Jace, meet Santa.

Christmas is coming...

Joel is working in town this month. It is so nice to have a normal schedule with him home at night and Jace and I staying home for a change. It is great to give our suitcases a short break. Next week we start our holiday traveling.

Jace is on the move!

He sits up on his own now. We just place a little ring of pillows around him for when he inevitably topples over. He can easily roll over and is starting to scoot across the floor. I am trying to stay a couple steps ahead of him with baby proofing but it is difficult to anticipate what he might be able to do from day to day.

Joel and I were disappointed when Jace didn't go crazy for fruits. He continues to prefer carrots and sweet potatoes over anything new we offer. He hates the strained peaches. One feeding session ended with him screaming and spitting them out. We wish he would eat more solid food during the day because he is waking up hungry in the middle of the night sometimes. It is frustrating right now but I know this phase will pass and soon he will eat more. (We witnessed this with Cole, our friend's 10 month old boy)

Jace got more prunes on his face than in his mouth. The result: Baron Von Jace.

We are looking forward to fun Christmas plans in the coming weeks. Our decorations are up. Jace is helping me clean up the house (he cries when I run the vacuum unless I am holding him so I vacuum with one hand and hold the baby with the other). He never misses an opportunity to grab the tree when we move past it. Our shopping is mostly done. I can't wait to start wrapping gifts. I'm not sure how safe they will be under the tree so we may have to make a gift shelf.

I have been trying to get some cute holiday photos of Jace. He is less than thrilled to be dressed up and posed. The resulting photos have not been exactly what I hoped for. Our Christmas card might be a little goofy.

Next week Curt and Kadra arrive and we are headed to WinterPark for some skiing. Then back to Wray to celebrate an early Christmas with Dan and Becky before Curt and Kadra have to leave. Our actual Christmas might be pleasantly quiet. We plan to celebrate with Palmer's the day after. Hopefully, we will get a chance to see everyone.

Curt & Kadra got a puppy! His name is Toby. Between Toby and Jace, Chrismas will be a little different this year! See you soon.

Thanksgiving in WY 2008

Thanksgiving in WY 2008

Thanksgiving in Burns was lots of fun. We enjoyed all the traditional Thanksgiving elements: eating tons of yummy food, visiting with family, watching football and competing in card games. We stayed Thursday night at Little America Hotel with Gary, Elaine, Jessica, Don, Dustin, Alyssa and Janae. On Friday, before we headed for home, we got to meet Angela's baby girl, Victora, who is also 6 months old. She was born May 20th, just 3 days after Jace.

Thank you to Lori, Scott, Brandon & Travis for hosting the great party!

Sit Jace, Sit.

Jace had his 6 month doctor appointment on Friday. He is over 14lbs now and 26.5 inches tall. The doctor says he looks great.

He is getting the hang of rolling over. He loves to be held up so that he can stand and jump. The doctor said that, for now, it is better if we encourage him to sit instead of stand. He needs to work on balancing seated and learn to put his arm out when he starts to fall. Right now when he loses his balance he just nose dives.

Jace is getting pretty good at sitting in the booster chair during meals and eating some solid foods. So far we have only tried vegetables. He seems to like sweet potatoes and carrots the best. He tolerates green beans and rice cereal. I'm sure he will love fruits. We will start those sometime this week. The doctor said that between now and his 9 month appointment we should also start him on some ground meat. She said beef is the best one for him. (yeah! the doctor says eat beef)

Joel is home from Texas for a little while. We are both doing well. Joel is still training for his upcoming marathon in Orlando. It will be a great time. I am excited to report that I fit back into my snowpants!!! I can't wait to try skiing this year.

We will be celebrating Thanksgiving with Joel's family in Wyoming.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Jace with Grandma and Grandpa Courtney.

6 months old today

Happy Half a Year Jace!!!

3rd generation high-chair

Jace & I are visiting Wray. Joel left for Texas again on Friday. This is his fourth trip there in three months. We keep hoping that his company will get some jobs closer to home but for now it seems the work is all near El Paso. So, Jace & I are spending a few days at the grandparents' house in Wray.

Today we had Sunday dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Courtney's house. Jace sat in the wooden high-chair that two generations of kids before him have been in. I believe Mom (Joy) was the first then Lea Ann, Mark, Julie, Me, Dan, Matt, Curt, Andrea, Lily & Patrick and now Jace. I'm sure there were also some cousins in that list. It was cool to see the little chair back in its place at the end of the table. Grandma Courtney had to rig a seat belt out of a towel and Jace still slides around some. We had a delicious dinner and Jace played with Grandma and smiled at Papa.

I snapped a couple photos of a wild turkey in the field across from my parent's house. It was just wandering around out there oblivious to the fact that Thanksgiving is so close and he is on the menu.

Grandpa Doug is working long days harvesting corn. Today was a beautiful day and he said they did pretty well until evening when the header broke down. He came home and played with Jace for a bit before bedtime. Jace is fascinated with remove controls (already!!!). Dad (Grandpa Doug) was showing him how to work the vibration control on the big chair. Then they looked at a storybook. It was a nice day.

Weird that Jace is wearing the same outfit as in the last photos I posted. I swear the kid has lots of clothes. Its just a coincidence.

had a happy Halloween

This is a first try so please don't judge to harshly. I am hoping that setting up a blog spot will allow me to post our Jace photos and updates in a more timely fashion.

Jace is napping in the crib. This never happens but today we decided to give it a try. Prompted by a Parents magazine article about infants napping. It said to get him out of the bad habit of only napping in my arms. So, I fed him and put him down in the crib at the time he usually naps. He only screamed for 10 minutes before he fell asleep. Yikes.

I have been meaning to email some of the recent photos of Jace. Our Halloween ones came out pretty good.

We had a blast at Sullivan's house the Sunday before Halloween.

It was great to visit and see them. Jace demonstrated his hair pulling skills on Lily. He also loved chewing on one of the pumpkin scraping tools.

We goofed around and took a lot of photos. We didn't get a lot of pumpkin carving done but that turned out to be a good thing because the one pumpkin that I carved was all moldy and soft by Halloween. I'm curious how Lily's pumpkin held up in the dorm all week. Eeeeww.

We always enjoy the Marsik's Halloween bash and this year was no exception. I went as Sarah Palin. I even tried to dye my hair darker but chickened out and washed the color out to soon to see any change. Joel went as Joe six pack (a.k.a. Joe the plumber). He wore his survey gear and the beard he had grown while in TX for 2 weeks. Jace went as ninja turtle, Donatello. The little turtle hat was too small but he looked cute. Joel's friends: Grant, Chris & Aaron appreciated the costume. The four of them are "the turtles".

On Halloween we carved the rest of our pumpkins and took some photos of Jace in his little monster costume that Grandma Joy got for him. These photos turned out great. I had hoped to stage the photos outside in the fall leaves but Jace objected. The sound of the crunching leaves freaked him out and he refused to sit in them. Oh, well. Maybe next year.