A Break....

Our laptop is away visiting the computer doctor, so unfortunately, there won't be any blog updates for a while. I hope to have it back soon because I have lots to blog about! For now, though, in case you're missin' us, here is what's been goin' on with us:

• Yesterday (Dec. 30th) was our 3rd anniversary...Happy Anniversary to us! We already celebrated it when we celebrated my birthday, so it was kind of low-key. As a matter of fact, I worked on our anniversary, but the sweet girls that I worked with surprised me with a "Happy Anniversary!" cake to cheer me up. It was so sweet of them! (In case you didn't know this about nurses, we look for reasons to have a party sometimes!)

• Tyson is the most amazing father! Yesterday while I slept off the night-shift, Tyson took Jake to get his haircut, then took him to a birthday party at Pump-It-Up, and then he took Jake to watch South Carolina practice for the Papa John's Bowl. How many men do you know could handle all that? Jake and I are so lucky.

• Speaking of watching South Carolina practice, I was really nervous when Tyson told me he was going to take Jake to the practice. I could just see Jake being his usual wild self and causing a big scene and getting them kicked out of practice. (Couldn't you just see Spurrier getting mad about it and throwing down his visor? Ha!) Jake, however, was apparently a really big boy and just stood on the sidelines with his hands in his pockets and behaved for the most part. Thank goodness for no visors being thrown at my child!

• A certain little boy is going to be celebrating his 2nd birthday this Monday! We have a little party planned for the weekend, so I will post pics as soon as I'm able to.

• I'm finally finishing up my crazy December work marathon; I'm looking forward to being back to my normal 1 shift-a-week schedule in January....FINALLY. I've really missed my boys these last few weeks!

• Baby Walker is doing well. I'm making sure he is very well fed, and it is pretty evident! :) I don't mind, though....like my doctor says, chunky babies are happy babies! I go to the doctor next week for a check-up and my glucose tolerance test; I can't wait to hear his little heartbeat and see how he's measuring!

• January = Recruiting. Yuck.

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Cochran Christmas

All the great grandkids-

Jake (2), Ryleigh Kate (3), Spenser (2), Connor (9), Jace (6 mo), Carson (3), and Chase (7)
Carson and RK after saying the blessing...4 times!

Jake feeding Pa Pa

Just a glimpse of the craziness that occurs when you have 6 little boys in one room!

Jake telling Christy "thank you"

Pure madness!

Renee and her 3 boys!

2 bashful cousins!

After a quick trip to my parents' house, we headed over to my mom's parents' house in Cochran, Ga for the next leg of our trip. We weren't able to stay too long because we had to hit the road to Tifton to see Tyson's mom, but we definitely had a blast for the short time that we were there.

Tyson hasn't been around this crowd since the summer (or maybe even spring), so I don't think he really knew what to expect from Jake with all the rough-housing that goes on when we all get together. For the most part, Jake held his own, and you could tell that Tyson was proud of that. The older kids are really good with Jake and try to include him without being too rough, and I love it. Jake is so blessed to have such great cousins!

So we left Cochran in one piece and with a car full of toys. I don't think it gets much better than Cochran Christmas! Thanks for putting up with all the chaos, MaMa and Granddaddy! We love you!

Thomaston Christmas

King blood: Jace, Amy, Dad, Jake, and me

(my mom had already left to go to my grandma's to help cook)

The Summers

(plus the extra 10 lbs I've put on in the last few weeks) Ha!

The Howells

Jake and Jace are already such good buddies! Opening presents

My first scooter!

He LOVED it!

Too bad he couldn't figure out how to push himself!

Oh well, that's what grandmas are for!

It wouldn't have been a King get-together if Jill wasn't there!

Tyson, Jake, and I are finishing up a marathon Christmas trip through Georgia visiting our families. As always, I have a ton of pictures, so I'll try to space it out.

Our first stop was in Thomaston to visit my parents; my sister Amy, Courtney, and Jace met us there, so we had a great Christmas all together for the first time! Jake really enjoyed seeing "Mayme, King Cole (Courtney), Jace, Da (my Dad), and Pa Pa (my mom)" and being the center of attention! He's such a mess these days! And can you tell that he LOVED the scooter my parents gave him?

Such a fun time! Thanks Mom and Dad for everything! We love y'all!

Christmas Day

Can you say sleepy face?
"What dis?"

Checking out his firetruck

He loved his new "hat!"

"Yay choo choo!"

"CHOO CHOO!"

Santa brought Jake a helmet for the tricycle he is getting for his birthday, but Jake thought he was supposed to wear it while he drives his jeep. Too funny! At least we won't have any head injuries while driving the jeep!

"What dis?"

So not interested in the big boy underwear!

"Got my helmet on, Teddy to my right...I'm good to go. Now how do I work this thing?"

Yay for Santa...you did a good job!

Merry Christmas from the Summers' family! Jake had a great 2nd Christmas! Tyson and I woke up bright and early expecting Jake to wake up soon after, but by 7:20, he was still asleep. We couldn't stand the anticipation any longer so we woke him up and told him "Ho Ho" had come...I thought he was going to jump out of his crib he was so excited! Tyson and I had been talking about how we thought Jake would react when he first walked into the room, and of course, Mama knows best. My very mellow child walked into the room like nothing was going on and walked right up to the train set. I knew that would be the first thing he went to, but I did at least expect him to spot the Power Wheels next. Instead, he bypasses the big jeep and goes straight for the "new DVDs!" He pretty much played with everything else and then finally payed some attention to the jeep last.

