Genesis NOPE Oasis

We have so much to say about our trip to the Caribbean via the biggest cruise ship in the world but it'll have to wait! Nathan and I are prepping over the next seven days for our class that we are teaching in a week. I asked Nathan to help me teach my FYI students how to study the Bible. So until that's over, silence!

...but know this, our boat was supposed to be named Genesis but there was much rebuke about the name being Biblical so they changed it to Oasis... We'll be incorporating that bit of info into our lecture some how ;)

Love ya'll!

14 Month Old Updates

Harrison took 4 steps on his own today. We tried to get it on video to share with you all but we couldn't get him to do it again. It was the end of the day and he wasn't really into being pressured into doing something he didn't want to do. None the less, this day will be marked in the baby book as the day he took his first steps!

I thought I would take this opportunity to document a few other things Harrison has been up to lately.

• He can now say bath time. It is the cutest thing ever! The first time he said it he was eating dinner. After he gave us the sign for all done I said, "Harrison do you want to go have bath time" and with all his might he pushed out the words "bath time". He absolutely loves a good bath! Even so much so that he now allows me to put him on his back to wash his hair. He floats and splashes and just has a good ol' time.
• Harrison can now sign please, thank you, all done and more. The interesting thing about more is that he signs it now for whenever he wants something. When we don't understand what he wants he then intensely signs please. He then gets utterly frustrated when we still can't figure it out... We're working on that.
• You might think we are crazy but Harrison is now experiencing time outs. He is not allowed to go up or down the stairs without asking us first. If he does, he gets a time out. We put up the pack N' Play in the kitchen to facilitate this. We've been doing it for about three weeks now and wouldn't you know, he doesn't go up the stairs without first getting out attention and saying please. Who ever said 14 month olds have no idea, doesn't know our 14 month old little man.
• Harrison has foam bath letters that stick to the bath tub walls when wet. For about the last month he's been putting them on the wall. He's figured it out. AMAZING!
• He now tries to grab the spoon and fork from us and tries to feed himself. It goes everywhere and most of the time his aim to the plate is way off so we help him out but he wants to be Mr. independent and lets us know, often.
• That brings up the next thing, he is eating what we eat at almost every meal now. He would prefer that we sit down and eat with him too.
• We are working on "Harrison, come here" and "stay still", I think it's going to take a lot more work than it did with Bentley.
• He is all out the silliest boy I know. Sometimes he'll just fall over on purpose and laugh. Sometimes he'll rub his face into the carpet. When he does something good or exciting he claps for himself. He laughs a lot! Especially when he thinks mom or dad is funny.
• He climbs on Bentley and Bentley looks at him like a foreign object. He often times will just get up and walk over to me in the mean time Harrison has fallen completely over on to the ground and is laughing. He also loves to play tug o' war with Bentley.
• Every once in a while he will ask to go up the stairs, crawl all the way to his room, point to his bed and ask to go to sleep. WE LOVE THIS!
• He talks a lot. Especially in his car seat and in his high chair.
• When I sing, he sings along and by that I mean that he often finds the note I'm on and holds it. I think we might have a musician in our family, we'll see.
• Shoes are his thing. He tries to put his own on and he tries to put ours on. It's fun to watch him try to figure out how.
• Harrison has been teething since he was 4 months old and let's be honest, it's not been fun for the whole family. This week his top eye teeth have been working their way through. He already has all four top and bottom and all four molars. 14 months old with 12 teeth! I think that's why walking came a little later then most of his other friends. The kids has been too busy gnawing on his finger to ease the pain rather than try and walk.
• Most of the time he can grab or point at his feet, ears and nose when you ask him where they are.
• He HATES diaper changes and changing his clothes. I'm reading every mommy website out there to find the best advice. It's a nightmare. We dread bed time especially.

Well I think that's enough for now. Here are a few pictures of Harrison on the stairs. Notice the tooth filled grin!

Going up...

Coming down...

He scoots down from step to step. We couldn't quite convince him to turn around and go backwards. Just wasn't going to happen.

He's been letting go of things and just standing for about two weeks now.

This picture was from this weekend.

We have also been standing him up and letting him go. Until today he just stood there and then sat down. We cheered him on every time even so.

We went on a drive to find snow this last weekend.

Here he is with his little gloves (thanks to great grandma Bev).

He was cold, can you tell?

He looks so small in that picture it's hilarious!

