Jack and his 2 best friends

We have completely taken over my parent's house. Who in their right mind would let their adult daughter move BACK into their house with an 8 month old and a huge, very hairy, golden retriever?? Hahaha. My parent's have a puppers of their own as well. She's a German Shepard named Taja. She loves Jack dearly. When we go for walks Taja walks right next to the stroller and protects Jack from cars. It's so hilarious. Sadie still isn't in love with Jack just yet. The more food he drops on the floor or licks he lets her have of his sippy cup, the closer she's getting to loving him. She still bolts ever time he crawls her way.

I had to post this video from a few weeks ago. Out of all the toys Jack has he always goes for the dog toys. Taja, of course plays with him and Sadie's just the big bully who always breaks up the party. When we get to California we have to get a 2nd dog. It's just too much fun with 2 dogs.

The Energizer Jackson

I knew that once Jack started crawling my days of rest would be over! Hahahah. He's all over the place and into EVERYTHING! Nothing is safe. I think he started pulling himself up on things pretty much right after the crawling began. He does this really goofy crawl thing where he throws his tushie up in the air and gets on the flat of his feet. It's hilarious. We now call him Mogley, from the jungle book. I'm not sure if his little knees get sore or if he's getting close to walking. Only time will tell.






Tom actually got to come home to Pottsville this past weekend. It was so great having him here. We get to see him every other weekend but it's a little nicer being here than in his army lodging, especially if it's a rainy day. That room is only so big. So we crammed all we could into his 36 hours of being home. We made our first trip to Heisler's Dairy Bar. For those of you not from around these parts it's the best place to spend a summer night. There's great food, even better ice cream and they have mini golf and a driving range. We went there with Tom's parents. It was a lot of fun. Jack went on his first little machine ride. There was a Dino and a helicopter.
I'm sure people were looking at us like we were crazy putting an 8 month old on one of those things but he loved it. Tom, his dad and myself drove golf balls. That was very entertaining. I feared for my life with Tom's dad hitting his golf ball off the way too small divider between us and Tom found his future retirement hobby. It was a great day weather wise to hang outside.

Jack really loves being outside.

He's just like Sadie, he finds all the sticks and the rocks in the yard. Who needs toys?? Oh my goodness....I almost forgot. Jack got his first tooth this week! YEAH for chompers!!! It's the cutest little weapon ever. He had a few days where he was kind of out of it and was taking 3 hour naps then one day when he hardly slept at all and wwhhhaaalaaaaa.....a tooth. Poor kiddo. Now he's always trying to figure out what it is with his fingers and tongue. It's so funny to watch. I'm also learning that turning my back for a single second is no longer an option. While Tom was home on Saturday we were all sitting in my parent's basement and all of a sudden there goes Jack...UP THE STAIRS. OMG! Who taught him this?? He was all the way up on the first step ready to tackle the second one. What a little monster. Like I said he's everywhere. And with all that crawling comes some much needed sleep!

Everything's going pretty well here. We're headed to Va this weekend. We're hoping the weather will cooperate and we can get to see a baseball game in Richmond. I love going to farm team games, they're so much fun! Hopefully the rain will stay away!

Miss you all!

Technical Difficulties....

Every thing is going great at the McMurtrie household. Even though we really don't have a household. It's spread out between Pottsville, Pa and Ft. Lee, Va, but everything's great. :-) I've been totally slacking in the blogging part of life. I do have a few good excuses though. heheheh I don't like to blog with out adding a few pictures or videos. Now that Tom's in Va, so is our lap top. (problem #1) On our laptop I can just put the memory card form the camera right in it's own little slot and upload my pictures. Well, my parent's computer does not have this luxury. (Problem #2) So I would have to use my USB cord to transfer my pics and that is of course sitting in California (problem #3). So you're thinking...why don't you just load up your pics and videos in Ft. Lee when you visit Tom on the weekends??? The internet in his crappy little Army lodging room works in 10 minute intervals then boots you off. This of course is not enough time for me to load anything on the junkie connection. (Problem #4) But I have a solution. Tom's coming to Pottsville this weekend, laptop in tow. :-) I have so many new things to blog about and I need the pictures to support the words.
Jack turned 8 months old yesterday. I seriously can't believe how much he's growing up. I am absolutely loving this age too. He's so curious and quite the explorer. The last blog had a video of him attempting to crawl. He is now taking off in every direction. The dogs don't know what to do, chase him, lick him or protect their toys. Hahahaha. He's been crawling for 2 weeks now and is already pulling himself up on things. I can't believe how determined he is. He just doesn't give up. I love that about him. Not sure when he'll start walking but he definitely likes standing better than sitting or crawling. He also loves feeding himself too. It's so funny watching him concentrate so hard on one little puff snack, pick it up with his thumb and index finger then he chomps on it and SMILES. He looks at you like, "Did you just see what I did? That's right, that was all me!" Hahahhahaha. I hate that we have to be away from Tom right now but us living with him in his weeee little room in Va just won't work. He's really enjoying the ORSA training. Phase 1 is over for him on Friday which was all math prep (Statistics, Probability and Calculus) for Phase II. He's hopping a ride from our friend Wagner who lives in Va beach this weekend to come home. I like to think he's coming home to see us, but I think he really misses Sadie. No man can go that long without his dog. Hahhaha. So that's how things are going with us. The weather is supposed to be great this week so I should have some good outdoor photo ops. Hope every one is doing great!!!