One Month

(Isn't his outfit cute? Black Friday at Old Navy. I couldn't resist.)

Yesterday marked Jack's one month birthday. (Tyler is very insistent that there is a difference between one month and four weeks, so we kind of celebrated both.)

Some of Jack's favorite things are:

-bath time (Jack loves to take showers with his Daddy, but he also loves his little fisher price whale tub. He loves warm water!)

-snuggling up to Mommy or Daddy's chest (he gets all scrunched up and warm, and just snuggles right up to me. I think this is my favorite thing so far about being a Mommy. My heart melts every time he does this! There are definitely days where I am crazy and tell myself Jack loves Tyler more than me, but then he does this and I remember that he will never choose between us. He loves us both so much!)

-when Daddy gives him loads of kisses when he gets home from school (he loves when Tyler kisses his cheeks and ears.)

-milk (this little boy can drink! Most places I have read say he should be drinking 3-4 ounces, but Jack definitely downs 4-5 ounces each feeding! He's quite the milkaholic.)

-his hands (Jack loves to chew on his hands, and he loves them close to his face. He is also very patient with letting me clip his fingernails - no sneaking around while he is asleep! He also likes it when Daddy eats his hands - he pulls them out all by himself now.)

-being swaddled (because he loves his hands close to his face so much, I didn't even try swaddling him at first. But I started around 2 1/2 weeks and he sleeps so much better! He falls asleep much quicker and stays asleep longer, possibly because he woke himself up before by moving his hands to his face.)

-sleep (After he yawns a couple of times, Jack now lets me set him in his crib and he usually falls asleep within minutes. No more rocking this guy to sleep for 40 minutes!)

-talking (this boy can talk! He will talk to you, to himself, to anyone - or anything, for that matter - that will listen! I think he learned it from his Mommy and Daddy, haha! He is also great at squealing and squawking. Maybe he picked up those traits from the Bird Show we saw at the Wild Animal Park before he was born?)

-smiling (just kidding. This one hasn't happened yet, but I know it will soon! This little guy is happy pretty much all the time, which makes Mommy happy too!)

 (we love his dino outfit from carters! the stegosaurus hood and mocassins make me smile every time!)

Other things Jack likes to do:
-bend his head back and look around
-eat, sleep, and poop
-see further than 12 inches (!! this one is huge for us! so exciting!!)
-make the derek zoolander face
-purse his lips
-flail his arms and sometimes try to sneak the burp cloth out from under his chin
-hold his head up and look from right to left (he doesn't "bob" anymore - he's pretty steady)
-roll over (true story! we had 4 witnesses!)


We love you, Jackie D! (Anyone catch that 30 Rock reference? Anyone??) We are so happy to have you in our family!

Tyler is 24!

Yesterday Tyler turned 24 years old! So Logan could attend (she had to worked the 8th) we celebrated the night before (the 7th) with his birthday cake. He doesn't like cake too much, and though he falls head over heels for a warm, gooey batch of brownies, I didn't think brownies said "birthday". I can make him brownies anytime I want - I wanted something special for him. Tyler also loves bananas and ice cream, so I decided to make an Banana Split Ice Cream Cake. YUM!!

My mom has won first place with this recipe!

12 crushed sugar ice cream cones

1/2 c. chopped nuts

6 T. melted butter

3 cups vanilla frozen yogurt

2 mashed bananas

1 t. banana extract

16 oz. hot fudge topping

1 c. chopped walnuts

1 c. strawberry topping

8oz. cool whip

Combine crushed sugar cones, chopped nuts, and melted butter. Press into the bottom of a 9" round spring form pan. Let the ice cream get a little soft, and then in a large bowl, mix the ice cream, mashed bananas, and banana extract together. Press into the pan. Freeze. Make the next layer using fudge topping, freeze. Make the next layer with nuts, freeze. Make the next layer with strawberry topping, freeze. Finally, make the last layer with cool whip and freeze and/or serve.

Notes: I used Breyer's chocolate chip ice cream instead of the frozen yogurt. It seemed to harden up almost too much and was hard to eat. It never softened while we ate it. I also made a homemade version of the chocolate fudge topping, but it melted into a huge gloppy mess after being out of the freezer for only 2 minutes and it just didn't set up right. Verdict: I'd use a softer ice cream and a non-homemade fudge topping. It's also fun to set aside a little bit of the sugar cone layer to sprinkle on top afterward. 


