Back to It!!

I cannot believe how long I have let this blog go. Nearly 7 months!! Life keeps getting busier and the blog was bottom priority. The longer it sat, the more intimidating it became to play catch-up, so it sat even longer. I thought about what to do with it.... quit the blog, write a summary blog from the last seven months, start with the present.... but decided that (for me) I need it to get it caught up properly so I can have the documentation and keep the story moving. Here's my plan. In my head, I have over 30 blog entries to create and post. My plan is to back-date the posts and post one each day in December. This post will remain at the top, but all of the new ones will fall below this one as they will appear in descending chronilogical order. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN beginning in December to play catch up with me!! If you're reading this, thanks for staying faithful that I would return :)

Mismatch Day

Mismatch (and apparently silly day) at school



Just wrong day!!

New Cowboy Hats

My dad and stepmom went on a trip to the southwest last month and brought back cowboy hats for the kis. They love them!!

Easter 2012

Bailey's 3rd Birthday Party

Bailey's birthday party was the second weekend in April and we had another great day for a party! We were able to be outside most of the day, which was so nice. We had the grandparents over along with aunts and cousins. Dan's older sister, Cathy, was able to come up with her girls and I think it is great when the cousins can be together. The kids played hard and had a blast. The last picture in the album is of just how tired Bailey was when everyone else left. She wandered upstairs to sing her Bible songs and fell asleep against the guest room bed. Very cute!

Bailey's 3rd Birthday Party

Bailey's Birthday

Bailey's birthday fell on Palm Sunday this year and it was fun to celebrate her birthday on a weekend instead of weekday when we are at work. We let her open presents after church and then did our traditional cupcakes after dinner. She had a great day! Jacob got to pick out a present for her and he picked out Tinkerbell. He was very proud of it!!

Singing on Palm Sunday

Jacob's age group sang at the beginning of both services on Palm Sunday. If you remember last year, he ran around the stage, so we prepped him for a long time about how he needed to stay put and sing. That he did! He did great the first service - victory! And then..... the second service. He was a bit more fired up and after accidentally getting hit in the eye with a palm branch, he engaged in a palm branch fight with the boy next to him. The videos below illustrate the experiences. He is in a green and white striped polo.

1st Service

2nd Service

Drawing

Both kids have really gotten into a coloring and drawing kick the past few months. They went through about a month's period of coloring non-stop, which was great! Now they both love to draw. About a month ago, they both drew these pictures and I was so proud of them. The colored pictures are Jacob's (one is a duck and the other was his first ever drawing) and the other is Bailey's drawing of herself on paper. Both have come a long ways since these were done. I love seeing their creative minds at play!!

Bailey's New Hairstyle

Now that Bailey's hair is long enough to put it up, I quickly figured out that it is a lot harder than it looks! Her hair still wants to naturally pull forwards and into her face so it has to go up in some fashion just to stay out of her eyes. I do a lot of little ponies on top of her head and can now do pigtails and ponytails and get all of her hair into them. My hairdresser showed me a more creative way to change it up and it's fun! It's sort of the topsy-tail style from when I was a kid.

Drums

This post is a special shout-out to Uncle Dallas and Aunt Teressa for their Christmas gift to Jacob - a drum set. Both kids LOVE them, but we had to remove the cymbal from it because it was just too much for mom and dad :)









Video

Happy St. Patricks Day

My two favorite men dressed as twins.

Valentine's Day 2012

The kids posing with their new stuffed animals from us for Valentine's Day.


Jacob with his dozen roses for us - cute idea!


Sweet Bailey

First and Only Snowfall

The only somewhat sizable snowfall that I remember getting all winter was during my birthday weekend. Sharla came for a surprise visit and we took the kids sledding to our neighborhood park. Thank goodness I decided to take my camera because that was the only time the kids played in the snow all winter (if you call it a winter!).







Note the ice crystals on Bailey's eyelashes

Jacob at 4 Years Old

Now that Jacob is almost 4 1/2 years old, I figured I better write about him at the four-year mark. He continues to amaze me. He has a lot of personality and is really beginning to mature into a little boy. He is very smart and is beginning to express himself creatively. The clumsy little toddler is becoming a more coordinated, competitive boy. He reminds me of a little Dan each and every day.

He is obsessed with anything to do with numbers and is already doing calculations in his head. His thing right now while we are driving is to compute what place we are in at a stoplight. The competitive spirit comes out and always wants me to be "first in line" or pass a slow car. Sometimes I think that MarioKart is real to him! He also asked Dan and I one night how old we were (34 and almost 35). He then got a thoughtful look on his face and said "so when Daddy is 45, Mommy will be 44... and when Daddy was 15, Mommy was 14." Really?!! I figured right then and there that math will likely be his strong subject in school like his parents.

Here are some highlights:

*He is extremely curious and likes to ask lots of questions about everything

*He continues to be very particular about most things and needs his routine

*He is very stubborn and can have a hard time in new situations adapting

*He is sweet and absolutely loves his sister

*He is ultra competitive and can turn almost anything into a competition

*He recently figured out how to swing by himself (victory for us!)

*He has an arm on him and can throw a ball and frisbee pretty well

*He can turn on the TV and operate the DVR with no problem, which serves us well especially during those early morning wake-ups

*He is really good at the Wii and could play it all day

*He is getting better at pretend play. He loves to fly his toys all over the house. He also has gone from having his own house, to his own fleet of airplanes, to a farm. Lots of animals live at the farm and he talks about it almost daily.

*He gave up his naps at home last summer, but still takes one at daycare, although that will likely change soon since he has a bit of insommia falling asleep at night.

