Fun in the Sun!

Back in December/January my sister called me up and asked if Joey and I would like to go with them to San Diego for a week and stay at a time-share. Since Joey kind of sets up his own schedule we decided on the spot that we wanted to go. Tricia and Dustin live in Arizona so we get to see them about twice a year, which is super sad because if we lived in the same city we would have game nights with them all the time. Anyways we decided that we wanted to go but wouldn't be able to do too many things just relax and hangout at the beach since income during the winter isn't exactly flowing in.

Anyways last Friday(March 2nd, I started this post forever ago) we started on our journey. Since we have Theo and knew we would have to make feeding/diaper changing stops we split the travelling over a few days. Friday night I joined Joey's mom and sisters in their annual attendance to a U of U gymnastic meet. That night we spent at Laura's house and then we headed down to St George. We stopped in Cedar City to spend some time with our friends, Amy and Jono. It was nice weather so we went and hung out at a park for a little while. Then we spent the night in St George at Andy and Jessica's house. Sunday we finished the trip to Newport Beach.

Monday we spent mainly just hanging out at the hotel and planning the rest of our week,We also went on a walk down to the beach. We were mainly just playing around and sticking our toes in the water when some teenagers came and asked if we had seen anything in the tide pools. They told us that they had seen some starfish so we decided to go look and we find a rather large starfish on a rock. It was so cool! Tuesday we went to Irvine and went shopping to pick up groceries and find some clothes. While we were driving back from shopping we saw a "fun center" and thought that it would be fun to go mini golfing one day. We didn't have anything planned for Wednesday so we headed over to go mini-golfing. It was a lot of fun. We had made little deals with each other, I didn't barter too high since I know I am horrible at mini-golf. I ended with the highest score, which in golf means I lost!

Where we stayed

Walking to the beach

A cute trail down to the beach. Ryan was taking his time looking at everything!

These little boys are so cute!

A steep hill down to the beach!

Stepping in the water. Theo put an elbow in the Ocean!

Daddy and Theo playing in the water

Starfish!!

Our Family Picture at the Beach... Theo wasn't too happy he was really tired.

Another starfish picture.

Looking for more sealife

Isn't he super cute?

Thursday I turned to a giddy little school girl. Can you guess where we were headed? The one place that we had decided that we would go and were willing to spend some money on was SeaWorld. If you know me at all you probably know that I am obsessed with SeaWorld. Luckily Dustin has a friend who works as a diver at SeaWorld and he was able to get us discounted tickets! It was so fun to be at SeaWorld again. I learned that SeaWorld in the off-season with children is hard, we made it to all of the shows but weren't able to make it to all of the aquarium exhibits. We were able to run over to the penguins, polar bears, walrus, and beluga whales before it closed though. After SeaWorld we went to the Mormon Battalion Museum which I thought was really cool. Joey said that it is one of the best LDS Museums he has been to. At the end of the video/tour the take a black and white photo with an "old camera" it is a digital camera covered with what looks like an old camera. Then Ethan and Ryan went panning for gold. Then we met up with Dustin's friend and his family and ate at The Cheesecake Factory it was our first time eating there.

Waiting for the "Pets Rule" show

He enjoyed SeaWorld

Ethan dressed up as a soldier from the Mormon Battalion at the Mormon Battalion Museum

The next day we went on a Dolphin Safari that was so much fun. We saw so many dolphins it was amazing! I was hoping to see a whale but we were unable to find any. On the boat they had these little areas under the water that you could lay in and "swim" with the dolphins. The water was a little murky but thanks to Dustin we were able to see some dolphins swim by us! 

Dolphins next to our boat.

Common Dolphins

Our little Family on the boat

At the front of the boat. The waves rocked Theo to sleep!

Dolphins right under our feet!

Baby feeding time. 

The boys thought that it was funny that this sign was on the "bathroom" door.

Sea lions, it was funny to see them fight to get on the buoy.

The last day we had there we spent at Laguna Beach. It was a little chilly and a tiny bit windy but I enjoyed laying in the sun. At one point I opened my eyes to see dolphins swimming right off the shore. I had to contain myself, if I hadn't have known it was illegal I would have totally jumped in the ocean and swam towards them! Also if the water wasn't freezing! My sister was able to get some really good pictures of the dolphins. 

Those gray things in the water are dolphins just off of the beach!

