How We Watch Tangled

When we were with my (Scott) family a few weeks ago, they all kept talking about how funny the movie Tangled was. Jenna and I saw it in the theaters pretty soon after it came out... and we liked it, but we didn't remember much about the movie. So, since we just signed up for Netflix (instead of cable) we decided that it would be one of the first movies that we got. Well, needless to say, it's Eva's FAVORITE movie. She is always asking to watch it, even after they've watched it about 20 time that day. In fact, today while I was at work, Jenna sent me a message saying that Eva was watching the movie and they started to dance in the movie. So, Eva jumped right up from her pillow and blanky and started to dance and sing, flinging her arms around just like they were in the movie. It's pretty cute. So, here are some pictures I took with my phone of how Eva watches the movie...

and, here is how Everett watches the movie...

So, if you haven't seen it yet, you might have to watch it... and if you have seen it already... it might be time to watch it again.


-Scott J.

oh baby!

i can't believe my precious baby boy is already 7 weeks old. oy. i've been overwhelmed with emotion this last almost two months and really the few weeks before that, but i'm excited to share my feelings. this is a long one, consider yourself warned. i feel like i should start by quickly recapping eva's birth. it had a huge effect on what i wanted for this baby and his grand entrance into the world, so here goes. after dealing with a scary bout with preeclampsia, eva came to us 4 weeks early by emergency c-section. her birth was just awful for me in a lot of ways. i felt unprepared, stressed, scared, i was a bunch of nerves. plus i didn't get to hold my baby afterward. it just felt wrong, and i so badly wanted this pregnancy and delivery to be different.

so somewhere between then and now i set my heart on a VBAC and what i considered to be the storybook delivery. that sounds really cheesy i know, but you know. contractions, labor, all that jazz. i wanted the whole experience, and i was determined to have things go my way. so you can imagine my disappointment when the doctor stripped my membranes twice (OUCH) and still no progress. this baby just wouldn't cooperate. at my last appointment before he was born we had a decision to make. the bottom line was that this baby wasn't dropping. because of my prior c-section, i was not a candidate for induction/pitocin, and my doctor was worried that even if i did go into labor, i would end up needing a c-section anyway. we talked about having him strip the membranes a third time and waiting a week, but i just couldn't wait. i was in so much pain. mostly physical, but also emotional. one of the best parts about those last few weeks of pregnancy was knowing that i couldn't possibly stay pregnant forever, but it was so draining for me not knowing when our baby would come. so we scheduled the c-section for my due date two days later and i cried. i was devastated. i'd prayed hard for my perfect delivery, and i was upset that my prayers had not been answered the way i wanted them to be. my thought was that clearly our heavenly father would understand and allow a hormonal and very pregnant woman to get her way, right? wrong.

i still don't know exactly why i was meant to deliver the way i did, but looking back i can see more clearly all of the good things about my c-section. it was scheduled, so we knew exactly when he was coming. i had my bag packed and ready, scott didn't have to rush home from who knows where. we knew when this was going down. such a plus. also, i'd been through this once before, so i knew better what to expect. (which is partly why i dreaded it, but it also made a huge difference.) plus this c-section was much more relaxed and comfortable than my last one. my doctor was fabulous, and the OR nurses and aides just seemed more kind and supportive. i felt nervous all morning, but the encouragement of a certain aide in the OR calmed me right down. he talked to me the entire time, asking how i was doing, distracting me from all the craziness around me. it was wonderful. and last, because it was not an emergency delivery, i got to hold my baby! as in right after he arrived! spending recovery with him in my arms was the best feeling. and at that point, my sadness over the delivery was completely gone. i felt peace, and i'm so grateful for that.

i'm also very happy to say that my recovery from this c-section has been SO easy. i assume it's because this was my third time being cut open in that spot, but i like to think it's been my own little reward for enduring the c-section i was so determined to avoid :)

now there are some things i want remember about everett's birthday. the first is that when i checked into the hospital, got into my gown, and talked with our nurse about everything, she happened to ask what we planned to name our baby. we'd kinda been keeping his name to ourselves, but i decided it was probably safe to tell at this point. i told her everett, and it turned out her husband's name was everett! not only her husband, but also her son and her grandson. all named everett. craziness! no way that was a coincidence, i told her it must be a sign ;) i don't know a single everett (until now) and here she was closely related to three people all with this name. wow!

