The Jackson Family

Picture Update!

2010-03-16T11:25:00.001-07:00

Just the beginning of a long pester-filled, loving relationship....

At the hospital meeting her new best friend, Ellie!

This was 2 or 3 weeks ago at the doctor--poor little thing already had an ear infection.

Yes, I realize that she looks EXACTLY like Blake.

Now that she's discovered her hands I very rarely get a picture of her face.

I love this little hat!

Playing Catch Up

2010-03-12T16:18:00.000-08:00

All through my pregnancy I kept saying, "As soon as I have the baby, I'll start blogging again." Obviously that was a pipe dream, because as soon as I had the baby I barely even brushed my teeth. But 3 months and 1 week in I'm finally getting back in the grove of things. As we speak (type) Violet is in her swing napping and the vacuum is running so she'll stay asleep. Blake and I wouldn't be alive today without discovering the vacuum secret.

So to catch you up:

I had Violet December 7th. Labor and deliver wasn't really what I expected it to be. I had prepared myself to be horrible and it really wasn't. I woke up at 2am with contractions that were about 5-7 minutes apart so we headed into the hospital where they put me in the observation room. This was BY FAR the worst part. The on-call doctor should have come at 4 am to see me, but instead kept putting me off because I was only at 3 centimeters and first time moms usually take longer. I was in the observation room until I was FINALLY admitted at 8am. From 4am - 8am was the worst pain of my life-I still get chills remembering it. At the time, I though I was only progressing from 3 centimeters to 4 centimeters because the nurses stopped checking me. As soon as I was admitted I DEMANDED an epidural and was given one very quickly. Actually, I had to get two because the first one only numbed the left side of my body. After the getting the epidural, my doctor came in around 8:20 to check me and I was already at 8-9 centimeters. I'm so thankful they didn't check me before giving me drugs, because they wouldn't have given them to me that far along. I was in heaven for the next 1 1/2 and Violet was born around 11am. and before we were told she probably wouldn't come until dinner time!

Best part of the entire delivery (well second to meeting Violet) was when Dr. Chambers came in and Blake was drinking orange juice- she checked me and said Violet was about to come and Blake frantically asked "Uhh, what should I be doing?" and Dr. Chamber said, "You just stand there and drink your juice." So Blake took a big step back and just started slurping on his straw and looked like a 5 year old! He was amazing, but we should have gone through a birthing class just to prepare him a little more--for his sake.

Violet came into the world and completely changed our lives. I think I cried for the 2 weeks because I had no idea what I was doing. I read and read on labor and delivery, but didn't prepare for caring for an infant. Yeesh.

I will scatter her early months into the current posts, because there are certainly some good stories.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of the day she was born.

She looks like a little alien here.

I'm Back...

2010-02-26T14:48:00.001-08:00

After a year of silence, I've decided to start this thing back up.

The Last Supper (aka, Thanksgiving at work)

2008-11-21T10:44:00.000-08:00

Our awesome managers spent their Wednesday evening making Thanksgiving for 90 people. Yes, they are that cool. Unfortunately, because of the industry I'm in (Newspaper) everyone thinks layoffs are around the corner, so they were calling this the "Last Supper". To ease your mind, our directors have Assured us that layoffs are not in the plans....

Vanessa and my cubical is the office "Hot Spot" everyone usually congregates around us, and Thanksgiving lunch is no different. Here are too many people eating in a very small space.

On a side note: Vanessa has recently been introduced to Twilight. Naturally, she has become obsessed. Of course I can sympathize with this obsession. Tomorrow morning we're going to face the Tween Dream lines and see the movie. Updates to follow....

I'm currently in mental preparation to clean my house for Caleb and Jennie's arrival. Note the mental preparation means I haven't actually started cleaning. For all the family who is reading this you certainly understand my cleaning habits, so wish me luck. Ugh I hate cleaning.

A Weekend Getaway...

2008-11-10T09:31:00.001-08:00

Blake won a weekend trip to Vail from his company, so our weekend was spent living it up resort-style. We had a fantastic time. I think every couple needs a fancy weekend in snowy mountains. It reminds you that you and your husband still have fun together.

(Does that sound mean? Probably.)

Highlights of the trip:

My equal opportunity carnivore ate his weight in meat. I'm not kidding, in ONE day he had: Venison, Beef, Crab(p){thanks, Katie!} , Shrimp and Pork. Gross. We drank lots of hot chocolate, because it's what you do when it snows.

We drove to a preciously quaint movie theatre and watched Role Models. It held a special place in my heart since I just met Seann William Scott last month (He was at my building and he said "Hey" to me as I got off the elevator).

I took a nap and read a great book (The Eight).

Blake watched football.

So it was exactly like being at home... with bigger mountains! :) Just because we were on mini-vacation didn't mean we weren't pooped.

Our amazing room

Our view

And the winner is...

2008-11-05T08:07:00.000-08:00

We watched the election at none other than...Marc and Katies. (This blog has shown me how much we hang out with "the six"). Regardless, we celebrated the victory in the company of fellow "boat rockers".

