Learning and Growing

The past month has been a good one for our family.

Jeff and I have been married for almost three years and sometimes we still feel like newlyweds.  I know three years isn't super long, but I feel like there is still so much Jeff and I are learning about each other! I know that we will continue to learn things about each other through our whole marriage.  We were talking the other night and feel like we've been through a lot in our marriage, more than most couples should have to go through in their first three years, but it has helped us grow stronger together.

One thing I've worked on our whole marriage is trying not to take offense.  Jeff is a very straightforward kind of guy and I'm not.  In one of my classes we talked about taking offense and I just loved what my teacher said.  We are most likely to take offense when others mistreat us.  I'm not saying Jeff treats me wrong, I mean mistreat as in things like someone cuts you off.  So how do you react when someone mistreats you? Be still, like the Savior.  The Savior never returned the offense, He suffered it.  It is better to suffer than take offense.  

 The last month we have both been trying to focus on each other more.  Since Jackson was born, it's been hard to get time together with just the two of us and we've seen the effects of it on our relationship.  So we've decided to try and do a weekly date night.  Thank goodness we have so many wonderful friends that are so willing to watch Jackson!

We had a wonderful time on our date last week! We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner (one of my favorites!) and it wasn't crowded so we enjoyed a nice quiet dinner.  We also went on a bookstore date.  This turned out to be a lot of fun! We had a series of books that we had to find and then share with each other:

1. Cooking Book: Recipe we thought would be fun to try together
2. Movie: (Barnes and Noble has the movie and music section) Movie neither of us has seen that we'd want to watch together
3. Children's Book: A book from our childhood that we loved.  Jeff chose Curious George and I chose The Tale of Babar.  I was so surprised Jeff had never heard of Babar! It was funny to read through it now and think how ridiculous that book was! We also bought Jackson a book while in the kid's section: Baby Beluga.  I loved that song growing up and it's been a personal joke between Jeff and I since we started dating.
4. Vacation Book: We each chose a book of a place we'd love to travel to.  I chose Indonesia; someday  I would love for Jeff and I to serve a mission there! And Jeff chose Alaska, which has inspired us to try and take a trip to Alaska this fall!

We had so much fun and thank you Jessica and Tyler for watching Jackson! I think they must have drugged him or something! ;) This whole week he's started sleeping between 9-12 hours through the night! It has been wonderful!

Jackson has been growing so much! In the last month and a half he's:

• Recognized his own name
• Started crawling
• Started eating solid foods: he loves avocado!
• Started pulling himself up on things: most mornings when I get him out of the crib he's standing there waiting for me!
• Crawls after the puppies
• Pulling stuff off shelves: he loves ripping and playing with paper.  he found an old calendar and phone book that he's littered our floor with. 
• Loves being tickled
• Loves playing peek-a-boo
• Learning cause and effect: The other day he dropped his binky in the toy box and stood up to get it out! I was super impressed!

Getting ready to eat his first solid food: sweet potatoes!

 He now sleeps with his butt in the air! I love it!

We just love watching him grow and discover new things!