A couple of funny ones

For our Family Home Evening, we learned about Nephi and how he built boats to get to the promised land so Chrissy thought we should let Marshall splash with his boats in little tubs! Marshall, his diaper, and the entire floor was soaked after just a few minutes. He understood how to maximize his splashing and quite enjoyed getting wet.











This is Marshall's friend, Will, attacking Marshall's face. Luckily Rachel saved the day. It's fun to watch kids play and explore together.











The last picture here is Marshall with Santa Claus. I didn't know Santa started working before Thanksgiving, but great! Marshall is posing here for Mom after he told Santa what we wanted for Christmas: a motorcycle, a new snowboard, beef jerky, and an extra cell phone.

Halloween & a visit from Grammy

We enjoyed a terrific five day visit from Grammy. A few weeks ago we sent her a few pictures of her Grandson, and she couldn't help but buy "emergency" plane tickets to come see her only grandson. We didn't know this until Grammy arrived but apparently they have discount prices on plane tickets for emergency visits for Grandparents. The website is www.gulliblegrandparent.com. Not really. Anyway, we had a great time touring Minneapolis taking advantage of the pleasant weather and blue skies. Behind Marshall in the above picture is the famous cherry & spoon sculpture. This big hunk of steel is at least 50 feet long and took three years to build! Wow.

We also went to the Children's Museum in St. Paul, the Twin City of Minneapolis. Marshall enjoyed crawling around, listening to new noises, and crawling all around. We had a great time hosting Grammy - you are welcome anytime Grammy!








Halloween...what an anticlimactic holiday unless you are young enough to go trick-or-treating. Nonetheless, we still dressed up ourselves and Marshall! Here is a picture of our little devil - we couldn't resist dressing him up in this. We opted out of trick-or-treating because we figured people would know that we would just eat all of the candy that they gave Marshall.

A Beautiful Fall

Everything is falling in Minnesota. The leaves, Marshall's socks, our schedules, but not our lives. We are keeping very busy with school, work, applying for jobs, and keeping up with Marshall. Marshall is learning to crawl, one crawl at a time. He will only crawl for the things that he really wants and only when he has sufficient energy. We are working hard to "stretch" his crawling abilities by putting the cell phone a few feet away and then watch him work at it. Almost all the time he gets the cell phone and places mysterious phone calls mostly to one of his Grandmas! It's a lot of fun.

This is a featured picture from our visit to Lake Superior - just 3 hours away from our house! It's a beautiful area. The lake looks like it is an ocean because it is so big.

Marshall is also enjoying sitting on my shoulders. He mostly pulls on my hair when he loses his balance, maybe I shouldn't have grown it out...then he wouldn't be able to hold on to it! Marshall is incredibly talented at pulling off his left sock - that's right his left sock, but not his right sock. This picture captures his ability to sit on my shoulders and pull of his left sock.

I thought it was terrible 2 - not terrible 7 and 1/2 months.

If you look close, you can see two or Marshall's three teeth. The other one is falling down on his uppers.

The month of August!

August was an incredible month of picture taking. We have sorted through our 400+ pictures and narrowed them these select few. We visited Oregon and did many things while we were there. Grandpa gave Marshall a bouncer which he is greatly enjoying. Chrissy made a glass float in a very hot oven at the coast. It is a beautiful piece of art - Chrissy is artistic!




Uncle Cameron and Grandpa enjoyed bathing Marshall..


We also went to the Oregon State Fair and let the Grandparents take their turn holding Marshall. They didn't seem to mind. The weather at the beach was incredible the whole time we were there. Chrissy was amazed!

Trip to Nauvoo

We visited Nauvoo, Illinois last weekend for a few days. Nauvoo was home to many of the early Latter-Day Saints from about 1839 until 1846. After being driven out of Nauvoo, the Saints finally found a home in the deserts of the Utah valley. These pioneers gave up so much during these years, and we felt of their sacrifice during our visit. Although we took approximately 3,643 pictures, here are a few for your viewing pleasure.
The pictures of the Temple do not adequately portray it's beauty, but here they are.









We also visited the Carthage Jail where the Prophet Joseph Smith was martyred by a mob with his brother Hyrum in 1844. The Church has done well in preserving this site. The first picture shows Chrissy and Marshall standing in front of the door that was shot through a couple of times by the mob. The hole in the door that is at Marshall's level is the shot that killed Hyrum. You can tell Marshall is pretty upset about the whole situation. The first picture shows me in one of the jail cells.











The picture shown with all of us with the building in the background is from our tour of Carthage Jail, which views the upper window that Joseph Smith fell from as he was shot four times. After the mob confirmed Joseph was dead, they fled in fear of being pursued by Mormons and left Chrissy's ancestor, John Taylor, with Willard Richards in the Jail. They both survived the attack even though John Taylor was shot several times. Chrissy had a great photo opportunity in front of a monument for her ancestor.










Marshall was a very happy young man during our trip. The car ride was about seven hours of driving time, and Mom kept him well entertained anytime he felt bored.

