Jace's First Christmas

Normally we are a December 23rd shopping family. Not always because we procrastinate ... but usually because we don't save money to get gifts (I get paid about then.) This year we have been buying things off and on for Jace since October. It was his first year and we were excited.

On Christmas Eve the Sandman comes to wish us a good night's rest. (you know ... MR. SANDMAN, BRING ME A DREAM ....) Jace had just gotten out of the bath and it was time to open up his gift. It took him a little while, but by the end of the whole Christmas experience he was opening like a pro.

Jace's Sandman PJs. The sandman also gives us a Disney movie (the Disney tradition was one passed on by my family. They are older now and don't just watch Disney anymore .... but we do!)

The Boucher "Motherload"

Christmas morning Joe got Jace out of bed and I ran down to get the camera.

See MOM! I've got this ripping thing down! Surprisingly enough he actually played with his toys. He enjoyed ripping up the paper -- but enjoyed playing with all of the musical plastic too.

His favorite gift came from his Grandma and Grandpa (Stohel). He has figured out which buttons play the music and will sit there for a surprisingly long time and play with it. When he is about done, he will try to stand up on it. Of course it doesn't hold his (massive) 22lbs -- and will topple over backwards. At this point, the game is over and he needs to be snuggled until he is not scared anymore.

Christmas morning was a great year this year! I loved sharing it with my family!

Good Night's Sleep (This year ....)

Christmas morning is a magical time! On Christmas eve you SWEAR you are tired -- you climb into bed with your crisp new pajamas and lay there for Santa to come.

You wait

and wait

and wait

Eventually you roll over and look at the clock. 2:25. Not exactly "wake up the rest of your family time. So you snuggle up in bed again

and wait

and wait

3:15

and wait

3:52

Could Christmas Eve take ANY LONGER? What seems like days later instead of hours, you roll over in bed (it's 5:15) and declare SANTA CAME!!!

I knew that I wasn't going to be waking up Jace at 5:00 in the morning to "open presents" ... I had to wait until he woke up. The above description is miss Jen Boucher EVERY YEAR! So this year -- feeling a cold coming on -- I took a Nyquil. And boy did I sleep.

6:15: (JOE) Santa Came (JEN) HMMM???
6:25: (JOE) Santa Came? (JEN) (Rolls over)

6:45: (JACE) MAMAMAMAMAMAMA (JEN)I'm up.

Okay -- so not the bright eyed excitement of the past ... but hey! I only woke up once! I was nursing a nyquil hangover for the better part of the morning -- relieved only by napping into the afternoon -- but I slept well.

Caught UP

I am officially caught up with my blogs. After being told that it has been a month since an update ... I decided to get my bootie in gear and start typing. The next 7 posts (or so) is what has been going on in the JJJ Boucher household. ENJOY!

40 Years!

What in your life have you been working on for 40 years? How many things take 40 years to complete?

As Joe and I took Jace to see the lights at temple square tonight, I couldn't help but marvel, once again at how beautiful and peaceful that temple is. Every temple has it's sense of calm and serenity ... but there is something about the Salt Lake Temple that simply takes your breath away. Coupled with the fact that every branch of practically every tree on the block has been meticulously strung with different colored lights. It's definitely a sight!

As I reflect upon the sacrifice that it took to establish the church here in Utah, I am so grateful for those that came before me. I am grateful that they had the courage, perseverance, and faith to do what they did. Temple building is completely different today. We are past the age of basic establishment, and the focus has turned to getting the word out to the masses. I am grateful for the little things that can remind me to be grateful, humble, and spiritually uplifted.

p.s. notice the picture in the collage on the top row, 2nd one in. ... the big one with the lights ... I took that! Someone should pay me to put that on a poster --or at least a post card! ha!

Setting Up The Christmas Tree

I can't wait to start new traditions with my family. Traditions are part of what I remember the most growing up. Home-made pizza on Christmas Eve ... 7-Up with Cherry 7-Up Ice Cubes, Sandman, Disney, Pull aparts, Grandparents, games, good food ... It's the traditions with my family that I cherish most.

This year we started our Christmas season out right by putting up the tree.

Up until this year we have had a fake (cheep) walmart tree. Last year it was on the verge of breaking, PLUS I HATE fixing the branches so it looks somewhat real -- so we decided to get a real one this year! I haven't had a real tree since ... probably

I was 10 or so. We make the long trek down the road to Harmons and picked out the "right one" ... a $34.95 wonder!

We took it home, put it in it's stand, and ate home-made pizza. over the course of a couple of weeks we have put the final decorations on it and voila! A majestic tree presides in our living room.

TENK

Joe ran the Winter - Sun 10K in Moab on December 5th. The two of us were going to run it together, but because of my recent health issues, I was not able to train for it (next year!)

