Our Family of 3

We had family portraits taken this past week - our first real photo session as a family of 3! Thank you Alex for taking such wonderful pictures of our family!

Christmas in July!

Yes, it is 100+ degrees outside, the middle of the summer and I am posting Christmas pictures! Why you may ask? Because I never got around to posting them right after Christmas since Jack made his early arrival the very next day. It has always been in the back of my mind that I needed to do this. So for the record, here is Christmas 2010! We spent Christmas in Dallas since my due date was just a couple weeks away. Barrett's parents came here to celebrate with us. Christmas with the Walch family always involves lots of baking and cooking, so much of our time is spent in the kitchen. My special spot to cook was sitting down at the kitchen table. At this point in the pregnancy I had high blood pressure, so I was told to stay off my feet as much as possible. Here I am making Oreo Truffles. Yum! Java stayed warm all cuddled up on her pillow with a blanket.

I spent much of my time on the couch here laying down on my left side (trying to help keep my blood pressure down.) I was stayed busy reading and knitting this blanket for Jack, trying to get it finished before he arrived (which unfortunately is still currently unfinished.) After attending the Christmas Eve service at church, we spent Christmas Eve at my Grandparents house. Korbin, Dylan, and Calahan are awaiting the arrival of Santa Clause. Camryn and Chandler And the tradition continued...Santa making his first stop of the night at the front door of Mimie and Papa's house to deliver one gift for each person. I remember right after this picture was taken I nearly deleted it off the camera because I looked so ridiculously huge! But now I just look at it and laugh! That is just what a preggo woman looks like when she is 9 months along. GramPam and PaPa with Tara Jacob and Oliver Mimie and Papa Here we are on Christmas Eve. Little did we know that less than 2 days later, our baby boy would be in our arms. For the last few years our family has done a white elephant style gift exchange on Christmas Eve. The gift I opened was this super soft and cute throw blanket that I became very attached to right away. All was well until someone decided they wanted to take this blanket away from me instead of choosing to open another gift from under the tree. No worries though! My wonderful father-in-law saved the day and somehow worked it out that I was able to steal the blanket back! It has been a great blanket too!
My Dad and I Mom and I

Christmas morning Barrett and I went over to my parents house to exchange gifts. Around 4:30 Christmas morning is when I first started having contractions (although I didn't know they were the real deal at the time.) So throughout all the eating, gift exchanges, celebrating and all I was kind of uncomfortable, but just rested as much as possible. We did take a short walk around the block to see if that would make the contractions stop. It didn't. At one point throughout the day we called my doctor (on Christmas Day, I felt so bad for interrupting his day) just to let him know I thought I might be having contractions. His thought was that it was just false labor since the contractions weren't real strong, so we kept doing on with our day.

We opened more gift once back home. Look at this gift tag. Amazing, Jack could purchase, wrap, and write on a gift tag before even being born.

All ready to open gifts (notice that nice blanket I was already using)

"Jack's Daddy" shirt

I even opened gifts while propped up on my side.

Christmas evening the rest of the family came over for a Christmas dinner and gift exchange.

The next day, December 26th at 1:25pm, our son, Jack Ryan was born - 11 days early!
He was the best Christmas present of all!

Our Week

Over the last couple weeks Jack has been screaming, not because he is upset, just because he can. We have been calling it the "dinosaur" scream. What a fun stage!
Jack's Uncle Alex came to visit us from New York this week. The last time Jack saw him, he was only 6 days old. Jack liked his beard!

Jack and I stopped in at the new In-N-Out Burger (since his NY uncles wanted to try it out while in town.) All I got was a chocolate milkshake (it was late in the afternoon and we already had other big plans for dinner.) For about the last month the line at this place has been out the door and down the street. Not this day though! I walked right in and straight up to the counter to order. I'll have to go back to actually try out a burger next time. Jack too...he looks so hungry in this picture that he is eating his shirt!

For dinner while the NY uncles were in town we went out for Mexican food. Jack and his cousin Griffin got matching outfits to wear that say "My Uncle Rocks." If I could I would move that letter s up to the word uncle so it would say "My Uncles Rock." All of Jack's uncles really do rock!!!

Wide eyed Jack with his other Uncle that is here visiting from NY- Uncle Aaron.

Jack tried out his sippy cup for the 1st time this week. Currently it is just turning out to be a really nice teether. He hasn't quite figured out how to get the water out yet.

Chillin' on the couch together. Jack had fallen asleep while sitting at the table in Daddy's arm, so they moved over to the couch to rest together.

Next veggie: Carrots. Nope, doesn't like these either.

We also tried sweet potatoes. Not much luck with those. We have a picky eater on our hands!

Jack's 1st ride in the big boy shopping cart.

Does Jack look excited or what? He had just been given a taste of something he liked! Bananas!

Yes, he ate them and swallowed some this time! Finally! Only problem, he didn't go potty for days after this. Poor little guy!

One night this past week Jack slept in his crib upstairs all night for the first time. I had the video monitor on all night long and got up to look at it many times to check on him. He slept the whole night, but I don't think I was quite ready for the change yet. So now he is back in our room sleeping. I know it shouldn't be that big of a deal, but I figure, why rush it if I'm not quite ready. We are both sleeping well as is, so we will keep it that way for now.

Often time in the mornings after he has had his first feeding he likes to snuggle up in our bed to take a quick morning nap. It is so precious! I love those early morning snuggles!

He has gotten so good at sitting up to play! He likes feeling like a big boy!

We love this little boy!