Happy Birthday, Matt!

Happy 27th to an amazing husband, father, and friend. We love you, Matt!

Basketball bound

Photo shoot #2: Basketball uniform and Nike shoes. The McDougals gave us the cutest little Nike tennis shoes, along with some great books, and John already fits in them perfectly. We had this adorable basketball uniform from the P.E. teachers at my middle school, so we put together another home photo shoot. Here's our little athlete:

We didn't put them in this pose, but I love this one! He looks like he's dunking!

Of course, all he wanted to do was eat the ball.

Oh, I love this little boy!

Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving back in MD with my family! John and I flew out early to help with a bridal shower for Scott's amazing fiance, Brittany, so John and I had a fun-filled 10-day vacation. Matt's schedule naturally did not allow such a long break for him, so he had to travel on the usual holiday travel days and was with us in MD for Thursday-Sunday. I was nervous about flying with John, by myself, on a 5 hour flight, but he was such a champ! Here's an overview of our fun time:

On the Friday before Thanksgiving, one of my mom's best friends, Julie, hosted an incredible bridal shower for my brother's fiance. The food was great, the games hysterical, and there was a great turn out for people eager to meet Brittany and show their support for Scott. Jane and I put together a fun getting-to-know-Brittany game, and Julie and my grandma Sandi put together one of the funniest skits I've ever seen. They were doctors, prescribing cures for all potential life ailments, using every pun possible of current medical conditions and medicines. Spend-icitis, Buyagra, Pepto Bimbo, Carpool Tunnel Syndrome, and much more; it was very clever and very funny! We are so excited for Brittany to join the Colton family! Quick fun note, I met Brittany at a social church camp (EFY) when I was 15. She was one of my favorite girls in my group. We stayed in touch through a great group of girl friends at BYU and when I went to BYU my Junior year, we were on a flag football team together. Scott met her at a party, they later realized the connection, and I am thrilled I get to welcome such an amazing friend into my family! No stress at all about getting along with my future sister-in-law :) Here's the happy couple:

The rest of the break was spent having fun with family, celebrating the engagements of two of my best friends (Genevieve and Ryan, Heather and Billy!), enjoying beautiful weather, and of course, adoring John. He hardly knows what to do now that we're at home and he no longer has an enthusiastic crowd lauding his every move.

Thanksgiving day was wonderful. We had cousins from Georgia, Ohio, BYU, and Stanford and friends from Maryland all gather at my parents house. Here are some pictures from our big feast:

Beautiful table setting

Delicious food!

Amazing pies.

Happy little man

4 generations (with Grandpa Sterling)

Colton cousins in one of many pile-ups

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, my mom's friend Lynne and her daughter and my friend Ashleigh threw a very creative and cute book baby shower! They decided to design the shower on a children's book theme, and it was adorable. The invitation was a story about John and an invitation to stop by, meet him, and share a favorite book. The cupcakes and wreath at the house had little cut-out pictures of Dr. Seuss book covers. And the gifts were amazing- fun classics, beautiful new Caldecott winners, and overall a great variety of books that my family will enjoy forever! Amazingly enough, there were no repeats with John's other great books, so John has a wonderful variety of books ranging from touch-and-feel books for 6 month old babies to short stories for Middle School age children. I love books and I have loved reading multiple books a day to John! Thank you again for everyone who has contributed to John's wonderful library!

Lynne, the mastermind, and Sandi

Ashleigh, who was so amazing putting it all together

Opening the books. Sandi gave me an old copy of The Ear Book that I used to read, filled with pictures of me reading it! She gave John a new copy, also with a picture of me reading.

We are now back in Vegas, and I am stunned by how quickly John is growing up. Over the past few weeks, he has hit some exciting milestones. In MD, he slept through the night (10 hours) twice! (He has since regressed but we won't focus on that now :) ). He also has discovered his toes, which is truly a monumental discovery! He loves grabbing them and trying to suck on as many toes as possible at once. He loves Peekaboo. He can hold a bottle on his own. And on Saturday we started rice cereal! He loves his new high chair (Graco DuoDiner, from Matt's parents, love it!) and he quickly figured out how to open his mouth and swallow the good stuff. Now whenever he sees the high chair or a spoon he just goes crazy kicking with anticipation. It blows my mind that this little baby is already eating solids and about to crawl. I am excited to see his personality and motor skills develop, but I am glad I was able to enjoy the small, independent, cuddly stage while I could. It sure flies by fast!

