We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...

We were hoping for lots of great family Christmas pictures to share but things didn't work out exactly as we had planned so we are just sharing lots of wonderful pictures of Jake opening gifts and enjoying his first Christmas. We've also uploaded a couple of new videos of Jake for everyone to enjoy. One is opening a gift and the other is showing us how smart he is already :)

We were in Maryland visiting with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Paul and cousins; Carley and Nolan when I received a call that my Daddy was having a heart attack. Needless to say we left Grandma's house very abruptly to get back home. That was the longest 8 hour drive ever but we finally made it to the hospital. Daddy made it through the surgery very well and the doctor's have been very pleased with his recovery. He is home now and we are so grateful for all the support we have received from our family and friends. I know that all of the prayers that went up on Daddy's behalf made all the difference in the world and I appreciate it more than I can express.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to make it to the annual Christmas Eve dinner at Aunt Doris & Uncles Don's this year. We missed seeing everyone but we'll hope to get together very soon. We spent a nice, quite Christmas day at Mamaw and Papaw's house with Uncle Russell, Aunt Kristi and cousins; Gage, Katie and Abbie. My cousin Jeff and his wife Katherine came by for a visit and so did my cousin Ken, his wife Trish and their daughter Laura.

On Saturday we took Jake to visit my Aunt Jean and Uncle Everett along with their children (my cousins) Kenny and Christie... and Christie's girls... Emily and Sara. We had a really nice breakfast together and everyone spent time catching up and playing with Jake.

All things considered... we had a wonderful first Christmas with our little boy. He is the best gift we've ever gotten and we thank God for him every day.

We hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas and we wish you all a very Happy New Year!

This might be my favorite gift!
It's a vibrating teether and if feels sooooo good!

I'm such a handsome boy!  At least that's what
Mama tells me all the time.

I love my special stocking from Doh Doh!

Santa was very good to me!

Mamaw let me get this ornament off of her tree all by myself.
It's Santa and he plays music.  I love it!

Opening all those presents made me so tired.

Mama's sweet baby boy.

Whoa... is this what I think it is?

I thought we could listen to this CD next so I came over
and got it out all by myself.

I have how many more to open?

This is so much fun!

I love tearing off the paper.

Grandma made me a new hat and it's
black and gold for Appalachian.

I love these jingle bells off of our tree.

I've been a very good boy, Santa.

My very first Christmas present!

A shot from my Christmas card photoshoot.

And another....

And the winning shot is....

10 Months Old

Jake is jabbering all the time now and its wonderful. His repertoire of "words" now includes da da, ga ga, goo goo and kkkaaa (which apparently means cat because he says that one whenever Circles comes into view). He is also smiling, giggling and laughing at all kinds of things. Its impossible to have a bad day with him around!

As you can see below... its getting more and more challenging to take the monthly birthday photo with our signs. Jake has discovered that the sign is there and he wants to get it despite our very best efforts to preoccupy him while we get "the" shot. We took about 30 pictures to get a usable shot this time and had to move the sign out of reach as well.

Christmas pictures to come soon. We took several to choose from for our Christmas card and we're still hoping to visit Santa too.

I'm a 10 Months Old!

Maybe I can reach the second sign from this angle.

Now let me see what this thing says.

Got it!

Pointing at my Winnie the Pooh book.

Riding Clifford makes me laugh.

Hi Mama!

So very thankful...

We are so blessed and so very thankful to have Jake in our lives. We had a wonderful first Thanksgiving with our little boy and we're now excitedly looking forward to his first Christmas. We were at Target this past weekend and Jake was absolutely mesmerized by the Christmas trees in the store so we can't wait to see his little eyes light up when we put ours up this week.

Jake had his 9 month pediatrician's appointment a couple of weeks ago and he was 1 oz shy of 18 lbs and had grown 2 1/2" to 27.5". His little fat belly is now requiring 12 month size clothes even though they are a little too long for his legs but we're thrilled that our baby that arrived 5 weeks early is now playing catch up like no body's business.

Daddy... what channel is the Appalachian game on?

Riding down the road, holding Daddy's hand.

Wow Daddy!  You are strong!

I ate too much turkey!  Is there any pie left?

Go Appalachian!

Is this how you play "foot" ball, Daddy?

Uncle Russell always makes me laugh.

Happy Thanksgiving Mamaw!

Daddy, what is Papaw doing to that turkey?

You're just in time Circles.  My supper is on the way and I'll be happy to share,

Mama just loves to see me in my new toboggan!

I'm 9 Months Old!

To Grandma's house we go....

We just returned from a really nice visit with Grandma and Grandpa in Maryland. Jake was a very good little traveler but he was very happy to get out of his car seat. We were in the car a little over 7 1/2 hours going up and just over 11 1/2 hours coming home but he did really well. Below are some pictures we wanted to share from our trip.

This is what I think of traveling after 10 hours in the car.

Pretty place for a pit stop and the leaves were delicious.

Grandma and I played and played and played.

Grandma even gave me a bath.

Grandma tried to help me learn to crawl.

I love the park near Grandma's house.

I'm helping Grandpa play guitar.

More crawling practice with Grandma.

Grandma and Grandpa's Church is really pretty.

Mama and Daddy went to Church with us, too.

I love bath time in any state!

I think Grandma is taking another picture of me.

What's up there, Grandma?

I see you Grandma!

Hmmmm... what do I want to do today?