Record snowfall

Last week Justin had 3 days worth of training in Dallas. Luckily, it just so happened that I was scheduled to give a test on Wednesday night, so I got a sub and we all headed up to my parents' Monday night when I was done with class. I hate getting subs when I actually have material to teach - they never teach what I ask them to so I try really hard to only miss class if there is an exam.

We knew it was going to be cold while we were up there, but on Tuesday we learned that it might snow on Wednesday night or on Thursday. Wednesday night the weather people said that we should expect about 1 inch of snow during the night and maybe another 1 - 3 inches on Thursday.

When Jacob woke up sometime around 5am everything outside was covered in maybe an inch of two of snow. It was kind of exciting because now that we are in the Houston area we never get to see snow on the ground. In fact, even though it snowed at our house a little the beginning of December, none of it stuck.

When Jacob woke up again around 7:30, this is what it looked like just outside of the house:

A couple hours later, as it approached naptime for Jacob, I decided that we couldn't pass up the opportunity to take him out to play in the snow. I dressed him in layers but sadly didn't have any gloves for him (why would I? We live in Houston!!!).

As soon as I tried to stand him up outside, he went down on all fours and started crying, probably because the snow was so cold on his hands.

My dad made a snowman and kept trying to get Jacob to stand up next to it, but he refused to stand up on his own.

FYI - if your yard is covered in leaves when it snows, then your snowman ends of covered in leaves.

Jacob was outside "playing" for no more than 5 minutes, but he made it very clear to us that he was done.

Colby couldn't make his mind about the snow, he went back and forth between loving to run around in it and then not wanting to be outside.

It continued to snow ALL DAY LONG. The next day they said that a new record had been set at DFW for the most snowfall in a 24 hour period - 12.5 inches. I attended BYU for 4 years. I'm pretty sure I never saw it snow so much in one day until last Thursday.

Work in progress

Lately when I look around my house I think of all the things I want to change. For instance - when we first moved into our house we had no desire to paint any of the rooms, but now I am getting sick of the cream-colored walls that I see in every room. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I spend so much time at home these days.

We painted our half-bath a year after we moved into the house and didn't do a spectacular job on it and we kind of left the idea of painting behind us. Then we were very happy that Justin's aunt and uncle offered to do the work and paint Jacob's room for us. But after I made very frequent comments about wanting to paint other rooms and even went and got some color swatches we decided that it was time.

We started with the living room and dining room, but I have already picked out colors for the family room as well. The color we chose is called Tangy and is a dark yellow color. Here is the view from our front door:

Once we get around to it, we will have pictures hanging up in the dining room.

The view from the other corner of the living room:

One view from our dining room:

And the other angle into our living room from the dining room:

Not only do we have plans to paint the family room but I have a list of things I still want to do in the living room and dining room. In no set order:

• Get a bookshelf to go on the left side of the piano. Oh yeah - I have a piano!!! We got it used from someone at church (we got it just a week ago). It needs to be tuned and the keys are pretty yellow, but it is beautiful and and has a good sound to it. (Which means - something to add to my list of things to do is to learn to play the piano.)
  

• Get curtain rods and get my curtains made. Yeah - you can see the bolts of fabric standing up in the corner of the living room in a couple of the pictures. Fabric to make curtains for the living room, family room and our master bedroom. And ideally to make a valence for the dining room. Yes, this is the same fabric I bought 3 years ago. Maybe if I knew how to sew I would be more on top of getting my curtains done.

• In a dream world, we would get a new couch and chair for the living room. But we don't so as of right now I want to get a slipcover for that gross looking plaid love seat that I bought almost 11 years ago.

• Recover the chairs for the dining room table to match the unmade curtains.

• As stated already in this post, put pictures up in the dining room.
  

Maybe in another 3 years my living room and dining room will be finished.

Lazy (and silly) Sunday mornings

With the new year our church time changed from 9am to 1pm. Although we aren't especially happy about it, it does have its benefits.

We love to spend the morning lounging around in pajamas, playing with Jacob and being silly. And we especially love the fact that I have plenty of time to make breakfast (this past Sunday I made waffles for the first time in YEARS).

Here are just a few of the silly pictures we have taken to document our silliness. (Luckily, I am the photographer.)

Jacob has taken to making some of the funniest faces lately. We aren't sure if it is his way of letting us know his gums are bothering him or what.

Our Holidays

Our Christmas didn't go quite as I had planned. We all woke up with colds and not feeling so well Christmas morning - you'll notice in the pictures below that the ones from Christmas morning have our little boy with a really red nose.

I bought all of us new red pajamas and planned to take a little family picture of us Christmas morning in our pjs. But when Jacob woke up Christmas morning his diaper had leaked and he was soaked. Here is the picture that we took of us a couple weeks after Christmas when I had washed all the red clothes. This picture was still taken in the morning, so I think it leaves much to be desired as far as my appearance.We had celebrated Christmas with my family the day we had Jacob's birthday party and were heading up to Justin's grandparents' to celebrate Christmas with them once we got ready for the day so we kept things really low-key at our house.

Santa brought Jacob his very own chair that matches our family room furniture.

I don't think Jacob really "gets" the chair. He likes to push it around and climb in it, but he only sits in it for a few seconds when we put him in it before he slides out. However I feel pretty certain that once there is a second little one around here and they are old enough to realize it, they will argue over who gets to sit in the chair.

