I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...

We had a wonderful Christmas filled with good food, wonderful family and of course our precious little boy.  We had a visit from Grandma, Uncle Paul, Jennifer, Carley, Nolan and Johnathan right before Christmas.  It was entirely to short but it was really nice to have everyone together at least for a brief visit.  We don't get to see that part of our family nearly often enough so we appreciate every moment no matter how fleeting.  Jake really enjoyed playing with his Grandma and keeps asking when she can come back to his house.  He also became quite smitten with his very beautiful cousin, Carley.  We made her a nice bed on the couch in our family room and Jake had to get up and go back in there three times to tell her that he loved her before he could go to sleep.  Trip asked Jake what his favorite thing about the visit was and he quickly said Grandma... a brief pause followed then he said and Carley, too.

We spent Christmas Eve at Mamaw & Papaw's house with them, Uncle Russell, Aunt Kristi, Gage, Katie and Abbie and enjoyed way to much good food.  Jake's Aunt Kristi found "the" perfect gift for him and my brother was so excited to give it to him that he could hardly wait until we began opening gifts.  They got Jake a ride-on excavator and he was thrilled.  He opened several other gifts first because we knew that gift was going to steal the show once it was brought into the room.  Someone would ask him what he thought every gift was going to be and every single time he would say... "I think it's a CAT excavator" and then suddenly it was an excavator and the smile on his face was bright enough to light up the night.  We spent the night at Mamaw & Papaw's which Jake thought was awesome and we woke up Christmas morning to light snow falling.  We were getting ready to start making a big Christmas morning breakfast when it became very clear that if we didn't leave immediately that we wouldn't be getting home for several days.  We hated to miss our traditional family breakfast but we packed up as quickly as possible and slowly made our way back up the mountain.  It really was best that we made our way home when we did because the roads were getting bad and the snow hasn't stopped falling since it began Christmas morning.  We're approaching another foot (yep... this snow event should put us just over 3 feet for the month of December) but it sure was beautiful to have a white Christmas. 

Santa had visited our house while we were away and Jake was so excited once he saw that he had left him a new race track, several cars and a stockings stuffed full of goodies.  It was so fun to see his reaction this year!  One of the things that Santa left in his stocking was a real Appalachian football jersey and he literally jumped up and down and squealed with delight when he pulled it out.  He put it on immediately and has been wearing it ever since.  I'm not sure how I'll ever convince him to wear anything else.  After he spent some time enjoying his Santa stuff we let him open his gifts from us.  Once of his gifts from us was his very own digital camera.  It is by V-Tech and it's made specifically for toddlers.  It comes with a memory card just like any digital camera and it holds 400 pictures.  He has already taken a ton of shots.  He was taking pictures over and over last night sitting beside of me on the couch and I asked what he was taking so many pictures of and he said... "your knee, Mama".  A few minutes ago I heard him say ... "smile at me Daddy" so I'm pretty sure that he has his camera out again. 

Today we got outside and played in the beautiful fresh fallen snow.  It was only 17 degrees so we didn't stay out long but Jake had fun sledding and wanted Daddy to go faster and faster when they were going down the hill.  It has been really nice to be tucked safely in our nice warm house watching the snow fall and playing with our little boy without worrying about work, errands or other obligations. It has been a nice break after all the hustle and bustle leading up to Christmas and I think we're all much more relaxed after a couple of nice lazy days at home together.

We've had an amazing Christmas together and I feel so grateful for all the blessings in our lives especially our precious child who asked if Jesus was going to get some cake on his birthday.  I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas too and are looking forward to what the new year will hold.

Jake's Christmas Concert

Go faster, Daddy!

Let's do it again, Daddy!

My fire fighter goggles make me look like a skier.

Ready... set.... sled!

I think this might be more fire fighter stuff...

Look at me, Mama!  I'm a fire fighter.

I love this tent and tunnel that Laura and Thomas got for me!

