Merry Christmas to all of our Blogger Friends!

May God bless you abundantly this Christmas as you celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Love,
Brian, Christina, and Jack

Over, Under, Up and Down

We have been busy busy busy lately getting ready for Jack's very first Christmas and getting everybody well. Last week Jack started getting really congested and coughing, and even after the dr. called in a cough/congestion medicine for us, he wasn't improving. So after going back and forth about whether to go to the dr. (it is so hard to know what is best sometimes) we went on Tuesday and I'm so glad that we did because he had infections in both ears and a bad cold. So now we're doing the cough/congestion medicine and an antibiotic and he's doing so much better! Also, since I was taking care of Jack I got sick too, so that was FUN! But now I'm feeling much better too! So thankfully we'll both be 100% by Christmas eve.

I MUST mention that Brian was our HERO this past week!!!! Not only did he take off 1/2 a day to take us to Little Roack to the doctor, but he also went grocery shopping for me when I was feeling yucky--and I'm talking HUGE groceries, 2 weeks of regular food, baking ingredients, and Christmas dinner food too!!! Plus he took care of us and let me get lots of rest. Brian is the best husband and daddy!!!

Jack is 9 MONTHS old today!!! I can't believe he is already so big! He has suddenly started doing tons of new things. Just yesterday he went from crawling on his stomach to sitting up on his own for the first time and he pulled up to standing for the first time too! Now he's doing it over and over and over! We are seriously in for it, the way it's going now, he's going to be walking tomorrow!

O Christmas Tree

We were early birds this year and put our Christmas tree up the weekend before Thanksgiving. We're going out of town so much that we wanted to have some time to enjoy it, so up it went. Jack really likes it and gets over to it whenever an opportunity presents itself. At first we let him play with the branches and some of the wooden ornaments (w/o hooks) but then he went after the lights, so now the tree is a NoNo. :( Poor guy.

As you see, we don't have a tree skirt yet, we can't find one that we like. We just found some really cute stockings at Cracker Barrel. We are really short on Christmas decorations, but maybe we'll find some good deals after the Holidays and stock up. ? I'm just not in the full Christmas spirit yet. But I'm looking sooooo forward to Christmas morning with Jack! It is going to be awesome!!!!!!!

Jack's first Turkey Day

This is my Mom's Mom. She had never met Jack until Thanksgiving Day and she ate him up!
My Dad's Mom and Jack. A few days before Thanksgiving she thought she had the flu, but Praise God she didn't, and we were able to see her.
The Bodin Clan chowing down!
More eating.
Uncle Michael and Jack. Since we aren't going down for Christmas Katie and Emily gave Jack his presents early. They were so excited! His first 2 Christmas presents were a penguin bowling set and a stuffed ball with shapes that fit into it. He loves playing with them!

We made the trip down to the MS Gulf Coast for Thanksgiving and spent it with my family. We had a BLAST! Thanksgiving Day we had lunch at this really nice clubhouse which was fun and different for us, we usually have it at my Maw Maw and Paw Paw's house. The food was incredible! We had the traditional turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, etc... plus some yummy seafood gumbo, marinaded shrimp and crab claws, and this aspargus and crab casserole. It was sooooo good. I hurt myself I ate so much!

The rest of the weekend we spent at my Uncle Stephen and Aunt Patty's house relaxing, eating leftovers, and playing Wii. If you don't know, Wii is a video game where you have to get up and move around a lot playing tennis, bowling, baseball, and all sorts of stuff. It is really fun! Everybody was sore from playing so much.

We were busy and Jack saw a million realtives, but we had a great time and I think Jack really enjoyed his first Thanksgiving.

Our Big Boy

CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!

We say "Yaaaaaaaaaah" when he claps and he loves it!

