Walking... walking... walking...

I don't know how ... but it just keeps getting better and better. Jake gave up crawling all together about a week and a half ago and he is just the most adorable little thing walking all over the place now. Trip and I literally verbalize to each other every day how much we love our little guy and how grateful we are that God blessed us with Jake. We can not imagine life without him and truly don't know how we made it before him.

Jake has learned to hug and when you ask him for a kiss he'll lean his head in toward your mouth and make the kissing sound. It is absolutely precious!!!!

We're still hiking almost every day. The rain and has forced us to skip a couple of days but we try to go anyway unless it's just a down pour. Jake still loves it more than words can say and he even got to "hike" a little on his own one day last week. As you can see from the photo below ... he just couldn't resist digging around on the trail to see what he could find.

Look Daddy.... DIRT!!!! I love dirt!

Jake is still enjoying his reading videos and will now ask to watch them. He is just learning so much so fast and we're so proud of him. We work with him most every day but we always try to make it fun for him. He also loves his flash cards and he's crazy about books. He brings us books to read to him all the time and he loves to turn the pages for us.

Mama... can I watch my video now?

I love these cheese puffs!

The sand and water table we got for Jake is still a huge hit. He gets so dirty and has so much fun. He loves to try to dump all the water out ... one boat full at a time and after every one he'll say "uh oh"... SO CUTE! He also likes to try to move all of his sand from the sand side into the water side and occasionally if he thinks Mama & Daddy aren't watching he tries to taste it :) I was sick on Mother's Day so we weren't able to go to our annual Mother's Day brunch at Mamaw & Papaw's house. We were so happy that they came to visit us in the afternoon. They brought me flowers and really enjoyed playing with Jake.

What are those neighbors doing now?


"Uh Oh"


"Good Morning Mama"

We did a 5 mile hike about a week ago that lead us to the river so Jake got to throw rocks in the water for the first time. He had so much fun watching the rocks go over the bridge and splash into the water. Daddy also played Pooh Sticks with him which is a game that Winnie the Pooh plays with his friends in one of Jake's books. It's basically a stick race. You drop two sticks over the bridge on one side and then you run to the other side to see which stick comes out first :)

Mama... look... a rock!

Which rock should I pick Daddy?

Okay enough pictures... can we throw some more rocks in now?

Jake takes after his Mama when it comes to waking up. It's a process but once he wakes up he is always smiling and ready to go.

Is it time to get up already?

Happy 15 Month Birthday to me!

Below are several new videos that we wanted to share including a great one of Jake chasing our cat, Circles, and one of him eating an orange. He loves oranges and we love watching him eat them. The very fist time he had one Trip was trying to let him know that it was okay that it was a little sour so he gave an exaggerated reaction after he ate a bite before giving a bite to Jake. Well sure enough... the bite gave Jake the shimmy shakes and we died laughing which Jake thought was great so now he fakes the shimmy shake after almost every bite of orange to get us to laugh. Enjoy!

More wobbly steps...

Yippeee... Daddy's home!

Trying to catch the cat...

Sour stuff...

Precious first steps....

Well ... if you read my last post you'll remember that Trip was really hoping that he wouldn't miss Jake's first steps while he was in Raleigh. As you may be guessing from the title of this post... unfortunately, he did miss those precious first steps. Jake and I went to visit Mamaw and Papaw while Trip was in Raleigh and Jake took his first steps while we were at their house. He still feels like the fastest way to travel is by crawling but he's walking more and more each day. Here are a few of his adorable wobbly steps...



We got Jake a sand & water table to play with outside and it was a huge hit. He even enjoyed helping Daddy put it together. After playing with it and getting so dirty that we had to strip him down to his diaper before he came back in the house he was ready for some milk and thought Daddy needed some too.

"Here Daddy... let me help you with that."

"Daddy... I've got your next screw ready."

"Thanks Mama & Daddy! This is awesome!"

"Look Mama... Daddy is drinking my milk."


We're still hiking every day that weather permits. We do at least 1.5 miles each day. We're hiking part of the Mountains to Sea trail. It has several access points on the Blue Ridge Parkway one of which is less than three miles from our house. They mark the trail periodically with colored dots on trees to help you insure that you're staying on the correct route. Jake looks for the dots and hollers out "DOT" as soon as he spots one. He touches each dot with his stick and then he says "go, go, go" so Daddy will jog to catch up with me. He LOVES our daily hikes and gets so excited when we tell him its time to go walk in the woods. I can not thank my cousin, Missy, enough for giving us the backpack that Jake rides in because it has brought great joy to all of us.

