Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year! We celebrated Christmas at the Westenskows' (my family) on the 15th and the 16th and both my grandmas' homes. We were definitely spoiled! Christmas was a little crazy and loud at my parents' house due to the grandkids, but it was great all the same. We had to opportunity to get an up to date family picture...but not for long.
(Top: Travis, Carl (my dad), Devin (my brother), Middle: Misty (me), Denise (my mom), Terra (sister-in-law), Bottom: Jack, Lexi, CJ, Solon).

My sister-in-law and brother will be adding one more little boy to the clan in March! These little boys are taking over!



We were able to get some pictures of Jack with his great-grandmas on my side! He is a very loved boy!



We celebrated with Travis' family on the 21st and 22nd. We opened presents...Jack was spoiled! Grandma and Grandpa bought him a very adorable rocking horse! On Saturday, Crystal (sister-in-law) treated us to go-cart racing! It was very fun...although I will never be able to keep up with the family...They were passing me left and right...literally!


Christmas day was spent at home..for the very first time! We weren't sure what to do, but ended up having Baked Ziti and garlic bread for dinner and watched movies and played with Jack all day long! Oh, and I tried to make brownies...it didn't work...but Sadie helped me clean it up!








Jack did very well this Christmas as you can see by his couch of presents!!



I can't wait until next year, when he can open his presents and stay awake for it!! Love to all!

Baby Blessing

Our little Jack was blessed this Sunday at our ward here in Perry. He hated wearing his suit! I can't blame him considering how uncomfortable the poor kid looked...but he was SO handsome! That afternoon as we dressed him, we realized that his neck was too fat for the top button and his bow tie was too small! He slept like an angel during the blessing and then Travis had to take him out because he started grunting and fussing and trying to poop! It was pretty funny!








We had many family and friends come and support Jack. For dinner, we had a potato bar...needless to say we cooked too many and will be eating potatoes for weeks!! It was such a nice blessing and great to have so many people there!!

Jack is starting to give us some smiles! He is so sweet! I know that he is going to be pretty spoiled! It just melts your heart with each little smile!

Self Portraits!

Yesterday Travis and I made a successful attempt to take our own family pictures! It was definitely interesting...I would have never thought that a ladder could serve so well as a tripod! It took many tries, but Travis did well and I think that our little family is pretty cute!
We wanted to get Sadie (the dog) in the picture, but getting her to sit still with us would have been a real task. Getting her to not eat the blanket that keeps her warm at night has been a real task! (We went out the other day and found the stuffing from her bed all over the lawn! Naughty puppy! We did, however, get some pictures of her with reindeer antlers on...that was definitely time consuming!!

One Month Old!

Wow! Our little Jack is one month old today! I can't believe how fast it is going! He has grown so much in the short time that we have had him! He is even developing a double chin...oops! I think that he may even be 2 feet long or more! He is such an alert little guy and loves to check things out. Of course I am sad that when we put him on his lay and play toys, he turns his head and stares at the lamp in the corner...money well spent! Kidding, he has started looking at those dangling toys and I think that he enjoys himself! He is holding his head up pretty well and is getting pretty strong...which is so great, except when he is fighting me when I get him dressed! He loves his baths and I can't wait until he can sit up and start splashing! Jack is even sleeping a little better during the night!

Mommy got to see his first real smile today (one not occurring due to gas)! He was absolutely adorable! He has been such a good baby...he has his fussy moments though! He was a little crabby over Thanksgiving, but not enough to change the impression of him being the cutest baby ever! :)

I do wonder if the little guy knows what crazy parents he has though...if so, we might not have been the chosen ones! Here is a picture that Travis set up and seems hilarious to us...in a somewhat morbid way! We are really good and decent people...just have a very interesting sense of humor!

We had a great Thanksgiving and were able to spend the holiday with family and friends. Our sweet little niece, Lexi came to stay with us. And the next day my wonderful sister-in-law scheduled facials for us and I have to say that I am very interested in having them often! It was wonderful! Travis said that it took 2 years off...but he wouldn't say how old that made me...hmmm?



We have also started to figure out ways to catch some sleep...the pictures will explain!









Hope everyone had a great holiday and good luck with the Christmas shopping!!

A New Post...finally!

Wow! It is amazing how much time it takes looking after a sleeping baby!! I used to spend plenty of time checking my e-mail and updating the blog...but now the day seems to fly and it is over and I haven't even looked at my computer!! So, I am going to take this opportunity while Travis is home to update with a few more pictures of our little Jack!
We went to his 2 week checkup last Thursday and he is doing so well. He gained 12.5 ounces since his 5 day appointment, so he is now up to 8lbs 3 oz and is 21.25 inches long. There is no sign of jaundice, his belly button stub fell off and his circumcision is fully healed...(I'm sure he would be very embarrassed to know that I mentioned this in our blog! ) He was happy to go to the doctor until they took his blood! :(

Here is a picture with Jack's oldest cousin Lexi! She was very excited to get to hold him and he just slept in her arms. I'm positive that she is going to be a very good cousin to little Jack!
This is one of my favorite pictures! I think that it gives a glimpse of what he is going to look like as a toddler. He looks so serious!!




