Family Pictures

My friend, Jamie Smith, took our photos.  It was last minute but they turned out great!  She did such a good job.  We ended up doing them at the Charlottesville Downtown Mall which will be a great memorable location.  

In the leafy treetops

With the forest that surrounds our house, you can imagine the pile of leaves that appears in the fall.  I fought my urges and let the kids play in the tick ridden leaves.    

Greenfield Farm

One of our favorite activities we look forward to in the fall is with the Virginia Law Families at Greenfield Farm.  It's simple and yet so fun.  Animals to see, big dump trucks, a corn maze, pumpkins, hay rides and hay bale playgrounds.  Jack has been asking to go back to the farm for weeks.

So brave.

This is supposed to be a thumbs up. Liam and Jack.

Our attempt to get them all to look failed.  Kai, Liam, Jack, Carson, Charlotte.

The slide that last year Logan unexpectedly sent him down which resulted in a big crash and tears.   This year he loved it.

Wagon ride.

Liam, Jack, Everet.

Logan was there for part of it and then left for a football tourney.  That's when the trusty Ergo goes on.  

Charmellow

Charlotte will soon be ten months.  We are loving watching her grow and her personality develop.  She is so unlike and like Jack all at the same time.  Here is a bit about her:  

She loves to snuggle and be held.  I am proud to say she is still a bit of mama's girl, however daddy is a close second.

At her nine month check up she was 25% height, 50% weight and 75% head. So a little baby with a big noggin.

She crawled for the first time with mommy on November 7th.  She has been crawling for about a month and is getting pretty fast.  She is sneaky and suddenly will be at your feet and you have to scramble to not step on her even if that means sacrificing your face.  She is pulling to stand and slowly starting to cruise along furniture.

She is a content baby.  Easily entertained and will just sit in one spot for a long time.

She loves books and babies. Charlotte will just sit on the floor and read her books.

She adores Jack.  I love it when they play and squeal together.  She is pretty tough.  Jack will steam roller her and when I expect her to cry but she just laughs.

I lover her jabbering.  There have been a few instances I thought she said "dad" at Logan and "ba" when she picked up a ball but hasn't done it since.  Could have been a fluke.

Whenever she eats, she always drops some food (usually cheerios) on the floor on purpose.  Then when I get her down from the table she immediately heads to her "floor cheerios" for her second meal.

We are almost to a year and enjoying her so much.

Funky Dog

Here is what Jack has been up to lately:

I am going to brave and say he is potty trained.  We had a few set backs here and there with traveling and sickness, but he is pretty much there.  We took our time and did it slow.  I did it later than planned but having Charlotte and all our moving threw us for a curve.  He is pretty easy to bribe with stickers and marshmallow and a few toys and that's what worked for us.

I feel his thoughts are becoming quite complex these days.  He is really into counting and what sounds letters make.  He asks me all day long what letter different things start with.  His latest thing is counting.  He loves to count anything and everything.

He still LOVES cars/transportation.  I don't see this changing for a long time.  I have been able to slowly integrate other toys in his play such as animals, but there must always be cars involved (example: cars and blocks, cars and animals, cars and play food).  The other day we rode the bus just for fun around town.

Jack says "yesternight" a lot.  Example, "I went to the store yesternight."

He has suddenly started putting "ka" in front of some words.  Kamote instead of remote, katato instead of potato, katar instead of guitar.  It's mostly funny and he will occasionally say it correctly so I am not too ka-worried.

The other day Jack was sick with a cold.  He asked me why he was sick.  It's amazing how difficult children's questions can be to answer when they know so little.  I did my best and this is what he repeated back to me: "Stingy Bees and ants got in my mouth and now I need to sleep."  Sounds about right.

A few days after a family home evening on families, Jack told me that Grandma Alice and Grandpa Bruce's tractor were in his family.

Jack uses the phrase "little boys" a lot.  It partly refers to himself.  He will say things like, "Sister has to be quiet because little boys are sleeping".  

He can never remember the word for Liahona even though we read the story every night.  He usually calls it the Hialona.  The other night he called it Lemo.

He still loves fruits and veggies.  The other day I kept track and over the course of three days he ate six apples,  3 bananas, 3 bowls of grapes and strawberries, and a giant pile of broccoli.  He is a very expensive eater.

I hope I haven't already posted these, but calls any blanket spread out on the floor a picnic, usually greets Charlotte in the morning with "Oh hi sweeties!", and when I tell him it's time to put toys away he usually says "just two more weeks!"

Oh and the reason for my post title is Jack gets really mad if you call him a funky dog.  Random but true.

  

This boy couldn't be happier right now.

I love to see Jack's creative play.  Here are some bears eating blocks of berries for lunch.

Jack asked me for a bowl of grapes.  Thinking I was being funny I brought him this.  Didn't even phase him.  Now when ever he gets a bowl, he picks this one.  I regret I started it.

This picture doesn't do it justice but after getting him dressed I couldn't help but notice he looked like old Biff from Back to the Future. I called him Biff all day long and as you can tell he didn't like it.

Jack fixing his bike.

In an effort to get him to eat meat, we brought out T-Rex to help us out.  He chose to eat it out of the dinosaurs mouth.  Whatever works.