10 Years and Still going Strong!

Once upon a time there was a BOY...
...who fell in LoVe with a GIRL.



They started out just singing together with Laytones....
(singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer- gotta love the look on everyone's faces)

Then they dated...

( Homecoming Dance )

and dated...
MORP

...and dated...

Prom

...and that is just a few captured moments. (I am only willing to scan in so many pictures here)

For 4 years they stuck together.....

through high school

and college

and mission

and FINALLY....

They SEALED the DEAL on December 18, 1998

Now this BOY and this GIRL are still

HAVING FUN!
*** SPICEY FOREVER BABE!***

HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY!

"Special Times"

Once upon a time there were three brothers: Tracen Daniel, Tyler Keith , and Tate Leo who are such "good" little boys..... usually. Here are a few "special" moments.


Tracen and Tyler's (mainly Tracen- Tyler seems to get dragged along) latest interest.




Tracen is actually pretty darn good. He has even been known to give DAD a run for his money.


Tracen has also FALLEN IN LOVE with THE GIRL NEXT DOOR. (just like his pappy)



His new BEST friend is TRISTYN TUTTLE from his kindergarten class. She is also in our ward and lives a few houses down from us. The above pic is of the MARRIAGE PROPOSAL he gave to her on Friday. Notice the nice little house he has planned for her with the Christmas tree in the window and the wreath on the door. Ahhh.... TRUE LOVE!

TRACEN and TRISTYN, it truly does not get cuter than that.

** A little side note to this: I am all for ARRANGED MARRIAGES when it comes to my boys especially in regards to this little love affair. So Carrie, we need to talk more about this.**

Tate has had, as Tyler puts it "some hard of times" lately.

Unfortunately, since birth, Tate has had "issues" with his little digestive system. He has had a very hard time POOPING to the point of him writhing in pain on the floor. (I know you all are just thrilled that I have chosen this to talk about) It is just SO SAD. So we have been LOADING the POOR KID up on PRUNE JUICE in hopes to help him losen up. Well, one evening, I was giving him a bath (one of the RARE times he has actually gotten one ALONE) when I noticed he was creating his very own BUBBLE BATH. I began to feel concerned of things to come so I quickly placed him here...

.... and just in time too. Boy that could have been a HUGE disaster!

Kind of like this next story...

Now for those of you who thought the above story was "TOO MUCH INFORMATION" I give you fair WARNING of the content of this next story.
It was a PERECTLY LAZY SATURDAY MORNING. We all slept in, and thought we would indulge ourselves with OATMEAL BANANA GRINCH CAKES! (aka.green pancakes at Christmas time)We were having such a lovely time, it is hard to know just where it all went wrong. The older boys started getting a bit crazy (normal)running around the island and playing the movie quote game when Tate decided he had HAD ENOUGH. I honestly do not remember what set him off, but he began to through a TREMENDOUS TANTRUM. Complete with head being thrown back and body being propelled onto the floor with legs kicking. Now when Tate begins such episodes, we have learned that HE WILL NOT BE CONSOLED and it is best to just IGNORE him. So we left him to his FIT on the FLOOR. Now WARNING this is where the TOO MUCH INFO comes into play. Dan atomatically went into his best DEFENSE mode, picked me up, threw me onto the island and showed me his BEST PASSIONATE KISSING technique and in the process we knocked a 25 POUND BAG of OATS off of the counter and onto our POOR LITTLE TATE who if you'll remember was still pulling his TREMENDOUS TANTRUM on the floor.
So what else do you do (after making sure your child is OK) but take a picture.

Needless to say, this did (literally) KNOCK him out of his FIT... and onto a new one.

**GOOD TIMES at the JACOBS.**

The Jacobs' Halls are Decked!

So my amazingly talented friend Bethany gave a little challenge for all to share their favorite Christmas ornament(s) and why. So here is a little post about some of my favorite Christmas things.

Growing up, as many do, my family had the "PRETTY TREE" and the "KID TREE". The "PRETTY TREE" was dressed beautifully with all my mom's pretty/breakable ornaments. It usually had white lights and pretty bows. Then there was the "KID TREE" which belonged to us kids. It had colored lights, NOTHING BREAKABLE, was adorned with ornaments we kids had made, sentimental ornaments like the ones we each got with our date of birth on it, and my dad's specially made ornaments which he made out of all our family's old season ski passes. This was a fun tree.

Well, here is my attempt at the "PRETTY TREE":

And the "KID TREE":

Because my kids are just in the beginnings of bringing home ornaments and decor they made at school, this tree is still a work in progress.
**Notice that it is decorated as to be TATE PROOF!**
So to get this tree started, we did a little FHE with the kids and made our own salt dough ornaments. They got to help make the dough, cut them out, and then their favorite part... PAINT them.
Here is one of my masterpieces:

And here are a couple of the boys:


They decided didn't want THEIR ornaments hung on the BIG tree, they wanted ALL of their ornaments hung on their very OWN tree, so here IT is:


Another something I have started doing is collecting Nativity Sets.

