Month of Love

I've tried to be a little more festive this year for holidays. M loves decorations and getting into the holiday cheer, and I've wanted to do it on the cheap while still looking nice. For date night M and I made the first decoration, a heart garland, which I mentioned in the last post. I loved it all month long! The second craft I did was with the Young Women, we made Valentine gnomes. I didn't realize how popular gnomes were, but they are all the rage right now. We used two socks, lots of hot glue, rice and stuffing, ribbon, and anything else you wanted. I was so impressed with the girls, they had a great time and we enjoyed the evening doing an event in person and with a few girls on zoom too. 

Meet Hearty, the Gnome of the Blaylock Home

We have a hard time social distancing...but we had a great time having a great time!

We got to see Grandpa and Grandma a few times during the month. Grandpa watched Jay for us one evening when we had YM/YW in different places and doing activities that weren't too Jay friendly. Grandpa reported Jay was very good, and even brought his pajamas to Grandpa at 7:15 when it was time for bed. We also had Grandpa and Grandma over for dinner one evening, and it was the first day Jay walked! How awesome! I was just playing with him and trying to help him stand and then he just took like 10 steps! It is the neatest thing to see your child learn something new! From then on, I tried to get Jay to walk whenever possible, which I don't think he particularly loved. Grandpa came over another evening too and we played Agricola and had Hawaiian Haystacks. 

So awesome, February 6th, we have a walker!

Jay loves everything about Grandpa, he's got the coolest toys...i.e. watch, coat, glasses, anything Grandpa has, Jay wants too. 

Valentine's Day weekend was so great! We made a new Orange Chicken recipe together. I love cooking with M, it makes everything more fun! We then did a couple Madlibs about how we first met and had a great time laughing about those. On Monday, we hit up King Soopers for the 75% off candy and decorations to finish the celebrations. 

Such great deals, and decor for next year! 

Many evenings this month I have spent doing pre-work for my coaching certification workshop, it's due March 3rd. Busy season for M has actually helped me focus and get it done. Whenever he had to work after dinner, I did some pre-work. I completed over 120 pages of workbooks, mostly focused on self-reflection. It was pretty intense, and in all my reflection I realized that the people I love bring me the greatest joy. M, Jay, and all of our family members, they are who I get most energized by and who I want to spend my time with. It was a happy day to finish all the work and submit it. Doing this pre-work should help lighten the load a bit when the program starts. 

Busy season realities hit us throughout the month. M works most evenings, coming home to eat dinner with Jay and me, and then logs back into work until 9 or 10 at night. Then, on most Saturdays he has worked 6+ hours. It gives Jay and I a lot of time to play together, which is a huge blessing. And, we're both always very excited when M comes home or finishes his work day. I am grateful M is willing to work so hard and support our family! He's doing amazing at handling the pressure and Jay and I are so grateful for him. He's mostly enjoying work and learning a lot. He has a great team and they've been very supportive of him not working on Sundays. 

I spend most of the day on the ground and he crawls all over me.

Is it Momma or is it Jay? He thought this game was so funny! 

KPMG sent a snack box to help the accountants survive the season! M was excited!

One weekend M knew he'd be working most of Saturday, so I decided to go visit the Merrill's. I loaded Jay up in the car and headed out. We had a great day playing and visiting. They were pretty excited when they say Jay walk, I think the twins and Tia were the most excited. We went to the neighborhood park for about 15 minutes until the twins had to use the potty, so we ran home to be sure we didn't have any accidents. That evening, we watched the little neighbor kids. After we wrapped up dinner, it was starting to rain/snow. My anxiety had started to grow, but it got worse as I saw the water drops pile on the road and the rain turning to snow. After consulting with M, we decided it would be best if Jay and I just stayed the night. The Merrill's outfitted me with some PJ's, a pillow, and even a toothbrush. We had a fun evening watching Magic Camp and it helped me keep myself from missing M too much. We hadn't spent a night apart in over a year...the longest we've ever gone in our marriage being together! It was a blessing in disguise though, as he got to sleep in on Sunday morning after a very long day of work on Saturday, and I was in a much better mental, emotional, and physical state when I arrived safely home on Sunday morning. 

Dogpile on Aunt Katey!

Loving the swing

Kade and Jay - sharing some space, pretty soon they'll be too big for this

Kade is always trying to make sure Jay has what he needs.

Tinker Toy Sunday morning fun!

Another fun YM/YW activity we did over Zoom this month was learning to make salsa. I've never made salsa before, so it was really fun. We had a less active member teach the youth, and we followed along. The salsa turned out so yummy! I think we'll be making salsa a lot more, I have even thought about planting a salsa garden, we'll see though. 

