Utah pics and labor day

We are starting to get used to our new home. We had a good vacation and loved spending time with family in Utah. Some of our favorite activities included going to a ball game, and Thanksgiving point with the Atkinsons, canoeing with the Powells, watching Jonas enjoy motor scooter rides with his Grandpa and Papa, hanging out with cousins, and enjoying time with Grandparents, we also had lots of fun watching Jonas play with his Aunt Mo and her puppy Milo and going to some outdoor concerts in Salt Lake. It went by very quickly and it was so nice to have some babysitters and go on dates again.
For Labor day here we headed to the beach. Hilton Head Island was great and we quickly realized how much we are going to love being able to hang out on the coast. We have yet to explore the city of Savannah very much but we are going to be doing that very soon. We really like our new house and we'll get some pictures up as soon as it looks decent. I will just post one picture of the back yard. We had a sad day when just a week after we were here we saw a bulldozer coming into the area behind our house and start cutting trees down. The picture shows how it used to look. Now we find out that there is some land that is zoned for commercial use behind us. Jonas of course loved seeing a huge bulldozer working up so close but James and I were very very disappointed. OH well that's life I guess. Other than that we are enjoying our new place. I know I posted way too many pictures.

Tagged Again

Here goes:
Four movies I'd watch more than once:
1. Pride and Prejudice
2. Anne of Green Gables
3. Karate Kid
4. What about Bob


Jobs I've had:

1. My first job was at Home Town Buffet, I worked in the back making the salads n stuff
2. I worked in the playroom of Brunswick Bowling Lanes
3. temp at Bear River Mutual Insurance Company
4. Cashier at Lee's Marketplace in Logan
5. Reading Tutor at an Elementary School near Logan Ut
6. SLP at Odd Fellows and Rebecca Nursing home in Jackson MI
7. SLP in Advanced Therapy Solutions in Clarksville TN



Places I've Lived:
Kearns Utah
Sandy Utah
Ephraim Utah
Cedar City Utah
Hungary
Logan, Utah
Ann Arbor Michigan
Clarksville TN
GA

Places I've been to/ visited:

Goblin Valley Utah
Las Vegas
Mesa Arizona
St George Utah
Puerto Penasco Mexico
California Sacramento area
New York City
Niagara Falls Cananda
Holland Michigan for the Tulip Festival
Nauvoo and Carthage, Illinois
Atlanta, Georgia


Favorite Foods
1. Fondue- both the cheese and chocolate versions
2. pot stickers
3. tacos

Places I'd like to visit:
1. Tokyo
2. Prince Edward Island, Canada
3. a Carribean Cruise
4. The Philippines
5. London
6. Budapest Hungary
7. Paris France
8. Jerusalem
9. Hawaii

Things I'm looking forward to: this list is not really in order of importance

Going to the beach tomorrow

Seeing my baby

Getting my replacement Drivers License

Getting curtains for my house

Having my not pregnant or just recovering from pregnancy body back

kids tag

I loved getting the comments on my last post. We would really love to see anyone who could come visit us.
This is a tag from Jessica that I wanted to do a looong time ago but because we've been on vacation in Utah, I haven't been doing any posts.

The tag is to try and write 10 things about Jonas that most people don't know.

1- For a toddler, Jonas is a very good eater. He doesn't always eat a full meal, but he will try new things at least one small bite, and he knows most of the time we won't make him a different meal so he will eat at least a few bites of whatever we're eating.

2-Most people know that Jonas is quite the mommas boy but he also loves to imitate his Dad. He loves everything that James loves for example: salsa and chips, helicopters, pickup trucks, guitars, red hot chilli peppers and wheezer, dogs, and of course he's obsessed with star wars. I tried to get him into Pride and Prejudice thinking that he would at least enjoy the horseback riding, but he told me "I don't like this movie".

3-Jonas is becoming more and more social all the time. Sometimes he has started saying hi to random strangers, (not a good thing) but he also loooves being around other kids especially older kids. He plays with other kids pretty well, most of the time, but is also not shy about defending himself or his space.

4-Jonas loves music (when it's not too loud) and loves to dance. We took him to a free concert in the park in SLC and he had soo much fun dancing around and was so into it that he was running into people.

