Christmas Morning

We went to Lake Charles for Christmas this year! It was so nice to be with family for the holidays, and we were so blessed to have Brad off for a week to relax and enjoy the holiday. We pretty much just vegged out and enjoyed being together as a family...I know Brad loved having nothing to do each day! He was definitely due for a refresher :) I have to say Jack had a pretty good Christmas...being the youngest grandchild on Brad's side of the family and the only on mine....he was quite spoiled! He had so much fun getting all his new toys, and the look on his face was priceless on Christmas morning! We recorded the morning with my dad's video camera, but next year I'll have my own Kodak Zi8 thanks to my wonderful husband :) (We couldn't get it in time for Christmas this year b/c they were SOLD OUT everywhere) A few highlight gifts were his Imaginarium train table and set, which Santa delivered early in San Antonio since his "elves" weren't hauling that heavy box 6 hrs, setting it up in Lake Charles, and then taking it down to haul it back to San Antonio :) Jack LOVES it...while he plays with it he constantly says "choo choo!" He also got a Home Depot Toolbench, which he ABSOLUTELY loves too! He know how every tool works...and he's always drilling or sawing something around the house :) In his stocking was Elmo himself! Jack loves his Elmo...he hugs him, kisses him & gives him adoring smiles pretty frequently! Christmas was so much fun, and I'm really looking forward to all the Christmas' to come!

Getting tickled by Paw Paw!
Playing the piano with Uncle John Scott!

Elmo!

Jack LOVES his Elmo! These are his real live reactions when he first got Elmo Christmas morning...soo sweet!

All the Christmas goodies Santa brought minus the Imaginarium train set

Say Cheese!

I took Jack to the JCP Portait Studio to get some pictures done after looking through all of my pictures and realizing I had none with just his sweet little face looking at the camera with good lighting, etc. To say the least, I'm very happy with how they came out! All I wanted was a black background and some close ups, and JCP did a very good job with that. I will have to say its really really hard to get Jack to look at a camera and smile...you should have seen me with my big round belly running around trying to get him to give me just one picture of him looking at the camera smiling...tough work and it never happend :( I did get some good pictures though that I know I'll love to look back on one day :) ***Is it just me or is my child's hair red????

Wild Man!

Jack has become a little wild man lately! He is very very busy figuring out this world, and he's keeping his feeling more & more pregnant everyday mommy very busy along with him! Yesterday he ran up to me and said, "hat!" while holding his Mickey Mouse ears from Disney, so I put them on him and off he went back to running around the house acting like a little goober!
*Please excuse the lovliness around his mouth...and the Halloween pajama night shirt!

He was saying "cheese!"

Tis the Season!

Last night we took Jack to meet Santa and enjoy Schlitterbahn all decorated for our favorite time of the year...Christmas! I was sort of nervous Jack might not "love" Santa, but he was far more curious and comfortable with him than I expected....although if you notice in the picture we didn't get a smile...a more serious look for a more serious "trying to figure this all out" kind of guy :) We had fun watching a fabulous light show while drinking hot chocolate, meeting Mrs. Claus herself and listening to some books she read, checking out the snow that Jack wasn't so sure about, and riding a carousel for the first time!

You can't see the "snow" but it was falling ever so gently...
Jack listening to Mrs. Claus read a story!

The great man himself holding my precious little boy!

Jack looks scared in this picture, but he really enjoyed the ride!

"Jolly Old St. Nicholas...."

It's been too long, and I've been a very busy lady! Everyday seems to be filled with one thing or another. I am DONE Christmas shopping so atleast I have that to show for! I've also picked out baby bedding for our sweet little girl that will be arriving in a short 41/2 months! I'm so excited to put it all together in her room, but I'm waiting until a month before she arrives to transfer Jack out of his crib into his big boy bed. It should be interesting! One promising thing is when Jack's ready to go to bed he just lets me know and off he goes into dreamland, so I'm hoping it'll be just as easy when he's not in his crib. I guess we'll see!

I went home for Thanksgiving, which as always was wonderful. It was in the good old Lake Charles that I woke up oh so very early on Black Friday and saved us $60 on one of Jack's gifts. Yay for me! I also got the privalage of making my friend, Ashley's, engagement party cake, which you'll have to check out on my cake blog, cakebakes.blogspot.com--give me a day or so to post it...I'm waiting on the picture from my mom's camera. The party was fabulous, and I'm so excited for her and Bob! Congrats you guys!

Over the Thanksgiving break, Jack's vocabulary exploded! It has been really fun listening to all his new words and the ones he attempts :) He's added "cow" "up" "tee tee"(for you know what) "baby" and "top part"(aka pop tart)! He can also do the gorilla now, which is where he beats his chest like a gorilla...thanks Mom :) Also when I ask him where my baby is he'll come and lift my shirt and touch my belly...sooo sweet!

As for the little baby growing in my belly, she's doing great! She moves ALOT more than Jack ever did! I'm feeling a lot better these days as well. I've continued to work out which has been really nice. When I was pregnant with Jack I didn't work out so much and I ate a lot more! After I had him I made a commitment to change those two things with the next pregnancy, and so far I'm doing pretty well! We are looking forward to our new addition...it seems like time is flying and before we know it she'll be here....sort of scary!

You can definitely sense the Christmas season around our house...the tree is up & everything is decorated. I took Jack to Hobby Lobby to let him pick out some ornaments. As we were walking down the aisle he said "ball!" I looked to find what he was looking and wouldn't you know it was a Santa kicking a soccer ball! We definitely purchased that one along with a train and airplane. He loves to look at them on the tree always sure to point out the "ball!" I don't know what to say...balls are truly his most favorite thing! He has some jammies with balls on them, and when he's wearing them he points out ALL the balls :)