Let It Snow

Jacob has become very helpful around the house. He has now mastered the snow blower and is an expert at shoveling. Having a boy does have its perks.

We are all gearing up for the holidays and can't wait to see Jake with all of his gifts. It should be entertaining! The magic of Christmas has finally come back with all the little ones.

Making a Mess

Nana and Bumpa came over this weekend. We all had fun watching Jake make a mess of the kitchen.  He made a whole tray of cookies and loved decorating them. Josh was in Florida with his parents for a car race; which they did very well in. One of their cars got 6th place! Jake was very excited to have Daddy home. Last night they put together a gingerbread train and Jake again showed us his great decorating skills. This morning he was insistent on having it for breakfast. I finally convinced him to eat hash browns and oranges.  I'm sure we'll have the same argument this evening at dinner time. 

He concentrated so hard

He is taking Christmas orders, if you're interested

Working with Daddy on his Choo Choo

Still a work in progress. He hasn't added his finishing touches-sprinkles

Weekend

We had a very nice Thanksgiving with the Welches and a productive weekend decorating for Christmas. Jake enjoyed picking out the tree, but was ready to go inside where it was warmer and get some treats. He loved decorating his little tree and helping mommy put the lights on the family tree. Maybe next year he can do it so I don't have to! Josh was in charge of the outside lights and they look great. Jake made me take him outside three times last night to look at the lights. He was equally amazed each time he saw them. Oh, to be 2 1/2 again. Enjoy the pictures below.

He loved putting on his ornaments

Coming in from the cold at the tree farm.

                                                                             One cool dude!

A Chef at Heart

Saturday morning waffles

Jacob has really taken to the idea of cooking. He loves doing anything that involves helping make a meal. Sometimes he "helps" a little too much, but at least he's interested. Josh took Jacob to his second Colts game the other weekend. Jake now wants to watch football all the time and is a huge Colts fan. Of course this pleases his father to no end:0) Below are a few photos from the last couple of weeks. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Me do it, Mommy!

Headed to the game

Cashing in my McD's gift card from Nana and Bumpa. Life is good!

Trick or Treat

Jake had a full weekend. It started off with a fall party at school and continued on from there. Nana and Bumpa came over so Bumpa could do his anual pumpkin carving. It turned out great. Jacob loved his pumpkins this year. Nana brought over a cake for our birthdays and we have now done candles and birthday cake a total of three times since Friday. He shouts out, "Happy Birthday to you, Daddy!" Then of course he is the one to blow out the candles and lick the icing off them. We used the last of the candles last night, so the birthday celebration is now officially over.

Jake was somewhat into trick or treating. We went to our old neighbors and then just stopped at a few houses. The people next door and Josh set up a tent between our houses and we all just hung out there and had a nice time passing out candy.

Jake at his school party. It was pajama day as well.

Bob the Builder

Daddy's pumpkin

Bumpa's pumpkin for Jacob

Happy Birthday.....again!

Our Little Pumpkin

My apologies. This blog update is over due. We have been so busy and time is just flying by. The basement is finished and Jake loves playing down there. The bounce house is officially out of the dining room. We have new neighbors around us and have enjoyed getting to know them. Josh and I aren't sure we are ready for the 5 year old stage. We have a few of those near and they NEVER stop talking.

Below are some newer photos. One is from the race Welch and Wilson sponsored. The family came in town and we all had a great time together. The others are from our adventure to the pumpkin patch. Jake is obsessed with pumpkins at the moment. He laughs and dances around the front yard each time we light his. It's cute. Grammie got him some Halloween pajamas. We have a feeling he will be wearing those through Christmas. They even glow in the dark.

Voila!

The basement is almost complete. We played down there for the first time last night. The electrician is coming Thursday to complete the switches and canned lighting. The wet bar is put on hold for the moment. We figure the whole money train has to stop somewhere. Jake LOVES his new room. He runs around in circles screaming, "My room!" Since we are moving the guest room downstairs, we changed the upstair's bath into a monkey theme. We now have "Monkey" baths at night. Why monkies? Our child will only wear his monkey shirts to bed at night and refuses to take them off in the morning. The problem is, he only has two monkey shirts. Josh and I got tired of the battle and let him wear it out to dinner Sunday night. Thank goodness for us it got food all over it and is now in the laundry.

