February Frenzy?!

If basketball fans call it "March Madness" -- I feel like the term February Frenzy is fitting as well! We have been able to enjoy watching a few BYU basketball games- both from home and at the Mariott Center in the last few weeks.

Tyler has a co-worker who gave him 2 tickets to a recent game, so Jordy got to experience another game from way up high (but at least we were sitting this time, not in the student section where we were for the BYU v. Utah game when we were standing the whole game).

That was his "I don't know about this" face :)

But just this last weekend, Jordy got to experience a VIP-seating for the game! (Tyler won tickets at his work Christmas party- haha--as much as Tyler would LOVE to have seats like that for every game, that's unfortunately not where our money has been going...)

We couldn't get Jordy to stay looking at the camera long enough to get a good picture...because he was too busy looking around! There was plenty to be looking at too, because we had FOURTH ROW seats! (Right behind our team!) 

Needless to say- Jordy seemed to prefer this view!! :) 

Owning the place! 

They actually look like people now instead of little ants!!!
(Poor Jordy! He was getting a cold but he fought so hard to stay awake and take it all in- but that's why he's not his usually "smiley" self) 

 \

I can see their faces-- no zoom!

Tyler was in heaven! It was a fun game (we were playing Saint Mary's- usually a good competitor, but BYU had a blow-out game-- which just meant we had lots of cheering opportunities!) Oh- and we got on the Kiss Cam! :)

For Valentine's Day we stayed in and ate Krispy Kreme donuts! Jess, Carly and Brad, and Ben and Carly came over on Friday night and we ate hot fudge pudding cake with ice-cream and played Last Word and then watched That Thing You Do! so it was a "lovely" weekend. :) 

Unfortunately, Jordy's cold has only gotten worse. He's never really had a cough before, so I think it kind of scares him when he gets coughing a lot. I HATE not being able to do anything to help : ( He has stayed relatively happy, though- we just got to cuddle more this weekend, which was fine by me! He used to ONLY go to sleep when he was cuddled up with someone, now, he won't really sleep at all being held- so, even though he's sick, it was still nice to feel "needed" or wanted by my little man! He's been growing up so fast lately! He tries imitating everything he sees Tyler and I do- from talking on the phone to putting lotion on our hands...he just wants to do things himself! He even will "fold" his arms to pray (sometimes he'll do it when we've already prayed or he won't always keep them folded while praying-but I'll give him a break for now, he is only 13 months old!) but I can't believe how quickly he learned that! It's an exciting (and scary!) thought to realize he's a learning-machine right now..,it makes me feel even less parent-ready! :) 

With Jordy's budding-curiosity and knack for learning-- he just wants to be in the middle of things even more now-- which makes it a tad bit difficult to do most things (darn- couldn't clean the bathroom again!) But my thesis adviser has been putting the pressure on (which just means I have to be more clever about coming up with excuses and ways to avoid meeting with her!) Even though Tyler has been pretty busy himself- he took Jordy with him last weekend just to give me an hour or so of no "Jordy-help" (pushing random buttons on my computer or taking every paper and pen out of my backpack...you get the idea!) This is then the picture I got of Jordy at Target as they wandered around for awhile:

KING OF TARGET! 

I should have known, Jordy's boss no matter where we are! 

Oh, how I love my boys! They both keep me on my toes :)

End of January

This month we've had some exciting news, a little disappointing news, upsetting news, busy news, change-of-plan news, no news, growing news...all mixed in! :) Question is- how to sum all that up?!

Exciting News: Tyler was accepted into the University of Utah AND the University of MN MBA programs! *He was also offered a scholarship with the University of Utah--making the decision process interesting (more on that later!)

Disappointing News: The BYU MBA program will not be an option for this fall (no worries, no matter where we go, we'll always bleed blue and cheer for the cougars!)

Upsetting News: I took the car in for a routine tire-rotation and was told 2 of the 4 tires NEED to be replaced- even though we just bought new ones a year-and-a-half ago and they've only been used for 1/3 of their expected lifespan/mileage. NOT at all what we wanted to hear right now...(You know, right when Tyler has to make a good-size deposit to even officially accept a program- no matter where. Yippee!!) 

Busy News: I am the TA for an undergraduate special-ed course, which is nice, because we could use the extra money. I am expected to grade their lesson plans/assignments, etc., however, the class is a blocked class- meaning they're doing a semester's-amount of work in half the amount of time, meaning my work load is doubled for January and February. (Because my 3-day-a-week internship and twice-a-week class and once-a-week thesis client, weren't keeping me busy enough!). THEN- Tyler has been working to finish an online MBA math class that he signed up for to strengthen his resume/applications (and would have been required at UofU anyway if he goes there). So, he's been trying to do a lot of that when he gets home from work most days. 

Change-of-Plan News: Everything was set for my summer internship in WI- or so I thought. Everything on my end WAS in place and had been since about September of last year. Great! Except, around the first week of January, I got this feeling (prompting?!) that I should check in with them, just to be sure. Well- sadly, I learned that the SLP who was going to supervise me wasn't feeling up to it anymore, so I wouldn't be able to do an internship there anymore. Hmmm. And of course I find this out the weekend before the applications for Utah-adult sites are due. So I had to scramble and made LOTS of phone calls to other nursing facilities in the Appleton area, and was able to go through the whole process of getting it approved and getting the right people involved to set up a contract, blah, blah, blah. So HOPEFULLY, that new site will work out even better (it's walking distance from my parent's home!) 

