Happy Valentine's Day

We enjoyed a quiet day at home on Valentine's Day with the 4 of us just hanging out and spending time together and then going to 5:30 mass that evening and meeting up to sit with Uncle Jonathan! The previous week I had found a sweater in some stuff my mom had gotten out of their attic that was mine and the sweater belonged to my dad and was made by his grandmother. The sweater looks so adorable on Jack and fits him great so when we were at my parents the other day I surprised my dad with putting it on Jack!! So of course we brought it home for Jack to wear and it looks so cute that I couldn't resist taking pictures. Plus I made a photo collage for my grandmother of him in it with some other pictures that Im going to send her as a belated Valentine's Gift!! So here are some pics of him in the sweater and runnin around in his PJ pants that I pulled up so they didnt keep falling down :)

16 months old Already!

As I sit here watching my little boy looking at books and running around the room playing with his toys I cant believe he's already 16 months old today. I realized I haven't updated much lately about the things Jack is able to do and doing so this post will be full of what Jack is able to do and up to right now. Time has flown especially the past 4 months since he turned one. He's a very active and outgoing little boy and keeps us on our toes all the time. With me still at home with him we try and keep as busy as possible so he can be around other kids and get out and do things. We have playdates with other kids around his age at each others houses or at places like Marbles Children's Museum in downtown Raleigh. We got to Storytime/Mother Goose Rhyme time every Thursday morning for about 15 minutes of Rhymes and songs and he really enjoys that is is interacting a lot more now then he was this time last year. We have been attending an open gym playtime at a local park where they have slides, balls, lil ride on cars, etc for the kids to play on. We cant wait for the weather to get nice out so we can start enjoying all the parks around us with him and see all the fun he will have now that he's so mobile and understands things like slides, etc. He's starting to grasp a lot of things going on around him. He is very good at following directions (when he wants to) and knows what most of the things we say to him are whether or not he can same them himself. He's very big into animal sounds and parts of the body right now. He knows the sounds for a pig, cow, dog, and bear/lion/tiger and is very proud of that. He is also very good at pointing to his head, tummy, tongue, toes, eyes, ears, and nose(there are a few that he doesn't get every time but there are others that he's awesome at). Jack does the signs for please, more, thank you and doesn't usually have to be asked to say please but sometimes we have to remind him about that thank you part. He's working on trying to say more words lately but right now he says Mama, Dada, Sawn(Sean), was dat (whats that), side (outside). The cutest two things he does are if he goes poop in his diaper and u ask him if he did he runs right to his bedroom ready to be changed (id love it if this means he will be an early potty trainer), and the other cute thing is he is trying to sing the Elmo's World song and sorta hums/makes noises to the tune of it!! Well that was a long post but I thought Id update everyone on what Jack was up to now cuz I've been bad at doing a monthly post at what Jack can do and is learning like I had originally planned to. I'm hoping to get better about doing that on the 9th of every month and about being better at updating the blog on time and not having to play catch up. We are looking forward to the spring and getting out and about as much as possible as family.

The Big NC Snow

We got about 4-5 inches of snow from Friday evening (29th) into Saturday. Saturday was a lot more sleet then they excpeted. We went out during the late morning for Jack to check out snow for the first time. He thought it was pretty interesting but had a hard time walking in it because of all the layers that he had on. He figured out that it was easier to crawl around if he was going to walk it was easier to walk on the snow that was on the driveway or sidewalk. After we warmed up a bit we walked over to Nana and Umpa's house (jay's parents) who live a little less then a mile from us. Jack and I stayed outside briefly over there and then headed inside with Nana while the guys stayed outside to play.

Beautiful Shot Friday night out the front door!

Just trying to figure out this Snow stuff!!


Jack and Mommy in the snow!

Jack and Sean in the snow!


Daddy and the boys in the snow!

We were stuck in the house for a few days as Sean did not have school Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. Monday we bundled up and headed out to the backyard for Jack, Sean and mommy to play and build a snowman. Jack thought it was more fun today because the snow was packed down and it was easier for him to get around, even though he still couldn't stand back up when he fell down because of all his clothes. We had fun with building the snow man and Jack enjoyed knocking the snow man's head off with his plastic candy cane.

