Friday, February 27, 2009

Dear Jonathan

Dear Baby Jonathan, (big 'on, nosy rosy, johnny p... you pick the nickname.)

You are growing so incredibly fast. You are a man on the move, let me tell you. You are crawling at absolute warp speed and can pull up and cruise all around the place as long as there's something to hang on... you've even stood by yourself for a few seconds. I know you'll be walking before we know it. Unbelievable.

You are such a sweet snuggly little guy. And SOOO happy! You have 8 teeth now and I just love your little cheesy grins where you show each of those cute little teeth to whoever will look!

For some reason, you've been on a little bit (no strike that - a complete) of a bottle strike these days - it's freaking me out a little, but maybe you're just ready to move on to the next big step - sippy cups. We've been trying to give you as much milk as possible in cereal, but I'm still a little worried. Don't grow up so fast, kiddo!!!

You continue to admire your big brother and love every second of attention he gives you - even if you get hurt in the process. :-) Not that he would do anything intentionally, but.... no one can make you laugh the way he does. It is a really neat relationship.

You are the best little baby - I love you with all my heart little bug. You are so curious and sweet - I hope that never goes away!!

Love you,
Mommy

Dear Jacob

It's time for themonthly insallment of my sentiments to my sweeties:

Dear Jacob,

How in the world are you already 2 1/2 years old? You are so grown up and I'm so proud to be your mommy. You make your daddy and me laugh at least 15 times each day. You are so smart and have a near perfect memory (especially when it comes to a treat you may have been promised.)

I'm amazed by your love for music. It is really precious. You have 4 guitars and play them all every day. You share with whoever's around too so we can sing songs and dance and be really silly. You have a great little voice - it's so cute. You like to sing he ABCs, Jesus Loves Me, How Great is our God, Famous One, and all the Imagination Movers' songs. You don't always know all the words, but you sure have the tunes down. we wonder if you might be the next Chris Tomlin...

I love the way you smile and play with your brother. Just last night, you sat in front of him and "read" him some books. Memories I will have forever include your first moments really playing together.

You have turned in to quite the picky eater (I have no idea where you might have gotten that from by the way...) - you don't even like pizza most days. oh my, what will we do? Good thing you LOVE "macanoni" - we eat it almost every meal.

We're still struggling with sleep issues in our house - you have your daddy wrapped right around your finger when it comes to nite nite time - your convinced that he has to lay down with you til you fall asleep...hmmm. We can't wait until you and your brother choose to sleep together.

We love you little man - you are a unique and funny little person. You are one of our best little friends ever!
Love,
mommy

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentines Day to the love of my life and my very best friend in the whole wide world!! I feel so blessed to have Billy by my side through all the fun times in life (and not so fun times too). My awesome hubby arranged for my wonderful in-laws (really - they are wonderful - have to b the BEST in-laws on the planet) to baby sit the boys for us on Friday night and we went to dinner. We tried to make a rule not to talk about the boys, but all you parents know that's just not possible - but, we did manage to make it through without calling to check on them one single time. :-) It was a fantastic night - I'm so thankful for the man he is and the awesome daddy he is to our boys. No one could ask for a better role model! That's why God gave us boys, I'm convinced, so they might imitate their sweet daddy!!!!

Oh - as a bonus - a really big bonus - we got each other a laptop for V-day! Yippee - so now as soon as I can find my camera cord, I'll get to blog some pictures. We are so blessed - I love you crockels!!!!! You are and will forever be my very best friend.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

My good friend Rachie passed this charge along -so I'll try to fulfill her request - to impart 10 pearls of wisdom about myself...okay maybe not ten pearls, but 10 honest facts, so here's my feeble attempt. I realized I'm not nearly as talented as my Rachie - no rapping for this chic! :-)

1. My weakness - BROWNIES!!! I have (on more than one occasion - and not just when I was pregnant) made brownies and eaten the WHOLE pan by myself sans the edges. I hate the edges. Poor Billy - he lifts up the lid or foil and to his surprise, they're all gone. yikes...

