one-and-a-half

I don't know where time went, how is it that this kid is one-and-a-half? When I see pictures of him I think he looks even older and it makes me so sad. It's so fun to watch him grow and learn new things, but I want it to go by s l o w e r.
A little update of what Jacoby has been up to. Sorry if this is boring to some of you, but I want to remember these things about him.


Jacoby will WAVE to anyone that waves to him. He also waves when him and I are leaving the house and Tyler isn't even there. I suppose he's waving to the house. He even waves to the car when we go into a store. Loves BALLS. Hates having his HAIR WASHED. He's already wanting to be a stinky boy. Just kidding, Cob! Loves to carry my DUMBBELLS around. Gives good HUGS and KISSES. CLAPS for himself constantly, yes, he's a little cocky. Started going to NURSERY. Very TALL and SKINNY. Doesn't like going shopping with me anymore.


Loves guacamole. Who doesn't? One of the three veggies he eats.

Always wants to feed himself, but is getting better at it. Always leaves a big mess for me though. :)

Took another tumble and hurt his eye and cheek.

Still takes a good 3-4 nap each day.

Sleeps well at night.

seven days of outfits

This is probably not a very exciting post for most people besides Jacoby's grandmas, but I got this template with the days of the week and got the idea to take pictures of Jacoby's outfit everyday for a week. These are some of my favorite clothes, too. He started to figure out what I wanted him to do everday I took the camera out and would stand up next to the wall in the same place. Man, I've trained him well.

Completely Obsessed

Jacoby is completely obsessed with shooting baskets. One day after he began walking I pulled the basketball hoop in the picture below out into our family room to see if he would be interested in it yet, and he was instantly hooked. He always stood on our trunk that we use as a coffee table in our family room and so I thought it would be good to get him a stool to stand on. It's pretty cute because when he misses he says, "Oh!" Also, when he's feeling lazy he points to the ball and wants me to fetch it for him. (I usually ignore this.) When he makes it he dances around and claps for himself. He has a couple other little hoops that he also loves to play with. Tyler's parent's have a little hoop that Jacoby is always so excited to go play with, too.

While Jacoby is obsessed with basketball, I'm obsessed with scrapbooking. It works out well for both of us, while he's shooting hoops, I'm doing this:

On Designer Digitals, where I do my digital scrapbooking, they are having a challenge where you do pages about yourself. I'm excited to do this because I hardly ever do any pages about me. This will be like a journal for me and something to save for my family to look at. This is my first page with little tidbits about me.

felt wreaths

I saw this fun idea on a blog awhile back and decided to make one. My favorite color is red and so most of our home is decorated with red and I knew this wreath would be perfect. It was so fun to do, so if your interested check out her tutorial here. When I first saw the wreath I thought that Becca would like it. It was so fun to do that I'm planning to make a circular one for her birthday. Don't you worry, it's not like her present will be spoiled now because I already told her. Hey, I had to make sure to do a color she liked, and it's a good thing because I was thinking of doing cream and I'm glad I didn't surprise her because she was not excited about that color. Ha ha. There is a picture of one here.

Steph's wreaths on her double doors.

Stitches

On Tuesday Jacoby and I were at my parent's working on some crafts with my mom and Steph. Jacoby was standing on a chair in the dining room and all of a sudden he started falling backwords and hit his forehead on the corner of the bar in the kitchen. It was terrible because my mom and I both saw it coming, but we couldn't get there fast enough. Immediately I picked him up to see the damage and he had a huge gash in his forehead and it was deep. We went to the doctor's office and he had to get stitches. I was really unpleasantly surprised that he only had to get two stitches, but it did come together pretty well. I feel so bad that this happened, but he seems to be doing fine. I just really hope that it doesn't leave a scar especially because it's on his face. I'm grateful that it wasn't worse and that he is okay. Love ya, Coby!A few scrapbook pages I've done recently:

help

HELP! I need somebody, help!

I have such a hard time coming up with new foods to feed Jacoby. He is kind of a picky eater and doesn't like very many vegetables or meat, so that makes it hard. I feel like I feed him a lot of snacks most of the time such as crackers, rice cakes, goldfish, peaches, pears, oranges, corn, peas, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and beans. I just wanted to find out if any of my blogging buddies know of any great toddler cookbooks, recipes, or ideas of their own. I would really appreciate it! Thanks.

BLAKE

My favorite cousin, Blake, got home from his mission in New Hampshire last week. I've been counting down this day for the last month. It was so exciting to see him walk through those doors; I think a missionary homecoming is one of the most thrilling experiences ever! He's such a wonderful guy and so fun to be around. He has always made me feel good about myself and treats me so well. He spoke on Sunday and did a great job. I can tell that he truly loved his mission and worked very hard. What a strong testimony he has and my testimony of missionary work was strengthened by the experiences he had. I love you, Blake!

