Justin, Jill, Jason and Jeffrey

Just a typical family dinner night (7/13/2010)

2010-11-19T23:45:00.000-06:00

These are pictures from a typical family dinner night over at Mimi and Papaw's house. For a while, many of us were able to meet weekly on Tuesday nights for dinner. It wasn't always easy to do, but it was really something we enjoyed doing and it was nice to see each other during the week. Unfortunately, our schedules have all changed a bit, so Family Dinner night happens less frequently, but it usually follows the same format. Here is to future Family Dinner nights, whenever they may be!

Jeffrey refused to look at the camera, but first we all played in the den.

Then it was time for Jason to help feed Gumbo (who Jason has declared as his dog, which is fine by me as long as he understands that Gumbo lives at Mimi and Papaw's!). As you can tell from the progression of photos below, this is a very important task that requires much attention.

After we ate dinner it was bath time. Aunt Sarah and Mimi were a big help with Jeffrey's bath.

And Papaw helped with Jason's bath upstairs.

Vacation Bible School (July)

2010-11-19T23:18:00.001-06:00

Nana participates in her church's Vacation Bible School each year and this year Jason got to go with his cousin's Kassidy and Mckinley. Nana had everything planned out for a week of fun which included Vacation Bible School in the morning, lunch at her house and then an activity planned for the afternoon. Jason and his cousins also had a sleepover at Nana's house one night complete with movies and sleeping bags. Nana did tell us that Jason did get mildly annoyed with his cousins that night, as apparently little girls giggle...a lot... and Jason just couldn't figure out why they kept giggling...at everything. But he got over it quickly. I wonder how the dynamic of the group will change when Jeffrey is old enough for a sleep over!

Jason had so much fun spending so much time with Nana and his cousins, and he learned a lot too. I don't have any pictures from Vacation Bible School (VBS), but these pictures are of Jason in his t-shirt from that week. He loves that shirt and wants to wear it all the time. This is usually accompanied by his singing at the top of his lungs the songs that he learned at VBS.

4th of July Weekend

2010-11-05T22:00:00.001-05:00

We spent Saturday of the 4th of July Weekend over at Mimi and Papaw's house, well, after Mimi, Aunt Sarah and I enjoyed a decadent morning at the spa (I think we should do this again next 4th!).

Aunt Sarah and Jeffrey

Aunt Sarah sure is funny!

Uncle Josh let Jason play with his phone.

Jeffrey got to play with Pluto

And Mommy too!

Aren't I cute? And look at the blonde fuzz!

We had a fun get-together at the Porter House this year for the 4th.

We got to hang out with parents-to-be, the Gingras'

The big boys got to play together

And enjoyed playing outside

Jason and Jacob got a quick bath (they will hate us for the pictures when they are teenagers right?)

And then we drove up to Roanoke to catch some Fireworks.

4 month check-up (6/28/2010)

2010-09-25T22:21:00.000-05:00

Weight 14# 6oz - 25-50%
Length 26 1/4 - 90%
Head 16 3/4 - 50-75%

Swimming Lessons (July 2010)

2010-09-24T23:58:00.000-05:00

Jason took swimming lessons again this summer. We ended up using the Keller Pointe pool this year and were really pleased with them. We felt like Jason had more attention as it was him and 2-3 other kids in a lesson with one instructor.

Here are some pictures from his lessons.

Feeding brother (6/20/2010)

2010-09-23T23:57:00.000-05:00

Jason has recently been more interested in helping out with Jeffrey. He loves to pick out a new diaper, or go get a toy for Jeffrey to play with. He loves to sing songs to his brother, and any time Jeffrey successfully picks up a toy and transfers it from one hand to the other, or presses a button on his excersaucer, Jason will exclaim "You did it Jeffrey!"

Occasionally Jason likes to give Jeffrey his bottle too.

Dinosaur Valley (6/4/2010)

2010-09-15T23:56:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick slide show of the summer camping trip with Uncle Aaron, Uncle Vinny, Jacob, Jason, and me. We had a lot of fun even though it was really hot outside. A special thanks goes to Uncle Aaron for bringing the trailer. It was great to get outside and enjoy some time with him.

Jacob comes over to play (5/30/2010)

2010-08-26T23:54:00.000-05:00

We had a little Memorial Day get together with the Porters, so Jason and Jacob got to play together.

First, Jason and Jacob tore apart Jason's room. (Don't worry, the pictures look worse than the actual mess was.)

After dinner, the boys got to enjoy some cake.

Mom and Dad to the rescue.

Fading Fast.

I'm out.

Something is missing... (5/24/2010)

2010-08-23T23:15:00.002-05:00

Notice anything different here?

May 24, 2010

How about here?

March 18 v. May 24

You have to notice it here right?

Pictures on the ends May 4, center picture May 24

I noticed around the end of May, early June that Jeffrey's sideburns were gone! His darker hair that he had when he was born has all fallen out and is coming in much lighter now. It looks like he will be a blond after all!

Gardening with Nana (5/22/2010)

2010-08-23T23:00:00.002-05:00

One thing that Jason has in common with his Nana is a love of digging around in the dirt. This is a good thing because it means there is hope for the future of my gardens, as I unfortunately, have a black thumb. With my budding little gardener's talents our front gardens are sure to always be blooming. Many thanks to Nana and Jason for all their hard work!

Photo Shoot! (5/14/2010)

2010-08-23T22:45:00.003-05:00

We took a bunch of pictures with the new camera and picked out this picture for Jeffrey's birth announcement.

We took a lot of other great pictures that day, so here are a few of the best of the rest.

Mother's Day with Nana

2010-08-23T22:40:00.006-05:00

Nana with her grandchildren - Kassidy, Jeffrey, Jason and Mckinley

Day before Mother's Day, 5/8/2010
Joe T's, Fort Worth, Texas

Can you tell who was taking pictures? Not one picture of Justin! We need to do a better job of taking turns with the camera!

Big Kid (5/8/2010)

2010-08-23T22:35:00.003-05:00

Justin took these two pictures at a birthday party Jason went to this past spring. I just love Jason's smile in these shots. He is such a big kid now.

New Camera (5/4/2010)

2010-08-23T22:30:00.003-05:00

We finally broke down and bought a good SLR camera, and the quality of our pictures has improved drastically. Justin and I are both learning how to use the darn thing and the multitude of settings it has, but I can already tell the difference. So far Justin is a better photographer, but I'm hoping to catch up quickly.

Here are some candid shots we took with our new camera.

This is one of my favorites.

I love this one too!

And this one as well.

OK, so they are all my favorites. Can you blame me?

Fun facts about Jeffrey (5/4/2010)

2010-08-17T23:18:00.002-05:00

Jeffrey - May 4, 2010

* Zodiac Sign: Pisces
* Half birthday: August 26
* Birthstone: Amethyst
* Birth Flower: Violet or Primrose
* Chinese Zodiac: Year of The White Metal Tiger

Jeffrey will start kindergarten in 2015, he will be old enough to drive a car in 2026, he will finish high school in 2028, and will graduate from college with the class of 2032, give or take a year. Can you imagine?