2. I hate the edges on anything - brownies, toast, anything really. Except cornbread - I only eat the edges on that stuff. weird, I know.

3. I have been out of the country three times- one trip logged more than 20000 skymiles - all the way to Zimbabwe, which is one of the most memorable times in my life and also when I realized I was madly in love with Billy, even though we'd only just met.

4. Once, in high school, my three best girlfriends and I were on America's Funniest People.

5. I had really big hair in the 7th grade (and 8th grade, I think). The kind of hair that you curl the bottom of your bangs down and flip the top part up as high as it would go.

6. I'm still a daddy's girl - always will be I think!

7. When I go "home" my mom still cooks me my favorite breakfast - gravy and biscuits. YUMMY!

8. I lived within 5 miles of both my grandparents when I was little and I loved all of them so much - I still have my granny - she's really sick, but I'm thankful to still have her.

9. One of the best things about being a parent is watching my parents be "Pa and Grammy" to our boys - I seriously think they like the boys better than me. :-)

10. I am the world's worst dishwasher loader - really. Billy (bless his patient little heart) always has to re-do it. So, conveniently, now, I just don't even bother. :-) Funny how that works - it used to work when I was a teenager too - I wasn't very good at mowing the yard. I always ran over stuff -so finally, my dad gave up and said I didn't ever have to do it.

11. I'd give my right arm for a full night's sleep and to sleep in - by sleep in, I mean sleep past 6 am!!!!! (I love my boys - but sheesh, they make me tired!!!)

Okay - I know's 11, but the last one is a bonus. Enjoy!

Monday, February 02, 2009

Daddy's Big Mistake

This past Saturday Daddy did something he will never do again. We were on our way home from Jerry and Amy's house to get some clothes for Jacob. We had been iced out of our house for several days and we needed a change of clothes for the big boy. We arrived home and Jonathan was a sleep, so I decided I would wait in the van with the boys. As mommy went inside to get Jacob some clothes, I unbuckled Jacob and asked him to go to the back of the van. For we were going to change his clothes so I figured I would give him a break and let him out of his car seat. He went to the back of the van and I asked him to watch me as I got the mail. I went outside, got the mail and came back to the van. Then mommy came out the front door and it was still very icy so I went to the steps to help her down. When we made it back to the van, Jacob was in the driver's seat with both hands on the wheel smiling from ear to ear. The van was running and the problem was, Jacob had somehow found the button to lock the van. Mommy and I both paniced for all the doors were locked. Daddy ran inside for the spare keys and ran outside and hit the unlock button, but I learned the doors will not unlock with that button while the van is running. At this point, Jacob had made his way over to the passenger's seat. Mommy somehow had Jacob push the button to let the window down and so mommy quickly unlocked the doors. Jacob thankfully loves buttons. This was one of the most panic-times I can remember, and thank the Lord everything was okay. I have never been so thankful for the fact that you have to have your foot on the break to get the van out of gear. You better believe I will never make that mistake again. Since then, I thought that I should have actually inserted the key into the van to unlock it, but at that moment in time, I was not thinking, not thinking at all.

Daddy's Big Boy

My boys make me laugh, cry and everything in between almost every day. A couple of nights ago it was Jacob's turn. It was time for our night-time routine, and as always it was time for Daddy to lay down with his big boy to tell him a good night story and to say night-night prayers. As I was beginning to pray, I asked Jacob to repeat after me. This is how it went:

Daddy: "Thank you for Mommy"
Jacob: "Tank ou for mommy"
Daddy: "Thank you for Daddy"
Jacob: "Tank ou for daddy"
Daddy: "Thank you for Baby Jonathan"
Jacob: "Tank ou for baby onathan"
Daddy: "Amen"
Jacob: "And Tank ou for Jacob"

It made me laugh and brought a tear to my eye. And I told him how much I loved him and what a blessing he is. Then we continued on with night-time routine, which usually means Daddy falling asleep before Jacob.