Jacob's 2nd Birthday

My boys.

Balloon Time!!!

This was just way too cute!

The donut cake.

The birthday boy!!

Opening presents.

So that's it. My baby is two years old now. I don't have babies anymore. I now have a preschooler and a toddler. It's kind of bittersweet, really.

We celebrated Jacob's 2nd birthday with a party at Donut Stop. It was wonderful. It wasn't very expensive, and I didn't have to do a single thing! And I think all the kiddos had a pretty good time. He had his 2 year check-up this past Friday. He's doing great! He's in the 25th-50th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height in his age group, so he's pretty average right now. He's speaking pretty well. He's not necessarily speaking the 100+ words most kids have by age 2, but he's saying more than Jonathan did at that age. And he put together his first 2-word sentence the other day. He held up his foot to Daddy and said, "Do this." (Translation: "Play 'This Little Piggy'.") He's incredibly strong-willed. The "terrible twos" have definitely hit. And look out potty-training, here we come.

I have one more year to be home all day with Jonathan. Around this time next year he starts kindergarten, and then it'll be just Jacob and me--something Jacob has never experienced. I don't know if I'm ready for that or not, but it's coming. It's just around the corner. My kids are growing up so very fast.

A Few Pics From Our Summer

John & me at the Jeff Dunham "Identity Crisis" show

John & the boys at the Ft. Worth

Jacob checking out the creepy crawlies.

Jonathan, Abby & Rory checking out a giant sea turtle.

Look at the size of that!

Jacob waiting to enter the zoo.

Jonathan waiting to enter the zoo.

Goofing off at the hotel.

He's officially a CPA!!!

A much deserved celebration.

Highlights: T-Ball 2010

We signed Jonathan up for pre-K T-Ball this spring. He started out kind of excited about it, but before we were even half-way through the season (which was only about a month long, mind you) he was pretty much done with it.

He made it through 9 of the 10 games, though. (We let him miss one so he could go to VBS.) The team had a party at Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate at the very end. The kids all got trophies and medallions! His coaches were absolutely wonderful--and brave to attempt to teach 10-15 four and five year-olds the basics of the game.

I don't know if Jonathan will do it again next year or not. We've decided we'll ask him if he wants to participate and then make him see it through if he does want to. If he says he doesn't want to do it, though, we're not going to force the issue. I'm glad he tried it once. I think it was a really good experience for him.

Jonathan's 4th Birthday & More

The birthday boy

Jonathan & Daddy

Blowing out the candle. (Rory really wanted to help.)

Jonathan's Optimus Prime cake. I'm so proud of this--I made it myself (with the help of a very dear friend). We stayed up until one o'clock in the morning making this bad boy.

Believe it or not, I have not abandoned my blog! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get a new post on here. The time gets away from me so easily nowadays. My baby boy (well, one of them anyway) turned four this weekend. We had a Transformers themed party, and I made the cake myself. I've never attempted anything like that, but I think I may never buy another cake again. It was time consuming, yes, but it was really a lot of fun and it actually turned out okay! Jake's birthday is coming up in about four months, so I've got to come up with a cake to make for his party now.

John finally passed his CPA exam a couple of weeks ago!!! He is sooo glad to have it behind him at last. We've had a few formalities to go through. He passed his open book exam, and the state board meets tomorrow and will issue John his number. After he sends in another fee, they will send him his license and he will be official! After tax season ends, it's time to party!!! Thank you so much to everyone who has been praying for John over these last three and a half years.

I got Jonathan signed up for T-ball. The season begins May 10, and they will play 10 games over like a month or so. The games will be on Mondays and Thursdays at 6PM. Still don't know who he's going to be playing for yet, or even how he's going to handle playing with other kids his age on a team. I'm curious to see how this is going to go.

Jacob continues to grow by leaps and bounds as well. It's so hard to believe he's going to be two in just a few months. Next month we're going to start getting ready to turn his room into a big boy room. That's right--the crib will be replaced with a big boy bed, the changing table and play pen will come out, and the decor will be a little more big boy like. Not long after that comes round two of (*gulp*) potty training.

My brother, Aaron, had back surgery on April 1. This was actually his third surgery. He had his first one when he was 19, and has had trouble off and on ever since. (He has a slipped disk.) In this surgery the doctors completely replaced the disk, and they are hoping that in a few months he will be like a completely new person.

That's pretty much what's been going on with our family over the last month or so. I'll try not to be so long in writing next time. ;) God bless!

Family Update

It's been a long time since my last post. I haven't had as much time as I would like to write, but I've got a few minutes to catch you up right now.

Jacob had his 18 month well check on February 3, and he seems to be doing great! Though he continues to gain weight, he still weighs in at the 25th-50th percentile mark. The important thing is that he is being consistent. His vocabulary is also growing by leaps and bounds. He says about five to ten words now--or tries to, anyway. That may not seem like very much, but Jonathan was only speaking about 3 words or so when he was this age. Jonathan was about two-and-a-half before he really took off talking; I'm hoping Jacob will catch on a little quicker. Jake is 19 months now. He's walking, attempting to talk, and just plain growing up way too fast. It's going to be time to move him to a big boy bed and start the potty training process here in about six months or so. (I am sooo not looking forward to going through all that again.)