5- Jonas has developed quite the affinity for the garbage man. A highlight of the week for Jonas has been watching the garbage man from the front window dump our garbage and then saying "thank-you garbage man". His cousin had a toy garbage can that Jonas was quite entertained with. He also thinks that talking about stinky garbage is extremely funny.

6- Like Isaac, the first things out of Jonas' mouth in the morning are about food, usually, "I want milk" or "Can I have some raisin nutbrown?" This is usually at between 5:30 and 6:00 am

7-Jonas is good at speaking and can pretty much put his point accross without too much difficulty. He is always surprising us with the things that he repeats such as the sacrament prayer, or lines from movies and songs or our own words for example :"look at me!!" or "shut the door" or he is now starting some of his sentences with the word "actually" yes it's great to get corrected by a 2 yr old. Today, he sang the new wheezer song "Pork and Beans" during sacrament.

8-Jonas has some sensory issues, for example he doesn't like the feel of finger paint on his hands, he used to get upset at the wind because he thought he was going to blow away, he doesn't like anything to be too loud, and this summer we had to listen to him say this a lot: "there's something in my shoe" he doesn't like the feel of sand on his feet and he also doesn't really like the feel of grass on his bare feet. On the other hand he will eat things like lemons. Weird.

9- Jonas loooves books and I love that about him. He is starting to get into longer story books now, which is great. I just love the fact that he has the attention span to sit and listen to a few stories and usually a lot more than a few.

10-Jonas has always been extremely stubborn and strong willed which leads to some very hard to deal with behavior, but he can also be very sweet and I love the fact that he still wants to cuddle or curl up in my arms and let me rock him, of course that's only at certain times of the day in between running around and playing.



I tag: Caleb, Tyler, Leki or Enos or both, Abby H., and Abby C.

baby news and house news

So we are in the middle of moving right now. Which has been a lot less stressful this time around because the army is moving us. We basically just had to sit there on our bums and watch them while they boxed up all our stuff. Then Jonas came back from the baby sitters and we then we had to chase after him and make sure he didn't get in the way. The next day they came to move everything into a truck. Very entertaining for Jonas. So I don't have a lot of pics right now becuase half the time I don't know which pile of what's it contains my camera.
Anyways, the exciting news is that we had our ultrasound and it looks like we are most likely having a girl! We need more girls in the Atkinson family so we're very excited.
Also we did find a house in GA. We really like it and I'm very excited about having a fenced in backyard complete with deck, patio, some grass and also very important, some shade. I realized since having kids that having an outdoor place to play is very valuable. Especially where we are moving cause there are very few playgrounds in fact, besides post we didn't see a single one and they don't believe in sidewalks there soooo yes backyard is very important. We'll be there for 3 yrs and very far from home so if anyone wants to visit please come.

Graduation

James had another graduation. This time from his military dental residency program. During the ceremony, they talked a lot about how strenuous the program is etc. They even gave all of the spouses of the residents some flowers, a plaque and a pin that says professional pride to say thank you for supporting our spouses through this challenging year. Although it did have it's challenges, coming straight from dental school made it seem quite relaxed. But I appreciated the flowers and other stuff anyways. This graduation picture is us standing with the general dentist of the army. I don't know his official title, but he was very nice. Also, miraculously enough, although I had come prepared to have a major battle with Jonas during the ceremony, he decided to be good for the whole thing. As soon as it ended he ran around like a crazy person but that was okay. The other pictures are of us in GA. We went to Tybee Island beach and spent just a little time in downtown Savannah.We also were lucky enough to go to a boys to men and montgomery gentry concert on the Fourth of July. Jonas loves these sunglasses that we gave him. He also loves the candy machines. He thinks that the machines actually make the candy and every time he passes one, he stops and checks it for change. I don't know how he learned that. Other than those fun things we're just lookin for houses and trying to stay cool.