"Go... go... go... Daddy!"

"We're coming Mama. Daddy was just
showing me a fern. "

"Okay Daddy...I got that dot. "

"This seems like a good place to hold on. "

"Daddy... do you think Mama saw these pretty flowers?"

"Whew... hiking makes me thirsty. "


Trip is so hoping that Jake will love golf and so far so good. He loves to "play" with Daddy's clubs out in the yard. He'll be getting his own little clubs very soon.

"Daddy... I think this club may be too long for me."

"Look out Tiger.... here I come. "


Jake loves to play outside so we're in the yard a lot now that the weather is nice. He loves to play with his toys, find leaves and sticks or just dig in the dirt. We've been blowing bubbles for him too and he was really puzzled at first but now he thinks its funny.

"Hmmmm... what should I play with next? "

"Which way should I go? "

"I love these bubbles! "

"Hey... where are my bubbles going? "


Jake still loves his Tonka truck. Luckily, with a slight adjustment it becomes a walker so he's now pushing it all over the house. He walks behind it and says "go... go... go" until he runs into something and then he says "crash". It is the cutest thing!

"Go... go... go... CRASH!"


Jake is still very happy to be facing forward in his car seat and now loves nothing more than when Daddy rolls his window down. He smiles all over himself and throws his hand up immediately as soon as Trip asks him if he wants his window rolled down.

"I love to feel the wind."


Jake is looking less and less like a baby and more and more like a little boy. I just love this picture of him!

"Hey Mama! "


Jake really enjoys watching Sesame Street. He LOVES Elmo and gets all excited when they do the letter of the day. Trip was out of town and Jake had a rough night with teething so he slept late and didn't get breakfast until it was time for Sesame Street so I let him watch while he ate his cream cheese toast. He just looked so cute eating with his little feet crossed that I couldn't resist getting a picture of our little man.

"Wonder what the letter will be today Mama?"

Has it already been a whole month?

I'm sorry I haven't posted any updates recently. I can't believe it's been a month since my last update. It looks like this will be a long one since I have to catch up. It seems to be tough to find the time these days. We have Jake in a great routine and I try really hard to stick to it. I'm also trying to savor every moment that I have being a stay at home mom and that means that I try to give Jake as much of my time as possible so some things just have to wait. He is napping right now and since I finished our taxes last night I thought now would be a good time for an update so here goes... we'll start with the most recent things...

Jake isn't walking yet but he is cruising all around the house holding on to anything he can get to and he is standing independently all the time now. Uncle Russell & Aunt Kristi bought Jake a really cool v-tech walker for Christmas and he loves it but has never used it to actually walk until yesterday. After his nap, I changed his diaper and set him down in the floor and he crawled over to it... stood up and just took off. It was the cutest thing ever so we made a little video to share. He was so proud of himself. Trip had to leave for Raleigh and he is so afraid that Jake will walk on his own for the first time while he's out of town. We've been so lucky to both be there for all of his "firsts" so I really hope Daddy doesn't miss this one.

Ready or not here I come Daddy.

Jake turned 14 months old yesterday. It's so hard to believe how quickly the time has passed but we love our lives with Jake and truly don't know what we ever did without him. Jake is really learning a lot. We've counted over 70 words that he can say now... granted a few of them require us to translate but the overwhelming majority are very easily understood. Some of his words that require a translation are "golk" for "golf" and "grak" for "grass" but other words like earth, stretch and dish are perfectly clear. We've been working on the alphabet a lot and he recognizes all of the letters now. If I ask him to hand me a particular letter he will find it and bring it right to me. He knows the sounds that the letters make too ... for example if you ask him what sound the letter M makes he will say... "mmmm". The only two letters he really hasn't gotten the sounds for are the L and the W but we're still practicing. We spend a lot of time working with him, reading to him and playing with him and we continue to be amazed at how fast he is learning. We took him to the pediatrician's office this past Saturday because he had been running a slight fever and feeling a little rough. Luckily... he wasn't sick... just cutting teeth number nine and ten (molars... very painful). Dr. Love was amazed at Jake's vocabulary and the way he recognized his letters and made their sounds. We're truly blessed that Jake is doing so well and we're trying our best to give him the best possible foundation from which to build his life.

Happy 14 Month Birthday to Me!

Yipppeee... time to rip down the sign.


This past weekend was a whirlwind of activities. We all went to a 40th birthday party for a very good friend.... I went to a baby shower for his wife (one of my best friends)... Trip and Jake watched the Masters (even online each day before the television broadcast started so they wouldn't miss anything) and it was Easter.