Lastly, we head off to a cruise in the Caribbean on Friday. We are so excited! I have my meds and Harrison has 20+ new toys ($1 or so each, don't worry) to keep us both happy on the flight. Funny story, we went to the pharmacy on Sunday and the pharmacist said awkwardly, "I hope you have a good trip" and I said to Nathan, how did she know? Well my anxiety meds said "take one 30 minutes before flying" and my motion sickness meds said "take 4 hours before cruise". Nathan and I both laughed as we assumed she was probably thinking, "Wow, all for a vacation? Really?" haha. It's true I do love Jesus and I can't wait for heaven but I don't really want to arrive via dropping from the sky and I have a tendency to replay scenes from Lost while I'm on a plane so I need something that stops my mind from going a little crazy... and protects Nathan from a fractured hand :)

We'll be sure to send pictures after the trip!

Love, the Jones'

P.S. My class is going great and I hope to blog about some of the highlights soon! Maybe Nathan will guest blog sometime soon too :) Currently he has been calling 1,040 donors over the last two weeks thanking them for their support. He's such a nice and thoughtfun development manager :) Oh and go see the movie Conviction if you haven't yet! Then google Conviction and Prison Fellowship. It might help some of you understand why Nathan does what he does and why I love that this ministry is a big part of our lives.

Our Little Duck!

We celebrated Halloween by visiting some friends from our church who were passing out candy at "Trick Or Treat" street, then swung by the CCU Harvest Carnival and then that evening walked around Aspen Grove Mall. It was a fun, eventful halloween weekend. Here are some pictures!

This is my friend Gina dressed up like a birthday candle. Can you believe she had all of the florescent green just hanging out in her closet?

This was Harrison watching the puppet show. Even though it was kind of weird, Harrison loved it!

This is the CCU mascot. I have no clue who was in it which makes it a bit weird...

To end the weekend Nathan dressed up like an Oreo so that we could get the $2 burrito at Chipotle. Turns out... you didn't have a to dress up. They gave the to everyone. Still, Nathan was a good sport and made a really cute Oreo!

I think I forgot to share with you all the fall colors here in Colorado. Here are a few pictures from our hike at Kenosha Pass while my mom was here.

This year's fall was absolutely breathtaking! The colors were wonderful! I think winter hit yesterday.

Love you all!

-Libby

Taking a break...

I decided to take a break from studying for my class I'm teaching on Tuesday and post our pictures from a few weeks ago. I just got them today! We did a family photo shoot with my friend Beth. The pictures turned out great! I'm actually babysitting her kids right this moment (don't worry, their asleep) in return for her wonderful work!

This is the perfect picture of our little man. When I think about Harrison this is the face that comes into my mind. He is just always so happy and excited about life!

I thought incorporating our family love for books was appropriate :) Nathan brought a leadership book and I brought a parenting book, just incase you were wondering. There are two things that I really love about the above picture that I just can't help but mention. One, do you notice how captured Harrison is by the book? He'll do anything to get his hands on one of our books and this photo op was his shining moment. Two, can you believe that ANYONE would ever pain their house that color! I mean really! It's great for a colorful picture but that's about it.

I have to be honest, this photo shoot was exhausting. Harrison is terribly squirmy. I don't think he has a future in modeling like his cousins, he won't sit still for a second nor does he want to be contained. Getting him to look at the camera was like getting a cat into water... (I have a cat laying next to me right now so it popped in my brain...) :)

Love you all and happy birthday grandpa Gene!!!

Our Tradition

This is our second year at the pumpkin patch and might I add, the second year was better than the first. Three things made it better. One, Harrison now has facial expressions :) He had a smile on his face that stretched from ear to ear. I know he was thinking "big orange BALLS!" (he loves balls). He also made his gasping sound when we arrived. When he gets excited he breaths in very deeply making a long high pitched gasp sound. Secondly, the Kolbers joined us in the adventure! Lastly, the pumpkins weren't rotten! Last year it had snowed already at this time in October. The snow ruined all of the pumpkins so they had to bring in crates of pumpkins from Mexico or something. Driving 45 minutes to pick your pumpkin out from a crate just isn't the same experience. This year we got to walk around and even cut ours from the vine. Next weekend we'll carve it! The weekend after that we'll head to trick-or-treat street with our little duckling! I can't wait to put him in his costume!!!!

Here are the pictures from our adventure.

Harrison and dad:

Harrison and a pumpkin. It was just the perfect size for him to lean on (not walking yet).

Aundi pretending that she couldn't stand without a pumpkin's support. She didn't want Harrison to feel alone.

Here are our multiple attempts at a family portrait. NONE of them worked... that's what you get when you have a cute but squirmy one year old.

Oh well...

I'm sure that as soon as he starts walking most of our pictures will be of one of us chasing after him.

This picture sums up my relationship with our son...

Can't you just hear him saying already "stop mom, you're embarrassing me!"

Here is the pumpkin we ended up with (forgive the pun):

Here we all are.

We stopped by the animal farm on the pumpkin patch.

He's not walking on his own yet. That's okay with us :) Like I said before, I think he'll go from crawling to running...