another quick thing i want to remember is how big everett looked right at birth. when they held him up for me to see and whisked him away real quick to get cleaned up, i went whoa baby! my doctor predicted that he would be on the small side, maybe 6 or 7 lbs according to the ultrasound. and i even asked the aide with me in the OR how big he looked when they pulled him out. the aide said he thought 6lbs or so. but nope. a whopping 8lbs 5.5oz! i can't believe that much baby was inside of me. and then i remember all those hard kicks, and i totally CAN believe it. :)

and the last thing i want to remember. back when we found out we were having a boy, i kinda freaked out, sorta had some denial. when i was pregnant with eva, we weren't sure she was a girl until three weeks before she was born. the doctors just couldn't make up their minds about what she was. then with this pregnancy, i wanted a girl. it's what i know and love, so given our past experience, i refused to believe they were 100% sure it was a boy. they were wrong last time right? i told myself they could totally be wrong again. i even convinced myself that if i didn't say we were having a boy, i could somehow prevent him from BEING a boy. hah. (apparently being pregnant messed with my ability to think rationally!) so anyway, when everett was born, i was so surprised at how instantly we bonded. i've heard that lots of moms worry about being able to love a second child, but i was worried about being able to love a boy. a dirty, stinky, little boy. well guess what? i love him. more than i ever knew i could or would.

time for some pictures. now i am not a fan of my pregnant body, but i do want my family to remember me at every stage of my life, no matter my shape or size. so here i am lookin large just a few hours before everett was born.

and just like that, he's here!


gettin so fresh and so clean clean.










these pictures are so dear to me. i am in love.










so so tender.
















all dressed and ready to go home!

part of me is really glad it's all over, but already a part of me is honestly so excited to do it all over again someday :)

-Jenna

who dat on the blog?!

...Who dat on the blog?! Me! that's who... so first, an intro...

A few weeks ago, Jenna and I were talking about how we would like to be better at posting on our blogs. We have this blog which contains our family awesome-ness, and then we have our photography business blog, Jameson Photos, where we post about photoshoots that we do together and the fun we have as a husband and wife photography team. Jenna has always been the family blogger and does an awesome job but she keeps pretty busy, especially lately with a newborn baby. So... when Jenna and I were talking a few weeks ago, I said something in a half-kidding kind of way like, "hey, I should post on the blog!" Surprisingly, Jenna responded affirmatively saying she was fine with that idea (perhaps after she reads this post... it will be removed quickly and I will be banned from our blogs. So, in summary, be prepared to be bored by my ramblings and "stuff."

Things in our family have been crazy. Now that my parents are home, we are in full, working-hard-to-move-out mode. We have been working on the house like crazy every night. I also took a day off this week to get a whole lot done on the kitchen... and we did. We got all our appliances in and the granite was installed the same day so it looks amazing. Jenna has the "real" pictures that we took with our nice camera (that's worth more than my life), but until then, you all can see the picture that I took with my phone... (don't tell Jenna that I put raw, unedited pictures on our blog... )

here are the guys installing the granite

this is what it looked like when they were done

my dad (as sick as he was) came and helped me install the microwave. I missed those days when we used to work together.

I put in the outlet for the microwave... and it works... imagine that.

And... lastly... here is our finished product at the end of the day...

And... to scare you... here's what it used to look like (before painting, appliances, and counter tops)... 

Jenna and I looked back at all we did that day and we just marveled at how good it looked. We loved it so much that we sat around talking in the kitchen for a while... we didn't want to leave. We are so excited to move in and have our own place that is our own... it's our own especially because of all we've done to it. When we are in and settled, we will have an open house for all to come and see. 

