We're leaving this afternoon for some family time. The weekend with the Lawsons and the week with my parents. Since Jake and I will be gone for a week, thought I'd leave with you with some more of my cutie. As I was packing for our trip, Jake was playing with his blocks. He learned a new balancing act.

Once a week I get together for lunch with some friends and their kids. It's pretty crazy with lots of babies and toddlers everywhere, but it's nice for both Jake and I to get out and spend time with friends. Here are some of the babies: Levi, Will, and Jake...If you look closely, there's 5 babies in this picture. Katelyn is in the back, the three boys in the middle. and Eliana in the front...what an adorable bunch!And lastly, these are just cute shots showing off his pretty blue eyes.

He's on the move

Yes, it's true, my little boy is officially crawling. I captured a video tonight, but can't figure out how to upload it to the blog. Once I get some technical help I hope to share a couple of cute videos, so stay tuned.

First Day of School

Today is the first day of school for many teachers, school staff, and students. This is also the first year in 5 years, I haven't been starting school either as a student or to work as a school social worker, so it's a little strange not heading off somewhere. From my experience working in schools, and having a husband and several good friends who are teachers, I feel like I have a better understanding than most of what teachers experience. Trust me, their jobs are tough! Kevin is an Algebra II teacher, head cross country coach, and Assistant Varsity coach at Leander High School. I am very proud of his profession and the commitment he makes to his students and athletes YEAR-ROUND. God has given him a gift to work with teens, and I admire the choice he made to follow his passion and to make a difference in young people's lives. It's sometimes hard when he's away from home a lot in the midst of sports' seasons, but it helps to know he's doing it for the kids.

Last week, Jake and I brought Kevin lunch and helped out in his classroom a couple days. I don't have any before shots, but trust me, it was bad. Here are some after shots of his room. Jake and Kevin are showing off the finished product:
His back wall is filled with lots of old-school sports posters: Michael Jordan, Nolan Ryan, Charles Barkley, etc. Yes, they have nothing to do with math, but they are a good representation of who Kevin is. The side wall is filled with a combination of math and inspirational quote posters. He was in desperate need of some new posters, so I went to Mardels and got 9 new ones on sale. I have to say, they make quite a difference.

Here's Kevin's first eager student ready to learn all about Algebra II. Well, maybe we'll just start with counting to ten and wait a couple years for Algebra II.

I wish all you teachers, students, principals, counselors, office staff, custodians, and Communities In Schools workers :-) a great year!!

Some things aren't appreciated until later

This is how I feel....

about getting this....

OK, so it's really hard to tell on the blog, but yes, it's there. Jake's first tooth has officially sprouted.

Big Boy!

I look so proud because....I pulled up in this position ALL BY MYSELF!!!! Jake pulled himself to the standing position 3 times on the exersaucer with absolutely no help tonight. Sometimes it's a little scary thinking how much he will grow and change over the next few months; we're just beginning.

Yeah, I'm a big boy; no big deal; it's all good.

"Watts" of Fun!

Last week, Kevin's cousin's 13-year-old daughter, Brittany stayed with us to help take care of Jake. I met Brittany for the first time when she was 7 and the flower girl at our wedding. That day I thought, "this is exactly the type of daughter I hope to raise one day." My thoughts remain the same over five years later. Brittany is a sweet, helpful, caring young lady, and it was great to spend the week with her. She helped out a lot with Jake. Here she's feeding him green beans.Showing off green bean face...

Playing outside while Dad is getting ready to grill fajitas...

Tuesday we went to the Rock'n River Aquatic Center in Round Rock. It's a great place for young kids; even Jake's age. Plus, there have a couple of slides and a small lazy river for bigger kids to enjoy. Here's Brittany and Jake...

Our family....

They have fountains all around. Jake loved playing in the water.

On Wednesday, Brittany, Jake and I went to South Congress to walk around. We ate at Home Slice Pizza, then enjoyed some sweet treats at a candy shop. Here are Brittany and Jake amazed by all the types of candy.Thursday, my mom and kids play group met at Brushy Creek Lake Park. The park has a water spray area, so it's a great place in the summer especially because it's FREE! Here are Jake and Brittany playing with the fountains.

Friday afternoon, we headed to San Antonio to spend the weekend with the entire Watts family. We had a great time playing games, hanging out, and enjoying their pool. Here are Ryan and Brittany with Jake...