The train was the biggest hit by far! Jake, surprisingly, will sit very still for a long time and just watch the train. He is fascinated by it! He eventually warmed up to the jeep and wanted to ride it around, but unfortunately it was wet outside and the jeep was too big to ride around our house. Jake did enjoy ramming the jeep into the sofa as he learned to go in forward and reverse as Tyson and I were busy getting ready. Ha!

Seeing the excitement in your child's eyes on Christmas Day is one of the most thrilling parts of being a parent. So much fun! I hope you all had a great day, too!

Santa Came!

Before our house gets destroyed, I thought I would take a picture of what Santa brought Jake this year for Christmas. He got a Power Wheels jeep, a Polar Express train set, some books, DVDs, a Little People's fire truck, a bead maze, a teddy bear, and some big boy underwear! And Santa was very smart and left a present in the garage with a note that says, "Jake, you have been a very good boy this year. Please do not open this until April when your little brother gets here." How smart of Santa to plan ahead! :) I think it is a wooden train table and set, but I guess we'll see in April!

I can't wait for Jake to see everything when he wakes up! This is so exciting! Thanks Santa for all the great stuff...I'm sure you must have worked many looong weekends for this just like Mommy did! :)

Oh, and because I've never blogged about this...we have our photo Christmas cards hung on the 2 arches between our living room and kitchen, and we just love looking at them! Tyson asks every year if we can just leave them up all year! Ha! Thanks to everyone who sent them!

Happy Birthday to Me!

There were so many candles on the cake, it took me 3 breaths to blow them out!

And talk about a huge cloud of smoke after that! I'm surprised we didn't set off an alarm!

Today, I turned the big 3-0! Happy Birthday to me! I've honestly had the BEST birthday ever today thanks to my wonderful husband and my dear friend Casey Rae.

Tyson had been planning my birthday for several weeks and did an amazing job keeping it all a secret from me. I knew he was planning a surprise, but I thought it was just dinner and a movie. He told me to be ready last night at 6 pm and everything was taken care of (meaning a babysitter, too!). Anyways, it was killing me not knowing who I would be leaving my child with, but I had a pretty good idea who it was. :) Sure enough, 6 pm rolls around and I hear my good friend from work Casey Rae come running through my house "SURPRISE!" I was so excited to see her face because I love her to death and so does Jake! Tyson was behind her and told me, "Pack a bag...we're not staying here tonight!" Yep, Tyson had planned a fabulous little surprise getaway to a local hotel just for the 2 of us!

We started the night out at a Michael's Steak and Seafood that was actually attached to the hotel, and Tyson had already arranged for them to have a birthday cake just for me! It was delicious! (Don't worry, we didn't eat all of it...we ended up donating it to the sweet nurses at the Children's Hospital who were working Christmas Eve). After dinner, we went to our room and watched "Couples' Retreat" on one of the biggest TVs I have ever seen. We had a great time! Thanks to Tyson for planning such a great surprise and making my 30th so special, and thanks to Casey Rae for helping make it all possible!

Here comes Santa Claus!

Santa waving at Jake!

"Hey Ho Ho!"

Every year on Christmas Eve, our local fire department has a truck that rides through our neighborhood with Santa on top of the truck. The kids LOVE it! Jake heard the sirens and was just so excited to see the fire truck, so seeing Santa was an added bonus! I don't know if it's my hormones or if it's that I'm just so excited about Christmas/Santa for Jake, but I cried just seeing the excitement in his face when he saw Santa Claus. It was just so sweet! Merry Christmas to all!

Jake vs Santa

Christmas 2009

(This picture looks very similar to this picture from last year):

Christmas 2008
(As you can tell, Jake is very inquisitive!)

Here are some more of the out-takes from our visit with Santa:

Jake was sweet and handed Santa some bells!

"Hey Ho Ho!"

And we're over it...

"down Ho Ho!"

"I SAID DOWN HO HO!"

Much better!

We finally got around to taking Jake to meet the guy in the big red suit today. I didn't know what to expect because it seems like most 2 year olds are afraid of Santa, but for the most part, Jake has been very receptive of "Ho Ho." So I was really interested to see how he would react.

We jumped on the bandwagon and went to Bass Pro Shop for our free picture with Santa, and I was pleasantly surprised with the experience. Santa wasn't the most friendly Santa I've ever seen, but it was free, so I can't complain.

While I waited in line (which wasn't that long), Tyson and Jake walked around and explored Santa's Workshop. It's a good thing my wild child can't stand in line too long because I really didn't want him seeing Santa beforehand and seeing the other screaming children. Anyways, Jake spotted him regardless and seemed surprisingly excited about meeting "Ho Ho." We had already practiced what we were going to say to Santa about what Jake wants for Christmas ("Choo Choo"), but of course, we never got the chance to tell Santa. :( No, he didn't freak out like the other kids when placed in Santa's lap; he was actually very curious about Santa and just stared at him for the longest (just like last year), but no words came out! He just got over the experience very quickly, though, and just wanted down. Unfortunately, the cameraman took forever and Santa had to hold Jake down for the picture, which is never a good thing and does NOT make for cute pictures. Overall, it wasn't that bad!