We went to "Grandpa Pete's" birthday party this weekend and had a great time! He slept the whole time even though he was passed around for over 4 hours! Everyone just loved Jack and Grandpa was so proud of the little guy! He is definitely not lacking in the love department!
Here is a picture of our sleepy little man! He loves to cuddle...and mom really loves that! I can't imagine a sweeter little boy than the one that Heavenly Father blessed us with! I think we will keep him!

Happy Halloween!

I had to take these pictures! I was so excited to have him before Halloween because I am dressing him up as a "Jack-O-Lantern". Get it... "Jack"!

He looked so cute and sweet that I thought that I would throw him in the bowl with the other sweets...although I think that he is sweeter!!

First Sponge Bath!!

Jack had his first sponge bath at home on Monday. I thought that he was going to scream, but he seemed to enjoy it or at least be content and stay awake during it!

Mom fumbled a little...he is so small! (I didn't drop him, just had to figure out how to make everything work!) I can't wait until we can do the real baths and play on the water!! It will be so much fun and we can pull out the cute little tub and all the bath toys!

Growing, growing, growing!

I can't believe that our Little Jack is already 6 days old!! He is so beautiful and I wouldn't even trade the sleepless nights and the fact that he decided to poop and pee on Mommy instead of Daddy!!

I wanted to share some more pictures because this is my blog and I can do whatever I want with it! Technology really is amazing when it comes to being able to share things with loved ones that are far away!!

Here is our little sleeping Jack, which he is during a large portion of the day...the night has been a little different! He even likes sleeping on Daddy's lap, while Daddy is making fun of Mommy's blog template colors.
We just absolutely adore the little guy! Thank heaven for little boys, right? :)

Baby Jack Pics

[Posted by Travis]
Hey there everyone in Misty's blogosphere! (Look at me, I'm blogging -- weeee!)

So while Misty's out playing with the dog, I'm going to post some pictures of our baby boy, Jack. Of course, the first thing I had to do was to get rid of the awful pink-and-purple template for this page (Misty might correct me and tell me the colors are "cranberry" and "amethyst" or something like that). Doesn't this color scheme look much better?

Anyway, here we go....
As you can see, Jack weighed 3598 grams at birth and was not happy to have his picture taken at that particular moment. Just to throw some more numbers at you, he was also 49.5 cm from crown to foot at was born at time coordinate 20071025T1725-0600 and geodetic coordinates φ = +41.7569°, λ = -111.8223°.

And here is our very first family picture. Misty's bed was elevated about 4 feet off the ground and our nurse was short, so this was about as good as we could get.

Here's a close-up of his mug. He kinda had the newborn funny-looking-ness about him still, but he's still cute. It's pretty neat that he'll go from crying with quivering lips and all, to sleeping soundly in my arms in just a few minutes.

This is probably my favorite picture that I took at the hospital. I took it without flash, and the soft tones that result just say to me "motherly care, contentment, peace, and love" (not the hippy kind of "peace and love," mind you).

Here's Jack getting ready to go home from the hospital. The scary thing is that even though he looks so small, he'll outgrow this car seat before we know it!

Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures with his eyes open. He (currently) has dark blue-gray-hazel-brown eyes. He gets the blue from his mother, and everything else from me. I have yet to figure out exactly what color my eyes are, as they're different every time I take a close look. My drivers license says "Brown", but then again it also says 180 lbs -- nope, not anymore! I'll be watching Jack's to see how his change as he grows up, along with his hair -- both Misty and I were toeheaded during our preschool years.

Well, I guess that's all I have to write. We have a few more pictures, but these were the most worth sharing. If you want a larger version, or to look at the rest of them, ask Misty. You could ask me if you wanted to, but they're on her computer anyway. So anyway, thanks for your congratulations and positive comments so far on the baby. Jack's a good baby, and we can tell he already loves his mommy and daddy, and we're very happy and blessed to have him with us.

Baby Jack is here!!

Our sweet, little baby has arrived! John Isaac "Jack" was born on Thursday, October 25th at 5:25pm. He weighed 7 pounds, 15 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long!! iHe was a little stubborn coming into the world, but he's here! (I always win! He has been such a sweet baby so far and we are excited to get to take him home tomorrow!

