Working on the Jeep

We are headed for Moab in two weeks, so I've been doing some work on the Jeep to get ready.  New leaf springs, new brake lines front and rear, modified front bump stops, a mount for the hi-lift, and a few miscelaneous maintenance issues.  Xander has been very curious about what dad is up to and has helped out lots!!

Hopefully that's all the work on the Jeep for this year.  Next year I'd like to put in a Ford 8.8 rear axle and an ARB locker.

-Jake

Gran Comes to Visit

ran, Mom, came to visit this week.  Xander was a little fussy, he had a tooth coming in, but we had a wonderful weekend.  Xander got new birthday presents including a bubbling lawn mower, and one old present, Beauregard, a 3 foot tall playmate that I hade as a boy.

Mom took us out to dinner at Aji for an early birthday present for Erin.  Xander had his first ceviche there, he loved it!  We had lovely weather and were able to work in the yard for a whole day.  We got lots done, and Xander loved playing outside in the grass.   I had to leave for Philadelphia for part of the week, and Mom had a whole evening with Xander while Erin went to mommies night out.

-Jake

Xander is a 1 Year Old!

At his one -year-old checkup, Xander broke the trend, and fell out of the 90th percentile.  He is 30.25  inches long (50th%ile), 24 lbs 3 oz (75th %ile), and has a 48 cm head (still 90th %ile).

Xander can stand up on his own for a few seconds at a time, but still hasn't taken any official steps.  He has 6 signs: pick me up, more, food, all done, hi and milk.  He has 12 "words": Mama, Dada, Otto, Blitz, dog, Milk, Ball (his favorite word), Block, Jack, this, banana, and "roar"  Xander has 9 theeth, with the 10th on it's way.

We finally finished his photobook chronicling his first year, and that one of the big reasons we haven't updated the blog here in awhile.  Most of the photos came from the blog, but there were a few new ones, and each of the grandparents recieved a photobook for their own.  It was a lot of work to make it, but a lot of fun too, and I know I'll spend hours and hours looking through it, remembering all the wonderful days we've had.  It is so hard to belive that it has been a year- an so much has changed!

Here are Xander's 1-Year-Old Portraits for you to enjoy, as we have!

Yes We Did

Happy 1st Birthday Xander!

I'm not sure if it's more of Xander's celebration or ours, this first of many birthdays.  A year ago today we delivered Xander into the world.  In the last 12 months we've had ups and downs, adventures and misadventures. We've watched Xander grow up, and perhaps we've grown up a little too.  Certainly we've grown into a family, and although I didn't know it was possible, our love for our son, and each other, has grown too. What a year it has been! 

How to celebrate?  While Xander would have been perfectly happy with his dinner of strawberries and oranges and asparagus and salmon, we really felt the need to get the classic photo of our child eating his first cake.  This has been a blog with words describing our feelings, our family and our life, but it has also been a journey in photos- we needed a photo!  Okay, we needed 6!

And for those of you who like to see how generations change and stay the same, here's a picture of Erin enjoying *her* first cake!