A little lunchtime excitement!

Jack and I headed over to my friend Amber's house for a lunch/playdate with my mom's group this morning. We (the moms) were in the kitchen finishing lunch and the kiddos were running around the house playing. Nothing too unusual. I noticed that all the kids had wandered back into the kitchen area and I didn't see Jack. Amber said she saw him playing in her son, Caden's room so I went back to check on him since he was being awfully quiet. When I got to the end of the hall the door was shut (not unusual since Jack thinks that ALL doors MUST be shut). I go to open it and... it wouldn't open! He'd shut the door and the knob was broken and we couldn't open it! Amber had to call the fire department and have them come out to open the door. Thankfully, there were lots of toys and Jack was occupied in there for about 20 minutes before they showed up. As soon as the door opened, he came running out holding a big ball over his head yelling "BALL!" so he obviously was not too upset by the whole ordeal. Exciting!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas at home this year. Jack had a blast opening presents, although it did take quite some time. We'd open one and have to take it completely out of the package, play with it for a bit, and then move on to the next present. After having our small Christmas morning, the rest of the family came out bearing MOUNTAINS of gifts and tons of food! Our friends, the Courseys, joined us and Jack and Selah had a great time together. We are so thankful for our wonderful family and friends, our little boy and baby girl on the way, and most of all, the amazing Gift God gave us at Christmas - the assurance of salvation in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Jack, playing with blocks from SantaThe newest addition to the playroom... it was a big hit!

The Nursery... FINALLY!

With one week and counting, we've finally completed the nursery! YAY! My mom did a beautiful job of putting together all the bedding and window treatments. It is more gorgeous than I could've imagined! Ahhh, it feels good to have it all done! All we need is a baby...

Here are some pics of the lovely room!

Speaking of which, we thought Friday was "the day". I had a midwife appointment that morning and she checked me (after Jason letting me know that he REALLY wanted to know - I was choosing to forgo the exams) and I was dialated to 4cm, which is what I was when I was admitted to the hospital with Jack. She was certain that she'd see us again over the weekend, if not that night. Well, my contractions really picked up and were coming regularly for nearly 8 hours but not really increasing in intensity. Then, they just STOPPED. Ugh! So, here we sit, no baby yet. Still waiting...

Not so jolly...

Clearly, Jack did not care for Santa.

38 Weeks

I'm tired of being pregnant. I'm tired of being tired. I'm ready to get this show on the road... and I still have 2 weeks till my "due date". Urgh.

20 Months!

AAAAAHHHH!! Jack turned 20 months old on Saturday. It's hard to believe that, by the time he's 21 months he'll (hopefully) be a big brother! Unbelievable! He is at such a fun age right now. He's really starting to talk to us and point out different things to us. When we're in the car, he'll say "car" about 50 million times just to let me know that there are cars outside his window. Yesterday, we were driving around, running errands and he "dropped" his sippy cup of juice against the door and then proceeded to say "UH OH!" about 50 or so times in a row! He's also really liking to purposefully drop something or push something off a table, just so he can say "uh oh". We're working on learning the difference between an accident and doing something on purpose now. The above picture cracks me up! Jack was playing with his boxes this morning and decided to make a stage out of one of them. He just climbed up and began yelling at the top of his lungs. It was hilarious!

A night out...

On Saturday night, Jason and I attended our 3rd MB&D holiday party. It's always nice to have an occasion to dress up and leave the munchkin at home with Gigi so we can have some time together. We were able to enjoy some good food and great (however interesting) adult centered conversation. We came home to a little boy who was soundly asleep in his bed, which is a wonderful thing!

Happy Birthday Uncle Bryan!

We headed out to Pappasito's on Friday night to celebrate Uncle Bryan's 29th birthday! Jack did pretty well, even though we kept him confined for quite a long time before his food arrived. Once he had some chicken and rice, however, he was a very happy boy! And then came the singing and dessert. Even though Jack wasn't too interested in eating Uncle Bryan's dessert, he was surely intrigued looking at the candle.

