A day at the park and new milestones

I took Jacob to the park for the first time a couple days ago, he enjoyed it but it was nearing nap time so he was a bit sleepy, I still managed to steal some of those heart melting smiles. I put him in the kiddie swing for the first time and he was just so calm and cool swinging, he almost seemed as though he was going to fall asleep.

Jacob cut his first two teeth! Saturday I noticed something white in his mouth and sure enough, they were two teeth buds! Their coming through pretty well now and he is rather cranky from it, but its understandable. We also have Jacob finally sleeping in his own room and no more swaddle, we took that away about a month ago and he seems to be fine without it. The first week in his own room he did great, only waking up once or twice, I thought it was too good to be true and that it wouldn't last, and I was right..........

Ever since his teeth came through he has been pretty restless at night, I have tried Orajel, teething tablets, teethers, ice, and Tylenol...only thing that seemed to help him was the Tylenol but even that wore off pretty quick. I called the doctor yesterday and they said I could give him some infant Motrin which lasts longer than Tylenol so I gave him a bit of that around 5:20am when he got really restless. It seemed to help his pain but it didn't help him fall back asleep, he seems to be getting into routine of waking at 5:00am and not wanting to go back to sleep until 7:00am...its a bit rough having to get up that early and stay awake until he goes back to sleep, but I guess thats all part of it.

Jacob is also sitting up unassisted for short periods of time, he can go as long as 45 seconds without flopping over, my boy is growing up! He is rolling all over the place but not showing any major signs of crawling yet, I know some babies skip crawling all together and go straight for walking, but we shall see.

Its time for Jacob's 6 month professional pictures this Sunday, so I am sure I will have a ton of pictures to share in my next post. We go to this place called Portrait Innovations, I love them because the pictures are taken with digital camera's which I think can capture the moment so much better than a camera machine that doesn't move at your typical photo studio's. Also, this portrait place prints your photos up right after your session and their ready within 30 mins, so no waiting and coming back to pick up your photos, I love them.

Here are some recent pictures from Jacob sitting up and his day at the park, enjoy....

Good vacation in Helen, GA

My family and I took a trip to Helen, GA this past weekend, for those of you who haven't a clue what Helen, GA is, its a high tourist area that is set in a German theme, it feels as though your in Germany, all the stores, restaurants, scenery, streets, names of things, all German theme, its a neat little attraction. We arrived on Saturday morning around 11:45am, got our keys to our cabin and headed up a small mountain to our 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom cabin. Myself, James, Jacob, mom, dad, two of my three brothers, two nieces, and close family friend (that I also call my brother) all came and stayed in the cabin. After checking into the cabin we headed to lunch at a place called Hofers, James wanted to go back there because we ate there several times a year and a half ago on our 3rd anniversary and he fell in love with their homemade cream puffs.

Our cabin


After lunch we headed to Anna Ruby Falls, a beautiful little hike with wonderful scenery leading to these gorgeous falls at the end of the 1/2 mile hike. We had two strollers going, my gracious it was tiring but we took turns pushing and I was happy that I was burning off some of those calories from our ever so fattening German lunch.

Pictures from Anna Ruby Falls


James and our niece Taylor


The guys, minus one brother












Nana and Jacob


Papa and Jacob


My niece Shayna and I


After the tiring day hiking we headed back to the cabin where my mom made dinner for most of the family, though James and I took this time to go out for a nice dinner alone while my mom kept Jacob at the cabin, the restaurant was pretty decent, we enjoyed the little alone time but were very ready to see our little boy when we got back.

Saturday my mother and I cooked a big breakfast for everyone and than myself, James, brothers, sis in law, and 4 year old niece went tubing, its the main attraction in Helen. You pay $5 a person and get a big inner tube and float down the river that surrounds Helen, some parts of this river have rapids so it was mighty exciting but tiring too! Their were lots of rocks sticking out of the river and we kept getting caught on them, but it was a lot of fun. My parents are not into that stuff so they stayed back with the babies.

When we returned from tubing we ate lunch and than headed to Hiawassee, GA to go to The North Georgia Mountain Fair...well...we should have done our research and discovered that the fair closed early on Sunday's and we got there 30 mins after it closed, we were bummed that we drove 30 mins through tons of winding roads to get there. Their was a neat little recreation park and beach across the street though and we let my niece play on the playground while we enjoyed the beautiful mountain scenery and boats zooming by in the big lake, we got a lot of great pictures out there.

Here is some picture from the lake and park in Hiawassee









I love this picture




Like my adopted bro, Mar and Jacob


Brother Anf and Jacob




Aunt Tanya and Jacob


Shayna and I


James and Shayna




After we left Hiawassee, it was back to Helen to eat at a restaurant called Bigg Daddy's...it was pretty good. Well, the trip was basically over at this point though we did shop around a bit at some of the unique shops on Monday before we went home, we had to stop at the Hansel and Gretel candy factory, we got lots of yummy fudge to take home.

Our last day


Haha, we did this a year and a half ago and had to again


Guys being goofy


It was a pretty nice, relaxing trip, we had a very nice 6 person hot tub at the cabin that we took advantage of, we turned the heat down a bit and let Jacob go in, in his float, he loved it and got mad when we took him out lol.

Enjoying the hot tub


Well, that about sums up my trip, God Bless!

Got a little behind, 4th of July post

I've gotten a bit behind on my blogging, things have been pretty busy lately. We had a good 4th of July, we let Jacob see some of the fireworks and he did pretty well, he got scared one time from one of the fireworks that were really loud, but beside that one, he did great. We had a pretty big barbaque at my mothers house with hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, and grilled chicken, I made my world famous corn cruffle and we also had chips, pasta salad, and desserts, I know I totally went off my diet that day! James cooked all the meat, it was really good!

Jacob also had his first swim! My mom got this little frog pool for my niece and Jacob, I don't think he was totally sure that he liked the cold water, he loves bath time but he was a little fussy in the pool, here is daddy helping Jake sit up in the pool.



Here are a few pictures of the lovely fireworks from the 4th, my brothers got some pretty neat fireworks.











These are the ones Jacob liked
















Most of the time Jacob was inside with Nana and his little cousin Shayna, they look so adorable together.



Here is Jacob with his two cousins Shayna and Taylor



My brother Philip was in town from Alabama and loves playing with Jake, his wife has a new little cousin on the way for Jake to play with!



Here I am with my little 2 1/2 month old niece, Shayna



Here is James and I outside watching fireworks



And the three of us the short time Jake got to be outside



And that was our 4th of July!