Thanksgiving and Jack turns ONE!

Jack's first birthday was on Thanksgiving Day this year.  He was born the day before Thanksgiving last year and we got to come home on Thanksgiving night.  The year has gone by so fast!  He started out at 9lbs 14 oz and my guess now is about 23-24 lbs which we will be able to confirm at his one year check up next week.  We had a family celebration after we ate our turkey and pie and it was an overall great day.  He had fun with his little cake and the proof came up twice a little later on!  Too much green frosting for Jack but he didn't mind!  There are too many reasons to list why I am grateful for this little (big) boy, but here are a few of my favorite things about him:

• He is a great sleeper when he's not cutting teeth (that thumb sucking really comes in handy right now, but hoping it's not a problem later on).  I put him in his crib with his bottle (no judging) and he is usually out as soon as his bottle is gone.  If not, then he pops in his thumb and grabs his blanket with the other hand, rolls over to his side and knocks out.  I love watching him fall asleep on my monitor.  If he does cry, then it usually only lasts 10 min or so and then he lays back down and sleeps.
• Speaking of teeth...he currently has one that just broke on top and a wierd situation on the bottom.  He has one regular tooth and one that looks like it should be two separate teeth.  Kinda funny, but hope it's not an issue later.
• He started taking steps about two weeks ago and is doing better each week.  His biggest drawback is that he tries to go too fast...he just wants to start running I guess!  Crawling is still his fastest method of travel!
• He knows quite a few signs (some legit and some I just made up) and he's pretty good at communicating.  My favorite one is when he is tired, he will put his hand on his ear, and if he's REALLY tired, both hands go up on the ears.  It's so cute.  I started tilting my head on my hand when I would put him to bed, and he just caught on.  He also puts one or both hands in the air if he wants "up".  He will do the official "more" sign and "bottle" sign when prompted.  And he points at a lot of stuff.  I can only imagine how fast his brain is working...it's amazing to see it at work!
• Our favorite song in our household right is "Dynamite" by Taio (I think that's right).  Dane LOVES it and when we put it on and sing the chorus part..."I throw my hands up in the air sometimes...." Jack will put his hands in the air like we do and start moving his body by bouncing and pumping his hands...SO fun to watch!
• He comes to work with me each morning and all the female "regulars" just adore him...he's like the TFitness mascot!  I need a baby gate, though, cuz he always wants to leave the office!  When it slows down in the late morning I let him crawl around by me while I'm wiping down equipment or vacuuming.  I'm so glad I am able to take him to work with me.  I didn't have that luxury with Dane, and although he still did great at the montessori school we sent him to, it would have been nice to be with him during the day more often.
• Overall, he is just a really happy and loving baby.  He is tormented a little by his older brother because Dane just wants to wrestle with him and play with him like a big boy.  I keep reminding Dane that one day Jack might be bigger than him and he will take him down, but Dane insists he will always be bigger than his brother.  Hate to break it to him, but Jack is the brewser of the two! 

There are so many things to list about this little chunker (I call him my little fatty), but there's just not enough time in the day and I always forget stuff and remember it later on anyway!  I'm just so happy to have both of my boys....don't know what I would do without them.  Ike and I did pretty good, I must say!

(Oh, and by the way, Ike and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary on the 16th of this month!  Love him more than ever and we have two beautiful boys to show for it!)

Halloween a little late...

Loved our Halloween this year!  We all dressed up and had fun at our church trunk or treat!  Then on Halloween night we all went to Mandi's house for some good food and trick or treating!

October Ends.......

 ....and it was SO much better than last year! That's not only because I'm not 8 months pregnant, but because we have been having a lot of fun lately (especially now that our D-Land passes are in full effect again) and life just seems to be good overall!

I don't have any Halloween pics to post cuz I can't find the computer connection to my camera at the moment.  That's too bad because Ike looked hilarious as Joe Dirt, and I was his total opposite...a ladylike 50s wife!  When I find the cable then i will post the pics.  Until then, here are a few from our Friday night Disneyland trip

The one above is not of a Vegas night club, but it is CA Adventure!  They are promoting TRON Legacy by turning the main street (by Alladin and Monster's Inc) into a true Techno club.  There are dancers on platforms dressed in the Tron costume, lasers and lights flashing everywhere, techno music bumpin' and more!  It is like a Tron movie set...kinda cool, but not what I would expect from Disneyland....like the alcohol they are serving out in the open at this little bar!
 

