Long Time

I realized today that is has been along time since I have blogged. I wish I had a good reason as to why I have been so busy, but I don't. It is just life. We have not done anything very exciting or anything out of the ordinary. Our life has been consumed with activities with church, work, and long days at home with Jack. Charlie and I did actually get to go on a date a couple weeks ago. That was such a blessing. I am so thankful to have my parents in town. They are always excited to watch Jack and have a chance to have them to themselves. I have spent a lot of the time this past month being very reflective. It has crazy to think that our little baby will be one next week. It is amazing how fast time flies. It just seems like yesterday that we were anticipating his arrival, not knowing whether or not he was going to be a boy or girl. We spent long nights at home waiting for contractions to start. Now an entire year has passed and our baby looks like a little boy. He is all boy. He is adventurous, loud, daring(kind of), hungry all the time, and he moves nonstop. He is not a cuddle bug at all. If he is up, he wants to explore. I love the little personality he has developed. Yes, he is stubborn, but he is also completely full of joy. He can't stay upset very long. I am so thankful for our beautiful son and I look forward to so many more amazing memories with him. Well, that is our life right now, we are trying to stay healthy and trying to use any excuse to relax as a family. Hope you are enjoying your winter and the season to relax.

Christmas Part 2

Every Christmas growing up we spent Christmas day at my Grandma and Grandpa's house. We would have our little family time and then after breakfast we would travel to Grandma's for the day. It was always full of fun, presents, games, food, cookies and pool. I really enjoyed every moment. We created so many memories and traditions each year. A few years ago Grandma moved into a smaller house. Every since then our new tradition has become to have a Christmas eve brunch at Grandma's house. It is always a lot fun. As family comes into town we all gather, enjoy each other's company and have some good food.
When we first walked into the house, Jack was a little shy and overwhelmed by all the people. We had about 30 people come for Christmas this year and several of them Jack had never met. Of course he warmed up fast and then had a blast playing with every one.

When we were little Grandma got a little red wagon for all of us to use. Uncle Jeff found the wagon and decided to fix it up. He put the names of all of the grandchildren on the panels. Jack loved sitting in the wagon. Of course, Hannah and Elijah were excited to join him.

A family tradition of ours is to go to the movies Christmas eve. It began at least 10 years ago and has continued. There were about 19 that all enjoyed the movies. I decided Jack needed a nap, so we went back to my mom's house and he slept while I helped her prepare for Christmas day.

That evening we attended the Christmas eve service at our chruch. Kristen and I sang "O Holy Night" together. I love being able to sing with her. Unfortunately, we live too far away from each other to do it very often. It was wonderful to have this opportunity.

Family Picture.

After the Christmas eve service we went to my aunt and uncle's house to have dinner and play games. It was a lot of fun to all hang out. I love my family and God has blessed us with great relationships with all of them.

We woke up Christmas morning and had a little family time. The most surprising thing was that even Jack woke up early as if he knew Santa had been there. We had a great time enjoying each other and having some quiet time together. Jack enjoyed digging in his stocking. We were able to talk to Charlie's mom through Skype. She watched Jack open his present from her and Joe. It was fun to share that moment with her.

Early that morning we went to Mom and Dad's house where we met up with Kristen, Chris, Alan, Mom, Dad, Mark and Julie. Mom had breakfast for us and then we opened a few presents before going to church. Jack took naps as often as possible. I was not able to take pictures in the morning due to the fact that I left my camera at church the night before. Anyway, we had a great time just laughing, and having some quality time together.

Just a little sports memerobilia. Even Jack got an Angels sippy cup. Also, there is a little pink onesie for baby Moriah.

Again after nap Jack had another stocking to open. He was a little hungry, so he went straight for the goldfish. It was fun to watch Jack open presents. At the end of the day he had quite a stack of gifts to open. He really took his time. I guess there was so much to look at and so many people to play with.

