A few pics from our week.

As we wait for the estimate from the insurance adjuster, we fill our time playing with Jack. Ok, ok, we do that anyway but we are anxiously awaiting the estimate and the money so we can finally start to get our house fixed. For those of you who don't know yet, they are probably going to tear off the whole roof and ceiling from our living room to the garage (about 70% of the house) which means we'll be packing stuff up and storing it until the house is fixed. Yipee. I just hope it can happen fairly quickly. Anyway, enjoy these pics.

Jack & daddy reading his choo choo book. Of course, you can't read without the crocs and tractor hat.

We went to the Lady Vols game on Sunday. We didn't get to watch too much because Jack preferred to walk around the arena.
A little blurry, but it's obvious he's singing Rocky Top.
Playing creep mouse.
We were able to play outside today and he had so much fun. He would have stayed outside all day driving his tractor and putting leaves in his dump truck. I'm officially ready for spring so we can play outside even more.

Just a few more pictures of Jack

He's so goofy around Aunt Kelly.
Throwing rocks from the flower bed.
Look closely, you can see the marker on his face.
Hammin' it up while eating mak mee (see previous post)

He's growing up so fast...

Jack's fitting in quite well in East Tennessee, already growing a beard and missing teeth.
He really loves to eat his "mak mee" or as we call them, black beans. We have to undress because they're a little messy. Tonight after the mak mee he wanted "addyda" (also known as applesauce). He really likes addyda and tonight decided to try it with "dewitts" (or carrots). A few nights ago, Jarred and I were eating something and had tortilla chips with it. Jack wanted a chip- he says that pretty well- and decided to eat that with his addyda. He dipped the chip in the applesauce and said, "mmmmm chip addyda." I guess it's better than it sounds because he ate several of them.

Coincidence or Genius?

Lately, Jack has been putting more and more words and thoughts together and is beginning to tell us things he wants, etc. Some of the things he does make me sit back and think, "hmmmm, does he really know that or is that a coincidence?" Here are some examples:

We are cleaning the living room a few days ago and Jack has a box of alphabet books. We read these a lot, but don't really say, "This is A, B, C," etc. We just read the books. As I want to put them all away, he wants to sit and read them all so I say, "Jack, where is your R book? Go find me your R book." He puts his little hands up like "I don't know" but runs off around the living room to search. Just a few minutes later he comes back and hands me the R book. Now... does he really know it's the R book or did he just happen to pick up the book I asked for?
This weekend, we were sitting at the table and Jack was sitting in Kelly's lap. He asked for some "druit" so my mom gave him some "juies" (cherries). She put 4 cherries down on the table. He ate one and then said, "dree juies". Kelly and I looked at each other and just said, "Nooo." Again, is he just that smart or is it a coincidence?
Jack is so funny when "A-deddy" is around. I think he might like her just a little bit. Of course, it helps that she is just a little silly! We had a fun weekend with her here and we're anxious to see Abbott. It will be so fun to see these two little boys play together.

Once we got home on Sunday, we discovered some more frustrations from the tree falling on our house. It rained all day so the roof leaked and there was water all in our kitchen. We cleaned it up and nothing was damaged so again, we're pretty lucky. We're waiting for the adjuster to come out Friday (he was supposed to come today) so I'll get some estimates in the meantime. Mom and dad keep saying we're going to get a new kitchen out of this and they may be right. I hope it's a cool kitchen, since I'm such a good cook!

The Grammys

I was watching the grammys last night and was very entertained by some of the performances. First off, I really like Carrie Underwood. She sang great. I want to look like her. (HA!) Then it was pretty cool to watch Tina Turner rock at almost 70! My next favorite was the duet with Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli. That was amazing.

What I was NOT impressed with was Kanye West. To me, he is just too cocky and thinks he is the best thing ever. I think he is wrong. He wins a grammy and during his acceptance speech tells the other guys in the category that they need to stop releasing albums at the same time he does because he owns that grammy. Now, it's kinda funny and they all laugh but he's still just a big jerk. The best part of the night however, was when Vince Gill accepted his grammy from Ringo Starr. He said, "I just got an award given to me by a Beatle. Have ya had that happen yet, Kanye?" It was awesome! They showed Kanye and he laughed and Vince said he was just kidding, but I still enjoyed it. I really can't remember who won awards because they really didn't give out that many this year- on tv anyway. They focused more on performers. It was fun to watch though. What did you think of the grammys???

The Diction Door

Located in the choir room of the church where Kelly had her shower this weekend in Kentucky, this one small door provided countless hours of entertainment for me, Kelly, Ryan, my mom and my dad. We really wanted to stay and hear the choir sing. So, until my next bah lohg I lee heef yoooo with the diction door.

