O Christmas Tree...

I love Christmastime.

Gig 'em!

I can't believe I'm just getting around to posting about this but, HOW 'BOUT THEM AGGIES!!! Our beloved Ags beat the hell outta t.u. - WHOOP!

Image courtsey www.mysanantonio.com.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Turkey Day. Our's was VERY busy! We had lunch in Mountain Springs with Yaya and my dad's side of the family and had a wonderful time. Jack really enjoyed being passed around (really) and made lots of friends. We then headed over to Gigi and Pappaw's house and had round 2 there. We love spending time with our family and days like this make us realize what is truly important in life.

Family Picture Day!

Last Sunday, Jason and I took Jack to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens to take some family portraits. Gigi (Jason's mom) and Aunt Emmy (Jason's sister) met up with us along with Emmy's in-laws. Emmalee's father-in-law, Billy, took some amazing pictures of us and we're very thankful to him for spending so much time and doing such a wonderful job. I'm sure we'll treasure these photos forever. Here's a little taste...

Sorry Mama.

New teeth + nursing baby = OUCH!!!
'Nuff said.

Look out world!

Well, today has brought some interesting developments. Jack is officially "crawling" - really more of an army crawl but he's definitely mobile! If that wasn't enough for one day he also started pulling himself up. I had just put him down for a nap and was in the other room. I heard squealing coming from Jack's room and I run in to see if he's ok and he's... STANDING in the crib! Goodness, we're in trouble...time to get babyproofed!

Blackmail!

Jack and Riley will probably want to wring our necks for this in about 15 years...

Fall Fun!

At our previous house we had one tree. I use the term "tree" loosely. It was really more of a very tall stick in the middle of the front yard. When we were looking at houses this past summer, one of our requirements was that the home we bought have several established trees. Well, we got 'em. One of the bonuses (or downsides if you're a pessimist - which I'm not) are all the leaves that we now have on the ground this time of year. I spent several minutes raking the backyard on Saturday afternoon and came up with a pretty good pile of leaves. Of course, I immediately thought - "PHOTO OP!" We had so much fun playing around and getting dirty. Little Man loves leaves!

Every time...

Jack's new carseat is like a La-Z-Boy for babies. We put it in the car on Friday and every ride since (save the 5 minutes it took us to get to church this morning) he's fallen asleep in it. The only downside - we have to take him out to get him in the house!

Sniff... sniff...

I'm blotting my eyes as I type this. Jack made me cry - in a good way. He's been saying "mama" for a couple of weeks now. Saying it as in making the sound "mamamamamama". He says "mama" when he's tired, hungry, mad, etc. Jason and I determined that he says it when he needs help and since I'm the main helper he says "mama". He's never actually said "mama" to me or called me Mama yet - til today. He was waking up from his nap and I was cuddling him when he spit out his paci, looked me square in the face and said "Mama". I lost it. What an amazing blessing it is to be someone's Mama. Little Jackaroo, Mama loves you so much.

7 months old!

Jack turned 7 months old yesterday. Time flies, blah, blah, blah... Seriously though, I love my little man and he's growing so fast! 7 months ago I was in the hospital with my little nugget and now he's saying Mama! I can't believe it. I'm so thankful for him each and every day.

We marked the day by going to the doctor - not a regular checkup but a re-check on Jack's tummy and ears. Poor little guy had an ear infection last week and some troubles going to the bathroom. Dr. Raine took him off one of his reflux meds that, after prolonged use (Jack's been on it for about 5 months), can be "binding" if you get my drift. Well, we got the infection cleared up and Jack is so regular now you could set your clock by him but he had a rough few nights this past week. On Monday night no one in our house got much sleep. Little Man was up crying most of the night and appeared to be in severe pain. We thought it might still be his ears but when Dr. Raine checked them yesterday they looked fine. Soooo, we're trying some things related to his reflux diagnosis to see if we can pinpoint the problem. Interestingly enough, Jack's been refusing solids for a couple of weeks now and yesterday afternoon and evening he couldn't get enough of them! He slept all night too so I wonder if the two are related? Hmmm... I wish he could just tell us what's going on.

On another note, the last several weeks have had our house turned upside down. We've been doing quite a bit of renovation and improvement on the place and it's really starting to feel like home. We (Jason and his friends, not me) have been in the process of replacing all the flooring in the house with wood laminate. The project's almost complete - just the dining room left to go and then the trim and interior doors will be replaced. It really looks and feels like a whole new house.

Mama's a little camera crazy!

Ok, I admit it. I'm a snap-a-holic. I can't help myself. I love to take pictures of my son. We spend every day together and I want to remember every moment. I know it's cliche but time does fly by; he will be grown up before I know it. I want to capture every bit of his baby-ness that I can. That being said... here are some morsels that continue to feed my addiction. I love every little drop of this kid.

Little Jack in all his cuteness

Laundry baskets are so much fun!
Adventures in eating - apples and green beans!

Rubber Ducky, you're the one...

Jack has a new bathtub. He's actually had it for a couple of weeks now but, of course, I'm just getting around to posting about it. Jack outgrew the baby bathtub awhile back - when I say outgrew I mean he was slinging too much water around the kitchen to continue using it. We tried bathing him in the big bathtub but, as many of you know, a wet squirmy baby in a hard bathtub is no bueno. We saw this inflatable duck tub at Target - my favorite place in the world - and decided to try it out. It is wonderful!! It fits Jack just perfectly and he's got plenty of room to play without me having to worry about him bonking his head on the side of the tub. The little duck even quacks when you squeeze its beak. So fun!