Chris and Kristen gave Jack (Charlie) a veggietales CD of 80's songs. Jack (Charlie) loves the CD.


Early afternoon the rest of the family showed up. I miss them all so much. It has been a while since Lisa, Katie, Aunt Peggy and Uncle Ken have been here for Christmas. It was so fun to see them. I love them all so much.

The biggest surprise of the day....Tyler and Sam got engaged. We all love Sam. She fits into the family so well. Congratulations.

Jack loves his Aunt Kristen. He really got tired by the end of the day. It was all quite a bit for his little mind.

We tried to open a few more presents after dinner. He was kind of into it. We had a great dinner with everyone and some dessert.

Oh footy pajamas. They are the best. We had to get a pajama picture some of the cousins. Not long after that Jack was in bed and we were playing games with the rest of the family.

What a great weekend. We loved every minute. Jack has been very busy ever since with his new toys. He his so grown up. I still can't believe he is 11 months old already. I will have to post more about that later. Christmas was wonderful and I have to say that God is so good. We had no idea what this Christmas would be like. It seemed overwhelming to buy gifts and make the day perfect for Jack's first Christmas. However, God blessed us in ways we could have never imagined. I am so thankful. Also, any day is better when you get to spend it with family. I want to say thank you to all my family. We had so much fun with all of you, and we love you all so much. Thank you for loving our son.

Christmas Part 1

Christmas is my very favorite holiday. That might even be an understatement. The entire month of December I spend decorating, baking, shopping and celebrating. Of course since this was Jack's first Christmas I wanted everything to be perfect. I was so excited to share each tradition with Jack and just begin these special memories. First up, the tree. We ventured out one afternoon with mom and dad to pick out the perfect tree. I have always loved going to a tree farm and cutting down our own tree. There is something pretty special about that moment. Charlie was called in to work and almost did not get to go, but at the last minute someone relieved him and he was able to join us. That made the day perfect.

Jack just is not sure what is going on.

It was pretty cold, but we were all but we were all bundled up.

Jack was very interested in helping us decorate the tree, but we were very impressed that he did not touch the tree or the presents very much.

The middle of December was super busy because our church does a big Christmas program. We

were exhausted , but enjoyed being a part of everything. The program also went very well.

A couple days later my sister and her husband flew in from Texas. We have not seen them since Jack was 6 weeks old. It was nice to have a couple days before Christmas to spend together and have some quality time together. Charlie had the week off, so he had some time to hang out with us. The first night they were in town went to dinner and looked at some beautiful Christmas lights.

Jack really enjoyed the lights. However, toward the end he got really tired. It was so fun to share with him all the joys of Christmas.

The next day Chris and Kristen came over for the day. We baked, watched movies and just relaxed. When mom and dad arrived we had dinner and made "gingerbread houses" out of graham crackers. I got started with Jack. He instantly began to eat the candy. He took a candy cane from me and started sucking on it. We had a very unhappy child when we took the candy away. I guess my son has a sweet tooth.

Friday nights in Grass Valley we have Cornish Christmas. My mom works at a store downtown, so she always has to work. We try to go to the street fair as often as possible to spend time with my mom. It was super cold, but it was fun to take Jack. He could barely move with all the warm clothes.
There was a little shop this year with Santa. We decided we wanted to get pictures with Santa, but we were not sure what Jack would do. Amazingly he did great. Of course he was given a candy cane and that satisfied him completely. We were even able to get quite a few pictures.
All the festivities were wonderful. I was ready for Christmas after all the fun things. Friday night all my mom's family arrived and we had a weekend of family. I will have another post to share all the fun that we had over the weekend.

