Jordan's First Thanksgiving

The day began with Andy surviving his first half marathon through downtown Atlanta (starting and finishing at Turner Field). Nez and Bob were at the finish line to see him cross and take pictures, but somehow missed him. We're still not sure how that happened.

Later in the day we celebrated Jordan's first Thanksgiving with our new extended family.

Ross' family invited us up to their house in Kennesaw for Thanksgiving dinner.

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving with great food, company, and some football on TV. Jordan had a blast crawling around and playing with everyone...

mainly Uncle Ross!

Burt's Farm (Pumpkin Patch)

We'd been meaning to take Jordan to a pumpkin patch before Halloween, but it snuck up on us, and we missed that deadline. So we made the drive up to Dawsonville to a place highly recommended by Gio called Burt's Farm.

Jordan played amongst the huge pumpkins for a while and we were able to take some great pics.

Another reason for our trip was to try our first hayride. It was a lot of fun, although Jordan may have thought it was a little long.

This is definitely something we'll be making a tradition in years to come (although before Halloween if we can get our act together).

Jordan's 1st Halloween

When we began looking for Halloween costumes for Jordan's first Halloween, we weren't sure what to dress him up as. That is until we saw the Little Monkey suit. Absolutely perfect! It even had a padded belly to go over his padded belly.

We don't know if Jordan really knew what to make of this whole idea, but mommy and daddy had a blast trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. We began by walking over to the neighborhood pool. They had pizza and drinks and did a little parade around the pool for the kids.

Then we hit some select houses throughout the neighborhood. Running short of daylight (and warmth), we tried to strategically plan our route of 5 houses. We hit Josh and Loren, followed by Lindy and Ross

since they live about 5 houses from each other. Then came Russ and Brittany, followed by Adam and Julie, and Sarah and Robert. By this time, it was dark, we were freezing, and the monkey was exhausted (so were the monkey's parents who didn't have the luxury of riding in style and being pushed).

All in all it was a great Halloween and we couldn't have picked a more perfect costume. Unfortunately, we've set the bar high in the costume department for future years.

He's officially Uncle Ross now

On October 8th, 2o11 Lindy and Ross got married at Tucker Plantation near Athens, GA.

Jordan enjoyed himself with Grandpa at the rehearsal the night before the big day.

At the wedding, Jordan showed off his tux to match Daddy's and enjoyed gnawing on his fingers.

Jordan had a great time at the reception until it got too late for the little man. We parked his stroller in the corner of the room. While everyone was dancing, talking, laughing and drinking, little man was catching some z's in the corner.

Of course one of the highlights of the night was Grandpa's "Father of the Bride" toast. Jordan was not only mentioned twice, but credited with being part of the inspiration for the speech. Grandpa read Fox in Sox by Dr. Seuss to a 2-week old Jordan last year.

Trying out some new looks

Jordan had a couple of new looks to try out during his 9th month. Aunt Lindy was about to become Aunt Lindy Shoemaker on October 8th, so Jordan tried on his tux for the wedding. Luckily the pants could be hemmed...they're a tad long!

A couple weeks later Jordan will celebrate his first Halloween. How fitting that our little monkey is going as a little monkey.

Movin' On Up!

Jordan is constantly growing and changing on a daily basis. We can't believe how much he's grown already in the last 8 months. He's now 22.5 lbs, and 30 1/4" long! He has grown 10" just since he was born! He's eating baby food like a champ and has moved to the 3rd stage foods (though he still hates anything with chunks and wants nothing to do with table food). He is finally crawling -- like, real crawling, with his belly off the floor -- and has now started to pull himself up to standing. At first, he did it while holding on to me when he was on the changing table. Last Sunday, he got up all by himself while he was playing in his pack 'n play in the front yard. I, of course, got about a hundred pictures of him standing there, gnawing on the edge of the thing. He was so proud of himself and so were we! Now, he's pulling up on his toys and on us all the time. God help us, now we are constantly terrified he'll fall and crack his skull on the ground! LOL! Times are changing! I imagine he'll be walking within the next few months!

Little Fishy

Today Jordan started his first swim class at the Y. There were 4 babies in all (3 boys and 1 girl) and it was so cute! The class is meant for 6-24 month olds and it's mostly to get them used to the water. I had to work afterwards, so I just went to take pictures while Andy went in the water with him. Next weekend when Andy is out of town, I'll get the honors. It seemed like Jordan had a lot of fun with daddy in the water. They sang a lot of songs, and bounced up and down, but I think Jordan was more interested in munching on his fingers and watching the bigger kids in the class next to them.

Here are some photos from the class: