Not exactly Santa's reindeer, but...

Christmas 2008 was spent with Grandma Merry and Grandpa John at the family farm.  Jacob was ENTHRALLED with the deer head hanging in the office.  He kept saying, "BUCK!" Over and over and over and over...  When you would lift him up to see it, he initially shied away.  By the end of the few days we were there, though, he would pet the deer.  Hilarious!
Hopefully this will not have any ill-effects on his ideas about Santa's reindeer.  :)

SNOW much fun!

This past weekend, we decided to have a little family fun in the snow, since this is really the first winter that Jacob could play outdoors. So we BUNDLED up and headed outside. At first, Jacob didn't know what to think about the cold, white, powdery stuff that didn't have any resistance when he pushed on it. :) But then he got the hang of it. Daddy helped him walk around in it for awhile. Then he put Jacob in a laundry basket and pulled him around the front yard and on the newly snowblown sidewalk. Jacob had a BLAST! I think you can tell from the huge grin in the photos below. Happy winter!

Truly Thankful

This year the Scacco family did something a little different. (Well, Gary had to work, so that was definitely different...) But Jacob and I went to the Wayside Center in Elgin to share Thanksgiving with the homeless. In our comfortable suburbs, we often think of the homeless as being far away in the city, with no faces or names. But now we know better. We met a few folks who are regulars at the Wayside Center. They were not the typical sterotype. In fact, there was nothing scary about the center nor the event whatsoever. Other than the fact that we didn't know anybody except our friends, the Sharps, it seemed like a big group of people who love each other getting together for the Thanksgiving meal. There were a few praise songs sung, scripture read, and our meal blessed. Reminders of to Whom we should be thankful were EVERYWHERE. They had some really cool mural-sized paintings painted on canvas that were hung on the walls. One of them was of the Nativity scene, the other was when Jesus and Peter walked on the water. There was entirely too much food (not a bad thing, actually), but that was really a prayer answered, since I felt very lacking in what I had to offer in the way of food that day. I know they enjoyed the leftovers, as many of us do, in the late afternoon or early evening. All in all, though at times a bit chaotic, I feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to spend part of my Thanksgiving with those who are truly thankful.
Praise and thanks to God for ALL He has given us!

Please enjoy this sweet craft that Jacob brought home from daycare last week. He obviously had some help, but I thought this was adorable. The daycare ladies said that Jacob knew he had to keep his hands flat when they were stamping his handprints.

Those Big, Baby Blues

Can anyone resist these big, gorgeous baby blue eyes that Jacob got from Daddy???
Mommy sure can't! :)

Temporary Insanity?

I don't know what got into me this evening, but I decided that it was time:

- Time to give Jacob his first haircut -

And I just started cutting!!! (I almost forgot to take pictures!) I had been thinking about going to my beautician all day, and then I decided that I could remember what she did. So I got out my tools: a couple of combs (one for me, one for Jacob), my sewing scissors, paper towel, a spray bottle (also used as a toy by Jacob), and Gary's cell phone (the best distraction yet!). I snipped twice on top and twice on each side, evened up the curls over the ears, and voila! Now - don't ask a professional's opinion on the job. They'll tell you it looks like his mommy did it. But I think it's not too bad!

Before: Looking pretty shaggy!

The first snip:

The finished product:

Side views:


The beautiful curls in back - I didn't touch those!

The proof:

Woof! Woof!

Jacob is learning to say new words and sounds lately. His most recent achievement is being able to tell you what the doggie says. He puckers up his cute little mouth and says, "Woof! Woof!" I thought it was so adorable that you all needed to see it, too. Here is the scene at breakfast a couple of days ago:

Lions and Tigers and... Skunks?!? Oh, MY!

Halloween this year was nearly an afterthought, when it was rescued by Sarah's phone call: "Can I bring over my little trick-or-treater to see you guys?" When she and Aaron arrived, they convinced me not to wait until Gary got home to go get the costumes out of the attic above our garage. (I REALLY don't like that place, so this was a big deal.) Lori and Rob had given us all of Casey's old costumes, and I went to find the one that would fit him this year, not remembering all that was up there. Much to my delight, I found this ADORABLE lion costume! I quickly gathered the light-brown overalls and Jacob was good to go. Daddy was VERY happy when he came home!

Here is Aaron in his CUTE skunk costume
(what a little stinker)
with Jakey on the porch:

And my baby lion - I just loved the pic of his little behind!

Bathing Beauties

The Sharp family has become some of our best buddies - both Mommy & Daddy's and Jacob's! In late July the Sharps kept Jacob while Daddy took Mommy out for her birthday (Yay - Greek food!). Aaron and Jacob got to have a splashing party before bedtime. Check out these great photos, compliments of Sarah Sharp. I CAN'T RESIST the bubble mohawk!!! :)

Splash Class

Since we are planning a trip to Hawaii in September, we decided to get Jacob used to being in the water. So we enrolled him in what they call "Splash Class". It is a pre-swimming class for toddlers that teaches them to blow bubbles, get out of the pool, and to generally relax in the water. It was very cute to watch them sing songs (well, the parents sang songs, anyway...) and splash around. Our little guy was especially splashy! All the other parents kept asking us if he'd taken this class before, because he was so comfortable in the water, and actually enjoyed it! We hope that this is a sign of him liking to swim in the future - like Daddy!

Sitting in one of the lockers, pre-swim

Practicing the fine art of blowing bubbles

A waterlogged Jakey

Making a BIG SPLASH! He's not mad - just splashing hard!