Do you see how close they are?

Theo wanted to read with daddy on the beach.

When we got back from the beach, my sister did a photo shoot of Theo for us. Here are some of my favorite pictures! We just walked around the hotel area finding some pretty spots. 

Right after this picture he rolled over for the first time because he pushed himself up so much. It didn't count because he was on a hill.

Thanks again Tricia and Dustin we really enjoyed our time in California with you! We can't wait till we can do something like this again, even if we do have some crazy kiddos!

2 Month Stats, Baby Blessing, and Christgiving Thankmas

Our Christmas Card 2011

Baby Announcement

 Theophilus Kwame Stocking is now the name on the records of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for our handsome little boy. We were able to give Theo his baby blessing on January 7th. It was a wonderful blessing and it was great to have our families there. Those who were unable to make it were truly missed but we know that you would have been there if you could have been.

Theo in his cute baby blessing outfit. Thank you Tricia and Dustin for letting us borrow it. He was a little tall for the pants!

Four-Generation picture. That is LeRoy, Joey's grandfather who will be turning 100 this year! His secret to life is Mtn Dew!

Joey's parents and grandparents!

Daddy and Theo! My handsome boys!

Emily's parents!

Emily's Grandma and Parents. Theo was getting tired!

Emily and Theo with her Grandma and Mom!

Christgiving Thankmas is how Joey's side of the family makes the holidays go a little longer, also it is a way to prevent fighting for time with the in-laws. We celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving during a weekend in January. We try and set each day to celebrate each Holiday. We have our Thanksgiving dinner one night, Joey's mom has a general store where the children can "buy" different toys. We have a sibling gift exchange. Also there are many birthdays during December and January so we usually have cake to celebrate those. It is a lot of fun just spending a weekend with everyone playing games and catching up on everyone's life. This year we started a new tradition were we compile a video with pictures from all the families of things that happened over the year so that we can hear stories that otherwise we wouldn't hear. Thanks for a wonderful celebration everyone!

Theo is now 2 months! I can't believe it has already been 2 months but at other times I look at Theo and can't believe that he is only 2 months old. He is such a big boy. He has started to smile and coo. He is good at holding conversations it is so cute. Today Joey came home from work and was frustrated but as soon as Theo saw him, Theo started smiling, laughing and cooing which totally brightened Joey's day. It was so cute to watch. Theo still loves his tummy time and is getting really wiggly, by the time he is done being on his tummy he has pretty much moved his body 180 degrees from his starting point. He is starting to grab onto things and hold onto them for a long time. This includes grabbing onto my hair when I lean over him to change his diaper! haha. Here are the stats of my big boy from his Two-Month Checkup:

Weight- 12 lbs: 59%tile

Height- 23.75 in. 80%tile

Head Circumference- 15.9 61%tile

He got his vaccinations at his appointment and did very good with them. He was fussy the rest of the day and had sore legs but overall he was really good. I love him and he teaches me so many things!

Photo Update

In my posts I keep saying that I will post pictures later and then I never end up doing it so here are some photo updates. These are from our Christmas celebration with the Jacobsens and some other random pictures.

My nephew Caleb wearing Theo's Santa hat- My First Christmas

Daddy decided to play hide-and-seek with Theo

Our Little Christmas Tree

Theo excited for Christmas

Theo in his My First Christmas Santa Hat from Grandma Stocking

Mom and Theo by the Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve

The whole Family. What a wonderful time of year!

Daddy and Theo sleeping together. Notice Joey is the one sucking his thumb!! hehe

Theo smiling in his sleep. He smiles when he is awake but I can never catch in on camera.

Theo's rats tail

Theo and Daddy dancing in the kitchen

They love to dance!

So Cute!

Zailey holding Theo!

Theo with Mr and Mrs Claus

Santa holding Theo

Kayci holding Theo, I love his pose.

Tegan holding Theo. She hates letting go.

Kayci, Tegan and Theo. Kayci was mad at Tegan because she wanted to hold Theo but she stopped to give us a cute pose.

As a new Stocking in our family we tried to have him be a stocking stuffer but our stockings were too small for his big body so we had to improvise. 

First Christmas Stocking improvised Stuffer

Turns out that my brother has stocking big enough for Theo to fit in but he wasn't in the best mood so we didn't get that good of pictures of our Favorite Stocking Stuffer!

So Cute!