I volunteered to play one of our date nights, and it was awesome! We built marshmallow towers and towers of cookies. I got a new cookie recipe from Jack and Lindsay, so we had to try it out. It was simple, made a lot of cookies, and was delicious! While the cookies were cooking, we designed and built our marshmallow toothpick fortress. Once you start sticking too many toothpicks into one little mallow, it starts to get flimsy. We did the best we could to build supports, and I think it turned out awesome. We had such a fun time doing it and enjoyed talking and laughing throughout the evening. I love living with my best friend and having the extra time on a Friday night during busy season with him. I also decided that the trick to a good marshmallow tower is to build it like you want, lay it down over night, stand it up, and then take the pictures. Your structure gets a lot sturdier the longer you wait! We didn't do this, but might do it next time!

Of course, Jay updates. Other than walking, he babbles all the time, says Dadda to everything and is started to be decently good at church. We've started sitting in the back and letting him roam free, it's helped so much and makes church better for everyone...not just us! He also finished all his formula, so we washed the bottles and packed them away! Woohoo! I also got the deal of my life on wooden blocks at Goodwill. They are hard wood and definitely homemade. They have such a cool wagon box to go in and Jay loves them!

Happy boy with his car.

Sporting his new bib that actually fits!

Jay LOVES the vacuum. I always thought kids were afraid of vacuums, but not him.

Jay loves the outside and the sunshine, can you tell? 

I spy a little Jay in our pile of laundry! 

One day I lost my slipper, it was stolen and taken to Jay's favorite drawer. 

Jay and Dadda on Valentine's Day

We had some beautiful sunshine, so we had to get out and enjoy! 

Look at this cute sweatsuit! 

 A lot of snow came too! 

Jay helping Dadda clean the floors, it was so cute.

More of Jay's favorite things.

The blocks!

So much fun building and knocking down towers. 

Welcome 2021!

January truly started with a bang for our little family. We returned from the cabin on Saturday, and Monday M started work. On Saturday we got his office all set up at Grandma and Grandpa's house and also met with our nanny to have her meet Jay. Doing these few things really started to make it feel real that M was starting work. Sunday was a special day, full of excitement and anxiousness about the week ahead. Grandpa gave M a blessing, which was a very peaceful and good experience. Later that night, M gave me a blessing. Those blessings filled us both with love, courage, and faith. We weren't told it would be easy, but we were told we'd make it and we could be happy as we prioritized God and one another and Jay. Somehow we did fall asleep that night, and Monday it all began. 

M and his new office! 

It was almost as if Jay knew something would be changing soon, he wanted to be close to M always.

That first day and even week, Jay and I truly counted the moments and minutes and seconds until M got home. I was so excited to hear how things went, and M came home with energy and enthusiasm about learning and reconnecting with people he knew during his internship. Working less hours was definitely different for me. I had time to take Jay on a walk, workout, play around, etc. It was great! I was also told I needed to transition the culture work I've been doing for the past few years off to another person. I was surprised it was so soon, but I will be grateful once it's off my plate and I have more flexibility in my work schedule. It's pretty nuts with back to back meetings. 

We were all so happy to see each other!

For Jay, this whole new adventures was a different story. He was okay the first day, didn't cry too much, as he didn't really know what was happening. Day two was a little worse, and it continued to go downhill. On day 6, so the Tuesday after our nanny started, she texted me in the evening and said she'd decided this job wasn't for her. I didn't know what we were going to do. I couldn't blame her, Jay cried ALL day. He would go down for his nap, and continue to cry when he woke up. He refused to eat anything for her, and the only time she got him to be happy was the few minutes she took him outside one day. It was rough working upstairs and hearing your little baby cry. I haven't heard many cries from Jay since he was about 2 months, he cried a lot those first two months, but once we figured out food, he was set, so hearing these cries was really hard. What made it extra hard, was I knew that all he wanted was for me to come downstairs and if I did, he would be fine. People could hear Jay crying during meetings, and at multiple points, I was crying during meetings too. We were struggling, so when the nanny quit it was scary. I called the BYU-Idaho student to see if she was still interested and she came by that Friday to visit. We did all the normal things while she was here, and at the end she'd said she'd try it out for a week, so we took it. Luckily, she stuck with us after that week and has finally turned Jay around. I have done some fake leaving with M in the morning and have just stayed up in my office most of the day. This last week of January he finally made a turn for the better, and we are all happier! 

Can you see them? This was my 5 minutes free of crying that day/week.

