Events of December 2010

December was a busy but fun month. We had finals, and farewell's, holidays and baby blessings. It was great to see family and friends. We are so grateful for both of our families and their love and support!! We got a new camera for Christmas from Steve and Lynda. It is awesome, so I have tried to be better at taking pictures.

Kajsa is 3 months old now. She was 10lbs 1oz and 23 1/2 inches long at her 2 month visit. She is smiling and giggling. She is quite the talker, she will coo at you forever. She is such a happy baby by nature. She is a fabulous sleeper compared to Trey and sleeps about 6 hours at night, sometimes more. She is just starting to discover her hands and grab things held up on front of her. Poor thing has her first cold and it is so sad but she still smiles through it all. She is such a blessing in our home.

I love how babies sleep with their arms above their head.

Wesley Reese Jackson and his adorable smile, dimples and all.

These odd pictures are of Bradley and Kyle. Our family played the game Quelf. It is crazy. Unfortunately the camera came out a little late so these are the only pics we got.

My Grandpa Norma and Grandma Karma are serving a mission in South Africa right now. They left just before Christmas. This is their farewell party. We got to take 5 generation pictures with my Great Grandma Ruth Dahle. She is a beautiful and bright woman. I love to listen to her tell stories about her past. She has the most amazing memory. I hope I can be like that.

So... my mom has this Mr. Potato head set that Trey loves to play with. This time we tried the pieces out on ourselves. Then I thought, these pieces are seriously small enough to fit on our newborn's so we took a few fun pictures. We got a really good laugh at our poor children's expense.

Kajsa and Daddy hanging out watching football . I love how she has her little arm draped around his.

Miss Reese is such a doll. She learned how to walk over the break and took off around my mom's house. She was so sweet around Kajsa, she loved to just stare at her and then every once in a while she would touch her softly. We love Reesey.

Christmas Eve we had a gourmet meal inspired by our very own talented Chef Malia Call. She made us stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer, and for dinner we had steaks and salmon, salad, roasted vegetable, some bread and yummy slush to drink. For dessert she made Chocolate Lava Cakes with cream, vanilla ice cream and raspberries. It was soooo good!! We are lucky to have a Chef in the family. Kyle and I did the table setting, when Kyle worked at the Marriott he learned how to fold napkins really cool :)

My mom made the whole family matching pajamas again :) They are very comfy. Here's the group on Christmas Eve minus Miss Reese she was already in bed. The second picture is so funny. My Dad and Danny really wanted to take a silly picture I guess, so we did it on the next one. (I love the faces they are pulling)

Trey couldn't ask for a better Aunt and Uncle than Brad and Malia. This Christmas they gave him the best present ever and did the Twelve Days of Christmas for him. They called themselves his Secret Friend and left him a present on the door step every night. He was sooo excited every time there was a knock on our door. He would yell, "My Secret Friend!"and take off. The last night was a fun scavenger hunt that Malia made up where he found little picture puzzle clues that he put together to find out who his secret friend was. Even though he knows now that Brad and Malia are his "secret friends" when he talks about his present he got from them he says that it's from his secret friend not Brad and Malia. It's cute :)

Here are some fun snow pictures of the family. Trey loves to be outside. He is like immune to the cold. It was seriously in the teens and he was as happy as he could be out there. Brad and Daddy were sports for staying out so long. Reese and Grandma Jan also came out to play for a little bit.

Trey fell asleep on the floor next to one of his best friends, Penny (this was Brad and Malia's adopted dog). They had to give her back after Christmas. Trey doesn't really get it yet but I'm sure will be very sad the next time he goes over to their house to play and there is no Penny.

Trey and Grandpa Brad did a little bit of Sumo Wrestling, inspired by Uncle Ben. It was pretty funny. Here are the shots I got. The last one where Trey is one his back was hilarious. He couldn't get himself up.

Christmas Gifts

I love how baby Jesus is gnawing on Mary's shoulder. It reminds me of my own sweet baby.

