Jack's First Christmas!

Our week long Christmas Celebration has ended and we are recovering. Here are a few pictures from Jack's First Christmas!


We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and have a safe and Happy New Year!

There will always be more pictures to come!!!

Christmas Celebration!

We have been very busy at our house getting ready for the Holidays. :) A couple pictures to document the madness!!!
Jack saw Santa for the first time at our church Christmas Party. He either looked grumpy, or a little shy as he covered his mouth for pictures. It was pretty cute, and I scored a candy cane. :)


Jack and Papa Russ at the party- Jack loved his Christmas tie.

After a long night- He is BUNDLED in his snowsuit & hat. We also pulled out the love sac so our company can stay in our second bedroom. We have had a hard time organizing furniture to accommodate a Christmas tree and company!

We finally got our Christmas Tree (Saturday 11/19). We braved the cold and cut down the tree together. A lady we passed reassured us "You DO know that he won't remember this." I kindly smiled and said "I know, but we will."

Jack as he watched us put the tree in the stand. He was loving it! I ran out of lights, so we will get a picture of the tree when it's all decorated. And finally, our Christmas Miracle. Jack is crawling! He crawled Friday day a couple times, I got a short video for Dan, but this video is much cuter. It is so exciting to watch him move around!!!

15 min. to VICTORY!

2:00 Jack's daycare teacher comes to my classroom to tell me I have a flat tire.
2:30-3:00 Parents come for our school program
3:00-3:30 Santa visits, parent chaos, everything a busy school day brings

3:30 I go out to my car and it is flat, I get to work...

3:42 My friend Betsy comes out to check how I am doing. I tell her that I can't talk, I only have 3 more minutes to get this done. (She thinks I am crazy, always on the go, go, go. Who says they can only spent 15 min. on changing a flat tire. I am pretty sure that once you're into the project you have to finish, no matter how long it takes.)

3:44 I AM DONE! BMueller (who knows how to change flats too- her husband is a car guy) encourages me to tighten the bolts one more time and I am done.


An old student came to see his sister in her program and waves hello from across the parking lot, Betsy tells them that I just changed my tire all by myself, the mom says "oh, we assumed you were like trying on shoes!" The dad comes over to help but already got it. He makes the joke "15 minutes, it takes me 15 min. to stop swearing." They were pretty impressed.

I took the car right to my dad's shop and Dave in the office was impressed too! I don't get the "I am good" feeling too often, but I felt like I deserved it today. I did it all on my own, and under 15 min!

I just wanted to share my victory today! If you don't know how to change a flat, I will happily teach you- it is so EASY! ANYONE can do it!

I know of 2 silly things I did, so I definitely could cut 5 more minutes. Hopefully I won't have to do it again for a while, but next time I know to aim for under 10 minutes.

I promise I will post pictures in the next post- soon! I've got some good ones.

Just call me trouble...

Jack is not quite crawling yet, but he gets him self into a lot of things...


Jack and his friend having lunch together, yes on the floor. Jack kept trying to get her food, but she was not having it. They both look angry, but they were actually really enjoying their lunch date. (Yes she is 18 mo. older than him but I'm pretty sure he outweighs her by a couple of pounds.)


Paper, paper and more paper. I was cleaning out my church bag and he got a hold of my junk/scraps pile. Stinker!

His other favorite things... our potatoes & onions we keep on shelves at the end of our counter. I tried to distract him today with little fun-size boxes of "Dots" but he did care for those.

Water bottles- when I take this away from him he just CRIES/WHINES. I think he might be a little spoiled.

Keys, cell phones, the laptop, any food we are eating. Pretty much anything we have, he wants. My favorite is when I give him food on his high chair and he won't touch it. But if the same food is on my plate/fork, he will eat it (and a lot of it!) Talk about high maintenance. I guess we can be glad he isn't crawling yet, imagine the trouble he will find.

One day at a time...

Jack has ear infections... About 3 weeks ago he had his first (I knew something was really wrong when he was up every 20-30 minutes at night.) After 8 days on amoxycillin, he broke out in a rash and the Dr. labeled him "allergic to penicillin," but his ears were clear. So we stopped the antibiotic, gave him a little Benadryl...

(Ignore that it's sideways... apparently the blog is not as high-tech as the camera.)



Of course we figured we were in the clear, but 4 days later we were back because he was not sleeping again and his eyes were boogery. Of course, another ear infection. They bumped him up a couple of medicines on the totem pole of antibiotics and hopefully we will be in the clear very soon!!! We go for our 9 month check-up on Friday, so hopefully by then. :)

A couple random pictures...


In the morning, as I blow dry my hair and finish getting ready, Jack likes to make music on the heat return and the hall. Dan has not complained that it is too noisy, so I just let him do it. It keeps him happy!
Saturday we went to BW3s to watch the BYU & Utah game. It was a pretty good game! Jack wore his BYU hat from Auntie Manda (which is a little snug now, hint hint.)

