Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve - we have so many reasons to celebrate this season. Jacob is super excited and Jonathan is perfectly content playing with all the shiny ribbon. We've been counting down the days until Jesus's birthday and it's almost here. We're making cupcakes for Jesus and Uncle Jerry - HAPPY BIRTHDAY JERRY!!! I think we'll leave one for Santa tonight. Hope he likes cupcakes...

In the words of my sweet little Jacob "nanny pimpus" - that's merry christmas in his world. It's so strange - most of his words are so close, but he's been saying pimpus since the beginning - we have pimpus trees, pimpus presents, pimpus lights...it's really cute!

NANNY PIMPUS everyone!

conversations with a two year old

Jacob is getting so big. He can carry on conversations now and it is just precious. Here's a recent example - one I want to remember forever. We were laying down getting ready for nite nite time (yes, one of us lays down with him for a while now...part of our ongoing struggle to get some good sleep in this house!) and the following conversation ensued:
mommy - "Jacob, you know how much mommy and daddy love you?"
jacob - "oh yes, I wuv oo more." followed by a big smooch
mommy - "thank you, that was sweet."
jacob - "oh yes"
mommy - "you know who else loves you? Jesus loves you very much. On Christmas we'll celebrate his birthday."
jacob - "make cake"
mommy - " sure we can. Good idea. Did you know that Jesus can live in your heart? One day when you get big and big, we hope you will ask Jesus to live in your heart."
jacob - lifts up his shirt and says "Jesus mine heart."
mommy - "that's right - when Jesus lives in your heart, He helps you make good choices and be a good boy and love other people."
jacob - "jacob good boy. Jesus in heart. Santa bring Mickey sheets good boys." (earlier we had talked about Santa bringing him special Mickey Mouse sheets and a pillow for his bed if he is a good boy.)

This was the most precious thing - he worked so hard to put all the words together. What a special memory. I really do pray that he chooses to ask Jesus to live in his heart one day and love Him with all his heart, mind, soul and strength.

I'll always remember

Being a parent is one of the toughest jobs in the world...once upone a time, I was a part of a group that did a PSA and that was our tag line. Back then, I was pregnant with Jacob - now, that I have two little critters, I really know how true this is. We're still struggling with our big boy at nite nite time. This past weekend was HORRIBLE! Thanks to Katie for keeping me company last night and being my moral support. :-)As bad as it is, I feel like God is teaching me something BIG. Don't know what it is, but I know it's something. I feel so selfish - Jacob has refused to go to bed the last three nights and has wound up in our bed. We just call it quits and turn off all the lights. Not that him being in our bed helps - he sleeps, but we don't. He's got to be the most restless little person on the planet. The no sleeping thing is really wearing me thin and I complain that I can't get anything done - I can't wrap presents, I can't make blankets (yes, I'm making some of our Christmas presents), I can't just veg out and watch TV, I can't spend any alone time with my husband, I can't snuggle... boy, there's a lot of I's in those statements. God reminded me yesterday that life really isn't about me or my agenda - it's about putting Him first and serving others - even my children. I found my self in the church nursery watching all the little kiddos - it wasn't even my week to volunteer, so at first I was grumpy, but then God showed me how selfish I was being and reminded me to smile to show the love of Jesus to those precious children.

I had the best reminder of how great it is to be a mommy this morning - I was holding Jonathan and Jacob crawled up in my lap and brought me a book and said "mommy read me." Well, for you sappy moms like me, you'll understand...the book was "Love you Forever." If you can honestly read that one without a tear in your eye, you're my hero. I read it, choked on most of the pages and had a big tear in my eye. Jacob looked at me and said "why mommy sad?" I held him close and whispered "mommy's not sad, mommy's so grateful that I just get emotional." I'm sure he didn't understand that, but he gave me a big smooch and hurried about his business. I was sitting there thanking God for speaking to me through the smallest creatures and the pages of a wonderful book about never-ending love.

I love my kids. I love my husband. I love my life. I love my God. Nothing else in this world matters!!!

Never ending fun!

We had our annual "Hanging of the Greens" service at church on Sunday. Billy and I both really love this service. We decided to take both of our boys this time - Jacob usually goes in the nursery, but we wanted him to hear the music and help light the church tree. He was so cute - a little loud (which embarrassed me a lot - but everyone told me it was cute.) At one time, after a song, he said "WOW" really loud. Then, he was working on a puzzle I'd brought for him and he said "where's this piece go mommy?" really loud.

The cutest thing he did was during a prayer. We told him it was time to talk to Jesus and he closed his eyes really tight and clasped his hands and was squinting. Words really don't do it justice...he almost looks like he's trying to grunt real hard or something. It is SO funny. Amy, Jerry, Lauren and Taylor went with us and we were all laughing so hard our pew was shaking a little!

Jacob couldn't be out done though. Jonathan was pretty content. He loves paper so we gave him the service program. We looked down and a big chunk was gone - slobbery remains were all that was left. I sure hope kids can't get hurt or sick from eating paper! (and I hope Social Services isn't reading this blog.)

Oh how funny! Seriously, though...I'm so thankful Jacob is beginning to learn about Jesus. We try to show them both how much Jesus loves them. We pray that we'll be good examples to them and that tyhe will learn about the never-ending love of our Savior and will one day choose to follow Him with their whole heart. That's our prayer for both our sweet boys!