We have some friends from our old ward that are some of the most amazing people Kyle and I have ever met. They now live in Maryland. They are looking to adopt a baby and asked if we knew anyone looking for a loving home for a baby. I personally do not know anyone right now but networking is a great tool. So...if any of you out there know anyone looking to place a child up for adoption please let us know. I can't think of a better Christmas present than that.

We wish all of our friends a very, Merry Christmas and hope that you will remember to invite Christ into your homes all year round. We have been so abundantly blessed by Him all year. We are so grateful for the knowledge that there is a God above who loves us and we are His children. He was willing to let His Only Begotten Son, even Jesus Christ come down to earth to live and die for us. For He truly did show us the perfect way to live. We know the Book of Mormon and the Bible are testimonies that He lives and are our instructions for how to return to live with Heavenly Father after this life. How gratful we are for the scriptures. We know that God restored the gospel, the same gospel that was on the earth when Christ was alive, through the prophet Joseph Smith. Because of that restoration we have the priesthood, the power of God, on the earth today that binds families together in this life and in the next. We are so grateful to have an eternal family, one that breaks the bonds of death. We also know that we have a prophet on the earth today, Thomas S. Monson who acts as Gods mouth peice for all of the people on the earth today. We know that if we follow the counsel he receives from God we will have happiness in this life. We also know that sorrow and trial is part of this life, but without it we could not grow and all of our joys would be less rewarding. We know that there is life after death and because of this perspective and the knowledge of the gospel we are able to get through anything together.

We love our Savior and are so grateful to celebrate his birth this Christmas Season!!

To the moon with grandpa

Trey loves his Grandpa Steve. He was such a good sport to play astronauts with him. Trey is definitely entering the creative, imaginary play stage. It's so much fun :)

Wesley Reese Jackson

Kallie had her baby!!! He is soo cute. He looks more and more like his daddy everyday. He has Kallie's adorable dimples and danny's chin :) He was 6lbs 5oz and 20in. long. Kallie had to have a C-section so she is recovering a little slower but she is so positive and loving being a mommy. Her Danny will be amazing parents. I know Heavenly Father is more than happy to send children down to the Jackson family. We are so happy for you two and can't wait for Kajsa and Wesley to get to play together :)

Baby Pics, Fam Pics and Halloween

I forgot to take a picture of my costume but this is what Kajsa and I were for Halloween except that she was facing my chest in a sleepy wrap.

Kyle is such a good daddy to dress up in all yellow. I know Trey loved it!!

Kyle said he was teaching Trey how to ride his Tricycle :)

Kajsa Elaine Sherman is finally here!

SHE IS HERE!!! Kajsa Elaine Sherman (the "aj" is a long i sound, like in kite or write and the s is soft not a z sound ) Her name is Swedish. I heard it while I was on my mission and Kyle and I both love it. Kajsa was born on October 8, 2010 at 2:17am. She was 7lbs 8oz and 18 inches long. Kajsa was healthy overall but had a slight gurgle when she cried so they sent her to the NICU to be monitored and suck some stuff out of her lungs for 2 hours. We finally got to be with her at about 6am that morning.

Here is a synopsis of my labor for those who are interested.

-Wednesday night at 10pm slow contractions started. By 2:30am I was having contractions every 8 minutes and by 5am they were about 6 min.

-7am Thursday morning contractions slowed way down to about 2 per hour. Went on long walk at 9am. Mom came at noon and we walked Trey to the duck pond. I climbed stairs while we were there to try and keep my contractions going.

-Walking home from duck pond at 2pm contractions became 8 min apart.

-5pm contractions 4 min

-6pm went to hospital totally expecting them to send me home. Was dilated to a four. Waited one hour to see if I would progress.

-7:30pm dilated to 5. 8:30pm got an epideral. Heaven bless the person who invented those!!!!!!!

- 1:30am Friday morning dilated to a 10. Called doctor
-Doctor arrived at 2am got prepared.

- Started pushing at 2:05 and Kajsa was born at 2:17am. 6 contractions, 12 minutes. (Trey was 3 contractions and 10 minutes) My body sure knows what to do when it's time to push. The pushing is the easiest part of my labors.

