Here Comes Santa Claus

Well, the holidays are upon us again! You know what that means, lights, shopping, carols, cookies, and PARADES!! I do love a parade, although this year there were a few times I wasn't too sure about parts of them. For example, why do the fire engines have to wait right until they get to me and blare the siren and honk that horn? Really, it's enough to make a guy wet his diaper! Anyway, Mom and Dad have taken me to three parades this year, so without further ado, here's some memories!

Not exactly sure what to expect as this first parade was kicking off. This was the parade at Hamilton Place Mall. Apparently Santa lives there for a month or so before Christmas and takes requests. Hmmmm, requests....."Mom, can we go to the mall?"I couldn't leave this one out! It's the Chick -Fil-A float, only my favorite fast food place to eat. I call it Chick-Pil-A.And here comes the big guy! Santa arrived at Hamilton Place in a shiny red bug. Pretty fitting since we are getting a new Volkswagon plant here! This was the East Ridge Parade. We sat in the back of DaDa's truck and could see everything! It was COLD!!In East Ridge, Santa arrived atop a big red fire engine. For the Gatlinburg Parade, we always go eat at the Park Grill first. Then we kill some time taking family pictures by their outdoor fireplace. This year, we took about 150 and got 6 or 7 good ones. If everyone in the picture would learn to squirm, look away or close their eyes when I do, maybe taking a picture wouldn't be so difficult. It's so hard to get adults to pose!GrNanny and Dada all bundled for the parade.This year, my JeanJean went with us for the first time. It was so much fun!! Love me some JeanJean!!Unc Bubba and Aunt Audi sure know how to make a boy look good! Aren't they cute?The HatmakersThe Gatlinburg Parade has a few things we don't see around here too often. Yes, those are camels.

No, she's not 150 years old, and no, she isn't some fairytale grandmother. Her head got cold and she wrapped her scarf around her head. I just couldn't resist. Hahaha!!Bagpipes! They sure are beautiful, but loud and hard to dance to.

It didn't stop me from trying though!I managed to squire Aunt Audi away from Unc Bubba for the parade.Once I got her, I sure wasn't letting go. I held on tight except when the marching bands went by and I loosed my grip and patted her shoulder to the rhythm of the drums.

At last! Santa and his flight crew. Now that's one good looking Santa, and of course he's the real one because he has the sleigh!

Stay tuned, my next post will be all about the rest of our Gatlinburg weekend,

including S-N-O-W!!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Me!!

Holy Cow, can you believe I am 2? OK, I really don't know what the big deal is about being 2, but I do know that for over a month, Mom has been saying to everyone, "Can you believe it's been two years?". I do know this, being 2 is like having an American Express Card, membership has it's privileges. For example, did you know that 2 year olds get to eat in a booster seat at the big table? Yep, my high chair has been relocated to the laundry room! Two year olds get to put on their own shoes sometimes, but Mommy is still very specific about which shoe goes on which foot. Two year olds get to hold onto the rail when going up and down the steps instead of scooting on their bottoms. Two year olds can get out of their baby bed and surprise Mommy in her bed, or the garage, or the bathroom, or the office....let's just say Mommy's never know where a two year old is going to show up...or when! Anyway, I got to have two birthday parties, one early in the month while the weather was nice and one at Chuck E. Cheese on my actual birthday. Double the cake, double the balloons, double the presents...YAHOO!! Here are some of the pictures from my birthday month. Enjoy!!

Yummy Cake!!Getting ready to open presents!MY very own Chevy truck!Granny and Granddaddy got me a bouncy house!!I got to help Granddaddy blow off the driveway so I could drive my new truck!Waiting for Mommy to fix breakfast the day after my birthday.Playing with the train Unc Bubba and Aunt Audi gave me.My actual birthday day cake.Fun at Chuck E. Cheese!Another train! Yay!! Aunt Audi followed me around Chuck E. Cheese and helped me play!A natural born cowboy! Singing with GG and playing my new piano.My first train set from Rick and Kelli! It was love at first sight!

Love,

Jax

Just a little off the ears, please!

After much stalling by Mommy and Granny, it was time for my first haircut. I was beginning to look like a mad scientist, scraggly hairs all over and curls popping up willy nilly. Of course, we would trust no one but Aunt B to give me my first trim. Everything started out fine. Daddy was tickling me with a brush to distract me while Bobbie cut some hair and gave it to Mommy to save.

See, so far, so good! Suddenly I decided I wasn't so wild about having my hair cut. Panic definitely set in.

Daddy to the rescue. He stopped videoing the haircut and began showing me some videos of myself. That always makes me smile!

Really Mom? You want a smile right now? I don't think so!

Bobbie let me use her blowdryer when she was finished to blow off the loose hairs. I LOVE playing with a blowdryer!

Giving Aunt B some sugar. Of course, we're still friends! But don't go getting any ideas about cutting my hair again anytime soon!

Everyone loves my haircut except Mommy. She loves it too, but is makes me look like such a big boy. She misses those sweet baby wisps.

