Boo at the Zoo

Today we went with Clint & Kara's family to the zoo for some trick-or-treating. Jake was a hit! Everyone just loved his cute little costume. Here's a cute picture of him with the penguins at the zoo... He's the one on the right:)

Here he is with another penguin

Our little family with the elephants

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday was yesterday and was a wonderful day. Jacob must have been so excited and anxious that he decided to wake up at 6:15 am (not his usual 7:30-8). He was cooing and all happy so I let him lay there until after 7, so I could get in my birthday sleep.

To make things less stressful on Wesley with birthday gifts and such, I told him he can take me to whatever musical or play is in town. I picked the play "You Can't Take it With You". In the morning though, the doorbell rang with a dozen roses waiting for me, something definitely not expected but much appreciated. They were beautiful, here's some proof:

I dropped Jake off with my sister-in-law Kara so I could go get a manicure and much needed pedicure. I'd been wanting one since before I had Jake and boy was it worth it, so relaxing!

I had a flat bread salad from Quiznos for lunch which was so delicious.

That night we had a couple at church watch Jacob so we could go to the play. He's been really clingy to us so we hoped he'd do well. He cried when we dropped him off but they said he calmed down after a bit. He took a liking to their daughter so as long as she was around, he was fine. Hopefully he'll grow out of that, I guess we need to get our anti-social selves out and about with other people.

Anyway, we ended up having front row seats at this play which was hilarious. I would see it again if I could, I loved it. I loved getting all dressed up (in my new birthday pants). When we got home, we had som grape sparkling cider. It was such a fun day!

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

When your paying so close attention to your child's development, a year seems like such long time away to celebrate a birthday so we opted to split it in two and make Jacob's 1/2 birthday something to celebrate. I found a cute idea in Parents Magazine about this so I tried it myself by baking a chocolate banana cake (praises to Mom Vick for the recipe) and cutting it 1/2. We took it to my brother and sister-in-laws house and ate it up for him since he couldn't eat any of it, poor thing. I sure enjoyed his portion though!

A few random things

Yes, random it is. Wesley was working in his office and looked out his window to find a fox in our backyard in the middle of the day. We were shocked to see it just chillin' in our yard, enjoying the sunshine and our soft grass. I mentioned it to a lady at church and she said, "yeah, that's why it's called Fox Hollow." Well there you have it. I guess to see a fox is pretty common around here. It was quite a sight!

Wesley looking all sorts of handsome in his cowboy hat while at work. It's such a long commute, oh wait, he works from home! This is my typical self, barging in on him while he's hard at work. Honest though, I only go in when it's important (isn't everything in a woman's life important?)

GO BRONCOS! Even in his sleep he's cheering for his daddy's favorite team...or maybe he just sleeps like that normally:)

A Trip to Texas

Well, I hate being alone when Wesley is out of town so this last time he was gone, Jacob and I decided to go to Texas to visit my sister Lea and help her get ready for the new baby. We were there from a Monday to a Friday and had a great time! Jacob was unbelievably good on the plane both to and from and we were lucky enough, although both full flights, to have an empty middle seat going there and an entire row to ourselves coming back... how lucky were we? That made it 12 airplanes he's been on so far! It was so nice to visit with Lea in person instead of the daily phone calls we make to one another. Abby and Mason got along so well with Jake and were so good with him. Always making sure he had his pacifier, blanket or toy nearby, he was definitely loved during this trip. Although I wish I had more pictures to show for it, Lea took most of the pictures on her camera, but I do have a cute picture of some of the cousins. Brooke (Jeremy's wife) was able to come visit for an afternoon which was so much fun, and all the kids were able to play - minus Jake, he's just too little so he just gossiped with us moms which he must have enjoyed.
This picture is of Ashlyn, Brenden and Caden (Brooke's kids), Mason and Abby (lea's kids), and Jake who is being held by Mason. It was so much fun that day!
Other activities included shopping (of course), a trip to the Blue Bell ice cream Factory where Mason declared that he wants to be one of those workers when he grows up, we went to a Texas BBQ which was really yummy, and we spent a day in Houston.

Can you fit your fist in your mouth? That's talent!

While at dinner the other day, we looked over at Jacob who was sucking on his fingers real good, and he managed to get his fist in there as well. I'm so proud!

Colorado Rockies Baseball Game

I've been so used to Oakland's baseball games and the cold weather, that I was pleasantly surprised by how warm this game was, not even a jacket needed.

I want to say that Jacob enjoyed his first baseball game, but let me explain this little guy. He is so sensitive to noises. If we laugh loud, sneeze, cough while holding hime, etc he will start crying. I've had a cold lately and I can't just cough so I have to start coughing soft and work my way to the actual cough... poor thing he gets so scared by noises (just like his mama). This game wasn't any different. The first time the crowd cheered or clapped, he would bust out in a full force cry; red face and real tears though, I felt so bad. He continued to cry when people got loud for the next hour and then he seemed to get used to it and could cope. He's so used to everything quiet here that when things are a little noisy, he can't deal. So sensitive( like his mama). That's right, he gets scared by noises, is sensitive and a little dramatic... just like his mama. The rest of him is all Wesley though (thank goodness)! Jake, our little professional


Hanging with daddy

The view from our seats. I hate putting pictures of myself up, but I figure, hey, I just had a baby and surgery in the last 5 months so give me a break, I'm working on it. (This is more of me telling this to myself so as to quit giving myself a hard time for not being teeny tiny like everyone else around here who've just had babies.)

