Isaiah is ONE!

We went to (our nephew) Isaiah's first birthday party this past weekend! Jude had never been to a birthday party before and I think he really enjoyed himself. There were several kids there and he loved watching a playing with them. Isaiah seemed to really enjoy himself as well. He devoured the cake, enjoyed opening his gifts and kissed a little girl. I think it was a pretty successful day for him. We look forward to many more birthday parties with the Starnes Family.
Look how our boys have grown!!

 THEN

Isaiah: 3 months           Jude: 1 month

Isaiah: 4 months        Jude: 2 months

Jude: 3 months      Isaiah: 5 months

NOW

Isaiah: 1 year       Jude: 10 months

THEN

 Isaiah: 2 months          Jude: 1 week

NOW

Isaiah: 1 year          Jude: 10 months

 LANDON

We can't forget our newest little baby, Landon!!!

Christmas!

We had a fantastic Christmas! This year was Christmas with my family and we had a great time. Jude was not at all interested in opening gifts, the wrapping paper... or anything to do with gifts really. He was, however, VERY interested in his Great Uncle John. He has never wanted to leave me for anyone else before, but he left me for John. Would even cry in my arms for John. It kind-of hurt my feelings but I can't really blame him. John would play with him, give him snacks and carry him around everywhere. Who wouldn't want that?!

 With Uncle John

 Opening Stocking

Checking out new toys.

By the Christmas tree with a dirty face.

We spent a couple of days at my parents time share in Crossville, TN (Fairfeild Glade) the week after Christmas. They have an indoor pool and we thought it would be fun to take Jude swimming. This past Summer Jude LOVED swimming. When we took him this time... not so much. He cried most of the time. I think it was because it was loud and full of people. The pool we used in the summer was Paw Paw's private pool. It was calm and private. We will try swimming again this Summer.

Swimming with Grandy... and not so sure about it.

Jude has picked up several new things this past week:
1. He says "UH OH!"
2: He will say "NO NO NO". He says it after we tell him "No No No" most of the time.
3: He gives high fives
4. He will lay down (on the floor, a pillow, ect..) and say "Nigh Nigh" which we are pretty sure means "Nite-Nite"
5. He waves "bye bye" and he will say "HI"
6. He refuses most baby food and only wants table food
And last but not least....
HE TOOK HIS FIRST STEP (January 2)!!!!!!! Well, it was more of a stumble and kind-of an accident. But he was not holding onto anything and he held his balance while he took it. He was trying to get to me while I was on the couch and accidentally let go of the table. It startled him at first and then we started clapping to reassure him. After that he was fine. We were so excited. He was/is getting more and more brave about standing on his own.

 Some random snapshots:

 Sleeping with his bottom in the air.

Cuddling with Daddy

We can't believe Jude is going to be a year old next month! We have started planing his birthday and will give details as soon as we nail down the specifics.

Santa or No Santa

Meagan:
It is the week of Christmas and we have a decision to make. Should we let Jude get gifts from Santa or not. Jordan did not get gifts from Santa, but I did (not that Jude knows or cares what Christmas is this year). We decided ... Yes. We will do Santa. When I was a kid getting a surprise gift under the tree from Santa was so much fun. I wrote letters to Santa and left him cookies and milk. It is fun to believe in things like that. You are only little for so long. But my parents made sure that we recognized the true meaning of Christmas, so that as we got older we knew the difference between Santa and Jesus. We will continue to emphasize that to Jude and our future children.

Jude Updates:  He is jabbering so much. He is very aware and observant of sounds. He often mimics the sounds or words we say. He is also clapping!

We look forward to seeing all of our family this week!

Mama!!!

Jude started saying "MAMA" this week!! After months of only saying "DADA", you can imagine how thrilled I am! Other milestones: He is much better at playing ball. He will push back a ball that is rolled to him and he sometimes will catch it if it is thrown to him. He is a climber. He loves to climb on, over and into things. Because his legs are so short, it is sometimes tough for him to get off/out of where he has gotten himself.
Jude is throwing ALL of his finger foods on the floor now. Sadie loves it but we are having a hard time correcting this. 

Jude had his 9 month check up. His weight gain has really slowed down. He was almost 19 pounds at 6 months and is now just over 20 pounds (at 9 months). You can tell by looking at him that he is slimming down. He is so active now and is working off all those rolls! He is still above the 95 percentile in height.  No shots this time!

This has been a pretty uneventful week. We are looking forward to Christmas and spending time with family!

Special Memory: Jordan turned on music this past Saturday and we all (Jordan. Jude and I) danced together. Jude thought it was hilarious.

First Snow!

We had a busy weekend full of family and friends.

We had our first dinner/game night at our new apartment with another couple from church. We had a lot of fun grilling in the cold and playing apples to apples while drinking hot chocolate. Jude loved the attention and loved the challenge of grabbing the playing cards from our hands.

