Grateful

Last night, after Jackson was asleep, I snuck into his room, sat down by his crib, held his hand and cried.

They were mostly happy tears.

I cried because I am so grateful for my many blessings. Yesterday, as I watched general conference, I was reminded how important it is to recognize and express your gratitude. I think I took it to heart, because I don't think my heart could have fit any more without exploding.

I cried because I read that a friend from high school gave birth to her second little girl at full term. My friend was fine...but her baby wasn't. She had a stillborn baby girl. As I looked at some of her pictures of the funeral, I realized how grateful I am that I have a healthy baby boy. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be his mother. I love spending time with him. I love playing hide and go seek with him or peekaboo. I love seeing his face light up when he sees me. My heart was broken for my friend. I wish it didn't have to take other's misfortunes for me to be grateful for my blessings.

I cried because I am grateful for my health. I also watched a video clip about Stephanie Nielsen who was in a plane crash and her inspiring story. She is so grateful for her life and her family. I realized that I often take my health for granted. I am such a lucky girl.

I'm grateful for my beliefs. While I don't want to push my beliefs on anyone else, I do want to express how important they are to me. Yesterday, as I listened to the prophet and apostles speak, I felt the Holy Ghost witness to me that Christ knows me and loves me. I am not 'just another person'. I am His daughter. He loves me even more than I love Jackson, which is hard for me to comprehend. I know that life will not always be easy, but that I have a friend who is always there for me, my Savior. He is always listening and reaching out for me. This weekend made me feel more committed to progress. I want to become a better person, a better member of my church, a better mother and wife. I want to become better accquainted with my Elder Brother, Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the knowledge I have and for the person it has helped me to become.

As I sat by Jackson's crib and thought about my blessings. Dallin and Jackson were first in my mind. I am so grateful for a husband who is truly my best friend. He is strong enough to hold me when I'm having a hard day. He is sensitive enough to know when it is best just to say nothing. He is funny enough to always make me laugh. He is observant enough to notice when I do the small things, like cleaning the bathroom and thank me for it. He is a wonderful dad to Jackson. I love to here him call Jackson "Sport" and play with him and make car noises when he's giving him a bath. I melt when I see them playing together or sharing tender moments. I feel more in love with Dallin today than I was the day I married him. What a wonderful man. I love you.

I love Jackson for so many reasons. I love him because he makes me smile. I didn't know my heart could hold any more love until the first time I saw him. He is so curious and loving. He's such a smart little boy. He even figured out how to open a ziploc bag so he could eat the graham crackers inside. I love his hugs and slobbery kisses. I love hearing him say "Ma ma ma" even if he isn't really sure what that means yet. Basically, I love being his mom and having the priviledge of getting to know him better and watching him explore the world.

I am also grateful for the time Dallin, Jackson and I get to spend together as a family. I would classify yesterday as "the perfect day". We spent the morning watching general conference. Then we went on a picnic to the park and grilled hot dogs and played with toys. We layed on the grass and enjoyed the last of this beautiful weather. We watched some more conference and played on the swings outside. We watched Kung Fu Panda and I cuddled with my boys. I gave Jackson a bath and he fell asleep in my arms while I was feeding him before bed as I sang to him and talked to him and told him how much I love him. Yep. A perfect day.

A whole bunch of firsts

Here is my best attempt at getting a picture of him for his ten month pictures of him, his bear, and his sign. It didn't work out too well. He think paper is the coolest thing and must be crinkled, ripped, torn, and eaten. This worked okay though. Notice the bear on the floor. Close enough.

He's still a skinny guy though. While I was trying to take his pictures, I looked away and when I looked back, he had wriggled out of his pants. What a funny boy.

It feels like Jackson has been growing so much lately! He is doing so many new things and getting so big! Over the weekend, he got his first tooth. While he was at it, he decided two is better than one. He got his top two teeth first. I had never heard of a baby getting the top teeth first. He seems to be doing really well though. It is borderline impossible to get a good look at them though. Everytime you try to get him to open his mouth, he sticks his tongue out or squirms away. They are definitely there though.

On a sadder note, Jackson also had his first cold. It was a doosy. He had a runny nose, a cough, and then some stuffy nose moments. Luckily, he still slept great at night. He was just grumpy and clingy during the day. I'm glad he's over that now. He was not a happy camper. I missed my easy going, happy little guy.

