Merry Christmas!

Jacob wishes everyone a very Merry Christmas today! Hope your holiday season is filled with lots of joy and hope this year. God has blessed us so much. Enjoy the smiles and laughter of Jacob's "first" Christmas.

Opening a gift from Uncle Josh, Aunt Jamie, and Cousin Audrey

"Pop goes the Weasel"

An outfit from PB and G-Jo (he's checkin it out)

He likes it!

He must really like the stuff from Uncle Josh, Aunt Jamie, and Cousin Audrey...look at that tongue!

These are his "I love Santa" pajamas!

Being silly with the Box! :)

So precious!

Christmas Eve was spent smiling for the paparazzi of family cameras! He's pretty good at it now!

"Reading" the Night Before Christmas with Daddy

Family Photo!

More Cameras!!!!!

Christmas Morning with Jacob. He came downstairs and Santa had arrived. The train was set up and he was riding...sometimes all by himself!

Opening gifts. He mostly liked the paper! :)

More noise please!!!!

You mean I can play as long and loud as I want to????

Even Jackson got into the presents!

Thanks for checking in with us today. Have a wonderful day!

I'm Ready for Christmas!!!!!

Our week...

Isn't that the cutest picture of Jacob. These are the kind of smiles that we get all the time around the house. Jacob is pretty content and happy most of the time. In fact, when we left the NICU, one of the doctors told us Jacob has a great disposition and that most kids that have been through what Jacob has been through don't want to be bothered or touched and seem cranky alot. We are truly blessed. :) This week we decorated the Christmas Tree, did some shopping, and spent some time with friends...in addition to the normal routine of therapy appointments. :) It was a great week. Here's some pictures of our fun!

Jacob and Jackson with the Christmas tree. Jacob doesn't seem thrilled in the picture, but he does seem to like the lights. Also, somebody needs to talk to the photographer, because the tree was cut completely off. Hum...I wonder who would do that???? Maybe Jacob is thinking, "Mom, don't you know you're cutting off the top of the tree?"

This is Jacob helping me decorate the tree with his ornament. Last Christmas, before Jacob was born, Papa Bear and Gramma Jo gave us this train with Jacob's name on it. It was a way for us to celebrate his "first" Christmas and to always remember him. When we received the ornament it was bittersweet because it was special, but at that time Jacob's prognosis was not great, and we honestly did not think he would be around to put it on the tree himself one day.


This picture was taken after about 5 hours of Christmas shopping. Ha! He was so tired that he was twitching...or maybe that was because of all the shopping... Who knows???

The latest milestone that Jacob has been working on is standing. For SOOOOOOOOO long he did not put ANY pressure on his legs. When you would hold him up and try to get him to stand, his legs would just bend and he would fall to the ground. We have been working on this since we came home from the hospital and it's finally beginning to pay off. In the picture I am holding his bottom, because otherwise it sticks out and he'll fall. We are so proud of this progress...

Caution: Picture contains 2 CDH miracles...

This picture is of Jacob and Rory. Rory was born about 3 weeks after Jacob with Left Sided CDH. After his surgery he was placed on ECMO for about 7 days and went home 2 days before Jacob. Jeff and I became very close to Jen and her husband Chad because we were able to share the Joys and Struggles of the daily life in the NICU. While we were there, there were two other CDH babies that did not make it home--Heaven became their first home. It's hard to be together and not think about those other babies too.

Thanks for checking in with us. Have a blessed and hopeful day!

Elvis !?!?

This post has nothing to do with Jacob...

I have a friend that makes cakes and she has been asked to submit a cake design for Elvis' 75th Birthday. She is one of 4 artists. PLEASE go and vote for her to do this cake. It would be an amazing opportunity for her business.

Click on the link and her cake is Option C.

Vote for Brooke's Cake

Thanks so much!

A Glimpse of our Week...

It's been a great week with Jacob. He was able to fight off his cold with FLYING COLORS! Yay! We never had to go over 1/4 liter of oxygen (the amount we came home from the hospital in June), and his congestion and cough never settled in his lungs. Thank you for your prayers and concerns for him. This makes us feel so relieved because now his body is getting stronger and more capable of fighting off colds and such. This is a really big step for him!

Jacob continues to progress in his fine motor skills. He is now clapping on his own, he can grab small things with his finger and thumb (pincer grasp), and bangs things together with both hands. Pretty much, anything he can hit, bang, and chew on...he does. Here's a video of his clapping. He is watching TV...which is why he never looks at the camera.