Reflections

As I was looking at blogs this morning I noticed that I am on my 100th post. That is pretty crazy to think about. It seems to be appropriate to reflect on all that has happened this past year. Yes, 2011 is coming to a close and there is a part of me that is ready for this year to be over and to be moving on. It has been a rather difficult year. I have to say that I am so very thankful for the blessing of Jack. God gave us the most precious gift this year and through all the difficult circumstances we have faced over that past 8 months, Jack has brought all the moments of joy, love, excitement and blessing. God knew that we needed Jack at such a time as this. I often wonder how much more difficult this year would have been if we did not have Jack. He provided so many moments of distraction from the anxieties and fears. I am so very thankful for this little boy. He has filled my heart with so much love. It is truly amazing. I can't believe how fast it has gone. We are rapidly approaching his first birthday and that seems unbelievable.
Though this year has been very difficult I can truly say that God has shown up over and over again, proving that He is our savior that has promised to provide our every need. He has been our strength emotionally, physically, spiritually and mentally. When things seemed too difficult to bare, we had someone we could turn to, who provided encouragement thourgh His word. I have learned to claim the promises that God has given to us, and accept His grace. I have learned that Grace is given reguardless of what I have done to earn it. If I could earn grace, it would no longer be grace. I have learned to be content in all circumstances. There is so much more beyond this life and all the material possessions we could have on this earth matter very little. I hold onto the hope that I find in the promise of life beyond this world. I do love the life God has given me, the people he has blessed me with, my church family who is generous beyond imagination, my family who will never let us go hungry, and my husband who loves me unconditionally.
Most of our struggle this past year has been financial. As statistics state, finances are one of the leading causes of marital problems. And yes, financial struggle does put a strain on a marriage. However, though times have been difficult, and tension has arisen, our marriage has been strengthened. I love Charlie more today than the day we met, or even the day we married. God knows what we can handle and will never give us more than that. He has allowed us to face difficult times and through it all He has strengthened us, and drawn us closer to Him and closer to each other.
I am ready for this year to end, but I have to step out of 2011 with a thankful heart, realizing that if it had not been for this year I would not be the person I am today. I would not have learned contentment, grace, and holding onto God's promises. Our marriage would not be as strong as it is. For all of this I am thankful. Praise the Lord. He is worthy to be praised.

Christmas Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

One of my favorite things about Christmas is giving and receiving Christmas cards. I am really disappointed that this year we are not able to send out Christmas cards. After years of getting family pictures in the mail from all my friends, I was so excited to finally have a year where I could send out a family picture. However, we are just not in the position to do that. So, I improvise, this posting will be our Christmas letter!!! I hope you all enjoy this, and sorry if it is very long, but I promise to inculde many pictures. Maybe it is even better because instead of just one family picture you can see several.
As this past year began, we really spent a lot of time just preparing and waiting for Jack to arrive. My due date was January 31st. It all seems like a blur now that I think about it. I just know that I had my baby shower, bought a lot of baby items and spent some quality time with Charlie. We really enjoyed every moment we had because we knew that our life was about to change dramtically.
My due date came and went and we just waited. February 4th my grandma turned 80 so I had planned a huge birthday party for her. That weekend most of our family came into town to celebrate. It was such a fun weekend and we continued to just wait. My younger cousins stayed with us that weekend and it was super fun. Then Sunday morning after the party I went in to be induced and little did we know that before the super bowl ended we would have a little boy in our arms. We were supose to spend the day watching the super bowl with the family.Instead something much more amazing filled our day.
Jack Wyatt Cazin: Born Sunday, February 6, 2011 at 6:18pm. 7bls 1oz 20inches long.

Jack had many visitors in the hospital. Here is Dresden and Grandma. Grandma had just turned 80 and she was so proud to have a grandson named after her deceased husband.

That first month of Jack's life we spent at home as a family of three. Charlie had the entire month off, so each day was filled with naps, food, "The Cosby Show", family and snow. It actually snowed so many times Jack's first month, we really did not go out of the house very often. We really enjoyed that time. Jack has brought so much joy into our lives.

Jack's first snow. He was so tiny. It is amazing to see how fast he has grown. We have loved every minute, but I can't believe it has already been ten months.

Charlie's mom was able to come and spend a week with us after Jack was born. It was so great to have her here with us. What a blessing and I know she enjoyed every moment.