The average temperature for Moab on the week of December 5th is generally about 40 degrees. Those poor 800 runners could only HOPE for a temperature that high. It was 15 degrees (maybe) that weekend.

Braving the weather, Joe set off to run his 6.2 ish miles. He hadn't trained like he would have liked because of all that was going on with work and family life, so his only goal was to run it without stopping. He figured that if he could do this, he'd have a decent time. He set off on his race. It was so much fun to be able to drive along side him. Every mile or so I'd stop, jump out of the car, and cheer him on! He did a fantastic job. His "official" time was about 53 minutes. They didn't have a good time keeping system, so that is very rough. He ran the whole way (with the exception of a 100 yard uphill stretch), and came in 204th place.

I am very proud of him and can't wait for us to start running together again as a family! We got to train for next year :)

Super Hero

Never fear ... we are teaching this kid right!

Best super hero EVER = Spiderman!

Turkey Hostess

I love to party. I really enjoy having people over to my my home to do it. I also enjoy a challenge. I love to learn new things. These aspects of my life collided and the opportunity presented itself for me to invite the Bouchers over to our home for Thanksgiving Dinner, I welcomed the challenge.

I invisioned a nice, wonderful afternoon -- to create the perfect meal, I needed to get the menu right, as well as the atmosphere. I went to several home decorating stores for the table settings, made 16 sets of dinner ware (it has to match!) and made little gift placements for each guest. Once all 16 of us were there it was time to eat!

We enjoyed a spectacular day of food, fun, friends, and family! (Cheesy!) It was exhausting ... but I'd do it again in a heart beat! Just let me know when it's my turn to host again! I really enjoyed it.

Big Boy Chair

My baby is a very mobile eater. By this I mean -- he will eat where ever I put him! He eats in the car (on very RARE occasions!), he eats on the floor, on the bed, on the table, in the Bumbo ... with Thanksgiving just around the corner, we decided to advance him to a "big boy chair". There will be 16 Boucher in our quaint little home -- no room for Jace to eat on the table!

A few teachers at my school went in together to get me the high chair that I had on my registry. At the time, we wanted a chair that would connect to a piece of the dinette set, and that is what they got. (We then realized that we would need a dinette set! So we got one of those.) The chairs we purchased had padding on them -- and I didn't want this portable high chair to permanently indent the padding ... so we exchanged the gift for this bad boy!

Jace has learned quickly that when he gets put in that chair ... his belly will soon be satisfied! Smart boy.

I'm gunna be a ....

When Jace was born, my siblings and I kept predicting what Jace would be when "he grows up". "He's gunna be a basketball player, look at those hands!" "No, he'll be a pianist!" "Look at his parents, that kid's gunna be a genious!" (I said that one!)

We discovered that you don't need an expensive fisher price piano when you have your own at home! He loves it.

He will sit there for quite a bit of time just jammin' out.

He immediately turns looking for approval. Once the "atta boy Jace"-s are exclaimed, he keeps on playin.

Whatever that kid's "gunna be" ... I will always be his proud mama.

Eight Months and Counting

This is my start of a string of posts that are FAR over due! I'll try to remember everything that has happened so far :)

I love my baby. Time just has flown! This last year has been full of such great blessings. My family is the sunshine in my life -- the reason that I love to live. I never knew how much being a mom would change me.

Eight Months

Jace just started giving kisses the other day. He LOVES to give kisses. He'll kiss your cheek, mouth, shoulder, leg ... He'll kiss the dogs, neighbors, and friends. There is nothing that i love more than a big slobbery kiss. Jace has now become mobile. He loves to crawl around the room and (for now) does a fairly good job staying out of what he is not supposed to get into. He has experimented with gravity several times, learning quickly (I hope) that he will never win. He is such a good, well mannered baby.

Yummy Biscuits

Just playin' (and showin off the dimples)

I love my toys!

Eight Months!

Cookie Monster

Jace is now starting to explore the joy of new solid foods. He has eaten the blended up foods very well for the last 3 months. He recently has started enjoying the teething biscuits, (he now has two teeth!) His first biscuit I gave him without even thinking about it. We sat on the couch together, Jace enjoying the biscuit, me enjoying Jace. Then the slobber started. Jace doesn't do extremely well at keeping the "eat by yourself" solids in his mouth. It was EVERYWHERE ... and I didn't even try to keep him clean! He ate and ate and ate that biscuit until there was nothing left of it! (Copper enjoyed the pieces that were "choking hazards" for Jace.)

He then immediately went and took a bath. The next time he ate a graham cracker biscuit ... he ate it naked -- sitting in a chair!

