Santa!

So...I know I haven't been the best blogger lately. I'm working on it.

We finally made it to see Santa today. I've been really hoping to get Jack's picture made with him, but I just wasn't willing to go to the mall and wait in line forever until Jack got so distraught that he would only scream when we finally made it to the front of the line. Last year we went to a local toy store that has Santa visit one Saturday and you can bring your own camera and take as many pics as you like. We missed that day this year, so I went in search for another free Santa picture opportunity. Last Friday, we went to a Christmas Festival thing in downtown Round Rock in hopes of a picture with Santa. It was really fun and much bigger than we thought, and we couldn't even find Santa for a long time. When we finally found the line, they cut it off. So, alas, still no Santa picture. Today we found that Santa would be wandering around the outlet mall near our house and so we set off in search of the elusive free Santa picture! We found the big guy right away, sitting on a bench. As soon as Jack saw him, he made a beeline for him, and when the boy sitting on Santa's lap was finished with his requests, Jack began chattering away. He knew he was supposed to tell Santa what he wanted, and he did. He asked Santa for a snowman, which is all we've heard when we've asked what he wants for Christmas. Santa agreed that a snowman would be nice since it was 80 degrees here today! He wasn't scared of Santa at all, and carried around his candy cane that Santa gave him proudly. (He still doesn't really understand that they're edible, which is fine with me!) I think it was actually good that he saw Santa later in the month, rather than earlier. If we had gone at the beginning of December, he probably would have thought it was Noah! (It took him awhile to get those two straightened out!)

Here are the pictures we took today. Merry Christmas!

Welcome Baby Clementine!

Matt's sister Jill had her baby yesterday, November 11 at 5:51 pm. She was 8 lbs. 12 oz. and absolutely perfect! We're so glad she's finally here. Jack's working on saying Clementine. So far he's got Clem-baby. :) Here are a few pics of the little cutie!

Trick Or Treat!

Jack had a great time trick-or-treating around our neighborhood, and he was especially happy to have Aunt Jenny join him!

It's Pumpkin Time!

But as you can see from Jack's clothing choice, it's still pretty warm here. But that's okay. We had a great time at the pumpkin patch! Happy Fall!

Spoiler Alert!

We got Jack's Halloween costume today. He was so excited and when we tried it on he loved it! He's gonna be a FROG! We saw a frog on our front porch one time a few weeks ago, and now every time we go outside he looks for it. He walks around and looks in the bushes and says, "Frog! Frog!" Then finally he says, "Night Night." I guess he figures the frog is asleep. This is his phrase for anything that is off limits or gone away for awhile. It's "Night night." :) Last night we were playing in the front yard and some people we don't know were walking by, and Jack made sure to tell them about our frog!

So here's the frog!

Warning...I'm gonna Brag!

I know it's annoying when people always talk about how smart their kids are, but I just have to brag. So if you don't want to hear it, stop reading!

Jack has really been talking A LOT lately, and every day he seems to have a new word or two. It's really fun to see and hear all the books and songs and nursery rhymes we've been saying all his life come out of his mouth. He knows the colors red, blue and sometimes green. He can sorta count with me. He can name almost all the words in all his picture/word books. He knows the letters in his name (only the ones in the bathtub, but I'm still impressed) and attempts to put them in order every night in his bath.

Today I was reading a book with him that has babies making different faces/emotions. I was yet again surprised when he looked at the angry face, and made an angry grunting sound. Then he did the same with happy, sad, shy, sleepy.

He also likes to interject prayers when we're praying before dinner or bedtime. He like to list all the people in his family, but every day he prays for guitars, boots, and sometimes elephants and dogs.

This is such a sweet time in our life with him. I am so thankful for the precious little one God has blessed us with. Life is Good!

The Simple Things...

So I know, it's been awhile...I'm not too good at this. But I'll try to be better.

Today I've been thinking about how it's truly the simple things in life that are the best and create the most lasting memories. This afternoon I was cleaning the dishes and Matt took Jack outside in the front yard to play. He started watering the grass, and Jack decided he needed to help. He is a major helper--I know all kids are to an extent, but he helps me with laundry, dishes, sweeping (kind of) and they tell us he does this in Bible class too. Hopefully it will stick! So, anyway, he's watering the grass with Matt and he started spraying himself with the water hose. By the time I came outside he was completely soaked. We were all laughing so hard, but we did manage to snap a few pictures. That boy is so silly! But he makes my day--every day. I'm also including some other silly pictures.

