Christmas Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

This year we have decided to post our Christmas letter on the blog...that way when you are done reading you don't have to throw anything in the trash. Our lives have been changed completely since last year...I know I didn't do a letter last year, but trust me it has changed a ton. In November of last year Dustin and I found out I was pregnant. After 15 months of trying we were so happy it finally happened, excited and a little scared too. I had a very uneventful pregnancy right up to the end. In the end I had to be induced due to low amniotic fluid and things went well. There is more detailed info on the birth for those who are interested posted on the blog in July.

Jackson Brian Treanor arrived on July 20, 2008. It is amazing how such a little bundle can completely change your life. From the start Jack has been a very content child and we are so lucky. He was sleeping through the night when he was 8 weeks old and rarely has a melt down. Dustin is convinced that Jack saves all his meltdowns for when I am not around. I took 3 months off work after Jack was born and that was the best. It gave the two of us some great bonding time and I got a chance to get used to being a mom. Dustin took a couple of weeks off work and then went back just before my mom came for a visit and then my dad came shortly after that. When I did finally get back to work I took is slow and over the course of 3 weeks finally went back to full-time status. That was really hard, but we have found a really great day care and Jack seems to love it. He recently had a Christmas program and when he saw his teachers he got the biggest grin on his face.

While Jackson was such a great addition to our family we did have one loss. In June my Grandpa Robert Korfhage passed away. I miss him so much! I miss his short phone conversations and his unconditional love. I am sorry he did not get a chance to meet Jackson or any of his other great-grandkids (4 were born within 4 months of each other), but I know he is smiling and keeping his loving eyes on all of them.

Dustin continues his work at the courthouse as the building manager in the administrative office. He continues to play softball and this summer was able to play on 5 different softball teams. Being pregnant and then a new mom I was able to watch a lot of his games this summer and fall. Jack attended his dad's first softball game when he was 3 weeks old. In addition to softball Dustin has been busy this year with volleyball, racquetball, tennis, golf and flag football. Dustin is a great dad and comes by it very naturally.

I am back to work full-time at Wasatch Peak Physical Therapy. I enjoy my work very much and this makes it worth the 35 mile commute. I took this summer and fall off from softball. I tried to play once when I was about 6-7 months pregnant and this was a big mistake...I was sore for over a week. I was able to play golf until I was about 8 months pregnant, but I did have to use a cart once I was about half way into my pregnancy.

Daisy, the dog, is now 5 years old and acting like she is 2. She has had to make some adjustments in her life as she has come to find out she is no longer number one, but she still gets her twice daily walks and we love on her as much as possible. She just sometimes looks at us like she is getting the short end of the stick, but I guess she is compared to how it used to be.

All and all things are going really well for us. We are looking forward to watching Utah play Alabama in the Sugar bowl. Jack attended 3 Utah football games with us and did not cry once...he is such a Champ. Please check out previous postings for more detailed stories about our life since the coming of Jackson and there will be many more to come.

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Love,

Kristen, Dustin, Jackson and Daisy

Welcome Hansen's

My good friend Courtney and her family stopped by to say hello and catch a plane to New Jersey for their Thanksgiving break. Courtney and Ron live in Lander, Wyoming with their two children Whitney and Craig. It was so good to see them even if it was for a short time. Courtney was kind enough to bring 6 kitchen garbage bags full of Craig's old clothes for Jackson. There was a time when Courtney was sure they were going to have three kids, but since the birth of her son she is now convinced two is enough. Until the plane ride home from New Jersey Ron thought one more would be nice, but I think he has changed his mind now...I can't imagine why his kids are so cute, they look like perfect angels to me. Love you Court!

GO DUCKS!

Last week the Oregon Ducks came to Salt Lake to take on the University of Utah in men's basketball. It was big controversy here at the Treanor house as to what Jack was to wear to the game. I got on line and paid way too much for the cutest little Nike outfit for Jack to wear. I bought a 6-9 month size which I knew was going to be way too big, but I didn't want to buy him the 3-6 month size and then only have him wear it for 1-2 months.

I told Dustin that Jackson had to wear Duck stuff because no one would give me a bad time in my Oregon gear if there was the cutest little baby sporting Oregon gear too! Jackson and I were two of about 20 Duck fans at the game and we were disappointed when the Utes beat Oregon 95-81. The Ducks are young and with 6 freshman on the team, watch out in the next couple of years!

