Jack's First Christmas--Round One

Christmas with kids is SO fun.

I am a total holiday person.  I like to make heart shaped pancakes on Valentines, green milk on St. Patty's Day, and etc.  I decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas and I love holiday traditions.  All of these things are fun with just Jason and I...I'm fortunate to have a man who totally appreciates these things.  It's all the more fun though with kids.  They get so excited at the small things.  Granted, Jack had no clue what was going on but it was still so sweet to start traditions.  Things like new PJ's and a Christmas book on Christmas Eve and etc.  We of COURSE had to go see Santa too.  :)

We spent Christmas Eve with my mom and dad-in law.  So, let's call this Christmas Round 1...as I'm still waiting for pictures from my parents.  :)



At Santa's House.  I personally think SLO's Santa House is SO cute.  :)

So funny story on the Santa thing.  I was a little nervous to see how Jack would react being thrust into the lap of a strange man in a red suit.  Turns out we hand Jack to Santa and SANTA ended up being the one who was nervous/wigged out.  He was rushing us to take the picture as fast as possible.  I'm thinking he's had one to many babies freak out with him haha.  Jack was totally content being held.  When I took Jack back Santa said, "We'll see how he does NEXT year!"  True, true Santa.  :)

Waiting in line for Santa...look how BIG my baby is!  Ahhh!

Family Picture! <3

Christmas Eve present time!

Auntie Joanna on sock duty.  :)  (Yes, he has no pants on.  It was like 80 degrees haha)

Apparently strings on toys are the MOST fun.

Totally cute new beanie from Grandma...with drooly chin and all. <3

Jack got a plethora of new wooden toys.  He's a little young for this one but Daddy enjoyed it. :)

Uncle Love <3

Papa reading up on the toys he will make for Jack ;)

He loves his new giraffe...really all things giraffe.  :)

Such a sweet time with family.  He is getting to the point where his face definitely lights up when you hand him a new toy.  He really loved that giraffe above.  I can't wait for the Christmas's to come.  Where we can teach him the true reason behind the season and see his excitement and anticipation.

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas...and Happy New Year!!!  :)

6 Months

So hard to get a non-blurry shot!!!

Our booger is 1/2 a year old.

I've said it once and I will say it again...and again...AND AGAIN!  Oh my golly where o where is the time going?!?  It is just flying by.

So, let's do a little 6 month update on our little Jacko-boy.

This last month Jack...

Visiting grandpa's plane

• is now sitting up all on his own
• with the onset of sitting up we have just recently retired the baby bathtub and he's rockin' his baths in the big boy tub.  So fun!  He LOVES to splash like a mad man.  Cuteness galore.
• is like days from crawling (or so it seems).  He's up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth...he keeps trying to go forward but manages to go backwards instead usually.  We are now in a serious organizing/purge mode because there are far too many things for a little baby to get into. :)
• We started solids!  He loves his cereal and his applesauce so far!  :)
• is officially unswaddled!  And sleeping in his crib!  F-I-N-A-L-L-Y!
• we are still working on the random wake-ups through out the night, ahem.  Really, he just does it an hour or so after we put him down and then won't go back to sleep for like an hour.  After our Christmas vacation we will be laying the smack down.  haha.
• the boy is in a serious Momma phase and I must say...I sorta love it.
• he was freely giving kisses to both me and Jason and all of a sudden he will only kiss me.  We try to coax him to kiss Daddy but nope...little stinker!
• Jack's first Christmas is coming up and I'm so excited.  I guess that's not really a 6 month update but...you know.  :)
• He plays.  Like really plays with toys.  Super fun!

escape artist...he got his legs out of his PJ's





Mastered scooting backwards--so I find him under furniture haha







Cranky baby--and can't fix the side ways thing haha

 6 months with our little guy!  It is truly a blessing to be a mama.  I love the little guy so much and we are having so much fun with him as he begins to show more and more of his little personality.  We thank the Lord for our little Jacko!



Bullet Post!

Hey hey friends!  Let's do some random updates eh?  Here we go...

• I'm starting to think that having a baby is a lot like having a puppy.  I caught Jack chewing on his dad's slippers.  When I took it away he was very distraught.  Weird kid.
• Yesterday a woman cut in front of me and stole the gas pump I had been waiting patiently for.  I knocked on my window and mouthed that I was going for that pump and she, get this...ROLLED her eyes at me and stole it anyways.  Gah!  I so wanted to roll down the window and call her something not very nice...but I didn't.  Yay for self-control.
• Jack is now mobile.  Not quite crawling...but very efficient army crawling.  Oh my goodness!!!  :)
• Someone stole my Christmas wreath from my front door.  Boo.
• I received a very awesome ornament package from my ornament buddy!  More on that later.  And I need to mail mine tomorrow!  hehe.
• I have a 6 MONTH OLD!!! Ack.  There is a 6 month post to come!
• I have been working 7 of the last 9 days.  I am trying to cram in as much work before we leave for Christmas break.  Jason is done with work for the next 5 weeks.  Because of this...we are not receiving income from him for that time.  Sooooo...I'm at work close to full time.  It's making me really REALLY value the ability to stay home with my boy.  It's been a tough week being away from him so much.  :(  I miss the little sinker.  But he's getting valuable Daddy time.  He's just changing SO much right now so it's a little hard for me to be away from him.  I feel like I'm missing it.  Oh well.  I'll be home again in February.  
• I have discovered chalk board paint.  SO FUN!  :)
• Jack took his first header onto our tile floor.  I knew it would come eventually.  He was sitting there and did one of those forward lunges for something.  He is 90% stable when sitting up but sometimes still forgets.  I watched it happen and heard the thunk.  Sadness.  He has a little red/purple bump on his forehead.  Good thing I'm getting a new area rug for Christmas eh?
• I am loving having the husband home.  He is so helpful and it's so wonderful to have 5 weeks to reconnect and be together...even if I do have to go to work.  :)

