Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

It was a full weekend! My birthday is actually today but we invited family and friends over on Saturday to help celebrate. Thanks so much for the cool gifts, guys!! I'm going to get totally pampered with my ice cream baths and salts from Amy, body lotion from Molly and my gift certificate to get a pedicure from Windy. :) And Jennifer got me a very cool game called In A Pickle - I can't wait to break it out and play.

And since Logan came over we also had a Pre-Halloween Costume Show Off. Isn't Logan adorable?

Jack made an appearance later that night, after his nap, to show off his costume, too. Can you guess what he is? (he, he - a lobster!)

Then, on Sunday, we headed over to the Odell's to celebrate Eric's first birthday. Poor guy had a nasty cold so he wasn't quite himself. This picture captured his mood pretty well:

Rebekah made delicious cakes for everyone: a small cake in the shape of a number 1 for Eric and a three layered cake for the rest of us. Oh, and all of Eric's little friends got cupcakes with their names on them. Along with that was the some great BBQ with all the fixings, cookies and brownies. Admittedly, we stuffed ourselves that night. Anyway, Eric had to be enticed a bit to eat his cake, but it didn't take much. Once he stuck his fingers in it, it was obvious by the look on his face that he loved the way it felt. Too funny! But to top it all off for him, he got an allergic reaction to the frosting and ended up getting a light rash everywhere the frosting touched his skin. Not the best day for Eric. :( The rash didn't last long though, so then it was on to opening presents.

See Eric in the background? And Jack right there with Rebekah opening presents? It made everyone laugh. Eric was too distracted by the first couple of presents he opened, so Jack took over and helped open the rest. He played all night with Eric's big boy toys. After that night, Pete and I decided we have inadequate toys for our kid. Off to the toy store we go! Again! Man, I'm glad Christmas is just around the corner.

Jack VS The Wall

The Wall: 1
Jack : 0

Will The Real Jack Crossley Please Stand Up?

5:13 AM: I go in to Jack's room cuz he's telling me he's hungry and I find him standing up, trying to get out of the crib! Apparently I just wasn't fast enough so he was gonna come get me. It scared the crap out of me. Not to mention that he's been 7 months old for less than a day! So before his morning nap I went ahead and lowered his bed two more notches thinking that would do the trick.

Obviously it didn't do the trick.

It's Autumntime, It's Autumntime

It's autumntime, it's autumntime. The leaves are falling down.

It's autumntime, it's autumntime. It's all around the town.

It's autumntime, it's autumntime. There's yellow, red and brown.

It's autumntime, it's autumntime. Bright colors can be found.

We were all suffering from a nasty cold but knew we had to make it outside yesterday. It was gorgeous! So we ended up going to a local farm that sells pumpkins and has a corn maze. It was small compared to the ones I have gone to in Utah, but it was perfect for the amount of energy we had.

We went into the corn maze first and Jack was thrilled about it (as you can tell). The farm did a really good job with the maze. They had posted Halloween trivia questions at each of the crossroads with two possible answers. Depending on which answer you chose, you went to go right or left. This was our favorite question:

Of course we chose to go right and this is what we found:

I think everyone had "Jack"aphobia that day. :) We were in and out of there in a only a few minutes and then it was on to pumpkin picking. As we headed over, Jack spied some beautiful sunflowers so we stopped to take a closer look. That is when Jack finally came alive.

The sunflowers led us right to the pumpkin fields and there was plenty to choose from. There were big, round, small, oblong, orange, green and white ones. But my favorite ones were the gourds! They were funky and colorful and all different shapes and sizes. I sort of went crazy at first, filling our wheel barrow within minutes, but then had to do a reality check later on. That said, we still walked out with $23 worth of pumpkins (he, he).

Look at that landscape! Pete was such a trooper, following me around with that wheel barrow as I climbed over everything going, "Ooo! Look at this one!" and "Ooo! Look at that one!"

It was definitely worth the trip to breathe in that crisp, fresh air and enjoy the scenery. Now all we have to do is carve our pumpkins! Maybe Jack will like that a little better. I mean, what little boy doesn't like to get messy?

Our Cuddle Buddy

Jack and I have been sick this week and the house seems more empty than usual. This is the first time in 5 years that Roz hasn't been around to be my cuddle buddy. I could just now imagine myself putting Jack to bed for a nap and going to find Roz lying on the floor somewhere. I would crawl up behind her, put my arms around her and take a deep breath into her fur. I always loved the way she smelled. Then I would stay like that, listening to her breathe, until I fell asleep, too. Man, I miss that dog.

Father and Son

I've just been going through our photos and it hit me once again that fathers with their babies are so darn sweet! This first picture was taken when Jack was 8 days old (we were still exhausted, as seen on Pete's face) and the second picture was taken on our friends' boat this summer. Jack looks adorable, but he was pretty uncomfortable with that huge life vest on.

You hear moms say it all the time, but I'm gonna say it again: "my baby's gotten so big!"

It's A Miracle!

I am very happy to announce that Jack drank from a sippy cup today! For those of you who are thinking,"big whoop," allow me to explain:

Jack has refused a bottle and any sort of cup for the longest time, making it pretty difficult for Pete and I to go anywhere for more than 3 hours at any given time. Usually, we resort to feeding him at Pete's parents house around 8p and then rushing to dinner and grabbing a late movie. Even then, we end up coming home to him crying. But I now see a light at the end of this dark, dark tunnel! Keep it up, buddy!

Ode To The Coupon

If I could, I'd write a poem titled, "Ode To The Coupon," wherein I would spout my love and devotion to the coupons that arrive on my doorstep every Sunday morning. Pete and I just went to Albertson's and saved ourselves $109 (plus change) using said coupons. I was controlling myself from literally jumping for joy in front of the cashier. But that poor, poor cashier! Albertson's has changed the way they check out and this poor lady had to take a calculator more than a few time to figure out what she should type into her computer. Ultimately, we were checking out for more than 10 inutes. I don't care, though - we saved a huge load of money and I have officially started my food storage. Now all we have to do is make room for it... somewhere...

The One Hit Wonder

I've dubbed Jack "The One Hit Wonder". The reason is this: he was able to feed himself a cheerio - but just the one time. And he was able to go from his belly to sitting straight up - but just the one time. And last night, he slept from 9:00p to 6:00a - but I have a feeling it'll be just the one time.