Christmas Suit

Mary gave this suit to Jacoby and I thought it was really cute but just not Jacoby but with Christmas here I thought I would get him all dressed up for church. Boy, did he look so dapper with this little suit on! I couldn't help but laugh! I still had to leave the shirt untucked though because it was a little too polished with it in and that's not really Jacoby.

Zoo Lights!

We love zoo lights and look forward to it every year but this year it has been even more fun because Jacoby loves it! We went once last weekend and twice this weekend and I am sure we will hit it at least a few more times before the end of it!

Jacoby loves getting all snuggled down in his Bob and loves to see the lights and animals. It has been a little different taking him this year than last. Last year he was bundled up in Jarod's coat and slept the entire time. This year he is still bundled!

Deck the Halls!

As soon as we got back from Florida I was on Jarod to go and get a Christmas tree. We went a few nights later, on a 7 degree night to pick out our tree. We came home with an 8 foot tree this year that is beautiful now but we didn't get to see it or decorate it for a few days because it was completely frozen solid!! As you can see from the pictures we tried to force it at first and then the branches started breaking off so we let it do it's thing and thaw out and decorated it a few day later. Jacoby is obsessed with the balls on the tree so we put a plastic one down low that he know he can play with and he leaves the rest of it alone. He is so cute every time we turn it on though because he goes ooooohhh.

It has been so much fun getting ready for Christmas this year. I started a tradition this year that Jacoby and I are going to make an ornament every year. This year we made a hand print one that was nearly impossible with a 1 year old but we had a good time! I have loved all the Christmas decorations and the Christmas music playing in our house with our little boy dancing to the beat or saying "yippee" to Rudolph.

Florida Birthday!

We had a crazy couple of weeks from Thanksgiving to Jacoby's Birthday! Jarod was suppose to fly home on Sunday after Thanksgiving but after his flight was cancelled two times he finally go home on Monday night. Jacoby and I flew in on Tuesday. We had Jacoby's Chicago birthday on Thursday and flew out to to Destin, Florida on Saturday! We were all excited when we finally got there!

The weather was not the best this time. We had lots of rain and it was pretty chilly but we had an indoor pool at our really nice hotel so we were just fine and had a great time not being in our heavy coats n the blizzard that Chicago was having.

We spent the weekend all together and Jarod and I took turns going to the spa. It was so nice to just relax and continue our Birthday celebration.

I even took a break from taking pics and these are all of the pics I have from our trip. Pretty much all from our hotel balcony.

I love this picture of Jacoby and his bed head! His hair is always wild when he wakes up!

We ate lots of really good food, took lots of naps and did some shopping! Jacoby got to try ice cream for the first time in Florida. He was a fan! He had this really yummy raspberry ice cream from this cute little ice cream place we have to hit constantly when we are there.

We left Chicago with a crawler....

and came home with a walker!!!! He started walking at 1 year and 3 days. He prefers to walk every where now and is really sturdy. He is so funny though! He could have been walking a long time ago but he is so analytical that he waits until he is positive that he can do it and not fall. The good news is that he doesn't fall very often and can start and stop himself and go up and down with control. You would never know that he just started walking by how sturdy he is. He is so much like his dad like that I cannot even believe it!

On Monday, while Jarod was working Jacoby and I went on a morning walk. Jacobes was even still in his jammies. It was beautiful and after walking a couple of miles, I put Jacoby down and let him crawl in jammies and all! He loved having so much open space he didn't even know what to do with himself! It was one of the last days that he crawled the whole time and I am so glad that I got to enjoy it with him before he became my big walker.

I have tried for months to get a picture of Jacoby's funny crawl but he moves so fast I haven't been able to get one until now- here is my little kick stand crawler- hilarious!!

