August 27, 2008: Today I threw Aaron a surprise party for his 30th birthday. I have been planning this for several months now. I sent out secret evites to about 75 people and got 50 positive respones back. I planned it for Wednesday on the 27th instead of the 29th because we are leaving for Lake Powell on his birthday. I had it arranged that we would meet Roanne and Claire for dinner to celebrate Aaron's birthday and then go back to their place and have "cake and ice cream." In reality I had the guests arrive around 6:45pm at the Sorensens to surprise Aaron after dinner and then we would arrive at 7:00pm. Instead, dinner with the Sorensen's finished early and so we had time to spare. Aaron wanted to go back home and change his clothes before we went over to the Sorensen's for cake and ice cream. However, once we got home, Aaron wasn't in too big of a hurry to go back. I, on the other hand, was dying inside. I kept looking at the clock and it kept ticking towards 7:00pm and we were still at the house. Okay...I freaked out. This only led to Aaron and I having a small tiff and finally leaving the house late. We got there around 7:15pm to a house FULL of party guests. Needless to say, Aaron was super surprised. He had no idea. He did feel very sheepish though for the little tiff we had on the way to the party. :) All of Aaron's old high school buddies were there, so were family members and extended family members. Coworkers from Xango came and my family even made the drive up for the party. We had cake and ice cream and then had a pinata for the kids. It was super fun and I think everyone had a great time. It was a fun way to celebrate his birthday and he loved it. After the party, I gave Aaron his present. It was a Bumblee Bee Tranformer. He thought it was really neat. Over all it was a great day and I think Aaron was very surprised. It was great!
August 26th, 2008: We have noticed that when we are changing Jade's diaper, if you tickle her legs she will start to coo and hold perfectly still. The coo is actually more of an "Ahhh" and she literally is frozen while you are tickling her legs. It's funny because Aaron says I am the same way. Anytime he tickles my back, I am frozen in place. I just don't do the "aahhs" along with it. Another thing, since Jade was first born, the only way to get her to sleep has been to swaddle her with a blanket so as to keep her hands tucked away. If they get out she wakes herself up because her hands become super busy. However with the hot weather, her room can become stifling and I feel bad having to swaddle her in a blanket. So instead, we came up with the idea to swaddle her using an extra large ace wrap. It works out great. If velcros and only covers her arms so she can be cool and sleep well during the summer months. This is a cute picture of her right after a nap. She's adorable!
August 22, 2008: It's official...Jade can grab things with her hands. Jade and I were over at Grandma Gunn's house hanging out and Jade was lying on the floor in Grandma's room. I leaned over with a rattle in my hand and was waving it in front of her face. She reached for it and grabbed on to it. I let go and she continued to hold on. She shook it a few times, kind of looked at it and then immediately put it into her mouth. What a big milestone for her! I'm so proud.
August 20th, 2008: Jade is already a little couch potato. I lay her down in her little bouncer in front of the tv while I'm getting stuff done around the house and she will watch the tv for a good 30 minutes before I have to pick her up again. The Summer Olympics are still going on and we have enjoyed watching them. I think little Jadester has as well.
August 18, 2008: Today was a day of firsts for the Jadester. During the afternoon I placed Jade on her jugle gym play mat while I was busy getting some work done around the house. I turned my back for a minute and when I turned around to check on her she was lying on her back off of the jungle mat. She has been trying to roll over for several weeks now. She can roll on to her tummy but can't roll onto her back. The only explaination was she rolled over and off the mat. I didn't actually see it but unless some imaginary person came and picked her up, it's the only explaination. Another first for Jade was we gave her her first taste of rice cereal. At first, she wasn't too sure about it. She kind of rolled it around her mouth and then spit out. We persisted though and eventually she took it and I think even liked it. It was fun to watch her move it around her mouth and try to figure out how to use her tongue. Cute kid!