Pictures will be coming as soon as we can download them!! He is a cutie! He was even voted the cutest baby in the nursery...(there were only 3 babies there)! :)

Uh Oh!!

Ok- So, tomorrow is the day that we call the hospital and they tell us when to come in. I have been getting ready for this little boy to come for months and still have things to do! I made a bunch of wall decorations out of those cheap picture frames at Michaels and some other things to hang. I have washed his clothes and rearranged them according to sizes. The car seat is installed, the bassinet ready, stroller up and running, baby bouncer ready to bounce...I'm still trying to figure out how to stop the swing...but all in all, I think that I am there.

Then Travis said, "Wouldn't it be funny if he came out and was really a girl." I was dumbstruck!! First of all "if he came out" seems to be a little less dramatic than I am thinking it is going to be, but what if he is a she? What would I do? I have taken the tags off of and washed everything!!! I went back to look at the ultrasounds and I am pretty sure that he is a he considering the 3-D pose with "extra parts" hanging down...but they say that they are sometimes wrong...

Needless to say, if we do have a little girl, she will probably be wearing a lot of blue, we will not be circumcising her and she will be enjoying a very green room with safari animals, whether she likes it or not! But please know that we are not bad parents...just too trusting in technology! :) The next post will most likely answer these very questions!!

Love ya'll!!

He's Coming Soon!!

I just thought that I would share that our little Jack will probably be coming a little sooner than planned! At my last appointment my blood pressure was still elevated and the doc wants to try and get him out before I develop Toxemia...so on Thursday...yes, this Thursday we are setting the date and I will be induced!!! Ahhh!!

We're not too worried because he is considered full term now anyway. He will not be too early and this means that I get to dress him up for Halloween!! :) I think we are going with a "Jack"-O-Lantern!! Wow, we are so clever! Good thing that I spent all those years in college!! :)

I've been tagged!

Since when do you get to tag more than 1 person in the game of tag, Beth? Just kidding! Here I go!

1. What I was doing 10 years ago....
Well, I was a senior in high school...wow...am I that old? I was singing in our high school's all girls vocal jazz choir "MissAlayneous". Tons of drama there!! Way too much estrogen! I would always hang out with my very best friend, Kamaile and we would sing "Summertime" in the bathrooms and down the hallway because it echoed and sounded very cool!!! (We actually had Choir practice in the boys bathroom often! Our choir director was a guy and it really helped to hear how all the notes blended!) I was working with adults with disabilities and a Special Olympics coach for the Evanston team! I was also the co-director of a 4th and 5th grade choir that was directed by my very awesome voice lesson teacher Ann Guiliani-Curry!

2. What I was doing 5 years ago....
I was in college up at Utah State starting my Special Education classes and studying my butt off...well...not literally...obviously! I was writing to a dear missionary and hoping that he wasn't falling in love with a little Iowan farm girl with pigtail braids and several teeth missing!! I think I was living in Old Farm at that time with some very fun and crazy roommates. I was 22 years old and my bathroom was decorated in rubber duckies!!

3. What I was doing 1 year ago...
I would have been just into my second year of teaching special needs preschool and loving it much more than the first year!! It takes a while to figure out what you are doing with those little ones! I'm sure that I had already set up my Halloween decorations and they had been up for a month...it probably drove Travis crazy!!

4. What I was doing yesterday....
Yesterday, I cleaned the entire house from top to bottom and mowed the lawn. The neighbor came and yelled at me because I am 36 weeks pregnant and shouldn't be doing that...what she doesn't know is that the lawn mower is self-propelling and I was really dragging behind it! I have been practicing with mowing the lawn because Travis makes fun of me because my lines are not straight....I can't wait for next week when I totally mow the lawn in wavy lines!! My aunt and two cousins came and we made cards and laughed and chatted! It was tons of fun!!

5. 5 ways I would spend $100 million....
1. Pay off debt
2. Buy my future son a 6 foot tall stuffed giraffe
3. Buy Travis a big screen tv, telescope and a weather station
4. Eat the expensive meal at a restaurant once
5. Put the rest in an IRA, money market, or education fund

6. 5 Locations I would run off to....
1. Glacier National Park... there are tons of waterfalls!!
2. Ireland... pretty, pretty, pretty
3. Austria... to sing "The Sound of Music"
4. Canada... just so I can say I've been to Canada
5. Iowa...to see the Tulip festival in Pella

7. 5 Bad Habits....
1. Biting my nails
2. Not putting the toilet paper roll in the dispenser
3. Popping my knuckles
4. Judging myself
5. Being crabby at times

8. 5 things I like doing...
1. singing when nobody is listening
2. scrapbooking
3. reading
4. Spending time with my hubby
5. Hiking when not pregnant!

