Round 2 Begins

Well, with the arrival of Santa this Christmas, Jordan has now begun experiencing holidays and such for the second time. Jordan met Santa on Christmas Eve at Perimeter Mall (nothing like waiting until the last possible minute and almost missing it).

Anyway, after we informed Santa of what we wanted, we had a wonderful Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa Crosby came up on Christmas morning and stayed for a few days. Jordan always loves playing with grandpa. Here, he is explaining the calendar he gave them to Grandma Mikki.

After spending Christmas Eve with Ross' parents, Lindy and Ross came over on Christmas morning to open presents and see Jordan. Does anyone know who just LOVES his Uncle Ross?

We all had a great Christmas dinner at Lindy and Ross' house with Kevin, Angela, Jodie, Jason, and Noah joining us.

Christmas was much different this year with a one-year-old than it was with a 2-week-old. Jordan really racked up on the toys this year from everyone. Although he enjoys the boxes more than what's inside.

We're thinking we are going to need to build a parking garage in the living room for all his vehicles: dump truck, convertible car, motorcycle, and fire truck. That doesn't count the insane number of smaller and/or non-vehicle toys the kid has.

Jordan had already started walking while pushing one of his toys or a dining room chair. But he is now beginning to take his first steps without holding on to anything. As of today, he has taken about 6 consecutive steps on his own.

Birthday Boy!

On the Sunday before Jordan turned ONE, we threw Jordan his first birthday party. Friends and family came to help him celebrate! After the first hour and a half of the party, the birthday boy decided to wake up from his nap to join us. Fashionably late entrance apparently.

He didn't exactly like the cake, but we got good pictures.

On the 13th at 8:36 PM Jordan officially turned 1 year old. Our goal is to take a picture of him at that time each year on his birthday and create a scrapbook to give to him when he grows up.

We hope Jordan enjoyed his turning one even half as much as we enjoyed it for him! We can't believe he's already a year old. Where does the time go?

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.