Brothers (4/22/2010)

2010-08-17T23:07:00.003-05:00

April 22, 2010

It is often hard to get Jason to be still long enough to get a picture taken, but I managed to catch this shot. Jason really loves his little brother.

A couple of days later, Jason had me in tears when he said to Jeffrey "Hi, I'm Jason, I'm your best friend" and Jeffrey cooed back.

I'm so proud of Jason for how he has adjusted to his role as a big brother.

Little Rangers - Opening Day (4/5/2010)

2010-08-17T22:57:00.000-05:00

April 5, 2010

Easter Party and Egg Hunt (3/27/2010), Easter Sunday (4/4/2010)

2010-08-14T22:59:00.006-05:00

This year we all got together over at Mimi and Papaw's house for an Easter Celebration.

Jason and Kassidy on the swing

The Easter Bunny is here!

On second thought, I'm not so sure I want to meet him.

Nana, did you see the Easter Bunny?

I'm ok now.

Hunting for eggs.

Look at all my eggs!

Yeah, I'm still not to sure about that Easter Bunny.

Easter Sunday we went to church and then headed back to Mimi and Papaws for lunch. Jason was very excited to get his Easter basket.

And here's a family picture. I think Jeffrey was pretty tired by this point.

Jason plays Blastball!

2010-08-14T22:50:00.008-05:00

We signed up Jason for Blastball this past spring, and he absolutely loved it. Blastball is put together by the Keller Youth Association, which really has a great number of sports programs for Keller kids. Blastball is a precursor to tee-ball.

Now at this age, the kids really do have short attention spans, so the goal of Blastball is to get the kids interested in a team sport, learn a little bit about baseball, and to have fun.

Jason played on the Astros with one of his friends Austin (who he went trick-or-treating with at Halloween). And while Jason and his Daddy are both Texas Rangers fans for baseball, they will soon be cheering "Astros!" again this fall; we've already singed Jason up for the fall season!

At practice

First Game

At bat

Rounding Third

Hey!

Outfield with Daddy

Good Game

GO ASTROS!

Trophy Time

Jeffrey - 2 weeks (3/11/2010)

2010-08-12T22:30:00.002-05:00

Head circum. 14 3/4 in (50-75%), Length 22 in (90-95%), Weight 8 lbs 11 oz (25-50%)

Jeffrey's 1st Bath (3/4/2010)

2010-08-10T22:31:00.001-05:00

And here is a picture from another day of Jeffrey actually in the bathtub!

Jeffrey's 1st checkup and jaundice

2010-08-08T22:30:00.002-05:00

We took Jeffrey in for his first checkup on March 1st to find that he had lost a significant amount of weight, he was down to 7 lbs and 15 oz! The doctor also thought that he looked a bit jaundiced. So as were were headed down to Cook's to get Jeffrey's bilirubin levels checked I was thinking, here we go again.

Jeffrey decided to copy his brother and wanted to stay at Cook's too. We were fortunate that while his level was high, it was not as high as Jason's was when he was born. Jeffrey and I stayed at Cook's overnight and then were released home the next afternoon. We also had to continue with home photo therapy, which is not the most fun thing, but is is certainly more comfortable to do at home than at the hospital.

I did feel like it was a little easier to handle since we had been thru this once before. In the grand scheme of things, jaundice is not a very serious illness. Yes, it needs to be treated because too high levels for an extended period of time can lead to complications. However, the phototherapy treatment is very effective in getting the bilirubin levels down to an acceptable level, and the end result is a happy healthy baby.

Going through this twice just made me thankful for all the wonderful doctors out there who help take care of our children and my heart goes out to all the other mothers that have to deal with this and/or more severe illnesses.

Jeffrey has family visitors and Jason meets his little brother

2010-08-06T22:35:00.005-05:00

Papaw with Jeffrey

Mimi with Jeffrey

Meeting little brother

"He's really little!"

Family of Four

Happy Day!

Jeffrey's Big Day

2010-08-06T22:30:00.004-05:00

Jeffrey Michael
born February 25, 2010
4:56pm
9 lbs. 1 oz. , 21 inches in length
Welcomed by proud parents, Justin and Jill and by big brother Jason

Here is some of what I wrote down early Fri morning, not even a full 12 hours after Jeffrey was born.

Words cannot express how truly grateful I am right now. My mind is racing and a million different thoughts are tumbling through my brain so I thought I'd try and capture them. It is now 2am Fri morning. I should be sleeping, but after such a day and with all this adrenaline still coursing through my veins, I'm finding sleep impossible. So here is a recap.

We went in to see Dr M at 7:15 am. Both Justin and I were worried we'd be sent home, but hoped we'd be able to have Jeffrey today. Dr M did an u/s and everything looked good then checked to see if I was dialated and measured me at 6cm! We were going to be sent to L&D to have our baby!

My nurse was named Kim, and she was very cheery, I liked her instantly. She hooked me up to the monitor to measure my contractions and the baby's heart rate. I actually started having some fairly regular contractions, but they were not increasing in intensity. Mom arrived shortly after and I was so glad to have her here. There's just something about having your mom around for a big event like this. Kim did have a bit of a problem getting my IV started, and I have multiple pricks and bruises to show for it. The 3rd nurse who came to help got me squared away. Kim felt really bad, and I'll admit it was unpleasant, but I knew I needed the IV to get my pitocin so I persevered. So we got the pitocin started around 10:30am.

I had expressed to Kim my concern over when to get my epidural since I felt like a waited a bit too long with Jason, so after we could tell the pitocin was working we went ahead and called for the anesthesiologist. He was a nice man, Dr. A. I liked how he told me everything he was doing. I get nervous for any kind of blood drawing, needles, etc. So the combo of Dr. A calmly talking and Kim standing in front of me just being supportive and talking to me, reminding me to breathe helped me through the epidural set up. And I'm so glad we got it when we did. I could still feel pressure and could tell when I was having a strong contraction, but it was not painful. I think this epidural was a little bit stronger than the one I had with Jason. I'll have to check and see what Justin wrote down, but I think I got the epidural around 11am.

The rest of the afternoon was spent letting the contractions work to get me dialated to 10cm. We had the Olympics on and chatted. Kathie arrived and then Dad. Dr. M came and checked me twice and Kim did a couple of times too. I had to lay on my right side for a while because the baby got tired of me being on my back. This was fine until laying like that caused the medicine from the epidural to leave the left side of my body (since that hip was higher in the air). Luckily it was time to switch sides. Unfortunately I never got comfortable laying on my left side but that wasn't a problem for too long. Kim checked and found I was dialated to 10 cm. Earlier when Dr M checked me she said the baby's head was still high so she wanted me to labor down, so thankfully I got to switch to a sitting position and we let good old gravity help us get Jeffrey into position for the next stage of labor. There was about an hour in there where no one came to check on me for a while when I got frustrated. More than anything I did not want to continue laboring if it was time to push and somehow cause unnecessary stress to Jeffrey. We called the desk and Kim came and checked and found that Jeffrey had moved down. It was time to call Dr M and get the ok to push.

