The Koecher Crew: Update...

So, as always, I have a lot to catch up on. You know you should probably start updating things when your grandma tells you she's been checking your blog and was sad to see that you haven't posted in a while. We have been incredibly busy and having lots of fun. I'll try to get you updated on what's going on in our lives.

We had the first (and the last, so far) snowstorm of the year. It was a lot of fun to go out and play. Jackson enjoyed building a snowman with one of his friends, Aurora (with some help from the parents, of course). I sure wish it would start snowing again soon to clean out this gross air and make it feel a little more like Christmas.

Jackson is now talking up a storm! It's amazing the little things he says. He can count to ten, even though this movie makes you think he only knows up to three. Whenever I ask him to count with the camera out, for some reason he thinks he should count to three, yell go, and run out of the room. I have no idea where that came from. I still think it's cute though. I also love it when he says things like, "Mommy, where are you? There you are Mommy." "Bless you Daddy," "Oh dear" and "I love you." Those are just a few of my favorites. He is a little chatterbox and likes to always be part of the conversation.

Dallin, Jackson and I headed down to temple square the other night to check out the Christmas lights. It was really cold, but we had a great time. Here's a pic of Jackson haming it up.

We also went to Louisianna for Thanksgiving with the Koecher side of the family. Dallin's sister, Lisa, and her family live there and we've never been out to visit. I was a little nervous to fly with a two year old, but we made it and had a great time. Here is a random sampling of some of our pictures. I took tons of pictures, so a few will have to be good enough. We had a great time and enjoyed our week off immensely. Thanks for everything Lisa, Andrew and Deanne. It was so much fun to spend so much time together. The first day we were there, Jackson started saying, "Go home? Jackson go home?" Who would have thought he would get homesick? Then, when we landed in Salt Lake, Jackson told us, "Jackson go to Ava's house?" What a turn of events. Lisa made Jackson a delicious birthday cake. For everyone who wasn't there, here's a little video of it. Sorry for the poor singing. I think I was paying more attention to getting the video than singing.

The beautiful view out of our plane.

These next few pictures are at a restaurant in Lafayette called Prejean's that Matthew, Steven, and Rolf raved about when they drove through a while ago. We all went there in honor of them. We had a great time.

The whole gang.

We went on a swamp tour and Dallin even got to hold a little alligator. Jackson even thought it was cool. I contented myself with holding Jackson.

This is so Michael.

Dallin and I in New Orleans.

The French Quarter in New Orleans. This wasn't exactly my favorite part of the trip, but we still had a good time.

Jackson and his cousins.

This is one of the bridges in Shreveport, where Dallin's sister, Lisa lives. I thought it was pretty all lit up.

Ice cream at Brahms. Yum! This restaurant is almost enough to make me want to move to Texas.

We went to the Tyler Zoo when we drove through Texas to pick up Michael. It was a wet and rainy day, but it beat the snowstorm Utah was getting at the time.

Another birthday cake picture.

Jackson's first flight.

Jackson's cute cousin, Ava. Michael was teasing her and put her on a produce scale. Every time Jackson see's this picture, he laughs. I think it's pretty cute. She's adorable. It was fun spending time with all the Bensons.

We had sucha great time in Louisianna, but it was still nice to come home to our version of "normal". Here's a taste of what's been going on since. Here are a few pictures of what happens when we put Jackson down for a nap before he's really ready. He tries to either read himself to sleep or redecorate himself and his room ;-)