We went to play with our friend Trevin after the game. We thought watching Trevin would encourage Jack to crawl, but not even he could do it! They did have a great time laughing at each other and playing peek-a-boo around the couch.

Doesn't he look sad??? Those are the weepy eyes. They are getting better though!

We are thankful...

Thankful for family, friends, health & everything else that is good in our lives! We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are looking forward to a wonderful Holiday Season! I know we are!


Jack's First Thanksgiving Dinner (He enjoyed Turkey, sweet potato bake-with brown sugar- bread, and cranberry jello.) No, he doesn't look to happy- waking early from a nap kind of threw him off a little bit!

These are Jack's Baby Room Teachers. They are great! He sure likes them too! (Jack is wearing his "Baby's first Thanksgiving shirt" which had a very cute turkey on it. No great pictures of it though.)


And finally, a happy baby! These are his Thanksgiving PJ's from Grandma Diane. Thank you! We love them!

Jack likes...

Books- this is his favorite. If I need a minute, I give Jack this book and he loves it! he even turns the pages! (I'm telling you- we have a genius!!!)
Not just one pacifier, but 2 or more pacifiers! I try to keep his pacifiers for sleeping (naps and nighttime) and when riding in the car. I clip one to his hat, and have 2 back-ups in the cupholders in his seat. When we get to our destination, all 3 pacifiers are out! What a stinker. I've also figured out that if he has a pacifier to hold when we rock him to sleep for a nap, he won't grab at our face. This is very helpful- would have been helpful a while ago too!

Jack is loving his table food! He has been eating dinner with us for a long time, but I am just starting to give him our food cut up (not in the grinder.) He LOVES to pick things up with his fingers and feed himself. This night we had peas, bread and potatoes, he passed on the meatloaf. He also LOVES grilled cheese and english muffin pizza-with no sauce.

Jack is a lot of fun! He has started communicating with us, other than crying. When he is tired at night he lays his head on our chest for a couple seconds and then perks back up. We put him in his crib and he usually grabs his own pacifier and he's done. Of course, the classic bang the table/high chair when he wants more thanks to Dan!

A couple of firsts:

Jack's first non-family babysitter... A piano student of mine babysat Jack on Saturday night when we went to chaperone our stake sports night. We dropped Jack off at his house (so Mom & Dad could be around too- Jack is like 1/3 of the boys body weight!) and he had a great night! He didn't even cry when we left!!! He did not fall asleep great though- that may be because...

Jack has his first ear infection. He had a mild fever yesterday morning but I assumed it was because he is getting his 2 top teeth (which is an old wives tale according to the Dr.) He also has been up a lot during the night the past 2 nights. Of course, today for a Sunday, his nose was all crusty this morning and he was grabbing at his ear during the night. After a little bit of run around- the Dr. on call (my pediatrician growing up) was in the office and he told us to come down to the office. Sure enough- Left ear has an infection. We got medicine and Jack is great! I'm hoping tonight's sleep will be better too!

Jack is starting to "cheese" for the camera. We pulled the camera out at dinner the other night and he is just pulling the funniest faces for the camera. It was great! (He's cheesing in his dinner picture above.)

Halloween Happenings

It has been a busy, busy week. Jack and I did the usual, plus get our house ready for an appraisal on Friday morning. Dan has been sick, so we have done our best to take care of him as well. Dan is finally on his way to feeling GREAT, but he had to pass on our Halloween Celebration in Naperville. We had a great time visiting Jack's cousins and of course had plenty of treats to bring home for Dan. :)


Jack and Cade dressed up in their Skeleton PJs.


Cousin Lauren was very helpful feeding Jack some snacks. Micah fed him cereal and pears for lunch. I love the extra help. :)

Ready for Trick or Treating with our cousins Lauren & Micah. We have a Jedi, Cinderella, and elephant.

Too bad Jack fell asleep while we were out. People stopped giving us candy once he was snoozing. :(

We enjoyed a delicious chili dinner, Jack especially enjoyed the potato soup. The classic line of the day... Jack is inhaling the soup (it couldn't come fast enough), Michelle comments on his big appetite. I laugh. Micah (age 5) says "do you think that's why he's so fat?"


A couple weeks ago we carved pumpkins with our friends the Hatch's. They made a cute pumpkin like their little guy Trevin & his 3 teeth. Us? Dan came up with a great idea and I did the carving. Unfortunately pictures aren't great to capture the story, so enjoy a video!

(There is a scary man with a sickle, chasing the little people to the burning house. Dan wanted a little headless man on the other side of the big scary man, but we never got around to it.)



And as a little update- Jack is not crawling but he is scooting like a PRO. His prey today... Dan's video games.

