Jake's First Christmas

Whew! We had a super busy weekend with lots of presents and food! Grandpa and Grandma Rodriguez got here Christmas Eve day and we headed to Grams house before heading to church. This was the first year in a long time that we have not gone to Midnight Mass, but we didn't think Jake would make it through Midnight Mass. So we thought we would go to the children's mass. Well we didn't expect it to be so crowded so early, and when we got there it was already packed. Although there were quite a few rude people saving entire rows until 10 minutes before mass started. About 5 minutes before mass started someone came up to Josh and I and offered us a place to sit so we took it. Jake made a bunch of friends with the people around us.

We headed back to Grams house to do Christmas Eve with the Morrows. Jake got to open his stocking from Grams and lots of presents from Grams and the Morrows. After some trivia and desserts we headed back to our house to go to bed and wait for Santa! Christmas morning we got up and Jake opened his presents from us and Santa. It took him forever to open presents because he would get distracted with the toy and play with it for 10-15 minutes before wanting to move on! Eventually we got through all of them though. We had breakfast with all the grandparents then Jake opened the rest of his presents. He has so many things with wheels now...he is in heaven!

After Grandpa and Grandma Rodriguez left on Sunday we relaxed for a little bit before heading over to the Morrow's house for some more Christmas fun! We hung out there for a little while and came home to get some rest after our long weekend!

On Sunday Jake woke up congested and he has been coughing and had a runny nose since then. Poor baby is having a hard time sleeping. It sucks to not be able to do much to help him.

So before pictures...we got our family pictures and Jake's birthday pictures back last week! They turned out great! I will post some of the family pictures next time. We also got Jake's birthday invitation today (well the file for it, we have to have it printed). It is so freaking cute I can't wait to get it out!

Now here are a ton of pictures.

Opening his stocking at Gram's house



Loving his new straw sippy cup

Yea presents!

Worn out Cosmo

Sharing his cookie with mama

Opening presents Christmas morning

LOVES his drum!

Lots of blocks to play with

Cosmo opening her stocking

Loves his dino from Grams

This kid loves things that move!

Our family Christms morning



With Grandpa and Grandma Rodriguez



With Grams Christmas day

Mama and Grams

Loving his bubbles!

At the Morrow's for Christmas dinner the day after Christmas

Pam loves Jake!





Picture catch up

We are almost ready for Christmas here. Well we are ready for it to come but haven't finished everything! It is much harder to wrap presents with a little man around! I am so excited to see Jake open his presents Christmas morning!

We had family pictures and Jake's first birthday pictures last weekend. We haven't seen any yet though, she is supposed to post a few preview pictures on Facebook when she is done. I am stalking her page waiting to see them, she has the session before ours up so I am hoping she puts ours up tomorrow. I am so excited to see them! Although Jake gave her a hard time about smiling, of course he chooses the times we are paying for pictures to not smile for the camera! I also got an improptu photo shoot done yesterday when we were at Buy Buy Baby. One of the photographers from the photo studio there walked by and said Jake was cute and wanted to take some pictures of him and said we could get a free 10x13 print. So we finished our shopping and then got some pictures taken. There were a couple of cute ones but the one I decided on is fabulous! I might have to scan it in because it is so cute!

Ok pictures!

One of the out takes from our Christmas card photo shoot

This is my favorite onesie right now

Playing with ballons after pictures

Look at the big boy drinking from a sippy cup!

Already in the fridge!

Our family ornaments

Jake likes petting Cosmo when he is nursing...and that is the one time he is actually gentle with her

Who needs Santa when I have Grandma! (And he is definitely spoiled by Grams!)

He spent 15 minutes sitting and reading this book today and didn't notice I was taking a bunch of pictures of him

Mama

Jake's new word...mamamama! He has said it sporatically for a little while, but usually just when he is mad. Since Tuesday he has been going around saying mamamama. I love it!