Grandma consoling him after being in the Stocking. I love this picture!

He is pulling the funniest face right here!

Joey opening his Christmas Stocking- we try and only do presents from our Stockings since we usually go to Mexico each Christmas. You can't really tell from this picture but his stocking is bulging thanks to being stuffed mainly with new socks! He did get some other non-stocking presents too!

Tegan loves holding Theo! Isn't she beautiful in this picture? Her eyes stand out so much.

My nephew Dylon being hilarious. You can see Ethan in the background ready to pounce. Dylon was just taking a short break from wrestling with Ethan. They were so funny to watch.

It was a lot of fun spending time with the Jacobsens on Christmas Day! We had our traditional scone meal which Joey thinks is the best tradition ever! It was great to see and spend time with everyone, although the whole family wasn't there all at the same time we were able to see all of my siblings and their families at some point. The next post will talk about Christgiving Thankmas with Joey's family which we just did this past week. Hopefully that post will be up tomorrow!

Year in Review

I was going to write a Family Newsletter about the year to go out with our Christmas Cards but with our hectic lives recently we were late getting out our Christmas Cards, let alone trying to get a letter done to go along with it. So I figured I would blog about our year instead of mailing out one.
The 2011 Year started out as it always has for Joey and I, we were in Mexico with Charity Anywhere doing service for the poor and celebrating the New Year with the ward down there. (We are sad that we won't be celebrating New Years in Mexico this year but our new addition is definitely worth giving up the tradition for the year). Emily graduated from USU with her bachelors degree in Family Consumer and Human Development in December and Joey finished up his degree in Business Entrepreneurship in May. Emily tried to stay busy in the Spring searching for a job but had no luck which was fine because on March 23rd we found out that we were pregnant. Luckily Emily's pregnancy was very easy.  She was hardly sick compared to other pregnant women we have associated with. Our main focus this year was on the pregnancy and welcoming a new baby into our lives and family.
In May, Joey and Emily were both able to walk at Graduation. It was pretty cool because Emily was able to walk with Joey so that we didn't have to spend the whole day at Graduation. Emily figured that she probably knew more of the professors and the Dean for the Jon M Huntsman School of Business than she would have if she would have walked in the Education Graduation. After graduation we packed up and moved to Bear Lake to work for Chuck and Ginger (Joey's brother and sister-in-law) at Bear Lake Cabin Rentals. Also this was the first time that Emily and Joey have lived somewhere without sharing the house. We moved back into the trailer that we lived in the summer that we were first married. A big thank you to Brent and Randi Hirschi for the place to stay.  Joey spent the summer doing maintenance for the cabins, coming up with marketing options for the renters, and building/promoting the brand image. He created this package booklet for renters to book their next stay along with other benefits and activities to do during their stay. Emily stayed busy doing laundry and cleaning some of the smaller rental properties.
In October the trailer was sold and we had to move. Luckily, Joey started working for his cousin Brian who owns Boat/Seadoo/ATV/Snowmobile rentals in Bear Lake. Brian has the "Fun House" for his employee housing and since he doesn't house employees during the winter we were able to move in. Joey is now working on Website and Online Reservation projects for Bear Lake Cabin Rentals and Brian's rentals. He has also done some other website design projects for other people in Bear Lake.
This summer Joey decided that he needed to do something adventurous since we hadn't really had time and with Emily being pregnant it was a little hard to do any rock climbing or caving. Joey and his friend Ryan decided to Kayak across Bear Lake from the North Shore to Rendezvous Beach. On Oct 19th they decided that the weather was good enough and it was past the boating season so they wouldn't have to worry about other watercraft on the water. They had a lot of fun!
Our due date was November 9th as the day came closer we both realized that we were going to be welcoming a baby to our family and that it was really happening. November 9th came and went without any sign of him coming soon. We had a date set up for an induction if he didn't come (Nov. 17th). Many family members really wanted him to come on 11/11/11 but he decided that he didn't want to come until the next day. Theophilus Kwame Stocking entered our life on November 12th 2011. After a few days in the NICU we were able to go home and begin our life as a three person family. We have really enjoyed having Theo in our family and he teaches us something new everyday.
We have had a wonderful time since his birth with our families celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas. In our next post we will post some pictures of Theo's first Christmas!

We wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year! We hope that 2012 will bring everyone happiness and adventures!