The ladies man

Our god daughter and Auntie Kim came to visit for a couple of days this week, which was amazing. It was so great to see them and spend some time together. Here is the beautiful girl after a bath.


Jack wasn't too sure about Adalynn until the morning they left, then he felt he needed to express himself... enjoy

this is the closest he had gotten to her by himself

Soo excited all the sudden, he's coming in for a hug

She's not too sure at first

Reach out and touch someone, gently...

Gentle, one finger

Petting her head...she's not too sure about this guy...

gentle touch again

the face plant. he was just getting warmed up before

don't you like me too???

let me touch your eye

kiss him back

forced hug

Kisses are so great, especially jackie kisses

He is soo excited, she likes it :)

So much like his daddy, playing hard to get, but secretly in love with the girl :)

don't you love it??

we are definitely keeping these pics for posterity.

my boys

Here are my two handsome guys!

Daddy and Jackie playing with dinosaurs

Jack eating dinosaurs

jack attacking daddy with dinosaurs

Jack coming to hug daddy after the attack :)

I love these two guys!

so fast

My little boy is growing so fast! He is now using a fork and spoon to eat all of his meals. He had been very picky about what he would/would not eat and one day started fussing and pointing to the table, to the plate, and I asked him if he wanted a plate and he said yes. I thought he didn't know what he wanted, but I tried it, I gave him a plate and spoon with applesauce and cottage cheese and he ate every bit of it with his spoon. It is a little messy, but totally worth it! Jack and Daddy eating blueberry pancakes!

Coloring! Notice the left hand!

Jake did the Bataan Death March and his team came in 2nd out of 100 and they broke the course record. He felt great and enjoyed it alot! These are the men and women from Ft Bragg.

It is tradition for the competitors to leave a unit coin, these are the ones from this year.

We are doing pretty well. I planted my garden this week and have been really busy with work. Jake has been busy and we have been spending time together and with Jack.

Jack is doing really well, sleeping well, eating well. Very well mannered. He is so amazing. He isn't walking yet, but he is getting closer. He is very steady on his feet, but just not ready to let go of things or people.

My job at church is going well. I don't know if I've even blogged about it, but I am the new children's ministry coordinator at our church. It's a new position for the church and it has been a big undertaking, we launched a new 2 service format and there have been challenges, but the kids are so awesome. And the volunteers are great, I have gotten to know so many new families.

It is amazing to watch the Lord work, He is so faithful. His ways are not our ways. It's so funny to me, I am a bit of a control freak and this job was definitely not a part of my "life plan." But I have been so humbled to be a part of this ministry and church. The story of this job is that I wasn't at all looking for a job or this job. But they aproached me about the position and Jake was totally on board with it. I really felt like the Lord was just lining things up in His timing. He placed us here for a reason and I am so thankful that I can be home with my son at this time in his life. I can take him with me and do alot of my work from home. Growing up in ministry it was something I did not think I would do, but children's ministry really is my passion. I love watching these kids grow up in the faith. Did you know that 70-80 % of kids raised in church walk away when they get to college. I want to be a part of changing those numbers. I want these kids to know the joy of living a life without the regrets of an unsaved life. To help them make wise choices at an early age and to put God first in all that they do. I have been humbled in this position. Liberty Baptist has been growing and we are really enjoying all of the changes. What an amazing God we serve! So will I go back to medicine someday? I hope so. I miss being an NP and a nurse, but my job right now is to be obedient to what the Lord has for me.

I want to say thank you to those of you who have been such an encouragement to me in the past few weeks. I have been struggling with alot of emotions and doubt. But I know that God's plans are perfect and He will provide exactly what I need exactly when I need it!

What amazing friends He has provided for Jake and I. I am so thankful.

stuffed animals

Well, Jack is almost 16 months old and he has recently been making some big strides in his gross motor development. He has started climbing, standing up on anything, trying to stand up from the sitting position, and standing for a few seconds on his own without falling. So he is on his way to walking, we are hoping it happens before daddy goes away, but we'll see, we don't want to rush him, he will do it when he is ready (not that we could rush him if we wanted to :)

So I love stuffed animals, and before I had Jack if Kohls was selling books with stuffed animals I couldn't help from buying them, so Jack has quite a collection of stuffed animals. He has never been too interested in them, but just the other day he found them and got in the middle of a big pile of them and started hugging all of them. He loves his giant dog from grandma and grandpa sweatland (he woofs at it now) it was too cute to not take pictures. Enjoy!
Thrilled by all his new friends!