Now on to enjoying this busy, happy, sweets-filled, family and friend-oriented season! I love Christmas!

Cowboys, Play dates, and Christmas

I can't believe it's already November! Time just keeps picking up faster and faster. We are in a golden age with John- I love 4- 5 months! He is sleeping great, becoming more social every day, and he just loves exploring new tricks with his motor development. He is still cuddly and not very mobile, so I can still enjoy him as a little baby. It's just the best.

Here's our little man during a home photo shoot. He finally is big enough for a darling 6-9 month cowboy outfit from Matt's mom and these adorable boots and hat from Judy Magrath (mom of one of my best friends from college). So, we dressed him up and tried to get the lighting right at home. Here are some of the best shots:

Also fun, John is starting to take an interest in other babies. He now will study other kids and sometimes he will go crazy jumping and kicking to show his excitement. We got together with some of our best friends, Mimi and Lincoln, and John was able to "play" with his best friend David. David is two months younger than John, but he is so healthy and huge for his age! How fun to have these little boys so close in age! Here are some shots from their play date:
Oops- these play dates need careful supervision! John loves to roll over and when trying to roll over he kept swinging his arm right into David's face!
After attacking David's face, John tried to hold David's hand. So cute!
We also are loving this time of year because Matt and I start listening to Christmas music November 1st!!! Christmas music just makes me happy. It didn't take long before the spirit of the season took over and I convinced Matt we needed to put up the decorations. We will be in DC for Thanksgiving and Elko for Christmas, so we felt the best way to enjoy the decorations for a substantial amount of time is to put them up early :) I love putting up the tree. My mom's mom runs an amazing bed and breakfast inn in Williamsburg, VA, and she is a serious Christmas tree wizard. Over the years, she taught me tricks like tucking the large colorful ornaments deep against the trunk to make the tree look fuller. Both Grandma Sandi and my Aunt Carolyn gave us fun ornaments, and Matt and I collect ornaments when we travel, so arranging those ornaments always involves some great reminiscing. This year, Matt said he had an idea to use John as our angel on the top of the tree. He went to the computer and whipped up a cube of 4 different pictures of John's adorable face. I love this tree topper! We're considering expanding the idea to include other children in the future. Here's this year's tree:

We are so excited for the holidays! I wish time would slow down so we can fully enjoy these happy weeks!

Grand Canyon West

Thanks to Nevada Day, Matt had the day off on Friday. We are trying to see all the great sites near Vegas, so we decided to make the 2 1/2 hr trek through the desert to see the majestic Grand Canyon. It was a great day trip, with perfect weather, amazing vistas, and John was so good! He napped in the car both ways and the timing worked out perfectly for all his needs. The Grand Canyon provides some views that are incredible photo opps, so here is what we caught on our camera:

The Skywalk [behind us] is made of glass floor panels above an 800 foot drop to the Colorado River. I'm sure it's a rush; Google it- the video is exciting. It cost $26/person just to enter the area, and adding in the Skywalk would have totaled to $86/person , so we just enjoyed the view from the edge. The views are still incredible!

Eagle Point (see the body of the eagle to our right, with massive wings spread out behind us)

John was in such a great mood! Apparently bonking his fist against his nose is the funniest thing ever!

Guano Point

Sunset behind the Joshua Trees as we drove home

What a gorgeous and fun day!

The joy of movement

John is loving rolling over, kicking, blowing spit bubbles, eating his hands, splashing in the bath, and anything that involves movement. I just love seeing his personality come out more! Here are some of his latest favorites:

Jumping in his Jumperoo (most amazing toy ever for energetic babies!)