Fun times n stuff

Our little fix it man





Jonas watched a Handy Manny dvd and turned into quite the fix it man. He was saying things like "come on papa, we got a job to do". Jonas has also loved going swimming. He was cautious at first but is warming up to it a lot faster than he used to. The thing that helped the most was bringing some of his water toys to the pool. We started out at the baby pool. One of the toys was a bucket. James and I were getting repeatedly doused over the head and Jonas was having the time of his life. We tried to have fun but it got old quickly so we took him into the big pool without toys and from then on Jonas was loving it. We also took him for a pony ride at the on post riding stables. He was of course very unsure about doing this. We had to keep one hand on him for a while but by the end he was okay to ride by himself for a little while. The last pic is of James and his military pilot friend from the ward who gave him a helicopter ride. James has also had the chance to go to the range on post and shoot an M16 this week. That's my army guy.

stawberries

We took a short trip to the local stawberry patch and got to pick a ton of delicous and perfectly ripe strawberries. They were soo good that I didn't want to buy strawberries at the store yesterday because I knew they would be nothing like the fresh strawberries we got to enjoy from the strawberry patch. We had to eat them fast cause they were ready to be eaten. We also made some freezer jam out of them which was my first attempt at making jam. I know it's the easiest kind to make but I'm still proud of myself. James helped a lot too. Jonas loved going to the strawberry patch and still talks about it. He of course ended up with lots of strawberry juice all over his shirt as he ate way more than he picked. We also had to give him a lesson about which strawberries were actually ripe and that if they were still green not to pick them. It didn't really sink in but oh well. He also had fun feeding the sheep there.
I've decided that I love supporting local produce. It's just so much better cause it's fresh. Time to find the local farmer's market.

Tagged

Tagged!

ABC Tag

A - Attached or Single: Attached
B - Best Friend(s): Mom, Dad, James, & Jonas, and all sisters and girlfriends
C - Cake or Pie: pie (I am seriously addicted to pumpkin pie, but I also love lemon meringue and cherry)
D - Day of Choice: Friday
E - Essential Item: hand sanitizer, ear plugs, book light, sandals
F - Favorite Color(s): Red
G - Gummy Bears or Worms: Bears especially the cinnamon flavored chocolate covered type
H - Hometown: Sandy Utah
I - Indulgence(s):good night sleep, peanut butter twix, girly movies
J - January or July:- July, I'm usually on vacation then and I HATE being cold
K - Kids: 1 and 1/3
L - Life is incomplete without: Family, Friends, and Good Food
M - Marriage Date: May 10th 2003
N - Number of Siblings: 3 Brothers
O - Oranges or Apples: Pink Lady Apples
P- Phobias or Fears: claustrophobia, Jonas getting hurt or sick, sometimes dogophobia
Q - Quote: Bloom where you are planted
R- Ring size: ?
S - Season: Fall
T- Tag 3 Friends: Mel, Jessica, and Laura
U - Unknown fact about me: I'm scared of diving
V - Very favorite stores: Trader Joes and Whole Foods, Jamba Juice, Shade Clothing
W - Worst Habit: I'm very clumsy and constantly run into things
X-ray or Ultrasound: Baby Ultrasounds
Y - Your Favorite Food(s): snack foods like popcorn and dried fruit, granola, for meals a couple of my favorites are tacos, and potstickers
Z- Zodiac: Taurus

Smokey Mtns

So this is me being a not so assertive mom, "Jonas, how about we say prayers and then it's time for you to go to bed?" This is Jonas being a very assertive little boy, "How bout no." For all of his independence, we took him hiking this weekend at the Smokey Mtns National Park with Granny and Grandpa Powell, and when we really wanted him to be independent and walk part of the trails he decided that it would be easier for him if we just carried him the whole time. Actually he wanted just mommy to carry him. We still had a lot of fun though and I LOVED the smokey mountains. There are lots of beautiful waterfalls to hike to and places to just pull over and stare at the gorgeous view. Also, because this park gets soo many people visiting every year, there is literally anything and everything in Gatlinburg TN. Any type of entertainment or restaurant known to man is in that town. We mostly just focused on enjoying the park, but thanks to Granny we did get to go to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. It's kind of like the knight show in Las Vegas where you don't get any silverware for your meal and you get to watch this cool show while you eat, only the show was different. It was all about cowboys and rodeo tricks and stuff. Jonas loved it and is still talking about it.

