By the power of Grayskull...

...I am He-Man.

¡Qué niño más bello!

Guapo, cute, precioso, maravilloso, beautiful, bonito, studley, crazy delicious...call him what you will, but Jacob is one good lookin' baby. Our ward has recently acquired (yay!) a lot of Spanish speaking members, which has led us to believe that Jacob is bilingually, multiculturally and universally adorable.

Feast your eyes on how cute he really is.













































What is the difference between the following two pictures? Hmm?






That's right, Penny* not only takes amazing pictures, but she also edits out unsightly wings!









* These pictures were taken by our wonderful friend (and professional photographer) Penny. Scroll through her website and see if you can find Jacob among her gorgeous pictures. We are so happy with what an amazing job she did capturing the Jacob-ness of Jacob. Thanks again Penny!

Ghetto Jacob

After walking around on streets like these for a couple of months on my mission...









...the Jersey winter got colder and colder and my sense of style began to really change. (As evidenced above and below.) I began wearing two pairs of leggings under my skirt, thank you very much, a winter coat I found in the closet in our apartment, and various other warmifying items. I ended up looking like this (but my scarf was usually tied much better than that...this pic was just to show of the "cool" New Jersey Morristown Mission logo).



ANYWAY, on those windy nights my ears (or earsies to Jacob) got very cold and I started to get really jealous of the gansta guys around town who wore hats with ear flaps and tassles that looked like this:



I mentioned this in passing to a sister in the ward, and for Christmas she got me one of my very own! Oh yeah, and she got my companion Sister Love one too. We wore them everywhere. Including on the way to church on the day my mission president saw Sister Love and me outside of the church building. He said we were so dedicated to the work (read: bundled up and devoid of style) that he couldn't tell if we were women or men. He also chose to share that story in mission conference. Thanks?

Where is this going you ask? Where are the pictures of Jacob? Well, it's because of these pictures that I took the other day. When we bought this hat I pronounced it one of the cutest things Jacob owned (and I still think so). But when I saw these pictures I saw a very real resemblance between Jacob and the ghetto dudes on my mission. I guess those mission styles will always be near and dear to my heart.

So, without further pictures of Robyn, I give you Ghetto Jacob!

Also

If you want to see something UNBELIEVABLY cute click here. What a pretty little maid.

I love Lance, he loves me...

...we love Rachel, yes-siree;
she loves us and so you see;
we are a happy fa-mi-lyyyyy.

This past weekend we were definitely a happy (and busy) family. We went to Tuscaloosa to hear Rachel give her farewell talk (kickin' job Rach) and to go to (Aunt) Pat & Rick's wedding reception. We, of course, took some pictures. We were looking very springy in 50 degree weather. Enjoy our cute family perched a-top some rocks in the Bama mountains.



Top Row: Grandpa LeGrand
Middle Row: Garrett, Brent, Matt, Grandma Jan
Bottom Row: Lance, Rachel, Natalie, Robyn, Jacob

You're on your own for the rest of the pics as to who's who. By the way, can anyone see Jacob? Where's Jacob? Oh, daddy's holding him. Yellow on yellow. What a good idea.












And yes Rachel, we will miss you terribly.

Blog Agenda

First Item of Business: This morning and yesterday morning Jacob slept until 6:00! Being awakened by the alarm (instead of Jacob's 5:00 moanings) felt like being awoken by a choir of heavenly angels.



Second Item of Business: Jacob has eaten approximately 6.5 Cheerios. Mommy has eaten approximately 22.5 Cheerios in an effort to "model" how one eats a Cheerio. Expect both to eat more.



Third Item of Business: Jacob has sucked virtually all of the color off the red wings of this girly butterfly wrist rattle (that we only use at home...for obvious reasons). Should we be worried?



Fourth Item of Business: After listening to this little star stacker a kajillion times I have realized that "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and the "ABC Song" are the same song. Was I the last or the first person to realize that?



Fifth, and final, Item of Business: Jacob's daddy is real, real cute. As is Jacob.

Hmmmm...

So, tonight two elderly men came to the door with a loaf of lemon poppy seed poundcake and some friendly, twinkley-eyed smiles. They were visiting from the Peachtree Corners Baptist Church. That is the church around the corner from us that employs THREE police officers to get their big ol' congregation out of the parking lot and across the street (basically police sanctioned jaywalking, considering there's a crosswalk a mere fifty feet away) every Sunday.

Anyway, I digress. I was feeding Jacob his last bottle at the time and just spent a moment speaking to them with Jacob in my arms. They very kindly let me know that every first Sunday of the month they have a FULL orchestra that performs. They also gave me the poundcake (a little dry) along with a welcome bag that contained two vouchers for a Wednesday "supper". They lastly told me about the nursery services they provide. One of the men gently asked,

Baptist Guy 1: "How old is she, two?"

Mormon Me: "Um, he is 9 months."

Baptist Guy 2: "Oh, well he's pretty enough to be a girl."

Ha ho? What do you think? Is this a girly face? Or were those guys wrong about that and their misuse of the police force? And doesn't Matt look dreamy?






















Let it be known that I have (almost) nothing but good things to say about those fellas and their church. (Fifty feet! Honestly...)

"I can see clearly now my hair is gone

I can see all obstacles in my way (so, I stop and play with all of them as I pull up to furniture and crawl about)."

We just wanted to give a little post-haircut update. Basically, cut your baby's hair if it's looking like this and they seem to be perennially cranky.



Between the haircut and getting over his multitudinous colds (still no teeth!) he has been so happy and sweet. He is growing up so much and truly is a joy to behold. We love our little man dearly, dearly.



Now that's the face of a happy boy. And a handsome one too.

So last night I made a decision.

After seeing Jacob do this...



...for about the billionth time, I realized that the time had come to cut those pesky wings. As well as his front "overhang". Gulp.

He must have sensed my resolve to cut his hair, because he put up a good fight last night. He always has good hair moments (like this February one) during his bath.



And afterward he put his "curl on" for me.



But my mind was made up. And Matt was willing to go along with me.

Here he is before the cut watching a little Baby Einstein (the perfect distraction).



Here's Nemo showing us just how long his hair had gotten.






Here's a scary picture of Jacob and his eye-tickling hair.



And here's one that's not scary that shows how annoying his hair must have been for him.



Wings, wings, wings.



So we cut...



and cut...



and cut...



and then we stopped. Ta da!


















After cutting off all this hair,



I realized something. My baby's BLONDE!