I pretty much tackled the kid.

The Bingham fam.

His adorable niece, Daphne, that he met for the first time that night.

Jacoby was excited to meet Blake, too. Probably more excited to be able to stay up until 11 o'clock.

Christmas...better late than never

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas and I'm so sad that it's over. I don't want all the fun to end: all the parties, good food, and family.

I haven't been able to post in awhile because we just recently moved back home for a few months until we move down to Arizona for school. It's been so nice to be here. We are renting a house that is for sale, so hopefully we'll be able to stay in the house awhile. I have loved living in a house! I think it's going to be hard for me to go back to living in an apartment after this. It has never bothered me living in an apartment before, but now I realized how great a house really is. Well I'll enjoy the few months while I have them because I'm afraid we'll be living in a small little apartment until Jacoby is in middle school. Oh ya gotta love the medical school life. :) No, I really am excited.

Talking to Thomas on Christmas was the thing that I was most looking forward to. We came over to my parent's about 9:00 a.m. and he was calling at 9:30. I kept telling my parents that we had to call right on time because I was dying to talk to him. It was so awesome to hear his voice...I've missed it. It was also really emotional and sometimes I couldn't say anything because I was crying to much. This is a picture my mom took of us sisters as we crowded around the phone. Love you, Tom! Tyler's mom made Jacoby a couple pair of scrubs because Tyler is going to medical school. They are pretty dang cute. She also made Tyler and I some.
Just us girls after church. We all stayed at my parent's the night before and went to church with them. I love my sisters. We were all wearing black, white, and green and we didn't plan it. Silly girls.
My sweet boys on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve at Mark and Jackie's. Tyler's dad dressed up as santa. Jacoby wasn't too sure about him this year; he's still pretty scared.

Jacoby has been doing this funny face lately. He scrunches up his eyes like this so they are barely visible. He definitely thinks he's funny, and he is right.

Enjoying a candy cane and getting so so sticky.

Jacoby and aunt Savannah.

The kids loved these musical bells.

We had such a nice Christmas and we loved spending time with our families. I'm very grateful that Tyler enjoys spending time with my family and enjoy spending time with his. I know it is not always like that for everyone and I'm grateful he is that way because it makes me so happy. Our family received so many nice gifts from our families and I feel so spoiled. Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year and I'm so sad it's over.

My favorite cousin, Blake, gets home tonight and I can hardly wait. He has never met Jacoby. Isn't that crazy? I found out a was pregnant just after he left and now Jacoby is almost 18 months. WOW. I will be taking plenty of pictures tonight and posting tomorrow.

My Favorite Christmas Treats

I wanted to do a Christmas post about my favorite foods to eat at Christmastime. I feel like during the holidays I just eat and eat and eat, but the food is just to dang good to resist. These are my faves...I hope I didn't forget any. I also wanted to do a tag some people for this post: Steph Thompson, Kate Messick, Lyndsi Morrow, and Angie Guymon.

SUGAR COOKIES

We just discovered how good the Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix is. I'm not one to like ANY mixes, but this does not disappoint. I made these cookies for my family Christmas partyvand I love how the big white sprinkles look like polka dots! hot chocolate

Life Saver Storybooks
We used to always get these in our stockings when I was younger and I will always love them. I especially love the tropical and berry packages.

fudge

There are so many different kinds: rocky road, walnut, peanut butter, and just plain chocolate.

Mint M&Ms

Candy Cane Toosie Pops

Peppermint Milkshakes

My dad used to make these during Christmastime because of all the extra candycanes laying around, and they are wonderful. Oranges and Tangelos

What are your faves?

GRADUATION

I had my graduation last Saturday and I'm so relieved to be done with college! I really appreciated my parents and Tyler's parents coming to support me. Elder Richard G. Scott came to speak at commencement which was pretty exciting. I really enjoyed the talk that the president of the school, President Kim B. Clark, gave. He went over three guidelines to live by: keeping the spirit to be with you, serving the Lord and others, and keeping wordly things out of your heart. I really believe that we can learn so much from just these three principles that can greatly impact our lives and help us to become better individuals.

It was a freezing cold day, but I had to get a picture by the BYU-I sign. I love my parents so much and they are always so sweet and supportive of me. It means a lot to me when they tell me how proud they are of me for graduating. I love you guys!

Love my little family.

hello arizona

Well it's been awhile and I'm sorry, but boy do I have a lot to say...

