Aloha!

Thanks to my wonderful husband for making his quota for last year, he made "President's Club 2008" and since I'm the wife, I got to tag along on the bonus trip - to the big island of Hawaii at the Four Seasons Resort! We dropped Jacob off in San Francisco with my parents, which we were both happy about. It would have been too hard to bring him with us and they were able to spend a lot of time with him. We left Saturday morning to Kona, spent the afternoon walking the grounds, checking out the beach, the pools and everything else. While walking on the beach, we found some sea turtles sun bathing: Once we were in our room, we were more than impressed with the accomodations. Here's the view from our room, very pretty:
There were 4 pools, one pool for snorkeling which had thousands of tropical fish as well as sting rays, an adult only pool (where mostly the much older people hung out), a "quiet" pool where they'd walk around offering evian mists, sunglass cleaning, cold towels and sliced cucumber, you name it. At first I wasn't sure if these things cost money so I declined but after seeing others get it for free, I quickly joined in on all the freebies! The last pool was more kid friendly. At the kid pool, they would come around and serve ice cream to you and pineapple sticks. HEre's a picture of that pool:

My goodness, it was so relaxing! When we weren't doing a group scheduled activity, we seriously just lounged around. Our favorite place to lounge was on the beach chairs on the sand drinking our lava flows (yummy smoothies). We were able to snorkel two separate times. One was with a zodiac tour, which was a blast! The second was on our catamaran trip. Here's my honey snorkeling:On our way back to the dock, we were able to come across some spinner dolphins (they get their name literally from the way they spin in the air) and it was amazing to have hundreds swimming with our boat. We were in arms reach and that was a definite highlight of the trip.

This one is doing one of his spins in the air, but we had a hard time getting a good picture of that.

We couldn't swim on our beach due to all the lava rock, but they were able to block off a section of the beach with reef to allow for some playing in the water. HEre's a picture of our beach:

I think my favorite part of the trip was our group trip on a catamaran. There were about 50 of us that went and so we split into 2 groups and spent a good portion of our day on the boat and then snorkeled, saw some whales. It was just gorgeous. Wesley and I loved just hanging out on the trampoline mesh area b/c you can see right into the water below and it was the most gorgeous blue I've ever seen!

Our last evening we had a farewell dinner with hula dancers and fire dancers, which was amazing! They also gave out awards to each sales person for the work they'd done. Here is Wesley with his boss, Chad (in the middle) and the sales guy, Mike that he works together with, receiving their awards.

We were able to take a walk on our last day around the coast and it was just gorgeous!

I've always wanted to get a picture of us walking to our plane and up the stairs:

I loved how you waited outside at the terminal.

We were just so fortunate to be able to receive this trip and we had such a great time. I was really really anxious to get back to Jacob, I missed him too much. I was thrilled that he wasn't fazed by our absence and he did great. So great, in fact, that he decided to take his first steps while were gone! Stinker! He gave us a little taste again on Sunday, thankfully. When we went to get him though, he didn't want me (sob sob). He went to WEs and every time I tried to take him, he'd cling to Wesley more. WEsley loved that Jake wanted him so much! That didn't last long and by morning he was happy to see me again!

St. Louis, Visitors, California, Estes Park and then some!

I know, I know. It took way too long for me to post new pictures. And it's not because I've had nothing to post, believe me, I have. In the last month, I have been to St. Louis and California and had guests come visit. Yes, I travel A LOT. Too much, and Jake is less than accomodating these days, so the traveling is going to subside. In Jake's short 10 months of living, he's been on 9 trips, been to 7 states and been on 20 airplanes. He's been an angel on 19 of these flights and the one that he was not an angel was enough to make me never want to fly again.