I think every parent has a picture like this one...

This is one of those pictures that all parents adore. There is something about a cute little baby bottom sticking up in the air that is cute and funny. We were lucky to catch this one while Marshall was sleeping.

Fun at the Zoo

We had a great time at the Zoo last weekend. Marshall didn't seem to know that there was much happening around us, but we had lots of fun. The picture of Marshall and Chrissy is Dad's new favorite picture!

More Marshall

Here a couple of other enjoyable pics. Everybody loves to see partially nude babies!

Visiting Amy in Kentucky

Chrissy and Marshall took advantage of the long Independence Day weekend and visited Amy in Kentucky. They obviously had a good time evidenced by the following pictures. Either Amy's haircut or Amy's persuasion convinced Chrissy to cut her own hair nice and short. Thank you to Amy, Chrissy's hubby loves it!














Here is a picture of Amy...barely showing her pregnant stomach! Don't worry, I think it will get a little bigger with time.

Marshall's gross motor skills

Wow...it has been too long since we have updated the blog. Sorry about that. Well, Marshall is changing everyday and doing new things all of the time. He often rolls over and flaps his arms together at the same time. All of this means that Marshall is using is gross motor skills, or the movements of large muscles of the body. Marshall's new activities are difficult to capture on camera, but this picture actually shows the movement of his arms.

Cute outfit from Grammy

Here are a couple of pictures of Marshall's outfit that he got from Grammy. He asked if he could wear it today, so we let him.
The hat is a little big for him - by the time we got to Church, it was covering almost his whole face. Oops!

Marshall is feeling better

As many of you know, Marshall has been a a little more fussy than the average baby. At first, we just accepted that Marshall was a fussy baby. Recently we noticed some reoccuring behaviors that led us to believe that he might have acid reflux. He has been on Zantac for about 5 days and is doing a lot better. Marshall has been so much happier in the last couple of days, Chrissy has been so happy she feels like she could fly.

In fact, Chrissy has been so happy that she has not cried for several days in a row! This new calmness in Marshall prompted us to climb the highest mountain in Minneapolis. We reached the top and took a picture with Minneapolis in the background.
Church was actually easy for us today. We actually spent most of the time inour meetings instead of roaming the hallway or walking outside. Marshall has been much happier and we can tell that the pain is slowly subsiding. He too has felt "lifted to new heights."

These two pictures were taken on the highest natural point in Minneapolis where an old water tower is located. The water tower is called the Witch Hat because it looks the top looks like a hat suited for a witch! The hat is often referred to as a landmark to help navigate around the University area of Minneapolis because it stands high above other buildings.

New Things

Marshall has recently discovered something that some people search for their whole lives: their hands. He has finally found them, he shuves them in his mouth - a lot! He uses both hands to get one hand in his mouth because he is not quite strong enough to hold one hand up by itself. But once he gets one of his hands in there, it's drool time. He drools all over his chin and shirt until it's completely soaked.
This picture will mean a lot to some people and nothing to others. To the Jackson Family, I ask you to look very closely at his right eyebrow. You can see how his eyebrow arches us and the hair sticks straight out from his face. Does that remind you of anybody else? How about Dorson Jackson? Way to pass down the eyebrows Grandpa!
He is getting longer and longer. I am wondering how long he is going to fit on his changing table. Can you buy an extension for these things? Also notice in this and other pictures how his hair is growing longer and getting darker. We are happy that we is surpassing Chrissy's ability to start growing hair at age 2!

Overall, he is becoming much more interactive and a lot more fun. He watches us pretty closely, and loves to make eye contact. You can see how he is watching me take pictures of him. We hope that are being good parents. We feel so blessed to be parents for such a wonderful baby.

More smiles

During this photoshoot, Marshall smiled quite a bit. Here are two pictures with some really good smiles. It is fun to see how his slight dimples when he smiles - he takes after his Dad's big mouth and big smile.

Bless you!

As many proud parents would attest to, taking numerous pictures consecutively is an addicting habit. During this sequence, I was trying to get him to smile as shown in the picture above. By chance, we caught him sneezing! I have it on my backdrop for my computer. Pretty cute.

Play thingy

Marshall enjoys his play thingy. We are such new parents that we do not even know the name for this thing. He does not reach out and grab for anything yet, but he loves to kick the soft post and hear everything rattle and ring. He is quite the kicker taking after his Mom and Dad's passion for soccer. Also, he kicks like crazy in the tub. He kicks non-stop for almost the whole bath; it is hilarious.

Posing for the Camera

We got Marshall to look right into the camera for this one! He's already getting good posing for the camera.

Growing up so fast

Marshall is getting so big and so cute. At his two month appointment, Marshall was nearly 13 pounds which is at the 80 percentile. Chrissy was happy to know that she has been doing a good job helping him grow. He also measured 23 and 1/4 inches long. He is a growing boy. Sometimes it seems like he grew an inch and gained a pound overnight!