BirthWeek Day #1

In our family (the Joe and Jen Boucher family) it is not enough to celebrate the birthday. We need to celebrate the birthweek. I think that this tradition started because once November rolls around ... I am FAR to excited to wait until the 9th to see what surprises are coming my way. Today (11/3) starts my birthweek. (Joe wants me to point out that normally it is the Jen half of the "Joe and Jen Boucher family that usually gets this treatment. I'll work harder on carrying on the tradition for him ... )

Joe kicked if to last night with a bang! He told me that he needed to go somewhere last night. As I was paying the bills (fun) Joe came home and brought me out to the garage. There stood two BEAUTIFUL LARGE book shelves PERFECT for holding all of my stamping supplies!! I was SO excited!! I needed to prepare for club -- and that was a more time sensitive activity than rearranging my "office" aka "stamp room." BUT my room was slightly cluttered anyway and if I were to organize it -- I'd just have to redo it once my shelves were in place. SO we decided to bring the bookcases downstairs.

After no success trying to bring it down the stairs we resorted to going through the window. Finally it was in the basement! Joe and I quickly transferred things from one shelf to the other, did a bit of rearranging and this is what we got! It is the double shelf on the left. The shelf on the right I already had. There is a second shelf that I need to figure out what to do with still. Our room is pretty small downstairs.

Thanks JOEY for the best PRE-Birthweek gift EVER! The best news is -- he got it for FREE! I love it :)

Trick or Treat

I always grew up with home-made costumes -- so that what I want to provide for my kids. They don't cost less -- and they certainly don't take any less time to make/find ... but they are SO SO SO much cuter than you can buy them for at the store. This year I decided to make Jace a monkey. I sew quilts ... and costumes have curves and fabrics that I am unfamiliar with. Nevertheless, Joe and I picked out the material and got to work. Because my last few weeks have been quite ... miserable ... I didn't get the costume finished until Friday night ... RIGHT in time! We ran to Sears on Saturday afternoon to get his pictures taken.
We chose Pose #4 here -- although as you can see it was a tough pick. I really like the "mischievous monkey" and the "hanging monkey" at the bottom. Afterwards we went to Grandma and Granpa Stohel's house for dinner and "show off" time. We "trick or treated" at the neighbors house -- really we just said hello. We didn't need any candy :) BUT SOMEONE had to see the cute monkey costume I made :)

Super Mom

I feel like I'm trying to be super mom. I am responsible for my job at SOJO, cooking dinner, cleaning house, caring for the 2 boys -- Joe and Jace ... and NOW I am trying to start rollin' with Stampin Up! again. I plan on staying home for several years. I miss Jace. This is the main cause of me pusing Stampin' Up! again ... (besides the fact that I LOVE to stamp!) My first workshop is on Saturday and I am madly trying to get ready for it. I have spent the last 2 days preparing options for my lovely hostess, Lyney to choose from. I have about a million other things that I have to do to get ready, but I am excited and I hope it goes well. My goal is to get at least 2 bookings from hers and to just watch it skyrocket. Thanks Lyns for throwing the party!! I'm looking forward to it!!

(If you want to see my samples, check out my other blog here! If you want to host a workshop .... LET ME KNOW!!!

7 months

7th months came and went ... I can't believe how fast time has gone. Jace is doing very well. He is growing and eating, and being a perfect little baby. We get stopped in the stores all of the time and everyone comments on how beautiful he is. His eyes are gorgeous ... look at those dimples ... everyone loves Jace.

At 7 Months I can ...

Jace is growing so fast. When he turned six months it was like ... CHECK! I can sit up now. He will sit until he decides to fall. He has his bottom two teeth and is getting two more on the top -- the ones next to the middle two. He loves to be on his belly and will climb up on his knees and rock back and forth. Crawling is meer days away ... my world is about to drastically change. He currently LOVES to say MAMAMAMAMA or PAPAPAPAPA. He generally only doees it when he is getting upset and/or tired. He loves to eat his little cereal bites and his teething biscuts. He hasn't gotten fussy with his teeth or lost sleep over it. He is the highlight of our life and we love him dearly

Waking up in the middle of my pillows

Playing with Dad

Trying on what COULD have been my Halloween Costume

I'm the oldest ... I get all of the pictures.

Trying on my ACTUAL Halloween Costume. My mom made it.

SEVEN MONTHS

Some of you Know ... Some Don't ... regardless .......

The outcome isn't pretty.

It took us 7 years to get pregnant with Jace. He is a perfect child. We love him more than our hearts have room for, but somehow we love him more and more each day.

On labor day this year we found out we were expecting baby #2! We were so excited to have made one without the use of any drugs :) We were very scared about the idea of having two babies 13 months apart, but were preparing for the challenge.

Unfortunately, today it ends. We are saddened, but we have survived this before and can do it again. Jace will be a big brother some day ... but not in April.

Photo Shot

We took our little stud in on Saturday to get his pictures taken. Everyone just oohed and ahhed over how dang cute the kiddo is! Joe and I were determined to stick to a budget ... so we only could choose one pose. It was tough -- which one would YOU pick?