So let's get to what's been happening with the 3 of us. I went to St. Louis to visit my sister Lea and her family and we had a great time! Lea was my fashion consultant and filled me in on how to dress cute and still have mom friendly clothing, which I have to say has been a big struggle for me. Sadly, I don't have any pictures to show for that trip. Why do I take more pictures at home and forget to take pictures when I'm away? After St. Louis, my sister Felecia and her husband Logan came out to visit. He is testing at some police depts here in Denver, the first in Colorado SPrings. We went down to the Garden of the Gods and walked around, and it was so pretty and a perfect day for that. Here's us at the Garden of the Gods:

Next was a trip to California to visit my mom and dad. Wesley was going to be on a business trip and I HATE being home without him. So many times, I take a trip when he's away. On this specific trip, I was scrambling to get everything all packed. Jake was with me, "helping". Here's how he helps:

I'm sure some of you other moms are nodding because this has happened to you as well. And this was just in a couple minutes that he did all this. Nap time couldn't have come at a better time otherwise my packing wouldn't have ever gotten done.

The only picture I took while in California was of Jacob with Uncle Alex, my brother, whom Jake just loves! Alex can make Jake laugh more than anyone I know, it's so cute.

After California, we decided to spend a Saturday enjoying the Colorado scenery, it's just gorgeous, so we went to Estes Park and drove around Rocky Mountain National Park. We had a blast! And Jake did so well the whole time.
Here's Jake and Wes at Bear Lake in the park.

Is this not the most beautiful view? And it was such a warm day, in the 50s in the mountains, not bad! We came home to 70 degree weather (and a lot of snow the next day, what's up with the weather?)

I love going downtown and walking down the streets and seeing the cute shops, that's one of my most favorite things to do. We saw a place called the Glass House. They had free demonstrations and show you how they make glass things, it was really cool. They gave Jake a souvenir, which was cute. Here's Jake and I outside of that shop, with all of the glass items in the window.

I haven't really updated on Jake's progress, but he's crawling, he not only has his 2 bottom teeth, but has his 2 'fangs' as well... yep, I have a little Edward (Twilight) in my home, he can stand on his own and is eating all sorts of grown up foods. He's just growing up too fast! He can tear apart an orange like no one I've ever seen. I was eating a clementine the other day and gave him one to play with and this is what became of this poor clementine:
He sure can tear things up, huh?

So that's my forever long update on our latest adventures. This month: A trip to California to drop off Jake before leaving for Hawaii, afterwhich we will have my parents come for Easter and then we are off to Disney World... Busy month to say the least! Thankfully though, Wesley will be with us as we fly and I can have him by my side to help with Jake.

Jake's 9 month pictures

I mean, really, can he get any cuter? Of course, me the mom is going to say that but I just loved these pictures this time. It was so much fun with him in the studio trying to capture a picture as he would crawl away. He is so much fun, we just love him so much.

THE OFFICE

So, Wesley and I have become huge fans of The Office. But since we just started watching it last season, our brother and sister-in-law let us borrow their seasons of it. In the past 2 weeks, The Office has been pretty much the only thing we watch. Jake has gotten used to hearing the theme music and I have to say, it might be one of his favorite tunes, aside from my singing "Twinkle Twinkle" or "Baby Beluga". Here's some proof of how much he enjoys The Office. What's even funnier is that he does this every time the theme song comes on!
ENJOY!

After Christmas Update

This Christmas actually started for us at Thanksgiving with my family. Altogether we've had 3, so that made it quite fun for Jacob. One with my family, one with us by ourselves and then Christmas day with Wesley's family. Jacob was showered with lots of gifts, and the most exciting part was the wrapping paper, of course.

We were in Utah for Christmas week with Wes's family and went to Christmas Village one night. I love going to see Christmas lights. Here's the three of us. Doesn't Jacob look like Randy from 'A Christmas Story'? He stayed nice and warm though.

Christmas Eve is always full of lots of food and enjoying one anothers company. We had the children act out the Nativity, except we opted not to have Jacob be baby Jesus, he would have made it a lot less reverent, he can't keep still. This picture is us sportin' our white elephant gifts. Jake's is the hat that Wes is wearing.
Of course the wrapping paper was Jake's favorite part of Christmas, that and the attention from everyone! Here he is with grandpa


A cute picture of the gifts he got in Utah.