We have words!

So Jack hasn't been much of a talker yet. He's been saying Mama and Dada (or Daddy) for ages but not too much else. In the past month his language development has blossomed and he's picking things up quickly. Some of the words Jack now says are:

nana (banana)
car
ball
TOUCHDOWN!!! (complete with arms raised up in the air as if officiating a game!)
puppy
night night
baby
beep beep
woah!
wow!
uh oh!
up
sit (sounds a lot like a 4 letter expletive, unfortunately)
God (he likes to help me sing God is so Good at bedtime)
Jason (and he knows that Jason = Daddy)
and his current favorite... NO! (complete with head shake and violent arm movement)

A new look...

With the arrival of Baby Girl just weeks away (like, 4. WOW.) I decided we needed to move to a more gender neutral blog layout. You know, not so blue. In case anyone was wondering why I changed things up a bit...

Oh yeah, did you read up there when I said she'd be here in around 4 weeks! FOUR WEEKS!!! Ok, I'm in minor freakout mode trying to get everything ready, especially since my midwife seems convinced she'll arrive the week of Christmas. Eek! Thankfully, we've had 3 great showers/sprinkles this week and the nursery's just about stocked. We just need to get the bedding done and get a chair in there and we'll be all set! I've been washing pink laundry like a mad woman the past few days and have been to Target daily for the last 4 days because I keep thinking of stuff I need for the baby and I need them RIGHT NOW! I'm nesting in full force - It's a bit like having some sort of mental illness, I believe.

It happened...

Jack was officially diagnosed with asthma yesterday. Poor guy. He's had a cold for about a week and the runny nose and coughing became full on wheezing on Sunday night. I took him to the doctor first thing yesterday morning and Dr. Raine gave us the news. With all the bouts of bronchiolitis he's had in the past year (5, I believe) he said we couldn't put off the asthma diagnosis any longer. Soooo, Jackster's on an antibiotic for an ear infection and oral steroids and nebulizer treatments (again, oh joy) for his asthma. Please pray that he gets better soon and that his lungs stay healthy once he heals from this cold.

Gig 'em Aggies!

And they did! For the 2nd year running, our beloved Ags beat the hell outta t.u. WHOOP! God bless the Aggies!

I'm dreaming...

of a white(ish) Thanksgiving! Ahhh, Texas weather. Seventy-five degrees on Thanksgiving Eve and SNOWING on Thanksgiving Day! Craziness! We headed out to Willow Park to spend the day at Gigi and Pappaw's house where Aunt Emmy and Uncle Bryan joined us. The food was yummy, the company was great, the football was mildly entertaining (even though the Cowboys won, the game was a yawn) and Jack had a great time. Jason even took Jack outside for a bit and his getup was a bit reminiscent of Ralphie's little brother in the movie A Christmas Story.

Action shot! There's the belly at 34 weeks!Pushing Pappaw's truck...Brrrr...Jack and some wood...The snow!!! It snowed like this for hours!

Reading with Daddy...

Check out the hair. Too funny!

The Yaya Express!

My mom's such a great grandma. She is so creative with Jack and thinks to do things that my feeble mind wouldn't have imagined! Not to mention that she can still easily get to the floor and I, in all my pregnant glory can't. Yaya made a train out of Jack's boxes (we normally use them to build towers) and he LOVED it!

All aboard!

TOOT! TOOT!

Jack and Selah

Our good friends, Terry and Erin have the most precious little girl, Selah. She and Jack are big buddies and just love to play together. I kept Selah for a couple of days several weeks ago and took some really cute shots of her and Jack together. I'm just now getting around to posting them... go figure.

Lovin' on each other while watching Elmo - their favorite!Selah' s swingin'...Jack hears an airplane...
Selah playing in the balls...Sweet girl!More love!

I have...

the best friends ever! My old college girlfriends threw me an impromptu shower yesterday evening and it was great! We had so much fun getting together with the husbands and kiddos and enjoying dinner together. We were kept busy with all our little guys running (or being passed) around and our big guys drawing interesting pictures on the paper tablecloth. They made sure we were loaded up with plenty of diapers and pink and purple goodies. Thanks gals! I love y'all!