The pushing stage felt a little strange to me this time. First of all it was very quiet in the room. Just Kim, myself of course, Mom and Justin. When I'd start a contraction, Mom and Justin would help me sit up and push while Kim monitored everything. I had to kind of re-remember how to push, but got the hang of it. It was just weird how quiet and calm everything seemed in between contractions, but I guess we were all concentrating. It felt like it was taking a while and then Dr M(she got impatient that I'd been pushing for over an hour) came in, and I felt like everything moved pretty quickly after that.

I love Dr. M! She is so assertive and confident, you just know you are in good hands. The next thing I knew they were placing a beautiful big handsome boy on my chest and Jeffrey was here. As soon as he started crying I did too. I was just so happy he'd finally arrived at 4:56pm 2/25/10. I'm so proud of myself for how well I handled labor and delivery. I still can hardly believe he is so big at 9 lbs 1 oz and 21 inches in length. He has beautiful chubby cheeks and we think his hair will be darker than Jason's. I cannot wait to see Jason's interaction with Jeffrey tomorrow when Kathie brings him to visit.

I may work on this some more tomorrow, but I think they are about to bring Jeffrey back from the nursery to be fed. Hope you enjoy Jeffrey's story!

And here are some pictures of Jeffrey's big day!

Here's our big boy!

All swaddled up.

Proud Mom and Dad.

In the nursery.

Jeffrey's "eviction" notice

2010-08-03T22:30:00.001-05:00

I wrote this 2 days before Jeffrey's arrival. You can tell I was getting antsy!

Dear Sir,

You are hereby given notice that you are in breach of your tenancy of the premises located at mother’s womb under the terms of the lease dated June 28, 2009, between Jill Carrier as landlord and Jeffrey Carrier as tenant.

You are in breach because you are 4 days delinquent in your payment to the undersigned of the sum of 1 birth for February. In addition, you have failed to comply with the terms and conditions of your tenancy, as follows: your mother expected you to be born by now. Since your brother was 3 weeks early, she expected you to be at least 2 weeks early, but we are quickly approaching 39 weeks of pregnancy and we find your arrival is past due.

To remedy the above breach, you must do the following: aid in starting labor either by causing contractions to increase in frequency and intensity; or lend a hand and cause your mother’s water to break. Please consider this letter a final demand for you to remedy this situation.

If you fail to comply, the undersigned may commence eviction proceedings against you and/or exercise other available rights and remedies under the law. This will most likely be accomplished by a scheduled induction to occur the morning of March 1, 2010.

Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.

Yours sincerely,

Jill Carrier, mother

Jeffrey's Room

2010-08-02T22:12:00.001-05:00

We decided to decorate Jeffrey's room in a Dr. Seuss theme. I picked out the pictures I wanted displayed on the walls and did a little bit of the tracing, but that is where my involvement ended. All of the credit goes to Justin and Nana, who executed the plans and did an amazing job!

And here are some pictures of the room all ready for Jeffrey's arrival. The Dr. Seuss stuffed animals and bedding were given to me at a surprise baby shower thrown by my wonderful sister, my great friends Jana and Rebecca and my Aunt Sandy.

Christmas 2009 - Part IV

2010-07-22T22:30:00.000-05:00

Extended Family Party

We had a great turnout for our extended family party which included the always fun White Elephant gift exchange.

Christmas 2009 - Part III

2010-07-22T22:00:00.000-05:00

Christmas with Nana was all about the kids this year. Jason had so much fun with his cousins, Kassidy and Mckinley.

Crafts and Cookies

Leapster

Presents

Karaoke

Christmas 2009 - Part II

2010-07-19T13:11:00.005-05:00

After Christmas morning at home, we had to wait a little bit to let the sun melt some of the snow on the roads. Then we headed on over to Mimi and Papaw's house to continue our Christmas festivities with Mimi, Papaw, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Josh. We only hit one patch of ice on our long (6 mile) trek across Keller and we arrived safe and sound.

Our contribution to Christmas dinner was a pork tenderloin and cranberry sauce.

We had a lot of fun opening stockings and presents.

It was also Uncle Josh's birthday, so we made sure to reserve time to celebrate birthday style. Jason is obsessed with helping others open presents and loves cards.

Then we headed outside to play some hoops on Jason's present from Aunt Sarah and Uncle Josh.

And let's not forget playing Wii.

Christmas 2009 - Part I

2010-07-19T13:08:00.004-05:00

We made an effort this year to make Christmas really special for Jason. I felt like it was important to do so, since this would be his last solo holiday. We probably went a bit overboard, but I think he really enjoyed all the attention.

Here are some pictures of Jason at his school Christmas program. (Sorry about the quality of some of the pictures, this was before we got our new camera.)

We are not entirely certain what the costume was supposed to be, some sort of elf ears with a Christmas hat, but paired with a lei, since they were singing Mele Kalikimaka. I'm not sure Jason sang a word, but he knew all of the hand movements. This was a vast improvement over last year's performance when he refused to leave his teacher's side and get on the stage.

We made a trip out to the Gaylord Texan for the Ice Show. The theme was the Grinch, so of course Jason loved it, as we love everything Dr. Seuss.

This was an unusually snowy winter for Texas. We were treated to a very snowy Christmas Eve.

We spent Christmas morning at home opening presents and eating monkey bread for breakfast. As you can see, Jason had a lot of fun and really enjoyed his gifts.

Thanksgiving 2009

2010-07-18T20:33:00.009-05:00

Unfortunately, this is one of the only pictures I can find from Thanksgiving this past year. There are no other family members present, but Jason does make a cute turkey right? This was from his Thanksgiving Feast at school.

If anyone has pictures from Thanksgiving, I'd love copies!

Now Christmas, on the other hand, we have plenty of pictures. More posts to follow...

We're Back!

2010-07-12T12:05:00.003-05:00

So it's been ages since we've posted anything. I guess you could say we've been a bit busy. I'm going to try to have a few posts soon to recap everything we've been up to, but for the time being you will notice that I finally changed the blog name to include our newest addition, Jeffrey!

