Jacob Lately

So I just realized that I have a ton of random pictures of Jacob from the past few months that I've never posted, and I might as well do an update on what he's been up to since it seems he's dramatically changed and grown in the past few months as well. The pictures are all really random but seeing them together is kind of amusing to me since you kind of get a feel of what he's like through the day- or at least these past few months- some of these pics are a little older.

Out of laziness I never moved this swing out of our family room (well I have moved it to the basement by now) but Jacob still liked to play in it and rock like he was a baby. Just playing with a stick outside- always will find something to play with. Likes to wander to our fence to check out the nature I guess... Now sitting at the fence AND playing with sticks trying to walk in daddy's shoes

playing peek-a-boo with his blanket
giving his bear a big hug and pretending to go "ni-ni"

playing at some girls' house and found ALL their necklaces and he just kept adding them on! He loved them so much they let him take a couple home and he still wears them all the time!
it's not girly, its gansta :)

This was a few days before Halloween, and was the first time that I realized Jacob knew how to say prayers. I had never "taught" him how but after seeing us always pray before eating dinner, and seeing everyone pray at church he somehow caught on! After we said our prayer for dinner that night I looked over to see that he was praying with us :) And not only does he fold his arms, but he will bow his head and mutter nonsense words quietly while we pray so that he's praying too, haha. We're trying to at least teach him "amen" but he hasn't quite caught onto that yet, but we're happy to see he's trying!

can't go up the stairs when you're stuck in a chair :)

We got Luke this cowboy hat for Halloween and ever since, Jacob loves to pull it out of our closet and try it on! He thinks it's so funny! Oh and notice he's also wearing one of his necklaces too, haha.
smiling, looking at how cute he is in the mirror

I love this smile of his here- he was having so much fun just letting the hat bounce on his legs while he walked around- such a funny boy :)

After bath time I was trying to get him dressed but all he wanted was to put on his shoes and get "going!" And he picked out the shoes himself :)

Playing out with the leaves and rocks- we've had so many nice fall days.

Not the best picture- but Jacob alwaaaays finds these hairbands someone made for me and he loves to pull them out and wear them. This is how he puts it on by himself.

helping me rake the leaves :)

This is the first time I noticed he started taking care of Elmo- he was feeding him some olives for snack! And if you know how much Jacob loves olives this was actually very sweet of him to share with his little friend :) (Now his new thing is trying to brush Elmo's teeth before we need to brush his own, haha)
trying to stuff them in Elmo's mouth, haha

good job Elmo! mmm

So overall, yes Jacob likes accessories, to try things on, and to try and do things by himself- that seems to cover it all! Also, ever since Thanksgiving when we had family in I feel like his vocabulary has exploded again. I have a hard time even keeping track of all his new words, especially since he's gotten better at imitating and repeating words that we say to him. But it's kind of fun since I feel like we communicate quite well now that we can understand each other.

And Jacob is very good about following commands and helping out when we ask him to clean up, or put something in the trash, or to go play in the other room, or sit down at the table, or turn down the radio, etc. Oh, and I even can get him to empty the clean clothes out of the dryer for me and put them in the basket, haha.

It's also cute how he knows his routines so well, like for bedtime, he tells me what to do- he'll ask for his milk, go up to the bathroom and make his noise signal for brushing teeth (he makes like a swishing sound with his mouth), and when we get to his room he'll get his books and show me which ones he wants me to read. And I love that while we read he'll say several words with me, or make hand motions or noises to go along with the story, it's one of my favorite things! Some of these things he's done for a long time but it still makes me happy that he understands our routines and it makes me hope he'll continue to be a good boy as he gets older.

We just love our little Jacob! :)

Thanksgiving Weekend

Well I don't have too many pictures to show of our Thanksgiving, but I might as well share since we all really did enjoy our long weekend! Luke's parents came in Tuesday and so we took care of all of our grocery shopping then.

