Christmas Card

I meant to mail these out, but somehow it didn't happen. Merry Christmas!

finals week

Tom and Harper have both had colds this week. Luckily they have been pretty mild, although Harper has discovered the joy of blowing snot bubbles. And then wiping snot all over my shoulder. Tom has now taken one of his two finals and we are getting ready to head out to Utah next week. I'm a little afraid of how the drive will go . . . anyone have advice about taking a road trip with an 8 month old?

I have really enjoyed preparing for Christmas this year. I thought it would be frustrating to shop for people considering that we have no income, but it has been fun to try to find things that fit into our little budget.

We have been trying to get Harper to say "Dada" lately. She's trying. It's so cute.
Untitled from Thomas Jackman on Vimeo.

My new favorite thing

Tom and I are both big fans of mint and chocolate candy, but we have a new favorite: 3 Musketeers Mint. Seriously, it's amazing.

Congratulations Chase!

My brother Chase got his mission call today and found out that he will be serving in the Texas San Antonio Mission and will be speaking Spanish. He will be entering the MTC on February 25th. This is particularly special since Chase was born in Texas (though nowhere near San Antonio) and we lived there until he was 11.

We did a family poll and no one guessed Texas, although Aubrie and I both guessed Mexico so we were the closest.

Congratulations Chase!

Thanksgiving

I'm sorry, I've been a bad blogger.

We had a great Thanksgiving with Tom's parents in Bakersfield. It was nice to have a quiet, low stress holiday with just the five of us. Harper LOVED all of the attention that she got and I think she enjoyed her first Thanksgiving. While we were there Harper discovered the joy of gnawing on an apple slice:
and watching Wall-E:
and wearing Daddy's hat:
and hanging out with Gramps:
and making headbands with Grandma:
I used a sewing machine for the first time while we were there and my wonderful mother-in-law helped me sew Harper a couple of headbands. Thank you so much, they are great!

We also enjoyed a little black Friday shopping at Costco. It was amazing that the Bakersfield Costco was basically deserted the day after Thanksgiving compared to the LA Costco in which we could hardly get through the aisles yesterday because it was so crowded (at 11am on a Thursday morning).

putting the "jump" in jumperoo

Ok, I have another video. Yesterday when I was getting ready for church, Tom called me into the room because he wanted to show me something: he had taught Harper how to jump in her jumperoo. It is so fun to see her get excited about her new ability!

Untitled from Erica Jackman on Vimeo.

videos

Here is Harper enjoying her pears:
Untitled from Erica Jackman on Vimeo.

and here is Harper hanging out with her cousin AJ a few weeks ago:
Untitled from Erica Jackman on Vimeo.

Harper is 7 months old

Harper is now 7 months old. Here are some things we are currently enjoying about our sweet girl:

• She has mastered sitting up. Okay, she does still fall sometimes, but usually when she's trying to reach something that is a little too far away. This has made my life much easier because now Harper is now much more content to sit and play by herself. This is huge.
• She has become much more giggly.
  
• She gets really excited to see Tom when he comes home from school.
• She also gets excited when we go outside. As soon as I open the front door she raises up her arms and makes a cute squealing noise.
• She loves smiling at strangers until they smile back.
  
• She loves music. Her current favorite is "C is for Cookie."

I have a video to post of Harper enjoying some pears for dinner (so far it's the only food she seems to enjoy eating), but for now you can see some more 7 month photos of Harper here.

camouflage

yay!

I'm so excited that my little brother has turned in his mission papers! My step-brother is currently on a mission in Philadelphia, so it is going to be fun to have them both gone at the same time. Look how excited Harper is for her Uncle Chase :)

this is pretty much how today went

We have had a cranky little girl lately. For the past three or four days she hasn't been sleeping well at night, she doesn't want to eat baby food, and she is upset most of the day. I thought maybe she was teething, but we haven't seen any teeth yet. Despite her mood, she has now learned how to roll over from her back to her stomach (even though she hates doing it) and she will only roll over if she sees something that she really wants (usually the remote control or one of her shoes).

But she's so cute I can't get too sad about her cranky behavior. Look at this cheesy grin she gave me earlier today:

pedroza visit (and some random cute pictures)

On Saturday morning Tom's sister Denise and her family visited and Harper got to hang out with her cousin AJ. They were so cute together. It was great to see Denise and John and have a nice lunch together. Also, here are some random photos of Harper from the last few days. She has started to sometimes do a cheesy smile when I take a picture of her. She's so cute.

back to normal

Now that the election is over, we can go back to the blog being all about Harper. She seems SO much more grown up lately and it is crazy to see all of the new things that she has been doing.
Here are some things she has started doing lately:
- Splashing in the bathtub. She actually moves her arms in a splashing motion a lot. Tom says it looks like she's trying to fly.
- Making some consonant noises. She also likes to do this really loud monotone yelling sound. She did that through most of church last week.
- Sitting up pretty much on her own. She still falls over sometimes when she gets bored or if she gets really excited about something.
- Trying to reach for things she wants. She used to just stare at things that she wanted, but now she will reach for it even if that means falling over or trying to leap out of my arms. She gets pretty angry if she can't reach it.
- Almost rolling over onto her stomach. She can't quite make it, but she tries.

