Happy Birthday Mama!!

Today is my wonderful mother's birthday. She is such an incredibly special lady and she means the world to me. She is a strong, loving, caring and supportive mother. I don't know who I would be without her. My mom is not only my mom but she is my absolute best friend. She's not only a wonderful Mama but she's an incredible MaeMae to all of her grandkids. They absolutely love her! Thank you Mama for always being there for all of us, thank you for always loving us no matter what. I strive everyday to be the same kind of mother you are to me, to Jack. You are incredible and I appreciate everything you do.

this is one of my favorite pictures of me and my mom!!

Jack loves his MaeMae so much!!

Happy Birthday Mama, We love you bunches & bunches!!!

Love, Mary Alice, Rob & Jack

Christmas Tree & A visit with Santa!!

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we all went and picked out a Christmas Tree. For the past few years Rob and I have just gone to Lowe's and picked our tree out, we did that again this year too. When Jack gets a little older I want to start going to a Christmas Tree farm and picking one out like I did when I was little.

Here is Jack last year compared to this year picking out a tree. He was a lot more aware this year...haha!!

Once we got it home, Jack had fun helping Rob put up the tree.

such a sweet picture!!

Just checking out the tree!!

This year was so much fun picking out a tree, I know that we will have many more fun years picking out our Christmas Tree!!

A few weeks before Christmas we got together with some great friends and headed to Prattville to Bass Pro to visit Santa. I was so nervous the whole time because I just knew Jack would freak out as soon as I sat him in Santa's lap. Last year taking him to see Santa was a piece of cake, I mean he had no clue what was going on last year seeing as though he was only 2 months old...ha!



On our way to see Santa!!

Jack slept a little on the way, thank goodness because I think having that little nap put him in a good mood.

We got to Bass Pro and we headed straight to Santa. Luckily there weren't many people there so we didn't have to wait in line long at all. As we were standing there I was getting more nervous, I just knew my child was going to have a break down. We walked up to Santa and I quickly put Jack in his lap and walked away. He started to fuss a little then looked at me with a pouty face and that was it. He did SOOOO great and so much better than I thought he would do. They actually gave us two pictures of him with Santa. I was so happy!!

my favorite!!

Also let me just put up last years Santa pictures just for comparison. My sweet boy sure is growing up!!

Jack with Santa 2011

Maggie on the other hand did not like Santa at all and screamed!! Poor baby girl. After pictures with Santa we walked around Bass Pro for a few minutes, took some pictures of the babies and then we went to eat at the restaurant inside the store.

Best Friends ~ Jack & Maggie



We had such a wonderful time and enjoyed creating memories and traditions that will last a lifetime!!

Best Friends and our babies!!

One of these days I will catch up on all my posts. Until then enjoy these posts as I go back and try to catch up!!

Thanksgiving and 14 months!!

Ok so yes I know I have been a terrible blogger lately, I also realize I only made one post in the month of November. Instead of apologizing I am just going to catch you up on what's been going on in our life.

We had a wonderful low key Thanksgiving. We went to my parents house on Wednesday afternoon and stayed until Friday afternoon. We loved spending time with my parents and my sister Sara. We were missing my sister Anna and all of her family :(, they had to spend it with her husbands family this year. So without Anna's crew being there, Jack was the only baby and got all of the attention. I have to say, he loved it!!!



Jack helping MaeMae and Papa feed the birds!

We ate Thanksgiving lunch on Thursday, we rode Jack in the wagon outside, we went and visited my great aunt Alice.

Jack also got a fun early christmas present from The Howells, a little people nativity. He had fun playing with it. He loves to find baby Jesus!!

Jack really enjoyed spending time with his MaeMae, Papa & Aunt Sasee



Enjoying some reading time with MaeMae and enjoying watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with Papa!

On a different note, my baby turned 14 months old Nov. 27th! My baby is growing up so fast and he is so much fun. I don't want to forget all the things he is doing at this age.

- We have a walker, that's right Jack is WALKING!! I can't believe it. He doesn't do it all the time, just when he feels like it. It won't be too long before he is everywhere!

- He can say bye bye, mama, dada, hey, thank you, night night and his favorite word is uh oh. Whenever I say certain things he will watch my mouth to see how I am saying it.

- So far in the food dept everything he has tried, he has liked.

- He is wearing size 4 diapers and 12-18m clothes.

- He knows where his nose, head and feet are!

-He has 6 teeth. Two on the bottom and four on the top. I think we have some more coming in but I do not dare stick my finger in his mouth to try and feel because he will bite you and it hurts!!

- He is absolutely in love/obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. When it comes on in the mornings he gets so excited. His favorite part is the Hotdog Song. Rob and I made the mistake one day of playing the hotdog song on our phones and now he will find our phones and just point at it wanting us to play the song. And he doesn't want it played just once, he wants it played multiple times!!
My mom had this little football at her house with Mickey's face on it and I would ask Jack where Mickey Mouse was and he would turn the football and point to Mickey.

- He is definitely understanding a lot more things we are saying these days.

- He is still a great sleeper. He takes 2 great naps a day and sleeps from about 6:15pm-6:30am. We are very lucky in this deptarment. He likes his sleep as much as his mama does ;)!!

He started a new daycare this month and I was really nervous about it. Jack loved his teachers at his other daycare. They are all he knew. I think moving him will be what's best for him in the long run. Like I said I was so nervous on Monday, I mean how would you feel if someone left you in a strange place where you knew no one. I mean yes I know we are adults, but still. I have to say, he had a good first day. They said he did wonderful. They said he had an excellent second day. At this daycare they only take one nap a day. Jack is used to taking a 2hr nap in the morning and in the afternoon. He has done great only having one nap but is super tired when we get home in the evenings. I think it will take him a week or two to get used to that. So this mama feels so much better and I know this was a good move.

