Merry Christmas!

Just a few days late on this! We have been busy.

We headed to Grammy's house on Christmas Eve afternoon to go to church, which was a much more pleasant event this year than last year. We got there earlier and actually got seats this year. Of course that also meant we were there an hour before mass started. Between the three of us we kept Jake pretty occupied and he didn't get antsy until the last 15 minutes or so. Jake is so funny and he loves singing, so he was attempting to sing the Christmas carols. I can't wait until next year when he can sing them more, I love hearing him sing along.

After church we headed home for some dinner and visiting and playing trivia with the Morrow's. As always we had a blast and the young team won. Jake had a blast opening presents. He really got into it this year and just wanted to keep opening them, even if they weren't his. I think we are in trouble at other kids birthday parties now! After we were done with games and presents, we headed home. Poor Jake didn't get to sleep until 10pm and didn't sleep well most of the night. Josh and I spent our night alternating sleeping in his room holding him so he would sleep. He also greeting us with a 5:30am wake up call on Christmas morning. I guess my dreams of having children that sleep until 9 or 10 on Christmas morning is probably not happening.

 Too busy with his truck to smile for a picture with Momma

So once we were all up Jake stumbled into the living room to see all his presents from Santa. His big present was a play kitchen and he absolutely LOVED it! So much so that we had to literally drag him away from it to open more presents! I would say Santa did a pretty good job with that. He got a ton of presents from Santa, a guitar, some puzzles, a couple of movies, lots of Cars toys, and some markers (the cool kind that don't write on anything but the paper that comes with them!). Kid is definitely not at all spoiled! 

 Jake's presents from Santa

Obsessed with his kitchen

We sat around and played while we waited for all the grandparents to get here for breakfast and more present opening. Grandpa and Grandma Rodriguez got here a little earlier than expected so breakfast wasn't quite ready. Jake opened some more presents while I ran around getting breakfast ready to go. Once Grammy got here we ate breakfast then hung out in the living room while Jake (and everyone else) opened his presents from Grammy. Jake again was spoiled with more toys, a backpack, and a big wheel! As soon as he opened the big wheel he hopped on and (with his backpack on) said bye to everyone and took off down the hallway. He can't quite reach the pedals all the way yet, but he still manages to get himself around, either by using his feet or using his charm to get someone to push him around! We just relaxed the rest of the day, had an early dinner, and did some more relaxing (well as much as you can relax with an almost 2 year old running around with all of his new loot!).

Bye bye!

The after

Grandpa and Grandma Rodriguez left right before Jake took a nap the next day. Josh and I tried to take a few moments to relax while Jake was sleeping, but it was short lived as we were headed to the Morrow's for the day after Christmas Christmas dinner. Jake got to run around with a bunch of dogs again and ended the night playing the Morrow's new kincet. He just jumped on in and was doing his own thing! It was adorable and so like him to want to be in the middle of all the action.

Playing the Kincet

We had a great Christmas this year, they just get more fun the older he gets! I can't wait until we can add some more kids to the fun!

Super Jake!

Making Cookies

Jake loves when I use the mixer and he loves cookies, so we decided to make some cookies he could help with. He loved helping and did a great job. He always surprises me with how much he can actually do! He cut out cookies on his own (and ate a bunch of dough in the process) and "painted" the cookies with just a little help.

Cutting out cookies

Trying to eat more dough

Licking the bowl clean...not sure where he learned this

I think he got more icing in his mouth than on the cookies

Mmm...yummy cookies

Done!

I have finally completely finished the scrapbook of Jake's first year. I have been working on it since he was a few months old and at some point just got so far behind that it was hard to catch up. A few weeks ago my mom came over and we got a big chunk finished so I just had a few more pages to do. Yesterday I got the last few pictures I needed to do the last page, so now it is done! It turned out great and I'm sure in 25 or 30 years Jake will really appreciate having the story of his first year.

Visit with Santa

We took Jake to see Santa this afternoon. We planned on going today to hopefully avoid lines. We also have been talking a lot about Santa hoping he would be excited and not freak out. So Josh took the afternoon off of work and we headed to the mall. Of course, there was a line, and not a short one. So we stood in line for an hour and a half, trying to entertain Jake. Fortunately Jake was in a great mood so it was fairly easy, and a few elevator rides and a couple of walks around the Santa area and we were in the cool part of the line where there were things for Jake to see and snow! Jake loved playing in the "snow" and got into throwing it up so it would fall on him.

Once we got to Santa, Jake was super excited and went right to him. He had no problem sitting with him, but it took some Daddy peek a boo to get a great smile. And we got a great picture and lots of compliments on our cute and polite little boy!

Painting and asking "What happened?!" when looking at the pain on his hands

Cute picture from our little Christmas photo shoot

Thanksgiving

We headed to the Morrow's in the afternoon on Thanksgiving for some football watching, picture taking, and dinner. It is great to spend holidays with a full house of people (and dogs).

We spent the morning at home hanging out in our pj's and watching the parade. Well trying to watch the parade, Jake had other plans for most of it.

Jake fortunately took a good nap because he didn't go to bed until after 9 that night. We headed home late and then Josh headed back out for some shopping. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart was a mad house and they only stocked four (!) of the toy he went there for.

Friday we headed to Grammy's house for some Christmas decorating, yard work, and more (much more calm and organized) shopping. Jake still refuses to nap when we aren't home, so he was exhausted. But we got Grammy's house done and she headed to our house Saturday morning to help us decorate and entertain Jake.

I think we finally got our final outdoor decoration figured out this year. It is our third Christmas and third different way of decorating outside. And we got to decorate a real mantel this year! I am pretty sure I never thought a mantel would make me so excited!

Jake refusing to smile

Uh, what I am supposed to do with this?

Jake plus 4 out of the 5 dogs waiting for Pam to drop something

Thanksgiving Crafts

I have been trying to do more crafty/art stuff with Jake during the week. So this week we made some turkeys. It wasn't originally supposed to take as long as it did, but it worked out so that we did something with them every day. That was also nice since we spent most of the week at home because Jake was sick. Apparently Jake does not like to get too messy and doesn't love painting. I think it has more to do with him not wanting to stay in one spot for more than a minute!

Taking a break from painting for bubbles

Why we like to paint outside. He doesn't like getting messy on purpose, but he usually ends up painting part of himself

But sometimes it is too cold to paint outside, so we improvise

Jake's turkey family

Birthday Parties

We've had a couple of birthday parties in the last few weeks. Jake gets what is going on a lot more now and has fun being around other kids so they are more fun for all of us now.
The first party we had was for Madison and Mallory, who turned 2. We have been hanging out with them since before they were all born! Their party was at a dance studio where they had activities for the kids for the first 30 minutes and real, lifesize fairies (who of course loved Jake so he flirted with them). His time with the fairies was short lived though because he found a girlfriend in one of the other kid guests. They sat next to each other to eat and Jake was trying to feed her and hugging her. It was cute and they even had the same energy level so while all the other kids sat and watched the girls open their presents, these two ran around the room. And when it was time to leave, they hugged and said bye. I didn't get a picture but wish I had.

Before he found his girlfriend

The twins with their fairies

Here, eat this!

Last weekend we went to Dax's first birthday party. Jake wore himself (and us) out running around the gym playing basketball. He also loved playing with all of Dax's cool new toys. And we loved getting a chance to catch up with the Parkers!

Check out Dax's tattoo!