Christmas 2008

Here's a snapshot of pictures from this past Christmas 2008. We spent December 19-22 at my parents house in Eau Claire and had a family Christmas together and celebrated Jackson's birthday. Then we headed to Chilton from December 22-25 - we actually had to head home on Christmas morning because little man wasn't feeling well and hadn't slept all night but all in all it was an excellent time to spend together with everyone. Jackson loves his new walker toy he got from Grandma and Grandpa and goes all around the house with it now!

Thanksgiving 2008

We always have a yearly Thanksgiving dinner with our Lifegroup from church - 6 young married couples (2 couples have kids and one is on the way!) We had a great turnout again with all the fixins - it was a great way to kickoff the eating too much time of the year to expand our wastebelts a little bit. It's just a blessing to have such a great group of friends near since family is not close and we can share a lot of intimate moments of our life together.

Trip to Boston - November 2008!

So I took a long-needed trip out to Boston to visit one of my best friend's from high school, Megan Ryan. She's been living there for going on 5 years now and is going to dental school at Boston University. I've never visited her since she's lived there so it was wonderful to get away for a while and see someplace new and just to catch up in general. The city is awesome - very old school and preserved with cobblestone sidewalks and large historic buildings, it's right on the water and has the Charles River running through it and there's also a bunch of parks and trails that give a nature feel instead of feeling only like a city. My favorite quotes from being in Boston were "Wicked Pissah" (which apparently means really awesome) and "Pahk ya cah at Hahvahd Yahd" (Park your car at Harvard Yard - with the Boston accent). All and all, an awesome time!

Halloween 2008

Wow, we're really behind on posts and I've been getting scolded by my stalker blogging friends to add some new stuff in there if we still want to remain friends. So these pics are from a while back but are still super cute and worthy of a blog post - they're from Jackson's Mother Baby Hour group friends that we hang out with once a week and have play dates with our babies who are all the same age. There's a giraffe, a cat, a duck (that's Jackson!), a lion and a spider. It was probably the cutest thing I've ever seen...those poor babies, we can dress them in anything and they really have no say in the matter.

Fall Beauty

I realize it has been a looong time since the last post, so it's time to update a little bit. I thought I would post some cute pictures taken this past Sunday at Madison's Arboretum. it's the perfect time of year to do this because leaves are all over the ground and still have their vibrant color. Jackson was not in the best of moods when we took him, we think he was a little freaked out by the leaves and the crunchy feeling, but we did the best we could. Our little man is 10 months old as of Monday, October 20 and is crawling all over the place, eating grown up foods (he loves pizza) and pulling himself up on all sorts of things. Another first that he just had was that he pooped in the bathtub last night - it was actually pretty funny because we never saw it coming. He is a hilarious baby - his personality is in full bloom with funny faces and noises he makes all the time and he loves imitating us when he gets the chance.

Trip to the Zoo

We've taken many trips to the zoo this summer but this one was special because my mom came down for a visit on her day off to spend some time with her grandbaby. Our favorite animal of the day was the pot-bellied pig that looked so huge it might actually burst if you stuck a pin in it - go figured that it was eating the entire time that we were there looking at him. Jackson is a bit young to fully understand what is really going on at the zoo but I think he likes the monkeys best because they come right up to the window and make funny sounds and guestures.

Jackson 6 Month Pics

We just took Jackson's 6 month pictures yesterday morning (although he's actually going to be turning 7 months in just a few days). Better late than never! At his 6 month check-up, our little man weighed in at 17 lbs 4 ozs and 27 1/2 inches long putting him in the 80% percentile for height and the 39% for weight - the doctor says that's great and just where he wants to see him. So that means that he's grown 6 1/2 inches since he's been born and has gained 9 lbs and 12 ozs, and all of that in 6 months which is huge. Apparently babies grow the most rapidly in their first 6 months and then after that they slow down considerably so we can actually keep him in some of his clothes for a relatively longer period of time. Jackson loves sticking everything in his mouth (especially paper), chewing on his feet, bath time, making bubbles with his mouth, going for walks in his Baby Bjorn front carrier, having books read to him and having Dave and I play with him and interact in any sort of way. He's a pretty quirky little guy and we've found that he likes to roll from his tummy to his back but not the other way around, he doesn't jump in his Jump Around toy seat he just likes to play with the toys and he's very particular about which baby foods he will eat and when he will eat them (we found that if you sing songs to him while he eats he likes that the best). Such a fun journey this has been with parenting and we look forward to every additional minute :)