Big Boy Jack sitting up. I still put a pillow behind him most of the time b/c every once in a while he'll just dive backwards head first. Hopefully he'll stop that soon!
I LOVE THIS PICTURE! Daddy and Jack under the coffee table "fixing" it! Jack is already so much like his Daddy, and Papa, and Grandpa! :) (check out Jack's socks--they are always like this hahahaha)
The guys are discussing what needs to be fixed under the coffee table. I was informed that no girls were allowed--so I just took pictures from outside the "man zone".
Jack army-crawls his way into any tiny little spot that he'll fit. Here he go in between the chair and ottoman. He's saying, "Mommy, get me out!"

Jack is growing and changing like crazy! He does something new every day! He started sitting up by himself about three or four weeks ago which was sooo exciting! He hadn't quite gotten it yet when we went to a Halloween party and our friends' son who is 2 days older than Jack was just sitting there in the middle of the floor by himself. Well, Mommy's competitive drive kicked in and I was determined that Jack WAS GOING TO SIT UP! So we started practicing more, and he did! Yeah Jack! Now he can go from sitting up, down to his stomach and "army-crawling" as we call it. He doesn't crawl on hands and knees yet, but he gets where he wants to go, and FAST! Earlier this week he started clapping!!!!!!! I was so excited! It is the CUTEST thing I've ever seen, and he's so excited about it! And then today I gave him some Gerber sweet potato puffs to try (his first finger foods) and after playing for a while he got one, and then later several, into his mouth! Yeah!!!!!! Brian and I are so proud of Jack! He's learning so many new things and he's so much FUN!

Jack's first Halloween!

Halloween is a BIG deal in Rison, and we had a great time! We had a few Trick-or-Treaters and then we went to our church where we had Trunk-or-Treat (everybody decorates their cars and trucks and hands candy out in the church parking lot) It was really fun. Jack was a horse and was PRECIOUS! He had a fantastic time! I hardly saw him b/c so many people were holding him and walking around with him! He LOVES being around lots of people and in the middle of the action! Brian and I just wore orange shirts, we didn't feel like getting all dressed up. A lot of other people were though--our friends Rickey and Diane were clowns (you can see Rickey in the bottom picture), and Paige and Scott were dressed up as an angel and a gorilla. We had a really great First Halloween with our jack man!

This could be my favorite picture of Jack yet! He is precious!!!!!

Nana got some good time with her little Jack man. :)


My parents and sister came to see us this past weekend. Well, they came to see Jack really, but that's OK, we know who the star is now! :) We had a great time hanging out and playing and taking tons of pictures of course. Saturday night some friends of ours had a Halloween party that Brian, Jack, and I went to, so we got to dress up! Brian and I were the Marshall and Deputy and Jack was our horse. :) I thought it was cute! (I'll post some pictures later, the site won't let me upload them right now.) Jack was ADORABLE! The party was really fun--tons of kids running around in cute costumes and lots of yummy food! After the party we dropped Jack off at our house and let Nana and Elizabeth have some time with him, and we went to "The Spooky Trail"--an annual tradition that our friends Scott and Paige put on--bascially a scary hayride for the kids. It was pretty funny to me, but some of the kids really freaked out, which was a little hard for me as a 1st time mom. But in all it was good. Sunday we hung out some more and took more pictures. The weather was AWESOME so we spent some time outside with Jack. It was a fun weekend, we really enjoyed having Nana, Papa, and Aunt Besa here!

Almost 7 months old Already!?!?!?!?!

Hanging out with Mommy.
Jack LOVES to get under the coffee table and play! We say he's fixing things like his daddy. Check out his hammer next to him. He's a Chisholm alright!
This picture is from Jack's first ever football game. He really did love it though he looks a little skeptical here.

I am a slacker and have not posted about Jack's 6 month checkup yet,which was last Wednesday. Oops! He and I went without Daddy for the first time, and I was a little nervous, but Jack was great and everything went fine. I was convinced that he had an ear infection because he had been really fussy and was pulling on his ears some. But Dr. Malak said he didn't, that everything looks great and that he is perfect! Praise GOD! Jack weighs 16.5 pounds and is 27 inches long I think, which puts him in the 75th percentile. He's a big boy! I'm so glad and thankful that he's doing so well. I love this age! He is sooooo much fun! He has started bouncing some in his excersaucer and in his jumper, he cracks us up! And he's getting more and more vocal. He's our precious little baby man!!!!!

