Family Holiday Pictures

Stratton's new girlfriend!

Juliet Elizabeth Jones was born yesterday!

She was 6 lbs 10z and 20"

Stratton was so happy he sent her flowers! haha! We went to the hospital tonight to see them and Amy looks great and Juliet is absolutely precious. Dustin looked a little rough, but I guess that's pretty par for the course for a new dad! I got to hold her for a really long time and she never opened her eyes! She slept the whole time we were there! It's weird that Stratton was the exact weight and was an inch longer and he was 6 weeks early! I know he was once that small but it is hard to believe when you are holding a tiny newborn! We are just so happy for Dustin and Amy! I can't wait to see this little one grow! We are in discussion about an arranged marriage, all the parents are in favor but these kiddos might have other plans! haha!

Pops birthday party

We had my dad's birthday party yesterday and he almost missed it! One of our dear friend and fellow elder with my dad at church was put in the hospital overnight and my dad went to see about him in Memphis. He got home around 2pm after the whole family had enjoyed his birthday lunch! That just goes to show you what kind of guy my dad is! Stratton was SO happy to see him when he finally got home. He is enamored with my dad (could it be the fact that he gets to ride the tractor with him?? haha) He got to help him open his gifts and then we had cake before everyone had to go home to take their Sunday naps! We ended up staying for church that night as well and then went back to mom and dads for supper so we were there pretty much all day!

It's a hard life!

While Jarrod and I are rushing around this morning this is what Stratton was doing. Laid back, taking it easy with his juice watching a John Deere dvd. Can you see how mistreated he is?

Ready for a slow down!

I have been so busy this week! Staying up late working on Christmas party invitations and birthday party invitations is wearing me out! I have lots more to do, but I think I have everything that was urgent finally wrapped up!

There haven't been any Stratton catastrophes this week thank goodness! He has been really good for the most part. He has starting going "Nite, Nite" now. He has always been really good about going to bed (Thank you Laura for BabyWise!) but here lately instead of us carrying in his room for bed he will go hug his daddy and grab my hand and lead me to his room when it's bed time! I love it! It's amazing what a big boy he is getting to be! We thought he was just about to give up his bedtime sippy cup of milk, but all the sudden the last few days he has really been chugging it down. I fear another growth spurt might be on it's way! Great and we just bought some new clothes!

I am looking forward to next week. It will be a short week since Thanksgiving is Thursday! And I am ready for a few days off! Even though Thanksgiving day is probably more busy and tiring than work!

I actually took these the 1st weekend of November at my Nanny and Papa's house in HR. Stratton was playing on my Papa's garden tiller. . .real safe I know, but my mom started it!

I love fixing his hair, but he has started to play with it after I fix it and it's hard to keep it looking cute!

He is so silly!

the devil made him do it. . .right?

I almost forgot to mention what our "perfect little angel" did Wednesday night while we were rushing around like crazy trying to get ready and out the door in time for church. . . .

He got the hand held video monitor off my nightstand and decided it needed to take a swim. . .in the toilet!!! Yep, probably one of the most expensive things sitting out and he chooses it of all things!  Not a ball or a toy truck, nope. What's funny is that he didn't even get in trouble because we were more worried it would ruin the monitor we hurriedly took it apart, dried it off and Jarrod dropped it in a ziploc and pour some rice on it (it worked for the ipod so we thought why not try it?). Well, after three days in the bag of rice it is miraculously working! I just knew we were going to have to buy a new one, whew! And we will now definitely remember to close the lid!

Stratton is 16 months and we are busy, busy!

So no pictures tonight. I have been working on christmas invitations and I thought I would sit down and update the blog real quick! I only have one new one and it's not that great. . .I am getting to be a bad mom! I used to take several a week and now I'm lucky to get one good one every couple of weeks. He is never still. Not even for a second! I am amazed at how much he is learning! He can tell you "no, no" when he doesn't want something, and likes to voice his opinion now that he has one! He also knows all kinds of commands like "arms up, arms down, wave, clap". He knows where his nose, eyes, ears and mouth are, he can say more word than I have room to type! He is on an animal kick right now. His favorite book is a farm animals book with pages full of pictures of different farm animals. He can tell you what just about every animal "says", and it's so fun to hear him make a pig sound! He grunts just like a pig! I am just shocked on a daily basis from something he says or does or recognizes!

The past couple of weeks since Halloween have been super busy! I got sick right after Halloween. Sinus infection and bronchitis and maybe a touch of pneumonia! Whew! After a couple of days in bed on meds, I was much better! We hosted a couples shower for our friends Dustin and Amy who are expecting their first baby any day now last Saturday! It was so much fun! We gave them gag gifts so it was really interesting and some of the things they got were down right hilarious! Definitely more people need to have these kind of showers to get the men involved. Except there was no game playing. . .well the only game being played was the Razorback game on our tv! Then the following Sunday we had a bday party for my papa in Hickory Ridge. And of course Jarrod and I both have been super busy at work. He is still working a lot of overtime, hopefully it will let up soon! Stratton has been sick again too, also we just finished up the last dose of antibiotics tonight! I blame the weather! It's been so crazy!

Stratton was 16 months on Friday. We celebrated by taking him to get his 2nd round of the flu vaccine. Yay! Haha. Would you believe he didn't even whimper!? Nope, I was prepared for the worst since I took him by myself, but he was great. In fact before we left the nurses, secretaries and even a pharm rep were all oohhing and ahhing over what a well dressed, well mannered little boy he was, and the fact that he let just about anyone hold him. . . as long as he had that sucker they gave him in his mouth he was more than happy to be the cutest kid ever. I took off work on Friday. I have some vacation days left so Stratton and I spent the day together and he was perfect all day. After we left the Dr office we went to Cracker Barrel and had lunch, where he put on a show for all the people sitting around us. . .he was waving and telling everyone "Hi!", that's my little socialite these days! After we ate we went to the mall and did some walking around. He was so good! We got home around 1:30 and he went right to his room and took a nap! Did I mention what a good boy he is? Friday night I went with Amy to get a mani & pedi. Probably her last time for awhile, she is 38 weeks this week! Then we went to get a bite at Lazzari's. It was fun to get to spend some time with a girlfriend. I haven't had much time to myself lately! And as you might expect all we talked about was baby stuff!!

Saturday we had to be in Memphis by 3pm to get our "Holiday" pictures made with Daisha. Dad go finished cutting beans on Thursday so we asked them to come along and we would take daddy out to eat for his birthday, which is tomorrow. So even though it was a icky rainy day, I think she got some good pictures and my mom and dad even got to jump in some. We did a little shopping, too. I went to Charming Charlie's for the first time- I could seriously spend days in there. It was amazing! All the jewelry, handbags and accessories in any color you could ever want! And no trip to Memphis would be complete without a trip to Gigi's cupcakes!! We got home a little after 9pm and Mom and Dad took Stratton home with them for the rest of the weekend. So we had a really nice laid back Sunday! Sunday night we had our "friends forever" group meeting at our friend's John and Holly's house, which was a lot of fun.

This week shouldn't be as busy. All we have this upcoming weekend is my dad's bday lunch on Sunday. And maybe, just maybe Jarrod won't have to work this weekend!

I will try to make myself be better about taking pictures! I know that's all you people come to see on my blog anyway! Lol!