Being Jack's parents brings us more happiness than we could have imagined!! Everyday is just like Christmas morning!! Jonny and I race to see who can see that smile first! :) Usually I win, because he has to go to work!!
Jack has the best personality!! He goes everywhere with us, and he smiles the whole time!! What a trooper he is. He is everyone's sunshine!! We started laying in the big tub.....graduating from the baby tub!! He is mesmerized by the running water!! Bath time is getting to be more and more fun!! Jack has "tummy time" in his room everyday....it usually ends up being "back time" because he always rolls over onto his back....and then he cannot remember how to get back on his tummy! Jack learned to eat a cracker!! He spit most of it out, but he loved gnawing on it!! When we take Jack outside, he gets very calm and very quiet!! I think he is really going to like playing outside in the yard his daddy is preparing for him!! Jack could swing all day long if I would let him!! He actually has three swings!! Jack has the cutest toes!! There are not really room for all of them! :) His second toe always sits up on top of the rest like that! Isn't that sweet?? What a cutie sucking his thumb!! It is almost automatic when you give him his little frog lovie! Jack had discovered his toes and fingers.....He loves to just look and look at them! They make the best toys!! Jack's smile is my favorite thing to see everyday!! Jack is been sitting in his highchair lots lately!! He loves to eat food like Mommy and Daddy! This is Jack as he is looking at his jungle mobile.....and he says, "mamamamama!!" Melts my heart!! :) We are so thankful to God for our sweet boy...and we are forever grateful to Jessica... She is doing great! We love talking to her and hearing about her life in Texas! During our last phone call she got to hear Jack talk and talk!! He smiles at her picture in our den and in his family album!! We know we are so very, very blessed!!
Jennifer made a carrot cake for scrapfast...and we used it as a birthday cake for Christy and me!! But here I am hogging all the candles!! Poor Christy! This happens every year!! She is too fun to tease!!
Johnna feebly tries to deter me from getting near the cake again! I am determined to blow out the candles too!! I learned this from the Smith girls!! I try to wrestle Johnna to the ground. Some things never change!! Every year we get together to get lots of scrapbooking done quickly during our three day weekend!! (Thus the name, SCRAPFAST!) This year we all came together in Mt. Juliet and scrapbooked at the Davis home! Jane and Gilbert were such good sports to let us invade with all our food, tables, scrapbook stuff, and children!!
Lucy and Claire! What good babies!! Johnna!! (The organizer!!) Christy (the fastest one!!) and Ashley (the non-scrapper)! Mela! (another quick girl...and the owner of the beloved CRI-CUT!) Keri (the extremely creative one) and me (the one who takes a long time to get started)! The digital scrapbookers!! Joann, Karen, and Jennifer! Karen had a much better year this year!! Poor Jen had the tough time this year!! Isaiah! What a little cutie!! Mel! (The hilarious one!!) Here I am being dramatic for the camera....Recording ones memories is so touching!! :) Mmmmm! Girls love Logan's too!! We ate until we were stuffed while we watched the playoffs on the tvs!! Our three youngest participants! (They are all being breast-fed, so they were allowed to come!!) ;) We completely trashed the den!! Look at all the STUFF!! Here's the whole gang!! Until next year........! Did we ever get a grand total of the pages?? Christy, how many did you end up finishing??? Everyone should reply and tell!! (If you can remember!!)
Jonny has a new hobby of collecting leaves all around Germantown, Collierville, and Greater Memphis for bags of leaves!! He is growing his compost piles for the flower beds this summer!! He could fit about 26 huge bags in the van with all the seats removed! He made 6 trips on this day! Crazy man!! But you gotta love him and his determination to have a beautiful yard!!
MMM! Keri made me a YUMMY chocolate cake for my 35th birthday!! Lizzie did a great job lighting the candles! They were very excited about the blowing out of the candles!! Guess what is about to happen!!?? Sara Kate blew them out before I could get to them!!! What a little missy!! Then Lizzie blew them out before I could do it!! Sara Kate was not happy about this!! Here I am guarding my candles so that no little ones blow them out again!! Finally!! We can eat the cake!! Uncle Andrew and Aunt Keri just love baby Jack!! Can you believe that he is already sitting up so well??
