Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We hope each and every one of you have a spectacular holiday, spent with those you love, and filled with the REAL spirit of the season...the birth of our Lord & savior, Jesus Christ.

Enjoy these pictures of Jake meeting Santa for the first time last night. To our surprise, he didn't cry (that is until he got worried that we weren't going to retrieve him...it took us a few minutes to pick out pictures, and he sat on Santa's lap the whole time).

Love to you all!

Jake Crawling

It's not his best work on this video, but here he is, crawling! He's been doing this (forward) for several days, but this is the first we've caught on video.

Catching Up!

Well, Merry Christmas to all of you from our house...Jake is growing, growing, growing! In the last 6 weeks or so, he has gotten his 2 bottom teeth (you may be able to see them just barely popped through the gums in one of these pictures where he's smiling big), is now crawling forward (here comes the baby gate!), and is eating all sorts of things, many finger foods of various kinds and sizes. In addition, he says Mama pretty frequently, and I think he even knows what it means :) ...also says baba, nana, and dada, although I don't know if he knows what those ones are yet (bottle or bye-bye, Grandma K., and daddy). Oh yeah, and he waves hi or bye-bye...when he wants to. He has been through a rough month health-wise...a couple of colds, both followed by double ear infections...he is just recovering from the last ear infections this week. We are lookign forward to seeing many of you over the next couple weeks. Enjoy the pictures!

His first time sledding. We pulled him around the front yard, and he giggled!

Trying to get to the Christmas tree. He was holding the grate with both hands, and his nose was up to the gate...so funny. He was rockng the gate, trying to get closer. When I snuck up on him to take this picture, he turned around & knew he was busted!

Here also, hanging his very first ornament - a Baby's First Christmas ornament from Mommy & Daddy.
















Funny boy in his highchair...big smile, and then the turkey hat he made at school around Thanksgiving time...what a ham!




















Dare devil, standing on the back of the couch, and pulling himself up on the drawers in the bathroom. (By the way, I don't have pictures of it, but the tile floor is down now too finally!) Don't ask me what's on his head in this picture, I can't remember, but isn't it silly cute?!


































And of course, who doesn't have a picture like this in their baby book? I'm keeping this one for his future wife! :)

I just can't get enough of that cute little bare fanny after bathtime!

Holiday Parade

Jake & Mommy went to the Kalamazoo holiday parade this morning with Aunt Amy, Julie, Aunt Stephie, Uncle John, Collin, Julia, and Aunt Stephie's parents & brother's family.

You can see how it ended...

Just before the "lights went out"

Still taking in the entertainment at this point...

Mommy & Jake watching the parade

All bundled up before we left...he could barely move!

Hoo hoo hoo hewooo! (Tigger)

Jake, Jason & I had lots of fun on Halloween. We went to our church's Harvest party & had dinner at church, then we visited Grandma Kennedy. Jake was tuckered otu by the end, but it made for some adorable pictures.

Daddy & Jake

In awe, watching all the kids "Trunk & Treating"

Trying to crawl on the table (notice the tail...)

Checking out the big tractor



With his pals Julia & Collin
Julia was a princess, and Collin was a Pirate who doesn't do anything (Veggie Tales)...for those of you who know my friend Stephanie & her son Collin, you'll appreciate the humor of this costume!

Mommy & Jake

Totally tired out in between rides to the various stops...

Seeing Grandma...she had a special treat just for Jake, since she knew Mom wouldn't go for the chocolate all the big kids at her house were getting. Jake got Puffs! How perfect!

Stephanie let Jake try a sucker...he was ALL about that! :)

With "Aunt" Stephie

Crawling

Jake's attempts at crawling a couple of nights ago ended up with him stuck under the couch (he's only proficient at sliding backward at this point...). We thought it was too cute & funny to miss a photo opportunity, but he's looking at us like "What are you doing?! Put the camera down & get me outta here, silly!"

8 months old!

Jake turned 8 months old last week...I cannot believe how quickly the time seems to be passing by. I just want him to stop changing so fast, sometimes! :) He is sitting very well, and starting to try to get from a sitting to a crawling position. Once in the crawling position, he usually ends up moving backwards right now, rather than forward toward whatever his goal is...pretty funny to watch. He also loves to stand up & will stand up against furniture and pull himself up from a sitting position to a standing position, given your fingers to help. Then he'll usually get a little cocky and try to do it one-handed...he's not so talented at that yet. :) He is talking up a storm, making the ma, ba, wa, and da sounds...though we're pretty sure it's not in connection with anything...he does seem to say mama when he wants something. I don't think he realizes that's me...he just knows it gets a reaction. :) He loves to spit his food at me when he's eating his cereal, fruits, & veggies...just experimenting with the texture, I think...but that means he's been learning the meaning of "No-no!" :) Anyway, here are some pictures of him playing this morning & some random other cute pictures. Enjoy!

Trying to crawl toward his toys. Shortly after this, he pushed his arms out, which resulted in moving backwards and laying on his tummy on the floor, and he just looked at me, like "that's not what I meant to do..."

He was able to reach far enough to get his ball, and as you can see, he was very excited about it.

"Hi Mom!"

Happy in the jumperoo...nothing new there...except he is always jumping now...before, he just enjoyed watching the lights & toys & movement when he would shift in his seat. His legs actually touch the floor now though, so he is actively jumping.

All cute after a bath, snuggled up in his puppy towel with Daddy.