Playing in the Great Outdoors

Jacob always likes a good 9 hour drive to the river, because when he finally gets to get out of the car, he has a big backyard to run around in, complete with a lake and a couple docks (off of which he throws random things), ducks, geese, nasty inbred geese/duck combos, other wildlife, and a beach the next road over! Anyway, here he is in his backyard adventure one day...

Christmas at the River

After spending a few days in Richmond with my dad, we headed on to my grandparent's house at the river. We got there just in time for Jacob to open his Christmas Eve pajamaramas, and hop in bed! Santa came and delivered Jacob a fully assembled train set! When Jacob got back to South Carolina, he found that Santa had also visited him there, dropping off a train table to play with all the lovely trains on! (The train table was a little too big for Santa to haul all the way to VA and back) Jacob is a super duper present opener, as I think you will deduce from the following pictures...

Hastily tearing into present #1, only to be disappointed at the contents--clothes.

Modeling the Christmas pjs...they really show off Jacob's bulging biceps

Tearing open his new easel!

Taking a gander in the stocking

Jacob and Daddy and THEIR train set on Christmas morning

Baby J rockin' his Christmas outfit-for the record, he LOVED the knee socks, a.k.a. the "funny socks"


Writing his "ABCs" on his chalkboard (he can't actually write letters, he just says that's what he's doing)


Jacob opening and enjoying his endless gifts from his favorite Aunt Stephy Poo and Uncle Jon


Jacob is going "GRRRRRRRRRRRRR" in this picture--that's what happens when you put too much tape on his presents!

Cait serves up some Christmas dinner for the young chap--Jacob ate about 1/2 can of cranberry sauce, green beans, macaroni and cheese, and a bite of sweet potatoes


We tried to look our finest for Christmas dinner

Trip to Colonial Beach Playground

The fun just didn't stop in Oak Grove this Christmas-Saturday, we were off to the WICKED AWESOME (that's for you, Jeff) playground in Colonial Beach. The playground is so neat, it's just as good for grown people as for young bucks, like Jacob. I tried to capture all the representative age groups in pictures from our escapades that day...

Jeff, Allie, Jacob and Grammy seeing who can swing the highest

The fearsome foursome on the modern-age see-saw

Lor pushing Jacob really high!


Grandma on the self-propelled see-saw thingy. This is my favorite picture that has ever been taken---by anyone---ever.


Jeffy goes a-glidin' through the air at the speed of light!


The whole gang

Snowflakery-a gentleman's sport

Along with all the other debauchery that goes along with Christmas at the grandparent's house, Allie encouraged us to whip up some snowflakes to decorate the windows with. Allie was a real whiz at this craft...she's in college, what do you expect? I mean she has nothing but free time on her hands. Anyway, she helped us amateurs explore our creative snowflaing side. I used scissors, but Jeff used his new power scissors...or course. Here is what we did...

The final product! Like Al said, it's kind of like a blizzard in the kitchen

Jeff and his power shears...they did a fancy job!

Random Happenings

These are just a few random pictures we found on our camera the other day and decided they were post-worthy...

This first picture is of Jacob post-Clemson Christmas Parade (which, of course, terrified him)

If anyone was wondering what our Christmas tree looks like this year, this is it

This is Jacob's little tree--maybe I already posted this picture- I am too lazy to go back and check.

This is Jacob tucked snugly in his drawer. Chances are, this is how we will be sleeping in the apt. in Georgia

2nd Annual Birthday Bonanza

Jacob had his second fun filled weekend including TONS of presents, cakes, and people! Loosely translated, it was his 2nd birthday party and we had lots of family and friends come into town to celebrate! I always thought it would be THE WORST to have a December birthday, but Jeff (whose birthday is Tuesday) begs to differ. This year, I saw how great it must be to be inundated with gifts from every person you meet...only to turn around and have Christmas presents practically the very next week!

Anyway, this year, Jacob has been very interested in trains, so we did a train- themed birthday, and by "train themed", I mean the invitations, cake, and Jacob's attire were train related.

Anyway, the birthday was a success...some of Jacob's little friends came too, along with family. He got 80,000 presents and it was great.

Since we are going to Virginia for Christmas this year, we celebrated our Christmas with Grandma and Papa Williams and Amy and David this morning...which means...that's right...more presents! All in all, it was a successful weekend with lots of people to celebrate and have fun with!

Jacob, Cohen, and Bailey check out Kristi's gift of cool books!
Jacob eats part of the purple coal car.
Jacob peers in his bag of goodies
Jacob evidently knows how to open presents this year...and he was good at it!
Jacob tackles Big Cait
Jacob blows out his 2 candles

Train Cake

So, for the train-themed party, I wanted to do a train cake. I had found a website that had homemade train cakes on it a few months back and decided that I would try to make a big, crazy one for Jacob's birthday...and I did it! It turned out super cool and I am now going into business selling train cakes. Just train cakes-nothing else. Here is the "time-lapse" photography of the construction of the cake...

Post-carving the loaf cakes, and assembling the pieces on the track...just the beginning of the icing.

Trying to personalize the engine

Making a little more progress, and loading up the "coal" and "lumber" cars

All done except the "gravel around the train, and the oreo wheels

Joggernauts!

My friend, Rebecca, and I decided to run a little 5K this past weekend in Rock Hill...it was called something about a reindeer race (they gave you antlers that you could sport if you chose during the run...we opted out of that one) that coincided with the town's Christmasville festival that they do each year. Anyway, we got ourselves up bright and early on Saturday morning and ran in the freezing cold! We were both really happy with how we did, and plan to partake in many more reindeer runs in the future! Here are some shots that the race photographer (Rebecca's husband, Josh) captured...

PS- Thanks to Amy and David for letting me stay at their house that night...next time I'll be staying longer!

Do you see the two crazies waving like lunatics?

Coming into the finish line!

Chopping Down a Christmas Tree

Jacob should always feel free to cut down his own tree, we only require that if you cut it, YOU haul it!

I'm back! I guess I forgot that we had a blog for the past month...sorry! Anyway, we haven't really done a lot, just random excitement here and there--none of which was photographically documented. Sorry again. One thing that I did manage to get the camera out for was when we went Christmas tree hunting---we didn't hunt with a gun, we hunted with a saw. We went to the Merry Christmas Tree Farm again this year where the people are awfully jolly! Jacob had a fabulous time running between the trees and up and down the hills. This year Jeff even let him get a small tree to go in his room! Here is the evidence of our outing...

Jacob oversees the cutting down of his first personal Christmas tree.