Monday, December 22, 2008

Family Newsletter

This year has been such an exciting one! So many things have changed, that I don't know if I'll even remember all of them.The year started off with my little baby Jack learning to crawl really well by the time he was six months! He was baptised in January with Ada being his Godmother. He was such a funny boy, the first in history to actually try to get into the water while the Priest was blessing him. Very shortly afterwards, at 7 months and 3 weeks, Jack took his first step. The child has never crawled again since! For the first few days, he was actually very confused how to get to the center of a room. And from the moment he started walking, he was soon running, climbing, and now there is no catching the little guy:)
March came around, and I decided that it was time to look for another job. Although it was very sad leaving Soiree, after 3 great years of weddings, designing, and helping crazy brides, the drive was getting to be too much. So now I work at UVU at the Small Business Development Center, and do a lot of marketing research and designing logo's and flyers for people. It's not bad.
In April, Jack and I got to visit Ada in Boston, what a fun trip! We saw the Science Museum, ate lobster, visited the beach and the original home of Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women) and so much more! It was really a good trip, and Jack did so good on the plane rides, I was very impressed.
In May, we ended up putting mom's house up for sale. Stephen re-tiled the bathroom floor and we cleared out a lot of items as well as put fresh coats of paint on the walls. We've had fun looking at a few prospective homes to purchase, and create plans for remodeling them so they will be perfect. Now, just need to have the house sell.

June brought Jack's first birthday. My baby boy is growing so fast! He dived right into his chocolate cake. We played a game to tell his future, having the little guy choose a book, coin or champagne glass, seeing if he would be scholarly, rich or love to party. Well, the child's a party animal through and through:) After a little while of playing though, Jack was ready for everyone to go, and took his nuk and waited for his puppies to be let out of their dog kennel. It was very sweet. My aunt Bogusia was able to visit us for a few days, and we went to fun places like mirror lake and Thanksgiving Point.

Later in the summer, Stephen, Jack and I went on our first camping trip as a threesome. We went up to Yellowstone and the Tetons. It was absolutely great! We saw the geysers and a few bison, we ran around the trails and took a boat fairy ride in the Tetons. It was such a needed vacation, and Jack loved getting into all the fire pits.Then it was Stephen's turn to switch jobs. After 7 years of hard work at Sundance, Stephen moved across the street to the Fire Department. He is officially a water technician and fire fighter full time now. It has been a lot to learn and take in, but he is doing a fantastic job at it.

The fall came around, and mom and Jack and I would take the dogs on a long hike atleast once a week. Jack decided that the backpack he gets carried in isn't that much fun anymore, and now run's 2 miles all by himself! (This is to my great relief, because he was getting really heavy). We spent a lot of our summer time at the pool and walking with Claudine and Gavin. The boys are the best of friends, and it's fun to watch them enjoy each other so much!
Ada went to Africa again this year. For 2 months this time! She's also been to Acadia National Park, the Badlands and Minnesota. The girl never stops travelling, but luckily for us, she is home for Christmas and spending a whole 2 weeks with us this year!
The snow has started coming down, and we spend our time sledding and trecking through it. Jack keeps loosing his gloves and boots, but for the most part seems to really like to play in the snow.
We send much love and hugs and kisses to everyone!
Love,
Marynika, Stephen and Jack

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Hard at Work

Jack is daddies big helper. Stephen is making some new storage shelves for the garage, and Jack just couldn't stay away. He kept giving Stephen the hammer, drill, screws, whatever it was that dad needed or didn't need at the moment. I love family projects:)

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Hill Aerospace Museum

On Sunday, we were driving up to Logan for dinner at Brittany's house, so we decided to make a day of it, and invited Brit and the kid's to visit the Hill Aerospace Museum. I found out that Stephen knows alot about military planes, it was cool to hear him tell us about each one.

Here's Trinity telling us about where the bombs fly out from the bottom of the plane.


Everyone stacked into a huge helicopter, Jack was ready to make a run for it, but Stephen kept a firm hold on him.

Jack ready to shoot off in this pilot seat.


Jack raising hard to keep up with dad and his cousin Mikee outside.


That tires as tall as Mikee is!



Collapsing in the rocking chair after a hard day of playing:)

Kangaroo Zoo


We had a great Thanksgiving Holiday. Thanksgiving was spent with grandparents and Britt and the kids at our house, first time I've been able to host a holiday at our home! I love playing hostess! Then Friday we decided to have a little too much fun:) Brittany and her kids, Trinity, Mike, and Katherine, Claudine and Gavin, and Jack and I went to an awesome indoor playground called the Kangaroo Zoo. It's a place in Pleasant Grove with lots of blow-up toys and slides. At first, Jack wanted me to carry him up the tall ladders, but then, he soon learned it was more fun scrambling up himself. So Trinity, Jack and I raced up and down the slides (I haven't played so hard in awhile!) while Mike raced around the place (we would catch brief glimpses of him here and there) Katherine was a perfect dainty little lady with Brittany holding her (she is about a month older than Jack) and Gavin jumped and slid on the enclosed tramps. It was really a lot of fun, I can't wait to go back and show Stephen how good Jack does on it. And, bonus to all the fun, Jack was so warn out that he took a 3 hour nap:)




Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Farm Animals

We were able to go to Thanksgiving Point this Monday, and see the Farm Animals! Jack started off a little shy, and so did the animals, the sheep wouldn't go near us, but the goats were fun. They wanted to be rubbed behind the horns, and nibble on our fingers. Jack really seemed to enjoy himself.

Next, we went and saw the roosters. There were so many different kinds! Some had big 'furry' looking feet because of all their feathers, and roosters and the three of us had fun 'cock-a-doodle-dooing' at each other.
Next came the horses and the pony ride! Jack's first time on a pony! Her name was Erika, and she was a black shetland pony (oh, it reminds me of my Sparkie, a white shetland pony). Jack seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit, and then petted the pretty little girl.
Stephen also introduced Jack to the big horses. This one really wanted attention. And I showed my boys how to give your hand to a horse to he doesn't eat your fingers. There were also cow's, donkey's, and a llama. It was well worth the trip!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Fall, Fall, Fall

Don't you love FALL!

Finger Painting

Last Sunday was a very rainy day, welcome to fall. So with the aspect of going outside and playing completely out of the picture, I wanted to try a fun new game that I read about, great for Jack's learning textures, etc. Fingerpainting! I mixed flour, water and food coloring, put wax paper all over the kitchen table, and stripped the boy down. It was quite fun, as you see, Stephen got his share of goo, too:) One thing to remember for next time... put wax paper on the wall, also:)