last kids gym

jack had his last kids gym yesterday (maybe forever...the owner is moving and is selling it). in the past 4 months i can see such a big change in jack. when we first started he did NOT want to go to the teacher...i had to force him to. now he goes when his name is called and loves to do whatever she asks. his feet leave the trampoline at the same time when he jumps now and when he first started he could hardly stand up straight on it :) he can walk across the balance beam almost by himself now and before i had to hold both hands and he still fell off every few steps. he still does not like to wait his turn, but will do it when forced! he struggles at circle time to stay seated, but he listens to directions from the teacher. for example, she tells them to open and close their legs to stretch and he does it by himself...i don't say a word! on the trampoline the other day the teacher asked him to lift up his arms and he did it right away.

he loves to "drive"

this is jack when we first started kids gym 4 months ago

he hasn't changed in appearance that much but his personality has...he just seems so much older to me now! i don't feel like i have to be right next to him the whole time anymore. he can climb so much better and knows the rules that i have given him.

he LOVES this and so do all the other kids. it is tough waiting for your turn! he does pretty good though.

stopping for a sip of juice

playing with the teacher

parachute!! all the kids love this!

we weren't going to sign him up for the fall classes of kids gym because we are trying out kindermusic. i got a really good deal on groupon for the fall classes. i am sad that kids gym is over because jack had so much fun there. i might have to go back to the gymboree classes in the winter just to get out of the house and get his energy out!!

auburn hat

jack found johnny's auburn hat and *had* to wear it. he loves hats of any kind, but i am glad he likes the auburn one!! we are trying to teach him to say war eagle! he just likes to say "hey" at the end :) we only have 4 more days till the first auburn game!!!!! whoo hoo!

here's a video of jack saying his colors. i am really mad that my camera ran out of space at the end...he did say black (i promise). he loves to point out colors everywhere we go!

jack's dedication

we had jack's dedication on saturday night at 6:00. it was just perfect! we were planning on doing it outside, but God had other plans. it started down pouring almost right at 6:00. i know that it would have been wonderful outside, but i think it felt so intimate in my parents family room. eric kennedy did the ceremony. he gave a small sermon about talking to your children about God and how amazing He is. eric said that it is our privilege to present our children to the Lord and our duty to raise them in His ways.

jack sat still the whole time and stayed in my arms for the dedication. i am so glad that we did this. i hate that we waited this long to do this, but we just didn't have to right place to do it. we were going to do it at the church that we have been going to, but we had to be members and we just weren't sure that we wanted to join yet because we have only been about 5-10 times. anyway, i think what we did was perfect in God's eyes. we just wanted to say that we are going to raise jack to know God and do all we can do to lead him down the right path. i loved everything that eric said and i loved that our family was there with us.

my dad built this cross for the dedication!

eric with jack

michele and jack

my mom made this banner for the dedication

i will have more pictures of the dedication once i get pictures from other people (anybody that has pictures please email them to me!)

the boys

jack and frank played pretty good together. jack surprisingly did well with sharing. frank definately has learned how to stand up for himself at daycare! which jack needed to see that somebody can stand up for themselves and he doesn't get everything he wants :)

we had brunch on sunday and while we were finishing up the boys went in the playroom to play. they were playing with the same toy for a while and taking turns opening a door and dropping toys in a slot. it was so cute! then jack must have done something to frank and frank decided that he didn't like whatever it was. anyway, he went in for a bite and looked up to see if his mom and dad were watching, and of course they were, so he pinched him instead. it was so funny!!

they were really cute together though doing the same things and walking around the house together. saturday morning when they woke up jack asked to hold frank's hand while they walked down the hallway together. it was adorable!


watching a saturday morning cartoon with mimi

riding in the john deer. jack would rather be pushing it though

eating a snack together

taking turns on the slide.
they were funny on the slide...if one wanted to go down and was waiting their turn the other one would sit on the slide and look at them like "i'm not going anywhere anytime soon!" we would have to force the one on the slide to go down.

this was one of jack's favorite things to do...go in the sunroom and shut the door

drawing on the chalkboard

mimi loved snuggling with both boys!

they are going to have so much fun together every year at mimi and papa's! i love that they are only 2 months apart. i hope our next babies are that close in age :)

i went to a hanson concert last night...

at home!

they had a live concert on their website last night!! it was great, but i had to stay up too late to watch the end of it! haha

they played in tulsa (their hometown) and it was really good! i had to wear headphones because johnny was trying to study. i wore them upside down because bumped my head really hard on our bar and the headphones hurt my head. anyway, i enjoyed every second of this online concert. i have been begging johnny to let me go to the atlanta concert on november 10th and he thinks that one hanson concert a year is enough! so i guess this will have to do.

22 months

i can't believe we only have 2 more months until jack is 2!!!!!

about jack at 22 months:

* he is talking so much now

* playing by himself a lot more (loves his little people bus and airplane)

* on the way home from church asked jack if he wanted a hot dog because we thought we were going to go out to eat. he said "yes" and then when we got to the restaurant it was closed so we asked him if he wanted our left over pizza and he said "no. hot dog."

* when i asked jack if he wanted lunch one day he said "no. pacie. full."

