Jack's Stats: 18 months

Jack has grown from his last visit!  Of course he has, but his percentile's have gone up, and that is great.  His visit was exactly on his half birthday, and he was:

Height: 31in (15th %tile, up from 5th!)

Weight: 21.9 (5-10th %tile, 

up from not even being on the charts!)

Head Circ: 18.8in (45th %tile, up from 30th!)

Jack is saying so many words now, I haven't even counted.

A very cute thing he will do now is when we ask him a yes or no question, 

and the answer is yes, he'll nod his head.

 He climbs on anything that his brother does.

Jack finally just got two more teeth, though they are his upper first year molars.

Still no other teeth on the bottom besides the two middle ones.

He knows most of his body parts, and will point and say what they are when asked.

 Jack gives me this face, he is so funny, and mischievous

He loves to say "puppies", and knows and likes Lady,

 but is afraid of getting too close to any other dog

 (ie he just wants you to hold him and not be put down).

 He loves bath time, his blankie, and his brother.

Jack still takes one nap in the afternoon, usually after lunch time for three hours, 

and twelve hours at night.

He loves to be held by his daddy.

He also knows most animal sounds by now too, but his favorite are cows. 

Jack can fold his arms to say prayers, and has started to repeat what you say to him, so he's even said his own prayers.  I love the "repeat-what-you-say" stage.

I can't believe my baby is a year and a half!

Sledding

A new favorite activity for James is sledding.  And what is awesome is the hill that is right by our house.  So when Jack naps, about three times a week James and I will go out fast and sled right next to our house.  Jack gets cold quickly, so I've only taken him actually down the hill twice, but James will stay out and go and go and go, and crash into the snow, and go some more.  He doesn't care if he's cold as long as he keeps going.  It's when we stop that then he doesn't like the cold so much.  Afterwards we head inside for some nice hot chocolate to warm up with.

 He loves it, and will climb the hill, pulling up his sled, all by himself. We got him a polar bear sled thing and it goes down just fine.  Our horsey sled needs the streets to be more compact with the snow to work, deep snow and that sled don't mix. 

Coming up the hill

 Back at the top to go again.

The snow is also perfect to find prints of animals,

 and James found this perfect deer print and wanted to take a picture.

We've found another hill by us that works well too, and goes on for a really long time.  

Happy winter!

We saw them all...

...all the grandparents that is in December. 

That is a pretty good feat I'd say since they span four states!

 

First Papa and Grandma Kathy came to Utah for a wedding, and they got to stay with us!

Unfortunately we didn't get a single picture from that trip, but it's okay, we'll see them again soon.

 

Then we went up to the farm to see Grandpa and Grandma Haworth.

It's always great to visit them, and Grandpa started talking about when he served in the Korean War, and I love hearing about old stories.

We were lucky to have them all to ourselves for a little bit, with so much posterity, that is rare.

On Christmas Day we got to see Grandma Hiller.

James says "Grandma Hiller's house is great"

In Denver we stayed with Grandma Kitty.

James likes to read stories at her house, and sleep in the cave we make with her roll top desk.

Finally, we also saw Grammies and Boompa.

The little ones keep them on their toes, as evidenced by the picture. 

Love you all!

A Puppy Guest

 

This cute little guy was Lady's guest before Christmas.  He lives now down the street, and so she has a dog friend now.  His name was Cosmo (now it's been changed to Rockne, but forever more he will be known by James as Cosmo).  He's a Norwegian Elkhound. And James loved him.  Now when we say prayers at night, James prays we can get another puppy Cosmo.  Anyway, pretty cute, but I forgot how much work puppies are ;)