My parents came this same weekend so that Jordan could take me on a surprise date. They spent the night with us and made sure to get some time in with us before our date. Then while we were on our date they had quality time with Jude. And Jude can keep you busy these days! He gets faster and faster every day. He can get away quick. He gets into everything! Especially things he knows we don't like him to be in. For example, Sadie's dog bowls. He likes to splash in her water and grab her food. He hasn't actually eaten the food but he would have if I hadn't been right there to pull it out of his mouth. Even feeding him is a challenge sometimes. He LOVES Sadie and likes to share his food with her. We caught him letting Sadie take a bite of his food first and then he would finish it. GROSS!  But no matter how many times we tell him "No", we still catch him letting her lick his hands or throwing food on the floor for her. We also find him IN things. He really is getting the hang of climbing.

 Jordan is excited to share that Jude has shown a real interest in a football. Jude plays with it a lot. I think it is because it rolls easily and Jude likes to chase it. But Jordan hopes that this is a sign of things to come...

Jude experienced snow for the first time! It was also the first time Jordan and I had really seen snow in two years (it did not snow in Mobile). I wish I had gotten a picture of Jude and the snow (he loved it!) but because it only snowed while we were on our way to Church and did not stick, it was almost impossible. Hopefully next time.

It has been a while...

Meagan:
It really has. We were told that we need to keep up with this a little better. Here is an attempt to.

We have moved to Mt. Juliet now and love the central location (kind of) to all our family. We love our church family and love our apartment. Jude loves all the crawling space and the fact that Sadie is inside. Sadie loves being inside as well. She loves Jude and is very gentle and patient with him. We have put up our tree and 3 stockings. We put it up super early because I like to have some time to look at it and enjoy it. Featured below.

Jude surprisingly doesn't bother it. I only had to tell him no a couple of times and he listened. He looks at it but does not touch it. He is a good listener.

We had Jude's first Thanksgiving with Jordan's family this year. Thursday with Jordan's mom and Friday with Jordan's dad. We really enjoyed having the three boys together. Baby Landon was not able to be in the floor with Isaiah and Jude because he is still small, but they did interact. Jude looked at Isaiah and they crawled after each other a couple of times but they were not sure of one another. It was still fun to see them together.

Jude laughed and smiled at Landon and even kissed him a couple of times.

 

Jude also kissed Paw Paw. He LOVES to kiss.

We really had a good time being together. We can't wait for Christmas!

 

 

Until next time...

Employed!

By Jordan:

It's been almost an entire month since our last post, so let me get you up to date.

JUDE HAS ANOTHER COUSIN! Landon Chase Lecklider was born August 5th to my sister Lindsay and her husband Chase. Meagan and I are so happy to have another nephew! Welcome to the world Landon!

As we reported in our last post, Meagan started a new job at the end of July at New Hope Childcare Center in Brentwood. This also meant that Jude would begin going to daycare a few days a week, and although he had a rough time the first week or so, he is doing much better and we believe that it's actually doing him some good.

Also, I'm happy to report that I have kept my commitment with my diet. I'm no longer drinking much coke, and instead drinking mostly water. I've begun taking vitamins. I haven't eaten any vegetables yet, BUT I am seriously considering trying this salad that I keep seeing advertised (it has chicken and bacon in it so...).

We are excited about Jude turning SIX MONTHS OLD a week from today! Meagan and I have decided that we are going to celebrate it for him. Unfortunately they don't make cake flavored baby food, so we are just going to have to get a cake for the two of us to share. Sorry Jude.

OK, THE BIG NEWS! I have just been named the Youth Coordinator at Cook's United Methodist Church in Mount Juliet! I have actually been serving there on an interim basis for a couple of months, but I am SO excited to say that not only are we going to be there through the end of the year, but God willing, we will be there for many years to come. Praise God! Since late March of this year when we felt like God was saying, "Now is the time," we have been praying and pursuing His call on my life, and to have it finally settled and to know where we're going to be is a huge relief. Thank you all for your prayers!

New(s)

Jordan: Things are starting to change significantly within the Littrell family. Meagan has recently accepted a position as a teacher at a church nearby for infants. This is a VERY significant change for all of us but she and Jude are the ones who are most impacted as Jude will now be going to the very same daycare she will be working in. Obviously we need the income, desperately, but in a perfect world we would both like for Meagan to be able to continue to stay home with him. 

On the food front, I have committed to Meagan that I am going to eat better. I am cutting down on my cokes from around 4 a day right now to 1 a day until this current case of cokes runs out, and then no more. THIS IS HUGE! To those of you who are blown away by this (I say this on the assumption that people actually are reading this) let me explain. Today Dr. Oz was on Oprah (normally I don't watch either person, especially Oz) and he was talking about diabetes and I honestly got scared. All of my life I've been told about the horrible effects that my diet can have on my body, but for some reason things really hit home with me today. He showed one of his patients who is 34, only ten years older than myself, who was diagnosed with diabetes at 27ish and recently had most of one leg amputated and half of the other foot... and it showed them both. GROSS! More sickening was hearing her talk about everything that she ate. THATS EXACTLY WHAT I EAT!!! I've always been told, "You're going to die from what you eat," and honestly that didn't really bother me, but what bothers me is having to live like THAT because of what I eat. All that said, I'm not exactly sure what my diet is going to look like yet, but I like my (hairy) legs too much to not change it.

