Time has flown!

Well, I knew this would happen. I ALWAYS have the best intentions! I started scrapbooking... two days later I threw all of the scrapbook stuff in the closet. Too time-consuming. I started couponing. I bought the notebook and the baseball card sleeves. We started two newspaper subscriptions. This lasted about a month. We cancelled the newspaper subscriptions and the notebook is in my kitchen junk drawer. I started blogging. Then life got in the way and I have not blogged since October... Boo! MANY things have happened since my last post. I will attempt to remember the highlights...

Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went like a blur. We had a great time! We went to Ben and Carra's for Thanksgiving. The kids are really starting to play together. They are so cute and will, hopefully, be good friends as they grow. Christmas was great too! We actually had a new rule this year. The adults gave ZERO gifts to each other. We all gave gifts to the kids... Jon-Mical, Jakson, and Luke. It made this year so stress-free! Christmas has become a gift card exchange for most of us, and none of us need anything! It was so great to be able to just get together and hang out and enjoy being together. Jon-Mical and Jakson, of course, were showered with TOO MANY presents. This is the first year that Jon-Mical has shown a serious interest in Santa. So, not only did mom and Dad go overboard with gifts, but Santa did as well! That darn Santa! Here are a few pics...

Christmas morning was a lot of fun and very entertaining! We woke up to a wonderful Christmas morning filled with squeals and excitement. Santa ate the chocolate chip cookies and double chocolate milk that Jon-Mical made. He read the note that Jon-Mical left and wrote him a little reply. Jon-Mical was very excited about the STACK of toys that Santa left... Jakson was just excited because Jon-Mical was excited! We had Christmas music playing and candles lit. I just sat down in the floor with my first cup of coffee when Josh, who was busy putting a toy together with a screwdriver, yelled. Thirty minutes later I took this picture...

Josh stabbed a screwdriver into his left hand. He needed 4 stitches. It was pretty nasty, but I had to laugh at him a little bit too! The rest of Christmas day was pretty normal and fun. We ate a lot of food and played a lot of games and put together a lot of toys!

Immediately after Christmas, I began planning Jon-Mical's birthday party! he turned 4 this year and had his first BIG birthday party! He wanted to invite all of his school friends! We had a great time! It was a race car birthday party. We played "Pin the Race Car on the Track" and ate pizza and cake... and maybe candy from the "Candy Bar." :)

Jakson is doing great! He is crawling around and pulling up on everything! He loves his new mobility... more than Mommy does! He is a busy bee! He also has discovered a new love... swinging! He could swing at Mimi and Poppy C's for hours! He also had fun in a hammock swing...

Well, that's about it...

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

Life these days...

First of all, I do not know why these pictures are so small. I do not have time to mess with it, so I am just going to leave them the way that they are. We have been busy and happy these past few months! Halloween was great! We also went to the Pumpkin Patch during the month of October. It was great! Jon-Mical and Jakson both had a great time. So did Mommy, Daddy, SuSu, and Wayne! There are Pumpkin Patch pics on both sides of this little paragraph... no idea why...

My nephew, Luke, turned one last month! He is growing up so fast! He loved his birthday cake as you can see... and so did Jon-Mical and Jakson! We had a fun trip to West TN to celebrate!

This is just a cute picture of Jakson doing what he loves best... watching TV! :)

We are still going strong with Family Game Night... even though it has now turned into almost every night of the week. Jon-Mical is on such a board game kick right now! He now has CandyLand, Chutes and Ladders, Perfection, Sorry, and Trouble! And I'm pretty sure Santa is bringing him 2 more, Mommy and Daddy are giving him one, and SuSu has one for him. Good Grief.

In all of this fun we did have a pretty nasty few days. Here is the story... (If you are squeemish, stop reading...)

