National Zoo ZooLights

This past weekend we made a trip home to visit family in Northern Virginia. It was a time to celebrate my mother-in-laws 60th birthday. In addition, we also did some simple Christmas celebrations, since we would not be returning the following weekend. One thing I really wanted to experience this year was the ZooLights at the National Zoo. I thought it would be fun to get my family together and walk throughout the zoo. We even went inside a few of the buildings. Jack was a lot more interested in the animals too. The last time we had been here was in August, so just in a few months he has become that much more interested in the animals. It will be fun to go again in the summer.








The turtles were busy getting it on...I guess we interrupted their nightly routine!

The Last Two Months in Pictures

I need to update on my blog...it has been busy for me over here, because I have been making a lot of Christmas presents. Plus, I started working during the day as a tutor and a home bound teacher. Fortunately, the home bound is complete, so that has freed up some time for me! So this post will mostly be picture heavy, to show some of the cute things that Jack has been doing. I don't have any pictures from Thanksgiving, which probably means we took them all with Joe's cell phone. I will have to write about that separately, because it was so great! Anyhow, here we go!We saw Santa today...he was at the local breakfast place. Jack didn't cry, but he shook his head "no" to say he didn't really want to sit there!

We bought a tree this week and decorated it. Unfortunately with a room remodel going on, and my being pregnant, I don't feel motivated to pull out many other decorations this year. However, I still think the house looks nice.
Since we had a lot of stuff to bring back from Lowes for our remodel, the car seat was moved out of the car...however, it looks like Jack is ready to go for a ride!

Jack started carrying my lunch bag around the house, it looked like a little purse!

We tried finger painting. It took three different tries on this paper to make his uncle's birthday card.
Jack has been very cuddly lately. In fact, a couple nights in a row he would leave me and go to his daddy to lay next to him. Twice I found them both asleep!
Jack is curiously finding different places to explore. I had to laugh when I found him in the stove!

Jack is going to be musical when he grows up. He loves to dance, he loves playing on the piano, or on Daddy's guitar. It is just too cute.



My grandparents came for a visit in early November or maybe it was October? Anyhow, Jack was a little sick, so he was super cuddly with them, which they LOVED! We made a small trip down by the river to walk around. These were my favorite picks from that day!

Trick or Treat! Jack's First Experience

We met up with a few friends in town to experience Trick or Treating this year for Halloween. Even though Jack was still a small to understand, there were a few times that he walked up to the door with his friends to get candy. It was fun to experience too, because we went to the "busy" street in town. Apparently all the kids from the country roads come into town and hit this main street. In my opinion, it would be better to come to our neighborhood, because we have better candy, since we aren't having to buy $100 worth in candy.

Anyhow, we only stayed out with the friends for about 40 minutes so we could get back to our house and pass out candy. Don't you think Jack makes a great doctor?


We carved our pumpkins on Friday night...Joe did the creative and scary face and I carved out the ghosts!

I think we are ready for the bike trailer...don't you think?

Pumpkin Patch

Two weekends ago we went to a pumpkin patch with Jack. It was really more of a family farm, but it was really fun to go as a family and pick out our pumpkins for the season. I guess I had high hopes for more photographic locations, you know, like bails of hay or wooden cut-outs that we could put our heads through. I was hoping for a corn maze, but I didn't see one either (maybe that was going to be done the next week?). Anyhow, we did get two bigger pumpkins and one little baby one for our front porch. I have included a few photos from the excursion...the last one is my favorite.


This picture includes the two pumpkins we picked out and our little pumpkin.
Maybe this was the maze? Jack was afraid to follow his dad into the walkway and I didn't really want to squeeze my pregnant belly through there so I didn't follow.
This is one of Jack's favorite things...to be thrown in the air. Don't you just love it?

Road Trip: Boone, NC

We decided to make a climbing/camping trip to Boone, NC. This was the first time we took Jack camping and I was a bit nervous how it would work out with Jack. Fortunately, he did excellent sleeping in the tent (probably because he was sleeping right next to the both of us), but during the day it was a different story!

We left on Friday night after Joe got home from work. This was the perfect getaway trip, because it is only about a three hour drive so it didn't feel too long. Jack slept for most of the trip and we were able to get the tent set up before he awoke. It was cold outside and at this point almost eight thirty, so we decided to go to sleep as a family. I think at first Jack was a little scared of the tent, especially not understanding that we were going to fall asleep in this place. We decided to keep a headlamp turned on for another thirty minutes just so he would feel comfortable and realize that we are all going to fall asleep.

The next morning it was super cold outside. I knew it was going to be cold and windy, but I guess I underestimated how it would feel for Jack. He was not so happy, especially because he little hands were cold. I had a hat and jackets, but no mittens. We tried to take a hike before the outlet mall opened, but Jack was not having any fun and started to cry. About a mile into that hike, we had to stop and Joe trekked back to the car as quick as he could, while I hiked up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and waited. It was sleeting a little bit, so a nice older couple offered to let us sit in their car. Jack was crying the whole time and I felt so embarrassed, but thankful that we had a warm place to wait. He did much better after we bought a pair of mittens and a new hat. We tried to take another hike and see some cows, I think those pictures turned out perfect, but that was also the only time it was actually sunny outside.

