jace

this little boy brings me so much joy each and every day.



he also drains me of all my energy each and every day.



he can often be found in more than one shirt on the floor playing cars or legos. he loves playing with his friends and his mom and dad. he is a complete sponge and soaks up everything he can. he has a crazy imagination and tells us all kinds of stories about his "adventures." and he changes his name frequently (but is most likely to answer to diego).

he is very excited for his baby sister to get her and tells her everyday to come out of mommy's tummy. when he sees the baby stuff he says "ah, it's so cute" or "this is adorable." and whenever we are at the store he finds something he thinks we should buy for baby sister. he plans on changing her diaper, feeding her and rocking her back to sleep when she wakes up at night.

he tells us everyday how much he loves us and we can't imagine our lives without him!

sunbeam

jace is now a sunbeam! after a month of ups and downs he now enjoys going to primary each week. he has learned how to stay in his seat, that there is a time for playing star wars and airplanes and a time for church, that you have to ask if you want to go get a drink of water and that he doesn't need jack (one of his best little buddies) to be happy in primary.

last week during testimony meeting he hopped off jared's lap and started heading to the aisle. after stopping him this was our conversation:

me: where are you going?
jace: to talk up there.
me: what are you going to say?
jace (in a "duh" tone of voice): the first article of faith.

he was pretty set on going up the whole time and was not very happy that i did not let him. his sunbeam teacher let him "bear his testimony" during his class which made him happy.

feeding the ducks and geese on a slightly frozen pond

hope you are having a happy monday!

a winter coat

i let jace help pick out his winter coat. wasn't my best idea. i didn't think a three year old would have such a strong opinion. i probably should have known better. not that i don't like it, i'm just thinking that it's going to be hard to find snow pants that match. (jared did inform that they don't have to match but i like to think otherwise.)

*when viewing these pictures please ignore the uncombed hair and the nice bumb on his forhead next to his eye (he was running over to see a his picture and miscalculated the distance. corners of cameras leave a good mark).

halloween '09

we had a great halloween. jace was a green dinosaur, a t-rex to be exact. he went through a number of costume requests before he chose this one. once he saw this one in the store i couldn't convince him otherwise.

we had the ultimate trick or treating experience complete with homemade donuts, caramel apples, hot chocolate, haunted house, mummy bowling, fish pond, cupcake walk and numerous other activities.

jace tromped around with his dinosaur friend. they have such a great time together. i love these pictures of them giving their best dinosaur roars, especially the intensity that his friend does it with.


taking a rest while waiting to go in the haunted house.


most of jace's candy is gone (thanks to his mom and dad). he still asks when we are going trick or treating again. i guess "in a year" is a hard concept when you are three.

jace, reading in his room with his flashlight at bedtime. (he reads the stories out loud to himself.)

3 years old!

so i finally got around to taking jace's 3 year old pictures last week. it did take a little bribing on my part to get him into the clothes i wanted and out the door. we didn't have much time because it was threatening to rain on us but we still got some good ones.

actually we got a lot of good ones. here is what i've edited so far.





this last series is one of my favorites. it totally shows what happens when i want to take his picture. the first picture he is saying "mom, do i really have to stand here and do this?" the second shows him so often distracted and interested in something other than the camera. and the last is his nice little cheeser. man, i love this kid!


more to come when i get around to editing them.

amber (jared's cousin) took some quick snapshots of jace and i last spring when she was visiting. i have been meaning to post them but never got around to editing them until last week.

i love. love. love. having these pictures of me and jace. we have such a great time together and i always want to remember this time of our lives.


thanks amber!

monster birthday

we had a fun monster party for jace's birthday this past weekend. he got to invite four of his friends that he plays with often. we had pizza from papa murphey's, drinks (sprite is jace's favorite) and cupcakes with monster suckers stuck in each one.

for the activities we decorated monster bags, played monster bean bag toss, and had a monster bounce on the trampoline with monster balls. we topped the party off with a monster pinata full of candy and monster tattoos, which the boys were actually able to break by themselves.

jace had a great time and i think his friends did too. i was supervising the party and jared was on camera patrol. he took mostly video but did get a few photos.




i love this picture of jace just waiting to hit the pinata. i think the other kids were jumping on the trampoline.

play

we went to the children's garden the other day with friends. jace built this bridge in the natural play area. there is a troll wedged under the bridge who does not let anyone across unless they answer one of his riddles.


jace picked this flower for me and wanted me to wear it in my hair. he kept checking on it all day to make sure it was still there.


one of my favorite things is listening to jace play. so creative. so fun.

a little jace talk

jace said to me this morning:

"oh yeah, i decided i want a dog mom, instead of a baby sister"


such a fun age right now. he cracks me up often throughout the day.

yesterday he spilled his food on his shirt while eating dinner:

jace: "dangit"
me: "remember we say 'ah man' not dangit"
jace: "no this is a dangit moment mom"
(i had spilled food on my white shorts earlier in the day and had said dangit...he doesn't miss a thing)


frequent phrases that he uses:

"those are not my choices mom!" (when he doesn't like the options i give him)

"this is the problem" (this prefaces pretty much everything he says whether it's a problem or not and he always holds up two fingers while saying it)

"is that the plan" (usually after he finishes telling us whatever he had to say)

"what was your favorite part" (usually when we put him to bed but sometimes after we do an activity. we also have to go through everyone in our family, his friends and their families, too.)

"i'm still your baby, mom" (he tells me this at least once a day)

whenever we give jace a compliment he turns around and gives it back to us. example, the other day jared came to watch him play football.
jared: "i'm so proud of you jace for playing football"
jace: "no, i'm so proud of you dad for watching me play football"

a couple more dandelion pictures

green balloon

after the dandelion we tried some balloon pictures. he only lasted about 10 minutes but i still liked how they turned out. now i just need to start printing his pictures and hanging them on the walls or putting them in a book. that part is so hard for me.

(more pictures here)

dandelions

we found some huge dandelions the other day so of course we had to take some pictures. the morning light was beautiful and we had fun trying playing with the dandelions. jace couldn't quite blow them but if he shook it they would fly away. he's a good sport to let me take pictures of him all the time.


(you can see more pictures here)