Salt Lake Temple Lights

One Friday night before Christmas we thought it would be fun to meet Kristie, Tom, and Lilah in Salt Lake and see the temple lights, and then go and see Grandma Hiller.  Well, I think that about half of the people on the Wasatch Front had that same idea, and if not they were there for the Jazz game, and if not for that they were there for the opening night of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Special.  And then it decided to drizzle too.  Long story short, we made it to the City Creek Mall to eat at the food court about an hour after we said (Kirstie and Tom were just as late between traffic and weather as well), which was the time we were to leave Temple Square to see Grandma Hiller.  Nathan went to stand in line to get us some Red Iguana food, and I found us all a table, and the only one was right in front of the big play area.  The kids ended up having a grand time playing and eating, and the adults got to catch up a bit. Then we came what we had set out to do: see the lights. We fought through the crowds, which weren't as bad probably because of the relentless drizzle.  It was an adventure.  We had to call Grandma and tell her that we could come that night, but she didn't mind because she had to be up early and didn't want us to come and then only stay a minute because she had to go to bed. It turned out to be pretty fun, even if it was cold and wet.

James and Jackman in the play area in City Creek

Jack liked it, and was happy he could run around

Mommy, Jackman, James, and Daddy in front of a big red tree

Lilah with some lights

The magic of Christmas lights and snow on Temple Square

James explaining to Daddy about the floating lights,

 and I am aware that he no longer is wearing mittens in this picture, not sure where those ended up

Two sweethearts

Tom and Lilah 

Overall a good adventure to get into the holiday spirit.

And it's fun when some of your best friend's are also cousins :)

It's a Colorado Christmas

The day after Christmas we packed up the car and headed to Colorado to visit all the family there.

Nathan had to go into the office for an hour before we left, and this happened:

Nathan got his thumb caught in the door, and pulled it out, and this happened. Besides the hematoma, his thumb was twice the size as the other.

It hurt the whole 8 hour drive to Denver, poor thing, no medicine touched the pain and he held his hand above his head for most of the trip.  As soon as we got there, he went had it drilled at an instacare to relieve pressure, it didn't help much.

After four days, he was able to type and play the piano again, but even now it still hurts a bit.

There was plenty of grandparent time

Trying to get a picture together, this was pretty typical

We went to the Littleton Historical Farm, even though it was cold,

 to show Daddy where we always go

The Aderman clan that were able to come to Lincoln Meadows to have a meal.

My Uncle Dana and Aunt Maggie, and my Uncle Kyle and Aunt Carol

 Kyle and Carol are in Parker, and it was wonderful that Dana and Maggie came from Colorado Springs.  We don't get to see them as much, and it meant so much for them to make the drive.

Grandma Kitty with her children: Julie, Dana, and Kyle

 Boompa and Gramies

 Kirstin got to be there a night with us before she had to get back to work

 Grandma Kitty and James

We got to stay with Grandma Kitty at her apartment in Lincoln Meadows

 We had excursion to Chuck-E-Cheese's, and the boys loved the rides

 

Boompa trying to feed Jack his bottle...

 

 ...but Jack thought he wanted to share instead :)

 Uncle Kyle and Aunt Carol's labs, Elle and Morgan

The last night we went to Kyle and Carol's to watch the Bronco game, and after the game we had dinner together.  I found these two after dinner asleep together like this.  

It was a funny position to fall asleep in:)

The drive there and back were both uneventful, just the way we like them.

A morning Merry Christmas at home

 We had a pretty merry Christmas.  It was the first time that we've been at our home on Christmas day, since we've been married.  We were worried Santa would have a hard time finding us if we weren't home.  So we stayed for Christmas day, then left the next to head to Colorado to see family.

 

Opening one present on Christmas Eve (excited can you tell)

 Matching Polar Bear jammies!!

  

And later that night...

Santa did find our house!  See:

 And ate the cookies and the drank the eggnogg, too.

We left carrots for the reindeer, and as you can see, they were gone.

 Opening gifts from each other

 Hmmm...that's neat

 A little view of the mayhem

 Cars!!

 Cheese!

 Yes, I think I will watch this snow and eat a candycane

 Jack with Daddy and his owl hat.

 Ready to play, 

he's telling the  cars what they are about to do

Merry Christmas!