12.08.2008

JRW is 3 months old!



I can not believe it has been over 3 months since Jack Richard was born! Time has passed so quickly. Sometimes I feel like it was just last week we were at the hospital, then coming home getting acquainted with him. Other days it seems like Jack has been in our lives forever. Since day one he has been a happy, healthy and easy-going guy. Nursing has continued to go well and starting in the next few months he'll start eating rice cereal in addition to nurse. He now weighs an ounce or two under 15 pounds! Quite the arm-full. He only fusses if he's hungry or tired-and if it's sleep he needs-as soon as he's in his crib (or occasionally in our bed! :) with his bink-he's out! The first picture above was taken on his birthday, September 5th at St. Vincent's. I've taken a picture of him on the 5th of every month since, and a ton in between. The rest are his first, second and third month pics. The progression is amazing! Now that we have settled into a routine with him, Matt and I have started to work on things that have been on hold since he was born. The first project we revisited was the master bathroom. When we moved into our house a year ago August, we had a list of about 75 projects. Including everything from painting every single wall, to landscaping, to adding a bathroom to the studio to closing up doorways and creating a new hallway. I can honestly say we (mostly Matt) have completely transformed our 1923 bungalow. The only major projects that we have left are, demolishing the old deck and rebuilding a bigger one than before, the master bath and our front and back yard landscaping. The back needs new sod and the front needs a whole lotta tlc. But compared to where we started, I'm thrilled to say that the end is in sight! The reason for all this reminiscing is that I plan on posting pictures of the bathroom as we work on it. The story behind the master bath is that in old homes the floor plans can sometimes make no sense whatsoever! When we bought the house there was a useless room off of the master bedroom. It had a small closet but that was it. It was considered another bedroom because of the closet but what kind of bedroom requires walking through another one to get to it? Well, the obvious answer was to transform this mystery room into a bathroom. We figured it would be great when it came time to sell because bathrooms and walk-in closets are at a premium in our neighborhood. In the 20's and 30's large closets and bathrooms didn't exist. So it's totally normal to find houses that have 4+ bedrooms and one bath! Anyway, the master bathroom is also one of the projects that Matt and I have been looking forward to because it is completely from scratch. The other bathroom we added was simply for utility purposes so this one is our creative outlet. It has been fun designing the floor plan and picking out the tile and color scheme. So check back with in the week, I plan on posting a few pics of where we are now-which as of two weeks ago Matt got all the dry-wall hung so we now have walls!

Hope all is well. Love to you all!

12.06.2008

Alivia's artwork available to buy!

By now I'm sure you've read on my blog about my talented and beautiful sister Alivia who is an amazing artist. She is a painter and photographer. She took Jack's birth announcement/Christmas card pictures a month or so ago. (I plan on posting them, after I send out the cards!) Below is some of her latest work.
But the coolest and newest thing that she's up to is now her work is on a website, where you can order it on posters, wall art, calendars and cards! So cool. The site is:
www.redbubble.com/people/aliviawilliams


Check it out and BUY some STUFF.







12.04.2008

Just a quick reminder on hearing the audio on a video. My playlist automatically starts playing, so scroll to the very bottom of the page. You should see a black box with song titles etc. Just click the pause button (on the top, left hand side). Then scroll back up to the video-hit play-and if the volume on your computer is turned up-you're good to go! Enjoy.

VIDEO of Baby Jack reading with Dad.

12.02.2008

11.23.2008

Here are some pictures of Jack with some special people.

My Mom and Jack. My Mom wanted to be called Glam Gram (haha) So we've decided to shorten it to Gigi! I love it!


A picture from our visit with my good friend Jennifer and her baby Brenna-who is exactly one week older than Jack! We had a great time meeting them for lunch in Stuart!


Jack and my Mom's good friend Nancy Gill. We had dinner with Nancy in Stuart. She knit a beautiful blanket (the one in the pic) and Christmas stocking for Jack! Thank you Nancy!


Jack with my Mom's good friends. Bonnie (left) and Marilyn!






Pictures of our visit with Meghan and Adalie!!

Enjoy these pics of Meg with Addie and Jack and Addie being best baby buds..well actually we call them cousins!! We had a great time with these two gals! Love to you both!

















