More Pictures

Cheesing for the camera

Enjoying some pretzel sticks for a snack

Posing with Santa

Loving the animals at the petting zoo

His favorite

Searching for the perfect Christmas tree

Which one will it be?

After we went to get our tree, we went up to Uncle Mike's and then out to dinner.

Playing with balloons during our walk around downtown Mount Dora

Still didn't get a good enough one for a Christmas card. Maybe tomorrow in front of our new tree...

iPhone Picture Update

Of course, loves his "hatta"!

:)

Roi watching little Jack while he plays

Jack playing with his "daw"

Poor little guy has been sick. He started to get a little bit of a runny nose when we were up north. It didn't seem to phase him too much, so we just assumed it was a little cold or maybe just from the plane ride. Apparently, since babies can't blow their noses, it drains to their ears when they are laying down. So he currently has an ear infection in both ears. You can tell from this picture that he is not feeling well. We have been very lucky that he has been so healthy. The only other ailment he has ever had was RSV at 6 weeks old. He's on antibiotics for the first time, but it seems to be already helping him.

Tomorrow I should be back with some good pictures. We hope to go to Santa's Workshop and Tree Farm if Jack is feeling up for it. I'm also hoping to take a good Christmas card picture of him and get those cards out this week. Enjoy the rest of the weekend! :)

Wow - it's been almost a month since my last update. SORRY! Things get crazy around here. The big news is that Jack is now walking all over the place. Crawling is being phased out. He has lots of words and quite the personality. He will do just about anything for attention and to make people laugh. New favorite words include hat (hatta) and hot (hotta). The word he says most frequently is dog. A dog or even pictures of dogs never go unseen. He is very observant. There was a dog at the airport yesterday, and he kept trying make a break for it and get over to the dog.

I'm not sure how much updating I'll be able to do right now, but I promise to be better about keeping you all posted. We got home late last night from a great Thanksgiving break spent in Wheaton with family. I'll post pictures from that. I have laundry and lots of cleaning going on --- multitasking! Jack did wonderfully on both plane trips, which was a great relieve to us. We were really nervous about being stuck in a plane for over 2 hours with our energetic little guy! When we got home last night, it was around 10:30. We passed our neighbor who had been taking care of Roi for us. He told us that Roi had dug out of the fence sometime after 5:30 and that he had been looking for him for 2 hours. He didn't have a collar on plus it was dark, so I thought for sure that he was gone for good. Colin went looking for him in his truck, and 2 hours later, around 1 in the morning, he comes backing into our driveway with a wet and filthy yellow lab wagging his tail!!! I guess he thought he would go out for a stroll around the neighborhood. So thankful that we got him back, but SO mad at him!!!

Colin and the rest of his team completed the Firefighter Combat Challenge in Vegas a couple of weeks ago. They did pretty well, and made it to the finals. I think he had a really fun time, but missed his little buddy a lot! My parents and sister were here helping out for the week which was great. I had to work, but we still did a lot of fun things. We went to Disney and park hopped one day and we headed to Clearwater Beach for a night right before they had to head back home. Lots of fun!!! Mom, can you send me the pictures so I can put some up? I didn't take a single picture! oops... As soon as I get those, I'll put them on here.

At the Christmas Parade in downtown Wheaton. It was his bedtime, and he was so tired, but he was a trooper. He waved, clapped, and yelled "yay" while he watched the parade go by. So fun! That's Santa and Mrs. Clause in the background in case you can't tell.

Not a great family picture, but it's the only one from our trip. And the puffiness has returned, just like when I was pregnant with Jack! :)

Sleepy boy walking to the parade.

The cold didn't seem to phase him much at all. He's a true midwesterner at heart!

Posing with grandma in my new tennis shoes that she got me. What a big boy!

Uncle Mike and Jack in Wheaton

He got his second hair cut during our visit. Did pretty well!

It's fun riding in the taxi!

Okay, I need to get a few things finished before he wakes up from his nap. There's lots I'm leaving out... I'll be back!

Happy Halloween

Jack the horsey had a fun time trick or treating tonight. We only made it to 3 houses before he got a little hot and very tired. That was fine, because we needed to get back to our house for the trick or treaters. He walked by just holding on to Colin's hand all up the street. Then when we were at our neighbor's house, he decided to stand for about 15 seconds and then take FOUR steps toward the neighbor!!!! So exciting! Looking at these pictures, I'm thinking we should've put some shoes on the poor kid! oops...

I'm fighting a cold, so this will be short, but there were some things I needed to blog about! Here is Jack in his new firefighter pajamas, complete with an air pack!

He gets in to everything!!

I had SUCH an awesome surprise last weekend. I came home from school on Friday to a completely clean house. Colin had cleaned every last inch of the house while I was at work. That was awesome. Then he said he had a surprise, and to get ready so we could leave. When we got in the car he told me we were going to the Clermont carnival (which I wanted to go). Then once we started going a direction that wasn't towards the location of the carnival, he told me we were going to Magic Kingdom. I'm always always always up for a trip to Disney, so I was excited to spend a Friday evening there. We walked in the entrance and within minutes, someone tugged on my purse. I turned around, and it was Jessica, Mike, and Kaelan. I don't think I've ever been so surprised. It was GREAT! I couldn't believe it at all. They stayed with us all weekend. The husbands had planned the whole thing. We were too busy having fun, and I barely touched the camera unfortunately. Here are Jack and Kaelan enjoying a meal at the new T Rex Restaurant at Downtown Disney. Jack loved the fish aquarium.

Jack is learning so much these days. The other day in the bathtub, he was playing with the rubber ducky fireman. The next thing I knew he was pointing at the helmet and saying, "hat!, hat!" I caught a picture when he was doing it!

The water was starting to get cold, so I turned the warm water on. He thought it was hilarious to stick his face in the stream to try to get a drink!!

Then we were playing and reading books in his room after his bath, and I thought I would just tell him to go get a hat. He went right to the correct drawer on his dresser and got out a hat and held it up. I was so proud! He loves to dance nowadays. Anytime there is music, he is swinging those arms! Books continue to be his favorite past time. When the book is over, he is always doing the sign for 'more' so that you will start over and read the book again. Friday he gets to wear his Halloween costume to school so they can go on a stroller parade through the school. In November, he is going to be in a Thanksgiving production. Too cute!

Oh...and P.S. - Jack is having a little SISTER! We are thrilled and can't wait to meet little Grace Elizabeth. :):):)

Here is a shot of my (almost) 18 week belly:

Yesterday I forgot to mention that Jack took a step. He went from the chair and then stood for a few seconds without holding on to anything, and then he went to the window sill. He is also getting up and down off the couch like a big boy rather than diving off head first.

Today we went to SeaWorld and had lunch with the sharks and then went trick or treating. He loved it!