(side note, I saw a stat a few weeks ago that said that Christians use 30% more punctuation marks than non-Christians... I thought about that after re-reading the above paragraph.)

On the lighter side of things, I honestly believe that Jude will be crawling very very soon. Jude has been "scooting" for several weeks now, winding up in places very different from where we originally placed him, but now Jude is really getting extremely close to figuring out how to crawl. Tonight we placed Jude on the bed on one corner and Meagan sat on the other and then called for him to come to her. It was somewhat annoying because Sadie thought we were calling for her and kept jumping on the bed... I'm sure she was very confused. Jude however worked very hard and got about halfway there using both his arms and legs, he just lacked the coordination to get them both going at the same time. Soon. I hope I'm there to see it.

Stay tuned!

Jude Update- 4 Month Check-Up

OUR LITTLE BOY IS GROWING UP TOO FAST!

Jude turned 4 months old on June 23, however he just had his 4 month check-up today. Here are the results

Height- 27 inches (95th Percentile)
Weight- 16 lbs 9.5 oz (75th Percentile)

Jude is teething... he is CONSTANTLY drooling and tries to put everything in his mouth. This has actually been going on for several weeks and still none of them have cut, but we're still enjoying his toothless smile while it lasts. He is also starting to "scoot". We aren't sure that he realizes that he's doing it, but when he's on his belly, he'll push himself up and try pulling his legs up underneath him and ends up scooting forward, just a tad. Jude also is sitting up extremely well, and demonstrated this with the doctor today sitting on the table unassisted for a few seconds. He is rolling over easily from front to back and on occasion from back to front.

The doctor was thankfully very impressed with his progress. She said that a lot of the things that he's already doing are the things that they look for from 6 month olds, which is obviously exciting for us.

Travel + Lack-of-Sleep = No Fireworks

By Jordan:

Several things have happened since our last post... Saturday the June 26th (also my birthday) I drove what felt like the trail of tears to Bowling Green KY to meet Meagan's parents for them to take Meagan and Jude back to Louisville for the week while I was going to be out of town. Meagan can confirm that I wasn't the happiest person during that drive and pretty much ruined my birthday surprise (a delicious cake from Julia's Bakery) but in my defense it's upsetting to know that not only will you be away from your wife, but you will miss an entire week of your baby's life. Thankfully Meagan was extremely understanding and still went out of her way to observe my birthday... we celebrated with the cake + a happy meal from McD's.

Sunday I was introduced at Cooks in Mt. Juliet as the new Assistant Youth Coordinator just before we left with the youth group for our summer mission trip, although hopefully by the end of summer I will be the Youth Coordinator. The trip was a huge success. We spent 3.5 days working on the house of a Cherokee Native named Villy. Villy's house was in extreme disrepair... we spent the week priming and painting the inside and the outside of his house, shingling his roof, and tearing out his bathroom which had severe water damage. The obvious focus of our labor was to repair Villy's house, however the underlying effort was to connect with the Cherokee who remain highly unreached (only 3-5% are Christian) and show them Christ which they unfortunately haven't seen much of from "Christians" in the past. We also spent the week doing various fun activities with the youth including a Thursday afternoon tubing trip and white water rafting on Friday. I so enjoyed getting to hang out with the youth and the other chaperons who went on the trip and I'm so glad God has opened this door and given me an opportunity to serve here.

We returned from the trip Saturday afternoon, July 3rd, so as soon as I was able to head that way, I drove up to Louisville to get my wifey and my baby. Once I got to Louisville, Gritsy and Grandy had prepared a feast that honestly made me think twice about possibly staying another night in hopes that I might get another meal that was just as good. We decided to come back so that I could be at church this morning. We didn't get home until around eleven, but thankfully Meagan offered to drive so that I could start to catch up on all of the sleep I missed while I was on the trip.

Today, July 4th, was a bitter sweet day... we had a great morning at church and enjoyed getting to meet several people that we hadn't had the opportunity to meet yet. Today was also sweet because it's the day that my sister Lindsay became full-term meaning that we are now on high alert for the arrival for "Baby" Lecklider. The bitterness comes from missing my Paw Paw... today would have been his 86th birthday however he passed away May 15th of this year. Typically on this day in the past, we would go to Lawrenceburg and spend the day there with him and sit in the driveway as it got dark waiting for the fireworks to start at the local high school nearby. Instead, this year Meagan and I enjoyed trying to catch up on some much needed rest and we were able to see some fireworks through our bedroom window at a nearby house.

Although this has been a very eventful week with hardly a moment to relax, I can honestly say that the highlight for me has been having Meagan and Jude back and not just having to hear about their day but actually being able to be a part of it.

Happy 4th!