The Beadle Family: January 2014

Monday, January 27, 2014

Jackson's Baptism

This past Sunday we finally baptized the newest member of our family. January 26th, 2014 Jackson Mitchell Beadle became the newest member to the St. Puis X Catholic Church. It was a very beautiful ceremony and Jackson did amazingly well. He didn't cry once even when they poured cold water over his head. I really wanted him to wear the same baptismal gown that James wore, but I was worried it wouldn't fit. We baptized James when he was not even 2 months old and Jackson is 5 months old. I was pleasantly surprised that it fit and he looked absolutely adorable in it. Thomas Beadle, Mike's older brother, was asked to be the Godfather to Jackson and Melissa Hoelscher, my brother's wife, was asked to be Godmother. Jackson was baptized at the 5:30 evening mass so we had a lovely dinner at my parent's home following the baptism. I feel so extremely blessed to have such a loving and beautiful family. Congratulations Jackson Mitchell Beadle!

My handsome little guy all dressed up

Aunt Margaret and Jackson

With Father Francis before Mass

My beautiful little family

With the Godparents during the Baptism (Jackson is mesmerized by Father)

Being baptized by Father Francis

Everyone after the baptism

My Family with Father Francis

Father introducing the newest Catholic to the Church

My crazy husband carving the turkey

The delicious grand marnier cake

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Ice Day 2014

So being in South Texas, we rarely get much of a winter. This year has been slightly different...it has been much colder than in year's past and last night the conditions were just right to make an ice day. If you're not from South Texas, you wouldn't quite understand and probably think we're crazy, but the city pretty much shuts down when there is a little ice on the roads. I guess the thinking is better safe than sorry and we don't have the infrastructure to support a big winter storm. Granted this wasn't what I would consider a "big" storm, but it did cause very slippery conditions, therefore unsafe and we don't have salt/sand trucks (we're in San Antonio for goodness sake!). Needless to say, we were given a "snow/ice" day today, which means no school for the kids. I really don't mind too much except it means our Parent's Night Out was cancelled as well :-(. Darn you winter weather! Luckily my son's school offers 2 a month and they'll likely move this one to next Friday. Momma needs her night out without the kids :-)

Anyway, we have taken advantage of this ice day by making banana chocolate pancakes, playing tons of Wii, board games and Lego building time with Daddy. I know this will likely be the only "ice" day we get, so we're taking full advantage of it :-) Hope all of you South Texans enjoyed your day off!

James helping me with the banana chocolate chip pancakes

Our icicle icicles :-)

Daddy and James building Legos

Jackson's 5 months old!

My handsome little man is 5 months old. Time flies when you're having fun! He didn't have an official check-up at the doctor, so I'm unsure of his weight and height. Although I did weigh him using our bathroom scale (it only weighs in 1/2 pound increments) and based on that he is roughly 15 lbs. already. So here's some stats:

Weight: approx. 15lbs.
Height: ?
Clothing size: 3-6 mos.
Diapers: size 2
Eating: 6 oz. bottle every 4 hours

We are putting rice cereal in his final feeding at night and his first feeding in the morning. I've tried feeding him rice cereal on it's own and it didn't go over so well. I've bought some apple and banana flavored oatmeal, so I'm going to try it soon to see how it goes. I've got to get him used to the spoon!

He is still sleeping in his own room in his crib and sleeping pretty effectively through the night. He fusses sometimes, but we let him self-soothe and he typically falls back to sleep within a couple of minutes. We have yet to see the first tooth, but he has become slightly more fussy this past couple of days so I'm anticipating he is teething. I guess only time will tell. Jackson is trying to sit up on his own every day, so I'm sure he'll be doing that on his own very soon.

