For my SD friends you have to be registered to vote by Oct 20th!

www.rockthevote.com/voting-is-easy/important-dates
www.barackobama.com
www.johnmccain.com

register to vote here too - www.voteforchange.com

Jackson at the Park

Jackson at the Park continued

Here is a new video of Jack! It’s pretty darn funny. He is pretty darn funny! It really is amazing at how quickly he is growing up with a bigger personality every day. He brightens our day all day long!! (we can’t get enough of this video!) Click the picture above to be taken to the video. It might take a sec to load, so you may need to pause it and let it finish before you watch it.

This looks like a great movie. Sure it’s another sequel and Mr. Ford is getting up there in age, but I can’t help but get excited about it. Hopefully there’s not too much CGI and it’s not filled with “damn I’m old” jokes, but should be a fun movie anyway. Check out the trailer:

He spends the occasional afternoon with his cousin Kael and that has been a hoot to see them together. Jack seems to want to eat him too. The other day I was holding Kael and Jack must have gotten jealous because he looked at me like I abandoned him and began to cry, which made Kael cry. Sidney is pretty content chillin in his room. Maybe once the kids get a little bigger he will be more interested in playing with them. Jack loves anyone who gives him attention. He smiles when he sees his Grandparents and Aunties. He pretty much smiles whenever he sees anyone smiling at him… I LOVE IT! My Aunt Jackie and Uncle Tom watch him quite a bit. He loves his Great Uncle Tom. Jer and I are pretty lucky to have so many great babysitters handy. I think everyone has watched him at least once, which has been a blessing for us to be able to go out every once in awhile or even just get the grocery shopping done by ourselves.

We had a crazy Christmas this year. We went to Pierre for an early Christmas at Jim and Judy’s house and Milo and Peg’s house! Then came home to spend Christmas Eve at Dave and Brenda’s house and Christmas at Tim and Ruth’s house with my folks! Then back to Pierre the weekend after Christmas! Like I said, crazy! He was such a good sport though. He also got to “meet” Santa, aka Grandpa Wade which was very special.

During the Holidays Jer and I spent a lot of time with friends, we ate out way too much and just enjoyed ourselves! My Birthday was in January and soon Jer will hit 28. (in March)

Work is slow going right now, but things are looking great for Spring and Summer. Jer is working hard as usual. Our families are all doing well and I think we are all ready for warmer weather.

I hope I didn’t leave anything major out! I promise to blog more and update the pictures more often. We have really slacked in that area and I’m not sure why. Can I blame it on being tired? We are sleeping more now though because Jack is doing better in that department. Well, I can’t think of anything else at the mo so I’m going to sign off. Comment us, shoot us an email, give us a call. Let us know how you all are doing.

Happy Belated New Year everyone!
Love,
Jes, Jer and Jackson

Emma’s health has been failing and these past few weeks have been pretty tough. Cancer got to her. So Jer, Jack and I went to the land yesterday to spend some time with Mom and Dad and of course, Emma. When we got out there Dad was outside with her, hanging out and throwing her tennis balls. She loved her tennis balls! We took some photos and played, as much as she could. Tough, tough day.

Today was not any easier. Dad and I took her to the vet and had her put down. I think she knew. It was definitely time and it was the right thing to do, but that doesn’t make it any easier. We sat on the floor with her, pet her, talked to her, told her how great of a dog she was and Dad held her when she passed. I pet her and she looked into my eyes when she died. And we cried… a lot. It was hard to leave her there… It really does feel like we just put down our best friend! And I can’t believe she is really gone.

Emma was part Beagle and Black Lab. She was born in September 1997 from my good friend’s dog Abby the Beagle! I brought Emma home while Mom and Dad were on their 20th Wedding Anniversary trip. They were not happy with me, but fell in love with her anyways. A few chewed up shoes and picture album books later she became the perfect family pet. So much so that Mom and Dad kept her when I moved out less than a year later.

Now, Emma really became my Dad’s best friend! She was the kindest and sweetest dog. She loved being out at the land with my folks. And she loved my Dad so much so that she would wait for him to come home and was always at his side. Wherever Dad was, Emma was there too.

Well, that was our day. We said goodbye to a beautifully sweet dog and friend. We miss her very much!

We were recently in Minneapolis photographing a friend’s wedding and he did so well in the car and the whole trip in general. We rode along with Jer’s parents and made it to Pierre to visit family. We made a special stop to see Jackson’s Great Great Grandparents. That was really special for us and of course we took some photos. Check out the new photos btw!

Sidney just turned 7 and the family had a little birthday party for him. He is getting so big and he will soon be a big brother. We are all anxious to see the new baby!