Jon-Mical is a GREAT sleeper! Well, 2 weeks ago on a Thursday night he woke up crying. Josh went upstairs to find that Jon-Mical had thrown up ALL OVER his bed... I mean ALL OVER! Now, JM is known in our family to have a VERY sensitive gag reflex. He coughs too hard and throws up. A noodle slides down some crazy way and he throws up. He sniffs too hard and throws up. He trips over a rug and throws up... well, maybe not that easily. Needless to say, throw up is not an uncommon thing around our house... I never heard JM cough. I knew he was asleep, so I knew that this was not your run-of-the-mill vomit! From around midnight on Thursday night until around 9:00am on Friday JM threw up every thirty minutes on the dot. He slacked off around 9 or 10 am and just became lethargic. He was only drinking. Oh, also we had planned a trip to Chattanooga for the weekend. We planned to leave Friday afternoon and return Sunday afternoon. OK, so I went to work on Friday and Josh stayed home with the boys. By the time I left work and called home on Friday afternoon, Josh told me that JM had not thrown up all day and that all seemed to be well. We decided that it was a 24 hour thing and that we were going to try to go to Chattanooga anyway... ten minutes after I walked in the door, JM threw up again, and again, and again. Around 9:00 that night he was again fine and BEGGING to go to Chattanooga. We told him that if he could make it through the night without throwing up and then keep breakfast down Saturday morning we would go. He did and we did. The drive up was BEAUTIFUL! The place was BEAUTIFUL! JM immediately got in a canoe and floated off into the sunset with PoppyC. We all had a wonderful time... for the first two hours that we were there! TTHHEENNN.... Jakson threw up. In the time that it took for us to decide that we needed to get Jakson home and that JM was going to stay there with MiMi and PoppyC, Jakson threw up around 10 more times! He was P-I-T-I-F-U-L! He would just lay his head down in a big bowl and cry... pitiful! We made it out the door. Our plan was awful but necessary... I drove and Josh HELD Jakson in his lap in the front seat and let him throw up in a huge bowl. We were riding along, talking, feeling sorry for our pitiful 9 month old... just chatting away when... I threw up! We were about 30 minutes outside of Chattanooga and about 30 minutes from Murfreesboro. THOSE WERE THE WORST 30 MINUTES OF MY LIFE. Jakson was crying and throwing up and crying and throwing up... I had to pull over numerous times and throw up on the interstate and then drive like the dickins during those brief euphoric minutes post-vomit before the nausea set back in... It was miserable. We did make it home. I got straight out of the car, threw up in the driveway, and climbed into bed. I reemerged around 7:00 the next morning after a night of hurling to find Josh and Jakson asleep on the couch. After another vomit in the kitchen sink and a quick sip of water, I turned around to find Josh standing there handing me Jakson... I was going to have to watch him the rest of the day because JOSH RAN TO THROW UP. Sooo.... we all got it. We are still alive. Here is a pic of JM... :)

Jakson is drinking out of a Sippy Cup!!! Yay!!!! My goal is to be completely done with bottles by Christmas time!!!! Whew!!!

A picture of the boys + Cousin Luke in West TN during Thanksgiving Break... CUTIES!

Halloween 2011

Halloween was pretty good this year! Josh was sick, so I took the boys Trick-or-Treating with the neighbors. Jon-Mical dressed up as a Pirate. I dressed up as a witch (fitting, I know...) and Jakson wore his ghost PJ's. Here is one picture...

Bike Rodeo and Birthdays

I love these:

Jon-Mical has a lot going on at his new school these days! He now attends First United Methodist Preschool. Jon-Mical loves it there and so do we! We are so glad that we made the switch. This is an accredited preschool that follows a curriculum. I feel like he is being stimulated and challenged instead of simply being baby-sat. The school "tests" the students twice during the year. We then have a parent-teacher conference following the "testing period." I am calling it a test even though it seems that they simply observe the students in the day to day things and then see how they are doing in relation to other children at the same age. I was very impressed with all of the things that they are looking for and monitoring in Jon-Mical's development. They "test" him in his social, physical, behavioral, and cognitive development. We were very happy with the discussion that took place in our conference. It is very obvious that his teacher cares for each child and really strives to teach them and challenge them in a fun way! Socially, Jon-Mical is right on track. He gets along well with his peers and "plays well with others." Josh and I were worried about the physical part of the test. Jon-Mical seems to be very unsure of himself physically and very awkward. Mrs. Rhonda said that he is right on track there as well with his fine and gross motor skills. Apparently all kids are awkward at this age. :) Jon-Mical does need to work on the way that he holds his pencil, but the teachers are aware of this and we are all working on it. Behaviorally, Jon-Mical is fine. He is very sensitive, so simply looking at him usually stops any unwanted behavior and usually also leads to tears... whew! Cognitively, Jon-Mical seems to be a little ahead. He is very smart and learns quickly and seems to really want to learn! he loves to count. His strengths are math and verbal skills. I say all of that to lead to this... there was one part of the conference that concerned me. Josh says that I am over-reacting (ME???), but I am still slightly worried. His teacher said that Jon-Mical struggles with self-confidence and is very unsure of his abilities. Josh did immediately add in that "I can't" is a very big part of his every-day vocabulary and Mrs. Rhonda agreed. I hate this!!!! I feel like he, being the first grandchild on both sides, has been unceasingly praised from birth! I honestly used to worry that he was going to be a little cocky punk because of all of the praise that he is given on a daily (really hourly) basis. We all compliment him so much. It is just so hard for me to believe that he doesn't see this in himself. I guess, now that we know, we will work on it and try to improve his confidence. I do know that we need to work on fostering his independence. He needs to be able to do some things for himself that I have been doing (getting him dressed, brushing his teeth, etc.) and I am going to work on that...

