Halloween

Holidays are so much more fun with kids.

We loved Jake's first Halloween!  We dressed him up as a spider, and it's the first spider I've ever seen and not wanted to squish.  Although, of course, I did spent some time squishing his cute cheeks- the only place the kid has any sort of chub.

Friday we went to our church Halloween party.  All the little kids were so darling in their costumes.  I don't think Jake thought a thing of everyone being dressed up, but it was fun.

To celebrate on Saturday, we went to Boo at the Zoo.  The Columbus Zoo had so many fun decorations, cute/spooky music, and stands with candy and coupons.  They gave some of the animals pumpkins to smash and had characters dressed up everywhere.  It was pretty chilly, which made for active animals.  We had a lot of fun walking around, watching the animals, enjoying the fall festivities, and having fun with our adorable little spider.

Boring Week, Cute Baby

I just asked Andrew what interesting things we did this week.  We couldn't come up with much.

I worked 40 hours.  That's the most since Jake was born.  The few weeks before were between 36-39 hours, and that's A LOT for me.  I am so grateful to have a job where I can work from home and still take care of Jake.  This week was a bit much for me, but hopefully it'll slow down soon.  Anything up to 30 hours works great for me, but those last 10 mean late nights in the office (my home office, at least) and boring days for Jake.  I took the time to go on a couple of walks with him, but that was about it.  Poor kid!

I didn't even have time to grocery shop.  So yesterday, that was our big outing.  Jake LOVES it.  He gets so much attention and there is a lot for him to see, which is right up his alley.  We woke him up early from his nap and gave him his bottle late, but he was still great.  In fact about 10 strangers said "what a happy baby."  We are so blessed to have such an easy little guy.  Except at church.  He doesn't seem to like church.

Friday Andrew and I decided we still needed to go on a date, so we went out to frozen yogurt with Jake.  All 3 of us loved it!  Then we watched Captain America.  Andrew wants to see The Avengers now that it's in Red Box, but we decided we would enjoy it more if we actually saw the other super-hero movies first.  Thank you, Netflix.

Andrew is still really busy with school and research, but he likes it and is definitely good at it.  To me, statistics sounds like an awful thing to get a Ph.D. in, but it's been perfect for him.

I love my boys and am definitely the luckiest girl to have them!  Boring week here, but we are definitely blessed and happy to have a boring week together :)

Messy and Clean

My little adventurer has no problem getting messy...really messy.

One day this past week we had baked spaghetti for dinner and let him have some for the first time.  It was everywhere.  But he loved it!

He was covered in noodles and spaghetti sauce and definitely deserved a bath for that type of performance.

I thought that was bad, but apparently he likes upside down pizza even more.  He ate a ton of it for dinner last night, although quite a bit of his helping was used in covering his body.  He's quite the artist!

This time we were smart enough to put him in the kitchen, rather than the carpeted dining room, for his feast.

Chunks were seriously falling off of him as I held him far away from my body and ran him into the bathroom.

(don't scroll any further if you don't want to see his bare bum....)

I warned you....
But isn't it so cute??
Kyle (the dog) was all about helping clean up.  (check out his tongue)

Jake loves his baths.  He cries every single time we pull him out, even though the water has gone cold, his little fingers are pruny, and he's had plenty of time to splash around.

When he's not being messy, Jake has also been working on being clean.  He absolutely adores his toothbrush and having 7 clean little teeth.

This morning he decided to help me clean the windows with it.  Thanks, Jake :)

All that messiness and cleanliness makes for one tired little guy.

I can't get over how much we adore our messy little adventurer!

9 Month Check Up

This past week Jake had his 9 month check up appointment with Dr. Radcliff, his pediatrician.  We love her.  Jake did really well, even through his 3 shots.  He was smiling at the nurses within seconds of his injections.  We are blessed to have such a happy, good baby!  I'm already afraid our unborn children will make us pay for such an angelic firstborn.

