Christmas with the Larkins

Drove to Birmingham after Sage's Christmas program on Tuesday to see Chrissie. Here's a little recap of it:
Ate lunch with Sage at Taziki's. Went the wrong way the first time and had to turn around. Jaggar screamed because he was tired of his seat. Went to Chrissie's house after lunch. The girls played. We talked. Holland checked Jaggar out. Jaggar thought Holland was awesome. Chrissie picked up Harrison. I watched the girls. Planned on going to the mall. Kids cleaned up their mess. Correction: Kids continued to make more of a mess. Isacah fell and hit the back of her head. HUGE goose egg knot. Nauseating (for me). Took about an hour to calm her down. Threw the suggestion of opening presents out there to take her mind off it. A friend of Chrissie's stopped by with desserts to try. I fed Jaggar some baby food: squash. Back to presents. Opened them. Everyone was pleased. Jaggar swallowed a piece of tissue paper and choked. I couldn't get it. No worries because he threw up an entire jar of squash and some milk. I caught most of it in my hand. What I didn't get, his clothes caught. Had to wash those out. Changed him. Back to planning on going to the mall. It was dark. Didn't seem worth it. I loaded the car. We planned on meeting again at the Summit anyway. We just never caught up again. Ah, a day in the life! Never a dull moment. Oh, here's some pictures from the day....








ha. right.

Her Favorite thing in Louisville

Catch-up time again! Sage's favorite thing to do is the "bungee jump" they have in the middle of the mall in Louisville. She even said, "This is my favorite thing in Kentucky." Well, my cousin Amber is working there now, so she told me to bring Sage to jump for free and longer than 6 minutes. She jumped for 35. Then she came back another day and jumped for another 30 something minutes. Thanks, Amber for making her day!

She can do 3 or 4 flips in a row. Sage first did the jump when she was barely 2. She loved it immediately.Jaggar taking it all in. He LOVES his sister.
Not to be outdone...ha! I HAD to try. Because Amber was working, I asked if I could. Let me just say, I lasted 2 minutes and was ready to get down. Not a very comfortable contraption. It's no wonder that Sage was sore the next day, but she REFUSED to admit it could be from jumping.
Afterward, we got a cookie--a RUDOLPH cookie, at that.

Couldn't Resist :)

He may hate me for this one day, but I never thought I'd have a chunky baby! Sage was so tiny and still is, but Jaggar has some rolls! I just love it! I LOVE him!

Christmastime is Here

The day after Thanksgiving (or maybe the evening OF Thanksgiving) officially marks the start of the Christmas season. At least, that's what Macy's says. I let the kids open A gift from Nonni and Papa, since Sage had been chomping at the bit to do so. Of course, she was VERY observant that Jaggar had a bigger present than her. Starts early, doesn't it?

This is one of my favorite pictures because they both seem to be aware that I am taking a picture of them. It's a Christmas MIRACLE!
He was much more intrigued with the paper. He loves anything that makes noise.
His first pair of shoes! He's actually been barefoot (since it's been so warm until recently) or had coordinating socks on until this point. He seems to like the taste of leather too. :)
And doesn't he look handsome in them?
Sage's "beauty kit"
She was so thrilled with this because it had special shampoo and body wash. It actually smells really good too. I love that she gets so excited about simple things.

Another First

November 26th, 2009 was not only Jaggar's first Thanksgiving, but it was also Jaggar's first haircut! Travis had been telling me for a while that he needed one, but I just didn't really pay much attention. That is, I didn't pay much attention until one of my cousins said, "Oh, I LOVE HIM! His hair looks like a little Donald Trump!" *screeeeechhh, halt* WHAT?! Well, one of my cousins, Amanda, is a hairdresser, so that was the perfect time! Amber just happened to have scissors, so the kitchen turned into a salon....is that what you say for a boy? Barbershop? In any case, Jaggar didn't care as long as he had something to play with, which turned out to be wipes. In between his busy hands playing with those and occasionally trying to swipe the scissors, Amanda managed to do a great job!He loves the sound those wipes make.

Look how sweet that is! I didn't realize how long it was until he got it cut! Handsome little man!

Thanksgiving

Jaggar's first Thanksgiving was bittersweet. It was bitter because his daddy was in Alabama due to an early crew call for a tv shoot on Friday morning. It was also bitter because he can't eat that food yet! However, it was more sweet than bitter because he was surrounded by a lot of love. Some of my cousins were seeing him for the first time, and he just loved everyone. Sage had a great day playing with her cousin Mikayla and showing everyone the "Frosty the Snowman" that she made at build-a-bear. We have so much to be thankful for this year.