We are having family and Jake's first birthday pictures done this weekend! I am super excited! We've got lots of fun stuff planned for his pictures, but I think we will save them for a surprise. We've also been working on planning his birthday party. I have another really cool surprise that I have been working on for that too. I sat down to work on it the other day and spent about 5 hours on it, and I still have a long ways to go.

Not much else is going on right now. I have to start working on Christmas cards so no pictures today!

Picture with Santa*

*That title is a little deceptive I guess, because there are no pictures of Jake with Santa in here. They won't let you take your own pictures and I haven't scanned the one we got.

We took Jake to see Santa at the mall today and it was an adventure. We had planned to get there right around 10am when the mall opened in hopes of a short wait, but Jake had other plans and went down for a nap at 9:30. So we got there little before noon. The line wasn't too bad though(only about 11 familes in front of us) and we thought we would be able to get in before Santa's milk and cookie break from 1-2. So we waited. At about 12:45 one of the workers came out and said no one else was going to be let in (there was a line to get to the shorter line to see Santa) to the snowglobe part so we could stay in line and wait until his break was over or come back at 2. That was pretty frustrating because there were only 2 families in front of us at that point. But we figured it would be better to stay in line than try to come back, so we took turns waiting in line and taking Jake to the play place or around the mall. Fortunately for us, the two families ahead of us both didn't want to wait so we ended up being first once Santa was back.

Once we finally got to see Santa, Jake did great! At first he looked at Santa like "Who the heck are you?" and the first picture they took he just had a random look on his face with no smile. But the photographer got him to laugh and smile really big for the 2nd picture. Then Santa talked to Jake a little bit and Jake started bouncing and smiling. I am so glad he did so well! No crying with Santa picture this year! Hopefully that trend will continue.



Look who can stand alone (for a little bit anyways)

Checking out the tree

Our pretty Christmas tree (with a star this year!)

Geez, we sure do have a cute little boy!

Waiting to see Santa

10 Months

::deep breath:: My baby boy is growing up. I almost can't wait for him to be a year old so I can stop celebrating month birthdays and maybe it won't seem to go by so fast!

So new things at 10 months:

• says dada consistently (to everyone and everything)
• Talks nonstop when we are home
• Follows me and Josh around the house
• Will ask to be picked up
• Eats EVERYTHING!
• LOVES his blankie
• Plays ball with us, we roll the ball he throws it bck
• Gets into everything...everything
• Got his first haircut
• Standing on his own momentarily...and has even taken one step!
• Recognizes mama and dada in pictures
• Recognizes objects...he loves Brown Bear, Brown Bear and gets excited when he sees it
• Celebrated his first Thanksgiving

Whew! It has been a busy developmental month for Jacob! We are working on planning his birthday party and I am excited but the thought of that day makes me sad.

So we had a harder time getting a picture this month. Jake is not such a fan of sitting still anymore!

First Haircut

Jake got his first haircut tonight. I never thought I could be so sad about my son getting a haircut! He did great though. Aunt Gini came over and right after his bath we just sat and held him while she cut. We had to do a little distracting with Aunt Gini's bracelet and Grams and Daddy, but we were eventually successful. All of his little curls in the back and on the sides are gone and he looks like such a big boy.

No more curls. So sad

Happy Thanksgiving! (Now with Pictures!)

This year we are so thankful for our beautiful little boy, wonderful little family, our extended family, and all of our fabulous friends. We are so blessed to have so many loving people around us.

We have had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We got up and headed over to my mom's early and got started on the cooking (we did the baking yesterday). Poor Jake was over excited about Thanksgiving and turkey and wouldn't take a morning nap until 11:30. But slept for a couple of hours once he was asleep. When he got up it was time to eat. He loved the turkey, he was eating it faster than I could get it on his tray. Jake looks super cute in his little Thanksgiving outfit and his cute bib from Aunt Bethany. I will post pictures of our little turkey later when we are home!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful day spent with family and friends!