Happy Valentine's Day!

I know that Valentine's Day is a thing of the past, but please forgive my need to go over it anyway. This Valentine's Day, Jared and I decided to do something that we have never done before...plan something AND buy each other gifts! Crazy, right? I started off the night before Valentine's Day with something fun. I made a sign that said "Will You Be My Valentine?" (in the style of Scrabble letters of course!) and then I tied string through it and around Christian's waist. I may or may not have gotten the idea from someone who did it to their pet...don't judge! Any way, so I tied it around his waist and I had him crawl out to Jared. It was really cute and super funny. Luckily, Jared said yes!

Afterward, I went on a walk with my friend Emily, and when I came home, there was a single red rose on the bed and a gift card! On the note it said, "Since you started early, I thought I would to". It was really cute! Needless to say, I thought that was the end of the gift-giving from Jared. Boy was I wrong! When I got to work the next morning, there were two more roses on my keyboard and ANOTHER gift card! He had asked a co-worker of mine to bring it in before I got there so it would be waiting! How sweet is that? All in all I ended up with two gift cards, 6 roses and a beautiful card. I got Jared a spa package for a 90 minute couples massage - which he LOVED.

For our date we actually coordinated with two other couples in our ward to do a Progressive Dinner. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, basically you have appetizers at one person's house, hop in the car and have dinner at another person's house and then do the same thing for dessert! Elena and Cameron were in charge of appetizers and it was delicious! There were pizza rolls, spinach artichoke dip, buffalo wings and jalapeno poppers....all homemade and all absolutely delicious! We then went to Emily and Soni's house where we had a pork roast and salad which was to die for. At my house, we came back and had homemade p'zookies! All in all, it was an absolutely delicious meal and a fun night with some of the people that I love the most. Oh, and a shout-out to my parents who watched Christian so we could enjoy our night - they are the best!

11 Months

So...I know that it is just a few days before Christian turns 1, and I want to get this post in before the 11 month milestones are lost forever!

The fact of the matter is...my baby is growing up! He doesn't even look like a baby anymore. :( During the past month he not only became a super fast and proficient crawler, he also learned to walk and he is zooming all over the place...and he's FAST. He is still pretty wobbly sometimes (usually when he is tired) and I may or may not refer to him as a drunk baby when he walks sometimes, but the fact is that he is walking pretty much all the time. I am excited and so proud of him, buuuuuuut I was not looking forward to the walking stage and I was right to be worried. He is everywhere and into everything. His new favorite activities are:
-Pulling every single DVD we own off the shelf
-Unfolding all of the laundry as mom is folding it
-Pulling all the Tupperware out of the cabinets
-Throwing all of his cheerios, goldfish, string cheese, all over the floor and screaming
-Stomping his feet and screaming when we don't give him something that we are eating
-Chasing the cat

-Sitting on my niece Elaine
-Laughing at himself in the mirror as he is hitting it with a toy...you get the picture

Does he sound like a toddler? Because sometimes I swear he thinks he's going to be 2, not 1. Okay so that is all of the crazy stuff he's doing that drives me nuts! He also is still the sweet, smiley, laughing, babbling boy you all remember. He cuddles with me and says over and over "mamamamamamamamama". He is starting to say "dada" and he loves to say "bubba", which is what we call him the majority of the time. He is super happy in the mornings and will usually bounce in his crib and make funny noises. He also likes to screech and then laugh at himself. He will eat anything we put in front of him, which definitely makes life easier. Basically he is just a happy, easy going boy who is looking for new adventures all the time. When I am home I spend basically every minute we are together absolutely smothering the poor boy! I am so blessed to have such a sweet little boy and I am so excited to celebrate his first birthday this week!

10 Months

Well, here he is in all his glory! My little boy is 10 months and on his way to 11. Things are busy, but I couldn't ask for a better kid. He is learning and growing and just having a great time. He loves to stand and bounce and dance, and he is still cruising around using either our fingers, furniture, or other toys that help him balance. I am not looking forward to the walking AT ALL! Already he is giving us a run for our money and he is just crawling!

He is into everything, extremely curious and definitely a DETERMINED child. We are having an absolute blast though. He makes tons of noise and can make the sounds "mama" and "dada" but he still hasn't associated that with us yet. I am definitely looking forward to that.

In true Joyner fashion he is eating EVERYTHING we put in front of him. It doesn't seem to matter what it is or what the combination may be, he loves it! Tonight I may or may not have given him yogurt topped with pureed carrots...DELISH ;) His new favorite thing is getting down from the couch or our bed by himself. It's definitely not graceful, but this boy does not seem to be afraid of anything. I know I am going to have my hands full with this one - I can already imagine him balancing himself on the top of a bookshelf or something.