9. 5 favorite tv shows... (We don't have tv right now)
1. House
2. Bones
3. CSI
4. Cold Case
5. Are you smarter than a 5th grader

10. 5 things I hate
1. snakes
2. spiders
3. teryaki sauce
4. People who don't use their blinkers
5. rude people that work at the grocery store

11. 5 greatest joys at the moment
1. My dad made me bracelets out of electrical wire once...I was on cloud 9!
2. Getting married
3. Driving around in my cute green car
4. Finding out that I was pregnant
5. Seeing my husband at the airport after he had been gone to a conference for 5 whole days!!


I have nobody to tag....yet!

Where'd they go??

Well, it is official! I can no longer see my feet! I realized this last night, although...they have probably been missing for a week or so. Fortunately, the cankles that I have by the end of the day are not that pleasing to look at anyway! Last week, I thought..."Wow, this whole 8 month pregnant thing is not that bad." Well, this week I feel like an elephant and everything that I do takes about 4 times as long because usually I have to get up and move somewhere to do it! Only 5 weeks left...I hope!! My bladder is not going to make it much longer! I've started crossing my legs when other people sneeze, just in case I pee my pants!!

On another note...
Travis and I are really enjoying being in our new ward. There are tons of very amusing kids around and we have fun activities! We went to a corn maze on Tuesday and I made it through without giving birth or having to run out into the corn to go potty! Yea for me!! Tomorrow night we are going to a barbecue at a fish farm where people can fish if they want. And in two weeks there is a "craft night" where I can learn to be crafty...I can't be a housewife and stay-at-home mom and not learn to be crafty...right?

Hope all is well with the world out there! We love you all!!

Sadie Mae

Well, we dug out an old digital camera because our newer one is still missing in action. I wanted to post some pictures of our new dog, whom I am going to say nice things about even though she just chewed up my camping chair that was sitting in the back yard! I usually take an hour or so to sit and read outside so that she is not alone. I read and she gets her belly rubbed...it's a win-win! Needless to say, she did get her hour long belly scratch because I didn't notice the missing fabric until I got up! The mama was not happy!!

Anyway, here are some pictures of our normally sweet girl. She is such a silly dog! She loves jumping very high, but is not so graceful on the way down! She loves her belly rubbed and will practically give herself a concussion plopping on her back so you can rub it! She is spoiled...but she doesn't think so now that she spends 24/7 outside...well, almost 24/7! :)

The Final Roadtrip!!

Travis and I went on a southern Idaho road trip as our last as irresponsible non-parents! Southern Idaho is VERY dry! It's not too often that you get to see tumbleweed caught inside dust devils!!

We went to Crater of the Moon National Monument. It was very interesting and the wind was blowing so hard that I rarely got hot...which is good for me! I've been having hot flashes since the beginning of my pregnancy!!



We even hiked up "Inferno Cone" and Travis didn't even have to push me! He did pester me all the way to the top though. There was a great view from the top...even if I didn't appreciate it until I caught my breath! It's steeper than it looks!! We went climbing through some caves! The temperature was great! It was nice and cool and I didn't even get stuck climbing out!


We also went to Bruneau State Park and spent some time at the observatory and looked at the stars through one of those huge telescopes. It was really cool! The following day, we went on a 2 1/2 hour trainride up near Horseshoe Bend, ID. It was pretty boring...We did see some of the rafters on the Payette River tip over though! It's the little things that count!

We had a lot of fun! It was nice to get away! Now onto the next chapter of our life...PARENTHOOD! AHHHHHHHH!!!

New House, New Dog and Baby coming soon!!

Well, we have moved from college student living to family living all at once!! We moved into our new house and absolutely love it! We just adopted a new dog. She is a border collie mix and is the funniest thing ever!! We named her Sadie and she keeps me company during the day while Travis is at work! No picture, because we lost our digital camera in the move. :(

Travis is enjoying his new job at ATK Launch Systems (Thiokol). He is even in a "van pool"! We have really nice neighbors and our mail comes by 9:30am! How cool is that!?!

Baby John Isaac "Jack" is coming very soon. Less than 10 weeks now! We are very excited, but I am starting to get a little nervous about the who labor thing!

Buying a House

We have a contract on a house in Perry, UT and if all goes well, we will be moving around the 21st of July! It is a very cute house with 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, but has an unfinished basement with two more bedrooms and a 3/4 bath framed. We are very excited...although a little in shock that we are actually doing it!!

Our Bouncing Baby Boy!!

We found out today that our little one is a bouncing baby boy...literally! He gave the ultrasound tech a hard time! He was bouncing around everywhere and kept moving through the whole procedure! He was not shy at all letting us know what gender he was though! He made sure that we saw his little "package" many times! Everything looks healthy and is growing well. The due date is still November 2nd. We are very excited!!