This is THE Cutest Baby

Even his feet make the whole thing cute. He has the greatest feet position. Maybe I'm making up terms because I'm biased. I will gladly admit it.

How can you resist that look?

He was done being cute and he made it clear.

He's is finally getting long enough and flexible enough to to eat his feet. I think he took offense when I told him the other day that he was too fat to even stick his feet in his mouth. Now he does it without thinking.

Ever since he learned how to roll over he doesn't stay off his stomache. He found his stomache and he found his thumb and it makes for a good night's sleep.

Jackson in Action

Becka got a video of Jackson

And he is finally starting to turn over. It took him a minute or two on this video, but here he is.

God's Mercy in Action

I had a really close call this week. I was up in the attic of the auditorium changing light bulbs, and I fell through the ceiling. There is a small catwalk, but if you notice in the second picture, for 2 or 3 studs worth of space, there is no catwalk. I always just walk across on the 4 pieces of conduit that are attached in its place. I was being extra careful because Pastor Brothers was in there and I definitely didn't want to fall through. I usually go up there in the dark and just follow the outline of the lights because I have been up there so many times. This time I actually stopped and turned one of the lights upside down to light the whole attic. The first step I took was onto the conduit and they gave way under my feet. I was holding on to the beam above me, but everything happened so fast that I had no clue what happened until I found myslef straddling that little piece of gray pvc pipe you see next to the conduit. That was the only thing between me and the 25 foot drop from the ceiling onto the chairs in the choir loft. The drywall came crashing down along with a snowstorm of blown-in insulation. Pastor Brothers came up there expecting to find me on the ground and was thankful to see both of my legs dangling through the ceiling. God was definitely watching out for me. Pastor Brothers said in church on Sunday that the four or five guardian angels that God has assigned to me were and are always working overtime.

This is a close-up of the hole.

He is Growing

This is what the most gorgeous woman in the world, the best mother, and an even better wife looks like. She doesn't get near as much attention as she deserves on this blog because she is always doing things where the camera is not, or she is taking the pictures of us. So here she is, front and center. She is the one who does all the work with Jackson - hard to believe that skinny little girl can have a baby that's as big as Jackson is. It is so obvious that God brought us together and I love her with all of my heart.

I wonder if he is going to have any skin left on his fingers when he is finally done chewing them. No, wait, he has plenty to spare.

This is one of his favorite poses

Some of these at the top are as close as I've gotten to a baby portrait of him because I haven't been able to take him to where all my camera equipment is set up. You can tell the difference between the pictures taken with my little camera and my professional camera, though.

He sits up by himself, but he can't always stay that way. But its fine with him as long as he can suck his hands.

He has two bouncy seats and all that jumping has really made his legs strong. He is so strong and resiliant and big that it really makes it hard for me to rememeber that he is only 5 months old. He acts so much older, and it's impossible to make him cry when we play.

This is a funny story. Somebody gave us this bouncy seat that they had used for their kids and it hadn't been used in a while. The spring inside the little green thing (at the top of the picture) that makes it bounce was really squeaky and not moving up and down like it should. I felt the bottom of it and it seemed solid so I sprayed some DW40 in there. It not only made the spring smoother, but I don't think his head will be squeaking any time soon either. We came back after a couple minutes of watching him bounce, and he smelled very much like DW40. It had dripped all over his head!

This is probably the reaction you'll have, too. This is his reaction after he read this story.

Uncle Jason can always get him to smile, too.

We have fun together. Can't wait til he gets big enough to hike and camp and play sports with.

Aunt Jessica. Jackson's reaction is the same one that everyone has when they see her coming and when they see half the things she does.

For some reason the thing stopped letting me put pictures on the last blog so I had to start another one and finish putting the pictures on that way. Maybe it's trying to give me a hint about too many pictures, but that's why it's slpit up into two parts anyway.

He Is Growing (Part 2)

He smiles all the time, but he isn't always happy.

Satisfying a craving

This is the face of utter disappointment

We've had so much snow that we had a couple of snow days. So I got to hang around the house. It was nice - for a while.

First time eating real food - it's rice cereal - I feel the same

I wish I had more time to write things under each picture, but by the time I get done editing everything and going through all the pictures, it has taken so long already that I have to go.

Pictures of Jackson - Finally!

I realize I haven't put up any pictures for a while so I figured I'd make up for it and put on a thousand pictures. So here they are.

He is so strong. Everything I read says that babies should maybe be holding their heads up by three months and sometimes it may even take four. He has been holding his head up since two months. He is not cuddly either. He cannot lay down. He has to be looking around at everything even when he is so tired he can't keep his eyes open.

His classic sleeping position. When he is really out, his hands are, too.

I got him laughing but I had the red eye reduction on so he had his eyes closed by the time it got to taking the picture, but it was so cute. I guess the red eye worked.

I don't know where he came up with the facial expression from!

Beautiful mother and baby!

This was his first Christmas and he has the shirt to prove it

My family came in this week so they got to spend some time with them. Jackson loves being around guys over women. He loved everyone, but Rick could get him to laugh so easily. Jackson couldn't take his eyes off of him.

We really have to get a picture of all of us together on my professional camera. We get so busy, but soon we will. This one will have to do in the meantime.

With Granddaddy.

With Dad on Christmas

Rick makes me look short anymore.

Annie and Jackson

All of us together

Looks like Jackson is trying to hide something.

Annie and Sarah both wanted to hold Jackson for the picture so I caught them in action.

Becka and her wonderful father

Jackson with his Grandmama and Great-grandmother

We dedicated Jackson to the Lord on December 6!

The picture quality is not very good, but it really showed the color of his eyes.

He is such a happy baby and only cries when we know somehting is wrong with him. Otherwise he just sits and looks around. I love holding him and playing with him. He is the biggest blessing of our married life.

He found his thumb and he cannot live without it.

He is such a chunk. When we weighed him at 3 months, he was 15 1/2 pounds. That's twice his birth weight!

This is Jackson enjoying his first Christmas present

He jumps around like crazy in this thing. It makes noise every he moves so it gets a little annoying, but he enjoys it so I do, too.