We tried swaddling our little boy, and soon realized that he would not be contained. He wanted to have the freedom to spread his wings. Now he is a great sleeper.


March brought my sister and her husband from Texas. It was so much fun to see them and enjoy some quality time without the business of a holiday. We hadsuch a good time. I miss them so much and cannot wait to spend Christmas with them this year. We are going to have so much fun. The best part is that she is pregnant. I am so glad that we are able to have children close in age. This is something I have always dreamed of. Now we just have to live a little closer and things would be perfect.

To say Chris is a Packers fan is a little bit of an understatement. February 6th was one of the best days of his life. His Packers won and he became an uncle again. He took this picture to give Charlie a hard time. Charlie really does not like the Packers. They have a little bit of a rival going on.

While Chris and Kristen were in town we took a trip with Mom and Dad to Lake Tahoe. The snow was beautiful and I was so excited to take my newborn to my favorite place on earth.

April was kind of a crazy month. Charlie started a new job. Well, he still works with the bank, but he transferred branches in order to become the branch manager of a bank in town. It has been a crazy transition. However, he is very good as managing people. The job fits him very well. Also, Jack turned two months old, and started sleeping through the night. I started feeling like a new woman. We also had some more visitors. My cousin Tyler and his girlfriend, Samantha, came to visit. Hannah and Elijah also spent some time with Jack. They are fascinated by Jack.

April also brought Jack's first Easter. Yes, I realize all the fun things we did this year are more for Charlie and I, than for Jack. He will not remember any of these things, but I have been looking forward to doing festive activities with my children for years, so I took full advantage of the chance to be a kid. We decorated Easter eggs, had an Easter egg hunt and even did Easter baskets.

Our Family Easter Photo. (It is so crazy to look at these pictures. Jack is so much bigger and has such a personality)

Okay, so I missed pictures from May, but I celebrated my birthday and first Mother's day on the same day. It was kind of exciting. Also, we had a weekend of mini vacations. Charlie took Memorial Day weekend off from work, so we had a staycation. One day we traveled to Bodega Bay. On the way we stopped at the Jelly Belly Factory. I guess I forgot those pictures. We took Jack to the beach for the first time. It was pretty cold, and actually raining. Luckily it cleared up long enough for us to walk down to the water.

In June Rosie came and stayed with us for a few weeks. Jack enjoyed having a house guest.

June was another month with many changes. We had Rosie stay with us the first two weeks. The third week was spent in Las Vegas. On Father's day we got a call that Charlie's dad had passed away. We quickly packed our bags and left for Las Vegas the next day to take care of the details and be with family. It was a bitter sweet trip because Jack got to meet a lot of family, but we also had very sad circumstances to work through.
Jack with Charlie's sister Kelly. It was so good to see her because a few weeks later they moved to Hawaii.

Four Generations of Cazin men.

Summer brought days at the park, fine arts camp, swimming, friends, a wedding, camping, and many milestones for Jack.

Of course all the fun activities comletely wore Jack out. Night time became a favorite time for all of us.

What a handsome date. He came to the ceremony and then went to Grandma and Grandpas to Charlie and I could enjoy the reception. It was a beautiful wedding. I was so blessed to be a part of Stephanie and Stephen's special day. They are a wonderful couple.

I just had to throw in this picture because Jack is just too cute. He loves bath time.

In September we went camping in Tahoe. I really enjoyed the trip. Charlie on the other hand had a difficult time. Camping with a baby is so much more difficult than I imagined it would be. It was so cold, so whenever Jack woke up he could not get back to sleep because he was too cold. And of course you don't want to be the people that others complain about because they have the crying baby. We had very little sleep throughout the weekend. Maybe next year things will be better. We will see.

It always seems that the celebrations for the year start in September. My family has a lot of birthdays between Sept and January, so it kind of feels like none stop parties, which is kind of fun. So, for Aunt Phyllis' birthday we occupanied her and Leslie and Adam to the circus. They kids had a great time. Jack actually really enjoyed looking at everything. It did great for most of the circus.