For Tyler's real birthday, we went to Roy's, a Hawaiian seafood/steakhouse in La Jolla. Wow, it was amazing and so delicious! The most expensive meal I've ever eaten, but it was sooooo good. I got the filet mignon and it melted in my mouth. I barely had to chew it was so tender and yummy!

happy birthday!

We've finally come home from vacation! (we've come home from "hibernation" is more like it...) However, I didn't bring my camera cord to work with me, so I don't have pictures to post. Yet.

On a much better note, it's Husband's birthday today!
Happy birthday, Tyler dear.

In honor of the fabulous 23 years he has spent here on earth, here are 23 things I adore about Mr. Tyler Shaw Jones:


1-He makes our marriage his top-priority in life.
2-He loves me unconditionally. Even when I'm stubborn.
3-He makes (and keeps) friends easily. I'm jealous of this.
4-Everyone loves him. I haven't met someone yet that he doesn't get along with.
5-He dresses well. This is especially important.
6-He's excellent at comforting people, especially me. He always knows just what to say.
7-He loves to read up on "fascinating" random computer/nerdy facts and share them with me. I become more educated this way. (For example, did you know that Google is coming out with an operating system similar to Linux? Windows is scared its sales will drop significantly from this.)
8-He is excellent at taking note on things I like and dislike, and remembers them at key moments, usually for surprising me.
9-He might not want me to share this, but he is a fan of The Bachelorette. This only makes him more of a man to me. :)
10-Tyler is extremely attractive. Really, the man is gorgeous.

11-His smile makes me melt. It's warm, cozy, and something I couldn't live without.
12-He does more than his part around our "house", doing dishes, folding laundry, etc.
13-Tyler is the smartest individual I know. He aces some of the most difficult and grueling classes at BYU.
14-He strives to excel and reach the top in whatever he does.
15-He is a great cook. This is important, because I am not.
16-He values family, and keeps in close contact with both of our families.
17-He makes many sacrifices for me, which I appreciate and can never thank him enough for.
18-His singing abilities provide a good laugh for anyone within earshot.
19-Tyler makes me laugh. He can make almost anyone laugh.
20-Tyler keeps up with the world news. He knows politics and history, and if for some reason he doesn't, he'll look it up.

21-He can answer almost any question I throw at him. He isn't bothered by my naivety.
22-He has an impeccable memory for names and faces. (Everyone he introduces me to is from his freshman ward, four years ago?)
23-He's someone I (and anyone) will always be able to trust. I know he's honest and dependable. He's one of those few really good guys.


I love you, Tyler! Happy birthday!

I was rushing to wrap one of Tyler's birthday presents yesterday afternoon, and decided instead of driving all the way to Walmart or Target to get wrapping paper, I'd make my own for free. Tyler didn't even believe me that I made it myself. He had to inspect the package more thoroughly and find the seams of the three papers taped together to believe me!

HOW I DID IT: I used three large sheets of cover paper (80 lb. that I got from Zellerbach), probably 11x17 or somewhere around those dimensions. I took my alphabet stamps and stamped each letter one-by-one on rows on the paper. It did take an hour and a half, but I love how it turned out. I got the hang of it pretty quickly so the last two sheets went faster. Then I taped them together to cover the present, and wrapped it up with some red rafia. I love rafia...so many uses! (I tried red ribbon, but it was too bold. I wanted the focus to be on the wrapping, and not so much the bow.)

Happy birthday, Mr. Jones! I can't wait to see what's inside. ;)

21 on the 20th of June

For my birthday yesterday, Tyler made everything super secretive. He made me breakfast (yum!) and then we went out the door to run errands (i.e., go to the grocery store). Apparently running to the grocery store meant hopping on the freeway, with me really confused as to where the heck we were going!

Surprise! We arrived at Ikea. I love Ikea.

We got a new couch! HOORAY! I'm really excited because we've started planning things we buy around having a family, so we got a nice leather couch so it would be kid-proof for years to come. And we also got a kid-proof coffee table. I love Ikea...everything cheap and reliable, but always keeps that modern but homely type of feel. It's pretty much the perfect decorating store for our budget and our style.

We also go rained out last week when we went to an outdoor theater to see Beauty and the Beast. Luckily they let us use our tickets at anytime to go see it again, so we went last night on my birthday. It was awesome! We loved it! Our friends Alex & Kami and Kristin & Zach met us there as well. We all had a lot of fun. We were worried that it was going to rain again because it had been raining ALL day (pouring, actually), and it rained up until about twenty minutes before the show was supposed to start. Luckily it was clear, blue skies by 8pm!

Thank you, love! Everything was perfect and I loved spending the whole day with you. :)