11.16.2008

Our visit with Christina & Steven.

We were so excited to have my good friend from high school Christina and her boyfriend Steven squeeze us into their busy Florida/Georgia weekend. We always have the best time with the two of them! Steven & Christina make a great couple. Steven is such a great guy-way to go Christina!!! We just love them together :) Jacquie and I met the two of them for breakfast at Steven's all-time favorite Jacksonville restaurant-The Cool Moose. So now you know why we took all the pics in front of the sign! We are told he loves it there because of it's authentic Vermont & Maine coffee! And it was gooood. We just need to get him to broaden his horizons and let us take him to our favorite breakfast place-the Fox! Come on Steven-our treat next time! So we had a fun little visit. See you two soon!

Our visit with Christina & Steven.







11.01.2008




Fall has arrived...well, fall for Florida!

Hi All! Horray it's finally cooling off! So exciting! This is (in my opinion) the best time of the year! We have Thanksgiving & Christmas to look forward to-which means more time with family!! Yay! Anyway, I've posted some pictures of our trip to the pumpkin patch, our beautiful carved pumpkins and of course Jack's first Halloween costume! He makes a fabulous baby penguin. Scroll down past the fall pics and watch our video of his new talent...ooohhs and ahhs and tons of smiles! I couldn't figure out how to edit it down on my computer-it's kinda long-but so adorable and worth the 4 minutes it takes to watch! haha We carved pumpkins last night with Jacqueline I wish we could have gotten a pic of Jacquie in her costume with the little penguin! We originally wanted him to be a big, round pumpkin but we couldn't find a costume small enough! But the penguin fit him perfectly! Plus March of the Penguins and Happy Feet are two of my favorite movies-Matt's too!
love you all xoxo

More Fall Photos!


Fall Photos!
















10.19.2008

Check out my sisters NEW Blog!


Lisa Cooks Allergy Free BLOG!

If I had one word to describe my sister Lisa, it would be AMAZING. She has done so many impressive things in her life, personally and professionally and now she's embarking on a new adventure...CHEF! How she got 75 lbs smaller and became a fabulous chef, allergy-free cooking guru and soon to be cookbook author-is now revealed on her blog. http://lisacooksallergenfree.blogspot.com/ There is also a direct link on the left-hand side of my blog as well. She is such a talented person in so many ways-but her best characteristic-which will always be one of the main reasons she's successful is that she has the BEST attitude and outlook on life of anyone I know. She is so positive and just an all-around happy person. ANYWAY-check out her blog and try the recipes she has posted AND start looking forward to her allergy free cook book!!!

10.08.2008

Some of Liv's previous work.





My little sister's gift

I've been meaning to post pictures and write about how my sister Alivia has an amazing gift. She is a senior at FSU and a studio art major. One of her early classes was photography and that is when our family discovered her beautiful gift! My first experience was when she came to Jacksonville and took gorgeous black and whites of Matt and me (with Jack in the belly)! And recently she came over for the weekend and took Jack's birth announcement pics. The Seminoles were playing at the Jags stadium that weekend so it worked out well. I've posted some pics of Liv and Jack from the birth announcement photo shoot weekend and some early belly shot that Alivia took a few months back. I will post all the pics from the recent photo shoot when we get them back. I can't wait to see how they turned out. Alivia really had her work cut out for her. The goal was a naked, sleeping baby- and let me tell you-we had quite the time getting him to stay asleep...naked....with huge, bright photography lights on him AND we had several accidents-you know what happens with naked baby boys! I think Alivia might have ruled out opening a studio to take baby pictures full time post graduation-she was so patient-that's an Aunt's love! Love you Liv! We'll see you in two weeks at Florida State family weekend!! yay!!!

My sis has a gift!





9.29.2008

We love the Gasiks!

Dave and Jennifer are family friends, Dave is my Godfather but we (Liv, Lis and I) think of them as an Aunt and Uncle-my Mom has been friends with them for as long as I can remember! They live outside of Chicago but as of a few years ago spend several weeks a year at their house in south Florida. A few weeks ago they were kind enough to make the drive up to Jacksonville to meet baby Jack. We had a great visit and we can't wait to see again soon. We love you guys!

Jack with my Godfather Dave and his wife Jennifer!