*Some of you know that Jack broke his leg a couple of weeks ago. He got his cast off on Tuesday (He's still talking about it: "Boot. Off. Boot. Off.") He's just starting to walk again, and he's still limping, but we're just excited that he's walking, because he wouldn't for the first few days the cast was off. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers on that one!

Summer's Here!!!

The summer's flying by already, and I'm loving every minute of it! Except the hot-ness, of course. I think it's been over 100 degrees more days than not in June, and that's annoying, but at least we have air conditioning, right?

I haven't posted pictures in awhile, so here are some to catch you up!

At the Dallas zoo with PaPa and cousins


Jack grabbed one of Daddy's ribs. Yummy!


Easter Egg hunt after church


Our family on Easter Sunday. It was chilly!


Fun in the bluebonnets


Lovin' the sprinkler ball


My sweet, wet boy


Learning to use a fork, and very proud of it!

Jack's Birthday

Okay, I know his birthday was over two months ago, but I have to go back and post some pictures of it. He had a great time, as you can see.

I took off the day of his birthday, and we had pancakes for breakfast, one of his favorites!


We also decided to take him to get his first haircut. It was so long and in his eyes. We took him to a little kid haircut place and he did great!

Before...

After...


We had his birthday party the following Saturday, and he had so much fun! He LOVED his cake too.

His cake


He enjoyed it!


With MiMi and PaPa

Long Time, No Blog

It's been awhile, and yes, we're still alive. The last few months have been really busy, and somehow I've gotten out of the habit of doing this. But I'm trying to get back in...this has been like a virtual baby book, and I know my mom is missing it. So here it is, for you MiMi!

Today is Mother's Day, and I've had a great day of feeling appreciated and loved. Motherhood is full of so many emotions, and sometimes it is so overwhelmingly tiring. But it's good to remember what it's all about and that it is TOTALLY WORTH IT! They showed this video at our church this morning, and I cried (sobbed really) through the entire thing. It just really cut right to the heart of how I feel about Jack and being a mom in general. Enjoy. And Happy Mother's Day. :)

Haven't blogged in awhile. We're still here. Jack's had a sick couple of weeks. We went to SingSong at ACU to see Jenny. When we got there Friday night, Jack started to get sick. He had some sort of stomach bug coming from both ends (sorry). He still seemed happy and normal, just had some unpleasant diapers and throwing up moments. And we only got to see Jenny for like 5 minutes. Literally.

Then on the way home, Matt got the stomach bug. It made him feel sick to ride when I was driving (no comments please) so he drove home feeling terrible, and we occasionally stopped at the DQ for me to change an explosive diaper. Fun!

After we got over that for a few days, he got sick again! On Tuesday morning he woke up not acting like himself. He had a temp of 100.9 and Matt took him to the dr. (Yea Matt! I just don't have too many days left!) and he had strep throat! It made me feel so bad that he felt so bad and couldn't even tell me. But once we started him on the antibiotic he seemed much more like himself. This is his first antibiotic, so I guess that's not too bad of a record.

Since I last updated, Jack's learned some new things. He's laughing out loud a lot more, which is fun. I'm hoping to get some video of that soon. And...here's a big one...he's started walking! Yea! It really surprised me because I just didn't think he was ready yet. But Thursday night, he started taking a few steps from me to Matt and back to me. It was so exciting! He's been practicing a lot and getting better and better. Just in time for his birthday on Thursday. Can't believe it's almost been a year already. I'll save the sappy stuff for the birthday post. Speaking of birthday...



For some reason, Blogger is changing the colors on the invitation. It looks much better than this, but I can't figure out how to fix it, so you get the idea!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Ethan, Jack's cousin and best friend, is 1 year old today. Happy birthday Ethan! We miss you!

Clapping!

So Jack figured out how to clap tonight and we actually captured it on video! I was just thinking earlier tonight about how he hadn't learned how to clap yet, so I was showing him again. Then, a few hours later, he just spontaneously started clapping, and I grabbed my camera. I haven't had much to write about lately--of course Jack is still as cute as ever. He has 10 teeth now ( no that's not a typo. He really has 10!) and he's learning new things every day. Here's a video of some of his first claps.

Christmas!

So Jack had a really fun first Christmas. Of course he didn't really have any idea what was going on, but he liked waking up and playing with new toys. He loved playing with his cousins, Allie and Ethan. And he loved all the good food his MiMi fed him!

Here are a few pictures of our trip to Amarillo.


Christmas Pajamas


Santa was good to Jack!


Christmas morning!


Chowing down on the turkey!


Rockin' out with Daddy before bed


Our little family


Jack's new wagon