Hugging his Doggie

Ohh, what happened look

Aww....

tickled

These are better in reverse order...this is jack playing, me getting out the camera, him getting excited and coming after the camera...

Oh, good mommy you got the camera for me...

ohh yeah...getting closer

Excited face and hands....here he comes

What's going on mommy?
He is allowed to play with the plastic cups...he loves to pretend drink from them

He is sooo cute!!! we love him soo much. God has blessed us with such a happy little guy. He has been sick again this week, but just a virus we hope....no screaming so we don't think his ears are bothering him...he has been sleeping better still. last night from 8 to 7:30 (yea for mommy)

Jake is at the Bataan Death March this weekend competing with the team from Ft Bragg. There are 5 of them doing a 26 mile ruck through the desert, so if you think of him on Sunday morning, I'm sure he could use your prayers.

And you could pray for me, it's my trial run Sunday without Jake here...it will be interesting. He has really been there for me on Sundays by taking care of Jack, helping with my Power Point, helping with skits, etc. But God knows, He has it under control.

I will post about Bataan when Jake gets back with the camera.

fun times

Standing like a big boy

chasing the camera

In our PJs

We recently went on an overnight trip to Wilmington. It was really awesome! We went downtown and got good food. We went to Fort Fisher (a very important fort from revolutionary and civil war history) as well as the aquarium, and the battleship :)

we also got a kelty! (backpack for bigger kids)

jack loves it, but he loves to pull my hair too (we're working on that)

Jack loves!!! the aquarium, we stood at the fish tanks for a very long time and he really wanted to hug the fish! Fish is also one of our new words.

sharp!

we think that he thinks we're being silly

on the battleship USS North Carolina

Jack is doing better now, we are on some new ATB and he has slept well for 2 nights in a row...we'll see how tonight goes, maybe make it 3.

he is standing and spidering around the house, but no walking on his own yet. He did climb a step all on his own yesterday. He is talking alot now, he says:

ball, mama, dada, papa, gaba (grandma), woof woof, please, thank you, this, fish, light, stop it (i say this if he is screaming or when i want him to stop something, and now he says it to his toys), he says something that sounds like obey which would be wonderful, but we think it means okay.

His communication is really improving. He still points and is very sure of what he wants.

he is still eating almost everything, but he is having food stubbornness occasionally, he just won't eat something one day that he loved the day before, but we just let it go (not worth the fight at this point since we still can't really communicate) usually, most of the time he just eats around the object he doesn't want...

he has not been sleeping well, but we are hoping it was related to the sickness and lingering ear infection. He has been napping once a day now consistently for 1.5-3 hours. We still go to bed at about 7:30-8.

He can sit and stand now all he wants so he doesn't get stuck standing up in his crib anymore, which is nice.

One last thing before I head to bed. Can I just say how many germs he can now get into....wow! trash, anything on the floor, dirt...thank the Lord for a good immune system!

Thanks for reading!!!

moving

Here is a video of Jack using his new skills. Warning: he is very fussy in this video, not his normal self, we went to the doctor this afternoon and started on some Antibiotics, but it's cool to see him moving :)

I takes to the 1:20 to really see him go...bear with him.
He is doing okay today, but he has not been sleeping well...or eating, that's how we knew he was sick, poor little guy!


ps, jessi, i finally figured out the videos!!!!

what's new

So for the Sweatlands there have been quite a few changes in the past few weeks. Jake graduated from his course last Friday and he has been inprocessing with a new unit. So that is new. I have really been busy with my part time job, and Jack (drumroll please) is finally on the move standing up!!!

Here are daddy and jack before his first day in the new unit!

Us at graduation

Daddy and Jack (aren't they handsome)

Jack being very excited about the camera!

On the radio flyer his most favorite thing! He loves to ride it around the house as fast as he can, as well as outside. He has had a couple of tumbles, but wants to get right back on and do it again. Usually he is upset to be taken off of it!

Jack in the snow with our snowman!

Jack and daddy (daddy threw a snowball at jack)

Outside on the John Deere

So yes, Jack started standing up alot about a week ago, and a couple of day ago he started to push his stand up toys and walk across the room!!! Very exciting. It is all he wants to do now, as well as walking holding onto our fingers. What a big guy!

He does have an ear infection right now, so he has been a little fussy, but we are on ATB now and that should help...

Hope you enjoy the pictures!