Tennis anyone?

Recently Derrick and I have started playing tennis together. So far we've only played once just the two of us and once with Melissa and Nate (and we won :) ). We have a lot of fun playing and hope to get more playing in before it gets too cold. Though we both played in high school we haven't played much since and as a result our skills are pretty rusty. While we play Zach gets to hang out in his "space pod". The beauty of it is that he's protected from stray balls.

Free Fruit and Fun Friends

Recently a friend in the ward showed me where some fruit trees are located around our housing complex. These fruit trees were apparently planted for the students to enjoy and we've been taking advantage of that recently. Our favorite are the apricot trees located by our church building. Derrick, Zach, and I walk over and Derrick climbs up the tree with a bag and goes to work. While holding Zach I catch the ones that fall and help catch the bag when Derrick needs to climb back done. Our favorite thing to do with the apricots is to make them in smoothies. We made up the recipe one night and we love it!

In case anyone is wondering, to make them we combine: fresh apricots, a serving-size container of strawberry yogurt, a scoop of strawberry ice cream, a few tablespoons of sugar, a tray of ice, a little milk until desired consistency, and a little bit of vanilla. Flavors and amounts can vary hence the very non-specific recipe.

On Sunday, Aug 10 (I've been meaning to post this for awhile) we had a game night with our neighbors the Slacks and with the Ross family. We made a batch of our apricot smoothie for it. The pictures show the apricots we picked and then Derrick drinking the smoothie with Ken and Kelsey Ross. (Not the most exciting pictures but that's the most we were motivated to take.)

The apricots with worms got rejected to the left bowl...the joys of free organic fruit

For the game night we had fun playing Boggle (my favorite game lately) and Acquire. Sadly the Slacks moved out the following Friday to go to grad school in Texas. We miss them already! Hopefully our new neighbors will be fun too...

The Slacks' baby Hyrum is only 1 year older than Zach and is huge compared to him. It's crazy how much kids can grow in a year.

Finished Project

So I started making crib bumpers for Zach's crib back in June or maybe even as far back as May. I meant to use the 2 weeks between my last day of work and Zach's due date to finish them but Zach decided to start coming on my last day of work :). No complaints there but the bumpers were put on the back burner for awhile. I think I was working on finishing the bumper with the 4 fish on it while I was going into labor (before I realized what the pains meant).

It's been quite a project because Derrick and I wanted to design them ourselves. We had fun looking at the different fabrics at JoAnn's for ones that felt beachy/tropically. Derrick then used a drawing program on the computer to design them. I created the patterns, cut, and sewed everything together. Derrick did cut out the shapes of the turtles, starfish, and regular fish. The pieces weren't designed to go in any particular order so we can rearrange them whenever we feel like it. I was really glad Derrick got into the project with me.

Here's Derrick's design that I used to create the patterns:

He's very creative!

And now for the finished product!

Gotta love the industrial strength carpet as the backdrop :)

Birthday Celebrations

Since this blog is kind of like our family journal I figured I'd finish posting on Derrick's birthday. Usually I'll wake up Derrick once during the night to change Zach's diaper (since he can't help with the feeding) but I decided to let him sleep the whole night before his birthday. After one of the nighttime feedings I stayed up and made a bunch of signs saying random happy birthday messages and put them up throughout the apartment. I wrapped his presents and had them waiting on the table. Because our decoration supplies are low at the moment and I wanted to put up streamers I had to get creative. The resulting streamers consisted of yarn and toilet paper (this can be seen in the picture).


Most of the day was pretty regular with Derrick at work for most of it. I did make strawberry shortcake from scratch using a Jones family special recipe :) (it's so yummy and Derrick requested it) and we went to dinner at a sushi restaurant. The sushi was really good but I wasn't too impressed with the entrees. Zach did alright for the first part of eating at the restaurant but made eating with chopsticks difficult later when he decided he had to be held. Maybe we'll get a babysitter next time we go out to dinner. Melissa and Nate came over to enjoy strawberry shortcake with us and watch the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou".


Melissa and me watching this movie was another birthday request. We both tried watching it years ago and got so bored and/or confused that we never finished it. I'd tried three times so it'd struck out in my book. Derrick's been trying to get me to watch since we were just dating. I finally caved in the spirit of birthday-ness or whatever. Nate and Derrick both loved it and Melissa and I thought parts were funny but were never sold on it. Oh well. Now I can at least catch the movie quotes when Derrick uses them "She darn R-U-N-N O-F-T!"

On another note with b-day money from our generous parents Derrick is finally back to wearing contacts (the shower drain ate one of his hard lenses months ago), was able to pay for the eye exam, got a new battery for his laptop, and will probably put the last of it to a new iPhone it looks like he'll be getting. Yea for birthday! I love you Derrick!

24

I just wanted to wish Derrick a Happy 24th Birthday! He's such an amazing husband, father and person in general. He's my best friend and life is so great since I get to spend everyday with him.


He's got the looks and the personality, is very considerate of me and always willing to help out with Zach. Zach loves it when Derrick holds him and plays with him (it's very limited at this point since he's only 6 weeks old) and he just stares up at Derrick (when he's awake).


I could go on but I just want to say thank you for being so wonderful and I hope you are having an amazing birthday! I love you!

(All our recent pictures of Derrick are him and Zach. Can't imagine why...:) )

Blessing Day

This last Sunday, the 3rd, was Zach's baby blessing. After watching so many blessings while growing up in the Church it was unreal to be the mom watching the circle of Priesthood holders gather around her husband and baby. Family from all sides (we have 4 now) traveled to come. Thank you for supporting us at this special time in our lives! It's wonderful to see that Zach has so many people that are there for him.

I love watching Derrick exercise his Priesthood to bless others, especially his little family. Zach is a very special little boy and it was wonderful to get a glimpse at the type of person he can become. Heavenly Father has a plan for Zach and I hope that Derrick and I can do our part to help him reach his potential.

After the blessing we had an amazing potluck luncheon in the joint backyard of Derrick's grandparents and aunt and uncle. The food was great and it was a lot of fun to visit with family; a lot of whom we don't see very often. We were too busy visiting to take many pictures but we did take some 4 generation pictures after eating:

Derrick's parents, maternal grandparents, and us

My parents, us, my paternal grandparents

EscrowTech

About two weeks ago, a company named EscrowTech International, Inc emailed Derrick and offered him a freelance job. They knew he was qualified because they have his resume from when he was job hunting earlier in the summer. He was scheduled to interview with them before he got his current job (he canceled the interview).

The company's unexciting logo

The EscrowTech people want Derrick and his partner to create a web login system that ties into their existing databases. This project should take from 1 to 3 months to complete. Derrick officially started working on it yesterday. (If any of you are curious what kind of company this is, look up "source code escrow" on Wikipedia.)

This is an amazing opportunity. It gives Derrick additional free lance experience (he did some at the beginning of the summer) and the pay is quite a bit more per hour than either of his other jobs.

It's amazing how much the Lord blesses you when you seek to know what He would have you do and then act on it no matter how scary it is. It was a scary thought to start a family 2 years before Derrick graduates. I know having Zachary be part of our family now is the way things should be. I love being Zach's mom and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father is opening doors so we can have all we need (and a little extra). I'm also grateful that Derrick is willing to work so hard to provide for his family. Thank you!

One Month Old!