Texas Adventures

A week after Christmas, we took off to Texas for Ryan's accounting internship at Grant Thornton, Houston. We took three days to drive down and loved the extra time to not stress (and swim in hotel pools!) We're spending time with each of Ryan's siblings while we're down here.

Ryan is mostly enjoying his internship - though it's solidifying his plan to get a PhD and become a professor rather than working in public accounting. The hours haven't been bad so far, so that's been nice.

Jack is loving all the cousins (friends! attention!) He's walking behind his walking toys and has learned to navigate the stairs (not without mishap, though, sadly). He is busy eating everyone out of house and home and is pretty much the new favorite person of all the cousins.

I am enjoying the great weather (60s and 70s, people!) and the time to spend with family. I made my second ever IKEA trip the other day and have had fun painting and projecting and hanging out with the sisters in law. We just started a little clogging class with all the nieces - which is pretty much the highlight of my week now :)

Jack's first birthday cupcake

Canoeing on Michelle and Ben's lake

Walking around the lake at the park

Watching the rain

At the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center

Swimming at the hotel pool

One year old!

First Christmas

We had a great Christmas season with Jack this year. We lucked out that he was born shortly after Christmas last year - which means he was old enough to enjoy his first Christmas! He was the only grandchild in the area - for all his grandparents - so of course he was spoiled rotten. Oh, and yes, Ryan and I had a great Christmas too :)

  

11 months old!

Happy New Year from the Sommerfeldts!

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!