You'll have to look close. Our little monkey is on the bottom left. He blends in with his monkey shirt.

He looks so tall in this picture!

Daddy's Shadow

This boy can do it all. You show him something once and he's got it. In the long run, this will be a good thing, but for now, it's a little scary. Josh decided to edge the flower beds today. Jake couldn't resist helping. He even put some muscle into it. Between the two of them we will have the best lawn in town!

Bounce House...Haircut...Lawn Work

We decided to get Jake a bounce house for this birthday. He loves it so much that it is now in the dining room. It was too hot this weekend to bounce outside, so daddy brought it inside. Who needs dining room furniture when you can have a nice steak dinner sitting in a multi-colored bounce house?

Jake was also in desperate need of a haircut. He now has a big boy cut and loves to have gel put in it. I'm not sure I like how grown up he looks. You can see it below. Our backyard was seeded for the second time this week and we actually have some grass growing. I guess it's all thanks to Jake and his green thumb.

Earning His Keep

Jacob is known to help around the house. Today I stated that Wrigs needs a good brushing. The next thing I see is this...

I should probably try this with Wrigs. He actually sat and enjoyed it. Okay, maybe tolerated it.






He then moved on to scrubbing the floors. I must not be keeping up the house to his standards.

The Big T-W-O

It's hard to believe Jacob is two. The time has flown by and he has grown so much in the last few months. He's been my little buddy this summer and I have enjoyed our time together. For his birthday we started off with McDonald's. He loves their fruit n' yogurt parfaits and hashbrowns. I debated taking him to day care, but they threw a party for him and he got to sit on a helicopter. Better than anything I could have had for him in our front yard. The family came over last weekend and we all had a nice time together. We celebrated Jacob, Katie, and Carol's birthdays. Needless to say we all ate way too much.

The house is coming along. The basement should hopefully be finished in the next couple of weeks. Today I had the pleasure of buying a shower. Never thought that would excite me, but it did. Now we need to pick out paint colors and get the carpet ordered. Who knew carpet was so expensive??!!! I might need to start standing on the side of the 465 off ramp with a sign for monetary donations for my house.

He picked out these cookies himself. He was so proud of them.

With Miss Shelley, his teacher. We all LOVE her. She sends newsletters home and does a ton of neat projects. A woman after my own heart.

Being a ham on the front steps.

It's POTTY time!

Jacob stealing my coffee.

Jacob went pee pee in the potty today!!!! I decided to try it out today and it went great. Of course, we still used diapers and he didn't tell me every time he had to go, but it's a start. We made a huge deal out of it and went and bought pull ups and M & Ms as rewards for the future. Of course I didn't have any rewards at home when he went this morning, so I took him to the pantry and asked him what snack he wanted. He picked BBQ chips at 9:30. Whatever floats his boat. We'll continue to work on it and hopefully he will catch on and it's not just a phase. 

We've had a much better week after last week's prednisone episode. Jake is finally back to his fun loving self.  We had a blast at the park Monday and then had a class at the library today. I signed him up for summer reading and he gets prizes when 8 activities have been completed. Of course that means when Josh and I have completed 8 activities. :0) Jake is starting to string a few words together, two or three, to form sentences. He has also become a bit of a dare devil. He now gets on his riding toy, pushes off, puts his feet up and goes flying down the driveway since it's at an incline. We, of course, catch him before he enters the road. Yesterday, we added a new twist and set up the sprinkler. He then rode through it each time and screamed with delight. He was soaking wet. I am not exaggerating when I say the kid has gone through 6 outfits in the last two days. We have also spent a lot of our days watching the construction workers and their machines. I don't know the names of all of them, so we just call them dirt movers. :0)

Post potty snack. "Mom, I don't need a napkin. I have my shirt!"

We sat and watched this for about 1/2 hour. I know you are all jealous.

Jake's new obsession....water of any kind.