Pants? Who needs pants?

These are old pictures now, that somehow escaped being posted. Jack really likes to run around without pants on (can you blame him? He looks pretty comfortable) and he especially likes to wear his rain boots. He refers to this as his "Obaka" shirt. It's one of his faves.

Seaside

We enjoyed a fabulous three day weekend in Seaside with our friends Steve and Lisa (Hi Steve!). The weather was unbelievable- sunny, warm, people were swimming and sunbathing even. It was crazy. Jack and Brent have been talking a lot about the beach lately in preparation for Jack's upcoming birthday trip to the aquarium, so Jack had all kinds of new words and curiosities about the beach. He really liked the seaweed and the feeling of sand between his toes. Seaside has a carousel, which was a big hit for him as well. 

As you can see from my picture, the belly continues its expansion. Eight weeks to go!

Visit with Baby Audrey

Jack got to meet his second cousin(?) Audrey when she visited with her mom, Lauren, recently. We all fell in love with Audrey's squishy baby girl sweetness while they were here. Jack and Audrey had fun at the pool, the indoor trampoline gym, and at a New Year's party. Woohoo.

Happy New Year! And Lauren and I actually stayed up past midnight. My first time in two years...
Isn't she the most precious, adorable little girl ever? Look at those cheeks! Those eyes! I am biased, of course.

Christmas Morning

Scoping out the stocking...

Yeah! A new toothbrush and a fire truck book!

Carrying on the Deinema family tradition of giving oranges instead of candy. He's still too young to know how lame that is...

Homemade cinnamon rolls with Uncle 'Ick and Mishaun- what a treat!

I'll just cheat here and give you a link to Doug's photos from Christmas Eve dinner... enjoy!

Safety First

Jack is all about being safe and wearing his bike helmet. And hey, you never know when you might take a tumble off the potty and land on your head..

Happy Thanksgiving

Yes, these are old now, I know, but I figured I needed to take care of the Thanksgiving post before Christmas comes along. We had a really nice Thanksgiving dinner at our house with Brent's family and my family. Jack made a great show of pretending to eat  his dinner. Once dessert was served, he wasn't messing around anymore.  He scarfed down two pieces of pie and asked for more. He gets this sweet tooth from me.

(not pictured: me, the photographer and Brent's grandma, hiding)
We had to make one last trip to the apple orchards to satisfy my pregnancy craving for crisp apples. This time at least it wasn't raining. 

An Empty Spot in the Corner

We finally made the painful decision to put our dog, Cheeko, to sleep this week. Even though I had known for a few months that he had heart failure and was going to die, this has still been unbelievably hard. All of a sudden there are no toenails tapping their way down the hallway, no wet nose to meet me at the door, and empty spots all around the house where the beds and food dishes once were. I'm struggling to understand why the loss of a yappy little ankle biter is hitting me so hard, especially in a world where people endure far greater hardships. Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones?

I have some really cute pictures of Jack playing in the snow that I'll upload soon. I'm just not feeling it today...