This is the very FIRST NATIVITY sets we got when we were first married.

This next NATIVITY was given to us as an anonymous 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN. We recieved 1 piece of the set every night with the scripture telling of the meaning of the piece. I thought that was a really neat idea.

This set we got last year for our boys. THEY LOVE IT. I LOVE IT. Finally a set THEY can use to tell the story of JESUS' BIRTH without mom in a panic for fear of breakage.

This set was given to me by one of my great old roommates from Utah State who knew I was collecting them. It is hand carved from wood and from South Africa! I LOVE IT!

Now to my very FAVORITE one. We got this set in Mexico many years ago. It is made of Mexican Pewter and will NEVER tarnish!


To end I will share one final CHRISTMAS TRADITION that we do.
Every year, we hang a single white stocking.

This stocking is for our SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST. Because HE is the REASON for the SEASON, we hang it to remind us whose birth we celebrate. On CHRISTMAS EVE each of us puts (on paper) their GIFT TO CHRIST in this white stocking. Then on NEW YEARS EVE we read aloud(anonymously) what each gift is and dedicate to accomplish this GOAL/GIFT throughout the up coming year. I am hoping this tradition helps our children to focus on the TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS and to set Christ-center goals.

May we all have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and always remember to just...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to MY Mr. Jon Daniel Jacobs!

Today is the day, as is every year, that my love has finally reached the day when he is as old as me! So to celebrate him I have picked a few great pictures that capture some of the many things I LOVE about him.

He was a dang cute kid!

My first impression of Dan:
*An all around HOTTY!

We met at Layton High in 1993!


As I got to know him:

*Still a HOTTY! With a special nack for ALWAYS finding a way to get me to LaUgH!

A STEADY and LOYAL friend!

*Still the HOTTEST one of the bunch! (sorry guys)
These guys are all STILL good friends and this is only part of the group.
They have all been friends since Jr. High!

My BESTEST friend!


A Fantastic HUSBAND and ....... :)

A WONDERFUL and SILLY daddy!


And he is ALL MINE!
Thank You my LoVe for ALWAYS being YOU!

Happy 31st Birthday!

Playing Catch Up!

WOW! The month of November completely flew by with out me, I think. So I have done two posts to try to capture the 2 main events I missed. The first being our AMAZING and CRAZY Thanksgiving and the second being a tribute to our sweet Tyler who turned the much awaited 4 years old on November 22nd. So enjoy.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

It all began with a few of these:

...a LOT of this:

... and that is how Thanksgiving was born.

So to celebrate this year, ALL of the Jacob's clan came in to town. When I say ALL, I mean all 29 of us. Dan has 6 siblings, 6 in-laws, 2 parents, and there are a total of 15 grandkids. We took this crew up to the Stratford Family Cabin (my family's) located in beautiful Eden, Utah. Most arrived on Monday with the remaining 2 arriving on Thursday and stayed through Saturday morning. We had a lot of fun together. We played cards, rode on the 4-wheelers, the men golfed (4 TIMES!), we went to the temple together, the ladies saw Twilight (let me just say I was NOT impressed), played cards, went to Surf-n-Swim, had family pictures taken (THANK YOU SO MUCH DAD!) and lastly and definately one of the BEST things we did was... the men took all the kids to the Fun Center in Layton while the women stayed at the cabin and made pies! You might wonder how that was the BEST? Well, because while we were making the pies, we took turns getting a 30 minute message from a professional Massage Therapist that we hired to come up to the cabin. It was AMAZING! I think that is a Thanksgiving tradition we should definately keep. In fact, because all us ladies were so "relaxed" look at what we accomplished!

Yes, you counted correctly, we made 13 PIES! There were 3 apple, 2 pumpkin, 2 cherry, 1 pumpkin chocolate cheescake, 2 chocolate caramel cream, 2 pecan, and 1 german chocolate pie. And YES, we ate every bit of everyone of them. And YES, that is the ONLY picture I remembered or even thought to take of this entire vacation.

It was truly WONDERFUL to see Dan's family in it's insanely CRAZY and LOUD entirety. As CRAZY as it definately was at times, I hope we will do this again!(except let's leave out the breaking of one 4-wheeler, 2 ovens, the smoking up of the cabin, and Kyle having to "save" a missing Haylie that was never missing:)Love to ALL the Jacob's!

** A very special thanks goes out to my parents for all of their extremely hard work in getting the cabin ready for such a crew. It was and is always the perfect place to be with family.**

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY TYLER!