 Jack loves riding the rides and he and Dane looked so cute on the carousel!  I can't believe how fast they are both growing!  Before you know it, I will be wanting another one (aka  the last one)....but how about a girl this time...I wonder if I can make requests?  Well, there are a few things that have to align first before that happens, so for now it's just a thought for the future! 

Here is Ike and Dane on the water ride.....they didn't have the huge geyser spraying, but they still got wet!

Jack...my little chunky monkey....telling my he is tired!  When it's time to sleep I will ask him if he is tired and tip my head to the side on my hand, so he has started doing it (only without the head tip...he just puts his hand on his ear).  It's so cute.  I can't believe he will be ONE this month...and ON THANKSGIVING DAY!  Guess he has to get used to that cuz it will happen a lot during his lifetime!

Dane's award

Dane got an award for "Exceptional Effort" for the month of September.  He was so excited!  His teacher, Mrs. Wills said he is so excited about school and always tries very hard.  I agree!  Every night he asks if he is going to school the next day...and he still asks to have hot lunch!  He gets it twice a week!
I volunteer in his classroom every other Friday and Mrs. Wills lets me do a 20 min PE activity with them.  It's really fun because I haven't done elementary school activities in a long long time.  It's also good experience to keep me in the game until I want to go back full time again.  Oh and I got talked into being co-room mom.  It will be fun, I guess.

Dane and School

Dane has been in school for two weeks now and he LOVES it.  I had to explain to him that there is no school on the weekends because he wanted to go EVERY DAY!  He loves his teacher (so do I) and his one thing he always wants to do is get "hot lunch"!  Since the food at his school is not very healthy overall, I let him get it on Fridays.  Unfortunately, this past Friday I had to pick him up early because his mouth/teeth were hurting (he was up the night before complaining of some pain too), so he didn't get his hot lunch.  As soon as we left he was asking about going back to school to get his hot lunch.  Maybe the novelty of it will wear off soon.  So ... (on a Friday remember) I had to call all over...doctor, insurance, dentist...to figure out where to take him.  His dentist was out of town, so we went to the doc and he said he had a gum boil probably due to an infection in the tooth and should get to the dentist asap, but he started him on the antibiotics he needs now.  Hopefully it will not be a huge deal, but we will see next week.  At least he is not in pain anymore.

That same week that Dane started school, my cousin (Skyler) came home from his mission to England.  We went to his homecoming party at my Aunt's house and it was really good to see him again. Now he's already off to school at BYU.  Nothin' like jumping right back into life again....I'm sure he will adjust beautifully!   My grandma was there also and i always love spending time with her when I can.   Here are a couple of pics from that too.

Dropping of Dane....surprisingly neither of us cried.  He was excited and I was proud!

My handsome cousin, Skyler...two days off the mission!  Watch out ladies!

I love my grandma!  Such an inspiration to me!

Newport Beach Trip 2010

I just want to say for the record that I HATE uploading on this new blogger post format.  Nice that you can supposedly move the pics around, but it has not worked for me (as you can tell...with the pics all over the place).  It also took SO long to upload the pics...could be my 6 year old computer too.  Maybe that's why I don't post much anymore....it is such a pain sometimes!  Maybe someone can enlighten me on an easy way to do it. 

Anyway, because of this, I'm not in the mood to comment much on the pics, but here they are.  It was a really fun trip and we always look forward to it every year!  The Turley/Whitehead families are ever growing and each year we have more new babies.  Because of this we had two houses the second week. It was really fun!  I will have the full spectrum of pics on facebook, so you can check out the rest there!

Really low tide under the pier!

Another comparison..

I love comparing Dane and Jack at different stages. Today I found this pic of Dane when he had just turned 1 and I realized Jack was wearing the same little onesie...at 8 months! It is a 12 month shirt....so I thought I should put them side by side to compare. I think Jack will be a little bigger than Dane!

Dane at about 1 year.


Jack at 8 months, wearing the same shirt!



This also proves that Jack is coming into his own look....he doesn't look too much like his brother as he grows. I think Ike may stake claim on one yet!

A little summer update...

