Four Christmases...well five in our case but with a twist

Well it is the middle of January already and I am just now posting all our holiday pictures. We celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas so the entire month of December is spent going from one family party to another kind of like the movie Four Christmases.

Party #1: Christmas at our house

Jared's favorite new toy!

Wow! Look at all those cars! Thanks Grandpa Dave!

Helping us decorate the Christmas tree.

Party #2: Hanukkah in Northridge

Me and my handsome little man!

I love my dada!

My favorite gift of the night....Elmo! Thanks Great Grandma Bev and Great Grandpa Herman!

Playing on the grand piano!

Me and papa Greg

Party #3-Hanukkah at our House

My favorite gift was the razor scooter from Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Jeff!

Not sure what they were all looking at but it must have been important!

#4: Christmas Eve at Great Grandma Marla's House

Thank you for hosting Christmas Eve Grandma Marla!

Jared and Uncle Justin

Party #5: Christmas Day

My Uncle Garrett gave me this cool car with a kayak on it!

My Grandpa Chip got me such a cool guitar! I love to play it with my dada!

Relaxing on the couch with my dad and new toys!

Last year Jared was only 10 months old during the holidays so we had to open his gifts for him and he just didn't really know what was going on. This year was so much fun to see him open all his gifts and get so excited with each one as well as interact with all our family. We really appreciate all the generous gifts and hospitality from everyone this past holiday season. We hope everyone has a happy 2010!

21 months & a lot to be thankful for

Jared is now 21 months old and officially in his "terrible twos". He throws temper tantrums daily when he doesn't get his way. Mommy has been going a little crazy trying to deal with him some days. Good thing he is SO cute!

Despite the temper tantrums, Jared is also our little lover boy. He is a very affectionate little boy and will give us kisses whenever we ask for one (well most of the time we ask for one) which is so great and makes up for all the hard times.

Jared is talking more and more every day too (some words more clear than others). I think any day now he will start putting more than two words together. We also recently put away his high chair and put him in a booster which he loves!

Thanksgiving 2009

This year, we went with my Dad's side to Thanksgiving. Jared is so lucky to have not only amazing grandparents, but many great grandparents as well. Below is my dad's parents on Thanksgiving.

We missed all our other family members this Thanksgiving (we have a lot of family, so we are on a rotation) but had a great time this year in LA with my dad and the whole gang! We ate amazing food and I got to hold the newest member of the family Nina (my step sister's baby girl). Jared wasn't a huge fan of me holding her, but was obsessed with the baby and acted very worried when she cried. It was very cute.

My Dada and I on Thanksgiving.

My Auntie Allison and I on Thanksgiving

This is another one of Jared's great Grandma's (we call her GG)! He is so lucky to have not one great grandma, but 4 of them!!

What can I say about my mom--I am so thankful for her in so many ways. She is our saving grace for many free nights of babysitting, she has given me some great mom advice, she is one of my best friends and most of all, she loves Jared so much (what a lucky boy...he is so blessed to have so much family who loves him).

We are also so thankful for our great friends. One of our best friends are the McCoy's. We switch off doing date nights every other Friday which is great for so many reasons. One--this gives us both FREE babysitting. Two--we get a night to relax with our husbands child free. And three-- the boys get to play together. We just discovered Noah loves cars just like Jared!

I am also so thankful for my wonderful husband. He is such a great dad, husband, brother and friend! He works so hard to provide us with what we need and want out of life. We have been together for over 12 years and I love him more each day! Jared looks up to him so much and they are two peas in a pod!

20 Months and October Fun!

October has been quite a busy month for the Marchbank Family. Between work, family and friends, it is never a dull moment! The month started with a huge event I help put on at work (over 600 gymnasts and their families) followed by a trip to Arizona for web site training for a few days. While I was away in AZ, Jared's school called me saying he was not acting like himself (crying a lot and acting very sad) and wanted to know if something was different in his routine. I informed them I was away for work (and he saw me leave luggage and all) and was probably just missing his mommy. We are so lucky he goes to such a wonderful place that notices these things about our child and called right away. I was able to catch an earlier flight home to see my boys and all was well with him again (he just missed his mommy).

