Summer...plus fall... plus winter... :)

Apologies to all my blog readers for not posting anything in six months :) I decided a long time ago I wanted to be the kind of mom who plays with her kids extra rather than blogging about playing with her kids. I don't know if I've played with Jack extra but I've clearly been doing something other than blogging lately!

So here's Jack - who is now 10 months old, pulling onto his feet to stand, getting into everything, feeding himself things like bananas and cereal and paper, and still army crawling and taking 3 naps a day. (Keep doing that, little buddy!)

And Ryan, who is loving being a dad to Jack, trying hard to balance work and school and family, almost finished with the first semester of the MAcc/PhD accounting prep track, and getting so excited for finals (not).

And me, who changed jobs (again) but is still working from home, doing crafty stuff, trying to clean and declutter our apartment, getting into couponing to try and save money, and other stay at home mom type stuff to try and benefit our family.

We're all looking forward to the Christmas break and heading down to Houston for Ryan's accounting internship January - March. Ryan's siblings are being so nice to let us stay with all of them while we're there so we don't have to pay rent on a place there and our place here. We're prepping for the trip with a mix of excitement, anticipation, and nervousness. It'll be a new experience for all of us. 

For Halloween we dressed up as our favorite holiday - Christmas. Jack was the cutest Rudolph I've ever seen. I made his and my costumes and was really proud of how they turned out. 

Merry Christmas!

We are a happy family

We had a couple in our ward over for dinner last night. They are expecting their second child any day (moment!) now, and we spent most of dinner talking about babies and newborns and having children and how much we all love it. Part of the conversation that really stood out to me was how each of us had our own fears and insecurities about having children beforehand, but once the child arrived in our family they've brought nothing but joy and fulfillment. I wish I could share that feeling with every couple that worries about and fears having children, or who postpones starting their family because they don't think they have enough money, time, space, or enthusiasm to raise a child. We adore our little boy and wouldn't have waited one more minute to let him come be part of our family, even though Ryan still has 6-7 years of school left and we live in a little apartment on a student budget. Yes, it's work sometimes, yes, you lose sleep sometimes, yes, diapers and spit-up are no fun and sometimes children can push your buttons like nobody else. But it's things like this that really make you grow, and in turn bring so much happiness.

I like to sing Jack a song before naps (more for me to cuddle with him a minute than because he actually needs it.) My favorite is a song that used to be one of my favorites that my mom used to sing to me:

I love you, and you love me,
We reach together for the best we can be.
I love you, and you love me,
And that's the way that it's supposed to be. 

I love Jack and Ryan and we all love each other - and that's the way that it's supposed to be!

Cakes and Solids

We love summer at our house, despite not having air conditioning and having to content ourselves with the swamp cooler and ceiling fan.

At 4 1/2 months, Jack weighed in at 13.7 lbs and 25 inches. He is healthy and active and fit, and not too heavy :) Doctor gave us the go-ahead for solid foods, so we've been having a blast getting squashes and cereals and peas all over the place. Jack enjoys baby food but enjoys grabbing the spoon and stuffing the bib in his mouth more.

I entered my first-ever cake decorating contest and took first place in the beginner division. It was actually a lot of fun and I'm planning to keep going with this cake stuff. Maybe I could make a business out of it once I get a little better.






We have passes to Seven Peaks waterpark and go once a week or so. It's quite a lot of fun, and Jack even seems to enjoy it. We got him a tube with a baby seat in it so that he can float around in the pool and around the lazy river with us, submerged to his shoulders. He doesn't seem to love it, but he doesn't mind it either. He also likes going down the little toddler water slides on our laps. However, he absolutely LOVES bath time. He'll lay in the tub in an inch or two of water and splash for 20 minutes. I think if Seven Peaks had hot water in all the pools he would probably love them more.

We went on a quick trip to Idaho with my mom this past weekend and enjoyed attending Jared's mission farewell and seeing all my family. Highlights included lunching at Olive Garden, watching our first ever "Jack Ryan" movie, "fixing" Dean's sprinklers, and watching Jack play with an orange Solo cup with more fascination than any of his other toys.



We also enjoy playing intramural sports with our ward every summer, and the long-awaited summer term coed softball team is 2-0 for the season :) Ryan's hit a couple of triples and I've only struck out once - success! Jack just loves watching Mommy and Daddy play softball, he was very excited when Ryan hit the triple and the whole team was screaming in excitement as the runners all crossed the plate.

We also went on an overnight trip to Midway with Ryan's work (Squire) and got to stay at the Zermatt resort. We also got a half day pass to the Alpine Slide and coaster at Park City mountain resort, which was so much fun!

 

Ryan and Jack enjoying the hotel TV together

This kid does nothing but smile (most of the time :)

Jack at 5 months

My Canada Day/Fourth of July cake 

Summertime with Jack

Jack at four months:

• Wearing size 2 diapers comfortably (we think he's around 14 lbs but we're not sure. And according to my measurements, he's about 24 inches long.)
• Possibly teething (lots of drool, whining, mouth-grabbing, chewing, and a bit of runny nose. But he could be just being a baby, too).
• Sleeping through the night still - and napping quite well also.
• Rolling over ALL the time, attempting to army crawl (he can make it a couple of inches over 5-10 minutes but that's all.)
• "Talking" all the time!

Loves: Taking baths, swimming, having his neck kissed, rolling over, putting things in his mouth, being bounced around, whacking things with his fists, grabbing hair.

Dislikes: Being put in the car seat when he's already tired, having his nose cleaned... that's about it. He's a happy kid!

