where did september go?

Well, I should start off by saying, thanks to everyone who participated in a special fast for our family, Steve and I were cleared for work today. Jackson contracted Ecoli on our trip to Idaho in August. THANKFULLY it never became serious, and he has been asymptomatic, but we have all been giving stool samples every week since then, and because we were all positive, I have been unable to work and Steve unable to see patients. But today we were cleared, yay! And hopefully we can get rid of the bug for good.  So since we have all this mandatory free time, what have we been up to?!

Well, Jackson has been practicing his "mad face". Lately he likes to give everyone his mad face especially strangers and the camera.

Unfortunately, we are also transitioning him out of nap time and he has major meltdowns almost every night at bedtime, during which he gives us a real mad face. We are just going to have to buckle down and put him to bed earlier... no more party life for Jackson!

Katie is cute and sweet as ever, she is starting to grab for things and play with toys.  Had to include the wipes here because I remember Jackson doing the same thing!

Jackson's horse is pretty cool too. Speaking of which, we lost Maximus!! Where are you Maximus?!

We also caught Katie sucking her thumb recently!

We did take a pretty little hike last week together. Here's Jackson with his little friend Brooklyn (her mom is on bed rest with twins!!).

Cousin Alex has been in town getting some dental work done to prepare for his mission. It's been fun to have him! The kids went with Steve to the school while Alex was getting his wisdom teeth out. 

( and here's Jackson giving the camera his mad face!)

Again, thanks to everyone who has been praying and fasting for us. We have felt strengthened and blessed. Here come the holidays!

Katie's First Campout

Friday night was the Daddy-Daughter Stake Campout. Steve wanted to take little Katie, so away she went. Steve won the award for youngest daughter. She was the littlest bug there.

And here are just a few cute ones:

She rolled over about a month ago several times, but hasn't rolled over again since. She is a happy little thing. We like her a lot.

Jackson turns 3!

Can you believe how time flies, little Jackson is three! This year he knew his birthday was September fifth. And his grandparents sent him some presents from Idaho and he knew that he had to wait until his birthday. So the morning of his birthday he came in to our room bright and early asking if he could open his presents. (NOTE: He refuses to wear pajamas. He wants to wear his "shorts". And this particular morning he has last night's dinner on his shirt...)

Thanks for the new socks and tie Nana and Papa!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Boyle for the awesome Mitt and Tent!  And Jackson of course LOVES his farm gummies!

WE had a few friends down to swim in the pool with us.

I made some green cupcakes which Jackson got all over his face of course (not much has changed since he turned one I guess...)

Here is Jackson while everyone is singing Happy Birthday- I love the look on his face. It looks like he sees his whole life ahead of him and he's determined it's going to be great!

Here's Steven's Steaming Hot Throwback Swimmingsuit!

We love you Jackson! Happy Birthday! And thanks to everyone who helped make it special!

Here is a short trip down memory lane:

Jackson's first birthday- wearing UCLA colors at a Blazing HOT USC game.

Jackson's second birthday- friends over at our apt. It was a little crazy!

We love this little guy! Did I mention that already?

Getting Up to Speed

Due to several factors including but not limited to camera confusion and less frequent computer use- I have gone a record 52 days without a blog post. I'm going to attempt in one post to get up to speed. Obviously, I will be leaving out many cute and cuddly pictures of Katie, and many memorable Jackson moments, and for that I apologize!

In July we made a trip to Idaho, here are some highlights:

 Our ten year class reunion!
JULY 3- Blessing Katie:

4th of July! Spent the afternoon on The Range with the cousins:

We got to spend a lot of time with JD, Liz, and Cami for the last time before their move to TX!  Here are Cami and Katie, in little twinner outfits!

Here is Cami chasing Jackson around. Jackson loved growling and making Cami giggle.

The second week of July Steve took his scout troup to Treasure Mt Scout Camp for the week. He had a great time. We spent the week at Nana and Grandpa's house. Here is Wyatt spending some time with us. When in doubt, just wear underwear!

I spent much of the time while Steve was away making a family Tree- if I get ahold of a picture will edit this post.
Steve had the camera with him at Scout Camp, but we had a really awesome Shively Family reunion at Heise Hot Springs. We had the camp site all to ourselves and I for one had an awesome time. (Refer to the Egbert Family Update Blog for details...)  Good Job MOM!

We left Idaho on July 20th- Nana and Great Grandma Egbert made the drive with us since Dad drove back to California w the Scouts. It was so awesome to have them here for a few days!  Little did I know, Steve actually left our camera at his parents' house in Idaho, so no pictures of Nana and Great Grandma!

So now that we are back in town, we spend many of our days at the pool.  Jackson is trying to drop his nap, but this is what happens when he goes swimming:

He is swimming on his own as long as he can hold his breath. He hasn't figured out how to come up for air yet. But he is getting close! He isn't afraid of the water, and he absolutely refuses to wear his "shark" a swimming life-jacket.

Here's Katie's first time in the pool . It was a little chilly so we didn't stay in for long! But Katie loves bath time  and she didn't fuss at all in the pool, so I think she will be loving it before long!

Other things keeping us busy:


We had some friends over to make cheese and shake butter. Not bad for a first try. Wouldn't be complete without some home made bread!  Here's our yummy lunch. (The green is some fresh basil from our "Aerogarden")

My Pregnancy Buddy (she and I were due the same time), Daisy, and I threw a New Baby of 2011 Party for all the new babies in our ward (some used to be in our ward or will be in the future).  It was so much fun to see all the babies rolling around on the floor!

We put up their pictures and Stats- thanks to Daisy's cousins for making it look so cool! And thanks to Steve for putting all the clothespins back together after we took them apart to paint them!  Here are the little kiddos from oldest to youngest! I don't have a good copy of the picture.

And this is a horrible picture- not sure what's up with my camera! But here are all the moms and babes. We are still missing four from our ward born so far in 2011 and there is a big bunch yet to come before the year is out!

And here is Katie in her party dress:

Anyway we are loving our little family and enjoying the last few weeks of my maternity leave! I'm currently looking for a solution to my blog apathy-stay tuned!