On Wednesday Luke still had to work so his parents, Jacob and I went for a drive down south. We first visited their old friends who now live in Colorado Springs, then we hit the outlets on the way back in Castle Rock. We were all able to find a couple christmas gifts down there so that was fun. Later that night we ran a couple errands, went out to dinner at Smashburger, and came home and played several rounds of Dominoes and Rook.

Thanksgiving was nice and relaxing. Even though we had a lot of cooking it made it a lot easier since Luke decided to cook the turkey in his smoker, so that really helped free up the oven. Luke and his dad were very proud of the progress of the turkey throughout the day, and it only took about 7 hours to smoke.

they moved the smoker to the shed to keep the coals warm

all ready! it was very moist and tasty all around

Our dinner feast! We had turkey, a small ham, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, homemade rolls, mixed vegetables, and a fruit jello.
Jacob just starting off, excited to eat! And I guess I didn't get a picture of him eating the turkey, but he did and we were so proud since he usually hates meat!
turtle pumpkin pie and traditional pumpkin pie for dessert

We ate dinner by 3:30 since we didn't have lunch that day so we were able to relax and enjoy the rest of the day. I spent most of the week reading in my spare time (I just finished the second book of the Hunger Game series and I can't wait to read the third- they're really good books!)

So on Friday we didn't have many plans, but we did do a little bit of shopping and did actually end up buying a new desktop computer- which we were planning on getting for ourselves for christmas. So we got that all set up and we were excited about that, didn't take a picture though. We also meant to go bowling together but went a little too late so we missed out. But we went out to eat at this mexican place Luke likes and took it over to McDonalds so Jacob could get some fries. And our burritos were all so spicy we got sundaes after so we could cool our mouths off. And this picture was just too funny of Luke's dad feeding Jacob the ice cream- he was opening his mouth so wide in anticipation, haha! Yum! Anyway, so it was a good weekend to relax and eat good food and enjoy our company. His parents took off Saturday morning back to Virginia, but it was nice to have them for a few days this trip- we all had a good long weekend!

Bye Bye Brielle

These pictures are a little overdue and even outdated now but I've been meaning to post some of these for my friend Jessica of her daughter Brielle and of Jacob. For a couple months I would babysit Brielle once or twice a week and Jacob and I loved having her over! I stopped watching her last month or so since they are getting ready to move to Utah, but they aren't gone yet so we're still hoping to get another play date in before they're gone for good!

Anyway, Jacob and Brielle became really good friends and they were so sweet and cute together. The best part is they are only 5 days apart too, so they played great together and liked a lot of the same things. So here's a bunch of pictures I've taken throughout the time they played together here. Some days there were more pictures than others, but here's some things they liked to do together:
I've mentioned this before but they both loved Elmo, and I'm pretty sure Jacob was the one that got Brielle hooked on it! But it was also a great distraction for Brielle in the beginning when she would cry, all I needed to do was turn on Elmo for a bit and then she was fine!

Jacob was always soo excited when she was over! Here's them just having a quick snack.

Coloring pictures :)

Playing with puzzles together

Just staring and pointing at each other... :)

Playing "night night"

Brielle reading to Jacob

After awhile Jacob started to really like Brielle and he initiated his first hug! He kept giving her hugs and I still think it was the sweetest thing ever! Brielle seems a little surprised at first but she was happy too and gave him hugs back- too cute!

They loved eating their granola bars at the bottom of the stairs

I thought it was funny how Jacob kept scooting closer to her, haha

They also liked playing in Jacob's crib and running around..

And playing more "night night"

just sitting down to read :)

Brielle also loooved Jacob's truck and was usually pushing it around- but here they were trying to push it together with all their animals inside! Haha Brielle loved all those stuffed animals too :)

They also liked exploring outside together

I love this picture of Jacob throwing the ball- he looks like a pro! And they were both being silly and giggling when I was trying to get a picture of them together :)

I'm so glad Jacob was able to have so many "playdates" with her and make such a good little friend!

We're going to miss you Brielle!