Jason (some observations):

2009-12-27T23:05:00.003-06:00

has selective hearing - if he is playing and does not want to be bothered at that moment he will either ignore you or say "Not yet."
is extremely polite - Me "Jason, would you like to go take a bath?" Him "No thank you Mommy."
loves to play with puzzles.
loves words that make make a noise, or onomatopoeia; he gets the biggest kick out of words like SPLASH, BOOM, CRASH, PLOP, BANG, KAPOW!
has earned many nicknames: Monkey, Silly Goose, Bud, Buddy.
will always smile if you say "Whatever you do don't smile!" when he has gotten kind of in a funk. He will put his hand over his mouth and try to cover it up, but he will smile, and chances are his funk is nearly over.
really likes to do things by himself - put toothpaste on his toothbrush, screw the lid on his cup, press the buttons on the microwave, turn the TV off with the remote, shut the car door.
would eat his weight in M&Ms if given the chance.
was very brave when we went to take pictures with Santa this year, he started to get a little scared, but pulled it together to take a picture, get a candy cane and ask Santa for a firetruck.
still has a voracious appetite for reading books, he will grab a stack and just flip through them, and always wants to read at least 2 stories before bed.
likes to go to the doctor.
is a very good eater, and will usually try new things if encouraged. his favorite thing to see after trying something new is "that's not so bad."
loves asking his Papaw "Are you talkin' to me?" a la de Niro; this is one of the movie lines he and Papaw recite to each other.
loves playing with Hot Wheels.
is very concerned about traffic signals, he yells stop when he sees a red light, and does not believe us when we tell him it is legal to turn right on red in most instances as long as you stop first.
likes to sing songs to himself, sometimes we recognize the songs, other times we're pretty sure he is making them up; he also likes to sing songs with me that I have made up. We have a couple that we sing after bath time most nights, its our own special little ritual to get ready for bed.
has a very vivid imagination - he gives voices to his toys and has them interact with each other, sometimes they fight, other times they are friends, sometimes they are happy, sometimes they are sad, etc. It is so fun to watch him play.
has a very inquisitive mind and is always asking what things are called, he is extremely talkative too.
likes to play games - one of our favorite games in the car is to guess what cargo an 18-wheeler might be carrying. "What do you think might be in that truck Jason?" Some of his replies have been marshmallows, trash cans , Christmas trees, books, bubbles, purple crayons.

Jason really is such a happy child. I feel so blessed to have him as my own, and can hardly believe that it has already been over 3 years since his birth. As we get closer to adding another member to our family, I've really been spending a lot of time reflecting on the past 3 years, all the special memories we've made, and how much our life has changed for the better. I am really excited to enter into another stage of our journey and look forward to all the new and wonderful things to come. I know he is going to be a wonderful big brother!

Buzz Lightyear, Space Ranger

2009-11-22T21:50:00.006-06:00

This year for Halloween, we had Jason's costume picked out far in advance. He had been asking for the Buzz Lightyear toy every time we went to the store for a while. So when a Halloween catalog arrived in the mail and we showed him a picture of the costume, it was a pretty easy decision. It was a little pricey, but Jason got to wear it 3 times. His school had a fall festival, where all the kids dressed up and had carnival type games. He also got to wear his costume on the Friday before Halloween for his class party and the school costume parade. And then finally Halloween night. I think he will use pieces of it to play in for a couple of years. He likes to put the wings on almost daily and pretend that he is flying around the house with his Buzz Lightyear toy.

Halloween was a big success this year. Jason got to go trick-or-treating with our friends Aaron & Marisa's son Austin. The boys are about two months apart in age and play extremely well together. I think it made trick-or-treating more fun to have a same-age friend instead of just Mommy and Daddy. When we later asked Jason what he really liked about Halloween, he told me "Mommy, they all called me Buzz!" Our boy is not afraid of getting attention! Oh, but don't let him fool you, he really liked getting all the candy too. Happy Halloween from our Space Ranger, "To infinity and beyond!

Austin and Jason at their school Fall Festival.

Trick-or Treating

Trip to Baton Rouge

2009-11-22T21:50:00.005-06:00

Justin, Jason and I finally made it down to Baton Rouge this year. It had been a couple of years since we had been to visit during football season, so we were really excited to take a road trip. Friday night we drove straight to a party being held for a bunch of old geezers we know. Just kidding, it was for a bunch of fabulous people we know that have been friends since they attended LSU, and just happen to be turning 60 this year. 2 of the honorees are of course my Mom and Dad (Mimi and Papaw to Jason), and it was fun to be there to help celebrate. It was also the first time some of my parent's friends heard the news of our expecting another baby, which was fun news to share. Jason also got a lot of attention and was very well behaved considering he had spent the previous 7 hours in the car.

After the party we headed on over to our good friends Emily and Drew's house, who were gracious enough to let us stay with them for the weekend. They have a very handsome almost 5 month old, William. Jason was very taken with the baby, and I think Emily and Drew got to see a little bit of what was in store for them when Will gets a few years older.

Saturday we got dressed up in our LSU Tiger gear and went out to LSU's campus for some tailgating. Good food, great fans, a lot of purple and gold, and multiple tailgating parties to attend = a great day of fun, albeit a long one. Our little tiger Jason was pretty worn out come game time. Emily and I took Jason back to the house and let the boys go to the game, where LSU soundly defeated Auburn. GEAUX TIGERS!

Sunday morning we went to brunch with a bunch of Baton Rouge friends and even managed to have a table of 14! It was really nice catching up with friends that we have not seen in a while. Then it was time to hit the road and head back to Texas, but not before stopping at CC's Coffee House (Community Coffee) for some to-go coffees.

The drive home was fairly uneventful, but as we made it back to the metroplex we got to drive through some pretty heavy rain. We managed to pull into our garage and quickly unload the car before it got really nasty. It's really fun to do road trips every once in a while, and this one was a success.

It's a BOY!

2009-11-22T20:59:00.010-06:00

It's a ~~GIRL~~ BOY!

We were originally told at my 20 week ultrasound that we were having a girl, but found out at 28 weeks that they made a mistake, and the baby is a boy. Below were my thoughts after the 20 week appointment and what I originally wrote for this blog post.

On October 20th, we had our big ultrasound appointment. We had been eagerly anticipating this appointment, for we knew that we'd get to find out the sex of the baby. Some people like to wait until birth, but I would be a wreck if I didn't find out. In fact, I knew that I would not do a single thing to the new baby's room, which is currently kind of a junk room, until I found out boy or girl. Our doctor announced to us about halfway through the ultrasound that we were going to have a girl and I actually started crying, I was just so excited! How lucky are we to get a boy and a girl. We truly feel blessed. Jason is very excited that he is going to have a little sister, and says he will take good care of her and be nice to her. Although he has told us at least twice that he is going to want a little brother too. I think as we get closer to the due date he will start to get a better idea of what to expect as we begin to get the nursery ready and talk with him more about the baby's arrival. In the meantime, we are trying to spend as much time together as a family as possible. Everything is about to change, and we really want to enjoy this special time with him.

We have also decided on a name, she will be Jordan Lucy. Jordan was my paternal grandmother's maiden name, and Lucy is my maternal great-grandmother's name. We can hardly wait to meet our little girl.

At 28 weeks we went in for another ultrasound, both Justin and Jason came with me, and much to our surprise we found out that the baby was in fact a boy. Needless to say, we were surprised.

