Thanksgiving

We had a busy but very happy Thanksgiving. We were excited to meet our cousin Parker for the first time (Scott and Michelle's son). It was a struggle to get all 3 kids to sit still for a picture--I actually had to hold Jack down--but we finally got one! That's Jack and Parker with Alexis, who's looking like a model. Parker is 5 months, Alexis is 3 1/2 years, and Jack is 1 year 8 months.

Here's Uncle Bob with Parker.

Parker and me.

Jack was not overly thrilled to see me holding another baby.


Being with family reminded us of last Thanksgiving, when we went to Vermont. Jack has grown up so much since then!



Jack playing with one of Daddy's old toys.

Those who have met Lou know he is not what you would consider to be a brave dog. When all the relatives arrived, Lou got nervous and hid out in the sun room. Alexis found him and gave him some TLC.

Jack still has an undying passion toward ceiling fans. He was in heaven when Dad put him on this chair so he could reach the control panel for the fan in the sun room.

He'll also still play with light switches from time to time. He's playing with some here that he discovered hiding behind the curtain. I'm sure the neighbors were wondering why the outside lights kept going on and off.

Finally, a few videos. This one is sideways, but I thought it was too cute not to include. Jack took advantage of cousin Marty's height and had some fun at the dinner table.

Jack put on a show for everyone by sitting on his horse and dancing to the music it played.

I think Jack has developed a little crush on cousin Alexis. Toward the end of the night, he started following and chasing her around (or at least he tried to chase her).

Weekend at the lake house

We spent a nice fall weekend at the lake house--this was the first time Jack and I had been up there since early September. The weather turned out beautiful, and we had a good trip even without having our boat (that's our shore station that was taken out of the water for the winter). Our friends DJ and Dustin came with us. All the boys reverted back to childhood at some point and played with Jack's Legos. Here's DJ building something with him:

Jack had fun rediscovering his toys that we leave at the lake house. He also thought this chair was pretty cool.

Jack still managed to tear himself from the toys long enough to pester Lou.


Dustin building something with Legos. Lou kept dropping his toy on top of Dustin and would climb on top of him to get it.

Doing hard time

We've started putting Jack in the dog crate for time out punishments.

Just kidding...

I was working on the computer the other day when I looked over and saw this:

Jack has always had fun opening and shutting the door of Lou's crate, but he's never actually gone inside it before. Once he tried it though, he liked it so much that he threw some toys in the crate and sat inside with the door closed for quite some time. Andy was a little surprised when he came home and walked in the door to see Jack caged in.

Swimming pools and mooses

Jack has started playing more with his stuffed animals lately, and he seems to particularly love this big, fat moose. I took a few pictures of Jack and the moose snuggling together last night.



Andy took these pictures yesterday at Jack's swim lesson. This time, Jack wasn't a big fan of floating or using the little kick boards. It seems at every lesson he changes his mind about what bothers him and what doesn't. But overall he enjoyed himself and had a good time.

Happy Birthday Grampy!

Happy birthday to Grampy Jarvis today, and to Great-Grampy Jarvis on Saturday! Jack was so excited, he did a dance for you.

Saturday

Happy Birthday Tyler!!


It doesn't seem to show up too well in the picture above, but Jack has a nice bruise and scrape on the top of his forehead where he did a faceplant into the carpet yesterday. Today he had his first "swim lesson" at Andy's gym. He and the other babies aren't really learning to swim, but they're playing and learning to get comfortable with the water. Jack shed a few tears, but overall he seemed to enjoy himself.

Here's a cute picture of Lou snuggled in his new bed, with his new toy that we got today at the pet store. Jack loves going there and getting to see all the animals. When we were looking at the beds, we put this one down on the floor so we could see how Lou liked it. Jack beat Lou to it and sprawled out on the bed, much to the amusement of the other shoppers.

Anniversary

It was 3 years ago today that Andy and I got married at the Hotel Allegro in downtown Chicago! (Though we met each other in 1997 when we were barely out of our teens at Indiana University.) I was reminiscing about our wedding day and pulled up a few pictures. In some ways 3 years ago seems like it was a long time ago, and sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday!


Also a few pictures from our honeymooon. Oh, how it would be nice to be in Cabo right now instead of chilly Chicago!