Jack you bring so much joy to our lives!! We are beyond blessed to be your parents!!



Looking at this sweet boy makes me realize everyday what I am thankful for. I am so incredibly thankful that God chose Rob and I to be this wonderful little boys parents. I absolutely love my precious little family and I realize how truly blessed I am!!

Help!!!

Ok my blogging friends, I need help. I am trying to do a new post and it will not let me add pictures. It says it is full and that I have to pay for extra storage. Has this happened to anyone? What do I do? I do not want to start paying to be able to upload pictures on my blog. Is blogger the only one that does this or does wordpress do it too? If there is anyone out there that can help me, please let me know!! I would hate not to blog anymore bc I'm not able to add anymore pictures :(!!

Halloween 2012-Trick or treating baby style!!

Ok yes I do realize it's been a few weeks since Halloween and now we are getting ready for Thanksgiving but this post is better late than never....right?!

This was Jack's second Halloween. His first Halloween he was only 4 weeks old. Here is my little pumpkin last year compared to this year.

On Wednesday Oct. 31st Jack's daycare had a Halloween parade. Rob and I took off work that morning to go watch it. It was so cute to see all the babies dressed in their costumes. This was the first event I've been to as a parent and I loved every minute of seeing my baby!! Jack was no smiles during the parade. It was during nap time so I think he was a little tired.

That evening we went to dinner with our good friends Holly, Casey and Maggie and then went Trick or Treating Baby Style. What is Trick or Treating Baby Style you might ask?! Since Jack is only 1 and Maggie is only 11 months we didn't think going from house to house asking for candy would be appropriate seeing as our babies can't even eat candy yet. So, we went to Casey's aunts house and she had yogurt melts for the babies. While there we took a few pictures. We also went to Holly's moms house and she gave the babies puffs. Such a great time was had by everyone!!This is the cutest pumpkin and lady bug that I have ever seen.

We had such a great time! This was definitely the start of one of many great traditions!!

Watch Jack Grow....the first year!!

I absolutely love that I took these monthly pictures during his first year. I love going back and seeing how he has changed. I love my little boy, my how this first year flew!!

Birthday Weekend!!

My Mom, dad, sister Sara and my sister Anna's family came and stayed the weekend with us. It was so much fun with lots of kids running around!! Jack loved having all his cousins around. They had so much fun playing. My mom bought all the kids matching Elmo pj's. We tried to get a group picture of everyone and this is the best we could do. I thought the picture turned out cute, it is hard to get two 2 year olds and two 1 year olds to sit still for a picture. They all looked so cute!!

Having fun!!

Saturday afternoon after the party my mom, Jack and I loaded up and headed to Montgomery for a fall photo shoot that I won from Meredith Sellars Photography. I was worried how Jack was going to do seeing as he had partied all day. She had such a cute set up with mums, pumpkins and a little red wagon. Jack did great and the pictures turned out wonderful!! These are just a preview:

Saturday evening once all the kids went to sleep we also celebrated my dad's birthday. He and Jack share the same birthday, how special is that?!! Saturday morning Rob put a boston butt on the smoker and smoked it all day. We had that for dinner along with a lemon icebox pie which is my dad's favorite. We also gave him an Auburn flag to hang down at the beach. We love you Daddy aka Papa!!

It was such a great weekend, getting to spend it with family. I absolutely have the best family and I am extremely blessed. I thank the Lord everyday for my special family!

having fun with Papa!

Aunt Sasee with her boys! Ellen would not sit for a picture

Jack had such a memorable first birthday. I can't believe his first birthday has come and gone so fast. Now to start thinking about his 2nd....ahhh I am not ready for that. I think I will enjoy one for a while :)!!

1st Birthday!!

Jack's actual birthday was Thursday September 27th. We started the morning off with a birthday waffle.

We also had fun playing with balloons.

He had a great day!!

Jack had a frog themed birthday on Saturday the 29th of September. We invited family and close friends.
All the decorations for the party were set up outside. How cute is this birthday banner?!! A good friend from my hometown made it and she did such a great job, she also made his inviations, she is one very talented woman!!

I set up the food outside under the covered part of our deck. I also hung a cute little monthly banner that I made to show how much he has grown over this first year.

For all the kids that came we had Jack's toys outside under a tent and also had a baby pool full of balls for the babies to play with. My sister also brought her wagon to ride kids around the yard.

For Jack's birthday Rob and I got him a little red car with a handle on it to push him around. He absolutely loved it and still loves it. Every day when we come home he usually wants to be pushed around the house in it and will make "vroom vroom" noises. SO cute!!

It ended up being a hot and humid day so we eventually moved the party inside to eat and open presents.
His cake turned out so so cute. A friend of mine from Montgomery made it and did such a wonderful job. If you need a cake for any occasion and are close to the Montgomery area then look up La's Cakes, she has a facebook page and does such great work.

Jack wasn't too sure what to think of his cake at first. We had a little mishap before he started digging in. I lit a candle and placed it in his smash cake for him to try and blow out. As soon as I set the cake in front of him, everyone singing Happy Birthday, he decides to grab the flame of the candle before I could get it away :(. After a few tears, he was ok and ready to tear into his cake. He loved it!!

Jack also enjoyed ice cream with his Pop!

Once the cake was finished we started opening presents. Jack and fun opening his gifts.

 

 

 

Jack had such a wonderful party. Thank you so much to everyone who came. You are all special to us and it meant alot for you all to be there. Also thank you so much to my mom for helping me get everything ready, I couldn't have done it without you! I still can't believe my baby is 1.