A "made" Christmas gift

My friend Bekah came up with the idea of some of us girls from college, who are spread across the country, to do a "made" gift exchange. I immediately thought, "fun...but JUNK!!" For those of you that know me, know that I am ver craft challenged! I went straight to the internet looking for something to make for Casey. I found this website that explained how to make a Williams Sonoma knock-off glass hurricane candle thing using items from the Dollar Store. I used super glue instead of hot glue; tried the hot glue and it didn't really work.

I got the hurricane vase and candle from the Dollar Store ($1 each). They didn't have the base, so Jen picked some a different type of base at Walmart for $2. My wonderful sis-in-law gave me some holly from their tree ($FREE!!). So each candle costs $4 to make ($8 for the set). I had to go ahead and make some for me as well! :)

Here's the finished result!! I was pretty thrilled about how well they turned out! And I plan on changing out the holly with different things for each season (like brown leaves in the Fall - like the Williams Sonoma ones).

(I guess I need to make sure the candles are straight!! hahaha)

Jack's Toddling!

It's true....Jack is taking more and more steps each day!! I don't have a video to show you yet, but if you're my friend on Facebook, you can go to my profile page and see a video that our sister-in-law took Tuesday night.

For MiMi

This one's for you Mom :)

Jack's One Year Checkup...

Jack had his 1 year checkup with the doctor on Monday. Our boy's doing great!! He also had his first birthday party...I'll do a post about that later once I get all the pictures and videos together. I just can't believe he's one! His doctor said I'll be saying that when he's 5, and 10, and 16, and 20..... I guess you never get used to your baby growing up :)

Here's his news stats:
Height: 31" - 75%
Weight: 21 lb 14.5 oz - 25%
Head Circumference: 18" - 50%

Although Jack's not walking yet, the doctor was really impressed with his coordination and balance. When you only have one kid, you think everything they do is normal. I had no idea that balancing on one foot (whild holding on of course) was something I should be impressed about! hahaha

Fun Facts About Jack:

• He takes a step or two here and there. He also can walk pretty well while holding onto one finger. And he cruises ALL the time!
• He mimicks us all the time - which is quite hysterical sometimes!
• Jack eats mostly solid food now. He still has his bottle 4 times a day, but usually only eats a few ounces.
• Some of his favorite foods include: grapes, oranges, Chicken Poppyseed Casserole, Chicken Packets, carrots, green peas, black eyed peas
• Jack's learning how to put shapes in his shape sorter.
• He loves anything that he can spin.
• He gets into EVERYTHING!! He's always on the move and loves to open drawers and pull whatever's in them out.
• He smiles and laughs all the time - he's such a joy in our lives!
• Jack likes to dance to music.
• He's starting to jump....sometimes his feet even leave the ground!
• He's a climber! If there's something he can climb on, he will.
• He loves to play with balls. He's pretty good at throwing them, too. We'll have to work on catching them, though :)
• Jack LOVES taking a bath!
• He also loves to play on our laptops...even if we don't love it! hahaha

We just love our little guy so much and can't imagine what our lives would look like without him!

Thanksgiving

It's time to update our blog again!! Actually, it's way past time, but I'm just now getting around to it :)

We had a wonderful time in GA with Laura's family for Thanksgiving! It's been way too long since we've visiting family in Georgia!

Jack with Uncle Bobby - they formed a special bond over the week :)

I, Laura, made some pilgrim had cookies with my nephew Landon. They didn't take as long as I thought they would. And I think they turned out super cute!!

Landon wanted to wear his pilgrim hat for the picture :)

Jack and Paw Paw

Jack and MiMi - she wanted to hold him like a baby...this is about as close as anybody will get!

Our family on Thanksgiving Day

The grandparents with their grandkids

The great-grandparents with 2 of the great grandkids

...and now with 3 of the grandkids

Landon :) love that kid!

Landon and Jack crawling

Told you they had a special bond :)Jack and Landon playing basketball. As you can see in this video, Jack pretty much watched everything Landon did all week.

Jack got to try lots of new southern foods that I never cook because I married a northerner! :) (Love you, honey!) Some of the foods he tried (and enjoyed) include butter beans, black eyed peas, cheese grits, and Buttermilk Custard Pie (which pretty much no one in Luke's family likes).

Here's the PROOF that Jack loves Buttermilk Custard Pie! And I didn't have to force feed him (Liz...)

I mean....could his mouth get any wider???