Jack's 1 year checkup

Jack had his 1 year doctor's appointment yesterday. He did great. He weighed 23 lbs and was 30 inches long. He is in the 50% meaning that he is average. I was a little disappointed because Brandon and I thought that he was at least 25 pounds and taller than 30 inches. I guess the walking slims them down. Dr. Dudgeon said that everything looked great and that he was really impressed with how well he is walking since he has only been doing it for a week. He is getting his molars, so we do have a bit of a runny nose, but other than that he was good.



On another note, Jack is so proud of himself for walking. We spend a good 30 minutes every afternoon while waiting on Brandon to come home, pushing the lawn mower around the house. Everytime it hits a wall he thinks that it is the funniest thing he has ever seen. He is getting better at the walking thing everyday.



Here is a video of Jack that I took yesterday. He likes to take Bella's "monkey" from her. She could care less, but as you can see now that he can walk he likes to follow her around and tease her. Enjoy!

Jack is Walking

Jack is officially walking. He started taking a few steps about a week ago with a lot of cohersion from us. This week at the beach he would pull up onto something and you could convince him with a toy or cookie to take a few steps to you. My Mom and Doug kept him for the weekend in Destin and when we went to get him Sunday he was walking on his own much better. We got him home and he didn't stop. He walked around the island without holding on and then from the kitchen to the living room to see Brandon, get a drumstick, and walked back to me in the kitchen. I am so excited! It is the cutest thing I have ever seen. He gets so excited. Once he does fall he starts clapping for himself. I don't have any pictures or videos yet, but I will post them as soon as I have them. I hope everyone has a great week!

Jack's 1st Beach Trip

Jack and I spent last week in Destin with my Mom and Doug. It was Jack's 1st beach trip and we had a blast. We did the pool most of the time because the beach was such a workout, but did manage to make it to the beach 2 days. He liked it okay. This picture was about 5 minutes after we sat him down and he was still trying to figure out what everything was.

We took him down to the water and he loved that until a big wave came and nearly knocked us both over. He was done with that real quick. I really wanted to be able to get in the water with him but the jelly fish were awful. I have never seen anythin like it. He played for about 15-20 minutes and then fell asleep for 3 hours. Yes, I said 3 hours. We couldn't believe it. I almost didn't bring my book because I knew I would be chasing him around the whole time. It was wonderful and so relaxing. We head back to Destin with my Dad, Kim, and her 2 Granddaughters in 2 weeks. We can't wait!

The Boys Fishing Trip

The guys had a blast on their fishing trip. This is a picture of all that they caught. They were also very excited to see a 6 ft. Tiger Shark which they hooked but lost and a 15 ft. Tiger Shark eating a dead turtle that was very close to the boat! They said it was something that you only see once in a lifetime. They will be happy to tell you about it in detail if you would like to know more.
From left: Antoine, Brandon, Joey, Kris, and John

Happy Birthday Brandon

Brandon turned 30 yesterday! For his birthday we went to Destin with some friends for a long weekend and had a great time. The guys went fishing all day Friday while the girls shopped and got some sun on the beach. Saturday we went on the Tschudin's boat to the Point and then went for hibachi at Harbor Docks that night. Yesterday, Brandon, Jack, and I shopped in Destin in the morning had lunch and headed back to Birmingham. We had a very relaxing night last night, which is exactly what Brandon had asked for. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera to either event, so I will post the pictures when they are sent to me.

Jack.....1 year ago

Here are 2 of my favorite pictures 1 year ago!
Our first family picture. Jack was only about 1 hour old.
This was a picture of him the second day at home. How sweet! It is hard to imagine that he was ever this small.

Jack's Real Birthday

Jack is officially 1. I can't believe that a year has gone by so quickly. It seems like just yesterday I was holding him in my arms for the first time. He has grown up so much. He is wanting to talk and walk so bad. He took 5 steps to me the other night and then on his birthday he took 3 steps to his Gigi. He isn't far. We had a big day yesterday. Gigi bought Jack his first pair of real sandals for when he starts walking. Then we went to have lunch at Dreamland where his Nanny works and later had a big dinner party for Jack and Sena.

Jack has had a rough week and really tested Brandon and I for the first time ever. He woke up Sunday with a fever virus that lasted a couple of days. Then when that was over he started cutting his molars and has been a little pistol. Nothing that we did made him feel better except for this new fountain pool that Gigi and Papa Doug gave him. He loved it.
Now in the rest of the pictures you are going to see Jack with no clothes on. He loves to go naked, so after he got out of the water we took his diaper off to put another one on, but he was not having it, so I just let him run around in his birthday suit. I figured why not since it was his birthday. We did keep the pictures G rated.
Gigi and Jack on the back porch waiting for dinner.
Jack, Papa Doug, and Elmo. Elmo was a gift from Cookie and Kim and Jack loves him!!!
Jack had the hang of eating the cake by his second one. We got him a mini cheesecake and he loved it as you can see.
I just had to post this picture of my handsome 1 year old. Happy Birthday Jack! We love you.

Happy Birthday Sena!!

Yesterday was also Sena's 29th birthday!! We had a big dinner party at the house for Sena and Jack. Doug brought huge crabs back from Alaska and they were delicious. Happy Birthday Sena!! We love you.

