Best of Friends

We are so blessed to know two couples that have babies the same age as Jack. Hailey just turned 1 last week! Jack had a great time playing with her toys at her party! The phone he is playing with is actually the gift we bought for her. He definitely liked it! Maybe we should have bought one for him too!


Here is the birthday girl! Such a cutie!! Hailey is almost exactly one month older than Jack.

And this is Daniel. He's only 5 days older than Jack. His mom, Heather, was actually in the hospital room right across the hall from me the day I was admitted for high blood pressure. Daniel was born on Monday, I was admitted on Tuesday, Heather went home with Daniel on Wednesday, and Jack was born on Friday! We're going to have a great story to tell the boys once they get older! Daniel is adorable!


Here he is standing up on his very own! He's got great balance! He'll be walking any day now.


Three friends ... "playing" together!




I'm so thrilled that our kids can grow up together! I hope they become friends forever ... as well as all of the new ones we will be adding to the group over time!

Hanging Out at Home

I can't believe it, but today Jack is 11 months old! Only one month until the big first birthday!!

Here are just some fun pictures of Jack hanging out at home!

"Look ... I'm wearing Daddy's shoe!!"


"What's going on out there?"


We have this lion named Lars. Jack just recently took great interest in him. He LOVES Lars! He laughs at him and talks to him, and tackles him, and carries him around!! It's the sweetest thing. Luckily ... he's not so attached that he panics when we don't take Lars out with us. I hope it stays that way! Here is Lars from the back!




Giving Lars kisses ...

Jack also loves to play the piano. At first you'd have to sit with him on the bench and he would pound away! Now he's tall enough that he'll pull himself up to it and play it on his tiptoes! It cracks us up! Maybe he'll follow in Mommy's footsteps??


Such a happy boy!

The Happy Memorial Day Cookout

For Memorial Day, our friends (The Happys) had a cookout! There were lots of peoples and lots of kiddos! A great time was had by all!

Jack loved this rocking chair that was just his size!



Hangin' out with Aunt Shannon! She really knows how to make him laugh!

Outside, Tom and Heather had an inflatable pool, a baby pool, and a slip-n-slide. We weren't prepared for Jack to get in the water, but we let him walk through the spray on the slip-n-slide. We didn't realize that if someone steps on the other end, the spray goes way up high! So we both got very unexpectedly soaked!! Here we are before the soaking ...


And here we are after!!


Walkin' around ... checking things out ...


More fun in the slip-n-slide. Jack thought it was fun for me to swing him through the spray!!


It was a great cookout! It rained for a few minutes, but not enough to ruin the fun! We're so thankful for great friends!

Sleepy Boy

Jack is so adorable when he's sleeping. (But who am I kidding? He's adorable all of the time!!)
He's just recently started wanting be to "tucked" in with a blanket. He pulls his arms underneath him, pulls his legs up too, and sticks his bottom in the air! So sweet!

New Teeth

Jack's top teeth are finally coming in. He's been drooling forever now it seems! The photos below are from when he had three teeth. I was trying to get him to smile so you could see the top one. That's why the pictures are so ... ummmm ... artsy! :-)

Since I'm so slow about posting, he actually has the fourth one coming in now! Which is a relief to me! I wasn't loving the snaggle-toothed look!

Mother's Day 2009

I had a great first "official" Mother's Day this year! I hate that we didn't get more pictures of it. I realized the next day that we didn't even get a picture of me and Jack together. :-( Oh well!

On the Saturday night before Mother's Day, we went to Ma and Pa's house for dinner. It was a great time of fellowship with the family!

Pa and Jack


Jack playing the laundry basket game that originated at Ma's house



This picture was part of my Mother's Day gift. Jason took one of Jack's 9-month pictures and helped Jack finger-paint a mat and then framed it! Isn't it beautiful?? It was such a surprise! So special! The second part of my gift was MarioKart for the Wii!! LOVE it!


For Mother's Day with the McCleskey side of the family, we went and had family portraits taken! We were worried it would be stressful with four kids ages 5 and under, but it went super smoothly and the pictures came out really good. The kids were all in good moods and did great sitting still! We couldn't have asked for a better experience. Here are just a few!

Big Boy Chair

We decided Jack needed a chair that was his size to sit in. So we bought him one of those folding camp chairs. Jason and I both have big folding chairs that we take to the church league softball games and other outside events. Now Jack has a big boy chair just for him! He really seems to like it although it's hard for him to sit there for long because he's such a wiggle worm. He's a mover and shaker!! But Jason got some great pictures of Jack hanging out in his chair!