We were at the beach crawling for hours! As we were getting closer to our hotel, we stopped because Jacoby found a ball on the beach. He saw it way before I did and was so excited with his golf ball find. He was annoyed with me though because I wouldn't let him touch it. For some reason the birds thought we had food or something and all of the sudden I am not even joking like 20 birds were around us and started walking towards us I picked up Jacoby and turned around and there was 20 more headed our way. I totally freaked out and had visions of them attacking us so I started running with Jacoby. He thought it was hysterical, me not so much! When I finally felt safe I stopped running and took this picture of all of the birds. It is on my cell so it is not the best but you can see how many there were.

It was a great morning with my sweet baby!

We had a great time and I look forward to going back again hopefully some time soon. It is one of the prettiest places I have been and we have really grown to love it! It was so nice to go on a little vacation to a warmer place to end our couple week long celebration of the big first Birthday!

My Big 1 Year Old!!

I of course had to strip him down to his diaper for his 12 month photo shoot like I have every month. I was kind of sad thinking that this would be the last month that I would do a monthly update so it may not be. I am not sure yet!

1. At his first Birthday he was taking lots of steps but I am funny about considering them walkers so I would say he had started walking but was not walking on his first Birthday (very shortly after though)

2. Still only has 1 tooth!

3. Talking and talking even more every day! The doctor was amazed at how much he is talking. She told me only 50% of 1 year old talk at all and the most she has seen was 3 words. I wasn't even prompting him but he was busy talking to her and using all of his words. She told me it could slow down and he would just use his words that he has now for a while, so we will see. His new ones are bye-bye, book, vroom, night-night and hot. The other day we were at a store with a doorbell and he started saying ding-dong like the bell. He also says yippee in his own little way!

4. He is a little guy and weighed in at 19 lbs. 4oz. (5-10% in weight) and 30 1/2 inches tall (75% in height).

5. Is so smart and picks up on all the hand actions on songs after only seeing them a few times. His favorite right now is a hand song called "open shut them".

6. Takes two really good naps and I am happy to say that for the most part he is finally sleeping through the night!! It took us 12 months but he is doing great and I am very proud to say that we did it with out letting him cry- something that was very important to me!

7. His doctor cleared him to start eating everything which I think he is very excited about. He is such a good eater and will eat just about everything. He still loves blueberries and his new kick lately has been beans and raw apples. We gave him meat for the first time at Thanksgiving and he just started having chicken. He does really well with it and loves eating the same things we are eating.

8. Still enjoys his bath time and the water. He still lays down for us while we wash his hair and then he will get up and play. As long as he will do it I am going to keep letting him! Makes it easier on me!

9. Loves to nurse! We may be in trouble with this one!

10. Does really well playing by himself and being self entertained for a short amount of time

11. Jacoby is such a social baby and talks to everyone who passes him and gets all excited when he sees other kids. We love that he is so engaging!

12. My hair is his security blanket and he loves to twist it, suck on it, play with it constantly!

13. He has had a runny nose lately so I have been cleaning it out with the nose bulb thing. He thinks it is really funny and laughs! He will even go and pick it up and bring it to me to do- so bizarre!

12. He is stinkin cute if I do say so myself! I can't believe how gorgeous he is and his little personality even makes him cuter!

I am such a lucky mommy to have Jacoby! He is so wonderful! I am overwhelmed with the amount of love I have for him! The past year flew by and I am trying everyday to memorize each and everything about him because he is changing so fast! I just can't get enough of him and his cute little laugh and smile! I love you Jacobes!!

Chicago Birthday Party!

On Jacoby's actual Birthday we had a little party with his 3 girlfriends! What can I say he already has a thing for girls! Actually, we seriously don't know any boys here but that's OK the girls keep up with him at this point!
We went to Family Grounds which is this really cool cafe that has drinks and snacks for the parents and a huge indoor play area for the kids. It was perfect for a little get together for a one year old!
Jacoby was excited to have his little friends there with him!

Lindsey and Jacoby's favorite little buddy Nella came to help celebrate.

Kerri and Kambria,

and Kate and Heather also came! We had such a good time!

Jacoby opened his presents and was so excited about his new ball from Kam, along with his new train from Nella and hammer toy from Kate.

We had lots of help opening gifts!

