Thanksgiving Part III

On Saturday, we headed down to Prattville to see my family. Again, more cousins that Jake LOVES! (Even though him & Marrell are close enough in age that they tend to have a few toddler disagreements. But they sure do love each other:)

Happy Turkey Day again!

Maddox (my niece) helping her mom Leigh Ann (my sister-in-law) prepare the food

Sweet cousins! Maddox takes such good care of the babies

Sweet Marrell

Nana (my mom) & Jake

Entertaining the crowd with a little Mozart

Maddox & her dad Billy (my brother)

How many times do you think we heard "choo-choo" that day?

Jake trying to pull Marrell in a little display wagon

It certainly wasn't made to carry 38 pounds

Waiting until the end of the night to try to take pictures was a great idea. Aren't these pictures great?

Nana & Gran with their babies

It was cute when Marrell wanted to get on Gran's shoulders

I don't know how cute Gran thought is was when Jake wanted up.

Football Season 2010 - Week 12

Thanksgiving Part II

After we got off work on Wednesday, we headed to Alabama for 4 days of family, fun & football. We enjoyed a different city each day. First stop was Birmingham to see the Bush's, where we celebrated Thanksgiving II (on actual Thanksgiving day). Jake had SO MUCH fun playing with his cousin Jackson. And Jackson is such a good sport. I'm sure the last thing he wants is a little 2 year old following him around, but he is always so sweet to play with Jake and include him. Jake loves his big cousin Jackson very very much!

Sitting on the porch reading books

Switching riding toys

Playing on the computer

Happy Thanksgiving!

Where have we been?

It has been some crazy last 3 weeks. We've traveled, gone to football games & hung out with great friends. The past 3 weeks are updated below. I'd like to say things are going to calm down for a while, but they are only going to get crazier. But more about that in a future post. Since this is Jake's baby book, here is what has been going on...

I CANNOT believe that he will be 2 next month. I swore after making all of his party decorations the week of his party last year, that I would not wait until the last minute to do it again. But here I sit without even a theme yet.

Jake LOVES anything transportation (cars, trucks, airplanes, trains, school buses, tow trucks, etc... you name it, he will repeat it 100 times), sports (especially football), reading (favorite books are still Llama Llama books, Eric Carle & Dr. Seuss), outside, bath time & Sid the Science Kid.

He talks up a storm. He doesn't put different things together (like mom's shoes or dog outside) but he can name pretty much anything & says phases (my favorites are "I did that", "I spilt it" (we hear that one a lot!),"thank you", "bless you"). He has thank you & please down very well (thanks daycare!) and we are now working on no ma'am, yes sir, etc... So far he only has the no down well! He has started saying "no way" now instead of just "no". At least it sounds cuter! He can name all family members and pick them out in pictures.

He is precious when he sings. You can't really make out what he is singing, but you can tell from his hand motions & a few key words what he is singing. My favorites are "No More Monkey's Jumping on the Bed" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider".

We are still working through the pouting & tantrums. You can really tell when he is tired or hungry. It's annoying, but I figure it comes with having a toddler.

We are not doing well at all with potty training. He seems so ready for it. He is dry when he wakes up from naps, he loves to watch people use the restroom & he will point and say pee-pee & poo-poo. But he refuses to pee or poop in the toilet. On Saturday when he woke up from his nap, he was dry. I just knew he would pee in the potty. Nope. He just sat there. We read every book while I waited for him to pee. Still nothing. I've now resulted to letting him wash his hands be his prize if he potties. Great parenting? Probably not. But sometimes I think he says he has to go to the bathroom, just so he can wash his hands. So that is now his prize. Since we are about to go into the busy holiday season, I think that I'm just going to wait until January to try again.

I still rock him for a little while before I lay him in his crib. Those are some of my favorite moments of the day and the memories that I will always cherish. I may miss out on a lot during the day, but it's the one's that you make special that matter the most.

Thanksgiving Part I

We usually split our Thanksgiving up into 3 celebrations (plus we throw the BIGGEST football game of the season in the middle of it). Crazy? YES! Fun? YES! YES! YES! We have so much to be thankful for and Saturday night was a wonderful celebration with great friends who we are so so so thankful for. For the last few years Trip & Amanda have opened their beautiful house up to their friends to gather, have fun & eat some wonderful food. But the best part about the evening is the GREAT company.

There were kids everywhere!

The dads tried to stay hidden outside watching football while the moms were inside with the kids. It didn't take the kids long to realize it & once one goes out, they all wanted out. They made it very easy to watch the TV.

Breiten & Jake swinging outside with their dads

Group picture last year...