I've had a lot of people ask me if I was disappointed, but I can honestly say I was not, and remain very excited about now having a boy. In some ways having another boy will be easier, most of our baby gear is for a boy, we already have a stock-pile of boy clothes, and I've always wanted Jason to have a little brother. I also already had a boy name picked out, Jeffrey Michael. I think I've had it picked out since I was pregnant with Jason.

I also think I must have subconsciously known that this baby was NOT a girl. All before the 20 week ultrasound, I thought the baby was a boy. Even after being told at 20 weeks we were going to have a girl, I did not go out and buy anything pink! How weird is that? OK, I did buy one thing, it was a little bib that said "I Love Daddy" in pink with pink trim, but that was all I could commit to. The only other thing we bought, and this was a week before the 28 week ultrasound, was a bedding set, and that was only because I felt like we were running out of time and needed to get that room painted. Luckily, we were able to return the bedding, and I got to get the upholstered glider and ottoman I wanted. All in all, it hasn't been that hard a transition for me to go from having a daughter to now another son.

Jason on the other hand has had to adjust. We had worked so hard on getting him to understand that the baby was going to be his little sister, that I think he thought we were teasing him all of a sudden when we switched to boy. I think he is getting the hang of it now and is finally convinced that the doctor made a mistake and now he is having a little brother.

The other thing that really surprised me is that as I've been telling people "No, actually we found out that the baby is in fact a boy," I have had numerous people tell me that that the same thing happened to their sister or a friend. I had not really heard of this happening very often, but now I've heard so many stories now, and people finding out at delivery or right before their due date that the what they were originally told was wrong. It just goes to show that ultrasounds are not 100% accurate (just as advertised).

When it comes down to it, we really just want a happy and healthy baby, and everything looks good, so we are happy! We truly feel blessed.

Below is a picture from our 28 week ultrasound. I know its hard to tell, but I think he looks like Jason!

Jason's 3rd Birthday Party

2009-11-03T20:28:00.005-06:00

We celebrated Jason's 3rd Birthday this year with a party at Let's Jump. Jason was able to invite a bunch of kids from his class at daycare, as well as his cousins and other close friends. They all had a blast jumping for an hour and then we finished the party with some cake. Jason really loved going down the big slide, but we think his favorite part was when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to him. His face just lit up, and for weeks afterward he would talk about how everyone sang to him.

Nana came by the house after the party to enjoy some present opening. It was like a preview of this coming Christmas! Jason has enjoyed playing with all his new toys, and has a surprisingly good memory when it comes to who gave him which present.

We also got to have a special dinner at Mimi and Papaw's house with Aunt Sarah to celebrate the big 3, with of course another cake and singing of "Happy Birthday." Mimi and Aunt Sarah gave Jason some great Halloween themed presents as well, which has to be his 3rd favorite holiday (after his birthday and Christmas of course).

Finally on Jason's actual birthday, we had dinner at home, just the three of us (and 1/2 if you count the baby on the way), and Jason got his birthday present from us. He had been asking for it for a couple of months, so he was pretty excited to open the box and find Buzz Lightyear. We are so proud of our big boy and can hardly believe he is already three years-old.

Hot Wheels!

2009-09-25T11:57:00.004-05:00

Jason's favorite toy right now is his Hot Wheel. Now that we've finally had a break from the rain, we've been able to let Jason ride his Hot Wheel every evening in front of the house. I hope this nice weather sticks around, because he really enjoys it. I think he would actually pass on cartoons and dinner if we'd let him, in order to ride. Now this is a much cooler bike that we had when we were kids, it has sounds! His favorite phrases, that he will repeat over and over are, "I want to Rock!" and, "Let's Roll!" He also likes to practice turning to the right, and then turning to the left. Here's our future biker!

At the playground with Mimi and Papaw

2009-09-25T11:37:00.003-05:00

Last weekend Justin and I spent Saturday tailgating with a bunch of Justin's college buddies and went to the TX State v. TCU football game. We had a lot of fun catching up with everyone, and TCU is a great campus to go and see a game.

While Mommy and Daddy were away playing, Jason spent the day and night with Mimi and Papaw, and as you can see below, I think they had a lot of fun.

Little Easy II

2009-09-11T12:07:00.006-05:00

Jason was a member of the Little Easy II crew this past labor day weekend. We didn't have a lot of wind, but Jason enjoyed his first outing on the sailboat. We motored over to where the Lowe Family were anchored and had lunch and later took a dip in the water. It was a very fun day, and we are looking forward to more sailing this fall. Thanks Mimi and Papaw!

Special Announcement!

2009-08-16T22:20:00.005-05:00

Jason has a special announcement everyone:

That's right, we are increasing our household by one more! Jason is very excited about being a big brother, and loves his new T-shirt we bought to celebrate our good news.

Fauxhawk

2009-06-15T19:30:00.003-05:00

Jason came home from daycare today sporting a fauxhawk. He loves his hair like this and will go look in the mirror continously. I think it might be time for a haircut though!

St. Kitts

2009-05-27T21:44:00.006-05:00

We recently had our second family trip to St. Kitts. Our group this year was Mommy, Daddy, Jason, Mimi, Papaw, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Josh, and we were joined this year by Uncle Greg and Aunt Sandy. St. Kitts is such a beautiful island, and is still a bit on the undiscovered side, which makes it nice and not too crowded.

Unfortunately this year we had the terrible misfortune of being in an automobile accident, and had to send half of our group home early; Uncle Greg with a dislocated elbow and Aunt Sarah with a mouth injury that will require extensive oral surgery and braces. We are very fortunate, despite these injuries, that we all walked away, and are thankful that no one was hurt more seriously. We have been relieved to find out that Uncle Greg will not require surgery; and have been proud (but not really surprised) to witness Aunt Sarah's strength and positive attitude as she deals with a temporary liquid diet and multiple doctor's appointments.

After a couple of missteps, the resort staff was very helpful in assisting those of us that stayed for the remainder of the week, sort out things with the insurance company of the driver who caused the collision. We are very pleased that all medical expenses have thus far been reimbursed.

While Aunt Sarah and Uncle Greg have a long road to recovery ahead of them, we can look back now on the moments we did get to share on vacation together. We also look forward to future vacations together.

And now for some highlights (the good parts) from our vacation:

Dr. Seuss

2009-05-27T21:26:00.003-05:00

The other day we had one of the XM Radio kids stations on in the car, and they played a reading of Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham." You should have seen you Jason reacted! We have read this book together so many times that he has memorized many of the parts, and was chanting in unison with the audio version. Now whenever we get in the car he asks for "Green Eggs and Ham", so I knew I had to track down this recording. I did not find the exact same version, but I think I may have found something better. iTunes has readings by famous actors and I found "Green Eggs and Ham" read by Jason Alexander as well as "The Cat in the Hat" read by Kelsey Grammer. These are both great recordings, and it is so much fun to sit together and look through the book while listening to such expressive readings. I would definitely recommend them to anyone with kids who love Dr. Seuss!