Kyle was wonderful through all of this and was such a wonderful support to me during labor. I couldn't have done it without him. He is my rock and my support system and I am so grateful for him and the wonderful husband and father that he is.

The morning after Kajsa was born I looked at the clock at 11:11 and thought make a wish. :) As a pondered what I wanted to wish for most I couldn't help but think of Kajsa and Trey and my desire for them to reach the highest degree of the Celestial kingdom and have all the joys of the gospel. I re-committed myself then and there to do everything in my power to be the best parent that I can and always be a Christ-like example to my children. Kyle and I will do our very best everyday to do this for them. All of God's children deserve this! What an honor it is to be the parents of two of God's sweet children.

Here are some pics of our sweet new additions.

Just after she came out, before they took her to NICU they let me hold her for a sec.

Kajsa in the NICU. :( She loves to suck her two little fingers

Our first family picture

The morning she was born with Trey and Grandma Jan

Trey holding her all by himself!

Coming Home from the Hospital

Her first at home bath

All Dressed Up

No more M.I.A.

Baby Shower Pics

So, I haven't blogged pretty much all summer. My friend Shannon Fuller inspired me to make a quick synopsis of my summer events and then start over with being a better blogger. Now would probably be a good time to start anyway since Kajsa is coming in two weeks. Then it will be back to blogging about children again I am sure. I never feel like my life is interesting enough for ya'll to read about. Here's the overview:

• Kyle and I started managing some BYU women's housing in June (this made us extremely busy for the months of July and August)
  
• I turned 27
  
• Trey and I went to 7 peaks all summer
  
• Kyle went to school this summer and took Chemistry
  
• We went home to CA to visit for a week and saw Kyle's family and some of my friends, and went to 3 weddings. We had a great time but didn't get very many pictures. :(


• Kyle got a job working at BYU for their Multimedia department. He works from 6am to 10am every day. He is not a morning guy but he's done great! and enjoys his job.


• I had two wonderful baby showers for Kajsa and we are so grateful to everyone who came and who thought of us. We are so blessed to have such amazing family and friends in our lives. We can't wait for all of you to meet her.
  
  Kyle: Now its back to the nitty gritty of school life. Kyle is in school full-time taking Biology, Physics, Physiology, and a religion class as well as working full-time. He is also playing intramural soccer and football and helps me with all of the yard work and some of the maintenance at the apartments on Saturdays. He does a great job of balancing all of that and family time with us. He works so hard and we love him and are so grateful for him and who he is.
  
  Crystal: I am at home with Trey keeping up with our home, my management job, and my calling. I am due to have this little girl in 8 days. I am really hoping to be induced on the 7th of October if she wants to come but if she's not ready than I can wait for a healthy baby whenever. I think that Trey is more excited than any of us. I took him to the doctors this week to get his flu shot. He asked me where we were and I replied "the doctors office" he responded very enthusiastically, "To take baby Kajsa out!" He is so sweet and anxiously awaiting her arrival.
  My barbershop quartet just sang at a rest home and that was a lot of fun to be able to perform again. My newest hobby is making baby bows for Kajsa. They are so expensive to buy so I have tried to make a few on my own.
  
  Trey: He is growing up so fast! He grew a few inches in August and really is starting to look like a boy and not a toddler. Trey is quite the talker and makes me laugh everyday with the new things he says. He is very observant and catches on to things quite quickly. He learned to sing his ABC's this summer, all of his colors, and can count to 13 and then from there it's eleventeen, seventeen etc. He is very coordinated. We took him miniature golfing the other night and he got a two on the first hole all by himself. (I got a 3) Kyle was very proud!! Trey loves music! He will sing, dance and pound away at the piano or his ukulele. Trey also loves to play with friends of any age. He is definitely our social butterfly. He has the sweetest spirit and loves to learn about the gospel. It makes teaching him so much fun and so rewarding. Children are truly a blessing from God!
  
  
  My Birthday, that is the only candle they could find :)
  
  
  In CA we went to a museum behind the OC airport with Grandma and Grandpa Sherman
  
  
  They also took Trey to the airport to see the airplanes land and take off. He liked all of the airplanes except for the big ones because they were too loud. :)