Jacob is also making strides in his gross motor skills too. He continues to get stronger and stronger. He is super sturdy sitting on his own, and he can reach very far in front of himself and pull back to a sitting position with a little work. We are trying to get him to put more and more pressure on his hands and knees. Usually, he cries any time you put him on his hands and knees...but...I turned on a Baby Einstein video, and voila, he stayed in this position for over 10 minutes. HA! Now any time we want to work on strength training...we pop in a video. :) The blanket roll underneath him is a trick that our PT told us to do. It gives him support while working on the strength in his arms and legs.

Here we are hanging out on the floor. Somebody's head popped onto my leg, begging for some attention.

Not much to say about this picture. It's just funny! Why does every parent do this to their child when bathing them?

Thanks for checking in with us this week. As always, have a blessed day!

The best of both worlds

What woman wouldn't want a future hunk that folds laundry too???

Looks like Jacob realizes this too...what a smartie!

Thankful

Thankgiving this year could have looked very different for our family...God has been so good to us. And for that, we are thankful.

Jacob turned 10 months old, on Thanksgiving. We are thankful.

He laughed, cried some, said "la la", played, and hardly napped, all day. We are thankful.

We ate Turkey and all the trimmins with Jacob at the table entertaining his guests. We are thankful.

We are thankful for every moment, even the scary ones, because Jacob is here, in our lives. We get to watch him grow, change, move, breathe, and sleep. We are thankful for all the miracles that had to happen in order for him to be here, and never forget how blessed we get to be. We are thankful.

Wild Thing

The Wild thing has a cold this week...but he hasn't lost ANY of his personality.

Hummm....how do I get from here to there???

Whoa....dude....what did you put in that formula mom????

Oh...did you say CHEESE...I can do that!

Thanks for checking in with us. Please pray for Jacob's cold; that it will be short lived and will not cause any infections or put us in the hospital. He's pretty congested and has been waking up alot coughing and sneezing and crying. So far, we haven't had to increase his oxygen very much; still hovering around 1/4 liter. His breathing still looks normal for him, but we're watching for any signs of increased breathing. We are hoping that this will only make him stronger, but we sure do want this cold to GO AWAY! :) Thanks again for the prayers and for the support. Jacob loves his fans!

Have a blessed day!

Happy 90th Birthday GG!

We went to Atlanta for the weekend for Jacob's Great Grandmother's 90th Birthday. It was a great weekend! What a party she had! Below are some pictures of the day, including the cake that Jeff's mom made for GG. It was amazing, and all edible. She taught herself how to make fondant icing and gumpaste flowers. Jacob played with family while GG opened her 90 gifts!

Thanks for checking in with us. Have a blessed day!

Brothers

Jackson says, "Brothers don't shake hands...brothers gotta....LICK!!!!!!"

Jacob says, "Hey man, that's my face!"

Jackson says, "Yep, that's left over peaches alright."

Jackson says, "What's that smell?"

Jacob says, "Don't make fun of me. I've got you pinned."

Jackson says, "I give up. You win!"

Thanks for checking in with us. Have a blessed day!

Poor Baby!!!!

Poor Jacob...Nobody told him that he'd have to have so many shots in one day. Normally, at the 9 month check-up there aren't any shots....but not for Jacob. He got 4 shots all at once. He got a second round of the flu shot, the first of two rounds of the H1N1 shot, and two RSV shots (because his dose requires more than 1 mL, so they have to make it into two shots). He handled it pretty well, considering.

Here's his stats for his 9 month check up. He's up to 31 inches in height. That is well above the 95th percentile for length. He's weighing in at 23 lbs. 1 oz., which is about the 80th percentile for weight. As you can see from this picture in his car seat, Jacob is a GROWING boy. A while back we had to switch to a bigger convertible seat, because he'd outgrown the infant seat. Even when he's in his big boy seat, his legs still hit the back seat. And of course, his best friend is with him. We don't go anywhere without his frog "WubbaNub."

Who knew that he'd be so big and cute! We are having so much fun with him! Such a big boy in his Sunday outfit.

Here's one more of Jacob in his Halloween costume. He tolerated the hat much better on Halloween night. I think he realized that it was keeping him warm.

Thanks for checking in with us today. Have a wonderful week! I'm sure we will!