#12 Teach Jackson to Roll Over and Crawl

DONE!

Jackson first rolled over February 5, 2015. But he didn't do more frequently until mid-March.

Jackson learned to army crawl on April 30, 2015 and took a few weeks to work up to a normal/fast crawl.

We are so proud of Jackson and how much he has learned in the almost 11 months he has been with us. And we are excited to see what the future holds for him!

#11 (Service Related)

I was able to do service for someone in the ward. I prefer not to talk about it, but I did and it felt really good. I hope that I will have many more opportunities to service others!

#4 Attend a Live Session at the Salt Lake Temple

Before we left Utah, Christian and I were able to go to the Salt Lake Temple for the first time since we were married and sealed for eternity on November 6, 2012.                                                                                                                                  

It was always hard to get up to the Salt Lake Temple because there were 5 other temples closer to us. I REALLY wanted to make it to this temple before we left, but babysitting kept falling through. On the last open weekend before the move, my friend, Charmaine, offered to take Jackson. Charmaine took him to her parents' house and they played with him while Christian and I left for the temple. (Big thank you to Charmaine and her mom, Shauna!)                                                                                                                                                  

I'm so glad we got a chance to go to the temple. The artwork and detail in the rooms of the Salt Lake Temple is absolutely beautiful. I'm so grateful to have been able to live in a state with so many temples. I'm also grateful for eternal families, and to be able to have that with Christian.                                                                                                                                                         

November 2012

#13 Take Jackson to the Zoo

Since I was a young girl going to the zoo with my family I've always wanted to take my own children to the zoo. My favorite things to watch are the polar bears and penguins in the water. When I made this goal I knew Jackson might be a little young to really enjoy the zoo, but I wanted to take him anyway. A family outing.

Christian and I took him to Como Zoo. We parked in a parking lot far away and took advantage of the free shuttle service. Jackson is a huge flirt. Christian was holding Jackson so I told him to take the last seat. There were cute young girls on either side of them, and Jackson went back and forth looking at them and smiling. The girls smiled and talked back to him (told him how cute he was). Jackson has already "got it."

Jackson wasn't too interested in most of the animals. But he really liked looking at the seal. (I didn't get a picture of the seal, but you can tell he is happily watching it.)

 He was also very interested in the fish and the colors in the aquarium. We parked there for a bit so he could take it all in. 

We went to watch the gorilla. It was really awesome when he came right up to us behind a glass wall. HOWEVER, there was a rather large older woman who decided she was going to park her behind right in front of the gorilla, making it really difficult for the children around her to see. She sat there for MORE than just a few minutes, until she got the perfect selfie with the gorilla. And then continued to sit there. So...we didn't get a picture of the gorilla sitting right up in front of us (although now I'm wishing I got a picture of her so I could show you all how ridiculous she was). Here is a nice picture of him sitting, after he moved from the glass (I'd like to think it's because he got tired of looking at that woman.)

Jackson and daddy

Jackson and mommy

 It was really busy because it was the weekend before Memorial day so I didn't get to take many pictures. Next time there WILL be pictures of the penguins!

#18 Do a 3000 Piece Puzzle by MYSELF

I love puzzles!! I can spend hours at a time staring at puzzle pieces. Just ask my mom, or Christian. The only downside to spending hours on a puzzle is the aching in my shoulders and back from all the leaning and standing up over the puzzle-it can get pretty intense.

I bought a 3000 puzzle because I didn't already have one that big. I got a nice Ravensburger ocean puzzle. I love Ravensburger puzzles!

I spent almost 2 weeks on this puzzle. (I'm sure I could have done it faster if I didn't have to take care of Jackson and keep the apartment clean.) I noticed a piece missing about halfway through the puzzle, and just hoped it would appear eventually. I placed 2999 pieces and that 3000th was still missing. I spent 2 days searching for the lost piece. I looked EVERYWHERE! But...I needed the space back so I had to give up.

(Sorry about the glare...)

#6 Make and Try Fondue

A few weeks ago Candelyn, my mother-in-law, was de-cluttering her house and getting rid of things that did not bring her joy. Luckily, I was able to go through a few things before she took them to Goodwill. In the "kitchen give away" pile I found a fondue set! A vintage 1970's pot! I've never had fondue (cheese or chocolate) and it was on my 25 Things list for this year, so I HAD to have the fondue set. 

Christian helped me test the burner and the old absorbing pad inside. It worked! All we had to do was the buy cheese and dippers. I found a non-alcoholic recipe and went to work on it. I wasn't a huge fan of the cheeses (Gruyere and Swiss), so maybe next time we will try some different ones.

(not pictured-roasted potatoes)

My favorite dippers were the roasted potatoes. 

Next time, CHOCOLATE!

#16 Finish my Quilt

A long time ago, back when I lived in Holladay, Utah (roughly 2010) I had the idea to make a second quilt. I wanted something colorful. I found lots of colorful scraps of fabric I had acquired (mostly from my mom and grandma), and looked through a quilt book my grandma gave me. I found a favorite pattern and got to work!

It took about a week to get all the pieces cut out and sewn together. I found a plain fabric for the back. Put some batting in between. I sewed a binding around the outside. Then started hand-stitching. But, hand-stitching takes FOREVER! It was slow going and I didn’t work on it as much. Not too long later I moved and my quilt got put in a box, unfinished.

A few years go by and I found the quilt again. Feeling guilty about leaving a project unfinished, I added it to my 25 Things list for this year. So for the last two months I have been working really hard on it. And on August 4th I finished my last stitch!!

And then, an unfortunate change in lighting...