He's 30 inches long (91st percentile) and weighs 19 lbs 14 oz (33rd percentile).  He's a tall, skinny little guy! Now that he's enjoying more foods and eating what we eat (and lots of it) instead of cheerios, I'm sure he'll fatten up.  I don't look at him and think he's a bag of bones.  But there also aren't any cute baby rolls.  Like every mom, I think he's perfect just how he is.

Jake has been enjoying lots of baths lately and playing with the dog--and the dog's toys.  For so long I have fought him chewing on Kyle's chew toys, but I finally gave that up and decided to just wash them at least weekly and hope for the best.  Jake was finding them and gnawing on them either way.  So far he's been just fine.  Hopefully dog cooties just help him have a stronger immune system in the future.

We love our little man and are so glad he's healthy and strong!

Columbus Zoo

Yesterday we made our 2nd trip to the Columbus Zoo.  We loved it!  After 2 trips, I feel like we've only seen half of the animals and exhibits.  I'm excited to make more visits, especially with the beautiful fall weather we've been having.

The first place we went was called Sting Ray Bay.  They have this huge pool of sting rays, and you can just stick your hand in and pet them.  I touched a few, but for some reason it made me nervous.  Maybe because that's how the crocodile hunter died...

Andrew, it turns out, is a sting ray whisperer.  He put his hand in the water and they formed a line to be pet by him.

Jake always looks incredibly stoic at the zoo, but I swear he likes it!

Another highlight of the trip was the Laurikeets, which are beautiful, colorful birds.  You can actually go in the cage with them! We decided to splurge and spend $2 on nectar and feed them.  Jake really wanted to pet them (or more likely grab them, pull their feathers out, and eat them).  They were some of the animals he actually seemed to notice.  Jake likes the zoo for the people watching, it seems :)

We also saw some monkeys, swans, penguins, otters, and lots of other fun animals.  We are so glad to live close to such an awesome zoo!

Cutie Pie

I think it's so perfect that every mom thinks she has the cutest baby that was ever born.  And I know it's true based on the contests that mom's sometimes enter their babies in (most recently the Gerber baby contest that I got SO many "please vote for my baby" messages about).  All babies are cute, but some just aren't meant to win contests.  But what a lucky baby to have his/her mom truly think her baby is the most darling!

I'm no different.  I realize it's possible there is a cuter baby somewhere, maybe.  I'm not going to go entering him into any competitions, but I am so lucky to be Jake's mom!

Conference Weekend

We have been enjoying our conference weekend!

We are Mormons, or members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Every 6 months our prophet, now President Thomas S. Monson, and  his apostles speak to the members of the church, and to the world.  I love these weekends, with two 2 hour sessions each Saturday and Sunday.  So much good counsel is given.  It's really inspiring and makes me want to be better.

My parents came to watch the first session with us, then we all headed down to Beaver Creek to spend the rest of the weekend at Kim and Darrell's place.  We were pretty tight in the car, but managed to all fit...except Kyle had to sit on someone's lap- most of the time was on mine, but Jake's was his seat of choice.  Those two love each other!

We watched the next session with Kim and Darrell.  Darrell ate an apple, and Jake wanted it- and he wanted it bad!  Lucky for him, Uncle Darrell is a good sharer.  Jake loves apples!

Last night there was a session for the men.  So Andrew, my dad, and Darrell went off and Kim, Jake, my mom and I went to the dollar store.  I'm in a busy bag exchange with some friends from church and I'm making texture cards.  I got all the materials I needed and started on the project.

We met at Graeter's Ice Cream shop after- SO good.

This morning we went to the park- poor Jake, but it was only his 2nd trip to a playground.  He LOVES it!  It was chilly, so we had him in 2 pairs of pajamas and a hoodie.  All 7 of us and Kyle had a good time.

The rest of the day we've been watching more conference, eating good food, and working on halloween wreaths.  What a great weekend!