Sage blinked but at least the kids are both LOOKING at the camera. It's getting more and more difficult to take a picture these days!My brother, Kevin, and Jaggar
Showing off for Amanda and Whitney, my cousins, for the first time.
Sage and Mikayla. They play so well together just like her mom and I did when we were little. Mikayla is also a VERY new (1 week and 4 days here) big sister.
My sweet grandmother, who works so hard to make all that yummy food.

Christmas before Thanksgiving?

Well, if you have a very excited 4 year old, you give gifts early. The kids and I traveled to Louisville the Monday before Thanksgiving and stayed for 12 days. We don't get to return for Christmas, so we try to stay for a while and do Christmas later in the visit. Sage was so excited about giving her presents to Nonni that we did it the second day we were there, I believe. We spread the kids' gifts out MUCH later in the trip though. After all, anticipation of presents is fun.

Sage was so excited about this, even though she told my mom about it in October. Mom didn't really know what she was talking about though. It's a candle that we both loved years ago, and then they stopped making them. I found them again at a local festival (Oxfordfest for the natives) and was so excited.This was an ornament with Mom's name on it. Jaggar was so excited. haha.
One more...
I made this picture collage with different photos of the kids from the past few months. She loved it. We also gave my dad a 5 day weather forecast reader but I don't have a pic of that.

6 Months Old

It's catch up time with the blog! Jaggar is actually almost 6 1/2 months old now, but we've been out of town and he's gotten a LOT busier. I took these pictures at 6 months though. Isn't he a cutie??

Meeting Santa

The mall was packed the night Santa arrived, so I told Sage that we'd come back during the week to get their picture made. Wasn't she afraid of Santa? So many have asked me. Well let me tell you that this kid is a different person since she's become a big sister. She did actually talk to Santa the night he arrived. We just didn't do pics because Jaggar was falling apart. She climbed in his lap without ME and said that she'd like a bubblegum machine. Then he asked her if she liked surprises (which was precious) and said, "I'm good at surprises." He told her that she could come back because he'd be there a LONG time (no kidding).

So on Monday, that's exactly what we did because I knew there wouldn't be anyone there during school, and I was correct. I didn't really expect to get 2 different poses because they charge an arm and a leg for a camera that is not as good as our's, BUT when I saw how sweet they were, I couldn't resist. Jaggar will almost always smile at anyone and everyone, but he was so taken aback by all the THINGS: nutcrackers, snowmen, snow, lights, trees...that we simply got him to look at the camera. But on that second one...the sweet look at Santa is my favorite. We love Santa! So when I was choosing what I wanted, Santa handed Jaggar to me and said, "Sage, come here, let me show you something." He picked her up, put her hand in his, and started dancing and singing to "walking in a winter wonderland." It was SO precious, and I SO wished I'd had my camera to take a picture of that and the look on her face. I said, "Do you think ANYONE has ever danced with Santa?!" She was pretty sure they hadn't.My favorite

When Daddy Fixes the Hair

Travis has wanted to give Jaggar a mohawk for a LONG time. He took his opportunity on Sunday when I was in the shower. This is what I saw when I got out. Poor baby Cruiz.

O Christmas Tree

We figured that if you can't beat 'em, you may as well join 'em, so we went ahead and put our Christmas tree up this past weekend. We will be traveling next week, so we just gave in and started the decorating process BEFORE Thanksgiving. I do LOVE having the tree up, and for me, the anticipation of Christmas is better than the actual day, so I really don't mind. It's just FINISHING the process of decorating. The tree is up, and that's about it. Even though, he's little, it's still J Cruiz's first Christmas, and it's neat to see how he reacts to it all. Travis took some sweet pictures. He likes the lights.
This is after we put the ornaments on the next day. Sage was VERY into it this year. After all, she's the reason we put up the tree on Saturday.

Cereal Time!

After 6 months of an all liquid diet, Jaggar was finally introduced to solids on Monday: the ever-popular-for-beginners RICE CEREAL. He absolutely LOVED it. He actually screamed (which is a really fun *haha* new thing he's got going on this week) when it was gone. With Sage, I started her at 4 months, so she was a lot less active during meals. It is very difficult and MESSY to feed a baby that thinks that he can "help" with the spoon. So, needless to say, bathtime is inevitably afterward.

Since the cereal is white, you can't really see that it's all over his face, but trust me, it was.I finally gave up and let him hold the spoon for a few.