A few pics of my cutie!

We were playing a game at the table and put Jake on blanket next to it. Someone told Maddie (his cousin) to guard him or something like that and next thing you know she had cones surrounding him. Well, he was definitely pretty guarded!

Jacob loves playing in his exersaucer. Here he is smiling at grandma and it even looks like he's waving at her. He's such a happy baby!

Jacob's first swing experience. He actually really enjoyed it. Cousin Maddie had fun pushing him on the swing.

New Car

We had been thinking about getting a new car that has 4WD for the winter because my Mits. Montero was only 2WD and we didn't want to buy something new so we got a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It's a lot nicer than my car and has a lot of fun features in it. It's a fun toy!

Labor Day Weekend

We spent Labor Day weekend at the YMCA of the Rockies with Wesley's brother and family and we had a great time! There were so many activities to do the entire time, it was hard to get bored. We rollerskated, (they let me take in the stroller so Jake could join the group) we did archery, swam, hiked, and did rock wall climbing.















This was the beginning of the hike, Jacob was so excited to go, he was wiggling a bunch.




















This is where the hike led to, a pretty waterfall. Here's our little family.















Jacob got exhausted from all the walking and decided to take a nap




















Wesley and I climbing the rock wall. Wesley did great on the harder levels.




















I might look like I'm doing pretty well, BUT don't be fooled. Each color is a different level. Green is the easiest, then yellow, blue and red. I stuck to the green and yellow. Actually, I didn't like the yellow so I stuck to the green the majority of the time. That's just my level... EASY, that is.















You can't see the pretty view that well but it was gorgeous up there. Jacob is there sleeping in the jogging stroller.















Here he is again asleep... It was so chilly that I put Wesley's fleece on him.




















Jacob and I watching everyone do mini golf. They had so many fun things to do there!
























This is David (Jacob's cousin) hanging out with Jake. He loves David.

HAIRSPRAY

This last Friday, Wesley, Jacob and I went to see Hairspray the movie, which I've been dying to see for quite some time now and it was AMAZING! I just loved it! It was so funny, but since I was holding Jacob and he was sleeping, I couldn't laugh out loud as much as I wanted to. Luckily Wesley took him from me and I was able to vocalize my enjoyment. So many times during the movie, I wanted to just bust out in song and dance along with the cast. (Boy would that have been a sight). If you haven't seen it, it's worth going to (unless you aren't in to musicals and things like that). I want to go see it again!

The Cutest Thing You've Ever Seen!

Lita and I had just given Jacob a bath and boy was he ready to sleep. Lita had gotten him this cute little blanket that has the stuffed animal attached to it. Lita was holding him and she put the blanket on him, he put it in his arms and held on. He just sat like that and fell asleep, still holding tight to his new blanket. It was so adorable!

Jacob's first swim!

We took Jacob for a little time in the pool at Lita's house. There happened to be one small area that was shaded so we stuck to that spot so we wouldn't have to worry about sunblock and the sun being in his eyes. He did pretty good, I didn't really put him in more than up to his knees but he seemed to enjoy it. After about 5 minutes it got boring for us, so Jacob and I got out and dried off while watching the others swim. I'd say his first time at the pool was a success.


Jacob with Lita, getting ready for the pool.


Jacob and Mommy enjoying the cool water.



He was content the whole time, just like this face is showing.

He just loves to stand up, I think he feels like such a man. He always gives this look like he's so proud he can be standing like big boys do.

Jacob with Lita drying off. Life doesn't get much better than this.

Our Trip to California

Jacob and I were able to go and spend the week at Mom and Dad Vick's house this week and we had a great time! The flights were not as easy this time; a combination of me flying without Wesley's help, and the fact that Jacob is no longer a newborn and doesn't sleep the entire flight anymore. We had a good streak though up until now, 8 airplanes and hardly a peep out of him. But now he's 4 months and awake more. He was a lot more vocal this time but not nearly as bad as I've heard other babies on planes. There's always that glare that passengers give you as they choose their seat and find they will be next to me. These are always the people without children, all the rest are very sympathetic and offer help when needed. For the others, I've decided 2 things: If you are flying Southwest, you can choose your seat so don't seat near me, and second, if you aren't smart enough to bring your own earplugs for the flight, then you'll have to put up with my crying child.

When we first started flying with Jacob, I felt so badly if he made a sound but there's not much you can do on a flight to calm your baby so I've learned to just do what I can and not care about whether or not I'm bothering the people next to me.

Moving on to our visit, I've been picture crazy and find everything Jacob does is adorable (of course) and so here are my favorite pics of this week.

Aunt Felecia and Jacob

We went to the mall one day and I forgot the stroller but they had some there we could use. It's always fun to shop!

We tried on a few potential halloween costumes, this being my favorite but it was too big. Maybe he'll be a turtle next year instead. Lita (mom Vick) got him a penguin costume for Halloween which will be perfect for his size.

Abuelita and Jacob hanging out

Daddy and Jacob

A little bit of snuggling. We were happy when we found out that Wesley would have business in California, that way we wouldn't have to be apart for that long. Jacob was happy to see him.

Aunt Amanda and Jacob

Today we bought a croquet set and tried it out in our backyard... as it was beginning to rain. Needless to say we made it a quick game. Jacob loved being attached to Wesley, he's definitely a daddy's boy. We thought we'd buy something fun to use in our backyard and we love it!