This month is what James calls celebrate Amber month. I have my birthday, our anniversary, and mothers day all within about a week and a half of each other. This is fun for me but then ya know all my special days are clumped together and James has a hard time thinking of what to get me for all three days at once. It's very stressful for him. But he does a great job. We planned on going to a rodeo on my birthday but a tornado came through and touched down at the fair grounds that night effectively canceling anything planned there. We ended up eating dinner with some friends and I got to play guitar hero for the first time. Yeah I wasn't very good but it was fun.
Then for our anniversary we had a hard time finding a babysitter at first, but we did eventually find some friends that watched Jonas for us while we went to a movie. We saw Iron Man cause everyone's been saying that it's just soo good. Then we picked Jonas up and went to a nice restaurant. For mother's day I woke up at 4 to a screaming child, went to church and chased after some 2 year olds in nursery trying to get them to make a mother's day card for their mothers and to keep their shoes on and not turn off the light etc etc etc. The rest of the day was nice. Talking to moms and just hanging out. So now I'm thirty years old, I've been married for 5 yrs., and I've got an awsome little boy who makes me so happy every day even though he wakes me up waaaay to early. Most friends and family know this by now but we are also expecting baby #2 in December. We are so excited and happy about being able to add to our family. Jonas is also excited and consistently will tell us when we ask him that he'd rather had a little brother than a little sister. He wants to name him Leo, Quincey, or Rocket. Can you tell what he's obssessed with right now? Well if you aren't into watching kiddie movies, it's the little einstiens. He even told us that he can learn little Rocket how to shoot his dart gun.
I also have to say that I'm so grateful for my husband.I can't believe that we've been married for 5 yrs. It's gone by so fast. James has accomplished a lot and I'm grateful for how motivated he is. Around our house I'm more of the procrastinator and James gets things done. He is very patient to put up with my moods too. Especially my pregnant moods. He doesn't let a day go by without telling me that he loves me and thanking me for making food for him. That's definitely the way to his heart! I can even occasionally get him to watch a chick flick with me. These are just a few of the reasons I love him, but I don't want to get too mushy on my blog. Well,celebrate Amber week is over for this year so I'll guess I'll start looking forward to Christmas :)

busy week

This last week was pretty busy for us. We had fun going bowling with a couple of friends. We went to the on post bowling alley. Imagine a 100% smoke free bowling lane. There are some advantages to army life. Unfortunately the smokefree air did not help my game and I am still one of the worst bowlers ever. Jonas had a lot of fun the first game. He of course would just basically drop the ball and we had to hurry and push it before it was out of reach so it would make it all the way to the pins. During the second game Jonas kind of lost some interest and just wanted to run around the bowling alley.

At the end of the week we went to Nashville for the 1/2 marathon that I had talked James into doing with me months ago. We did survive. BARELY! Just kidding we had a lot of fun, thanks to Laura and Drew who watched Jonas for us. On our way to the race I was anything but excited however because we had hardly slept the night before, we had to wake up at 4:30 to get there on time, I just wasn't feeling that well, and then while waiting in line for the shuttle to take us to the start of the race we got rained on which made us shiver cause it was still kind of cool outside. Of course once we started running we were fine and luckily the cloud cover kept up for the whole race. James who had not trained at all made it look easy and to his credit he stayed with me the whole time. I did a lot better than I thought I would and kept going until the last few miles where I started getting really really tired. There were thousands of people running in the race and so many people on the sidelines cheering us on as well. It was a great feeling to cross the finish line. We finished in our estimated time and we didn't puke which was one of my goals. Running the marathon made me think about how when we have to go through some trial in life that seems impossibly hard and long lasting, sometimes we have more strength to get through it than we think we do or else we are given more strength than we would normally have. Because I really didn't think that I was going to survive it and I did. That day we all three came home and crashed on the living room floor. The next day James and I were so sore that we were walking weird. But we both agreed that it was a very fun experience.

guitar
violin
trumpet


Jonas received a little t-ball set for easter. Now that it's nice outside we've been having fun with it. He likes it but likes to hit the ball vertically or just tap it forward instead of swinging at it. I think we did manage to finally get a few swings out of him last time. He has also been having fun taking the t-ball set apart and using it as different musical instruments. He likes to jam out to the songs from the movie cars especially "route 66".


He has also been going to "school". It's an in home day care on post that he's been going to two days a week so I can get some work experience. He did have some anxiety about it but he seems to be adjusting quickly. He likes being with other kids and there is a really nice dog at the house that Jonas loves. James is hoping that this will make Jonas less of a mommas boy. Hopefully it will be good for him. I think sometimes that it's harder on me than it is on Jonas. In other moments I am glad for a little break.

I took Jonas to the playground after dinner the other night. We were having fun and were about to go to the swings which are Jonas' favorite when he said to me, "are you my best friend?". Awww so cute.