Look at this football player, Mama!

How did Santa know that I like Osh Kosh socks?

Look Daddy... Santa got me a new Thomas toothbrush!

Wow!  Santa really did come!

Mama... can I sleep with my new excavator?

Mama... this might hurt a little bit...

This is the best gift ever!

I got a real, working crane too!

This is Mama's side of our family...

And... this is Daddy's side of our family...

I'm a happy boy!

Daddy and Carley...

Me and Grandma...

Mama and Carley...

Daddy... can we read this new book tonight?

I like to wear Daddy's old hat and pretend that it is a helmet...

We wish you a Merry Christmas...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

This has been the fastest holiday season ever for me.  I think it has something to do with being involved from a retail perspective.  Jake is really excited about Christmas this year.  He loves all the decorations and lights.  He's starting to understand the idea of Santa and he's singing all kinds of Christmas carols.  You won't be shocked to hear that he is really loving the whole idea of presents too.  I can not wait to see his little face on Christmas morning this year. 

Getting the Christmas tree up this year was quite the adventure.  When we moved into this rental house I didn't think that we would be here at Christmas.  I guess I was overly optimistic about how quickly we would get our house on the market in Asheville and how quickly it would sell.  That being the case... I didn't stage the Christmas decorations in our storage room so I had to turn it upside down and stand on my head trying to find them after Thanksgiving.  Jake "helped" me dig everything out and then he "helped" me put the ornaments on the tree.  He has redecorated the bottom half of the tree several times too.  Luckily only two ornaments have been causalities of his redecorating. 

Jake is quite the little helper and he has even been shoveling snow with his Daddy.  I have to get some pictures to share at some point or maybe a video would be even better because it is adorable.  We've already had almost two feet of snow this year and it isn't even officially winter yet so there has been plenty of snow to shovel and when Jake comes back inside from helping his Daddy shovel he'll say ... "Mama... we did some real hard work out there!". 

We've enjoyed a few holiday activities already including Jake's daycare party.  It was fun to get to know the other families better and to watch the kids give a little Christmas program.  Jake had so much fun that he keeps asking if we can go to another party.  Last night we did some Christmas shopping and drove Jake through a really pretty Christmas light display at on of the nice resorts up here and he loved it.  This morning we went to the Christmas parade downtown before doing some more Christmas shopping and tomorrow we're finishing up our shopping then going to see Santa.  I'm hoping that we'll be able to get a good Santa photo but we'll have to wait and see.  He's very excited but he's a little leery of new people right now so it could go either way.  I have to add that I'm blessed to have Trip as a husband because he's been a trooper tagging along for the shopping and wrangling Jake to keep him out of trouble while I checked things off our list.  I sometimes see Mom's out trying to shop with their kids in tow and I have no idea how they do it which is just another reason that I'm thankful for my husband.

Jake's Grandma is coming later this week along with his Uncle Paul and his family and we're all looking forward to seeing them but Jake is especially excited that his Grandma is coming.  In fact... we have a countdown going as you'll see in one of the videos below.

I have to share one more thing and then I'll be back sometime following Christmas for my next update.  Today I said ... "I love you Jake" and he said... "I love you Mama... I love you always and always".  He is truly a gift and having my own child has made me even further understand the sacrifice that our Lord made for us.  On Christmas and every day I'll be thinking about how he gave his only son for us and I'll be thanking him for that amazing gift as well as the one he gave Trip and I almost 3 years ago.

I hope you and your families have a very Merry Christmas!

This Christmas parade is really cool Daddy!

Grandma is coming...

Happy 34-Month B-Day to Me!

These are my buddies and my teacher from school...

Mama... I think this one will look good right here...

Here's a preview of part of our Christmas card...

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas....

I'm painting Mama!

Message from Santa

Jake received a very special message from Santa tonight and I thought it would be fun to share it so follow the link below to see what Santa had to say...

