Jack's 1st Birthday

Well, it's almost the end of January and I was still talking about Christmas in my last post... so time to update-!

The kids have been keeping busy with school and basketball. Almost every weekend one or both of them has a tournament.

It's been fun to watch them play. I've gone to a few of the tournaments, but usually it's Jon taking the kids. He's had weekends off for awhile now, which has been nice. Unfortunately they're talking about having him work seven days a week again, so the family time may be coming to an end soon :(.

One big accomplishment is that Leila is now fully potty-trained. She's even graduated from the little potty to a regular toilet, so that makes things easier. Saves on diaper $, too! Jonathan gets to be the one buying diapers in this family, now.

Yesterday Jack and Jonathan came over for an early celebration of Jack's first birthday, which falls on January 31st.

What a year it has been! It's hard to remember the newborn Jack, with the big bruise on his head who slept all the time. Now he's always on the go- "talking" and crawling everywhere.

Besides "dada" and "mama" he says "tickle tickle tickle" and even said "what's this" while pointing to a picture in a book.

He's taken his first steps but is still more comfortable with crawling. Yesterday I held his hands and was surprised at how much stamina he had for walking around the house. He's definitely gotten stronger in the legs! I was even able to hold him by one hand and he could walk around the house like that.

He decided a few weeks ago that he's no longer interested in drinking bottles. He only drinks from cups now. He still eats baby food but will eat regular table food if you cut it up into small enough pieces for him. He has a couple of teeth and lots of drool, so he gets the job done :).

He got his first big-boy haircut about a week ago.

Well, that's all for now... happy birthday, Jack. We sure have fun with you.

A Christmas Report

Whew-! Another Christmas has come and gone... Kids gleefully chowing on candy in the morning, mom and dad trying to keep order while walking knee-deep in wrapping paper, all of us catching the flu from one another... good times.

So many good pictures to share! To stay somewhat in chronological order, I'll post this pic of my brother Bill next... Bill and Scott came to visit us a few days before Christmas.

They recently got back to the U.S. from South Korea, where Bill taught for a semester. They had lots of interesting stories to tell-! Emma was inspired enough to get out the packaging tape and dazzle Bill by making musical instruments out of found objects. Oh, the beautiful sounds that ensued... you can imagine.

Three special guests on Christmas day were my stepson David, his little brother Logan, and our grandson Jack. This was the first time David and Logan stayed overnight with us on Christmas Eve, and it was fun having them over.

Our big gift to the kids was a PlayStation 3, which luckily Logan is experienced with. He helped set it up and showed us tricks to running it.

The kids had some good old-fashioned fun playing with legos, too.

Jonathan, Lindsay, and Jack came over Christmas morning. It was so fun watching the little kids open their presents. Jack looked like a little man with his shirt all tucked in (Lindsay revealed it's a onesie, so it stays tucked) and Leila didn't need any help opening her presents this year.

Jon's been growing his hair out.

I thought this was a nice picture, too...

Poor David's flu peaked on Christmas Day, so he wasn't able to eat any of the big meal I cooked. He was a trooper, though.

One day during Christmas vacation Emma dressed Leila up and fixed her hair. I really like her hair this way, don't you?

We had to have a silly picture, too...

A few days after Christmas we went to Rhinelander to visit my parents. My brother Don and his family, who live in Arkansas, were there. Luckily Rhinelander had some snow (our Christmas here was pretty brown), so the kids were able to do some sledding. Here's Emma and Leila with their cousins Stephen and Beth.



From left to right: Kenny, Emma, Beth, Leila, Michael, David, and Stephen.

THIS is the kind of breakfast Emma gets at Grandpa's house now! Pancakes with whipped cream and a cherry on top. Don and I agreed that this was not the kind of breakfast we were served when growing up in Rhinelander. We remember Farina and plain oatmeal. It's sweet having Dad be a big softie as far as his grandkids are concerned... I know Emma appreciates the gesture.


I enjoyed seeing how nicely Leila and Stephen played during this last visit. Leila's made so much progress socially since starting preschool. It's a joy for me to finally see her talk to and play with her peers.


On New Year's Eve day we went to Pat and Ann's cabin for a holiday gathering of the Hurlburts. Leila wore this little raspberry-colored snowsuit that used to belong to Susan. We're saving it to give back to Susan someday...

Not everyone could make it to the Hurlburt get-together, but there was still quite a housefull. Lots of little ones... girls in particular. But the latest addition to the family is a boy-- Jessica's baby Cooper. At left, Pat is holding his granddaughter Lauren (Joe's daughter) and Jon is holding Cooper.

And here's Tammy and Malia with Leila.

Here are just SOME of the little girls in the Hurlburt family now. The blonde girl standing is the daughter of Nick Meyer's girlfriend, Emma is holding Lauren (Joe's), big sister Brooke is holding Audrey (Eric Sime's daughters), and then Leila and Malia in front. We were missing Macey and Ellie that day.

Well, that's all for now! Hope all of you enjoyed the holidays as much as we did.