Jake was living life like a king. He's chillin' on a float, soaking up the rays.

All the activity must have been a little too much for Jake because he woke up Saturday morning with a cold. Unfortunately, we ended our weekend a few hours early to get Jake back home, but it was still a great visit. Thanks, Rodney, Kelly, Ryan and Brittany. We had a great time!

A Visit to the Ratliffs

This past weekend we went to visit our good friends, Phillip, Heather and Emily Ratliff. Phillip and Kevin coached together in Mesquite and became really good friends; they were groomsmen in each others' weddings. Now Phillip is the principal at Panther Creek Consolidated ISD, and yes, I do mean the entire ISD. He is the principal of all grades pre-k through 12th, totalling approximately 160 students. Needless to say, it's country living, but it's a really great environment for Phillip's first principal job, it puts them closer to their families, and it's a nice place for their daughter Emily. Their daughter, Emily, is 14 months old and did great around Jake. The moment we sat him down, she hugged him and put her arm around him. This cute pic shows her arm around him.Emily was very nice all weekend and shared lots of her toys with Jake. She was even nice enough to share her great baby pool so the kids enjoyed the water to escape from the heat. Oso, the dog, was much more entertaining than the camera.

Jake also took his first bath with a companion. The Ratliffs have a big garden tub, so there was plenty of room for Daddy and Papa to do bathtime.
Here they are with their "doo-rag" look.

Thanks, Phillip, Heather, and Emily for hosting us this weekend. We had a great time!

These are a few of our favorite things...

I thought I'd share a few of Jake and my favorite things lately. Most of his favorite things also become mine because I love watching him enjoy things, smile and laugh. There are a couple books Jake really likes right now that we read daily. The first is "Five Speckled Frogs." It makes the top of the list mostly because it's a sound book so you push a button and the frogs croak. Also, both Kevin and I read it in "rap" version while including the croaking. He starts to smile immediately when we pull it out."Five speckled frogs were playing all day long, croaking froggy songs and having lots of fun! Singing...." Works every time for a bright big smile.We read before naps and bedtime, and every bedtime reading includes this book, "Little Quack's Bedtime" (sorry it's the wrong way; I'm technically challenged). We started reading it at bedtime mainly because it was one of the only "bedtime" stories we really had, but now it's part of our routine. We also like it because Jake's hair resembles the little ducks' hair. He started off looking like Little Quack, but now his hair resembles Waddle.
Jake LOVES Johnny Jumper! We borrowed this from Chad, Cassy, and Cohen, and it is now something I don't know what we would do without. He loves jumping and swinging in it.

I love getting Jake out of bed in the morning because he wakes up in a happy mood and always greets me with a smile. I've gotten in the habit of singing the same three songs for him every morning: 1."Good morning, good morning, to you" (I don't know if this is really a song, but I put it to a tune, so it's our song) 2. "When the red, red robin comes bop, bop, boppin' along, along..." 3. "Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory..." This morning I tried to capture his adorable morning smile, but instead all I could capture was a grumpy face. I think he's telling me, "Mom it's not nice to flash a camera at me first thing in the morning. Stop."
This one is sweet, however. This is his nightime buddy, Blamey. Blamey must be included in the things that Jake loves. He takes all naps and goes to bed with him everyday.

Jake also loves wrestling with Daddy, and I love to watch. His loudest giggles and biggest smiles seem to come when wrestling with Daddy. They roll around on the floor together and Jake has learned that his greatest defense is his slober. Here they are having fun.

I'll end with what I think is Jake's favorite food: pears. He's becoming a much better eater these days, but he definitely prefers fruits over veggies. I'm now pureeing his food and he loves pears. Sorry, no picture for this one. Have a great weekend!!!

7 months

Jake turned 7 months old yesterday. Of course, we did our monthly ritual of taking pictures on the striped blue blanket. Thanks, Chez, for the beautiful blanket. I'm very thankful for professional photographers, because I've realized I do a horrible job trying to get a good picture of Jake. Not only can you always see the mess in the background; it's so hard for me to capture his cute expressions instead of always getting a frown or closed eyes. Oh well, here are our attempts.It's also really hard to get one that also has the sign in it saying how old he is. Here are the best attempts.

Grandmama and Papa got Jake his first swing and Kevin hung it on our back porch on his birthday. He loves it!!