Naughty But Cute

I have alwyas thought that there is nothing cuter than a one-year-old in the whole world. They don't have the two year old attitude yet but they don't still have the baby helplessness. Abe spends every waking minute exploring his world and making all kinds of messes. I thought I would just share some of the naughtiness highlights from the last month or so....

Abe has an OBSESSION with grapes. If he knows they are in the house, he will not rest until they are his. This is what I found the other day when I walked into the kitchen.

I guess I cannot blame Babyham for this one. I mean, if someone wanted to hand feed me doritos while I took a buble bath I would NOT refuse. I think its also funny that I just let my baby eat Doritos at all. With Jack, I would have died before I let anyone feed him such un-nutritious junk food. Now I just feel happy that everyone got fed and bathed.

Yet another example of my relaxing food standards....

This one I can totally blame on my dad. I try to explain to grandpa: "Do Not Caffienate the Baby!" Anyone who knows Grandpa Haws knows how futile it is to explain rules to him.



When Jack was little he would take the phone and put it up to his ear and pretend like he was answering. Abe does this but then he stares at it intently and taps it with his thumbs. He is texting. Amazing how things change in just a couple of years and amazing how babies pick up on EVERYTHING. If you have recently recieved unintelligible text messages from me...now you know why. I would also like to point out that his shirt is soaking wet because he just finished pouring a huge cup of water on our memory foam bed...on my side of course.

The fact that I obviously took the time to snap a picture before I plucked my baby out of the trash can might be frightening to some of you, but in fairness, I really thought that it was worth it to immortalize these fat little baby legs.

The Joy of Feeling the Wind in Your Hair

When is the last time you stuck your head out of the window of a moving car (voluntarily)? Jack does this every day. He knows that hes not allowed to do it until we are within a short distace of the house, so he waits with anticipation to pull onto our street so that he can indulge. Today I had to take a picture of it and share what I think is a perfect example of how much kids take advantage of all of the little joys in life. I hope that Jack will always find both little things and big things that make him happy. I don't know at what point in life I stopped enjoying things like this but It was a good reminder to me to always approach life with childlike wonder.

Squaw Peak hikers

Recently Jack has developed an interest in mountains. He always asks what each mountain is called. Recently he asked about Squaw Peak (it will always be Squaw Peak to us no matter what Janet Napalitano says) and John promised him that he would take him hiking and they would climb to the top. Of course right after that the entire family came down with strep throat and then John's turned into pneumonia so the hike never happened. Finally John decided that it was time to bite the bullet and just take him, pneumonia or not. I predicted that between John's diminished lung capacity and Jack's total overall slowness, they would get about 100 yards up the mountain at the most. Not only did they make it up the entire mountain, they even made it back in one piece. Here is the picture to prove it. John said that everyone along the trail was totally impressed to see such a young kid making it all the way up and everyone was cheering them on.

John is such a wonderful and involved father. John has endless patience with Jack and spends so much quality time with both of the boys. Jack absolutely adores his daddy and it makes me so happy that they are creating so many happy childhood memories. Good job, hikers! I'm proud of you!

Gilbert 5-0

Here is a picture of John with his squad at work. John loves his new squad even though I think the swing shift hours suck.

John really wanted me to post this picture. I asked him, "Why aren't any of you smiling?" John answered "because we're TOUGH!" he then pointed out that he is not only holding his AR 15 but he has his knife out too. for some reason this is hilarious to me. I hope none of you are planning on committing crime in Gilbert between the hours of 3 and 1 Tuesday through Friday.

Seriously, though, I am so glad John had a great job that he loves. Its so nice to have job security in this economy and most of the time it seems like he is getting paid to run around with his buddies.

Abe is One!

My baby is officially a toddler! I guess I should have seen this coming since he walks and talks and eats man food but it is still somehow a shock that he is so grown up and so fast. Where did the year go? Part of me feels like that couldn't have been more than a few months ago that he was born and part of me can't remember ever not knowing this kid.

We went to Peter Piper Pizza yesterday to celebrate his and Talan's birthdays. These two are the cutest pair of cousins in the world. They were born less than 18 hours apart and we hope they will be best friends their whole life.

My favorite part of the party was the cake. My sister Staphanie decorated the cutest cake for the boys and then we gave them each a huge piece and let them go to town. You have never seen a bigger mess in your life.

Abe caught on really quick that we were going to let him make as big a mess as he wanted and he had a ball throwing that cake around. Of course when he had eaten his fill he had to put the plate on his head like a hat. Talan, on the other hand, isisted upon eating his cake with a fork and at one point tried reaching over and feeding Abe with the fork. It was such a crack up to watch these two live it up .

Happy Birthday Babyham!