Sleeping however he wants (he favors his stomach lately, and no matter how I lay him down in the crib, he'll end up in a different position within minutes)

Trying to crawl (he can army crawl one foot in about 10 minutes)

Blowing spit bubbles!

And humoring his mom and dad as we dressed him up for our ward's Trunk 'r Treat! He's a very soft, plump dinosaur!

This age is so fun! He turns four months on the 23rd, in 3 days. I love how he's still so cuddly and small, but the social and motor development is so amazing to watch! Love you, little man.

Expanded tutoring business!

I've been working hard recruiting top quality tutors from various backgrounds, changing all documents, and updating my website. Now I'm able to push the second launch of my tutoring business!

We now offer school subject support (math, science, history) and study skills coaching (organizing assignments, test anxiety strategies, reading comprehension skills). We still offer the explicit writing instruction, which is a flexible but step-by-step curriculum about writing effectively. We anticipate this writing instruction will be more in demand during summers, so we're focusing on the subject and study skills support for now.

Check out our updated website: http://www.celebrationstutoring.com. The “Program Information” page provides further details about tutoring options. Also, if you know any highly qualified teachers that may be interested in becoming a tutor, please encourage them to view the “Job Information” link.

Please reach out if you have any questions, and I greatly appreciate assistance in spreading the word about our tutoring program! On Facebook, you can help me out in one of two ways. If you look on my profile, my recent status is about this expansion. The bottom, right blue button "Share" allows you to post a promotion on your own profile (and you can write your own "Check this out!" post). OR, you can look up "Celebrations Tutoring" on Facebook. The recent status there is also about this expansion. The bottom, right blue button "Promote" allows you to post a comment and link to that page on your own profile. Please take the time to either share or promote! I really appreciate your support and help publicize!!

Thanks to everyone who has helped along the way! It has been exciting to continually develop, improve, and expand this business!

A pout, a powersuit, and a bumper

A pout: Here is one of my favorite (?) faces. John's upside-down U of a pout is so stinkin' cute. It's very short, preceding an outburst of crying, and of course my objective is to keep him from crying, so this face is not easy to document. I was determined to catch at least one shot of it, and here it is:

A powersuit: We had a very fun weekend with the Jensen/Colton cousins. Aunt Julie's parents were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary, so all the Jensen kids and my cousins Jenna and Mauri (who is pregnant! playmate for John!) came into town to celebrate. Jenna and her cute family stayed with us, so John was able to get to know his cousins Jacob and Abby. I miss Abby's soft voice "Ohh, Baby John," and Jacob's emphatic "I LOVE this jam!" and "I LOVE this show!". We had a great time seeing and meeting family. Clair and Colleen's anniversary party was beautiful and fun. I loved all the blown-up black and white pictures from their courtship and wedding. Aunt Julie, Sarah, and Lizzy sang a few barbershop classics (like Mr. Sandman); Lizzy sang the high part to perfection, she sang so beautifully! We're all excited for her as she's about to leave for a LDS mission in Chile. Also at the party, Senator Harry Reid! He really reaches out to show his support for educators, as he attributes much of his success to his school teachers. I approached him to thank him for this supportive effort, and Senator Reid admired John and rubbed his back for awhile. Later I realized that John's outfit was a gift from Senator Gordon Smith (Oregon), great friends from my ward growing up. So, John was wearing a suit from a Senator when he had his back rubbed by another Senator. Funny coincidence, but we have decided to deem that outfit his "powersuit"!

Here's a picture of Colleen, who has been so kind and inclusive of Matt and I while we're in Vegas:

Also, last weekend my Uncle Steve visited! One unanticipated perk of living in Vegas is we frequently benefit from visitors who come to Vegas for business meetings. Uncle Steve was able to spend most of Friday with us; we talked, we ate, and the main attraction was watching John splash an amazing amount of water out of the bathtub!