The weekend I came back from AZ, we spent a lot of family time (something we had been lacking for the past few weeks). We took Jared to the Irvine Railroad park and pumpkin patch (which is an awesome place to take your kids by the way). He had such a great time--he went on his first pony ride, picked out his pumpkin, jumped in the bounce house and spent quality time with his mommy and daddy. After the park, we stopped at Grandpa Greg's and Grandma Denise's house to say hi too.

For Halloween, Jared dressed up like a Dalmatian doggie (thank you Grandma Carla for the box of costumes!). We tried on the costume a few days before Halloween to make sure it fit and he cried when it was time to take it off! We explained that in a few days, he would get to wear it again and he seemed OK with that.

Our friends Lindsay, Eric and Noah invited us to tag along with them on Halloween. We went to her sister's sister-in-law's house who also has a little boy Nick (the one in the skeleton costume). It was so much fun to see all the kids in their costumes and Jared had a great time.

Now that Jared is 20 months old, he is really starting to talk a lot! He is like our parrot--whatever we say, he repeats. Every day his words become more clear and vocabulary a bit larger--I love hearing him trying to communicate. With this new found vocabulary also comes some temper tantrums. Many times (OK all the time) he knows what he wants but doesn't know how to communicate it yet, which frustrates him (and me) and those terrible twos start to emerge. Overall, he is such a little love--we call him our little love bug--he is always giving everyone hugs and kisses and is just the sweetest little boy. We love him so much!

Jared the Dalmatian doggie--Halloween 2009

Joys of having a toddler

Jared is now 19.5 months old and is such a toddler! He is now way past the walking stage--he runs everywhere!

He is learning and trying to say so many new words each day. If we ask him if he can say a word, he tries his best and sometimes the word comes out clear. We are teaching him to use his manners--please and thank you and so far, he is doing great. If we ask him to ask nicely he says "pees" or please and "tank you" which is so cute!

He also makes a lot of animal noises--he can bark like a dog, roar like a lion, moo like a cow and quack like a duck. Any animal we say, "what does a ____ say" and he tries to mimic the sound we do. Jared can also put two words together--"Hi Dada" are the two he says most. Sometimes he will say "Hi Nana" and for the first time yesturday he said "Hi Mama". He also says "more please."

Jared also loves to jump--on a bed, bounce house or trampoline. He is getting very good at it and jumps with both feet at the same time which is a milestone that a lot of kids don't get until much older (I know since I used to teach gymnastics to 3-5 year-olds).

Jared can also drink from a straw and is getting very good at feeding himself with a spoon and fork (with the left hand like mommy).

At the football game with my daddy--one of my favorite things!

On the not so cute side of toddler hood, Jared likes to throw food and is already throwing temper tantrums (I thought this was supposed to happen at 2 or later?) He gets in trouble at school and at home regularly for throwing the food he doesn't want on the floor across the room. He knows he isn't supposed to do it, but does it to see our (or the teachers) reaction. I am hoping he will out grow this phase quickly with some regular disciple.

We are so lucky to have such a smart, healthy and handsome little boy! We can't wait to see what comes next.

18 months-WOW!

On Aug. 31, Jared had is 18 month check up and boy has he done some growing in the last three months! Jared is now 34 1/4 inches tall and 27 lb. 4 oz! The Dr. says he is in the 95th percentile in height and 60-65th in weight (although with that belly of his I don't know how he is only in the 60th! His head is in the 90th as well. We have a big boy on our hands!

Now that he is a very active year-and-a-half, I thought I would take the time to describe some of his favorite things to do. Being a very large child, the first thing he love to do is eat! He eats so much and I don't know where he puts it. He eats more than me a lot of the time. I am going to have to keep on working to pay for all this food!