I also now have my first "real" job in my field. I got a social work job. I currently work part time at Highland Care Center. It has really worked out well for me. I do social histories, psychosocial exams, paperwork (of course), and some mental health therapy when I have extra time. It's been great to get to know new people and try new things. I like having a job in the field I went to school for so long for. Now I get to start adding up my hours until I get the 4000 hours required to get my LCSW license. Until then, I'm starting to get used to signing my name, Amber Koecher, CSW. It's fun to actually have letters after your name ;-) I'm so grateful to have friends, family and an amazing husband who are so willing to help out with Jackson as I make this step.

This other first happened a while ago, but I can't forget to write about it. Jackson is now a first-class sleeper. He sleeps through the night and takes pretty good naps (usually) throughout the day. I can't even tell you how nice it is to be well rested. Sleep should be everyone's best friend. It's a lot easier to be happy and productive when you got some rest the night before. Jackson wasn't like all of my other friends babies who, at least it seemed like it to me, slept through the night at two months old. We had to have a few more months of interrupted nights. Everytime I heard someone else talking about how their newborn slept through the night, I wanted to hit something. To everyone who may be thinking of beating me up around now, the time will come when you get to be the one bragging. Until then, go play soccer or something else to take it out on.

Jackson also has his first (okay maybe it's his fifth or sixth) girlfriend. He is definitely a ladies man. This is a neighbors little girl who I watch on Monday's. She is only five days younger than Jackson. How fun. You can tell from his smile that he really enjoys flirting. Oh boy. What will his teenage years be like?

He is also crawling like crazy now. I thought at first that he would skip crawling and go straight to walking. Nope, I was wrong again. He still prefers walking and will crawl over to our couch or anything upright and pull himself up to standing so he can cruise around. We also discovered that he likes playing hide and go seek. I'll go crawl somewhere in our house to hide and he'll come crawling after me until I jump out at him. Then he'll just laugh. It's so much fun.

He's also turned out to be quite the little destroyer. He likes to get into anything and everything. Then he'll look at me all mischeviously and it's hard to get mad. He's such a busy little guy.

Jackson also loves books. It makes me so happy. Sometimes he'll sit on my lap and let me just read to him. He loves the texture books and likes to turn the pages himself. More often, he just likes to look at books on his own. He'll sit and turn the pages and look at the pictures. Sometimes he'll even lay down and look at books while he's holding the book with his feet. And some people doubt we came from monkeys :-)

These last few pictures are too cute not to include. The aviator picture is especially for his Uncle Cody. He can't wait to go flying with you. Notice Dallin and I both trying to hold his hands for half a second to stop him from ripping the glasses off so we could take a picture.

I also love this one. I have a 5x7 of this on my desk at work. It makes me so happy to look at it. What a happy baby. We sure love you Jackson!

Walk to Cure Diabetes!!!

As many of you know, I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes almost nine years ago on November 30, 2001. I am grateful for the medical progress that has been made to make diabetes a liveable thing. On August 21st, my family and I participated in the Walk to Cure Diabetes at Wheeler Farm. It was a lot of fun to be surrounded by family and doing something for a cause that strikes close to home for me. The event was huge this year. Dallin and I participated in the Cache Valley walk last year and enjoyed ourselves and decided to make it a tradition. The walk at Wheeler Farm was for Salt Lake, Davis, and Weber counties. It was crazy. They said they had over 6,000 registered walkers. It was very well organized. I'm so glad we were able to participate. Hopefully the money raised by JDRF (The Juvenille Diabetes Research Foundation) will continue to bring people closer to finding a cure. It has been a long road for me to figure out how to best live with this disease. I dream of a day when they will find a cure and there will be no more finger pokes, carb counting and insulin. Until then, we'll be participating in more diabetes walks. ;-)

Thanks family for all of your love and support in this event. It really means a lot to me. :)

Talent Show

Lately, I have realized how talented Jackson is getting. So...let's consider this a Jackson talent show. There are no words to describe this first talent, so I'll let Jackson show you himself. Dallin thinks it is hilarious and can't stop laughing about it, especially when Jackson shows off at inappropriate times, like church. ;-)

Okay, I am having a lot of problems uploading this video. It is taking forever! I left it uploading while I ran errands. It still wasn't done almost two hours later. I'll just have to leave you all guessing and try again later. Sorry. If any of you have tips for uploading a video in a more timely fashion, let me know. I've done it before from my camera and don't remember it taking so long. Oh well...

His next talent is playing soccer. His Aunt Brittany is determined to make soccer his favorite sport. I think she is well on her way. Jackson laughs when Dallin and I kick a ball back and forth and loves to kick the ball himself. He is so happy when he's playing too. You can tell by the second picture. It's crazy that he has learned to kick a soccer ball before he even knows how to walk. Thanks Britt.

Sticking his tongue out is another talent of his.

He also loves to close his eyes when I'm trying to take pictures. He is also a giggly baby who loves to laugh, especially at Daddy.

