The Adventures of Jake

Jake had a fun-filled summer. He had sleep-overs with friends, watched lots of movies and did some traveling. After Drew's parents spent some time here with us, he drove back with them to Alabama. I don't have any pictures from his stay, but he was living the life...... swimming every day, eating whatever he wanted, playing with friends, staying up late, and all those great things you get to do with your grandparents. At the end of his stay, he flew home all by himself. I was a little nervous about this, but he thought it would be a great adventure. When I picked him up at the airport, the flight attendant who had been with him said, "He's a great kid.....and VERY amusing." I tried to find out from Jake what he did that was so amusing, but I didn't get far. He said, "I didn't do anything special. I was just myself." What was I expecting?

Pretending to be a Japanese boxer

Jake played coach-pitch baseball at the beginning of the summer. It was his first time to play and he did really well. He played first and second base a lot and was one of the best hitters on the team (and I'm not biased at all:). He had many great hits, RBI's and 4 home runs. He batted over 800 (Daddy kept track).



Jake and his buddy, Griffin



Getting ready to bat



His summer finally came to an end. He was not ready for school, but wanted to see all of his friends again, so he agreed to go:) You see, the work he has to do while he's in school really gets in the way of his social life. His most common comment on his daily folder is "Excessive talking." We're working on that. Heres a pic from the first day of school (I couldn't get a real smile:)..................

I took him to a photographer to have pictures made for Drew's Fathers Day gift. They turned out great, probably because he practiced his smile all afternoon (He was seriously worried about how his

smile would look:) He's my handsome little man..........

FUN TIMES in MeXiCo

The water was SOO blue.

Jake being silly.

Well, I don't even know where to begin since I haven't posted in almost 2 years. Its been a busy year but we've had some really fun times. Most recently, we went on a family trip to Mexico with my parents and my brother. It was AMAZING, and we didn't want to come home! We stayed at an All-Inclusive Resort and, even though we planned to venture out to a nearby town, we stayed at the resort the whole time. There was plenty to do there, between 12 pools, many restaurants, activites and, of course, the beach. Mom and I are both bad about remembering our cameras, so there aren't that many pictures of us on the beach, but heres a few that we did get................

During the day, there are 2 big buffets to eat at and a grill on the beach. But at night, we ate (some really good food) at one of their many restaurants. This is before dinner at the Japanese Restaurant.

The wind was blowing this morning, so these pictures are sandy.........

Nonny beating the boys at cards.

Another night we actually remembered to take pictures............

Jake dancing as usual.

I wonder where Jake gets his mischevious grin..........

The main entrance of the hotel. The grounds were so green and colorful. (Unlike our dead yard back in Texas:)

By the third day, we were all at least a little sunburned, so we spent some time under a tree on the beach. This was my favorite day because we just all hung out together and relaxed. Jake even took a nap on a beach chair under the shade (which doesn't happen often:).

Jake was also a monkey for part of the trip :) Me and my bro

We saw some cool animals, including this racoon, the bird and a monkey (a real one;)

Thanks Mom and Dad!!!!!!!!!! I miss Mexico. So, its back to reality. Jake started 3rd grade yesterday (which is crazy, because he was just a little toddler like yesterday. And according to PawPaw, he's still in Kindergarten;). We've also had some other fun times to share..... So I will be posting more pics and stuff soon!

Christmas, Jake Turns SEVEN!

Well, its only a month after Christmas so I'm doing pretty good. Christmas was a little different this year because I had to work Christmas Eve. Jake and Drew drove out to Bama ahead of me the Monday before Christmas and I flew out to meet them in Birmingham on Christmas morning. I was afraid I might not get to go since it snowed all day on Christmas Eve while I worked and many flights had been cancelled that night..... but thankfully it cleared up enough by morning that it didn't effect my flight. We did the Lloyd family Christmas at his Grand Dad's house that day and our family Christmas that night. Jake was SO SWEET because he had decided that he didn't want to see what Santa had brought or open any presents until his Mommy got there. So he had Andrew get up that morning and put away all his "Santa stuff" so he wouldn't see it until that night when I could be there. :) :) :) As you can see, Timber had a great time opening presents..................So Andrew put everything back, just as Santa had it ;) And this was Jake's face when he came down stairs....... The Heisman pose................Santa knows how much he loves to wrestle and how important it is to protect your brain:) So he got Jake headgear. He was so creative and spelled out Jake's name with chocolate candy. And got him a UFC champion belt for when he beats his Daddy in wrestling.

Sarah got to come home from Japan! We were so glad she was there too.

Andrew's friend Mark came by to visit. They've known each other since they were little kids.Jake challenged Mark to a wrestling match. And I'm not real sure why he's not wearing his new head gear. ?? Looks like he probably needed it right about now.

By the way, we didn't do Christmas cards this year (or a tree or any decorations- because they're all in the very back of our storage unit) .... so thats why you didn't get one from us:)

We celebrated Jake's birthday while we were in Bama. Jake chose to invite his friend Will and his brother Joshua over for his party and then they went to Pump It Up.

The boys had a lot of fun together and they invited Jake to spend the night so he was really excited about that. I still can't believe he's SEVEN, that makes me feel really old!The weekend of New Years Mom, Dad and Clayton came up from Austin for our family Christmas. We played with Jake's games and had a lot of fun-

I never though to get out my camera and take pictures. But here are some from Thanksgiving when we went to Main Event. Thats right- Jake got second in bowling and I beat Clayton!