Thursday, May 26, 2011

Birthday Boy and other things I need to catch up on!!


This little stinker is 2 today!! It is so hard to believe that our baby is now 2! It is hard to sit and try to sum up JC in a few sentences. He is an incredible little boy! I have heard people say through the years about how siblings tend to be so different from one another. Well, it is true! My boys are so different from each other!

Here is a list of some of the opposites in Drew and JC:
Drew, neat and clean JC, dirty and messy
Drew, wild and impulsive JC, calm and thoughtful
Drew, busy and sits still very little JC, loves to be held
Drew, hates chores JC, wants to help with everything
Drew, too busy for affection JC, very loving and cuddly

Of course, they are both so special in so many ways. So since it is JC's birthday I will gush on him a bit.

JC is a BIG boy! I mean BIG! He weighs about 35lbs and is wearing size 3T clothing. Yes, you read that correctly, 3T! I am not sure on his height but we will be marking him on the door frame tonight as a permanent record. He eats just about everything. We have only discovered a few things he will not eat at all. He does not like broccoli, ice cream(crazy!), and fish. He is not a very picky eater. He loves to have ketchup or honey mustard, or bbq sauce, or any kind of dipping sauce! He loves to play outside. He loves to drive the Lightening McQueen car, although he cannot really steer it really well yet which means that daddy has to chase him all over the yard! You will see some of that in a video here in a bit. JC is very loving. He runs up to me and Jim and just about knocks us over trying to grab our legs and hug us! His loving nature has been so good for me. I am not typically a very affectionate person but he has melted down a wall in my heart that makes me want to hug and love on both of my boys more. He is definitely in a "terrible 2's" stage and has some throw down fits when he does not get his way! He loves to help too though. His favorite thing to do is help me with the laundry. He will load and unload the washer and the dryer. Jim says he is my little slave! I just hope he continues to want to do it! He has been sleeping in a big boy bed since March and in the last few weeks we have been working at him going down a little easier without Jim or I having to lay down with him. We hope to soon have him be able to "camp out" in the living room with Drew on Friday nights. He is getting his own sleeping bag for his birthday from his memaw, so he will be all set for it! He is learning to communicate more and more each day. He is a rough and tumble little boy! He loves to tackle his brother, or anyone else who makes the mistake of sitting down on the floor! I am sure there are so many other things I could share about you but my mind is going blank! So I am going to move on before I forget all the other things I want to write about.

Here are some videos I shot a week ago of the boys playing outside...

This is JC driving the Lightening Car


Drew riding his bike

So, I will gush on Drew a little bit now. He has finished the 1st grade and done so with all A's all year!!! He had a fantastic year this year. He had two great teachers this year. We were so blessed. It was his last year at Hernando schools. Next year we are making the switch to OB schools and he will be riding the teacher kid shuttle bus from the high school to Chickasaw Elementary. He is very excited but I know that he is going to miss some of the friends that he has made in the last 2 years. I am glad we are making the switch now, while he is still so young and will be able to make new friends. I am praying now that our teacher next year will be as great as the one we had this year.

Also, Drew has made friends with two little boys in our neighborhood. This is new territory for Jim and I. We are trying to figure this whole thing out. Drew is fairly sheltered in who he is around most of the time. Jim and I believe this is a good opportunity to reach out to these families but it is hard! There is just a lot of difference in how these kids act and how we have taught Drew to act. Don't get me wrong, it has been good for Drew too. It is teaching him how to be a good loser! They are both a little bit better than him at the video games! But it is also giving us an opportunity to teach him more about how Jesus expects us to act in this world. It is an interesting journey but one that I pray will ultimately honor God.

Here are some pics from JC riding the car the other night...
He is dangerous in this car!
This pic is fuzzy but his expression was just too cute not to share!

We have certainly been having our fair share of severe weather! Fortunately we have not had anything devestating or destructive like there has been in other areas of the country. I took these pics of us in our "storm shelter" last night. I am so thankful that we are all safe but it sure gets crazy when we are crammed into that little space!