These two are so cute together! They get so excited when they see each other and Jacoby goes crazy every time we pass their house because he knows that's Nella's house. They slobber each other with kisses and squeal in delight when they see each other- too cute!

Mesmerized by fire to the point of being cross eyed!

Singing Happy Birthday! This time I didn't cry but it started snowing outside and I had kept telling Lindsey that I wanted it to snow on Jacoby's Birthday because it did the day he was born as well and she looked at me when she saw the snow and said, "Are you going to cry?". Yep, I did later but not then.

Chicago had the first snow fall of the year on Jacoby's Birthday just like last year! It was perfect and it was so beautiful!

Happy Mommy and Jacoby!

That night we celebrated with our little family. We got Jacoby a carrot cake cupcake. He didn't enjoy it near as much as he had his Birthday cake from Ash or his blueberry muffin at his kid's birthday party but it was still fun.

We gave him the cutest fire truck and I realized I didn't take any pictures that night but I will get some on here soon. He loved it and we played on it and with all of his other new toys that night for hours! We had planned on going to the zoo that night in the snow but it took Jarod forever to put together Jacoby's firetruck. It was like brain surgery! Jacoby was hilarious though and was so busy trying to help. He had us laughing hysterically with all of his help!

That night when I put Jacoby to bed I held him a little longer while he slept and thought about the first time he had been placed in my arms, so new, tiny and perfect and here was this one year old so much bigger and still so perfect!

Jarod and I watched the home videos of my pregnancy, the birth and some of the amazing moments with our beautiful son later that night. It was a great ending to an amazing day!

Happy First Birthday to Jacoby!!!

We celebrated Jacoby's First Birthday while we were in Idaho! We had so much fun! Jacoby loved his balloons from Aunt Ace and kept referring to them as balls- anything some what round is a ball according to Jacoby.

He woke up from his nap to a full house and lots of decorations. He is ready for the party to begin.

I made the cute banner, my mom made him his adorable hat and Ash made him his cake and the cute cupcakes. Everything was perfect!

For dinner, we had different types of soup in bread bowls including Jacoby's favorite Pasta Fagioli. Which he gobbled up and loved!

Jarod surprised us and ordered these cute M&M's with 2 of Jacoby's pictures on them and two others that said "Happy Birthday" and "Jacoby". They were so cute!!

Aunt Ash's really cute cake all for Jacoby!

He loved opening presents and sat there while we opened all of them! He was very entertained by the tissue paper, bags and toys inside. He got some really cute new clothes from Mamma and the cutest First Birthday shoes, he also got foam letters, shoes, and a coat from Uncle Derek. He got a really cool zoo toy from Grandma GG, an alphabet worm from his cousins, books and fun puppets from the Millers and Hemmings.

He also got this adorable train from my Dad! My Dad made it for him and he loves it and so do I!

He kept going vroom, vroom...

and then we had to sit on it! Because these days we like to sit on everything and pretend we can ride around on them. It was so funny!!!

We stripped the Birthday boy down to his hat, cute shoes from Mamma and his Birthday hat! We kept saying that he looked like a gnome!

He was not sure what to think about the candle

and then when everyone started to sing he really didn't know what to do with himself! He had this funny look on his face the entire time until everyone clapped and then he was all smiles and clapped along.

I cried when we sang Happy Birthday! I had one of those moments where the world stopped and I was back in the delivery room with this brand new baby and the whole year was replayed in my head in that moment. It has gone by way too fast for this Mommy!

Jacoby's first taste of cake- it took him two little finger fulls and then he dug in all by himself!

He kept going mmmm...

Jacoby on his sugar high!! I love this picture of his one little tooth for my one year old!

He is so proud of himself in this picture on the damage he is doing to the cake

"Mom, seriously stop taking pictures!!!"

Sharing with Daddy!

Showing us his masterpiece

A teary mommy and daddy and a happy boy with cake every where!!!

Then it was on to kissing on Rainy, showing his cousins his new toys

and posing with no pants on for more pics!

It was the best Birthday party ever!! Well at least I thought so. It was so special and he had the best time! It was a very special day for all of us!