Welp!  Happy Thursday amigos!!! <3

Transparent

I'm going to be a little transparent here.

I feel like a lot of times my blog posts are a bit surfacy and fun.  Which is sorta how I roll.

Let me preface this post by saying that even when everything is going poorly...I'm still a pretty happy go lucky person.  I have no idea why or how but that just seems to be how I'm wired.  :)

Anyways.

Do you ever feel like you are just doing everything sub-par?  Like I kinda suck at life right now.
Maybe this is what it's like to have kids haha.  I guess I felt like I was always one of those people who were kinda "on it".  Or at least my post college self ha.  I feel like I'm keeping a float...but just barely.

I'm pretty sure I haven't been in the Word since Jack was born (6 MONTHS PEOPLE!!!)...except for church and Bible study.  It's sucking me dry and I feel like my soul is so thirsty for scripture but for what ever reason I have little to no desire...and little to no time.  I think these may go hand in hand.  The little time I muster for myself just doesn't end in me reading God's word.  It usually ends in zoning out on the computer.  blak.

Jason and I are juggling crazy schedules to keep us financially afloat where there is very little time to be together.  I feel like I'm more snappy and naggy and I HATE HATE HAAAAAAATE that.  Nothing worse then a snappy, nag of a wife.  Double blak.

Finances are...meh.  No real details needed here but let's just say we're poor.  I'm desperate to build up our savings again but with medical bills, insurance premiums, and etc it's been hard.  Thankfully our insurance premiums dropped DRASTICALLY with Obama care (I know, it's controversial but it took our premiums from almost $1000/month to about $250.)  The old premiums were causing us to live beyond our means.  :(  (KIDS ARE EXPENSIVE)

Jack.  Oh my sweet little baby.  The kid gets so much lovin' and tenderness during the day but at night.  ahem.  I am ashamed/embarrassed to say how frustrated I felt with him last night and his lack of sleep.  I picked him up a bit more roughly then normal and then felt so guilty afterward.  He seemed completely unphased haha.  I was just so tired.  SO TIRED.  Why Jack don't you sleep???  But he's a baby...A BABY!  Why would I get frustrated with a baby?  Because I'm human I guess.  Triple blak.

And then there's my disaster of a house, the laundry that never ends, the dishes that I would rather poke out my eyes then wash, the organization that NEEDS to happen because if I live in that disorder one.more.day I may go certifiably mad.  Like seriously, I think I'm borderline OCD.

But then you just STOP.
And realize that these things are really not that big of a deal.  I have a beautiful little boy who thinks I'm pretty darn cool despite my flaws, a husband who shows such grace and love through my nagging, a God who is forgiving and always there despite my pitiful prayers and lack of time in His Word...and we have a roof over our head, food in our refrigerator...jobs with steady incomes.

It's just so easy to get caught up in what's not going right isn't it?  But we are blessed.  Really and truly blessed. 

Anywho, that's a little bit of my mind and heart as of late.
Thanks for letting me vent.  <3

Oh Hey There!

I'm uh-live homies.  Have no fear.

So, we are back from a week down in SLO.  And I have two words to describe that whole ordeal.
 1)  EXHAUSTING
 2)  LOVELY

Exhausting...because apparently Jack doesn't love his pack n' play.  Lovely.  The last time we were down there he was small enough to probably not realize that he was in a different bed.  This time...he realized.  For the first 3 nights he literally woke up almost every hour.  And then was up and going at 6am.  He usually wakes up between 8 and 9 am.  SHOOT ME.  We ended up pulling him into our bed eventually but we are used to our king sized at home and I just laid there thinking I was going to roll over on him/push him off the bed.  Not much sleep.

Lovely...because it's always so sweet to see our family love on our little guy.  I wish we lived closer but that's okay.  There's something about being around others who gush over your baby to help remind you how truly blessed you are.  Jason and I both agreed that it makes us cherish and appreciate our little booger all the more.  :) 

Anyways, I feel like the boy is just evolving all of a sudden into...more of a little boy.  I mean, he's still a baby but yeah...he's not our tiny baby.  He can now almost sit up, he is getting unbelievably close to crawling, he's now in 6-12 month clothes, his first tooth came in and #2 is on it's way, he grabs EVERYthing.  SEE!  No longer our tiny baby.  Kinda sad but also very fun.  :)

Anywho, that's all for now!  Hope everyone had a marvy Thanksgiving. :)