Stay tuned, my Birthday party is tomorrow and there will definitely be pictures to share! Wish you could all be here for cake!

XO,

Jax

Happy Halloween...YUMMY!!!!

First we took the costume for a test drive. Mom has learned how important this can be when preparing for a day like Halloween. The last thing a guy needs is to be all dressed up and have Mom realize there is no way to change a diaper, or I need a shirt on underneath my costume or something. So on Thursday before Halloween, we took the guitar for a test drive. We went to see Bobbie at Splash. Let me just tell ya, that gang knows how to dress for Halloween. After a few minutes and several pieces of candy, we headed to Dalton to see Bubba at his office. He took us to lunch at Fuji and it was YUMMY!! I wandered around the restaurant in my guitar suit and got several pieces of candy from the nice lady who got our table ready.

This is a shot of me with the great Jack O Lantern. I was so excited!!!

Two stops and some Japanese food later and I was out. Moral of the story? Mom, take a napping outfit!!

For days now, Mom has been trying to get me to say Trick or Treat. I finally got it, but it sounds a little more like tricky treat. Either way, it's supposed to get me candy. Now I find this confusing because Mom has taught me to say "please" to get candy in the past. I do wish she'd make up her mind! Anyway, Halloween came and it was a great day! We skipped the fall festival at church because it was rainy and they had to move it inside. Mom was concerned about me being cooped up with all those germs and about me getting plowed over by some of the bigger kids, so we went to plan B. Dad took me to the mall to see Nonna and tricky treat at her store, then we got Chick Fil A for lunch. YUMMY!! After a nap, Mom had the cupcakes baked and let me put the sprinkles on them. They went everywhere, but it was ok. Mom said no biggie and left 'em! She did clean them up later, but first we loaded into Dad's truck and set off on our tricky treat route.

Look at these great cupcakes!! They may not be beautiful, but they look

Yummy!!

Our first stop was Nanny's house. She had so many goodies for me that it filled up my pumpkin and we had to get a gift bag so that I could carry everything and still have more room for Tricky Treat candy. Nanny had candy, cookies, a sprite, some apples and, best of all, some John Deere Tractor Chewies. If you don't know what these are, I am sorry you don't have someone who loves you lie I do. These are the best fruit chews on the planet. My Granny gets them for me in the cereal aisle and she almost always has a pack in her purse. YUMMY!!Of course I had to sit down with Nanny and show her my whole stash of candy...it was adding up quickly.Next, we were off to G.G.'s neighborhood. They were at a neighbor's house for a party, but the kids were about to head out to Tricky Treat, and they let me tag along.Here I am getting candy from my first true Tricky Treat experience. The people were all dressed up like the Flintstones, and their yard was full of inflatable Halloween things, but nothing scary.This was a blow up cat that made fun sounds when you went through it. Mom asked Aunt Cindy if we could put it up in our garage for me to run through on rainy days. Oh Mom, I don't have that much energy! The cat was seriously fun though and I went through it about 15 times!Finally we ended up at Bubba and Audi's house. Our plan was to hit a few houses near them, but I had more fun seeing everyone who came to their door. Bubba cooked burgers, and in between bites I got to give out candy. It was really fun, but there were a couple of costumes I was not so sure about. Granny made them take their masks off though to show me it was ok. Granny rocks!!At long last, I got a bite of one of my cupcakes from earlier in the day. I don't know why I didn't want to hold it, but eating it this way kept me from getting my hands dirty. They were Yummy!

The Great Jack O Lantern

Well, it finally got here! Time to turn the Great Pumpkin into the Great Jack O Lantern! Mommy and Daddy are amateurs when it comes to the carving part, since this is the first year they have done this, so Granny and Granddaddy came over to supervise. This is one last shot before the carving begins!This is Daddy getting some final advice about how to cut the lid open. It has to be cut on an angle so that it won't fall down inside.

OOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo!!!! Gross! What is all that stuff? I think Daddy is going to have to handle this part!Ok, ok, I'll help too. Boy, there sure are lots of seeds in this big ole pumpkin! This is so fun! I love doing these things with Dad, and he will do just about anything to be sure I have good memories!Hanging with Granddaddy in the garage, trying to stay warm and not miss any fun.Stirring the bowl full of seeds that came out of the pumpkin. We were going to save the seeds and try to grow our own next year, but decided we had so much fun going to the pumpkin patch this year that we tossed them in the trash. They were slimy, but fun to play in!!!Here it comes! They are moving it to the porch! Get out of the way!! Don't drop it!TA DA!! Look what a great job Daddy did carving the Great Jack O Lantern of 2009!!This has nothing to do with the Great Jack O Lantern, but Mommy had to put it on here to show what happens when she leaves her purse on the kitchen table while she runs to the potty. For the record, lip gloss does not clean up nearly as easy as it goes on. Mom scrubbed and scrubbed, fussing the whole time about boys not wearing make up. I think that's all for now. I'll post pictures of my Halloween costume later this weekend!