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/guest/IS4aiPIA58-7v7mE5CPFWQ

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so many blessings to be grateful for and Jake is at the very top of the list.  We've had a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by family and entirely too much food.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to see all of our loved ones today so Jake made a little something special for those that couldn't be with us...

Lions, footballs and "punkins" oh my!

Our little boy is growing up and it's difficult to imagine how we managed to live without him.  I absolutely love my job and I'm so grateful to have found it but I literally cannot wait to get home at the end of the day to see Jake's smiling face.  I wasn't feeling well a couple of weeks ago and Jake knew it so first thing one morning he asked if I was still sick.  I told him that I was and he gave me a big hug and a kiss and said... "Bless your heart Mama".  I couldn't help but smile.

Jake is still enjoying the ASU football games.  In fact... we can't tell him that we're going to a game until we're in the parking lot ready to walk in because if we do he gets so excited he can't take a nap. Some friends came up for a game a couple of weeks ago and Jake showed us that he would have made a great "big brother".  Kruz is only 1 1/2 and he has just started walking so he's still wobbly.  He was wobbling over into traffic and Jake saw it before anyone else did so he ran over and got in between Kruz and the crowd walking straight toward him and held out his arms to protect him.  It was just so precious.  Trip and I wish that we hadn't waited so late in life to have a child because we would love to give Jake a baby brother or sister but at our age the risks are too great so we'll count our incredible blessings and be the best parents we can be to our little man.  If we were going to only have one child... God gave us the perfect one.  He's all we ever hoped for and so much more.



We got to take Jake to his very first Circus last month.  That's the great thing about living so close to a university.... there's always something going on and we're always on the look out for things that Jake might enjoy.  It was a really good circus and we really enjoyed seeing it through Jake's eyes.  Children have a way of making you appreciate things in a whole new way.  They had lions, tigers and elephants plus great clowns and amazing acrobats and Jake had a blast!  On the way home he asked when we could go again.

We really had some good old-fashioned fun at the Punkin Festival this year.  We carved a pumpkin and played games like pumpkin bowling, ring toss and fishing just to name a few.  Jake really wanted to try the sack race but we convinced him to wait until next year so that we can practice a little bit.

We're looking forward to Thanksgiving next week.  Jake is old enough to enjoy the parades now so I'm really looking forward to watching those with him this year.  I thank God every day for my precious child and my amazing husband.... for a wonderful family and great friends... for a fantastic job and a beautiful place to live.  I could go on and on and I'm forever grateful.  I was just thinking about Thanksgiving just a few short years ago when Trip and I were trying to get pregnant and we got the wish bone from the turkey.  We were both wishing for the same thing and just praying that God would bless us by giving us a child.  The next Thanksgiving I was very pregnant and got choked up during our prayer when it was mentioned that we were grateful that there would be a high chair at our table the next year.  The blessing of Jake is a never ending gift and I'll be thinking of that again this Thanksgiving and every one thereafter.

Happy 33 Month Birthday to Me!

I can do it Daddy... watch me...

Our first snowfall this winter.... yippppeee!

This snow is crunchy...

Trick or Treat Papaw...

Go Appalachian!!!!

I hear the bell Daddy and that means 3rd down....

Hanging out with my little buddy Kruz at the big game...

Look Daddy... I found my favorite letter.... Y!

Waiting on the circus to start with my Mama....

Do you want to share my popcorn Pooh?

Look Mama .... it's my favorite number.... 10!

I got a Harley Davidson motorcycle just like my Daddy...

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.............

(if you've seen the GEICO commercial you'll understand)

Can you show me how to play that game Daddy?

I'm pretty good at this pumpkin bowling...

I'm having lots of fun at the Punkin Festival Mama!

Mama says that I'm her little punkin....

I see you Daddy....

Hold it still Daddy and I'll finish carving our spider...

I think you need to do a little more work right here...

Another beautiful fall day and I'm ready for fun with my Daddy...

This new reciprocating saw is awesome!