Merry Christmas Morning

Santa clearly enjoyed his milk and cookies. Nothing but crumbs left this morning.




















This is the Santa set-up (one half).


















The other half was his race track, The Piston Cup (of course from Cars ). That was the one consistency, since right after his birthday, that he was going to ask Santa for the Piston Cup.

Our gift to Jack this year was this train table and set we found on Craigslist. What a bargain and he is loving it.

I made him pose for this picture - if you can't tell.

Playing with Salty on his "new" train table and set.

Playing with Buzz Lightyear's nemesis, Zurg (while wearing his Buzz compass on his wrist)

Right before nap, he decided he needed his shoes on "so his feet wouldn't get cold". He put them on the wrong feet and Sam wanted to take a picture of it.

Coming down the steps to see if Santa had been here:

I like to call this clip the, "It's...it's....it's..." video:

Misc. Christmastime pictures

I've been such a slacker with posting anything lately. I take pictures all the time, sometimes I'm just really slow at posting them.

Ready for baking and fighting fires.




























Jack was watching The Polar Express last Saturday. Sam got his guitar out to strum a bit and Jack popped up, immediately wanted to pause the movie, grabbed his guitar and joined Sam. It was so cute. Sam is slowly teaching him how to strum using a guitar pick. Here are the pictures from their lesson.

Sitting on Santa's Lap

The other night we went to the St. Clair Mall and Jack visited Santa. He was far from shy, letting Santa know everything he'd like for Christmas. Going on a week night was the best idea, there was just one kid in front of us and we had virtually no wait. After sitting on Santa's lap, we ate pizza in the food court and then Jack enjoyed dip n' dots.

So much excitement in this face!

Eating his dip n dots.

I love his sweet little voice in this video.

Funny Jack

Jack makes some of the funniest comments. Today this comment was too cute to put in the side-bar of the blog, I thought it belonged in a normal posting:

I'm always telling Jack, as he walks into the living room with his open cup of milk or juice, "hold with two hands and walk very carefully". So today I do my usual warning as he walks in the living room with his milk. I pass by him and I say, "mommy's going to go pee-pee, I'll be right back". Jack says, "Oh, mommy, be careful with your baby. Hold your baby with two hands so he doesn't fall out."

Saturday Playdate with Niko

We haven't had Niko over to play in a long time, nor have we seen any of Jack's friends for a while due to the cold weather. Here are some pictures of Jack and Niko playing so nicely the Saturday after Thanksgiving. They were patient and shared with one another. They had pizza for lunch and it was a great playdate.


They spent most of their time playing with the Thomas Carnival track.

Then they took to playing the keyboard together.

Jack's baby brother...the un-named

I had an ultrasound last week and here is a copy of the copy they gave me. It's the best shot of the face (which I think looks like Jack when he's sleeping). He's got his little hands clasped in front of him right under his chin. He definitely has Jack's nose, but I don't expect anyone to actually see that from this copy.

Tree-Trimming

Here are pictures from our day-after-thanksgiving, annual Christmas tree-trimming. This is the first year Jack really participated in decorating. It was alot of fun, but needless to say, I did quite a bit of rearranging ornaments later that night.


Florence has a permanent place under the tree. She goes into mourning every year when the tree is put away. Jack loves visiting her under the tree.

Jack put the stockings on his feet - and why not?

This is what your tree looks like when a 3-year-old helps decorate. All the ornaments are in one cluster.

Caution: Hard Hat Zone

Last week, Jack had to have his hard hat on at the dinner table. Breakfast, lunch and dinner - it had to be on. After a few meals I thought I'd take some pictures because it was so cute. It's a phase that has passed now, but it was funny last week.

Thanksgiving in Spottsville Kentucky

This is so late - getting our Thanksgiving pictures posted. We went to Spottsville, Ky, where Sam's family lives. His mom cooked the entire meal and it was delicious. Sam's sisters Robin and Corey were there as well as his Mammaw and nieces and nephews. Here are the photos of our trip:

Jack, Cole, Cameron and Granny. Heading into the woods for a stroll.


















Granny has a not-too-stable swingset in the way back of her property.


















Cole and Cameron and Jack swinging while Granny pushes.


















Jack and Cameron. Jack wanted to do whatever Cameron was doing.

Jack waiting on the other kids to arrive.

Sam with his sister, Robin (Aunt Ya-ya).

Ya-ya and Jack.

Jack, Sam and Mammaw.

Jack and cousin, Brooke.

Here's video of Jack pushing Cole and Cameron. He's so very strong! (That is what he says to me all the time)

Beach Slide Show

I took an overwhelming amount of pictures at the beach. There were so many good ones, I couldn't post them all. It was the perfect excuse to make a slide show of beach pictures. The post below has some of my favorite shots. Enjoy!

My Favorite Beach Memories

These are the pictures from the beach that I like the best. The water was so cold but we adjusted to it quickly. The best thing about the weather being so cool was that I didn't have to get in a bathing-suit:) Next to Magic Kingdom, this was hands-down my best day on vacation. The water was beautiful. Jack was having a blast. He loved the sand and water more than I could have imagined. It was precious watching him play so hard at the beach. We even let him for-go his nap and hung out at the beach until 3:30. He was wiped out that night but it was worth it. Sam really enjoyed that it wasn't hot. I picked a ton of shells and took a million pictures, it was just the perfect day.

The water was so blue.

Sam and Jack burying their feet.

Jack has sand all over his face here.

Jack and Sam's creation

Taking a very short sit-down.

My favorite picture by far. It just shows how happy Jack was that day. Sums up the day perfectly!

Getting some pregnancy pictures.