Continuing on the Jay thread, he loves to stand and throw his play table. He doesn't quite walk yet, but he uses the walls, the couches, the chairs, boxes, anything to help himself walk everywhere. He's eating sandwiches at lunch time, and getting better at doing so. He loves his cereal still, and he's down to just one bottle in the AM right when he wakes up. He also really doesn't like being at church and can sustain screaming for the entire hour, it's quite impressive. He starts crying just as we sit down on our pew. Child proofing is actually impossible with a little one, and he loves the stairs so much we have to block them every day now. 

One baby proofing fail...

Jay is actually a fairly good independent player, which is very good!

Cruising around town.

This is how he was one day when I got him from nap, he is wearing a onesie, pulled it down off both arms and it's hanging around his waist.

He actually started holding his own bottle, yay! 

Did I mention how much he loves the stairs and tries to climb them? How long do you think we can hold him off?

Another day, another attempt. We did have the chair turned the other way right before this, and he could crawl under and get up the stairs. We turned it and he tried hard for a while with no luck. 

I thought maybe the diaper box would work, nope.

He was very done...can you tell?

Happy boy at the park!

Sunshine is our favorite.

M and Jay sliding together

Jay really wanted the cords that were behind this, so he squeezed under it! 

This is how the play table spent most of the month of January

We also had the opportunity to speak in Sacrament meeting the second week of January. We were tickled Grandma and Grandpa could be there, and it was fun to speak with each other. Jay was NOT happy about being in church, and spent most of the time screaming and crying. I did get him to stay in the chapel for a few minutes during M's talk. My friends, Rachel and Chris, came to listen to us speak. It was so neat! I have been afraid to share anything about the Gospel with them, and felt multiple times I should invited them to our talks, so I did and they came! They said they felt good and that it was so uplifting to be there, that made my heart happy. Grandpa-Great also listened to our talks from Idaho, the great perk about COVID is that our Church is streamed, so I sent him a link and he tuned in, how cool! 

It was great weather one weekend so we decided to bike to Grandma and Grandpa's. Grandpa wasn't feeling well, but we had a great visit with Grandma. We packed our lunch and enjoyed chatting. Jay loves all the things within reach at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and really loves their glass doors that lead to the sun room. It was a beautiful day and feeling the sunshine and wind on a January day is a blessing! 

The crew! We got a little muddy during our ride that day, there was some snow, mud, and ice we went over along the way. 

A little off-roading.

One of the major highlights of January was our visit over Martin Luther King day to the Merrill's. We were surprised to learn that M got the day off, so I decided to take it off and we could clock in our last vacation before the busy season started. Jay gets lots of attention at the Merrill's and he loves it! Most of the time. It was a sunny weekend, so we had a great time at the park. Jay played in the sand for the first time, and I don't think he ate too much of it. We built towers with duplos and learned to shoot a bow and arrow. Kylee and Jason got bows for Christmas that are made out of PVC pipe, so we tried them out. We also gave Tia's new skateboard a few good spins. We were going to have a winnie roast, but the wind picked up and we decided that wouldn't be very fun, so we grilled the winnies and cooked our s'mores over the cooker outside. It was still so fun and a very well spent weekend! 

Climbing stairs at the park

Sand!

I went through, and Jay followed, it was a skinny tunnel for my long legs!

Jay really wanted to see the iPad, and Abby was really unsure how she felt about him being in her space with her daddy.

Jay and Tia - about as clear as you can get with Jay and Tia in a photo

Jay found the slide, he could walk all around on the wood with it. 

Look at our awesome tower! We were so proud.

M showing off his skateboarding skillz.

Shoot that arrow! 

Katey, Jason, and Tia

M, Kylee, and Tia

Jason, Kylee, Kade

M, Kylee, Tia - they LOVE when Uncle Matthew reads them books.

The final thing I'll write about is our anniversary date. We celebrated the weekend after M's first week of work. Grandma and Grandpa watched Jay for us, and we ordered burgers and brought them home to eat with our own candles and sparking cider. It was so nice, and so weird, to just have the two of us here. I actually ate my meal while it was hot and didn't have to feed Jay between bites. We played a great game of Castle Panic, then went to a new Gelato place in Highlands Ranch. We enjoyed our yummy gelato in the car, and went to get Jay. What a fun evening, and I am so grateful for the three years of marriage we have had. They have been so wonderful and some of the happiest of my life! 

Yay! Happy Anniversary to us!

I also learned to paint with the YW, it was super fun!

And, M and I made this cute Valentine's garland that made me super happy. 

There's our summary of January. We are honestly glad the month is over, it was tough and long and hard and good. We mixed in the good with visiting family and being outside in the sunshine whenever possible. We made it! We made it through the first month of the very beginning of our journey with M's career. It's exciting and truly I am looking forward to what this next stage of life brings for us, we are so blessed! And, M only having to commute 10 minutes each way for four days a week, has been amazing!