As I said, we kept things really low-key. Jacob got a stuffed LeapFrog dog from us that we have programmed with his name.

And he got a neat helicopter from his Uncle Eric and Aunt Joanna.

It may sound like Jacob didn't get much but this is just Christmas morning at our house. Between his birthday and all the other Christmas presents he received, he has plenty to play with.

What a sad runny nose Christmas morning!

And here is a picture that I wanted to take Christmas morning, but it had to wait until Jacob's pajamas had been washed.

Jacob and Santa meet again

This should have been the first year that Jacob met Santa. But with his early arrival he was able to meet Santa last year.

This year, he was a lot more alert and therefore a bit more freaked out about meeting Santa.

I was a little bummed about the pictures that the lady took. She took 2 pictures that look almost identical, one is just zoomed in a little more (very little).

Then she took one with Santa facing the camera and smiling.

But then when Jacob turned and gave a half smile, she didn't snap a picture. And she didn't take the picture of him crying on Santa's lap. Isn't everyone supposed to have a picture of their child crying on Santa's lap?

Jacob's stats and his party

First, I have to preface this by saying that I get nothing done lately. Jacob has some type of radar that tells him that he needs to crawl to wherever I am and whine until I pick him. Of course, this radar only goes off when I am trying to do something (blog, clean, cook, etc.). If I am not doing anything, Jacob doesn't need me.

Anyway....

On Thursday, Jacob went in for his 12 month well-check. We weren't surprised at all to find out that he is still our little boy (based on percentiles):
Weight: 18 pounds, 13 ounces (5th percentile)
Height: 28 inches (5th percentile)
Head circumference: 44 centimeters (5th percentile)

And just like before they asked me some developmental questions. Can Jacob clap or bang two small toys together? No, he can't.

What did he do as soon as we got home? Did he bang two small balls together from his Busy Ball Choo Choo Train? I tell you - that kid.

Anyway...

We had Jacob's birthday party the Saturday before his birthday and in an attempt to keep it small, we invited only family. But considering that we have tons of family here in Texas we still had about 20 people here to wish Jacob a happy birthday.

When we sent out invitations for his party, Jacob was taking 2 naps a day. But he decided just in the week or so before his party that he was done with 2 naps and only wanted one longer nap. So Jacob's party started at noon, but he slept until 1.

We tried to keep things moving and keep Jacob happy throughout his little party. We started with opening presents, meaning I opened presents and Jacob sat close by. I was pretty impressed that he seemed interested in his gifts as they were opened since I have been to a few parties for 1 and 2 year olds where they didn't care about their gifts at all. Jacob has great family who gave him some terrific toys and new clothes.

After the gifts were opened and Jacob had done a little playing it was time for cake. I spent way too much time on Jacob's cake. Don't be expecting a cake like this every year, Jacob.

At first Jacob seemed pretty confused. Afterall, we are still having lots of problems with Jacob and solid food. When we do give him food, it is usually tiny pieces of something. And here we put a whole piece of cake in front of him.

After a little while he really got into it and even though he started gagging a little at one point, he handled it much better than I thought he would (in other words, much better than the pieces of roll we gave him at dinner time that night).

I think it goes without saying that Jacob went straight from the high chair to the bath.

We hope you had a happy birthday, Jacob!!!

Jacob is 1 year old!!!

It is hard to believe, but our miracle baby turned 1 on Monday! And I as I had anticipated, it was very difficult to take a picture of him next to his elephant.Care to see the outtakes from this photo shoot?

I haven't decided if at some point in the future I will take more pictures of him next to his elephant, but it will definitely no longer be a monthly thing. Can't you see Jacob as a 15 year old next to his blue elephant? :)

Jacob's well-check visit isn't until tomorrow so we don't have stats yet.

At 1 year old Jacob can:

• Crawl way too fast
• Cruise all over the place (which he prefers to crawling)
• Pull himself up and let go, balancing on his own for a few seconds
• Crawl halfway through the doggy door, getting himself stuck
• Climb up the stairs (he has been able to do this for a couple months, but wasn't all that interested until last week)

Jacob loves:

• Colby (our dog, in case you didn't know)
• Playing with Colby's food
  
• Taking a bath
• Watching Here Come the ABC's, Here Come the 123's and Here Comes Science (we are teaching him early how great They Might Be Giants are)
• Playing with Daddy
• Trying to play with electronics (just like Daddy)
• Looking out the window
  

Jacob doesn't like:

• Baby food, including oatmeal and rice cereal that he used to eat
• Getting dressed, especially putting socks and shoes on
• Being in a rear facing car seat (we have our fingers crossed that we find out tomorrow he is big enough to turn around in his brand new front-facing seat)
• Staying still during church
• When we move Colby's food so Jacob can't reach it
• When we raise the blinds so he can't pull on them as he looks out the window
  

Things I thought Jacob would be able to do when he was 1 since every other kid I see can:

• Eat food without gagging and choking
• Drink from a sippy cup on his own (he hasn't clued in on the fact that you have to tilt it up to get anything besides air)
  
• Makes the sounds Mama and Dada (even if he doesn't know that is who we are)

It is hard to believe that only a year ago Jacob joined our family!