We spent Easter at Mamaw and Papaw's house and Jake had his first bowl of ice cream (a very small one). Aunt Kristi helped him eat it and when it was gone Jake leaned over and looked down into the bowl and said "all gone" in the most pitiful little voice that you can imagine. As you might guess... Papaw immediately gave him some more which made him very happy. I made Jake an Easter Bunny cake exactly like my Mama used to make for Russell and I when we were little. When I finished decorating it... I held it down where Jake could see it and he literally laughed out loud. It was well worth the time and mess! When we got back home from visiting our family... Jake enjoyed finding all the goodies in his Easter basket and we spent the rest of the evening playing with the new toys and reading the new books.

Jake's first Easter Bunny cake...

Wow Mama... you made that all by yourself?

Aunt Kristi couldn't get that ice cream
in my mouth fast enough so I had to
help her.

Really... all this is for me?

Hey Elmo... what are you doing in my egg?

I love the Easter Bunny almost as much
as Santa!

I love watching "golk" with Daddy!

Thanks Grandma! I love the dogs on my
new outfit!


Bananas are Jake's new favorite food. He has always liked them but we've only been giving him pieces that we've cut up for him. Trip decided to give him the "big" banana last week and he LOVED it!

I could eat "nanas" all day long.


Jake has never shown any interest in pacifiers but I heard about a trick that can help with teething pain so we tried it and it really does help. There are certain pacifiers that will allow you to fill the nipple up with water (they aren't intended to be used that way so you have to work at it a little but its totally worth it). Once you have the water inside the nipple ... pop the paci in the freezer until it freezes solid then give it to your baby when the teething pain is bad and the cold will give them some relief.

Ahhhhh... this feels so good on my gums.


Jake has always loved bright colors and when we went to The Children's Place a couple of weeks ago they had the cutest little crocs. Trip and I aren't fans of crocs... in fact we have always hated them and even made fun of them but of course we changed our minds when our son wanted some. He got to choose the color and immediately went with the red ones. He is so proud of his new shoes. Aren't they just adorable?!?!

Check out my cool new kicks.

I can stand up really good in my
new red shoes.


Jake still absolutely loves being outside so we get him out every chance we get. Sometimes we just play in the yard at home or go to the park but one his favorite outdoor activities is hiking. Hopefully more warm weather will mean that we can go hiking a lot this spring.

Come on Mama.


Mama... look at my new stick.


Dr. Love said that we could turn Jake's car seat around when he reached one year of age and 20 lbs. He's been ready for this for a long time. He would get frustrated facing backward and it made car trips a real challenge. We still don't know how he'll tolerate a long car ride in his new position but its definitely made our errands around town and our trips to Mamaw & Papaws house much more pleasant.

Thanks Daddy! This is awesome!


The dishwasher is still a hit in our house. Jake loves to "help" with the dishes. He will put the silverware in the basket and take it out and hand it to me so I can put it away. He also loves to push the button to start it. As you'll see below... he also enjoys a "close up" look when Mama turns her back for one second...

I thought Mama would never
turn around so I could climb
up here.


We have gates for the stairs but when we open the one at the bottom Jake likes to try to go up a couple of steps on his own. A couple of weeks ago he decided it was time for him to go all the way up but don't worry... Mama and Daddy were both right there just in case.

Come on ... let's go outside.

I think I can do it!

Here goes nothing...

Whew... it's a long way up here.

I'm almost there!

I did it!!!!!

I'm so thankful that I've been able to nurse Jake for his whole first year of life. It has provided great health benefits for him and has also been an incredible bonding experience for the two of us. We've started the weaning process but Jake doesn't like regular milk. We've tried warming it and serving it cold but with no luck so we've started adding a little vanilla milk for flavor and he's starting to drink a few ounces each day now so hopefully we're headed in the right direction.

Hmmmm... is that vanilla that I taste?

We lost a very special friend of the family a couple of weeks ago and had to go to the memorial service so Jake got an extra visit to Mamaw & Papaws house which is always a treat even on a sad occassion.

Mamaw and Papaw love me so much!

I'm such a big boy... not even holding on
to anything and helping with the dishes.

Mama says Daddy used to wear his
hats like this when they first met.

Hi again Mama.

I love to watch my reading videos.

The "grak" is getting so thick and green.

I love hiking with my Daddy.

This way Daddy! We're suppossed to
follow the blue dots to stay on the trail.

Hmmmm..... let me give that some thought
and get back to you Mama.

I guess I was still hungry after breakfast.

I'll start it for you Mama.

Ketchup is a vegetable right Daddy?

Here I am patiently waiting on supper.