Cali

Jonathan loved his first plane ride... well I guess I'm not sure he loved it, but he was great! Our flights both ways were not full so I was able to take his car seat in with us.

Here he is in our hotel... he got his own bed and even his very own drawer! :)

Notice he has the burp cloth in his mouth:

And here he is on the way to the beach rockin' Coach Julie's shades:

His first trip to the beach. Right after this picture he fell fast asleep on my shoulder (the first timer he has ever done that).

The team did well. They won 2 and lost 2. Our next trip is to Georgia in two weeks! This time we'll be flying with the team so he'll have lots of people to entertain him! :)

New Tricks!

Jonathan learned two new tricks today. Here they are:

He got the turtle's head in his mouth and he held his bottle (I promise there is milk in there, he is just almost done eating)! What a big boy!!!

California Here We Come!

Jonathan and I are headed to the Santa Barbara Shootout with the BYU women's lacrosse team this weekend. He's the perfect "team baby"! It will be his first flight and it is just me and him (the team will be taking a bus, but we didn't want to be in the bus that long so I used a free flight voucher). Wish us luck!!

One Year Ago

My how things have changed in one year! Here's Jonathan exactly a year ago:

And here he is today:

Happy Valentine's Day!

4 Month Stats

16 lbs 13.5 oz (80th percentile)
24.5 inches (25th percentile)

We love him... even though his dad's hopes and dreams of him being 6 feet tall are not looking good!

Happy Thursday!

High Chair

A couple of weeks ago I got the high chair out of the box. I put Jonathan in it and he loved it. Now he can sit in it and play with toys while Michael and I eat dinner. :)

As Promised

We sure do love making this little man laugh!!

Filling the Void

The past two weeks - specifically on the weekends - I've felt the longing to lead.

I suppose the feeling comes mostly in a professional context:

• The military was the end-all of leadership - no finer training ground
• I had some sense of responsibility while at Wally World and while I hope to never be back in that exact kind of leadership role it still had components of leadership
• Now with my most recent employment - while I thought I would enjoy having no direct reports and only having to report up to my supervisors - lately I've realized how much I truly miss responsibility for others' development and a sense of stewardship

While I may, or may not, ever achieve the level of leadership and responsibility I had in the Navy I've been turning my thoughts more and more to coaching. I'm thinking that the need for leadership, shaping character, molding the next generation, etc. can be more of a personal interest/hobby which can be separated from work. My tendency is to look towards athletics but are there other avenues, or outlets?

My only hesitancy with jumping into an athletic capacity is that I've never really competed in any sport at any significant level (e.g. high school or college) therefore I feel that I could never be a "great" coach due to the inability to empathize with the player:

• I played intramural basketball in middle-school. I think I had one assist the entire season
• I was cut from the Freshman baseball team in high school and began managing teams thereafter in high school and college
• I've played volleyball in the Stake intramural season a few years ago
• I've participated in some 5K/10K/half-marathon runs but never in a track & field setting
  

But something is definitely missing. I feel called to this line of work but I'm just not sure how to get started or what area to pursue. Where should I apply this desire, my experience and my interest?

4 Months Old!!!

Here are pictures from the photo shoot today. My dad can make him laugh all the time... we had a lot of fun. I may have taken over a hundred pictures, below are some of my favorites.

Jonathan now puts most things in his mouth. I often catch him with a burp cloth or corner of a blanket in his mouth. My favorite so far though is when he sucks on the ribbon that is his pacifier clip. He will wrap it around his thumb then suck his thumb trying to get to the ribbon. Sadly, though, it gets pushed to the base of his thumb so in his attempt to suck on the ribbon he sticks his thumb so far in his mouth that he ends up gagging. :)

Practice

Yesterday I decided to take some practice pictures for the big photo shoot tomorrow. :) We have such a cute baby!!!! I also have some random pictures at the end that I took yesterday and this morning. :)

Here is the start of the "randoms"... if we don't buckle Jonathan in his bouncer I think he is going to fall out of it soon! Here is his most recent attempt at escape:

And here he is flying with daddy:

This morning I put Jonathan in his new car seat. He's got lots of room to grow:

Happy Groundhog Day!

January Happenings

Jonathan has been really fun lately, full of lots of smiles and laughs! The following are pictures I took off my camera and my mom's. (I still don't have the camera that has the video of him laughing... that has been found, but I do not have it in my possession yet.)

Jonathan loves bath time... and he loves being wrapped up in his towel when he gets out:

When Jonathan's cousin Madeleine was here she took very good care of him. She loved to hold him and give him kisses. She gave him kisses almost every time she or he woke up from a nap. We loved having them here!

One time I decided to put him in the highchair to see how he fit. He fit perfectly and didn't seem to mind it. So Madeleine went and got her blanket and puppy dog for him. As you can see he loved it:

And here she is holding him:

Grandpa loves to put food in Jonathan's hand and tries to encourage him to put it in his mouth... maybe that is so he can truthfully say he didn't feed Jonathan. Luckily Jonathan, up to this point, has just held on to the food for a second then dropped it. Every time Grandpa puts food in his hand though, I have to make sure I clean off all the crumbs!

Grandpa thought he had it this time:

I have decided that Jonathan is officially a thumb sucker. We still try and keep it out of his mouth, but he often will pull his pacifier out and quickly put his thumb in. This time he got his thumb through the pacifier handle thing and was sucking it:

Here's another of him in the highchair, this time playing with some toys. He is getting better and holding objects:

This is a picture of his cute outfit. His hat goes great with it and it was perfect that Jerusha and I took him outside that day so we had to put the hat on! I got a few comments about how cute he is (the hat and outfit were not bought together, nor are they even from the same store!):

I took this while we were playing one day:

I got him some teethers for him to chew on. He hasn't quite learned to hold them and chew on them.... so of course I put them in his mouth. They make him drool a TON! :)

And here he is just yesterday. He's just chillin' on the couch by himself:

And last, but not least, Jonathan with his daddy!

That's all for now. Friday he will be 4 months old so you better believe I'll be having a photo shoot at our house. :)