or help! She dragged that thing all over the house!

I know, these are a little belated. These are from our time in Arizona this summer and unfortunately we aren't there anymore. We had so much fun and we miss everyone so much already. Especially since Caryn (my SIL) decided to wait to have her baby TWO (2) days after I left! You can see him here. He's a cutie!

Summer in Arizona...so far

Okay, well, we have done a lot since we've been in Arizona this summer. We've had 2 trips to Lake Powell, a trip to Colorado, spent a weekend at the cabin with my grandparents, and just had a lot of fun. My dad bought a brand new wakeboarding boat, but I don't have any pictures of that. It is NICE though. At the lake we learned to wake surf, which is apparently the new cool thing to do. It was fun, but no one took pictures of me doing it. I had too many pictures to show, and I don't even have half of them, so I decided to do a montage with all the stuff instead.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Jaci's First Haircut

We've done some fun things since our trip to Lake Powell, but I didn't have the pictures from our trip to Colorado, and then we went to the cabin with my grandparents, Nana and Bopy, and I left my camera there. I'll be getting it back tomorrow! We do have one exciting thing to document...Jaci got her first official hair cut. She's 2, I know, but before now I just couldn't make myself cut anything but her bangs, but I decided it was getting kind of long and scraggly!

This is before.

This is after

This is my mom's friend Jennifer, that we've known FOREVER!!! She had these wonderful muffins that she's getting me the recipe for, so when I try those I'll put them up on my other blog. Jaci actually did a lot better than I thought she would. She HATES even getting her hair brushed or put up for the day, but after she got her popsicle she did REALLY well. She sat fairly still and it went pretty smoothly. I've tried to blow dry her hair before too and she freaked out, but she just sat there while Jennifer did it today!

We'll see how this haricut works out. She has this horrible cowlick on the back of her head that makes most of her hair fall straight forward into her face...and she HATES her hair in her face! But for now I think her hair is adorable and now she won't look so much like a ragamuffin! Thanks again, Jennifer!

This is the best after picture I could get today. Even though she was good getting her hair cut, when she was done, she was DONE. There will be more pictures to come because we're going to Lake Powell again this weekend! My dad just bought a new wakeboarding boat, so I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures coming!

Lake Powell!!!

Well we just got back from our yearly trip to Lake Powell. We had so much fun, and Jaci LOVED it! Last year she SCREAMED when she had to put her life jacket ON, and this year she threw a HUGE temper tantrum when she had to take her life jacket OFF. She would have worn it the whole time if I'd let her. She is a little fishy! I guess it's time to get her in swimming lessons.

We went on the tube a ton and Jaci didn't ever want to get off that either. My dad started driving a little crazy, even with Jaci on it, but she would not get scared off of it. Everytime I asked her if she wanted to get off she'd say "no, no, no, no, no" or "hmm-mmm" and adamantly shake her head NO! She was so funny because she'd scream....after the bump was over, and just because we did!

The kids liked going to the beach and getting to be on stable land for a little while! The second time we went to a beach to play in sand, Jaci threw her biggest tantrum of the trip. She screamed bloody murder for at least 45 minutes straight. She did NOT want to get out of the water. Then she'd calm down and I'd take her life jacket off and she'd start all over again.

Wow! I'm so white I could be a vampire! Usually Lake Powell helps with that a little bit, but NO. I got a little burned a couple of days and then it went away...back to pasty white!

There are more pictures to come, including the annual "Tireless" life preserver picture, but those are on Caryn's camera, so I'll have to wait!

Jaci's Photo Shoot

I've been wanting to get some pictures taken of Jaci for a while. Lucky for me, my friend Lindsay is starting up a business and used Jaci to build her portfolio...and let me tell you, if she can get some good pictures of Jaci, she can take good pictures of ANYONE. Jaci absolutely HATES getting her picture taken...so Lindsay, you are amazing! This one with the bubble in front of her face turned out really cool!

In this one I think she lookes like a model posing for a magazine!

Yummy hair! I can't believe we got all these good ones! There are a bunch more too, along with the grumpy faces, but these were some of my favorites...along with the new topper for the blog...that one is my absolute favorite! She looks so precious!

Since my last post we've had my grandparents, Nana and Bopy, come to visit and today we had Jaci's friend birthday party. I'll post those pictures later, but I was so excited to get these ones today that I had to put them on first! I'm going to get several of them blown up and framed! Yay!

Watermelon Skirt

We've had a busy week! Bill's parents were in town and we had a great time with them! We miss them already! We went up to Mississippi to visit with Big Bill's family and down to New Orleans for a crawfish boil with Melanie's family. Big Bill and I had a good time on the shooting range, and Melanie and I went shopping just about everywhere. They were in town for a wedding an dwe had a wonderful visit! On one rare quiet night during their visit (during the rehearsal dinner when I couldn't get a babysitter), I threw together this little skirt. I think it is adorable! I saw a baby bib like this and I figured I could make a cute watermelon skirt. I LOVE IT! It is so perfectly summery! I have a candle from Gold Canyon that smells like watermelon jolly ranchers and it helped inspire this skirt.

We are so excited for this coming week too because my grandparents are coming out from Arizona for a visit! I can't wait to see Nana and Bopy for a few days! We'll probably be doing a lot of driving...my grandpa wants to go see just about every plantation and antebellum home within 75 miles! We're excited to play tourguide and eat yummy food!

Jaci Turned 2!!!

I can't believe that my little baby turned 2 today! It doesn't seem possible that it was two years ago that they put that sweet little baby girl in my arms for the first time! We have had so many good, sweet times since then. Her favorite place to be is still in her mommy's arms! Everyday I look at her and can't believe how "grown up" she is. She isn't a baby anymore, but a little girl. I love her so much and I am so lucky because she loves me so much too! I just hope that lasts forever! I love getting to spend my days playing with her and watching her grow. She is so smart and it is so fun hearing her talk and tell me all sorts of stories. She loves to sing, and that is my favorite sound in the world.

Bill's parents came in town last night so they could celebrate Jaci's birthday with us. Jaci had a great birthday! We started out the day at the park for a ward picnic. Then tonight, we had a little party for her and Bill. (Bill's birthday was 3 days ago.) She LOVED her presents! Bill and I gave her a sandbox (along with a few other things). Bill's parents gave her a little picnic table and umbrella for the backyard and some sand toys, and my parents gave her a little dolly and a baby bed and stroller for the doll. My sister-in-law made her some beautiful necklaces (including the one she's wearing in the top picture), and my "little" brother gave her some "treasure". She also got some great presents from Bill's cousins, including: dress up shoes, coloring books, crayons, and tinker bell dishes. Thank you everyone!!!



For the party, I spent all day yesterday baking. I made a Red Velvet Cake for Bill, a giant cupcake cake for Jaci, a pan of my brother's favorite Chocolate Dessert, and homemade Strawberry Ice Cream!!!