Whew! Jon-Mical's school also recently had a fall festival and bike rodeo. The kids brought their bikes and rode around in a circle for sponsors. I have attached some pics of this event! I have also attached some pics of Ben's family! His son, Luke, just turned 1 and they are the cutest little family! We are going to Dyersburg this weekend to celebrate Luke's birthday and get in a little family time! Yay!

Jakson is growing up so quickly. He is cutting both of his top front teeth at the same time. I feel so sorry for him, but he doesn't seem to mind! He is still just as happy as ever!

Just chugging along...

Well, I wish I had a ton of interesting things to blog about but life if pretty normal these days! Josh is teaching away and loving every minute of it. (Ha!) I am working on many things at work... Prom, Senior Thesis, College Corner, College Fair, Career Fair, etc. I stay very busy and that is good. The days FLY by! Jon-Mical is still in school and loves it! We actually have his first Parent-Teacher Conference this afternoon! I am excited and nervous about what the teacher is going to say. I am pretty sure that he is doing fine. We have never had any bad reports and she compliments JM a lot, but you never REALLY know how your child acts when you are not around! You know? I guess we'll see today!

Jakson is, of course, changing and growing like crazy! He is now scooting across the floor. Every now and then he gets up on his hands and knees... but then promptly plops right back down and starts scooting. It's pretty cute! It is funny, though, how different we act with our 2nd child. I can remember working with Jon-Mical every day when he was Jakson's age. We wanted him to scoot so badly... then crawl so badly... then walk so badly... then talk so badly... We were always ready and excited about that next phase. It is not like we are not excited about Jakson's phases. We love all of the changes... but I just think, "they'll happen when they happen." Josh and I also recently realized that we have about 1/100 of the amount of pictures and videos of Jakson that we do of Jon-Mical at his age... I am already dreading the day when Jakson asks where all the videos of him are and I have to tell him that I am so sorry that I dropped our video camera in a huge puddle and lost all of them! ;) Maybe I'll say that he was such a cute baby that someone stole our video camera so that they could watch videos of him all the time... or maybe Jon-Mical was a jealous big brother and deleted all of the Jakson videos off of the computer... I'll have to think more on that future lie. Maybe Jakson will be at an age where I can tell him what actually happened, that his parents got really busy with life and raising two children and the picture-taking and videoing got moved to the back burner, and then I'll hand him twenty bucks and he'll be happy... hmmm....

Anyway, Jon-Mical's T-Ball season is over. That was SO MUCH FUN! Once I chilled out, stopped keeping up with Jon-Mical's stats, and started laughing along with the other parents the games were a blast! Jon-Mical ended the season asking if he can play next year, so I guess the season was a success! BUT all the people that told me that 3 is too young to play t-ball were RIGHT! Wow! It was a hot mess!

Halloween is just around the corner. Jon-Mical has been talking about being a pirate for weeks and then last night he told me that he has changed his mind and that he wants to be Superman! To my knowledge, he has never even seen a show, cartoon, movie, or book about Superman, so I have no idea where this one came from. I hope that he goes back to his original plan, but we will see!

Here are some cute pics: I took Jon-Mical and Jakson to the playground the other day...