Later in the afternoon we met up with a friend and Joe went climbing with him. I sat in the car and read my book, because Jack had fallen asleep and I didn't want to wake him up just to venture into the cold and wind. He did pretty well the rest of that night as we sat next to a fire and of course I think it helped that we went out for dinner. The next morning I left with Jack to visit friends in Charlotte, NC. They have a little girl and it was nice for Jack to have two days to play with another kid. I think it was a great camping trip and I look forward to many more days of camping and climbing as a family!








At one point we sat in the car while daddy made hot chocolate because it was so cold!
This was a picture from the first hike, before Jack had his meltdown!

Fall To-Do List

Maybe I will be more motivated to get everything done if I have written it down. So consider this the location where I put all those fun ideas on "paper." Maybe you will all have some ideas for me to add to this list...so feel free to add them!

• Visit a Pumpkin Patch


• Carve a Pumpkin


• Take Jack trick-or-treating


• Reel Rock Film Festival Date Night


• Make a Baby Blanket for the future Little Girl


• Start making Christmas Presents


• Buy fall decorations after they go on sale


• Camping


• Thanksgiving Week Family Trip


• Make a dozen recipes that call for pumpkin


• Get Jack to jump in a Leaf Pile


• Plan a Thanksgiving Meal


• Rock Climb until I Can't Anymore


• Lots of Hikes

Jack is 12 Months Old

*Many of the pictures I wanted to use are on another computer and I don't want to waste too much time getting this up! Well, Jack's birthday was last Friday, so this is being updated a little late, but I really wanted to include some pictures of the birthday party. Plus we are transitioning from one computer to a new one, so I am trying to get all the pictures that we took in the last month (it feels like we didn't do so well this month, oops!). This last month was a busy one in our house. After getting home from our trip to Northern Virginia, Joe started back to work in a new school, we renovated two more rooms in our house, and Jack started to walk. I can't wait to show pictures of our finished rooms, but that will have to come at another time, since I am still waiting to put up window treatments, plus this is a post about Jack! This will be the last monthly post about Jack but I hope to be more proactive about writing on my blog in the future, with some shorter posts.

Nicknames: Peanut, Stink Butt, Big Boy, and Mr. Giggles

Temparament: He continues to be a happy baby and smiles at everyone. I should count my blessings that he never went through a separation anxiety and would always allow others to hold him. Usually he is shy for the first few minutes though, but when he feels comfortable he smiles, walks, crawls, or plays with anyone. His sleep patterns are still super inconsistent. I don't know if it is caused by teething issues or if I have just raised a child that does not know how to fall asleep on his own in the middle of the night. Here is what happens...We have a bed time routinue (bath, teeth brushed, story, then in bed with music and a little head rub). It takes about ten minutes, but he goes to be every night without problems. The hard part is that he wakes up in the middle of the night and cries and does not want to be in his crib alone. If I give in and let him go in our bed though, he doesn't sleep well either. In fact, he tosses and turns, wimpers and cries with unsteady sleep in between. How do I fix that? Any ideas? I guess we are lucky that he still takes two naps during the day and they are good naps, which allows me to shower and clean a little.

He is also growing in personality. Last night he started laughing really hard when either I or Joe sneezed. I guess it was funny. So when he sneezed I decided to giggle with him. Jack has also been able to have a lot more play dates with kids through church and in the community. Sometimes he is super observant and other times he tries to play with the other kids, but usually he just pulls out pacifiers to put in his own mouth or he hits them! That can be pretty discouraging! I'm sure he will have lots of time to work on sharing when his little sister arrives.

Solids: Jack continues to branch out with the foods that he is trying. I can almost always give him items from our dinner. He eats a variety of foods, but has showed some pickiness by spitting out items he doesn't like. He also points to foods or drinks that he wants. Maybe we are one step closer to talking? He will go to the doctor next week, so I don't know if he is getting any bigger, but he is developing just fine so I have decided not to worry anymore. I guess that just means we will get away with wearing nine month clothes for longer!

Items/Toys That We Love The Most: Jack is playing with all his toys and he received quite a few new ones for his birthday (just what we didn't need in our crowded house). Even if it makes things crowded, he is happy and that makes us happy. Forntunately some of those gifts are almost better as outside toys so that helps. Although, I find that we don't really need toys for him to be happy. All Jack needs is a handful of cherrios, a dog to climb over, and a playground to go to each day. He loves being at the playground, especially since he can walk. I am learning he has an eagerness to explore and climb/walk all through out the playground. We try to go as often as possible each week.

First Experiences: On August 23rd Jack took his first steps alone. We happened to be in Charleston at the Home Goods store and I was worried that he would not want to sit in the car seat for another hour to go home. So before we left I tried to have him walk around or move a little bit. I put him down and he stood in place, so I thought, let me get in front of him and see if he would walk towards me and he did it. It was only two steps but I was thrilled and cheered him on so he did it again two more times at the store. I couldn't wait to go home and show his daddy. However it took a while from that point to his official days of walking. It took almost the rest of that month for him to feel confident enough to decide that walking was better than crawling. We are now at that point and it is cute to see him follow me around the house with such excitement. He is no longer our baby boy and is growing into our toddler child.