Things with Jared and I are going well, as always! I am still teaching in the Young Women program at church, which is always an absolute blast, and Jared was just called to the Elder's Quorum Presidency, so we definitely have a lot going on. We still find time for date nights though, don't you fret ;)

9 Months

9 months has been such a fun age for Christian. He is so much fun! He laughs and is learning some independence. He is cruising all around using us and the furniture to get from place to place. I thought for sure that he would skip crawling because he just had absolutely zero interest in being on his stomach, but he surprised me and started crawling one day! I think that Jared posted a video of it on Facebook. We saw him start moving a bit and decided to entice him with Daddy's iTouch to get him crawling. Each day he gets a little faster and now that he isn't resigned to stay in the place I put him, he is a lot more content sitting and playing because he knows he can get somewhere else if he wanted to.

Having Elaine live with us has been an absolute blessing. She and Christian are already thick as thieves and although they steal each other's toys and scream with jealousy sometimes, for the most part they just play and laugh together. I am glad that even though Christian doesn't have a sibling, his cousin has filled a big part of that void for us. She was very influential in helping him learn to crawl, I think, because even though she can walk, she would get down and crawl around Christian and show him how it's done.

His temperament is still happy-go-lucky and that is a huge relief to me. I know now how absolutely blessed I am to have such an easy-going, fun, trusting baby. So far he has shown no signs of "stranger anxiety" that sometimes hits kids as they get older, and I hope that he will continue to be such a joy for everyone he comes in contact with. He is still growing like a weed, no surprise there. At the last Doctor appointment he was weighing about 23 lbs and was a full 33 inches long.

Christian brings us such happiness and I can't wait to see what else is in store for our little family.

Disneyland 2011

We had a great time at Disneyland this Thanksgiving. Having a child, even a small one like Christian, really changed how I viewed the park. I cannot WAIT for him to get a little older so he can begin to appreciate the magic that this park holds for me. 

This is riding the Tram into the park. Can't you see how excited he is!?

 We went with my family and also my Aunt and Uncle Kevin, and cousins Keith, Joel and Karl. They were such a big help to Jared and I with Christian and it was nice to have people to alternate with so that Jared and I could ride the things that weren't kid friendly. We did, however, take Christian on a few things and he was just an absolute perfect kid.

Here we are waiting to watch Captain Eo. Christian is all set with his 3D glasses

We took Christian on Pirates of the Caribbean and he LOVED it! I thought he would get scared with the canon ball fire, but that totally interested him. He was crawling all over me trying to see.

We also took him on the Jungle Cruise. Can you tell he is NOT IMPRESSED by our guide!?

Here he is all tuckered out from a long day.

 We were given two-day passes so on the second day my sweet cousin Shauna watched Christian for us so that Jared and I could enjoy the park together. We rode everything that we wanted to and had a great time being childless for the day.

My husband is soooooo fancy

This is at our favorite restaurant in the park. We just couldn't miss it!

We had such a great time and I am so grateful to the family that helped us get there.

Thanksgiving 2011

I know I am ridiculously late on posting! My work needs to upgrade their browser so I can't post from work anymore! lol I guess that means I have to take the time to do it from home now....which is why I am behind. Somehow there is just never enough time when I am home to do a blog, or facebook or anything else nowadays. Thanksgiving this year was a blast, for the most part. We went down to SoCal to visit my side of the family and also to go to Disneyland!

This year we actually had Thanksgiving at my Aunt's church building because there are just TOO MANY of us now to fit in her home. I thought it would be kind of weird to have it there, but in true Stokes fashion, they managed to transform the cultural hall into a Thanksgiving feast. My aunt carted in all of her fine china, silver and crystal for the event and made it extremely homey and welcoming. Since there are so many kids, we also had a tv set up with movies and room to play basketball for all the guys. Dinner was fantastic, as usual, and so was spending time with everyone. I am so grateful for my wonderful family and everyone making the effort to go down to celebrate together.

My two boys - Love them

Brooke and I - coordinating for family pictures that would come after dinner

My cousin Erin (doesn't it look like we should be sisters!?) and our boys :)

Erin's middle daughter. She is absolutely stunning.

An up-close view of the table settings.

I really wish that I would have taken more pictures, but I guess I was just way too busy having a great time!

My First Official 5k!

Here's my little boy before the big race. Doesn't he look excited!?

Excited to begin

Ready to run!

I think this was taken in Mile 1. I made Jared turn around and run backward so that I could get a shot of him!

Running hard!

Jared was trying to get all three of us in the shot, but it didn't quite work

Can you tell that I am excited? I think this was still Mile 1

After the race

It was a really cool experience to finish the 5k. I was so glad that Jared and my sister in law Morgan were willing and happy to come and participate in it with me. It is definitely a day I will never forget!