Well, we have been waiting for a few job prospects to come through, so I haven't updated in a while. We still have the gym, but I'm gonna take over a lot of the responsibility and Ike is going to work another job. We have been waiting for quite a few weeks to hear something and can't really make any future plans until we hear back from one in particular, so until then we still wait. On a good note, we go to Newport beach for two weeks with the Whitehead/Turley clan starting this Saturday, so we are really excited for that. We really haven't done anything big since our VA trip and now it's almost the end of summer and before I know it Dane will be in Kindergarten.....where has the time gone? I hope he transitions well.

Here are a few cute random pics of all my boys!

Jack is such a good baby...so mellow! We just carted him around the outlets in Cabazon last weekend and he just went with the flow. I love this pic...this is a common face he makes!

We promised Dane we would go see the dinosaur after we went shopping...it was our bribe for him. He actually held up pretty well during our short shopping spree for new school shoes and swim trunks for the boys.

Dane has never wanted to wear a tie (or button-up shirt) for church, so the one day he does, we don't have anything that matches, so this is what he wore. Luckily, he got sick of it after about 20 min, and took it off....so I didn't have to explain to anyone that he dressed himself!!

My baby is 7 months....WHAT?

Can't believe my little baby Jack Jack is 7 months! Since I haven't been good at keeping up with his updates, his 6 month post is coming a month late!

He is still such a good baby, but the teething has taken a little toll. He is a little more clingy and sleepy at times, but I'm ok with him taking more naps during the day! He also got sick for the first time ever after we got home from our VA vacation....the usual cold stuff! He is just getting over it now, but he only had one really restless night where he (and I) didn't sleep much. After that he only woke 1-2 times for about a week, then he was back to his normal sleep schedule for the most part. He loves to play and be entertained by his big bro, Dane, who is such a good helper most of the time. I think it is so cute that Dane loves making Jack a bottle and he does it well (with minimal mess). He will say, "Mom, Jack is crying, I think I need to make him a bottle". I love that he knows how and wants to do it....another plus to having the age distance between them.

Here are some of the things he does:

He is in the upper-average range for everything right now....height, weight, head, etc. So, he has evened out since his GIGANTIC birth weight which was WAY above average at almost 10 lbs!

Still sleeps 9-10 hours a night and takes usually one long and one or two short naps per day.

He can sit up (since about 6.5 months)

He has found his tongue and LOVES it. He will copy you and stick it out and try to blow spit or make noise.....it is so cute!

He has begun putting sounds together...mostly a ba-ba sound, so I'm trying to get him to change it to MA-MA! Dad is doing the same thing, so we will see who wins out!

He doesn't have any teeth yet, but I just know that in the next few weeks something will emerge, because he is definitely showing signs.

He loves playing with his cousin, Keawe, who is 4 days older (but 3-4 lbs bigger). The pics below are so cute of them sitting and playing....sometimes they will grab at each other too. So cute, unless one of them gets pinched or pulls hair!

And my absolute favorite thing that he does right now is sweet soft baby babble when he is tired or has just woken up. It only happens right after he has had his night bottle before bed or right when he wakes up and has his bottle. It's like his transition to sleep. It is so sweet and soft and he just makes little noises like he is so content and happy with life. SO PRECIOUS!

I'm sure there are many more, but those are the things I can remember right now...I need to write these things down as I go or just be more consistent at posting them in this "online journal"!

Here are a few pics of Jack and Keawe from about a week ago!

VA Trip

I know we have been back for a little while, but things have been so busy and still continue to be, so I'm finally getting around to posting pics of our trip and all the happenings around here!

We had such a great time with my family in Va and I'm sad I didn't take more pictures. We took Ike to Monticello since he had never been, went to the beach, aquarium, Busch Gardens, and I saw a few old friends while home! It was a great trip and I'm glad we were able to go before my sister moved to Florida! Hopefully it won't be another two years before going back again!

Thomas Jefferson was fairly tall for his day...but he still doesn't pass Ike up!

Seems like everything was made smaller back then.....even doors!

Glad our bathrooms have improved a little since then!

Love the green rolling hills behind and all around us! Forgot how pretty it is (but the humidity I can do without!)

The back of Monticello (and most popular view)

Waiting out front for our tour (in the shade....it was SO HOT that day)

We had a really fun day at Busch Gardens....Love that place! Next time...Water Country.

Love these two....Ty Ty and Jack Jack!


We attempted to go to the beach one day, but weather was not cooperating! Dane and Dylan still had fun running from the waves!

Ike is the perfect size for horsey rides!