More Party Pics

Jack is playing ball with Chloe and Gordie.
Jack's Nanny holding sweet Laila and Ali.
Daddy is having a blast cooking burgers and hot dogs while everyone else is visiting.
Jack's friend Layton and his Mom Leeann.
Jack's friend Claire and her Mom Barkley.

These are enough pictures for now. I will have plenty more after his real birthday tomorrow.

1st Birthday Party Cont.......

Jack and his Mimi and Great Grandma
Jack's friends Ann Rogers and Caroline and their Mom's. They are both 10 months old so we will be celebrating their 1st birthdays before we know it.
Jack's friend Addison and her Mom Dannette. She will be 2 in December.
Jack's friend Caroline. She was 1 in May.
Jack's friend Kiersten and her Dad Kris. Kiersten is 2. They are our good friends that live in Destin.

Jack's 1st Birthday Party

I am going to have to do a couple of entries to get all of the pictures up. If anyone knows how to get more than 5 pictures at a time please let me know. Jack had a wonderful time at his party. He had alot of family and friends to celebrate his bid day with. uiiop[ vbhjkl;'(This is a message from Jack)

Jack at the beginning of his party, taking it all in.
Jack in his new bouncie that Gigi gave him with his friend Caroline and Chloe.
Jack and his cousin Gordie. He is just trying to figure out the cake and Gordie and Chloe are trying to show him what to do.
Jack rubbing cake all through his curls.
He is about done, but we had to get a picture of him in is precious birthday crown from his Aunt Mo.

Getting Ready for the Big Event

These are pictures of the preparation before the party began. We had so much fun getting ready for it. Thank you to all of my help, Mom, Carolyn, Grandma, Tracy,Lindsay, James, and Sena. I couldn't have done it without ya'll!
This is the cake table (obviously)! His cake was my favorite part.



This is Sena and I finishing off the backyard decorations. We had so much fun doing this that we are thinking about doing some party planning on the side!

Can we say LAZY!

As most of you know Jack has never held his bottle. He is quite capable as you will see in these pictures but has never had the desire to. He would rather have someone else do it and Jack always gets what Jack wants. Sunday we were running late to church as usual and I asked Brandon to pack the diaper bag while I finished dressing Jack. Before I go into any more detail let me explain that I have completely gotten Jack off of the bottle and onto sippy cups except for his bedtime bottle in the past 2 weeks. I told him to make sure that he put a sippy cup with milk and a bib for our lunch after church. You can tell from these pictures that neither of those things got packed. I put the bottle on the table in front of him and thought surely if he wants it bad enough he will pick it up and drink from it. Well after about 5 minutes of staring at it this is how he drank from the bottle. I was sooo embarrased, but it was hysterical. After a while of drinking it with it lying on the table and it getting very difficult to get anything out of it, he started doing this. This proves that he could have held a bottle over the past year but had no desire to and I was a sucker and held it for him. I am so glad to be done with these bottles for the most part.
This is the make shift bib that my sister came up with so that he didn't get food all over his church clothes. It is the napkin from the restaurant. Brandon said that if I wouldn't put him in girly clothes with big collars we wouldn't have that problem, but I disagree. This is another one of the precious oufits that my Grandma made him.

The Birthday Week Begins

I know that I am going overboard, but your first child only turns 1 once!!! I can't believe that a year ago we were sitting around waiting on the baby to arrive. I can't believe that my little boy or I guess I should say man is turning one. I have experienced all kinds of emotions this week while thinking about it......
1. What were we ever thinking?(when he was trying to eat Bella's dog food and had just poured her water out onto the rug)
2. What did we ever do without him? (when he layed his sweet head on my shoulder to give me a hug)
3. How did I get through this year sane and with a husband, son, and family that still love me?(When I left the room to run to the bathroom and Jack followed when Brandon was supposed to be watching him and I was yelling at Brandon to do something with him the whole time)
4. I didn't know that it was possible to love something this much (everytime he smiles at me or tries to give me a big wet kiss)
5. How did I get so lucky?(every morning when I walk into his room to get him out of bed or every afternoon when I get him up from a nap)

Words can't explain how wonderful this year has been. I thank God everyday that he chose me to have this life with a wonderful husband, son, and family that I love more than they know. I am truly blessed.

The party is Saturday so I will have plenty to blog about next week. I hope that everyone has a great week!!

Love,
Ashley

Why spend money on toys when you have a........

Tupperware cabinet!! Jack loves this cabinet and plays with the tupperware in it all of the time but has never climbed all the way in to play. I walked into the living room for 1 minute the other night and when I got back to the kitchen this is where I found Jack. He was so happy and having soooo much fun. He tried to back out and fell out backwards onto all of the tupperware that he had thrown out. My Mom said that we should sell all of the toys that we have that Jack hasn't touched in weeks and put the $$$ into his college fund. Not a bad idea Mom!!!

4th of July

Our great friends Andi and Joey were nice and brave enough to invite us to the Lake for the 4th. We had a great time and got lots of sun. It stormed Friday night so unfortunately we weren't able to see the fireworks. We hung out all day Saturday and then headed back to Birmingham to start getting ready for Jack's big party this weekend! Jack had lots of fun on his 1st 4th of July.
Jack loves his Aunt Andi. He was such a good boy the whole time.
My boys hanging out on the water. How cute!! We took the boat to Sinclairs for lunch on Saturday and had a great time. Jack had a blast on the boat until we made him put his life vest on and then he was miserable.