Jackson is already a sports man. Here he is working on his tennis swing, volleyball set, and soccer kick. What an athlete.

And last but not least, Jackson is really good at looking adorable! What a cute little guy!

Nine Months

If any of you have been following my blog, you may know that I have been trying to take a picture of Jackson each month with one of his teddy bears and a little sign to show how old he is and how much he has grown. Up until now, the hardest part has been remembering to take the picture. Now, however, the hardest part is getting Jackson to sit still long enough to snap a few shots. The bear, the couch, the sign, mom....all of these things are infinitely more interesting than sitting still for a camera. After a while, I finally got something that worked. Below is my attempt to get all of the objects in the picture, yet out of Jackson's reach. So cute.

And here are the bloopers....

What a wiggly boy I have. ;-)

Update

Once again, I have taken an anti-blogging stance. Sorry to everyone (mostly the three people who actually read this) for the leave of absence. Due to the long break and the busy summer we have had, this is a really long post and it doesn't even include all of the fun stuff we have been able to do this summer. Blogger stopped working while I was downloading pictures, so maybe I'll post some more later. Here is a picture overview of most of our summer. Enjoy! (We sure have.)

Would you believe that Dallin, Jackson and I are a nationally known bobsled team? No? Would you believe we went to Park City and pretended to be one?

Hanging out at the Tracey Aviary. Jackson absolutely loved the flamingos. They were way up there next to dogs on his list of favorite animals. He just laughed and laughed at them. Since the village won't let us have a pet dog, maybe they'll let us have a pet flamingo.

This is at Discovery Gateway. In case you can't tell, we're flying a helicopter. Dallin is making the sound effects.

Headed for a future in broadcast journalism? Maybe?

Jackson is obsessed with our toothbrushes. So, we gave him one. He loves to brush his teeth ( or gums since he still doesn't have any teeth yet) while we brush ours.

Jackson playing in the washing machine courtesy of Dad. Don't worry, he was loving it, there is no water in there and it is turned off. Please don't call DCFS :-)

I couldn't get some of these pictures to rotate for me the way that I wanted. Once again, I blame it on my novice blogging status. You'll just have to turn your head or turn your screen. I just couldn't resist keeping these pictures in the post, even if they're sideways.

My little heartbreaker. He is so adorable! I love the way he looks in his cute little suit. Look out girls, here comes Jackson.

I couldn't resist posting this one. He's such a cute little naked baby. When he's older, don't tell him I ever posted this.

Mom and Jackson gave dad a baseball glove for Father's Day. This is how Jackson plays catch with dad.

Jackson got a baseball glove for father's day too. I couldn't resist. I have a weak spot for things for my boys. Here he is sneaking into the toybox to practice.

At a wedding we recently went to, Jackson decided that he did NOT like asparagus....

...but he really wanted mom's pineapple. I don't blame him. I like pineapple more than asparagus too.

Here is Jackson playing with my cousin's dog, Jack while we were up camping. Jackson adores dogs and will sit and laugh at them and try to pet them and grin like crazy at them. Someday, we'll have to get a dog of our own.

Jackson is always finding new creative ways to sleep. Currently, he likes to sleep with his feet up on the crib slats. What a funny boy.

Jackson's first trip to the Hogle Zoo and first picture by the Lion drinking fountain. I think he liked the drinking fountain lion more than the real lions. His favorite was the elephants. He pulled himself up in his stroller to see them better.

One of Jackson's many great faces.

This is to prove that he really does like his backpack. This is at Moon Lake with the Naegle family.

This was when we went to Payson Lakes with the Bown family. This is a short hike called the Grotto. It was freezing cold water, but beautiful. Good times.

Practicing his walking with Dad at Payson Lake.

Already learning how to drive....eeek!

Playing with one of his favorite cousins, Charlotte. To see the adorable pictures and post that his mom, Steph (Dallin's cousin) did about these two twin-wannabes, click here. She is a master blogger and I love reading what she has to say.

Playing with the Koecher cousins at Oma and Opa's house.

Since I blogged last, Jackson has turned 6, 7, & 8 months old. He actually turns 9 months old tomorrow. I'll post his 9 month pictures later. I liked seeing all of these next to eachother. I can't believe how big he is getting. He's quite the little man now.

Jackson also took his first trip down to the farm. My dad grew up on a dairy farm and it is still in the family today. We had a lot of fun. Jackson got to go on his first four wheeler ride. Notice how he is trying to drive.

He also got his first up close and personal look at a cow. He liked it. Not many people can say they have petted a cow. Jackson can. I'm pretty sure he thought it was another dog.