* asks to ride pete
* we are not giving him his pacie during the day (except for nap and car rides)
* played in the chick fil a playground
* says "hey" to everybody (we call him the welcome wagon)...it is a little embarrassing sometimes how many times he says hey and how loud he can be
* can recognize the letter J and A
* went pee pee on the potty again
* loves to wear hats and sunglasses "gasses"
* likes to point out when people are wearing "gasses"
* same sleeping times
* same diaper size (4)
* same shoe size (6-7) but i think he is about to out grow some of his shoes...so maybe he is a 7-8
* not sure how much he weighs ( i would bet about 28 lbs)
* can tell you the name of all the family members that we have pictures of in his room

here's a video of jack dancing to none other than hanson...

water table

i took jack to the mcwane center the other day and we had a lot of fun! jack gets so excited right when we get off the elevator walking into the mcwane center. they have this mouse trap thing that has different color balls that go through an obstacle course. it is really cool and jack absolutely loves it! he would stay there for 30 minutes and watch the balls and scream each color out for the whole world to hear! he also loves the water table...

he played with the water for about 30 minutes if not more.

last we went up to the mr. potato head exhibit. jack played with the mr. potato head table for about 15 minutes putting different pieces in the holes. he doesn't really understand that the hands are supposed to go to the side. instead the hands are his mouth or his hat. i should have taken a picture of his creations...they were pretty scary!


after jack's nap we went outside and ate some popsicles. jack ate every bite and didn't spill a drop. amazing!

yesterday i got out the water color paints that we got jack at walmart. he LOVED them. each time he got a new color he would say it out loud. i must of heard each color about a million times!! he painted while i cleaned off johnny's desk.

random picture...
watching a show!

my 28th birthday!

friday night we went to pf changs with robby and andrea. it was so much fun and so yummy! pf changs used to be my favorite restaurant and every time we came to bham to visit johnny's mom we would eat there. we have only been 3 or 4 times since we moved. robby and johnny split the meal for 2 :) haha!
after dinner we went over to robby and andrea's house and just hung out. we looked up people on facebook to let the guys see what they were up to. we also looked at their old pictures. it was a fun night!

saturday night we had some friends over to our house for pizza and cake. johnny got me a cake from edgar's!!

jack was so adorable when everybody started singing happy birthday! he looked around the room and had this little smile on his face. he was so proud that it was his momma's birthday!!

this is a picture of me and jack after his nap today. we went to mama and me this morning. i was going to take jack out to eat for my birthday but when i asked if he wanted a hot dog or a cheese quesadilla he said "cheese" so we went home and ate for free!

tonight we had garlic chicken, grilled corn, and green beans for dinner (this was my birthday dinner growing up, but minus the corn and add mashed potatoes). then we went to yogurt mountain for dessert. jack was super excited about ice cream!!

hiking

we went hiking the other day in our neighborhood!! we have noticed this walking trail since we moved here and have never given it a try. sunday afternoon we decided to go try it out. it was super nice and felt like we were somewhere besides birmingham. it has little ponds and lots of trees! jack's favorite part was all the rocks. i don't know how many times be picked up a rock or several tiny rocks.

me and jack on the trail

johnny and jack by a pond. jack is showing off one of his rocks!

jack trying out the workout equipment

markers

pete asleep on the couch. he sleeps with eyes open half the time :)

yesterday i got out a big piece of paper and some markers and let jack go to town. he tried to trace his foot and his hand. he actually did pretty good at tracing his hand.

then i thought i would have a teaching moment! i drew a triangle and asked what it was and he said triangle (except not that clearly). then i drew a circle and asked what it was and he said circle. then i drew a oval and asked what it was and he said oval just as plain as day. finally i drew a square and asked what it was and he said "fwear"

i wanted to see if he could draw a horizontal line and a vertical line. sure enough he can! i drew a line first and asked if he could do it. and he did. then i asked if he could draw a circle and he did (well kind of)...
(my lines are pink and his are purple)

he is amazing! i am so proud to be his mom!

playing dress up

we went over to andrea and clara's the other day to let the kids play together (finally!)
jack saw clara in the pink apron and decided that he wanted to wear it too!

it looks like he is cooking babies!

jack is getting really good at coloring.

see...

to some people this may look like he is the worst colorer ever! but i think he is making great progress!! he aims to color one thing now instead of coloring the whole page. he was trying to color the word camel with the red. he said "foot" when he was coloring them yellow.

super baby!!
he wanted to do this...not me. i just helped! he loves to put on our clothes. he has been trying to put on shorts lately by himself. the hairnet came from publix. he said hat to the fish guy because he was wearing a hairnet. well, the fish guy said do you want a hat? of course jack said yes. so he brought him out one and jack wore it proudly through publix!! it was pretty funny! you should have see some of the looks that i got from people :)

levins family reunion

we had a lot of fun at the levins family reunion this weekend at lake eufaula. the is the 2nd year we have done this and it is always lots of fun. i like seeing how much the kids have changed in a year. they have all changed a lot...especially jack and xander!

sitting with papa on the porch

whit

levi and jack

jack thought that this donkey was the coolest thing ever! i guess junie thought that jack was going to take her for a ride!

on the donkey again!

jack really enjoyed playing with kate

group picture

the thomas/levins kids

this is what happens when the kids are tired of taking pictures :)

mary alice being silly

xander jumping on the couch...yep..he's related to jack :)