Also, after spending a small fortune on various lotions and cremes, Harper's eczema is finally getting a little better. Yay!

Election Night

We couldn't be more pleased about the results of the election last night. Obama's speech last night was absolutely incredible and I am so excited for him to take office in a couple months. We were able to celebrate the evening with our friends the Jasinskis and delicious pizza and brownies. Harper and I had to leave early since she turns into a little monster baby after her bed time, but we had a great time.
As ready as I was for the election to be over, I'm a little sad now that it's all done.

Voting!

Tom, Harper, and I walked over and voted this morning. We ended up waiting in line for a little under 2 hours, which actually seemed to go pretty quickly except for the part where Harper was screaming because she needed a nap. Here are Harper and Tom in line prior to the screaming:
The line was mostly young-ish people and plenty of other strollers with screaming babies. The line went down the block and wrapped around the corner a little ways.Afterwards we enjoyed a lovely breakfast at IHOP in celebration of not having to wait in line any more. On our way there we saw a plane flying with this sign (click the photo to make it bigger):We also saw several of our fellow ward members waving "Yes on Prop 8" signs at a busy intersection.

This was actually the first presidential election in which either of us have actually gone to the polls. We have both only been old enough to vote in 2 presidential elections and in 2004 Tom had just gotten home from his mission and I did an absentee ballot. Don't forget to vote today! The lines may be long, but it is important!

Also, I thought this is funny so I wanted to share. Tom has a Tuesday night class and, because we are going to be watching the election results at a friend's house tonight, he emailed his professor to let him know that he wasn't going to be in class. This was his professor's response:

Ok - wish I could go with you.

Happy Halloween

In an effort to try to be more festive, we attended TWO Halloween events today and ate a TON of candy. This morning we went trick or treating at the law school with the parents in law school group. We discovered that Harper likes candy, or she at least likes the crinkly sound that the wrapper makes.Then this evening we went to our ward's trunk or treat. Harper was not a big fan of her costume, but she was such a cute little mouse!And here is our pumpkin. I wasn't ambitious enough to actually carve it. Maybe next year.
Lately Harper has started to reach out and grab more things (specifically my hair and Tom's face) and I was finally able to catch a photo of it. She and Tom are so cute together :)

Happy Birthday Carly!

Today is my sister Carly's 15th birthday (she's the one on the right). This blows my mind because when I was 15 I remember thinking that I was so grownup (ha ha) and I still think of Carly as being a little girl. Here are some interesting things about Carly:

-When she was born she weighed 11 lbs. 6 oz.
-She is brilliant. She surprised my Mom when she was 2 years old by reading her own bedtime story. We don't know how she learned how to read.
-She has the most beautiful auburn hair and her eyes are actually almost the same color as her hair. I'm totally jealous.
-She is my only sibling with whom I share a love for school.

Have a great day Carly! We miss you :)

so pleased with herself

We got Harper a booster chair a couple of days ago because she was hating the bumbo seat and we don't really have room for a high chair. She is sometimes liking it sometimes not so much, but when we first put her in it she was so excited. And she sat in it for 20 minutes in the kitchen with me while I made cookies yesterday (she doesn't normally like to do anything for 20 minutes at a time).

Visitors!

We had my mom and my stepdad visiting from Utah this past weekend and we had a fantastic time. It is hard to have so many of our family members so far away.
They had lots of fun hanging out with Harper, and I guess they were happy to see us too (ha ha).Harper loved hanging out with her Grandma and Grandpa, but apparently didn't feel like looking the camera in any of the pictures that we took. Here is Grandma feeding her some food.She watched some football with Grandma and Grandpa.
We also went to Venice beach and saw all of the crazy people and had gigantic snow cones (these were the medium sized snow cones).We also went to Mr. Bones pumpkin patch. As I think I've said before, Tom and I aren't very festive people. But we're trying. My Mom and Eric on the other hand, take holidays very seriously so we were happy that they were willing to come along. Harper kept trying to eat the straw.
And anything else within arms reach.But we had lots of fun and we actually got a pumpkin (photos to come later).We were sad to see Mom and Eric go, but we're excited to see them and everyone else in a couple of months when we go to Utah for Christmas!