*We still struggle getting him to listen to us at times, particularly in public situations

*He is still high energy and gets very wound up at times, which is hard to bring back down

*He doesn't like to get messy and flips out when he gets something on his skin

*His coloring is very good and he stays in the lines and is starting to color with more appropriate colors for the picture

*He recently began drawing, although some of it isn't recognizable

Christmas 2011

We had a great Christmas this year. The kids helped me make cookies this year and did it all with exception of making the dough and icing. They absolutely LOVE projects like that! I only made the sugar cookies and chex mix this year out of need to not have so much in the house (I end up eating most of it, so I feel like I get to make the executive decision on that one)!

It was a very compressed few days of celebrating. We kicked it off going to our Christmas Eve service and then coming home and spreading reindeer food outside and setting cookies our for Santa. The kids really understood the concept of Santa this year, which made it fun. Once the kids were up in the morning, we all came downstairs to see what Santa brought. I then made breakfast and then we opened presents to each other Everyone got each person in the house presents this year. It's important to me for the kids to understand the art of giving, not just receiving.

We then went to Decatur for the rest of the day to celebrate with my family. Debbie's family was there too and it's been awhile since my side of the family has had a house full of people on Christmas! Lots of great food, people, and the kids were absolutely spoiled in gifts.

We went to Dan's mom's house the next day and celebrated with most of Dan's family. It was just immediate family and Debbie actually got to spend quite a bit of time sitting and enjoying the kids. It was such a nice day. We brought the kids pjs with us and left close to bed time so they could go to sleep in the car and go right to bed. It worked out perfectly!

After Christmas, the kids and I made the gingerbread train. It was harder than I anticipated, but it was fun to do. I'm thinking that food crafts just aren't my thing :)

Christmas 2011

Jacob's 4th Birthday Party

Jacob celebrated his 4th birthday in November with his first ever friend party. In order to keep it under control as far as numbers go, he invited a select group of friends from Rogy's. The problem is that he is so social, his close group of friends was 14! I was amazed that eight came and we ended up with a total of 12 kids including Jacob and Bailey and two of their cousins.

At the time, his favorite show was Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so a pirate theme it was! I worked on prepping for his party about two months prior and collected a million items for the party. The Internet is a beautiful thing and I got so many great ideas from other people who have been through the same party.

I had a craft/snack table set up for the kids when they arrived in order to help transition the kids as well as allow for late arrivals. The kids got eye patches, necklaces, pirate tattoos, and made spotting scopes. The kids LOVED it all and I made a rookie mistake by cutting this time short in order to move on to the next activity. I created a minute-by-minute schedule and I was bound and determined to stick to it!!

The next activity was a cannonball game set up in the basement. I divided the kids into two teams and had them try and sink the other's ship (bucket decorated as a ship) with their cannonballs. The losing team had to walk a plank that I made. I thought this game would be a hit.... nope. The game was probably too over their heads and they were more excited about playing with the other toys.

Next, the kids went on a treasure hunt that started inside, went outside, and then ended back inside. I made treasure maps with picture clues and told them which one was the first location. At each location, a picture of the next location was attached. Near the end, they found an empty treasure box with a note that Captain Hook stole their treasure and they had to follow his clues to where it was hidden. The final location was a toy box with a treasure box filled with treasure for each kid. This game was a HUGE HIT!!

The kids ate cupcakes next and then watched Jacob open his gifts. We actually had about 15 minutes to spare and the kids had a good time running around and playing. A few of the parents stayed to help and I was grateful for our family members who were able to help out too. It was definitely a team effort.

I made dinner for family afterwards and then Jacob opened family presents in a much calmer setting.

I was completely exhausted, but the party went really well and Jacob has a great time. I'm not sure I have it in me to do this each year for both kids, but we'll see.

Jacob's Pirate Party

Cake Fail

I decided that I wanted to make Jacob's birthday cake instead of get a store-bought one.... again. I did a lot of research and found one that I thought was doable. I wanted to make a treasure box that was four layers high. It looked easy! I made a practice cake two weeks prior and planned on using it for my dad's birthday cake. Hey, it's family and they don't judge! It was the worst thing I have ever done. I didn't know whether to cry or laugh and I did both. I was able to partially salvage part for my dad's cake and tried to make it work. Again, it's just family. The hilarious part is that my three aunts were in town (as a surprise) to visit my grandparents and so it had a bigger audience than anticipated. Truthfully, we all needed a laugh at the time during my grandma's failing health.

Well, it was a lesson learned and I will not make another cake anytime soon.

Busy Times

I received an e-mail from one of my friends the other day asking if everything is alright, because she was concerned since I haven't blogged in awhile. I decided that I better post an update so everyone knows that we're all fine, just a bit overwhelmed. When I last blogged in November, I mentioned that we had a busy month and were looking forward to a quieter December. Were we ever wrong!

December began with the passing of my grandma, who was so incredibly special to me and to so many others. It was a hard time, especially for my grandpa, whose health is continuing to decline. Christmas always presents lots of things that keep us busy and our contractor began work the week before Christmas on finishing our basement. We completed work on our house last week and still have lots of other minor home projects to tackle as well as settling into our new basement. In the midst of all of this chaos, I have been the busiest I have ever been with work since November and there are no signs of it slowing down anytime soon.

The main reason I have let the blog go is because every spare second I have had has gone towards either the house or long hours with work. I have about five blogs started that I began at the end of December, but just haven't had time to finish. As soon as I can catch a break, hopefully sooner rather than later, I'll publish a flurry of posts going all the way back to November events!!

Hope everyone is doing well and I hope to get back to blogging soon!!!