Mavs Game

2009-04-04T11:30:00.002-05:00

On St. Patrick's Day, we got to sit courtside at the Mavericks game against the Detroit Pistons. No, we didn't get the tickets from an extremely rich relative, and we didn't follow a rainbow to find a pot of gold at the end. We simply won them in a drawing. We were very fortunate to get the tickets. It was a great way to relax after a long, busy day at the office and it was really cool to be right in the middle of all the action. We also got to see firsthand how truly athletic these players are and how physical the game of basketball can be.

This may rank as one of the coolest sports experience for me. After a little thought I came up with a list.

Justin's Top 10 personal sports experiences:

10. 2003 Cotton Bowl - The year LSU played Texas, the game was still being played in the morning of New Year's Day. It was quite a feat for folks in their mid-20s to make it there in time for kickoff. We're pretty fortunate to have a decent bowl game so close to home. It'll be even closer now that the game is being moved to Jonestown (aka. the New Cowboys Stadium), but it may lose a bit of it's sense of tradition.

9. Suite at the Texas Motor Speedway - While you lose a little bit of the experience by being shielded from the noise of the cars, it's definitely a cool, once in a lifetime experience.

8. Suite at Texas Stadium (Cowboys vs. Redskins) - Again tickets that we won in a drawing. Hopefully we'll get to go to a game in the new stadium next season.

7. Texas State defeating Georgia Southern in the 2005 Division I-AA Playoffs - I'm sure this would be viewed as the most controversial experience on this list. Though Texas State isn't known as a football powerhouse, you have to understand that a) Georgia Southern had been considered a top team at the level; and b) Texas State had never experienced at game of this magnitude at home. So the underdog Bobcats won, and people stormed the field. I think I even recall hearing Al Michaels somewhere saying, "Do you believe in miracles?"

6. Rangers Ballpark (aka Ameriquest Field, Ballpark in Arlington) - I think sometimes we take the Ballpark for granted, but remember Arlington Stadium? Sure, the Ballpark could have used a retractable roof, but they have the Home Run Porch, a museum, and an overall cool look that includes architectural features of various, now-defunct ballparks. (Note that this sports experience ranks below the Fort Worth Cats.)

5. Fort Worth Cats at LaGrave Field - We sat along the third base line, first row. With downtown Fort Worth in the background, the scene just had a really good vibe.

4. Stars vs. Edmonton Oilers playoff game - The Stars won, the place went nuts, and I didn't feel so well the next day.

3. Fenway Park - Sitting in center field, right by the Green Monster. With so many stadiums being replaced over the years, Fenway is one of the last historical ballparks still in use. I couldn't quite figure out why the Red Sox fans were heckling the Yankees while their team was playing the Twins. It was quite amusing.

2. Sitting courtside at a Mavs game - (see below)

1. Tiger Stadium, any night game at LSU - The game that really comes to mind is when LSU beat Auburn on a last second TD pass. If you were there and weren't either in a fit of joy (LSU fans) or completely devastated (Auburn fans), then you have no soul or may possibly be some sort of undead zombie.

Honorable mentions: UT/A&M game at Kyle Field, UT/A&M game at Memorial Stadium, Fort Worth Fire Hockey, a at day at the Colonial PGA tournament.

On my "to do" list are:
Wrigley Field, Lambeau Field, Indy 500, Daytona 500, Augusta National, (this list will most likely continue to change and grow).

Courtside!

Bye-Bye High Chair

2009-04-04T10:49:00.001-05:00

Jason has decided that since he is such a big boy now, that he is too old to sit in his high chair. He has graduated to having a seat at the dinner table. Unfortunately, Mommy, in her infinite wisdom, had shown Jason how to swing his legs and bounce in the chair in addition to showing him how to slide down in the seat (just like she did when she was a little girl) a couple of weeks ago. Yes, this is the same butcher block table Mommy used to sit at growing up! We're pretty sure he would have figured out how to do all of these things by himself, but we now realize that a prep course was not a good idea. So now, dinner is accompanied by a chorus of: "Jason, sit up!", "Jason, sit still!", "Jason, turn around!", "Jason, stop bouncing." It is a really nice change to be sitting at the table all together, squirming aside. Besides, kids can't help being kind of squirmy. Isn't he cute?

Sazeracs! Need I say more?

2009-03-19T21:52:00.003-05:00

LSU License Plate Day!!!

2009-03-19T21:40:00.000-05:00

Jill's brand new license plates arrived and we had to put them on as soon as we got home. For those of you who don't already know, LSU is the first out of state school to have official plates made in Texas. We can already tell Greg is jealous and wants some LSU plates of his own. Actually, we hear that the University of Arkansas may not be far behind with their own Texas plate, so if he must, we'll let him have a set (ewww pigs....).

Jason's Room v2.0

2009-03-19T21:36:00.000-05:00

Wow! We can't believe it's already March. Well, we have a little catching up to do for our entries. A few months ago, Jason upgraded to a "big boy" bed. Along with that, we had some decorating to change his room from a nursery to a boy's room. Take a peek!

Jason's New Talent

2009-01-19T23:29:00.003-06:00

Well, it looks like Jason's signing career is now set to begin. Take a look! It's hard to believe how fast he has grown. He sure enjoys the spotlight. When we try singing along with him, he says, "No Mommy" or "No Daddy" because like many things, he wants to do it himself.

Happy Holidays!

2009-01-01T12:25:00.001-06:00

Well, it's been a while since we've posted, so this might be a long post. First, we hope that everyone had a nice Christmas holiday, and that the New Year brings everyone health, wealth and much prosperity. And now for some updates and pics from the last couple of months, which have been a whirlwind of activity.

Here is a picture from Jason's 50s dress up day to celebrate his daycare's 50th year since its founding. We thought he looked pretty cool!

Here are some pictures from Jason's Thanksgiving Feast his class had up at school. He was the only child in his class with both parents there. It was fun to sit and have lunch with him, and to see him interact with his teachers and classmates.

Oh, and I almost forgot! I have proof for the future when Jason tries to tell us that he does not like vegetables. Here he is eating (and enjoying) brussel sprouts!

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year up at Uncle Josh and Aunt Sarah's house. Nana, Justin, Jason and I traveled together all the way to Collin county for the feast. Sarah and Josh did a wonderful job putting everything together and Sarah even saved the boudin ball/loaf. Justin, Josh and Jason even got to enjoy some playtime in the backyard (although I think it made them miss some of the Cowboys game.) Once Jason decided it was time to go, by throwing a fit, we trekked back over to Tarrant County and dropped by Matt and Erin's house (our Aunt Lindsay's sister) for a visit. There, Jason was able to play with his two cousins, Kassidy and Mckinley, and their cousin Ella.
Jason had a Christmas Program the next week, and we made sure we had good seats in order to watch his class perform "Jingle Bells" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" Unfortunately we did not get to see him on stage because he insisted on being held by the teacher during both songs. Oh well, maybe next year.