Another favorite is bath/water play. Last night we watched our friend's son Noah so we gave them a bath together and they had a blast! Noah would hand Jared a toy and Jared would say "tank tooo" which means "thank you". It was so adorable!

Here he is playing with the outdoor water faucet. Forget the blow up pool--he is just as happy to play with that for an hour or more or run through the sprinklers.

The park is another favorite past time. We go to this park by our house very frequently. He loves going down the slides all by himself and of course going on the swings. But the best thing about this park is all the people who live by it, bring their dogs there to run around since land space is sparse in downtown HB. He loves going to visit all the dogs (after mommy makes sure they are nice dogs). He ditches the swing and slides for the dogs once he sees them and chases them everywhere yelling "doggie" and laughing.

His other loves are cars and airplanes or "airpane" as he says. Every time one flies over our house he runs outside to watch it in amazement. He has many toy cars and trucks that he drives around the house and makes a grrrrrrrr sound (it is really cute).

Jared and Jerry are like two peas in a pod-they both love cars, planes and music. I like these things too just not to the same extent. So every Saturday they go to a car show together (which gives mommy some time to work out and run a few errands--a win/win for everyone)! Every night, Jerry plays the guitar for Jared and he just loves it! Jared plays on Jerry's gutiar which he gets a kick out of. I am sure the older he gets, more male bonding activities (sports) will follow which means I need to get some more hobbies!

And last but not least, he loves people. He just loves all the great people in his life--mommy, daddy, all the grandparents and great grandparents, aunts and uncles and our long time friends. We are all so lucky to have such great family and friends in our lives! We love you all!

Our vacation--or staycation

On Aug. 17, we were supposed to take our first family vacation to Maui with my mom and sister. We were all packed and ready to go when Jared suddenly starting acting very sick. So on Sunday night we took him to Urgent care with a full body rash, a cough and a very fussy baby to see what they could do for him before our vacation.

The Dr. there didn't seem to know what the rash was from--she called it a "viral rash" and was surprised he never had a fever. They tested his oxygenation levels and they were at 95--they want them at 99-100. So they made us give him a breathing treatment for 10 minutes (such a horrible experience). We had to tie Jared down while he was screaming and hold a mask over his face! They checked him for strep (which he didn't have) and checked his ears-- he had a mild ear infection too, so they put him on amoxicillan for 10 days and prescribed an inhaler for his breathing.

Needless to say, we cancelled our Maui vacation. What timing Jared has! I guess it is just part of having kids--you can never plan anything! Jerry and I will have to use the airline credit by May 2010 since they don't give refunds.

Two days later, Jared was back to his happy self so we decided to go on a "staycation" and headed down to San Diego.

We stopped at the outlet mall in Carlsbad and he drove a car (his favorite thing)! Jared also got some cute Baby Gap gear for cheap.

Then we got to the hotel and rested for while--Jared just loves laying on the BIG bed.

We met Jerry's mom and dad (Grandma and Grandpa) at the Old Spaghetti Factory in San Marcos which is always fun. The next morning we took Jared to the Wild Animal Park which is such an amazing place! He loved playing in the water area there and looking at all the big animals. We took a tram ride so we could see more animals than we could by foot and Jared did very well. He kept saying "hi" to the lady behind us which was cute (but it probably got old for her really fast).

After the Wild Animal Park, we drove back home and Jared was sooooo sleepy.

Disneyland Birthday Fun!

On Tuesday, August 4, my mother-in-law Carla celebrated a birthday. What better way to celebrate then a day at Disneyland with the family (plus she got in free thanks to Disney's promotion this year)! We had such a great time together and Jared was such a trooper even though it was soooo hot! The best (most expensive) purchase of the day was the $17 squirt bottle fan (FYI Walmart sells them for $6 so bring your own!) but it was worth it at the time.

Jared sitting like a big boy on the Whinnie the Poo ride.

Waiting in line at the Haunted Mansion.

After Disneyland we had Italian food at Hous of Pizza (yum)! What a great way to end the night! Happy Birthday Carla!