Rison in the Fall

Every year our town has a festival called Rison in the Fall. Main street is blocked off and there are booths, crafts, bands and, most importantly, a barbeque competition. This year Brian joined a BBQ team and his parents came up for it. There are 3 categories: chicken, ribs, and cooker's choice. Brian made some sensational grilled shrimp for the cooker's choice. He worked all week perfecting the sauce and skewered the shrimp with pineapple and then marinaded and basted them with it. We all thought it was delicious, and so did the judges, because he won FIRST PLACE in the cooker's choice!!!!! We were so excited, and I am so proud of him! The team also won 1st and 2nd place in the chicken category! We had a great time spending time with his parents, playing with Jack, and barbequeing!

Brian with the first place plaque for chicken.

The Rose Hill Barbeqe Team: Brian, 1st place for Cooker's Choice; Jimmy Bowlin, 1st place for Chicken; and Rickey Fore, 2nd place for Chicken.

Brian hard at work on his AWARD-WINNING "Cajun-grilled pineapple shrimp"

Father and Son. The BBQ legacy will be passed along.

Main Street during Rison in the Fall. There were lots of people there. I think there were more than last year. Or maybe we just know some people now. The booths and crafts were great. I got a really pretty Christmas wreath and Brian got a fillet knife.

Three Chisholms Update

We're doing really good! Staying busy with football games, church, friends, work, and play. We're learing more and more about our new little town, like how serious they take highschool football, (I heard a story from a friend about how his senior year the team wasn't very good and they players got death threats! WHAT???), How everybody knows everything, (Brian's friend Jax is staying here and one of our friends stopped by the house to see him the other night. He knew it was Jax's truck b/c it was parked in a different spot than where Brian usually parks. WOW!), and of course how great the people are, (We were given some home-made Muscadine jelly as a thank you for feeding our friends' cat, invited to go to the pumpkin patch with a group of families, and invited to a big halloween party all in the last couple days.) All kidding aside, we love our town, and all of the people, despite their football fervor.

Jack is doing soooo great! He is growing like crazy! Sometimes I look at him and it looks like his little chubby rolls have multiplied and he's gotten twice as big in about 5 minutes! He is rolling all over the place. He now rolls across the living room and into the kitchen if we don't catch him in time. He especially loves to roll under the coffee table and play. He's eating really well, he loves every kind of food we give him!

A couple weeks ago we had a rough time--he would not sleep unless we were holding him! Try as I might to explain it away, the bottom line is that he is spoiled! So we had to resort to the horrid cry it out method! AHHHHHH! The first night he cried for 45 minutes before suddenly falling asleep, leaving us frazzled, guilt-striken, and scared to go back to sleep at 2 a.m. The second night I think he was getting revenge--he cried for an hour and a half!!!!!! We tried everything to get him to stop, and finally just had to let him cry. Then suddenly he was asleep. That night I was contemplating just holding him while he sleeps until he leaves for college. It was horrible! But since then he has been great! It's a whole new world when you get a good night's sleep consistently! He still cries some, but not much, and I feel a little better because I can tell myself that he's not THAT spoiled anymore! (suuuuuuure!)

Brian is working really hard. The plant is just about at full operation and he has 5 or 6 guys working for him now. It gets stressful sometimes, but he likes it and he's doing a great job!

I have been keeping busy decorating and rearraging Jack's room. It is so fun! I have about a gazillion ideas for his room and about oh, zero for the rest of the house. Why is that? You'd think that the baby-centered thoughts could pause for long enough to let some other topics in, but no! But really, I'm doing great and having a blast with Jack every day! He is so much fun at this age! Yes, I have accepted the fact that I am a full-blown, overprotective, reading child rearing books, fantasizing about mini-vans, doesn't notice the huge baby food stain on her pants, does the lick-your-finger-and-wipe-the-kid's-face-thing, can't talk about anything but her child, card carrying MOMMY! AND I LIKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

New Pictures Finally

My two men relaxing on the bed watching TV. How sweet are they?