Things he loves:

The jumperoo
Baby TV
His brother singing to him
Mommy singing to him
Being tickled
Daddy throwing him in the air

Things he hates:

Tummy time
Having his nose cleaned
Being in one place for too long (15 minutes max)
His car seat

I'll leave you with a video of him doing one of his favorite things:

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

NYE 2013

So we have officially begun the tradition of having an annual New Year's Eve party. I wish I had taken a picture of all of the fireworks Mike bought for this years party, but let's just say he went a little overboard (almost $500 worth!). My husband is definitely becoming a bit of a pyromaniac, but it does make for a good party. The set up of last years party was such a success so I did another potluck. We were committed to making a Texas barbecue brisket to be served with homemade barbecue sauce and Hawaiian rolls, so Mike was attached to the smoker all day, but it was well worth it. The brisket turned out super delicious. We had a great turnout of friends and were thrilled that Mike's brother, sister-in-law and cousins Tommy and Jack were able to come into town to celebrate with us. The weather was a little chilly, but it was perfect for using the fire-pit and completely clear for shooting off fireworks. All in all the party was a complete success. We did have one little scare however. At around 12:30 right after Mike finished the firework finale we were looking for James and couldn't find him anywhere. Mike was frantically looking for him everywhere and all of the other kids were in the house and accounted for. That was when our friend Courtney saw something laying in the grass way in the back yard. Mike bolted back there completely freaked out...was he hurt or worse, dead? Luckily he had just fallen asleep by the back tree watching the fireworks. We can laugh about it now, but it was definitely scary. I was so busy taking care of Jackson, that I luckily had little idea of what was going on until after we found him. Note to self, make sure your children nap before staying up until midnight for New Year's Eve...although it's like pulling teeth to get James to nap. We are looking forward to having many more New Year's Eve parties for years to come.

Jackson all dressed up for the party ;-)

James with his cousin Tommy before the party

Most of my family minus Jackson (he was napping) before the party

Ashling, Lorelai and McKay

My bestie Margaret and Krys

He was very proud of his brisket

Karen and Dana

Kelson and Courtney

Jessica and I

The men and the fireworks

Margaret, Courtney and Yvette with baby Jackson

James with is super long morning glory sparkler

Cousin Tommy, Lyla, McKay and James enjoying some fireworks

One of the fireworks

The cozy warm fire

Jackson and Yvette (he loved watching the fireworks)

McKay, Lyla and James toasting to the New Year (don't worry it's just sparkling cider)

My hubby manning the fire

a shot of the beautiful fireworks

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Monday, January 6, 2014

Christmas 2013

As always the holiday's have been extremely busy and hectic so I am just now getting around to doing a post on our Christmas. We ended up staying in town for Christmas and spent it with my family. We would have loved to go up to Massachusetts to see Mikes parents and sister, but it was just going to be too difficult with a newborn and Mike didn't have the time off work to commit to a trip up there. Hopefully we can make it up sometime this year or for the holidays next year. We had a very nice Christmas Eve and Christmas Day spent with my parents and my brother's family. Christmas Eve we attended the Children's mass at 4:30 which includes a little play about the night of Jesus' birth. It went over well with the kids last year so we thought we'd attend it again this year. After mass we headed over to my parents home for the traditional San Antonio Christmas Eve dinner, tamales with chili, Mexican rice, guacamole and queso. We then opened all the presents from the family since Santa doesn't come until later in the night ;-). It was a very nice, laid back Christmas Eve which I just love spending with my family.

James all ready for mass

my dad (Baw Paw) and Jackson before mass

James & Jackson with their cousin Louisa

my handsome little Jackson

Louisa loving on Jackson

James with his twin cousins Wolf and Cece

such a little man

James digging into the presents

James with his new Legos from Nanny and Poppy (these used to be Mike's when he was a kid)

Mike with Jackson

James with is new dinosaur boots which came with a matching rain coat and umbrella

James with is cookies and milk and note for Santa

Gotta leave food for the reindeer too (oats with glitter in it :-))

The next morning James woke up to all of his gifts from Santa. He was definitely thrilled, but a little concerned that we didn't get any gifts from Santa. We told him that we had spoken to Santa and told him that we didn't need anything. It was so sweet that he was worried about us though. After opening gifts we headed over to my parents for Christmas dinner. It was just the five us again, with one new wonderful addition, baby Jackson. We had the same wonderful dinner we usually have, baked brie, smoked salmon, mushroom brie soup and prime rib. It was as always super delicious and we had a lovely time with my parents. I feel very blessed to have them so close by and to be able to experience these wonderful times together.