The big boys and the little boys!

Josh and Matthew, Jason and Jack, Justin and BrodyJack and his buddies Matthew and Brody - Nice spaghetti face Jackster!The girlies! Jenny, Heather, me, Ashley, and MichelleAnd looking just about 20 months back... at Jack's shower! Big difference, huh?

Happy Halloween!

Well, we got Jackster all dressed up in his zebra costume and headed out to Festival 31 at church last night. Really, there wasn't too terribly much for Jack to participate in as the bounce houses were overrun with big kids and the games were just a bit too advanced for a kiddo of Jack's age. So, we just walked around with the Courseys and their cute little goldfish, Selah. Actually, Jason and Terry spent the majority of the evening chasing down said zebra and goldfish as they were happily entertaining themselves just running through the crowd of people at full tilt! And now, for some pics...

Daddy and his zebraJason and Jack riding the train. I think Jason enjoyed it more!A couple of crazy dads making use of the costumes their kids had just shed.
By the way... I'm 31 weeks along in the top picture. Only 9ish weeks to go. Oh. My. Goodness.

Trick or treat! Just a bit early...

On Saturday, our small group from church took our kiddos trick-or-treating at an assisted living facility nearby. The residents really seemed happy to see the little ones running around and the kids did pretty well in their trick-or-treat trial run. Jack carried around a Kit Kat bar in his hand for about 40 minutes - that wasn't edible for sure. Stay tuned for more pics from the big event - Festival 31 - tonight!

Me and my little zebra!Thanks for the candy, nice lady!Jack and his buddy Drew, big brothers in the making! It was HOT in that place!

The Pumpkin Patch

On Friday we took Jack to the Pumpkin Patch to pick out his pumpkin and because it's a required photo op for all parents. Within seconds of arriving he found THE PUMPKIN he wanted and could not be separated from it for the rest of the visit. In fact, he was so enamored by this perfect pumpkin that he couldn't be bothered by much else. He quickly grew frustrated because, after all, climbing over rather large orange objects is difficult when you're clinging for dear life to a pint-sized gourd. And forget posed pictures. They're just futile attempts by the parental units to extract said pumpkin from the Little Guy's grip.

Lemme at 'em!Ahh yes, this is THE ONE.He's stuck but he's not letting go of that darn pumpkin! Stinker.

Jack's first haircut!

Well, Munchkin's hair was just about covering his ears and was looking a bit shaggy in the back so we decided that the time had come for his first haircut. Jack's not too big on strangers touching his head and neck - he hates having his head measured at the doctor's office - so we were a bit worried about how he would react. Guess what... after just a minute or two of being upset and realizing he was safe in Mama's lap he did great! He did NOT want to wear the cape though (I don't blame him). So, I wore a cape and he sat with me and played with blocks while Dalana at Cool Cuts did a bang up job on his hair! (Which, by the way, must not be an easy job - aiming sharp pointed objects at squirmy kids heads all day - not. for. me.) Jackster just looks so cute with his new 'do!

Before... He looks a little leery of this place.Not diggin' this too much...Feeling a bit better about things...
All done! But he's still not smiling. No way.

I know, I know...

It's been forever. I've heard from lots of my devoted readers that you're waiting for a big ol' China blog. Well, it's comin'. Sometime. When I get around to it. See, I've been trying to get Jason to write it up since he went on the trip and all but he's been very busy at work and with studying for this next section of the CPA exam sooo... I'll be ghostwriting all about China in the next few days or so. I've also got to go through the 1500 pictures and narrow them down to those that are blog-worthy (there are so many!) So, China's coming but for now, enjoy some pictures of my beautiful son!

Just look at that toothy grin! He's got 4 more teeth coming in now too! OUCH!

Close up!Loungin' in the bouncy seat that's waiting for sister...Mmmmm... apple...