Standing on my own.....

These pics are from August. Jake has been pulling himself up to standing for a couple of months now. He's not walking yet, but I know that will come very soon. He can stand for a few seconds without holding onto anything. Garrett started walking at 14 months, so it will be interesting to see when Jake starts because they are so different. Jake has a walker that he uses if he wants to "walk around".

Jake has been 1 year for almost 3 weeks now. Where is the time going? More pics to come soon!

Our Neighborhood Park.....

We FINALLY have our own neighborhood park and here are some pics of it. We used to have to cross Ashlan (a main street by our home) to get to the nearest park. Now we just have to walk around the corner from our house. It only took 6 years to get our own park. We've always had an empty grass area and we figured that it would someday be a park. We were right. It's the best thing in the world, if you have kids, to have a nearby park. It gives us an opportunity to take a walk and let the kids burn off some energy before bedtime. Garrett thinks it's the greatest thing in the world.

The cool thing about this park is the "bark". It's not the usual wood bark, it's made from recycled tires and it's really rubbery and soft. It feels like your bouncing when you walk on it. It's pretty cool. Garrett loves running around and he can't wait until Jake can run with him.

Crazy Hair Jake...

This picture was taken in July. Jake's hair was a little longer, as you can see. We fluffed it up just for fun and it stayed that way. He has really fine hair and it has the ability to stick straight up. We have to get it wet and use hair gel in order for it to stay down.

You can also see his bottom teeth really well here. He has 4 teeth on top and 2 more are coming in on the bottom.

More pictures to come soon... blogger has not been cooperating with me and it's taking a long time to load the pics that I want. I'll try again soon!

Happy 1st Birthday, Jake!

Our baby is 1 year old today (5:35pm). I just can't believe a whole year has gone by. It makes me sad. I took the boys to the mall today with my friend Sherry and her 2 month old and we got Jake's 1st birthday pictures done.

These are the poses I picked out. He was so hard to get to smile. I had to jump around like a crazy person. Garrett was getting a little freaked out at how I had to act. He kept saying "stop that, mommy". It was funny. Jake finally did smile and I think the pictures turned out pretty well. The 4 of us will celebrate tonight by going to dinner and then we will celebrate with family on Saturday at our house. Notice the haircut on Jake? We got it cut yesterday. His first professional haircut. It's funny, because by the time Garrett turned a year old, he already had 4 haircuts. Their heads of hair are so different. More pictures to come soon! Happy Birthday Jakey! We love you!

Grizzlies Game.....

We took the kids to a Grizzlies baseball game in August with my parents. We all had a lot of fun but I couldn't tell you what the score was or who won because we were too busy catering to the kids and eating. It wasn't very crowded where we were sitting so the kids were able to be kids and we didn't have to worry about making anyone mad. I think one Grizzly game a year is good enough with all the kids :)

Bathtime times two......

This is how we give the boys baths now. It's just too much work to give separate baths. So unless they are super dirty, we just put them in together. They both love their bathtime. Jakey LOVES the water which worries me. He loves when the water comes out of the faucet. He gets all excited and happy. Garrett is a little intimidated by Jake sometimes because Jake goes wild in the bathtub. Jake splashes tons of water out of the tub. I'm always soaked when I'm done giving them their baths. I don't remember that happening with Garrett.

Our Evening Walks....

We try to take the boys for an evening walk at least 3 times a week. Now that we have our own neighborhood park (more about that later), the boys look forward to taking a walk in the evenings. We use our "sit & stand" stroller. It comes in handy with an active toddler and a baby who loves to be outside.