We didn't document it but our first stop, before the patch, was Starbucks. The Kolbers delighted in a PSL (that's how they refer to the world greatest Pumpkin Spice Late) and we enjoyed a carmel apple cider (to die for).

Love you all!

Resemblance?

So... the votes have been tallied and the photograph to prove it has arrived.

Our little man looks like his mommy, minus the curls!

This is me and my grandma when I was a little over one.

This is Harrison

Can you even believe that? CRAZY!!!!

My mom brought this picture of my grandma and I from Oregon last weekend and we both put our hands over our mouths that we're wide open!

Love,

Me

New Happenings

No, Harrison has not started walking but today was his first day clapping! I just thought I would share.

Other recent developments:

• He can sign hungry, more and all done
• He loves sitting in his new chair and watching 5 minutes or so of Baby Einstein. He can't sit still any longer than that.
• He now yells a lot to get our attention... we're working on that.

That's it :)

Love you all!

Harrison's Week of Firsts

Harrison is 1! One! Numero Uno! However you would prefer to say it :) This week has been all about him. Celebrating his life, his personality, his strengths and his progress. We love him to pieces!

First first: PRESENTS! For the first time he opened his own presents.

Nana and Papa (Nathan's parents) have a tradition of getting their kids and grandkids footstools with their names on them. Harrison used it as a platform to jump off of into daddy's arms :) I'm sure there will be many uses for it over the years (I'm already thinking about what a perfect seat it is for time outs :)

Harrison is beyond fascinated with cell phones, he's addicted. So grandma connie got him his very own!

I have been drooling over these child size chairs at Pottery Barn ever since Harrison was the size of a lemon in my tummy. Mom, not knowing my obsession with these little chairs got him one for his b-day! I was so excited!!!

We got Harrison two things. We've decided that as a tradition we would like to get our children a book for every occasion along with one other gift. Two gifts, that's it (the gift other than the book will always probably be a big one, I love gift giving). We got him Love You Forever which makes me cry every time I read it. It might just stay on the shelf until he can read it himself.

We got him this little car that we can push him around in. We got it from a post on Craig's List (We Love Craig's list even more now!).

We know, he's spoiled beyond belief! Our second child doesn't have a chance.

Second First: The Aquarium! We decided to celebrate as a family by taking him to the aquarium the night of his birthday. He loved it. The only problem was that he wanted to crawl around and see everything himself. The pictures aren't that great because of the lighting but here are a few from that adventure.

The above is an example of wanting to be let loose. We're praying that walking comes at 15-17 months... Once he starts walking I think he'll be running. We'll need to get him one of those monkey back packs that are actually harnesses with a leash :) I actually swore I would never do that to my child but yesterday the thought of a minivans practicality actually crossed my mind so who knows what I have the capability of buying these days for functionality's sake.

There was a play place at the end of the tour that he loved!

He loved the slide!

Third First: Facing Forward!

Here is how he has been sitting for the last 3 months.

Here's dad buckling him up to face forward for the first time.

Excited beyond belief!

Fourth First: Birthday party!

We invited everyone in our home group from church and several of our long time friends to Harrison's party. It was so fun to plan and put together! We had it at a near by park so that we could invite a lot of people. The scenery was gorgeous, you might notice the lake in a few pictures. We ended up having about 45 people there. It was so much fun!

Anna Bockmon (age 2) thought it would be fun to push Harrison around in his new car. SO Cute!

I made the cupcakes, Mulberries Cake Shop in downtown Denver made the cake and a smash cake just for Harrison (It's the small one on the right that Nathan is lighting a candle on... Nathan and I had a public argument at that moment, the candle was cute but fire in front of a one year old, not so cute!)

Isn't it pretty? Let's be honest, we had this party so that we could catch up and hang out with all of our friends and get this AMAZING cake!

Fifth First (and the end to the firsts): CAKE!!! SUGAR!!!

Harrison is a bit of a dainty eater. It actually took Nathan's help to get him to put his fingers in it. Even after putting his fingers in, Nathan had to get a spoon and feed him a bite before he started to eat it on his own.

He loved it!

Here is where Nathan and I try taking a cute picture with him and he decides to share cake with his mommy and ends up stabbing me in the eye with cake. My little munchkin!

Here's the good picture, safe from fingers :)

He kept eating it until we took it away. I think we gave him a good 20 minutes with it. You should have seen it though... he rapidly used his little index finger and thumb to grab small bites and put them in his mouth. So cute!

One last memory I'd like to share with you all. I'll remember it until I'm old and grey... 45 of our friends singing happy birthday to our precious little gift from God! It was such a sweet moment that I will cherish always! Even though we don't have immediate family nearby we do have our friends and they mean the world to us!

We wish you could have celebrated with us! We love you all!