A bumper: We are thoroughly enjoying John's motor and cognitive development. He is a champ at independently rolling clockwise. Unfortunately, his crib doesn't facilitate endless clockwise rotations, so he is often frustrated! We set up a bumper to keep his limbs contained; he used to wake up multiple times each night in frustration at a limb getting stuck in between slats. The bumper has made his crib much more enjoyable, but there's not much I can do about the clockwise rotation problem except wait for him to like turning counterclockwise :)

Finally, I've been working hard to revamp my tutoring business to accommodate school subject support during the school year. Our second big push will be coming soon!

My new favorite time of day...

Three months old and a weekend on our own

This past weekend, Matt was able to drive up to Utah with his brother Wade and his family. They picked up Matt at 8:30 PM Friday night, and after 6 hours, 3 Dr. Peppers, and never-ending conversation, they arrived safely in Murray. We figure Matt and Wade probably would have stayed up that late talking anyway; this time they just caught up in the car! They had fun hiking the "Y", eating with Matt's parents, and enjoying each other's company while shaking their heads throughout the BYU v. Nevada (Reno) football game. They returned to Vegas Sunday at 5:00, fitting in a quick dinner at our place before Wade's family drove back to Kingman.

Meanwhile, John and I kept busy in Vegas. My friend Erika came over and helped me make amazing cake truffles for Susie's baby shower. Chocolate mint truffles, so delicious! Here's how you make them:

1. Bake a Devil's Food Cake (from the box).

2. Break the baked cake into chunks and drop into your Kitchen Aid/mixer. Add in 3/4 of a can of store-bought Cream Cheese Frosting. Mix.

3. Using a melon baller/ice cream scoop/hands, ball the cake mixture and place the balls on wax paper/tin foil on a pan.

4. Throw the pan in the freezer for a few minutes to keep the cake balls firm.

5. Melt chocolate mint dipping chocolate [I used Dark Chocolate Mint "Melts" from Michaels] and roll the cake balls in the chocolate. Place the chocolate dipped cake balls back on the wax paper/tin foil to harden. They store best in the freezer.

The truffles were a huge hit at Susie's shower. It was a great shower, a wonderful mix of many different friends from times throughout her life. Baby Claire is very well stocked with some of the cutest little girl clothes! Can't wait to meet her!

I've been busy with my new calling as well: Gospel Doctrine Teacher. I teach/facilitate discussion about scriptures, right now focusing on the Old Testament in the Bible. My first lesson was this past Sunday, on Isaiah 1-6. There is SO much in Isaiah; I learned a lot from reading the Institute manual and lesson material. I was a little nervous teaching and taking care of John on my own, but there were many kind people offering to help! Everything went really well, and I'm excited to really study and learn through this calling!

We managed to stay busy and have fun, but we did miss Matt! I'm still slightly afraid of walking through a dark house... so John slept in the Pack 'n' Play in our room:) Saturday night I picked up "Temple Grandin" at Redbox; what a powerful tribute to Temple's mother and a fascinating glimpse into the experience of living with autism. It's an HBO film, but it's out on DVD now and I highly recommend it.

Well that's it for this week's highlights! Delicious cake truffles, great autism movie, big Isaiah lesson, and missing Matt. Here's an adorable video of John enthusiastically telling Matt all about our fun weekend:

One more video...

Here's one more cute video showing one of John's favorite new tricks (controlling his fists):

A few favorites

Matt is easing back into the swing of the dental school routine and I'm enjoying John and developing tutoring jobs for the fall. John has had some exciting mini-milestones recently. He loves to make conversational sounds now (repeating ahh sounds back to me), started to laugh, learned how to put his hand in his mouth, and now smiles and laughs at toys. I can't believe how fast the weeks are flying by! He is 12 weeks old right now, and I am so grateful I can just do a little work from home so I can be with this little guy!

We've caught some fun John moments on video; here are a few of our favorites:

An oldie but goodie: Matt distracting John with back and forth cries

(To view these videos full-screen, double-click and watch through YouTube)

John laughing

John trying to talk

Also, some fun pictures from the week:

John is such a happy morning guy

And he's generally happy as long as someone's playing with him

All this smiling, laughing, kicking, and fist holding can be exhausting :) Thankfully, as a result of all this energy expending, he's finally starting to sleep through the night!