Free Entertainment

We have been using our food grinder from my sister to feed Jack dinner at night. He just has what we are having. Some meals are better than others- this one was GREAT!!! for entertainment purposes



Our little Mozart



Our lives are full of ma-ma's and da-da's, even some "ba-ba-ba" and "na-na" but I think I heard Jack's official first word. We look at the fridge every day and there is a picture of Manda from her wedding that Jack always seems to look at ( it's her white teeth, great smile, or maybe it's just the HUGE cake behind her). I decided to say "That's Manda, You try "ma-da" and he did it!!! He said "Ma-da" I think he's a genius!!!

(At least he has that going for him, he is just starting to scoot backwards but no crawling yet!)

We know, we know...

Our lives revolve around the little man in our life. But he is so much fun! Always ready to put on a show!

It was fire prevention week at school, so Jack wore his new fire truck shirt! After looking through his clothes, that is one of 3 fire truck shirts we own.
Sporting the orange sweatshirt from Auntie Melissa. You would think he might be cold in our 30/40* weather, but he's just like his Papa!

This is our special fried "Hugsy the Bedtime Pillow Pal" (from Friends.) Jack likes to kick him around- nice friend huh?

Last weekend we went down to Naperville to celebrate our neice/cousin Lauren's birthday! It was a great time! We got to see their new house, the new baby Cade, and Micah's Michael Jackson Moves (Michelle- we're hoping you post a video sometime soon.)

We've had these for a while, but they're cute. Just 2 front teeth!


Our little photo shoot this morning- Jack was already tired but we wanted a cute picture of him in his Eddie Bauer Outfit (Dan loves that store- no we didn't know they made baby clothes- it was found at TJMaxx/Marshalls.) If I had thought a little more, I would have at least ironed the sheet.

And of course our playdate with one of Jack's normal sized friends, Jackson. He's visiting from Arizona. Both kids are tired at this point too- but oh so cute. Yes, Jack is a GIANT!!!

Dan and Jack were playing "copycat" yesterday afternoon- it was fun to watch them. My favorite days are when we have just a little time together as a family with nothing to do, just hanging out. What a great Friday!

Never Lonely

Cousin Sadie left us, and our friend Ethan came to visit!!! My friend Susan and her baby Ethan (just 3 weeks older than Jack) came to visit for a long weekend. It was great! We did so many great things, and really enjoyed just spending time with the boys. Jack has a lot of friends, he is pretty lucky!!!

Playing in our 2nd bedroom while I taught a piano lesson. 2 Happy Boys, Priceless!


Jack's friend Trevin came to visit. What a fun playdate!!!

New Haircuts (for the moms)

Visiting my classroom

We tried to take pictures before our friends left, but it didn't go so good. Between the grass, eachother's ears and hair, and just babies being babies, this is about as good as we got.

And this is why it's great that I don't have twins!

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With all of our company in town, we have been really relaxed on bedtimes, going to sleep in his crib, and if he woke up during the night I would just bring him in bed with us. I have just been too tired to play the middle of the night games.

Look how happy our baby is when he wakes up with Mom & Dad!!!


We have also moved up to the next carseat. The first couple days were not great, but he is starting to like it!


And finally, after a relaxing Sunday at home, A Monday Night Packer Party!


Jack is sleeping, the game is almost over and I can go to sleep happy! Life is good.

BUSTED

Cousin Sadie was in town, and Jack spent some time at Grandma Cindy's with the party while I got away to get a massage, teach some piano lessons, and even take a nap.

I left my camera for them to take some pictures and this is what I found.
Auntie Marcia... if you're reading this... I know how you get to be the favorite Auntie, and you are very wise. :) Who wouldn't love ice cream?


We miss you Auntie Miriam and Cousin Sadie!!!

A good wife...

When talking with friends, I often refer to myself as "a good wife." I can give you 100 reasons why, but the most important is that I am a good wife because I have a good husband.

Dan scheduled and paid for me to have a massage on Friday (he even gave me a little extra cash so I went out to lunch with friends on him. Added bonus.) The massage was wonderful, so relaxing I didn't even think/worry about how happy or unhappy Baby Jack was without me. Luckily he wasn't so unhappy!



How could he be when he spent the afternoon with his Auntie Miriam and cousin Sadie???


Auntie Miriam and Sadie came to town on Wednesday, and are staying for a whole week. We were looking forward to their visit. Sadie is just 2 months younger than Jack but they are almost the same size- Jack's just a little thicker in the mid-section. Matching thighs though. :)

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Grandma Diane came to visit last weekend and we just enjoyed relaxing and spending time at home. It was great!After a long, busy week, it was nice to relax today as a family.

A good morning bath.
Football with Dad
And trying out a new hat while Jack played with his toys (on Mom & Dad's bed)