It was April 1, 2003. April Fools Day. Now I am usually one that thoroughly enjoys a good joke. So of course I was trying to plan the "perfect" joke to play on my Dan. I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be funny to give Dan a big scare and give him a pregnancy test. He wouldn't know how to read it, so he wouldn't know that it was really negative. Yeah, that would REALLY freak him out since Tracen is only 8 months old." So I just happen to have one on hand, (come on ladies, you know you have a few stuffed in the bathroom closet) and pulled it out. Now as I was "taking the test" the thought did cross my mind... "what if?... Nope... No way"... and I set it on the counter to WAIT. 3 minutes later... APRIL FOOLS... on me, not Dan. Yup, 2 gigantic pink lines. I was pregnant! WOW! What a joke! I couldn't wait till Dan got home, so I called him. The conversation went something like this, Dan: "Hello!"
Me: "Hello, my love."
Dan: "Hi, love. What's up?"
Me: "So I had this really great April Fools Day joke to play on you but... well..."
Dan: "YOU'RE PREGNANT! Aren't you? I had this feeling... Deanne, what are we going to do?"
Me: "Umm...love...we're going to have another baby and THAT is NO JOKE!"

And that was the beginnings of our TYLER'S TEASINGS.

Tyler then lead me to believe that I had a chance for a V-back (since Tracen was C-section) because everything was going wonderful in the pregnancy. That is until I went to one of my last appointments to "see how far along I was". That was when my doctor announced, "Oh my, I think this kid has flipped!" "What? What does THAT mean?" "His head is up, his bum is down. He is breech!(aka he's going to come out BUTT FIRST-just like his sweet mammy did)" So after attempting to turn the stubborn kid and without success, it was determined that I would have to have a 2nd C-section. So we scheduled the date to be November 29, 2004, approximately 1 week, and after Thanksgiving, before his due date. Ok, so we have a plan, not the plan I had hoped for, BUT a plan... or so I thought...

So Dan and I were trying to finish remodeling our basement before Tyler arrived, which included fresh walls, paint, new carpet, a beautiful rock fireplace and an amazing log cabin play house built out of the "under the stairs" nook. We had come to the end, the carpet would be layed just before Tyler arrived, and we (meaning my Dad, my Mom, my Dad, Dan, my Dad) were trying to get the logs on the play house and the mantel on the fireplace stained. Well, apparently I did not get far enough away from the strong smell of stain, because I began having what I thought were quite mild contractions. They started early that morning around 3am and were fairly consistant throughout the day. My mom was at the house helping my dad. I told her I thought I had started having contractions. Her response? "Deanne your still two weeks out, you've been on your feet too long, go lay down. We've almost got this done." So, like a good girl, I obeyed. I figured she must be right. These contractions were consistant, BUT, they really did NOT HURT, so they must not be real. I say, WHAT WAS I THINKING? Then about 7pm, I had some kind of reality check because I had the "thought" that I should at least call the hospital to let them know I "might" be coming in tonight and to prepare for the C-section. Well, while on the phone, the contractions got a bit stronger, and the nurse insisted I come in ASAP. So we packed up, left my parents at our house to finish "THE PROJECT", and Dan rushed us to McKay Dee. When we arrived, they of course insisted on checking me right away. Well, it is a darn good thing they did, because I was at a 9. Hello? The contractions only just begun to hurt. How in the world did I progress that far and NOT know it. Man, I am DUMB! So they rushed me in, strapped me down, cut me open.. Oh and Dan had the nerve to say, "Dee, can you smell that?" "Smell what?" "The smoke from them cutting you open?" Now, this is our 2nd time around with the C-section thing, I know what happens, BUT geez, did he have to say that? (love you honey) Good thing I am not bothered by that kind of thing. Anyway, at 10:35pm November 22,2004 our little stinker, I mean sweet TYLER KEITH JACOBS was born. He weighed in at 7lbs 8oz and 21 inches long. He was PERFECT! No trama from labor, a little bruised on the butt, (that's what happens when you put your best side forward first:)), and he had tons of thick, light brown hair with white blonde highlight streaking through it! I am NOT exaggerating. I had never seen that much BLONDE hair on a newborn before. And I could tell his eyes were going to be very different from Tracen dark brown eyes right from the beginning. Oh yes, JUST PERFECT!
Tyler is a tease to this day. He is stil marching to the beat of his own drum. Doing things his own way. He is sweet and SO agreeable, when HE decides to be. He LOVES his brothers. I knew that Tyler and Tracen would be the dearest of friends. And they are... in between some amazing fights. Tyler can quote almost every movie he has seen, he knows all his letters and their sounds, LOVES to spell his name, and is very proud to write the letter T everywhere! He has a very different "look" than his brothers. He is very "Stratford". He is very proud that he has the same name as his grandpa (Keith)and that they both have blue eyes.

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY TYLER!!! WE LOVE YOU.

***For Tyler's B-day, he had a super hero party with all the family. The kids all got to dress up as super heroes. Tyler dressed as his very favorite hero, DASH INCREDIBLE!
This is where I found Dash only moments before the party was to begin.


This is the amazing DASH INCREDIBLE B-day cake that Tyler requested. It was extra special because his very own amazing Uncle Joel made it just for him.



And THIS is one the many B-day presents that quickly became a favorite AND just as quickly POPPED! With MUSCLES like these, it's amazing it lasted as long as it did.