Mimi's birthday was next, and we went to church and had lunch at Christina's to celebrate. Jason was a little cranky, so Justin and I had to eat in shifts.

You may have noticed a recurring theme so far with Jason being fussy and having tantrums. He is still our wonderful happy little boy, but we have entered the much talked about terrible 2's, so sometimes Jason is a bit of a short fuse. In his defense, we have introduced a lot of new things to him recently, including moving to a big boy bed and beginning potty training. We feel he is adjusting well, but he is also continuously testing his limits and boundaries, and we are all learning together.

After Mimi's birthday we met up with Rebecca, Vince and Jacob to take pictures at our neighborhood clubhouse. Which reminds me, we still need to pick up those pictures. It was a memorable experience, as Jason cried the minute I put him in Santa's lap. I bet the pictures will be funny.

Next, we had a Christmas celebration over at Nana's house. It was a lot of fun to have 3 toddlers (Jason, Kassidy and Mckinley) all opening presents up in the same room at the same time. The kiddos also got to decorate pine cones and frost and decorate cookies. Jason's technique was superb - frost then eat. Then we all got to go and enjoy Kathie's choir perform their Christmas program which included dancing, singing, and even an appearance by 3 live camels. Jason really enjoyed all the music and lights.

Oh, and here was the wonderful Christmas card we sent out this year. Jason's frowny face cracked us up.
Jason has been obsessed with happy faces and sad faces lately, as I think they represent the two main emotions he identifies with right now. He has us draw them repeatedly on his Doodle Pro and Aquadoodle, and he likes to act out his own happy and sad faces. He also wants to make us happy, so if he does something he thinks we'll be proud of, like eating his vegetables, or putting his head on his pillow at bedtime he'll ask "Mama/Daddy happy?"

Here he is sporting one of his happy faces and his Santa hat, which he loved wearing.

We had two really fun events over at Deborah and John's house this year, a vocal recital of Sarah's voice students and a Christmas dinner party. Both were really fun. We even got to sing the 12 days of Christmas song at the dinner party because we had 12 adults at the table, and each of us had our own line from the song!

Christmas morning was a lot of fun too, as Jason loves opening presents and tearing tissue paper. He even enjoys picking up all the discarded paper. We also had wonderful celebrations at Mimi and Papaw's house on Christmas Day and the Saturday after Christmas.

We brought in the New Year with Rebecca, Vince and Jacob and we all decided to stick close to home this year and spend time with our kiddos. It has become a tradition to celebrate this holiday together, and one which I hope we will continue for many years. Here are some pictures of Jason and Jacob.

We were also very excited for Mimi and Papaw who traveled to Atlanta to watch the Tigers play in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. They had instructions to cheer loudly for us too, and it must have worked because the Tigers played a great game, beating Georgia Tech with a final score of 38-3. Here's a picture of Mimi and Papaw at the game.

Hope everyone has Happy New Year and GEAUX TIGERS!

Cowboys New Stadium

2008-11-02T21:00:00.007-06:00

Jill and I recently got the opportunity to tour the new Cowboys Stadium. We were quite excited, as this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

We first went to the Stadium Preview Center. There, they had snacks, Cowboys Cheerleaders, a real-life sample of a suite, and a much, much smaller model of the stadium itself. We also got to see Jerry Jones's bus while we waited to be picked up and taken for the tour.

The faux-luxury suite in the preview center was really cool. One of the walls was even covered in a wallpaper that gave you a feel for the view from the suite. However, on the wallpaper, I noticed something was totally off about the Ring of Honor. The had "Emmit Smith" in the Ring of Honor. I included this picture in the slideshow. It's not like they'll have his name misspelled in the actual stadium, but I thought it was kind of funny considering he's one of the all-time greats for the team as well as the league. Shortly after my discovery, it was off to the job site (aka. JerryWorld or Jonestown).

When we got to the stadium site, the van dropped us off on the North side across from Wal-Mart. On gamedays, this will be the side of the visiting team. We entered the stadium on the main concourse, which brought us in around the 2nd or 3rd level of seating. We had a chance to see lots of tubing, quality copper wiring, drywall, metal, and concrete. Kidding of course. Sure, it's still about six months from completion, but you can see things really taking shape. One thing that stands out is how enormous it is on the inside. The still have the hole in the roof, but the can close the roof if needed. Considering this stadium is to host many events besides football, it's a good idea to have the open or closed option. What will be a major difference from Texas Stadium is that the entire seating area will be cooled or heated if necessary. That makes concerts in July or August MUCH more bearable.

What stood out most for me is the video board that will soon be installed. In the slide show, you'll see what appears to be a bunch of scaffolding in the middle of the field. Instead, that is the frame for the four-sided video board. It stretches about 50-60 yards in length and in height, makes it about halfway up the stadium. It looks so much larger than what I've seen online.

Enjoy the slideshow!

Halloween

2008-11-02T14:47:00.008-06:00

We had trouble deciding what Jason should be for Halloween this year. He has a set of Superman PJ's that were super cute with a cape, that he absolutely loved wearing, especially since the cape "flew" behind him as he was running around the house. We can't help but wonder if they were not special enough for Halloween, and if we somehow cheated Jason out of a sort of right of passage. Honestly though, we did not think there was a good selection of costumes at the stores and we were not all that pleased with what we saw for 2-year-olds.

We ended up being pretty pleased with our decision Halloween night. Jason was comfortable and excited. We made it to about 5 or 6 houses before he got tired. Jason was keen on rigning the doorbell, but a little too shy to say "trick or treat" or even to grab candy from the bowl/basket/container at each house. Here is our little man of steel.

We also had Mimi and Papaw over for a Halloween Feast. Or meal consisted of brains, eyes of newt, slime, potato and mushroom soup, and bat cakes. It was scary and delicious!

We also have to show off our pumpkins! Last weekend we had some pumpkin painting fun with Uncle Vinny, Aunt Becky and little Jake. We think they turned out great. Can you guess who painted each pumpkin?

Singing songs and more new words

2008-11-02T14:30:00.010-06:00

So Jason's favorite activity might not be reading anymore. Right now he really loves to sing songs. On his current favorites playlist we have the classic "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." This is only rivaled in popularity by the much beloved standard "If You're Happy and You Know It..." or "Happy" as Jason calls it for short. Other tunes we sing often are:

The Alphabet Song "A B C D..."

Three Blind Mice

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Theme songs from SpongeBob, Backyardigans, Diego, Blue's Clues

Rubber Duckie

Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone

How Much is that Doggie In the Window

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

The Potty Song (you can ask Aunt Sarah about this one)

He likes the songs with hand motions the best, so sometimes Mommy just makes them up (you know how silly Mommy can be). In fact sometimes Mommy just makes up songs altogether. It is a lot of fun when we are over at Mimi and Papaw's house and get the whole family singing "Happy." Mommy loves that Jason enjoys singing all these songs. Are there any song's you can think of that we've left off our repertoire that Jason should learn? What were some of your favorite songs from childhood?