To each his own, but I think Jack looks much cuter in green and yellow!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! We spent Thanksgiving at Pete's mother-in-law, Rebecca's, house. I brought a deep fried turkey which if you haven't had a deep fried turkey, try one...they are delicious! We had all the other typical foods of mashed potatos, yams, shrimp cocktail, stuffing and rolls. Everything was delicious and as always I ate too much. Jackson had a great day with family...grandma, grandpa, great grandma, uncles and aunts.

Treanor Kids
(Dustin, Porter, Merek, Bailey and Chloe

Jackson & Uncle Merek

Great Grandma Rebecca, Jack and Bailey

Jack & Aunt Bailey

Pappy, Jack and Porter

The BIG Game/4 months old

On Saturday November 22nd Utah played BYU. Due to my delay in blogging most sports watchers are aware that we beat BYU!!! This is the biggest game of the year, even if we weren't going for a perfect season. We could lose every game the entire year and as long as we beat BYU there is a silver lining (I am sure you WSU fans can relate, congratulations by the way). Grandpa Pete (Pappy) came over with Aunt Chloe to watch Jack and the game. Dustin and I had a fabulous time at the game! It is much easier to cheer and be rowdy without Jackson with us. The first three quarters were a little disconcerting. For those of you who are unfamiliar with our history, the last two years BYU has beaten Utah in the last few minutes/seconds of the game. The U came through this year and in the fourth quarter we blew it wide open. It felt so good to pummel those Cougars! Now it is on to New Oreleans on January 2nd, where we will take on the University of Alabama Crimson Tide...Go Utes.

Jackson is now 4 months old and again he had his shots and check-up. Again Jack came though like a champ and had no fussiness or adverse side effects due to his shots (this time no lotion on his injection sites). Jack weighed 14 lbs and is 50th percentile in weight, 30th percentile in height and 50th percentile in head size. His doctor was pleased with his weight gain and with my history of allergies she wanted to wait on giving him cereal until he is 5-6 months old. She said as long as he is sleeping through the night and gaining weight the cereal could wait. Dr. Schriewer said his milestones to watch for will be rolling from his back to his belly and transferring objects from one hand to another.

At school they started putting him in a standing saucer and he loved it. Some friends of ours gave us a standing jumper and Jack absolutely loves it. Sometimes he jumps in it so much he is so fatigued he just falls asleep in mid jump! He is a very happy baby and sometimes I feel guilty because he is so good and so content. I guess we are just lucky...hopefully 2 years from now I won't be blogging about what a terror he is!

Grammy & Grampy

Grammy and Grampy came for a visit a couple of weeks ago! The last time my mom was here Jack was only 3 weeks old and boy has he changed! Grampy David saw him for the first time and he said "He is a good looking kid." We had a really nice time, but I don't think Grammy had enough time and she is already planning her next trip.

Grammy came out a few days before Grampy. David was finishing a trip with is family through Michigan and then to Washington D.C. and back. His daughter had a new baby at the beginning of October. Gammy spent most of her time holding little Jack, marveling at his growth and loving him as much as possible...which is a lot of grandma lovin'! We took a trip to Park City to the outlet mall and surprisingly did not buy much, but it was a beautiful 60 degree day under a blue Park City sky...there is nothing like it!

Jack, Grammy and I picked up Grampy David at the airport. We had a lot of fun just hanging out and enjoying the short time we had together. We did drag grampy to Babies r Us and again did not spend much...I don't know what was wrong with me...I guess having a baby really does change you. We were so sad to see Grammy and Grampy go home! The talk of the upcoming holidays makes me a little sad to be so far away from family...I have a new little niece that I want to hold so bad I can hardly stand it. Thank goodness for Skype!

Getting Bigger

I know I know!!! It has been a while, but work makes things so much harder. Jack seems to be progressing along well. He is holding his head up really well while both sitting and lying on his tummy. We have had no roll overs yet! I know that people say not to compare your kids to others, but it is hard. Jack shows signs of rolling from his back to his front, he gets 3/4 of the way there, but just doesn't go over. I know it will come. He has shown no signs at all of going from tummy to back. He just plays on his tummy and when he is done, he cries. I suppose that when he is finally motivated enough it will happen. We see his doctor next week and I will just her about it then. I am sure she will say not to worry about it. I will keep you posted.

