Children

Children are so incredible. As I've been studying the scriptures I have had some great experiences. Jace has been such a blessing to have in our home. We couldn't have asked for a better child. And now when I read the scripture Matthew 18:3, "And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven," I understand more fully why. Just as it says in Mosiah 3:19 children are meek, humble, patient and full of love. I am so thankful that Jace is so patient with us every day. We are learning every day how to be parents and it is definitely no easy task. But what amazes me most is the pure love I see in his eyes every time he looks at us. It is so unconditional and so untainted. I truly want to emulate that.

3 Months

Well another month has flown by. Jace is still growing like a weed and I can barely keep up with these posts. He just keeps getting cuter by the minute and I wish time would slow down so I could enjoy more of him. This month has been such a fun one. His little personality is becoming ever more apparent, and he is learning new things daily. Here are some of the highlights:

• He rolled over for the first time! We definitely can’t trust him on the bed anymore.
• He loves to smile, smile, smile.
• Our little angel is sleeping through the night! At least 7 hours!
• At 2 month Dr’s visit he weighed 13.9lbs – he was in the 95% for weight and 50% for height. Thankfully we’ve noticed some growth since then.
• Jace had his first plane ride to San Diego and then back
• He had his first move – from Washington to Rexburg
• He started sleeping in his own room (it was much harder on us than on him)

It was another month of firsts and we look forward to a few more!

He just has the cutest little pouty face. It's so hard to take him seriously sometimes.

San Diego

Well this is going to be a long post, I got a little carried away. Thankfully we have found a way to make it down to San Diego for a visit every spring since we have been married and I can only hope the tradition carries on. This year we were able to take a trip down the first week in April to visit Rick's grandparents. Their health hasn't been so good and we wanted to get down and introduce them to Jace and spend some time with them while we still could. They are so awesome! I just love Grandma and Grandpa Hartley. It is such a blessing to be part of two amazing families. While we were there we stayed with Rick's sister Janae and her cute family again. Jace had such a good time with his cousins. They are going to have such a good time growing up together. The older kids really loved having a little baby around. And Hayley who is turning one next month was so intrigued by this little thing that was smaller than her. It was so fun to watch them interact.

While we were there we found a little extra time to go down to Old Town San Diego and visit the new Mormon Battalion Center and walk around the shops. It is so awesome down there. The kids got some candy and looked at the donkey's. Little Forrest loved the donkeys! He even tried to escape and run in their pen! Needless to say it was a great visit.

At Long Last...Jace's Blessing Weekend

Somehow it seems the blog is always the last thing that gets done. It was exactly a month ago on March 27, 2011 that Jace received a name and a blessing in church. It was such a great weekend. My parents were able to come to Washington all the way from Michigan for the special occasion and my dad was finally able to meet his first grandchild. We never had any doubts that the two of them would be best friends instantly. Ricky's sister Alyssa was also able to make it thanks to her Dental Hygiene boards in Seattle. They were scheduled for the same weekend and she was able to get her testing days for Friday and Saturday morning and make it for the blessing on Sunday. And we couldn't have asked for a better little boy. He was a perfect angel all weekend. He didn't even make a peep during church.

2 Months

Our little bug is 2 months old! I can hardly believe it. This post is a little delayed due to various family activities (posts to follow). But here are some highlights of the last month:

• Lots of smiles
• He is letting mom sleep a little later – He goes down about 10:30 and sleeps till about 4:30 (and we love that!)
• Growing like a weed! 12lbs at last check-up. We LOVE those chubby little cheeks
• Given a name and blessing at church
• He is really recognizing when mom comes in and out of the room. :) He’s becoming very aware of his surroundings.
• Loving bathtime
• He loves sitting in his bouncy chair – esp. when mom is getting ready for the day or when we are eating dinner.
• Getting good at holding up his head on his own
• Discovered he likes sucking on his fist. His whole fist.
• Mostly he is just a cutie pie and we just can’t get enough of him!

An Ellensburg Spring

We have had a lot of fun in Ellensburg being with family and getting to do things that we don't normally get to do. And spring time at the Packard house means BASEBALL! Ricky's younger brothers Jared and Kyle both play for Ellensburg High School and we have been able to watch a few of their games already this season.

Ellensburg has been a pretty fun little town. It's in between Seattle and Tri-Cities and it is a very agricultural town. It's full of cowboys! It's been fun to be so close to Seattle in this small homey place where we can get away for the day to the big city when we want and come back to this scenic cowboy town. Everyone has cows or horses on there property and I have never seen so many bald eagles in my life! It is amazing!

Jace and Daddy watching Jared's game.

One of the many ponds by our house where the eagle's have a nest.

Confession

Ok, I have a confession to make. My life has become completely consumed by Jace. I mean, I know it's understandable that I spend my time taking care of my almost 2 month old son. But I should probably try to blog about something else... I will try to post something in the near future about my life that includes some other facet of our lives.

We're getting ready to wrap up our time here in Ellensburg in the next few weeks and head back to Rexburg to finish up school. We've really done a lot since we've been here and we can't believe how fast the time has gone. We have made several trips to Seattle, had a baby, and enjoyed being with family. But we agree that it will be good to get back to our little life in Rexburg. There will be more to come on some of our adventures later.

As for Jace he has been growing like a weed! He got a little rash last week and we really weren't sure where it came from. It was the saddest thing! I just wanted his sweet little baby face back! We thought we could wait it out but then it just kept getting worse. Finally I called the doctor for a recommendation and the nurse suggested Aquaphor. It didn't work, and it just made his little face all sticky. So we started to think he was having an allergic reaction to something. Finally after a week of the rash and sad baby face we took him in to the doctor. That's when they said we needed to use hydrocortisone cream. It was amazing, his rash practically disappeared within 24 hours! Thus, new photos. I should have taken these when he was much younger, however, I didn't have the patience at the time and now I am regretting it. They still turned out cute, I think.
And much cuter than they would have otherwise thanks to his super great blanket from Aunt DeeAnn!