On another note, a new phrase has entered Jason's vocabulary, and although we have no definitive proof, Mom is pretty sure that Jason picked it up from her. It is almost worse than his go-to word "No", because we know he is mimicking. And while imitation is often the highest form of flattery, we do not believe this to be the case in this instance. Jason now says "Stop it!". Now in Mom's defense, the phrase was most often used to communicate to Jason, for example, that maybe he was being a little silly and that a big boy should not cry when it is time to turn off the TV. You know like "Oh, stop it. You're fine Jason. Let's go take a bath!" Anyway, Mom feels responsible. We are really going to have to start watching what we say. He picks up everything!

Happy 2nd Birthday Jason!

2008-10-26T18:35:00.007-05:00

Happy 2nd Birthday Jason !

Jason turned 2 this past month and we can barely believe our baby is not a baby anymore! We had a really nice party out at the park and Jason got tons of cool presents that he has been playing with non-stop. Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate with us. Here are just a few of the great pictures we took, and also enjoy our first attempt at home movie video editing (it's still a little long)!

Jason's 2nd Birthday from Jill on Vimeo.

Music courtesy of Drew's Famous Pre-School Musical Party Music

Our little artist!

2008-09-18T21:29:00.009-05:00

When I picked up Jason from preschool today, I went through his art folder and pulled out many beautiful and creative pieces of art, as usual. We typically put a couple of Jason's masterpieces on display in the kitchen on the side of the fridge, where we all can enjoy them. Jason likes to play with his artwork too (translation = tear, crumple, chew on, rip to pieces), so they do not always last that long, but he's having fun, and there is always an abundance of arts and crafts projects that make their way into our home. But lo and behold, today we hit the jackpot with this magnificent creation! Jason insisted on wearing his bug antennae for the remainder of the afternoon and evening. He even wore them throughout dinner. Of course, since Jason is a boy, and was "playing" with his artwork again, his crown o'antennae broke. No problem though, Mom came to the rescue with some tape! Luckily, we were able to distract him at bath time with his crayola bath gel crayons, or he probably would have insisted on wearing his antennae to bed. Isn't he the cutest little bug?

Jacob is here!

2008-09-07T21:57:00.004-05:00

Jacob Harper arrived Saturday September 6, 2008 at 12:26pm. He weighed 7lbs. 1.2 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches in length. Justin, Jill and Jason all went to see Jacob and his parents at the hospital on the Sunday after he was born. The new Mommy and Daddy were doing great and so was baby Jacob. We got to visit with Mimi and Big Daddy too, Rebecca's parents, who drove in from Arkansas.

So far Rebecca believes that Jacob has his Daddy's chin, and lips, and nose (we agree). We were also told that Vince had no trouble with his first diaper changing, but he was still trying to master the art of swaddling.

Jason was so cute and excited and kept saying "Hi Baby!" We've tried to get him to say Jacob, but so far all we can manage sounds something like "Dub Dub." (Does this have anything to do with his always referring to Sponge Bob as "Bob Bob"?)

Congratulations Rebecca and Vince, you did a great job; Jacob is such a handsome boy!

New Words

2008-09-07T21:30:00.005-05:00

Another new word has crept into Jason's vocabulary, "hep" or help. This is actually a very "helpful" word, and is usually accompanied by pulling Mom or Dad over to whatever he needs help with. Sometimes we need to help get a toy out of his toy chest, or it is mandatory that we get his Diego coloring book down from the counter ledge, or it is imperative that we get a snack from the pantry. Unfortunately, it is all too often followed by the handing over of the TV remote accompanied by an adorable smile and the phrase "teeee", which of course means TV. How can we deny such a cute face!

We've also begun to master counting to ten, singing the alphabet song (thanks to the alphabet magnets on the fridge and foam letters in the bathtub), and some colors. Jason's favorite color is "yehyo" or yellow, and our favorite letters are "W, X, Y & Z". We know we are biased, but we think he's so smart! Here he is enjoying one of his favorite pastimes, reading (just like his Mom!).

Trip to the Aquarium

2008-08-20T22:25:00.004-05:00

We recently took Jason to the Dallas World Aquarium and here are some pictures from our adventure. Jason was mesmerized by all the different animals. He talked and pointed, he oohed and ahhed, and he was entertained the entire time. I would definitely recommend the venue to anyone with an almost 2 year old who cannot sit still for long!

Wedding Fever

2008-08-20T21:18:00.001-05:00

Well Sarah and Josh's big day was so much fun, and I know I've been daydreaming about sitting on the beach and drinking margaritas like the newleyweds are. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed celebrating with all of our friends and family. Being in the wedding mood, we've been reminiscing about our wedding day, so long ago (ok, maybe not so long ago, but it has been over three years). So take a stroll down memory lane and enjoy some pictures of our big day back on May 21,2005.

All photos were taken by Cindy at Creative Reflections Photography (we are so glad she took pictures for Sarah and Josh too and we cannot wait to see them).

Our new pet (sort of)

2008-07-23T22:22:00.005-05:00

We've noticed for the past couple of weeks a little visitor out in our back yard every evening. Our new pet (sort of) is a bunny. He likes to cuddle up to Jason's Elmo sprinkler. What's really great about having a pet like this is we do not have to feed him, he just stops by when he wants to hang out.

'Side!

2008-07-22T21:37:00.007-05:00

Jason has started saying 'side lately, which means outside. He loves to go outside and play in his sandbox that Nana gave him, or just to run around in the yard. The other night we went 'side to have dinner. This was kind of a compromise, because we could not get him out of the sandbox. Jason alternated between playing in the sand and eating dinner, and we are pretty sure he was eating sand too. He is such a boy!

Update: I had to add pictures of Jason in his sandbox and out in the swing at Mimi and Papaw's. We love to play outside!

Oh Baby Boy!

2008-07-13T15:41:00.004-05:00

A few Saturdays ago we had a baby shower for Rebecca and Vince. It was a little hot outside but we had a really good turnout, great BBQ, and cake. The Mom-and-Dad-to-be received lots of gifts to help them get ready for baby Jacob. Here are some great pictures of the event.

Jason's First Haircut

2008-07-10T21:58:00.010-05:00

Jason got his first haircut this past weekend. We took him to Cool Cuts 4 Kids, and they have a really neat set up. Jason was able to play with trains beforehand in the play area. Then he got to sit in a car while his hair was being cut, all while an episode of Sponge Bob was playing on TV. He was in desperate need of a haircut, but Mom and Dad love the fact that we got a nice lock of hair for his baby book. Jason was extremely good natured throughout the whole experience. There was a little boy next to him who cried the whole time! He did giggle a lot whenever the hairdresser used the trimmer around his ears, I guess because it tickled. Here's our handsome boy!

Welcome

2008-01-10T16:46:00.001-06:00

Welcome to the Our Family Blog. We are new to this, so please be patient as we learn all the ins and outs of blogging.