No News: This could count for multiple things! :) Tyler is still waiting to hear from University of Wisconsin-Madison. (There is a possibility he won't hear back until March 13th, when we need to tell U of MN by March 15th of our decision...hmmm!) I also have no news to report on my thesis, unfortunately. (Ok- not entirely true. I am on the home-stretch for data collection (I think!) and with Carly's help I got the referencing program installed so I loaded all my articles and can properly cite them now (she took pity on me and realized I wasn't joking when I was saying I really had NOTHING...good thing she likes/and is good at research!) No news about where we'll be in the fall, what I'll be doing/if or where I'll be working, or what else might be happening...

Growing News: Well, we have all grown, but perhaps that is only a good thing in Jordy's case! Jordy's top 2 front teeth have been working on making an appearance during this last month and in the last day or so another tooth has been spotted on top! (Totaling 5 so far!) Jordy went through a brief phase of only taking a few steps while talking to Grandma on Facetime, but in the last week or so he's been taking more and more steps on his own!!! He still prefers crawling, as it is by far the faster, more efficient way of getting around for him--but we've seen him walk! Now the trick has been trying to get it on camera!!! :) 

Whew. I'm exhausted (what's new?) just writing that! 

But we've still managed to have some fun in January! 

One morning Jordy woke up with his hair doing this-and it stayed like that the whole day! Talk about a crazy-hair-day! :) 

Jordy's diaper box ended up being the PERFECT size for him! He liked it...for about 2 min. being pushed around in it- then it was off to the next thing (typical of Jordy! He's not satisfied doing anything for very long...too much to explore and take apart and destroy...)

Jordy has been pretty good about trying new foods. He seems to be more convinced he wants to try something when he sees us eating it. (I don't blame him- who would trust food I make to be safe and edible?!) And he naturally has a dessert-sensor-- he KNOWS he wants any of that stuff that we're eating! So, you see, I had NO CHOICE but to let him try the white fudge covered Oreo that I was eating at the moment...

He was pretty excited about this! 

 Being a ham for the camera! :) 

And there it goes...all over his shirt (the bib was off. He was supposed to have been done!) 

"Mom, don't be mad, but I made a bit of a mess!"

Awww. Who could be mad at that face?! (Plus, I was the one that gave it to him- what did I expect?!)

Like I mentioned earlier- Jordy loves playing with the camera and looking at pictures of himself, he is just not very cooperative at having a picture taken!
But here is an attempt at catching him walking on camera:

And just Jordy being Jordy!

Bar J Wranglers

This last Friday night we went on a date (with Jordy) to good ol' BYU :) Ben works for BYU Events- and he was in charge of this event: 

Jordy was such a hit at the rodeo we went to this summer so we couldn't pass up an opportunity to dress him up in his cowboy gear again! (I am lucky Tyler is such a good sport and plays along with how excited I get for Western-themed things... :) It was actually a lot of fun- they sang some fun cowboy songs and told some jokes. Jordy LOVED the music- he was bouncing and clapping and head-bobbing! (Even during the sad cowboy songs- it was all just good music to his ears!) 

Jordy and Uncle Ben with the group! 

What a happy cowboy! :) 

Jordy and Haley!
All of Ben's coworkers have gotten to know Jordy well when he goes to work with Ben- so he was especially popular with them again tonight. Haley watched Jordy starting when he was just a couple weeks old when I was in class- so Jordy's always excited to see her! 

Ben's coworkers and the group... (I wanted to stick Jordy right in with them- but, I thought future BYU Event workers would wonder about that if they saw this picture...how a baby got employed by BYU :) 

Staying Warm in January :)

University Mall Treehouse

We were grateful that Tyler ended up getting a few more days off of work than we originally were anticipating over New Year's...so he got to come to Jordy's doctor's appointment. We had hoped to take Jordy to the University Mall treehouse on his birthday, but we ended up taking him after he got his 12-month shots (close enough, right?!) He seemed to enjoy crawling around!

We got to meet up with my best fiend, Rachel Bronson and her family the next weekend at Culver's and Cabelas (in Lehi). They moved back to Utah from Oregon and are now only an hour away!! We are so excited to get to see them more often! :)

Cute cute boys!! 

Even though ice-skating doesn't sound like it would be a "warm" activity...we actually got quite a workout! :) We weren't supposed to pick Jordy up on the ice- so he had to do a lot of work himself. But he seemed to have fun! (Well- he didn't have much choice...once we got half-way around, he had to make it the rest of the way before resting again! :)

Uncle Ben literally skated circles around us and past us! :) 

Ben got tired of Jordy stealing his waterbottle when he was watching him this last semester, so Ben got Jordy a waterbottle of his own! Awww :) 

AND...

I was really hoping to have a different post representing the Packers making it to the NFC Championship Game...but, well...let's not go there. We did all wear our Packers pajamas Saturday night hoping that if we dreamed winning dreams it would help...apparently not. Oh well. Maybe next year! :)