Oh, and I almost forgot about these pics. Usually Jim does bath time with the boys but on the rare occasion when I do it they love for me to rap them up in their bath towels. It looks like they have little kimonos on when I do it! I actually call them my little china dolls when they have them on! Drew would not be still long enough for me to get his pic, but JC is not that fast yet!
He fell over trying to walk to the bedroom!

In this one it had almost fallen off, but you get the picture.

Well, that is about all I can come up with for now. We will have JC's birthday party tomorrow night and then we are going to the zoo on Saturday morning, so I am sure I will have lots more to share throughout the weekend!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Are we done yet?

I think I am more ready for school too be out than Jim and Drew!
I am tired of doing homework!
I am tired of packing lunches!
I am tired of after school band stuff!
Basically I am just TIRED!!!!!

We are in the home stretch now though. It will be nice for the days to slow down and the evenings to be more family time tather than working on things for the next day.

Today we are having a yard sale. So I am sitting outside in the garage waiting to sell some stuff! And it is not going as well as I would like which is probably why I have time to blog! It is very chilly this morning so I think that is making people not get out. I am going to hold out hope that it will pick up as the morning progresses though.

So lets go back and review some things that have been going on around here! The last time I posted we were planning a family trip to the zoo for Good Friday. It was a fantastic day at the zoo. Probably one of the very best visits I have ever had in my life. The animals were so alert and active. The kids loved it! The weather was perfect! So here are a few pictures below...
This gorilla was very alert and seemed very unimpressed with the audience of people watching him!

This was one lazy monkey! He had it all hanging out there!

Easter weekend was just gorgeous! We spent that Saturday before down at my mother-in-law's house. We had a good visit down there and the kids were able to play outside a good bit and enjoy egg hunting. We went to my mom's on Sunday after church. Again a very good visit and egg hunting for the kids! At both family gatherings it seems that many of the kids are getting too old for egg hunting. So next year it may just been our 2 hunting at Margaret's. At my mom's I think the competitive nature of all those boys will keep them in the hunt for another year or two!
Here are all of us in our Easter wear...
Not the best pic but we were having a really hard time getting one without heads turned and eyes closed and the wind blowing, so this was the best one.

Here are just the boys...
I think they looked mighty fine! And I did not buy anything new for them for Easter! All hand me downs!!

Here are some shots of the egg hunting crew on Easter...


Egg hunting action...

Holly, mom's rather chubby yorky...

Nathan, caught red-handed taking the eggs that had been dropped on the ground for the babies to get!

JC was a great egg hunter this year. I am sure by next year he will be a lot more aggressive about getting them!


It is a little sad sitting here realizing we are getting rid of all the baby stuff. I am glad to get rid of things but it is a reminder of just how big they have gotten. Drew is actually down the street at a little boys house. This is the first time we have ever let him do this. There is a little boy next door to us now and some down the street. Jim did walk down and introduce himself to the mom before we let him go. We want him to find friends around here to play with and to have friends that he will see at school. It is also an opportunity to get to know some people and possible share the gospel in the future. It is a little scary though, letting your kids just kinda go out into the world. We want to make sure he knows the right things and makes the right choices, but we cannot shelter them from everything all the time. We just have to pray that he is getting it all and that he is understanding who God wants him to be and that he will let those things guide him.

JC does not like that his brother is down the street AT ALL!! He has been having a throw down fit for about 15 minutes. He has just now calmed down about it all, after getting a spanking and sitting in time out! He is also not the greatest at the yard sale. Like most kids, he wants to play with all the stuff out here. Over all though he has not been bad.

Well, it is still quite cool and things are still not really moving here. It is frustrating. The remaining baby stuff I will haul over to a second hand children's store that pays you for stuff. Hopefully I will get a little out of that. The rest of it will go tot he good will. I just don't think I will have the energy or time to do this again this spring/summer!

Well I better run, there is a sink full of dirty dishes to be cleaned up, laundry to be dried, and things to put away and get out of the attic around here. Bye for now!