Sprinkles....
...a hand slap into the cake, and a quick taste test for Jack (notice the icing on his hand and lips!!!)
We sang happy birthday to Jesus then dug in to enjoy the cake! I think he liked it!
Reaching for the red balls....
....but look at that sweet face!
Pulling the beads off the tree...
....and trying to eat them!
Our tree may not look perfect to others, but to me (and apparently Jack) it looks just right for this season of life!
We met at the lodge on Sunday after church.
It was all nicely decorated for Christmas! As we were getting our family picture taken, these 2 creatures decided to join in the picture!
Our happy boy!
Kisses from mom
Yummy food from Dad
Barrett took Jack into the tree house.
Great Wolf Lodge has an indoor water park. So even though it was cold outside, we could have fun at a water park inside!
Barrett loved the water slides!
What a fun party!
The first trip to see Santa was at the mall with our bible study class playgroup. Jack was not very excited to sit on Santa's lap but I still LOVE this picture!!!
Next Jack saw Santa while at Bass Pro Shops. We just happened to be there and they give away free pictures with Santa, so I figured, why not try to get a non screaming picture with Santa. It worked! I don't think Jack even realized he was being held by someone else.
3rd stop was a visit with Santa while at the Great Wolf Lodge (post on that visit is up next.) This time around, not so happy again!
It is the one with the plastic "little people" for kids to play with.
He spent some time checking it out, exploring all the pieces, hearing the music, watching the star light up, and of course getting a quick taste of many of the figurines.
Throughout the busy Christmas season it is important that we share with Jack what Christmas is all about - the birth our our Savior, JESUS! 
I saw this idea online and thought it would be a fun tradition to start. What I did was wrap 25 books in Christmas wrapping paper. Most of them are children's Christmas books that I already had. 
Each night Jack unwraps (with assistance) a book to read before bed.
It is so sweet to watch Jack turn the pages of his board books. He really seems to try to turn the pages and loves looking at the pictures. 
Jack had his first experience taking a trip to the Christmas tree farm we go to each year (otherwise known as Lowe's) to pick out the perfect tree for our house this year.
It was the coldest I remember it ever being while picking out a Christmas tree. It was perfect though. Jack was able to wear his Santa coat and snuggle up in his warm Christmas blanket!
The boys with our tree!
I think he was happy that we finally decided on a tree so he could get out of the cold!
It is always so exciting to get home and see that the tree is still on the roof of our car! Barrett does a great job making sure it is tied on well each year.
Jack helped unload all the lights and ornaments from the boxes.
He loved checking out the lights (not sure why this picture is posting sideways. Sorry!)
Putting lights on the tree
The star
Every year we put glass balls on our tree. We knew that wouldn't work out too well this year with the little guy crawling around. So after Christmas last year we bought some plastic balls on clearance to replace our glass balls. Good thing we did! 
We have a few balls without hooks on them that we keep off the tree for Jack to play with, hoping that they will distract him from trying to take the others off the tree. For the most part it has gone fairly well. He still is interested in some of the ornaments on the tree, but overall it hasn't been too big of an issue. I love Christmas time!!!!
Our little guy is still as cute as can be with his big blue eyes and head full of brown hair. I had been spiking his hair up after bath time so he could have a cute little curl on the top of his head, but just in the last couple weeks his hair has gotten too long and will no longer keep its little curl.
It is becoming more and more of a challenge taking these weekly/monthly pictures of Jack. All he wants to do is play with the sign or just crawl away. Silly boy!
Jack sleeps in his crib at night normally 9 or 10 hours straight. It used to be where we could just lay him down and he would just roll over and put himself to sleep. But not this month. He has decided that he now wants to sit up or stand up in his bed once it is time to go to sleep. Often now I rock him to sleep then lay him down. I enjoy that extra time to snuggle. He normally takes 2 naps a day - morning and afternoon - 1 - 2 1/2 hours each.
Jack is wearing mostly size 9 and 12 month clothes and is in size 3 diapers.
Jack is crawling all over the place and pulling up on everything. While we get ready in the morning he crawls around in our bathroom. Here he had crawled into our closet, onto Java's bed, and was enjoying a view out the window.
Here you can still see that curl on the top of his head.
Jack will put anything and everything into his mouth. We cannot keep the floor clean enough. We look away for one second and he finds something new to munch on. My, oh my! He keeps us busy!
Love that big smile!
Jack cruises (walks while holding on) along the furniture. He has gotten quite fast too! It won't be long and he is going to let go and be walking on his own.
He found his cabinet full of the plastic containers to play with.
Here Jack is enjoying his first burger from Wendy's. Jack LOVES eating these days. He eats mostly whatever we are eating cut up into little pieces. He still has some baby food too. I nurse him or give him a pumped bottle about every 4 hours. Since eating so much table food he is not drinking as much milk.
We are so in love with this little man!