In the midst of all the celebrations Jack explored everything. He learned to crawl, pull himself up, sit up, roll over, feed himself, and even walk around the furniture. He started to move when we were in Vegas in June and has not stopped since. He is such a busy boy.

We celebrated Charlie's birthday with a picnic at the park with family and friends. I have started using my cake decorating skills. The birthdays have been a good excuse to practice. For Charlie's birthday I made a Star Trek cake. He wanted me to make a cake with a spaceship on it. The cake turned out amazing.

More celebrations came in October. Charlie's Aunt and Uncle came to visit us the first weekend of Oct. We took them to Apple Hill and ate our way through the day. Well, actually I think we ate our way through the entire weekend. We had so much fun shopping, eating and showing them around our little town. It was so nice to have some of Charlie's family visit. They came for our wedding, but we did nto ahve time to show them anything in our town. This was a weekend full of blessings. Aunt Cheryl loved every moment with Jack. She is so sweet.

In October we also celebrated my Mom's birthday. Another excuse to make a cake. I really like this cake. It was so cute. We also had a fall party. They last few years, well since we have gotten married I like to have a fall party at my house. We eat fun food and carve pumpkins. Before everyone arrived Charlie had come home with a pumpkin. We put Jack in his little pumpkin costume and let him explore the pumpkin. Of course everything is much more exciting when you can put it in your mouth.

On Halloween we had a party at our church. Charlie and I ran the cake walk. Everyone loved our costumes. No I am not a treky, but I went along with Charlie's idea for costumes this year. Next year maybe we will have a theme that fits me a little better. However, I have to say that it was fun to see everyone's reactions. Jack's eyebrows were the hit of the show.

This is Jack's new face when we ask him to smile for a picture. I have no idea where he got this, but it is absolutely adorable. This is a picture of my mom and Jack on Thanksgiving. We had a great Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving day with my family. Then we drove through the night and arrived in Yorba Linday, CA about 4 am Friday morning. The idea was that we were going to spend "Friends Friday" with Charlie's Aunt and Uncle. We thought that we would drive through the night because that would be the best for Jack. It actually worked really well for Jack. We were pretty tired the next day, but since we were awake in the middle of the night we took advantage of that and stopped at Target to hit a few of the Black Friday deals. It was nuts inside. I stayed in the car with Jack so he would not get woken up. Charlie braved the crowds on his own. I don't think we will do that again, but we did get some good deals.

We had two thanksgiving dinners and Jack thoroughly enjoyed them both. He ate so much food over the weekend, I was completely shocked. I don't know where he puts it all because in the past 5 months he has only gained 1 pound. Unbelievable.

We spent a few days in southern california with family. It was super relaxing. It took jack the entire weekend to get use to Mac. He really was not sure that this creature was really a dog. It was quite confusing for him. However, if Mac ever went far away, Jack would crawl after him to see what he was doing.

Now Jack is ten months old and we are getting ready for Christmas. Last weekend we went and got our Christmas tree. He really enjoyed watching the lights and playing with the ornaments. We are looking forward to Christmas this year and all the family that will be in town. We already have Jack's gift and cannot wait to give it to him. Charlie is still thinking of other things he can get for his son. Charlie is a great gift giver.

And......

Jack took his first step today. I am not sure what this means as far as him walking on his own a whole lot, but this is proof that he is close to walking. I can't believe how much he has grown. Every moment is so fun with him. He enjoys playing games with us and laughing all the time. SOmetimes he will initiate games and just start laughing waiting for us to chase him around the living room.He has such a fun loving personality and I love that we are starting to see glimpses of who he will become.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and that God will bless you all termendously. He is so good and he has walked us through some rather difficult times this past year. However our savior is faithful and will alway follow through with his promises. I am so thankful to have hope in him.