Jack eating some Snow!


The boys crawling around to get each other!

Sean building a 2nd snow man and snow fort!



Jack hugging Frosty!!


Jack attacking poor Frosty!
Mommy and Jack with the snowman!


Jack and Sean with Jack's 1st snowman!


Our Lovely Snow man!

January in Review

Well January we kept pretty busy during the week with playdates, walking at the mall, Mother Goose Rhyme time at the library on Thursday mornings, and also a new activity which is Tot Time at a local community center (on tuesday and thursday mornings they open the gym up and have slides, cars, balls, etc out for the kids to play with and its all free-great activity to get energy out with it being so cold outside). Ashley went out of town for Martin Luther King weekend at the beach for a Ladies Scrapbooking weekend. It was a nice get away weekend and got a lot accomplished while Jay was at home with both boys. I def. missed them all but it was nice to have some Mommy time alone. We filled our weekends this month with some relaxing family time at home, dinner with family, pizza party at a friend's for the championship football games, and Snow! This month really only has 3 detailed blog posts that include pictures and those are a playdate with Aunt AJ (Ashley) and her niece Ava, The UNC vs. NC State Basketball Game & The big Snow in NC. But here are a few pictures from January of Jack and Sean.



Trying to turn on Sesame Street!!


Enjoying some Yummy blueberry pancakes while watching Elmo!!



What sweet brothers!!


Jack and his friend Maddie reading and playing with a hammer!!

The wagon had a home inside temporarily and Jack used that to get in and turn the hall lights off and on!
So Adorable in this outfit!

UNC vs. NC State Game

Well of course Jack will be growing up in a House Divided with Mommy being a UNC fan and Daddy being an NC State Fan. Sean says he's a UNC fan right now but we know that changes quite often. Mommy and Daddy were in their respective teams gear and in our team snuggies so mommy thought it was only fitting if Jack had some spirit too. So I put his UNC onesie on over his jammies and put on a unc blue color sock on one foot and a nc state red sock on the other. And his pooh bear was wearing Jack's Nc state shirt that hes too big for now. It was really fun because Jay and I both kept trying to get him to say GO UNC or GO NC STATE. He'd sometimes make sounds similar to what we were saying but a lot of times he'd say DOOOO! He had a blast watching basketball as always and particularly enjoyed cheering especially when he heard mommy and daddy cheering. Well the game ended with mommy being happy cuz UNC beat NC State. But it was fun to share in this with Jack.


Jack enjoying a snack of Cheerios during the game!


Jack and Pooh Bear ready to Cheer on the Heels and Wolfpack!

Jack and Ava's Playdate

Auntie AJ (Ashley) came over on a Friday afternoon and brought her Niece Ava who is just a few months younger then Jack. The kids sorta played more next to each other then necessarily with each other. But it was fun and cute to watch. AJ got to take part in Jack's reading obsession with him bringing her book after book to read to him. We put them in the crib together at one point to see what they'd do together and they both were climbing around each other and then were standing up holding onto the side and jumping. It was very cute. It was nice to spend time with AJ and for Jack to have a playmate to help entertain him. We had a blast and hope to do it again at a park or outside somewhere when the weather is nice.


Aunt AJ reading to Jack and Ava.


Trying to get a picture of Jack and Ava together!


The 2 lil monkeys jumping in the Crib!!

New Years Eve and Day

Well over the past few years our ways of celebrating New Years have started to change now that we have a little one around. We decided to celebrate with Ashley's Parents and brother Jonathan this year and to just lay low at their house and enjoy the evening. We went to mass and then back to their house for a dinner of Heavy Appetizers and just hanging out and watching the ball drop. Jack was in bed before the bal dropped and slept like a good little boy that night. But before he went to bed he got to have an early celebration with his New Years Headband and blower. He couldn't quite figure out the blower but he did make noises into it which he thought was funny. We stayed the night there and after breakfast in the morning headed to Uncle Dan and Aunt Crystal's house to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with them. Jack as always had a blast and enjoyed checking out their house and playing with his new car that they got him for Christmas. It was nice to get to celebrate the New Year with family and to remind us how lucky with both are to have such awesome Families close by!!