I don't think that I ever really announced that we are going to Midwestern University in ARIZONA for medical school. We're excited and anxious to get going with school. It's a very bittersweet thing to me. People ask me if I'm excited and I am very, but I'm also very sad to leave family. I'm definitely a homebody and Idaho is all I've ever known, but it will be a wonderful experience for our family. Tyler is such a hard worker and I know that he will be a great doctor someday. Hello Arizona. This is our Christmas card for this year. My mom took our pictures a couple weeks ago and it was FREEZING cold, but she did a great job. Thank you, mom!
Kate came up to see me the other night and to have me help her with her Christmas cards. It was really fun to see her and Krew. We tried to get our boys to sleep so that we could have a couple hours to work on scrapbooking, but the little stinkers knew what we were up to and didn't go to sleep like we planned. Well, I'll be generous and say they were pretty good and played together for awhile. :) Our little Christmas tree.

Olivia and I went to the David Archueleta concert last week and it was a rockin' good time. I may or may not have a little crush on him. He was super good in concert and I absolutely loved it. It was really fun to go with Olivia; I love that girl.

You rock.

Tyler's parents gave Jacoby this little basketball hoop last year and he has recently been very interested in it. This is all that he ever wants to do anymore and it's pretty fun to watch him. He's starting to do so many fun things lately and it's a lot of fun.

lots of fun

We had a really nice Thanksgiving this year with Tyler's family. Tyler's brother just got married back in September and they were able to come to Thanksgiving with us too. His aunt and uncle always host Thanksgiving dinner at their home. It was really nice to see everyone and visit and pig out on lots of yummy food. I was even able to make my favorite pie to take, banana cream pie! I made one to take and one to eat at home and they were pretty tasty. I will have to post the recipe on Make Your Tastebuds Dance soon. I feel so grateful for so many things in my life right now such as: the good health of myself and loved ones, our wonderful families, my hardworking husband, Tyler being accepted to medical school, sisters and a mom who are my best friends, missionaries all over the world and especially Elder Long down in Brazil, wonderful friends who are always there, our wonderful ward, the gospel, finishing school, staying at home with Jacoby, being a wife and mother, and living close to family. I love my life and I realize that I need to try to focus on all of the things that I do have and how blessed I am.


Last night we all went over to my grandma Long's to help her decorate her Christmas tree. As I'm sure you have noticed, we love decorating trees! We each made something to go on the tree using lime green and red and it turned out really nice. My grandma is such a sweet lady and I love her so much.

I went shopping with Steph on Black Friday and we got a ton of stuff. I'm kind of embarrassed to say that we were at the mall at 4:45 a.m. along with many other crazies. I wanted to get most of my shopping done, but I would say that I'm only about half done. With all the birthdays in December it makes it pretty tough too. Tyler's brother and his wife waited in line at Target ALL NIGHT Thursday, so I gave him a list of toys to get Jacoby. All done with that little guy now thanks to Trav and Betsey. It was really fun to go with Steph, but we missed Becca and Tom this year. What am I going to do next year when I have to go by myself?

Visions of Sugarplums

One of my favorite new traditions that my family has done the last three or four years is decorating trees for the Festival of Trees! I love to decorate and wish that I had more money to be able to buy or make things for my home. This is a great way for me to get to do that a little bit. It's so fun to go shopping and buy all the things you would like to use for a dream tree of your own and put it all together. I realized that this could be my last year because we'll be moving away, and I will miss it so much next year when I hear about my mom and sisters doing their trees. I was able to do a full sized tree and a smaller alpine tree. The Festival of Trees opens today and goes through Friday from 10:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m. all week long. Try to stop by and check out all the beautiful of trees and help support the Development Workshop. Steph and I are also selling our crocheted earrings that you can find here at the Festival of Trees Boutique. This is the smaller tree that I did at about midnight-2:00 a.m. I'm so glad that Jess, Steph, and Katie were able to help me get it done! I love this color combo; I would probably do a tree like this if I could spend a bunch of money on mine.

"Visions of Sugarplums"

When we went to Taipan Trading to get our stuff for our tree Olivia told me that she really wanted to do lime green and plum for the tree and I was a little reluctant because I had other ideas in mind, but I ended up loving the colors. Of course Livi was really proud of the fact that it was her idea and likes to rub it in my face. Oh well. My good friend, Jessica, was able to come help us decorate and it was so fun to talk and hang out with her.

My uncle Dave and aunt Janell with their tree. I think that Dave is trying to look as manly as possible because he had just helped Janell with her tree, but I think it's cool that he was willing to help her. It looked beautiful, Dave! :)

"Merry and Bright"

Becca and Steph's tree was so beautiful. I loved the color combo and the bird cage with the little nest and birds inside. They always do a great job.