We made it through the first cold...of course he got both Dustin and I sick. A friend of ours made a good point (I'm not sure it is very scientific), she said that we are not used to the kid germs and they are harder to fight off. It might be a long winter. We did not have to have any antibiotics but his nose was very congested and he hated having his boogers sucked out. I did call his doctor and she said they try to keep them off antibiotics if they can. She said to watch for fever and not eating or sleeping. He did not have any of these signs so it was just a little saline in the nose and then a good suck and the boogers came right out! Just a hint: If you want to get a good suck be sure to close one nostril when sucking the other. This keeps the boogers from just being sucked from side to side.

Here are a few short videos of how much he is growing and changing. The first one is a bath time video. After we are done with his bathing, I take him out of his chair, hold his head and let him float. He loves kicking his arms and legs in the water. He can create quite a splash!

The next video is a little giggling. We have had some better giggle fits, but this is the one we have on video.

This last video is just totally random! We were at home watching a Tennessee Titans football game and I needed the Titans to win for my football pool. I was just being silly and it seemed to make Jack very happy.

All and all things have been great here in Salt Lake City! We just love being Jack's parents!

Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Jackson had a great Halloween...or at least I think he did. Dustin and I had fun having Halloween with little Jack. He was such a sweet little cow. I am pretty sure he was the cutest little cow ever!

The day before Halloween we went to a cookie party with my best friend Amy's family. Amy's nephew Michael and his wife Emily have a little boy, Will, who is 3 weeks younger than Jackson. He might look like he is older but he is not older, just bigger. He makes Jack look like a little midget. They made a great pair, the candy corn and the cow...BFF's!















On Halloween our little cow handed out candy to the kids that came to the house. We missed most of them because when we went out to walk Daisy and it seemed like all the kids were out and when we got home there were none. After handing out some candy we went visiting our friends and showing off our cute cow. We ended up at Amy's sister's house playing Rock Band. While you think it might be hard to play Rock Band with an infant it wasn't because we had Toni. Toni is Amy's sister and she took Jack into her room and cuddled him and loved him until we went home around midnight.

It was a good Halloween and we look froward to next year...he won't be able to do much trick or treating, maybe a house or two but he will probably be walking. I am definitely not ready for that yet!

Snow Suit

Since Jack was about 6 weeks old I have been taking him to Layton High School football games. My clinic covers all the injuries for Layton High. Jackson has gone to all but 2 of the games (both were before he was 6 weeks old) and he never fusses. He usually watches the first half and then sleeps the second half. It is the magic of the sling. A couple of weeks ago the temperature dropped and we actually got some snow...not at the game, but it was quite chilly. I found him a little snow suit which he could wear for walks in the winter, but it works perfectly for football games too. Have you ever seen anything so cute!!!

I Miss Him When I'm at Work

Well it was back to work this week. On Monday Dustin was off for Columbus Day so he stayed home with Jack. I worked a 4 hour day, but with the commute and paperwork Dad was home with the boy ALONE for 6 hours! They did just fine. I didn't do too bad either. It was much easier leaving him with Dustin. The 2 of them spent the day walking the dog and playing NCAA football on the play station. Jackson only had one melt down...and I learned a good lesson. Don't leave Dad to put on an outfit that you have never tried on the baby first. Dustin asked that I leave some clothes out for Jack and I picked this cute outfit. I have been slowly moving out his newborn clothes and adding in 3-6 month clothes. I had never put this outfit on Jack before and it was made of cotton, but not a very stretchy cotton. When Dustin was trying to put on a long sleeved shirt I don't know if he caught Jack's finger or twisted his arm funny, but apparently Jackson started screaming bloody murder. It took Dustin about 30 minutes to calm him down, but he did it all by himself without a call to mom. Yeah Dad!

Tuesday was a much harder day. I took Jackson to his school...I like to call it school, it makes me feel better than day care. These pictures are from his first day of school. The ladies that work there are very nice and they welcomed him with warm and open arms. I don't have any fears that they won't take care of him, it is just hard being away from him. I cried on my way to work, but was able to work the whole day without any tears. Dustin picked him up and the ladies said he was the only baby that day not to have a melt down. His favorite place was to sit in the bouncy chair. He ate his breast milk well and was happy when Dustin picked him up after work. It was a good first day at school.

The rest of the week continued to go well. I can't tell you how excited I am to get home from work every day. It actually gives me more energy and I feel no fatigue at the end of the day, of course the longest day I worked was 6 hours so we will see when that jumps up to a 9 hour day. Everyday gets a little easier and as long as he seems happy I am happy. Having Wednesdays off is great. We get to spend the whole day together, just like old times!