Jonathan is about to turn 4 on me. He's been potty trained for about a year and a half now. I've been making him wear Pull-Ups for naps and bedtime and also anytime we have to go somewhere. A little bit at a time, I've been weaning him off of that routine as well. I started by letting him wear underwear when we run errands or to church. Then just a few weeks ago, I let him wear underwear during naptime. When he went for almost two weeks straight with no accidents, I finally let him start wearing underwear to bed at night. So far so good. In the last couple of weeks he actually started going to the bathroom all by himself! He won't let me come with him, but he'll yell at me if he needs help with something. The little bugar has even started to dress himself a little. John and I are even thinking about enrolling him in preschool this year. That's right--THIS year. He would start this fall.

(Yes, I'm having a VERY hard time with this whole growing up thing. Does it show???)

Jonathan has almost finished his first year in AWANA. Each year, all the kids make little pine cars and the church hosts a Grand Prix. Jonathan made his first car and is super excited to get to race in his first Grand Prix this Sunday. (I'll be sure to post some pics from the big race!) Jacob will get to participate in a couple more years. If you haven't already heard, John got another test grade back. (He's been waiting for this grade almost 60 days now.) He PASSED!!! He got an 82! Now if that last grade would just come on back...
He's been working so hard and I'm so glad he finally almost has this whole thing behind him. He's well on his way to being a CPA, and I am so very proud of him! That's really about all that's going on with us right now. We have a plumber coming out in the morning. It probably isn't an absolute necessity, but I had one of my blond moments--or rather a sensory flashback followed by a blond moment.

(See, when we were living in our apartment, the owners shut the water off to do some maintainance work. They apparently turned it back on before they were supposed to, didn't realize that someone had left a faucet on in the apartment directly above us, and before long I was hearing water dripping. Then I was seeing it stream through our ceiling and light fixtures. So, anytime I hear dripping water, I flash back on that. Fast forward a couple of years to Dec. 31, 2008. I'm taking a shower and fifteen minutes in I run out of hot water. When I get out of the shower, I hear that our hot water heater has not kicked on. Long story short, we had it looked at and determined that we needed to get a new one. The old one was ten years old, after all.)

Well, I was taking a shower this past Thurs. or Fri., and about 15 min. in, I run out of hot water. I get out and find that the hot water heater has not kicked on. It finally did come on about 45 min. after I got out of the shower. It will also come on if you manually turn up the dial. But our one-year-old water heater does not click on when it's supposed to. Anyway, we got a new gas valve for it (the unit is still under warranty) and the plumber is coming in the morning to replace it. Isn't owning a home great?!? Our house turned 52 years old this year, and now it's falling apart! There are days I truly miss apartment living--until, of course, I flash back on the "flood" of 2005.

New Pics

1st Birthday pics by Portrait Innovations (Yes, I know, I finally got them done!)

Showing off their brand new haircuts!

Jake's 1st haircut--the finished product.

Happy New Year!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I know we did. I promise I'll get some pictures posted soon. (I'm a little behind, as usual. :-D) My mom's parents were home this year; the last several years they've taken off in their RV for a 3-month-or-so-long vacation. So it was nice to get to celebrate a little with them. After a candlelight Lord's Supper on Christmas Eve at our church, we all headed over to my parents' house to have finger foods and open gifts. On Christmas morning, the boys opened their gifts from Santa as well as some that were mailed to us from out of town family and very dear friends. Then we went to my dad's mom's house for more gifts and to have Christmas dinner. My brother had a very special gift for all of us and we all had to open it at the same time. He had a special announcement to make: he has been accepted into the Navy. We knew he was wanting to sign on as a chaplin, but he had some medical stuff he had to get straightened out first and we didn't know how all of that would work out. Anyway, it's official now. His gift was a uniform armband. He asked us to set it somewhere we could see it and remember to pray for him. He is going to be in the Ft. Worth area for the next three years while he finishes his training and officer's school. When all of his training is complete he will rank as a lieutenant. He doesn't know where he will be stationed after that. It was kind of a bittersweet moment for all of us. We're all very proud of him, but at the same time we will worry about him. He really feels like this is where God wants him to be right now. Please keep Aaron and his wife, Allison, in your prayers. On Sunday, we got together with John's parents and brother and sister-in-law for a third Christmas celebration. The boys were definitely good and spoiled this year!

Now we start another new year. I'm not very good about keeping New Year's Resolutions, so I don't usually make them. I do have a few goals for myself, though:

• to have a deeper relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
• to be a better wife and mom
• to take better care of myself
• to try and relax a little once in a while

We'll see how well all of that goes over, but that's the plan at least. Another new year, new beginnings. We are praying that 2010 is a prosperous new year for all of you. Happy New Year! :)