Breiten, Dru, Addie, Jake & ConnorGroup picture this year...

Jonathan (8 months), Hadley (4), Dru (17 months), Addie (15 months), Jake (2) & Breiten (2)

Our family... something I'm very very thankful for :)

Football Season 2010 - Week 10

On Sunday, Jake went to go spend the week with my parents & Robbie dropped me off at the airport in Atlanta. I was in New York for a meeting and then took the train down to Washington DC for some meetings. I tried to be cool in both cities, but I know that I looked like the country mouse in the big city. I was just so amazed by both cities. New York was cool & fun, but I also loved how serious & business DC was. I just wish I had more time to hang out in both cities! I got back, had 1 night to unpack & repack and then we were off to Auburn for the last home game of the year. Since it was Georgia, we planned on Jake going ahead & spending the remainder of the weekend with my parents. Boy was I missing him though! I've had to be away from him because of travel before, but for some reason, this time was the hardest. I missed him so much. We had a great time in Auburn though, but the best part of Saturday was Summer was back! Yahoo! It was so good to see her. She is such an amazing and strong woman. I admired her a lot before, but I now stand in amazement. She has such an wonderful spirit and her smile completely brightened the tailgate. Welcome back Summer! My favorite part about Sunday was I got to see my munchkin! Oh I was so excited to see him (& I think he was a little excited to see Robbie & me too!).

YEA! Welcome back Summer!! The Bush's with their good friendsRobbie & meWhat was Jake doing during his week with Nana & Gran?....

How funny is this?!?! My mom got the kids these towels that are the figures from the Toy Story movie.

Football Season 2010 - Week 9

I can't believe I went all weekend with no pictures! I was just trying to spend as much time as possible with Jake, since I would be away from him for a whole week. We headed down to Auburn for Homecoming. Usually, Homecoming weekend is a game we skip, just to give us a break from the road. But this year Auburn was playing Chattanooga, so we had to go to support our Mocs! We decided to take Jake into the game. Again, he made it to half time. He had so much fun (well, at least until around halftime). One of my favorite memories from the game though was Jake & Jackson (Jake's cousin) sitting in Mimi & Granddad's laps watching the game. So cute!

Halloween

So I gave a hint a few weeks ago about what Jake was going to be for Halloween. He was a shark!!

Jabberjaw from the late 70's Jabberjaw 2010

Now, I will admit, buying a full body costume for a 2-year-old is risky. But I just can't resist them! Plus I figure I'm on borrowed time before he picks out his own costume. When I tried the costume on him, he cried & wouldn't wear the head piece. I figured all well, sharks sometimes cry too.

On Friday, Jake's daycare had their class parties and wore their Halloween costumes. I wasn't able to go, but I left our snap-&-shoot camera for his teachers to take some pictures with. I was pleasantly surprised. He was actually wearing the full costume in the pictures! Class picture (my shark is in the back row)

Daycare trick-or-treating

Afterwards (back in their street clothes) they went & picked out pumpkins

On Saturday, we all went to Zach & Kim's to let the kids trick-or-treat together.

Jake & Addie had fun waiting on trick-or-treaters to come by This shark is eating Smokey

Jake & Connor getting ready to go trick-or-treating

Such a sweet looking shark, bumble bee & train conductor!

Trick-or-treating

Jake LOVED trick-or-treating. We were pleasantly surprised. You never know with him. I was scared he would be too shy to go up to people's houses, but he loved it. He would say "trick-or-treat" & "thank you". He insisted on carrying his own bag. He drug it door to door. I think he just liked the attention & knew that he was getting candy!

Daddy & Jake

Mommy & Jake

Afterwards we had dinner & hung out at Zach & Kim's. No, Addie did not get into the chocolate candy! Kimberly made a dirt cake for dessert. Can you tell the kids liked it?

Happy Halloween! On Sunday, Jake was excited to see what all candy he got

I wonder when he will figure out that mommy & daddy already ate all of the good candy?

After we take the suckers (his favorite) away. He is an absolutely nightmare with suckers. (They get stuck in his hair, he tries to bite the sucker off, he chokes himself with it, etc...) We've conveniently already disposed of the suckers!

On Monday night, Jake's daycare had their Fall Performance

Singing If You Are Happy & You Know It. I was way in the back & didn't have our zoom lens.

Afterwards at the house

After he crammed a whole apple slice in his mouth

Watching Sid in his poor man's recliner

So, I'm not usually a fan of licensed clothing, but Jake loves Elmo. I figured he would freak out if I bought him these pajamas. He loves them. He does look pretty snuggley.

Good Night