We just love having Jack in our family - we think he's the greatest. Right after school got out, we took a week to go to Denver and Houston for a Sommerfeldt reunion. We got to go to the ocean, take Jack swimming for the first time, do some shopping and roller skating and park-playing. And Jack got lots and lots of love from his 11 other cousins! We were worried about the 8 hour drive to Denver and the 2 hour flight to Houston, but he did great, with lots of sleeping and minimal crying, and he was a good sport the whole trip. We learned that he is much more flexible than we first thought :)

We also celebrated my birthday with ice skating, hiking the Y, and a wonderful surprise party with good friends and family. Then we went to Seven Peaks water park on Memorial Day and spent the whole afternoon taking turns on the slides and splashing with Jack. He will love swimming and water if we have anything to say about it!

Lots of cousin time!

 

At Galveston beach in Texas

This is how Jack hikes the Y

Four months

Jack loved the waterslide!

Long Past Due...

Welcome to life with a baby! Things like blogging and journal-writing and couponing and emailing and anything else that requires two hands and a computer don't happen as easily as they once did :) We have been up to lots of adventures lately - mostly the baby-related kind.

JACK

• At two months old, we think Jack is about 10.5 lbs (we'll find out tomorrow).
• He sleeps through the night, from about 10:30 to 7:00. Sometimes he wakes up at 6:00 and cries a few minutes. If it doesn't last long, I stay in bed and he falls asleep again. We know we're super blessed that he's sleeping through the night. We pray multiple times a day that he'll keep doing it. Being up so much in the night was messing with my sanity. For the sake of everyone around, we're very grateful Jack decided to sleep well. 
• Naps are a work in progress. We're working establishing a flexible routine for the day, so that maybe he'll start getting sleepy around the same times each day and nap better. But I won't complain, because of that nighttime sleep!
• He smiles ALL the time! Mainly when you stick out your tongue and go "la la la la la" at him. He loves it. 
• He just loves his play mat. He will stare at the toys hanging from it, and has lately begun batting at them with his hands, which often makes him smile. 
• He turns over front to back about half the time. Often he puts his arms down by his sides and then tries to roll, resulting in his arm being awkwardly in the way, which makes him mad and he cries because he can't figure out what to do with his arm. It's cute :)
• He doesn't spit up much, maybe a little drooling after eating, and diapers are mostly okay, though we've started having these awesome blow-out-the-top-back of the diapers, which makes lots of laundry for Mommy...
• He still loves bath time and even doesn't mind getting lotion on, as long as we dry him well and wrap him in a warm blanket for a minute first. 
• He loves his swing. Naps happen in it pretty frequently. 
• He gets excited when Daddy comes in the room and starts talking, he'll stop eating or turn his head and look for him. 

We have been amazed in a happy way at how Jack arrived and turned our lives upside down and took it over completely. We're now one of those couples that will talk your ears off about our baby for far longer than you want us to, and we enjoy playing with him and just sitting and watching him. 

As far as what's going on with US - Ryan is about to finish the junior core with accounting. Just a couple weeks more. We recently decided to pursue a PhD in accounting, so that means Ryan will graduate with the master's degree in April 2016 and then be off (somewhere) to PhD school for 4-5 more years. Hooray!

I am just working from home still, hanging out with Jack, and hanging out with Jack more. Ryan and I were just released from our callings as Relief Society president and bishopric counselor, and neither of us have new callings, so I feel a little lost sometimes - but I've gotten into indexing. It's more fun than I expected. 

Ryan was able to bless Jack in church yesterday (for which Jack was happy and cooperative - yay!). We had a party afterward to celebrate. 

And here are pictures!

Ryan and Jack with matching polar bear pajamas

Two months!

Blessing day: I made the bow tie and pants, bought the shirt, and the shoes are from Aunt Darece

 

With Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Brockbank

Four generations - sort of (Grandpa Brockbank is Lisa's dad, not Scott's)

 

Aunt McKenzi and Uncle John

Welcoming Little Sommerfeldt

Presenting:

Jack Ryan Sommerfeldt

January 29, 2014

Jen & Jack two nights before delivery

Contractions started Tuesday the 28th, but weren't painful or productive until about 10:30 p.m. We checked into the hospital at 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday the 29th - six hours before I was scheduled to be induced. I got an epidural, which felt heavenly, and they added a little pitocin and broke my water in the early morning to help get things going.

Post-epidural happiness. We even got some sleep. 

Around 9:00 a.m. I was dilated to a 9 and my epidural was failing. This started six hours of seeing the anesthesiologist almost as often as the nurses - I got re-dosed more times than I counted, and still could feel tons of pressure. About 11:45 we started pushing, but shortly realized that Jack was transverse (sideways) and we had to wait for an obstetrician to arrive with forceps to try and turn him. He didn't get there until about 2:30 and was straightforward about the fact that if turning him didn't work, we were looking at a c-section. However, we were able to finally push him out, and he arrived at 3:01 p.m. with quite a "cone head" to show for his 4 hours in the birth canal. Overall, active labor was about 16 1/2 hours long, with 11 hours of pre-labor contractions preceding it. 

Welcome Jack! We love having you in our family :)

More pictures and adventures

Hanging out with Byron and Alfred on our front porch

Pumpkin carving adventures

Watching BYU football from the upper corners of outer darkness in the stadium :)

Our Halloween costume - matching Santa hats for the whole family :) 

Decorating for Christmas! Only 48 days left!

It will be Ryan's and my first actual Christmas here, together, married. Our first Christmas sort of blended into our honeymoon, and our second Christmas we were in Spain - it was definitely a different sort of Christmas! But this year we'll be here the whole time, with the whole season to enjoy together and with family - and we're excited about it!