Wesley with his niece and nephew, Jason and Alana. They live in New York.

Jake with Aunt Lis and Uncle Jay. He was given this Dallas Cowboys shirt from them for Christmas which is just adorable on him. Now he has outfits for his daddy's favorite teams, Dallas and Denver

I never got to post a picture of our Christmas tree. It's our first since we've been together and we just love it. It's called a Wesley Pine tree, very fitting for us, don't you think?

Wesley also had his 31st birthday before Christmas. I had already taken him to the Broncos game in November so we had a relaxing day, some birthday cake, and a lunch at Carino's Italian food... YUM!

Now let's talk about Jacob and his 'changing'. He learned how to crawl over the holidays. New Years week is when he really perfected it. Yet, he doesn't crawl all over the place at all. He's fine just where he is. Unless there is some toy, he'll go get it, but only go as far to where his arm can reach for it. "No extra work" is his motto. Also, his sleeping has been the most entertaining thing I never expected. We put him in one position and come back later and his is reversed or done a complete 180 and often is in the most awkward position. His favorite is on his tummy, just like his daddy. Here's a picture of one of his awkward positions

I've mentioned before that we live only a couple of minutes from Wesley's brother's family. They just had their 4th, Baby Ella. She is so sweet and so tiny. Jake is a giant next to her, and we've always called him the tiny one. We had them lying next to one another and Jake kept leaning over to (what we thought) kiss Ella, but really he was trying to lick her head.

Here's one of those pictures that I look at and can't believe my baby is that big now. My baby's not a baby anymore!

It might not look like he's very happy, but he really didn't mind getting stuffed into all of this clothing. He was quite a trooper

We had a great Christmas and wonderful New Year. I can't believe it's 2008, but I'm excited to start out a new year fresh! Happy New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here's a look at our Christmas card for this year:

EDWARDS FAMILY EVENTS 2007
This has been quite an eventful year for our family. To sum it all up, we’ve created a top 5 list of Edwards Events 2007. We tried to put together a top 10 list, but even with as much as we had going on, we were only able to think of five…
Here is our top five in no particular order, except of course, Jacob is always our number one!
5. Surgery – You’d think this one wouldn’t be something on a top 5 list… but Catherine had been having so much pain after the baby was born that having her gall bladder removed became a joyous occasion!
4. New callings – Wesley is the Young Men’s Secretary and Catherine is the Enrichment Leader at church
3. Family reunions – We traveled to New York for a reunion with Wesley’s family and then to Las Vegas for a reunion with Catherine’s family
2. Move – After accepting a new job offer with 2Wire, we made a move to Denver and were able to buy a home.
1. Jacob – Our biggest joy of the year was having Jacob. He is such a blessing to us.

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas!
Love,
Wesley, Catherine & Jacob Edwards

Finally some Thanksgiving Pics!

We spent Thanksgiving in California with my parents and had a blast. There were 14 of us at Thanksgiving dinner, including some siblings, an aunt and uncle and my grandma with her husband. We went to a park one evening. Here's us on the swings.

I don't know what to call this picture, but it's just super cute!

Bath Time!

We went to San Francisco one evening, rode on the cable cars, had dinner at Lori's Diner (really good food) and wen to the wharf and Ghiradelli Square. Here's Felecia and Logan at Lori's Diner.

Wesley and I at Lori's Diner

Mom and dad sharing a shake. How cute!

Mom, dad and Alex on the cable cars.

Right before Ghiradelli Square we went to the shore nearby and took some pics. Here's Amanda and Scott

Our little fam

Sisters - but Lea isn't there, :(

Mom and dad

By the Macy's tree in Union Square

Jacob and his pacifier

I've mentioned Jacob's skills with the pacifier before, and here's yet another example. Don't ask me why, but I crack up every time I watch this video.