Texas sledding

We headed to my parents house on the first "leg" of our holiday travels. It was really nice and warm outside the first day, so we took advantage of it with lots of playing in my parents' great yard. One thing we tried for the first time was our version of sledding. It was a big hit with Jake. He would squeal all the way down. We did several runs. Some with Papa...

Some with Daddy...
This is my favorite of all the sledding pics. Jake is laughing and squealing so hard and he's covering his mouth. It was hilarious...

And even Mommy gave it a try...

How's my technique?

Since my accident, I've been going to physical therapy to help regain movement in my shoulder. As part of therapy, I have some exercises to do at home. One involves this pulley. If it's ever out when Jake's around, he's very fascinated with it and got to give it a try... He's proven that he has much better range of motion than I do; but I'm working on it...

Cutie patooty...

Going Pro

Daddy has been the only one to ever cut Jake's hair, but we made a pre-holiday decision to try a professional haircut. I was honestly very curious how a professional would handle Jake's crazy cowlick, super-straight, fine hair. As I expected, Jake did awesome during the cut: no fussing, no tears, only ultimate cooperation. Here's our little man pre-cut.... Most of the cooperation is due to the TV screen playing cartoons in front of him. Wonder why he looks gazed over in these pictures? It's the TV glaze...

"What's she doing, Mom? This noise is interrupting my show."

Post-cut, handsome boy...

Christmas Lights

Going to look at Christmas lights is a holiday tradition I grew up loving, and that I really hope my children grow up loving. We're lucky to have some great houses/neighborhoods in the Cedar Park area, so it's easy to find some great lights. There is one cul-de-sac in CP that is AWESOME! Here are Kevin and Jake in front of the village and choo choo train... This next house was my favorite. We found it from a listing in a local newspaper. It was obviously all handmade, and I thought is was so refreshing to see a house dedicated to what Christmas is truly about, the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ...

All that can be said about that is, "Wow!"

Catch-up

It's been a while since a post, and there are several things I want to document and remember before we start in on our Christmas celebrations. I was in a pretty serious car accident on Monday, November 29 which has resulted in (among many other things) a break from the blog world. Thanks to God's protection, I am alive and doing well. I don't want to focus on the accident, I'd rather continue with some pics to play some catch up. These will be in what I will call "old-school photo album style." Basically just the pictures with no captions; all from our Thanksgiving holiday...

ICE!

Jake and I spent a few extra days with my parents before Thanksgiving, and Papa and Grandmama treated us to a special trip to the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine to see ICE! and all the Christmas decor. ICE! is an incredible 14,000 square foot exhibit full of ice sculptures. Here's Jake as we're waiting in line... The theme for ICE! changes each year, and this year's theme is Peanuts. We did our best to introduce Jake to Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the gang the night before by watching the Peanuts Thanksgiving special and reading some new books. Here's what we saw as we entered...

They give everyone big coats to stay warm. Jake was NOT a fan of the coat. I don't blame him since it practically swallowed him, but you gotta do what you gotta do to stay warm. With the gigantic coat, I think my little boy turned back into looking like a baby. Here are the pics we took at ICE last year...it's hard to tell which is which with the hat and coat.Jake was too interested looking at Snoopy to pose for the camera...

As I said, Jake wasn't a fan of his coat. Plus, I don't think he's a fan of the cold. Combining those two things meant Jake was less than happy during parts of our time looking. Here's a pic demonstrating a little reality...

But don't worry, he really did like everything at times. Here's a pic to capture one of his happy moments with Papa...

Once again, I have to say the ice sculptures and the entire exhibit was really incredible. Even more incredible to be able to see this beauty in Texas on a day with 70+ degree temps...