Big Orange, Big Tree

Let's start with the happier news. Jarred and I went to the Tennessee vs. Florida game on Tuesday night and were happy when we won 104-82. Tennessee is now ranked #7 and is off to it's best start in school history. (I've probably just jinxed us.) It was an awesome game. Here's a view from our seats. We were kinda up there. GO BIG ORANGE!

Now for the not so happy news. Wednesday morning we woke up to lots of thunder and rain. Throughout the day the wind was really strong and all of a sudden I hear a loud bang. A tree fell on our house. Now... this is about the 4th tree to fall in our backyard so every time the wind blows we get worried. Jarred and I had been sending each other text messages (he works hard) about the wind and I sent one that said, "It sure is windy, I hope a tree doesn't fall on our house." We text back and forth about needing to cut them down when I hear the BANG. Well, I was in the most obvious of places to be when you get scared, the bathroom, and I jumped up and first ran into Jack's room. He was fine, still sleeping, it didn't even wake him up. I immediately called Jarred and told him, he headed home and our doorbell rang. It was our neighbors from across the street who saw the tree fall and came over to check on us. I walk outside with them and here's what I see... Nice, huh? So I proceed to call insurance and file the claim. Well with all the tornadoes and bad weather across west Tennessee, I'm not too high on the priority list so we're not sure when we'll get this fixed. Good news is, we've got someone out today to take the tree off the house and get a tarp up. As long as we don't have a lot of rain, we should be ok. As unfortunate as this situation is, I can't help but think about the people in west Tennessee and other states that got hit with the tornadoes. In the grand scheme of things, we're pretty lucky. I think the latest death toll over there was 55. My pictures pale in comparrison to what the pictures from the tornado look like, but here's some of the damage.
This one below is in our laundry room. There are small cracks in and around the kitchen area, but this one is the worst.
Jarred got up in the attic and discovered broken beams. If you look closely this one on the far right is split. If you look right above the insulation you can see 2 broken beams there.
Anyway, we'll keep you updated on the insurance situation. Jack and I are headed to Nashville this weekend and to Kentucky on Saturday for a shower for Kel. Hope your week was more uneventful than mine!

A little redemption

I thought it was only fair that I should let you know that I can cook... as long as I follow a recipe! :) Last night, Mom and Dad came over to watch Jack so Jarred and I could go to the Tennessee vs. Florida basketball game (more on that later) and I cooked a pretty tasty dinner. Now, I should give credit where credit is due- I used 2 recipes from the "Deceptively Delicious" cookbook. It is a cookbook written by Jerry Seinfeld's wife, Jessica and it incorporates pureed vegetables into meals. It is really designed to sneak veggies into kids' meals, however it works for us picky adults too. So far I've made 3 of the recipes and they are really good. Last night I cooked an italian meatloaf that had pureed carrots with a side of mashed potatoes with pureed cauliflower. If anyone out there has picky kids... or adults I would recommend this book. (Or ask me for the recipes- I won't tell!) I didn't take a picture to prove it (we ate it all too fast) but maybe my Mom or Dad would post a comment to verify. :) Even Jack said, "MMMM, tatoes" when he ate the potatoes. See, I'm not always a bad cook!

No Mommy, No

I knew it would come, the day Jack would learn to tell me no. However, I never thought it would be so cute. I do not have this on video yet, but I will try to capture it. Just about everything I ask has an answer of, "No". It's not a mean no, just a matter of fact. For instance...

Me: "Jack, do you want to lay on your pillow?"

Jack: "No Mommy, No."

Me: "Ok"

Jack: "pillow"

I think he just likes to say no. Sometimes he does mean it but sometimes he just says it. Right now, I think it's cute. In a month or two, I'll let you know.

Why I should not cook: Chapter 2

Ok, so I was preparing snack foods for our super bowl party with my mom and dad. We're all trying to watch our weight a little (or a lot) so I remembered a recipe from weight watchers about a pineapple angel food cake. Instead of mixing in water, you mix in the pineapple and it's juice. It was really good. I thought, this will probably work with cherries, right? So, I bought the cake and the cherries and mixed it all together. When it was time to take the cake out and turn it upside down to cool, this is what happened. Please note: This is cake #2, I tried it twice.

Jack Reading

Ok, I emailed this video, but the quality was poor and a lot of them got sent back to me. I think this one's a little better. It's about the best I can do without making a dvd and sending it out to everyone. Sorry, no full length features of Jack yet. Enjoy.