-Scott J.

we suck at timing

yep, by they i mean these two:

ok. so. to preface, on Sunday, Scott told someone at church that right now our life is like a big box that someone is continuously shaking. pretty accurate. things are insane. you see, we found out last week that instead of arriving home March 7th as planned, Scott's parents will be leaving Africa on February 1st. as in two weeks from TODAY. my reaction: holy crap. i think Scott had to pick my jaw up off the floor. Scott's dad has been called to be a mission president of somewhere (not sure where yet) and will report for that with his wife in late June. amazing. that likely had something to do with why their departure date was moved up a bit.

so. to recap, 1. we've been living in Scott's parents' ginormous home for the last (almost) 18 months, it's way too big for us to manage and therefore kind of a disaster. 2. we bought a house in June and have been fixing it up. that house, also a huge mess. will possibly be ready for move in by March 7th (you know, the date that now means nothing), definitely not ready for move in now. 3. i am 37 weeks pregnant, meaning huge, uncomfortable, exhausted, super emotional. not a great combo any day but i'd argue especially not good on days that bring crazyunexpectedlifechanging news.

so. for now the plan is to clean this place like crazy, pack up all our stuff, and move down into the basement for a short while. i'm trying to be flexible though (so not easy for me). plans have a funny way of changing on us. oh and yeah. we own two homes, and we'll be living with Scott's parents. can you say awesome. anyway, i should get back to running around like a (very pregnant) chicken with my head cut off. a few photos of the madness:

luckily we had lots of help Monday to get our clean up going.
i am SO grateful for the family and friends that came by to help.
i can't even begin to say how much i appreciate it.
we might just survive this adventure yet!

two oh one oh baby

There've been quite a few things I've wanted to document on here these past few months, but lately it's taking everything I've got just to get my buns outta bed in the morning. That's ok though, time to start fresh again. So how about a little recap of 2010 to begin with? This is our...

Top 10 of Twenty Ten

1. First up in 2010 was Scott being hired at his first real job! So exciting. I'm beyond proud of his hard work to support our family.

Check out that set up, holy nerd alert! Scott's desk and the building he works at.

2. On a less happy note, Scott also had double hernia surgery last year. Talk about lame. Especially that part when I had to clean up his puke. Yuck.

3. Next we found that we're expecting again! I spent over half of 2010 being sick, getting larger, and feeling totally uncomfortable. So happy that the end is now in sight.

4. And last June I quit my desk job. Walking away turned out to be harder and more emotional than I'd anticipated, but I have NO regrets. Spending each day with Eva is the bomb. It's still hard work, but being her mom is a job that I love.

5. Also last year, we bought a house. We went from not even looking at houses to being homeowner's in less than a month. Insane. When it's right it's right I guess. Here's a picture of the new place. Not much to look at now, but someday it will be awesome.

6. Which leads me to our next great undertaking of 2010. Home Renovations...dun dun dunnnn. We bought the house knowing that there were quite a few things we wanted to change/update/fix up. It seemed perfect since we had a chunk of savings set aside for this, and we knew we wouldn't have to move in right away. Yeah, needless to say, I've had quite a few "holy crap, what were we thinking" moments about this house since we bought it. Like I said, someday it will be awesome, and I'll just keep telling myself that.

These pics are kind of old. Lots of before and after's to come.

7. This past year was a big one for miss Eva, I can't believe how much she's changed in just a year. She turned one, took her first steps, spoke her first words, the list goes on. Now she's running full speed and jabbering away all day long. She joined the nursery at church, (one of the best Sunday's all year in my opinion) and she also had a little operation this last year. We learned more about Eva's heart condition last year and she underwent her first surgery to correct it. I love her so much it's crazy.

SO full of personality.

8. Scott did some traveling in 2010, and for the sake of my sanity, lets hope it's the last of his traveling for a good while. He spent 10 days in Indiana and 11 days in Iowa, and I spent the entire time going crazy. Not really, but kind of. I make a pretty terrible single parent.

9. Last year was also a great one for Jameson Photos and all that's come with our little photography business: stress, insecurity, tears, and exhaustion, but also improvement, growth, accomplishment, and pride. I'm just so glad to be able to feel good at something I really love and to get to share that with others.

Please excuse my blindingly white legs.



A preview of things to come on the photoblog.

10. Lastly, the past year has been filled with lots of time spent together. Little trips to Sunrise, California, and Snowflake, the Muse concert, walks to the park, feeding the ducks, reading together, playing together, visiting the zoo, these are my favorite moments of 2010.

That's a wrap!