After ICE! we grabbed a yummy lunch, spent time enjoying all the wonderful decorations, and saw Santa! As we were standing in line Jake seemed super excited to see Santa. So much so, he was trying to cut in line and do all sorts of tricks to get to him quicker. Once we actually approached Santa, however, it was a different story. Jake simply refused to sit on his lap, so this year we have a lovely picture of Jake sitting in Mommy's lap next to Santa. If only I knew how to work our scanner so that you could see; oh well. Jake did however, love all the Christmas decorations. His favorites were all the trains...

While Jake was looking at the trains and decorations, another older boy came along with his family. It's always fun to see how Jake responds to other children. He immediately wanted to be close to the little boy and was acting like he was playing games with him. Can you tell from this picture what he seems interested in? Kevin and I agree that Jake would love to have an older sibling. Oh well, luckily we have lots of great older friends to step in.

Here's one last shot of Papa and Jake in front of the life-sized gingerbread house...

What a great day! Thanks for the special treat, Papa and Grandmama!

A Few Days Away

Jake and I spent a few nights away this weekend to be with family. It's always hard to be away from Daddy, but it's important for Jake to form good relationships with the rest of the family, so we made the trip. Jake had lots of fun at a cool park near my parents' house. It had a little "fort" and Jake loved to look out the window... He also found a sand sifter that provided lots of entertainment...

Jake definitely continues to be Papa's boy. He was around my dad at all times, and even woke one morning saying, "Papa, papa!"We also got to celebrate with the other side of the family for Channing's 1st birthday. Here's a pic of Channing opening her gifts. This was pretty much my view of things because both boys were very interested in all the gifts, so they were right in front helping out.

Channing LOVED the cake. She had us all in laughter as she literally dove her face into her cake.

We tried to get a group shot of the "kids" and cousins. Unfortunately, Jake has his eyes closed--almost a great pic...

22 months

Jake is officially 22-months-old today. How can we be this close to 2? Here's my precious, happy boy!Here's just a couple of Jake's favorite things lately:
1. Our 2nd grade neighbor, Ella. She is often playing outside in the afternoon the same time when Jake and I go outside, and she's been coming over to play about 1-2 times a week lately. I think she fulfills Jake's desire for an older sibling. She's actually the only reason I was able to capture all these pictures today. He is looking at her in every one. We think this might be his first crush!

2. He loves his lawn mower. He pushes it around pretty much every time we're outside.
3. Balls still rank pretty high on his list of favorite toys. A new favorite are Hot Wheels. He got his first two as a present for his bravery after his accident, and has loved them from day 1.

4. He's grown an opinion about some clothing items. He LOVES this UT hat and his new Nike shoes. When he has a choice of hats or shoes, he always chooses these, and has actually thrown fits over these 2 items.

Halloween 2010

We had a great Halloween this year. On Saturday night, we headed to a small fall festival at a nearby park and Jake got to paint his own pumpkin... We waited til Sunday to carve our pumpkin, and I have to say Jake was less than thrilled about it. This was his face when Kevin took off the pumpkin top and showed him the inside...

We did finally get him to touch a pumpkin seed, but he adamantly did not stick his hand in the pumpkin to help Daddy fish them out. Here he's showing off his seed...

Since he wasn't so interested in the pumpkin carving, Nana stepped in with a story and little pumpkin "carving" of her own. Jake liked this variety much better...

Our obligatory family picture as we head out to trick-or-treat...And he's off...
I was really very impressed and happily suprised by how well Jake did with trick-or-treating. He marched down the sidewalk with his bag like he'd done it 100 times.

Walking up to the first house...

Waiting for someone to answer. We did have to remind/encourage him to say "trick-or-treat" and "thank you," but once reminded, he said it every time...

Another family pic with the 3 decorated pumpkins of the season. One by Daddy, two by Jake...

Once we were finished with our candy hunt, we put out chairs in front of the house so we could pass out candy. Jake's costume had it by this point. I DO NOT recommend velcro legs for a toddler. They came undone all night long while I tried unsuccessfully to get them to stay together. At this point, I gave up...