August 10-16, 2008: Jade not sleeping well through the night has been the story of the week. Aaron had to go out of town on Sunday night til Wednesday so Jade spent the evenings and night with the Grandmas. On Monday night I slept over at Grandma Gunn's house. I had worked on Saturday all night and didn't get any sleep on Sunday because of church so I was exhausted that night. However Jade had a different idea about what she wanted to do during the night. She was up every hour until I finally took her upstairs and held her hadn while she swung in the Snug Bug until she finally fell asleep around 6am. Mom woke me up an hour later on the floor next to the Snug Bug. Luckily, mom was nice enough to watch Jade while I slept the morning away. On Tuesday, Jade spent the night at Roanne's. She did really well during the evening but when it came to bedtime she wouldn't fall asleep. Roanne ended up sleeping on the couch while holding Jade. Aaron got home on Wednesday and he came over to visit me while I was working. Everyone at work was so surprised how well she is doing. She smiles and interacts with everyone and she doesn't get fussy when someone tries to hold her. She was really cute. However that cuteness wasn't so cute at 3am when all she wanted to do was play. Aaron wasn't too amused. On Friday Jade stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Gunn's house while Aaron, Austin, Cierra and I went on a double date to Lagoon. We had a really good time. On Saturday, we accompanied Auburn to Cedar City so that she could get situated before school started at SUU. Jade did really well on the way down to Cedar City and all during the day while we helped Auburn get unpacked. However she started losing it during Les Miserables play at the Tuacahn. She was sleepy and wanted to take a nap but couldn't because there was just too much to see. She ended up getting so tired that by the time we got home she just wouldn't go to bed. She would fall asleep for an hour and then wake up for an hour. She did that all night, until finally at 5am we took Jade for a drive to help her go to sleep. She fell right asleep and slept until we had to wake up to go to church. She didn't like that very much. She was ornry the entire day. Poor kid was just exhausted. She slept the entire way home.
August 3-9th, 2008: This week Jade turned 3 months old on Tuesday. She looks more and more like her dad everyday. She has light hair with a redish tint. Her eyelashes are long and lushious just like her dad's, and her lower half...including her crack...are just like Aaron's. We laugh because she is going to have short, stalky legs with lego blocks for feet. Her feet are so fat we can't get shoes on her, even a larger size doesn't even work. She also has the squishiest ears, just like Aaron, and she likes to play with her ears when she is tired.
This last week was a couple of firsts for Jade, one being she has learned to hold her own bottle. She needs a little help every once and a while but for the most part she does a great job. I think I am the most excited about this great accomplishment because that means she is one step closer to being hands free. I didn't realize how much time I really spent holding Jade while she drank a bottle, but now that I have the extra time...it's great!
Jade also had her first accident on Saturday. Aaron put her on the ottoman in her room for just a sec while he reached over to grab her blanket and she rolled off and onto the floor. Luckily she landed on a pillow and not directly on her face or she could have gotten pretty hurt. Aaron quickly scooped her up, she whimpered for a sec and then was back to smiling. Wheeww!! This week was also Aaron's softball tournament. They ended up killing the team, winning by 17 points. It was a great game. My parents came up to watch Austin, Hudson and Aaron play and so after the game we all went up to the Porcupine Grill and Pub at the base of Cottonwood Canyon and shared some great nachos. Go Ro's Rangers!!!
On Friday, Jade and I went down to my mom's house and played. I was able to convince Aaron that Jade needed a new toy and so we bought this amazing exer-saucer. It has toys, lights, and music, plus she can sit in a seat and play with the toys, or you can pull some of the toys off and let her play on a mat or you can even pull the exer-saucer apart and make is stand up so that when she gets older she can walk around it. It's a great toy. We tried it out on Jade while at Grandma Gunn's house and she wasn't quite sure if she liked it. She still might be a little young for it but it won't take long before she is bouncing around and loving the toy.
Last but not least, this last Friday was the opening ceremonies for the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. Should be fun to watch!!!!
