First Beach Trip!

Last week we went down to Destin with my family, and this was Jack's first trip to the beach! When we walked out on the water for the first time he was almost giddy at the sight and sounds of it! He loved being right up on it and even sometimes in it. :-)

First steps on the beach

He's so happy about being out on the beach!

Jack and Blakely

Sweet brown eyes

All 4 kids ready to go eat at The Back Porch!

The Branches are ready too!

Jack, Daddy, and Jake. We all went out on the beach for pictures after dinner.

Mama and Jack

Daddy and Jack

Our first family picture on the beach

The cutest 4 kids ever! Blakely's face is cracking me up!

Papa and Sherbo with the grandkids

Playing with bubbles on the beach

He loved when the water came up to his feet!

Beach buddies

Playing in the water with Daddy

Building a sand castle

He's very excited about it!

Napping on the beach after Sherbo walked around with him by the ocean! A real live sound machine! Sweet boy!

Jack and Daddy playing and splashing in the pool

Jack's first carousel ride with Papa and Sherbo at the Baytowne Wharf

We had such a blast being down at the beach with our family. Jack loved playing with his cousins and his Papa and Sherbo. We loved introducing Jack to so many new and fun things and are thankful for these first memories! Thanks to Papa and Sherbo for allowing us to go!

First Haircut

Jack got his first haircut last week! He has been needing a haircut for months now, but we wanted to wait until he was a year old. We went to this cute kids salon in Patton Creek called Sweet and Sassy, and Miss Paige did a great job! He looked so big in his cape and he was so good and sweet the whole time! I did give him some licks of a sucker, too, to distract him, so that helped. His hair looked so cute afterwards and he now has a big boy haircut! :-)

Before shot! His hair was so long!

He looked so big sitting there with that cape on him!

This was before the end of the sucker came off in his mouth! That was a little scary, but we got it out before he swallowed it!

Sweet Miss Paige

After shot! Much better!

Here is a cute video of his haircut to show proof of how good he was! He even started singing to the music playing in the background! :-)

Jack Likes to Move it, Move it...

Speaking of Jack dancing a lot lately, here is proof!

If the video is too small on your screen, click the "arrows" button on the bottom right and it will make it full screen. Enjoy! :-)

12 Month Check-Up

Jack had his 12 month check-up last week and everything turned out great! He weighed 24 lbs 3 oz, was 31" long, and his head circumference was 19 1/4". Just to show how much he has grown, when he was first born, he weighed 7 lbs 12 oz, was 19 3/4" long, and his head circumference was 14"! Such a big boy! He had to get 3 shots, but only cried for a few seconds, and actually a little more than mama this time, so I guess I'm improving too! :-) The doctor was very impressed by how well he was doing, especially since he was pointing around to everything and "talking" the whole time we were there!

More updates on what Jack is doing now... He is crawling around and pulling up on everything still, and getting a little more fearless each day! He has started to pull himself up to a standing position without holding on to anything, but falls down after about 5 seconds. He has taken a couple of steps (towards his froggy he was trying to get!), but is still very careful about letting go, so he's not ready to walk just yet. He loves walking behind his push walker and could do that all day! There is a cute video of him doing that on our Qik page at http://qik.com/megbranch/videos.

He's also saying a bunch of words like "ball", "bottle", "more", "pup pup", and "mama". We know he's trying to say more, but it comes out babbling! :-) He's also pointing well, as mentioned before, and he's started doing the motions to "Itsy Bitsy Spider" with us while we do it! It's so cute! He's also dancing (while holding on to something), and doing "Touchdown Auburn" by holding his hands up over his head! :-)

He just keeps growing and developing so well, and we are so proud of him! We still can't believe he's a year old! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful growing boy!

Jack's 1st Birthday!

Our sweet little Jack turned 1 last weekend! We celebrated with family and friends at our house with a fun pool party! It was such a fun and perfect day!

Here is the sweet birthday boy the morning of June 26, 2010! We went to get him while singing "Happy Birthday"!

First dip into one of the 4 pools!

Cousin Jake

Jack playing with cousins Blakely and Brooke

Jack's friend Ryder joined in on the fun

Baby Sawyer even made it out for the fun!

Just driving around in his new cozy coupe!

Jack's froggy cake for all his family and friends to eat

Jack also had his very own cake, and he loved it! He wasn't sure at first what to do with it, but once he tasted it, he couldn't get enough of it! He also got his first taste of whole milk and loved that too!

Mama and Jack about to open presents

Daddy and Jack playing with his presents

Jack trying to figure out all his presents!

So excited he's 1!

Jack's friends Daniel Isaac and Noah David from Opelika came to play, too!

Birthday family photo

Thanks so much for everyone who came to the party to celebrate our sweet Jack with us! We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who love us and love Jack. It wouldn't have been as much fun without y'all!