A tooth is emerging! Both bottom ones popped into the scene on January 11th!
Cute crooked grin!!
Ooooh! Somebody is sleepy!!
In his favorite place!! His jungle swing!
Here is Jack's 5-month update:
A new year, a new month…and a new Jack!!Jack went to the doctor back on December 8th (for his four-month check-up), and he weighed 16.4 pounds and was 27 inches long!His weight is in the 75th percentile, and his length is in the 90th percentile!Dr. Chidester was very pleased with Jack’s growth and with his strength in his arms and legs.She was complimentary of his large, small, and fine motor development, as she watched him grasp items and use his legs to balance himself when he was helped to stand on the observation table.She checked for teeth, but didn’t find any, but did comment that all his drool might be indicative that a tooth is not far away!He also received his 4-month immunizations, which he took like a little man!!Jack had a small cough this month with some added congestion at night, so we kept a vaporizer running in his room, and we kept his bed elevated at the head to promote easier breathing! Jack turned 5 months old on Monday, January 5th, and Wednesday, January 7th will mark five months since placement!
Jack loves to eat!He began eating cereal from a spoon early in December, and although it began as a fight, he seems to really like it now. He still regularly eats 8 ounces of formula at each feeding.Dr. Chidester said that Jack was plenty big and healthy, so he should begin eating more solid foods.He is eating around 32 ounces of Target Brand Formula (with cereal) each day. We added oatmeal cereal to his diet later in December, and that seemed to go a bit better than the rice cereal.He is definitely getting used to using a spoon, although lots of cereal still does not find its way down his little hatch!Jack still wakes up every morning around 7 a.m., and goes to bed each evening by 9 p.m. However, sometimes Mommy and/or Daddy will snuggle with him until after 10 p.m.!
Being a lover of light, Jack was mesmerized with the addition of the Christmas tree and its 800 twinkle lights to our den.Jack loves music, and he always grinned when his favorite Christmas songs would come on the CD player (especially Jingle Bells!!)!Jack loves being on his tummy and his back when he plays…and now he loves trying to sit up.He still falls over pretty quickly, though!Jack will hold Mommy’s hands and use his muscles to pull himself up to a sitting position, and then with a little encouragement, he will straighten out his legs and come to a full standing position.This always brings a huge smile!!He feels like a really big boy when his is standing on his own two little feet!!Daddy has begun raising Jack over his head and making airplane sounds.This usually brings a hearty belly laugh (and sometimes drool in Daddy’s face!).Jack has begun to notice his reflection in the mirror outside of his bedroom, and he LOVES to smile at the baby that he sees.He also gets excited when he sees Mommy or Daddy in the mirror too!Jack still loves his swing, but his time in the swing is getting short because little Jack is getting bigger!!He still holds his rattles, grabs at his handing toys, and is beginning to put these things in his mouth for further exploration.Overall, he is a very happy, happy easy-going boy!!We are so proud of his accomplishments and so blessed to see his love of life everyday!