Everything at the studio is going great. I have been really busy and I think I am finally getting into a routine with being at home with Jack and working at the studio. My mother has been amazing and she watches him almost everyday. Jer’s folks are fabulous and they are always more than available when we need them. The homemade dinners have been great too. And did you guys know we have been driving around some new wheels? YUP! We have crossed over to the dark side and are now driving a mini van! AND WE LOVE IT! Jer’s grandparents, Milo and Peg, along with his parents, all chipped in to get us this new van. How great is that!

Well, there is the low down on what is new with us and the family! Below, there are videos of Jackson. One was a couple weeks ago and the other was taken less than a week ago! The purple mouth was super funny, but basically he had some kind of fungus (which they say is pretty common) on his tongue and this ink was spread all over inside his mouth and it was stained purple for about 3 days. It was pretty funny!

(click on a thumbnail here to be taken to the video)

So… hope you all comment or email us or stop by. Jer is working days now because of his new job with Milcorp out on the base. It’s been wonderful to have him home at night! Really wonderful! So yeah, hope to hear from you all soon!

Love,
Jes, Jer and Jack! (Lucy and Eddie too)

Here is the “in a nutshell” story of the labor and birth of our oh so handsome son, Jackson!

Jer and I went to the hospital at 5:30 PM on Tuesday, July 31 and stayed overnight for monitoring because my stomach was rock hard for about 4 hours and there was decreased movement with Jack. My high blood pressure didn’t help things either.

We were set for an induction on Thursday, August 2, but they decided to get us going on the morning of the 1st! I was super excited about this since I was already there and on a liquid diet, yuck. My contractions were about 9 min apart on their own, but after the Pitocin was administered on the morning of the 1st, they quickly increased. I was given an epidural pretty early, around 11:30 AM and shortly after our Dr. broke my water.

It was downhill from there…

My contractions quickly increased to 2-3 minutes apart and they cut back on the Pitocin throughout the day because I was dilating so well. Now I had a bit of control of the epidural meds. It was set up so that I could still feel the contractions, but could up the meds myself if I got uncomfortable. I tried not to hit that button, but had to a few times. By 8 PM that night I was at 9 ½ cm so they alerted our Dr. I hit that button a couple times and took a little cat nap because I was getting nervous and needed some time to myself. I had wanted things to move along quickly, but as soon as they did I was super nervous that I was about to become a mom and have a baby!

I started to push at about 10:40 PM with our nurse. My mom and Jer held my legs and Ruth rubbed my back and helped me up when it was time to push. I was so happy they were all there! I pushed through about 6 contractions and our nurse had me stop because Jackson’s head was right there! Even though I had the epidural I could still tell what pushing was and I pushed as hard as I could! I am glad I don’t have any photos of my face during this time. I’m sure I was beet red, double chinned and making ridiculous faces! I felt pretty nauseas during this time and did get sick a bit, which was not any fun. She put me on oxygen and had me wait for the Dr., which only took maybe 10 minutes.

Once the Dr. and the medical student, Rebecca arrived I pushed through one contraction and then on the second contraction, with one push, his head was out! When I pushed a second time Jackson was born! I cried instantly! I wanted to hold him right away, but I got sick again! So they took him to get cleaned up and then Jer held him, which made me cry even more.

When I finally held him I was in awe. There is a picture of me holding him, which I think is kinda funny. I have the goofiest look on my face, but it was really the happiest moment of my life!

There he is! Absolutely adorable, if you ask me. Jackson showed up at 11:20pm on August 1st, much thanks to Jessica being such a trooper! Once she was at about 10cm we let her rest for about an hour before we had her start pushing, which was around 10:40. She pushed so well, she only had to do about 40 minutes of pushing. He is 6 lbs 14 oz and 19 inches long. Baby and Mommy are doing just fine. Jes hasn’t had any sleep as of yet, but she should be able to get some rest here shortly.

So far Jackson has been a really good baby and only seems to cry when he gets hungry or when we do a wardrobe change for photos. He is pretty content just being in our arms and sleeps well on his own. We are so lucky to have such a beautiful, happy and healthy baby!

We really appreciate all the calls, text messages, emails and visits! It has been pretty overwhelming to hear from so many of you.

Hope you enjoy the photos and do stop by the hospital if you can. We will be here all day in room 205. We will be going home on Friday morning and plan on spending the weekend at home enjoying Jackson. You are all welcome to stop by at home too!

Love to all and again, thanks for everything!

Jer and Jes

With my mom being a nurse she called in a favor to an anesthesiologist friend of hers and Jes got her epidural pretty early on, around 12:30pm. It was very nice of him to come in, it was his day off and he wasn’t on call. At about 3pm the nurses said she dilated at about 5cm. Now, 5:30, she’s at 6. She’s making headway and is contracting more or less on her own now. Things are moving along at a pretty good speed. Thanks to everyone for all your prayers and good wishes, means a lot!! We’ll have more updates soon, and of course more pictures!!