Celebrating the win!

A good form of birth control...

2008-11-04T07:45:00.000-08:00

So I came across this on another blog. This site, makemebabies.com, lets you put you and your partners face together and see what your future offspring will look like.

Let's just say, my kid better have a good personailty.

You may be asking, "Why does Sweet Pea have dreads?" She insisted on going as Coolio for Halloween. It's our fault for watching Gangsta's Paradise with her.

An In Law Visit...

2008-11-03T16:36:00.000-08:00

Blake's family visited last weekend. We enjoyed an exciting time of eating out, manicures, golfing, road trips and politics....

Here's a pathetic attempt to recap in pictures:

Alan and Ben.

Blake doesn't get a real mention because he's 5 and can't take serious pictures.

Alan and me in Vail.

Vail Village

Blake and Ben

If only Alyssa could have come...(by the way, that movie comes out in 2 weeks! Want to fly here for opening night?) We missed you!

Also: Yes, Delores did come...I just didn't take any pictures of her. Sorry, Delores. Just so people don't think I have mother-in-law issues, here is a picture of my sweet mother-in-law.

2008-11-01T13:20:00.001-07:00

We've entered into the time of In-Between.
For Halloween we no longer plan our costumes for weeks and have grand Halloween parties.
We celebrate by having a low key night at a friends house watching Scary B Movies and being introduced to Rocky Horror Picture Show...thanks, Katie.

And in 4-7 years we'll be go to parties for the sole purpose of showing off our kid's costumes.
I say this knowing that my children will always go as some X-men character. Blake has a certain affinity for dressing up as comic book heroes.

Exhibit A: Yesterday.

Blake shaves his beard to mutton chops and goes to work as Wolverine. For the record, he has about 2 1/2 more hours before I shave the rest of that mess off.

Exhibit B: 2 years ago

Blake goes as Gambit. (Look to top right corner).

Which means this is my inevitable (incredible) fate.......and I won't look cute in spandex.

But for the next 4-7 years, I'll get to look forward to this:

Katie and Rachel made cupcakes, pumpkin bars, and lemon bars. Yes, the store bought hummus in this picture is my contribution. I have to start practicing my PTA habits, something tells me I'll never be a "homemade" kind of mom.

We moved to Colorado....6 months ago.

2008-10-29T17:52:00.000-07:00

Blake and I finally moved to Denver!

Last August, we decided with the Drysdales that we'd move to Colorado. Our motivation: Blake had only lived in Roswell, New Mexico, Piedmont, Oklahoma and Edmond, Oklahoma.

I had lived in: Texas, California, Ohio, Nebraska, Portland, Texas again, and Oklahoma. Needless to say, it was time to get the boy beyond red earth. So, his choice--Denver.

And we made it! (Not without resistance...from me) Who knew Oklahoma could be so comfy?

But now we're here, we LOVE it. Blake is a Senior Associate at Johnston Wells.

I work at the Denver Newspaper Agency as an Online Recruitment Consultant.

And I love it!

We work 1.2 miles apart, which means we get to carpool and use the HOV "Counterflow" lane. Good, because $100 a month for parking bites.

Blake also freelances for the Denver Post. Last week he covered the CU football game. This is perfect, because know he misses covering OU...so it's the best of both worlds.

We have wonderful friends here. (Although, we're still waiting for the Courtney's)

Meet Rachel and Jarrod:

They moved here from Chicago. Blake and Jarrod were roomies at OC--it still only takes them 23 seconds of being together to start talking about music. Jarrod is a wicked Graphic Designer, and also becoming very good and BBQing. Rachel is a 3rd grade Bilingual Teacher/ESL Teacher. We first met at a Steak n' Shake...it's a good story. She is an insanely good cook and has every craft supply ever made.

Our other fabulous friends:

Marc Hobleman and Katie Koivisto:

Katie and Marc moved to Denver this summer for Kaite to get her Masters at DU. We're all ready for her semester to end so she can hang out again. Marc is an Interactive Producer at the DNA (with me!). We're on the same floor and often see each other throughout the day, very cool.

They introduced us to 30 Rock, Freaks and Geeks and Humus. We introduced Marc to Heroes and FireFly. We've yet to introduce anything to Katie. She has taken on the chore of teaching me to cook. She's freakishly good at making things from scratch. She's never had hot chocolate from a can, she only knows how to make it from real cocoa beans. Blah. She also knows how to make homemade pizza, popcorn, spinach artichoke dip and Cinnamon pumpkin popcorn. Between her and Rachel I'm bound to learn something.

Needless to say, we're glad we're here.

And then there's Blake and me. We've now been married for 1 year and 5 months. We're mildly obsessed with eating out, watching Dexter, Obama, and Tina Fey. Blake reads Pitchfork everyday and still watches cartoons. I buy table centerpieces every time I leave the house and have always followed others blog lives, but never write my own. So it's time to keep everyone updated.