Jack had his acting debut on this month when he played the role of Baby Jesus in our church’s Christmas Program.He was such a cutie up there on stage in Mary’s arms!!He didn’t seem a bit nervous.However, he didn’t quite make it through the whole program….he had to be replaced by a Cabbage Patch doll when the applause frightened him! He also got to visit with Santa and do quite a bit of Christmas shopping.We celebrated Christmas at home together on Saturday, December 20…and Jack opened some of his gifts from his Mommy and Daddy which included a play telephone, spoons, new bowls, a sippy cup, and a very special new book that is called Jack’s Story that Mommy made for him. (She also sent one of these very special gifts to Jessica!!) He also got a high chair from Santa!! We all went to visit Grammy and Poppy in Nashville on Monday, December 22.Jack was well-loved by his Daddy’s five brothers and their wives…and the 9 cousins who all wanted to hold and love on Jack!Jack would grin really big every time anyone would stop and talk to him or play with him!He is certainly a very social kiddo!We stayed in Nashville a little longer than planned because Mommy and Daddy, aunts, uncles, cousins, and even Grammy got a nasty stomach bug…but Jack never did!!On December 27th, we headed to Grandma and Granddaddy’s farm in Kentucky.Mommy’s three sisters, their husbands, and Jack’s 7 cousins were waiting on him when he walked in that door!They were amazed at how much he had grown in just the few weeks since Thanksgiving!!Jack got lots of great gifts from his family!He got several books, a Fisher-Price Farm and lots of farm accessories, a ball popper, a musical cube, some clothes and a very special Titans Build-a-Bear! He also gave his grandparents a copy of the very special book Mommy made for him and for his Jessica.They cried when they read it.Jack thinks it is their favorite book ever!!
On January 2nd we left Grandma’s house in Kentucky and drove to Clarksville, Tennessee to meet someone very special!Jessica’s mom, Maria, was waiting for us, and she could not wait to meet little Jack!!We had planned to meet her on January 26th, but due to our tummy troubles, we had to postpone this wonderful meeting!We ended up eating at Steak-n-Shake…but Maria never ate because she was so busy holding Jack, kissing Jack, and just loving Jack!!We took lots of pictures, exchanged email addresses and phone numbers, and promised to keep in touch.We were very thankful to arrive back to our house that evening after having been gone for almost two weeks!!
It’s been a very full month…and we are all exhausted!!We are very excited to be home now and get back to our regular schedule…although I think Jack does miss all that non-stop attention!I dare say he got a bit spoiled!!
We were SO EXCITED to meet Jessica's mom, Maria, in Clarksville on our way back home to Texas!! Maria was so happy to meet her birth-grandson...and she gave him presents and lots of hugs and kisses!! In the above picture, she is on the phone with Jessica as she sees Jack for the first time! (We woke Jess up!!) We sat in a Steak&Shake for 2-3 hours as we got to know each other and love on Jack!! Jack took to Maria instantly....He stayed in her arms the entire time (except for a quick diaper change!!) Maria brought pictures of Jessica from her childhood! They were so cute! She let us keep them too! What a treasure to us....and to Jack! Every piece of his birthmom will be priceless to him as he grows up!! We had a great visit, and we hope to visit with her again!!
Being Jack's parents brings us more happiness than we could have imagined!! Everyday is just like Christmas morning!! Jonny and I race to see who can see that smile first! :) Usually I win, because he has to go to work!! 
We started laying in the big tub.....graduating from the baby tub!! He is mesmerized by the running water!!
Bath time is getting to be more and more fun!!
Jack has "tummy time" in his room everyday....it usually ends up being "back time" because he always rolls over onto his back....and then he cannot remember how to get back on his tummy!
Jack learned to eat a cracker!! He spit most of it out, but he loved gnawing on it!!
When we take Jack outside, he gets very calm and very quiet!! I think he is really going to like playing outside in the yard his daddy is preparing for him!!
Jack has the cutest toes!! There are not really room for all of them! :) His second toe always sits up on top of the rest like that! Isn't that sweet??
What a cutie sucking his thumb!! It is almost automatic when you give him his little frog lovie!
Jack had discovered his toes and fingers.....He loves to just look and look at them! They make the best toys!!
Jack's smile is my favorite thing to see everyday!!
Jack is been sitting in his highchair lots lately!! He loves to eat food like Mommy and Daddy!
This is Jack as he is looking at his jungle mobile.....and he says, "mamamamama!!" Melts my heart!! :)
We are so thankful to God for our sweet boy...and we are forever grateful to Jessica... She is doing great! We love talking to her and hearing about her life in Texas! During our last phone call she got to hear Jack talk and talk!! He smiles at her picture in our den and in his family album!! We know we are so very, very blessed!!