Look at this big boy holding his own bottle!!!!!! He is getting so big! I really think he grows more and more every second.

Friday night we went to a Rison Wildcats football game. It is THE PLACE to be on Friday nights in Rison! We had a great time. A big group of our friends tailgate before the game and then sit behind the end zone--this week they cooked a hog and last week they fried fish. It is a BIG deal! Brian says it's "Friday Night Lights" and "Varsity Blues" combined--and it is!

This was Jack's second football game, and he loved it! He lasted until about half-time and then we go home. We live right down the road from the field, we can hear the band playing, see the lights, and even hear the cheers sometimes from our house.

Jack and Mommy watching the game. Mommy mostly chats with the other Moms. :)

It was a big deal this game because all of the kids got to line up and bust through the banner in front of the players and then run across the field with them. Jack watched in awe. I know he was thinking, "One day I'll be out there too!"

I decided to dress Jack in this cute outfit for church Sunday and could not resist putting the matching bonnet on him too! I was crying I laughed so hard! Brian laughed too, but made sure that I took that thing off his boy ASAP. hahahahaha. Jack is going to hate this picture when he's older! :)

He looks much better without the bonnet. So precious!

While we were in Madison we had to go see our friends Mary Evelyn and Jason and their sweet baby girl, Brinkley. They have a new house and a new baby and are doing so great! We had a good time catching up and talking about babies! Haha. It's so funny how our conversations have changed--now we talk about sleeping through the night, poop, and breastfeeding. :)

Jack and Brinkley laid on the floor together and just kinda looked at eachother. Jack did roll over to her and give her a kiss on the nose. It was so cute and sweet! We were Oohing and Ahhing and taking pictures. It goes without saying, but Brinkley is adorable! She's so tiny and sweet! I loved getting to meet her! Jason and Meg are doing a great job! They are great parents!

We're Mommys now!

Me and Mary Evelyn with our little ones, Jack and Brinkley.

Brinkley and Jack flirting. :)

Here they are having a conversation about how great their Mommies are.

Sunday on the way home to Arkansas we stopped in Yazoo City at Brian's Grandmamma's house. She really enjoyed seeing Jack and kept saying how big he's gotten and how cute he is. They had a great time together.

Jack was very interested in Grandmamma's walker. She just laughed at him. :)

Getting Spoiled by Nana and Papa

We had a great time in Madison at my Mom and Dad's (Nana and Papa) house. My sister, Elizabeth has a new digital camera and we went CRAZY with it! We must have taken 200 pictures of Jack. We now have a grand total of over 1,000 pictures of our little man. WOW!!!! How insane is that?

This is our favorite picture from this weekend. He is so precious!

Aunt Elizabeth made us put this Southern Miss outfit on Jack. We always pick on her for loving her "Golden Buzzards" as we call them. Jack didn't stay in the outfit long once Brian saw it. hahaha.

Cool man Jack.

Saturday was such a beautiful day so we put a blanket down in the shade and let Jack play. He loved being outside. Now that it's getting cooler and Jack can wear sunscreen soon, we'll be playing outside a lot! Jack loves playing with my hair and thinks it's hilarious when I blow raspberries on his stomach. I love hearing him laugh!


What a little charmer!Sunday morning we all took a walk around my parents' neighborhood. Jack had a good time riding along and chillin out.
Jack and Zoey, my sister's dog. Zoey and her mom, Belle, are the queens of the house and they were feeling very neglected while Jack was there. I don't know why??? :) Finally, we let the dogs get closer. Jack was so excited! He loves dogs.

Brian took this picture and I am in love with it! So cute!

Drooley man! He's getting two teeth in on the bottom and the drooling gets out of control at times.