Get Together

Last night we all jumped in the car and headed off to my brother's house for an early Christmas dinner and present exchange. It is nice to live near family so you can spend some time together (and not have to ship every present). My sister-in-law made and amazing homemade lasagna and I made an amazing bagged salad (I forgot the actual salad in our hurry to get on the road and had to stop at a local store for a bagged one). We had to leave early because Andrew just did not look good. At one point his face had no color in it. His little cold is causing him to get little sleep (and he broke the humidifier in his room, which doesn't help) because of all his coughing. But before we jumped back in the car we let the kids open their presents:
Andrew jumped right in and started opening his first.
Andrew got a Webkin police dog and a sheriff's badge. He named is dog, Duke, because that is Uncle Travis' dog's name and he thinks his uncle is so cool because he has a police dog. Duke slept with him last night to protect him.
I was going to help Jonathan but he said he can do it, and he did. It was fun to watch him tear into the paper. This makes me extra excited about Christmas this year.
A Big Truck. Perfect. Jonathan played with that and cried when I didn't put it in the crib with him. Mean mommy.
Andrew's cousin Kirsten opening her present. We got her a really cute necklace and a candle. I think she really liked it.
Jonathan was done and he wanted to play.
Sorry guys we had to leave early (I forgot the presents for the FL family). We had a blast.

Update...

Jonathan has an ear infection in his left ear. She gave us medicine and tips to ease the pain while the medicine gets to work.

Yeah nothing serious!

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He woke up from his nap yesterday with no fever but in serious pain. He cried for a good 45 mins. solid. About a 30 mins into the cry feast we got the bright idea to use the ear drops the doctor gave to us for the pain. Once they settled into the ear he ran around like nothing was wrong.

Andrew has been the healthy one but now he has a cold. All he wants is medicine because "Boo Boos gets medicine." They make he laugh with the 'if he gets something I get something too' mindset.

Last night as they were jumping on their beds, Jonathan would do whatever Andrew would do. If Andrew got up at the end of the bed, then he would call for me to help him. Andrew started to roll around on the floor and Jonathan started to roll around too. But my favorite, when they make each other giggle over silly things. It makes my heart happy. They also 'fighted' in the bathtub because Jonathan was holding Andrew's legs down and he didn't like that.

104.5

I was wrong to say he had the rotavirus, he does not. Monday and Tuesday he ran a fever of 100-102, nothing too serious. Wednesday, he woke up from him nap and he was on fire. I took his temperature (under his arm) and it read 103.5. It scared me to see that number, knowing that it was actually a little higher than that. We called the Dr. on call and he was not worried. He thought it might be a cold related temperature and told us to keep an eye on him. Yesterday, he woke up fine and acted fine all morning. He took his nap and woke up on fire again. I took his temperature and again it read 103.5 (under his arm). I gave him some medicine and then later that night he looked so bad and felt hotter and I took his temperature again and it read 104.5 (under his arm). That scared me and the Dr. calls and says he isn't too concerned because he doesn't have any other symptoms with the fever. He said if I didn't feel comfortable with those numbers (is anyone comfortable with them) I could bring him in tomorrow. That's where we are now. He had a horrible night last night waking up and wanting something to drink. I plan on taking him in today so I'll keep you up to date. Here's a picture of his sick face not wanting to eat his snack. He looks so said.

Rotavirus...

So when deciding whether or not to vaccinate Jonathan from the rotavirus I opted out. It is still so new and I thought, "What are the chances he'll get it?" I think he has it. I'm about to go to WebMD and figure out what it is and how do we get rid of it. I can't afford the diapers he's going through.

Speaking...

Last night, Jonathan rode past a Wall E poster and said, "Waaaalllll EEEEEE." He sounded a lot like the robot in the movie. It was adorable. Of course you know what I did, I find every possible knick knack with Wall E on the cover and make Jonathan tell me what it is. By the end of the trip, he didn't even look at the stuff, he would just say Wall E. They like to humor me.

As for the movie, I wanted to hate it because of the whole environmental undertone, but I couldn't. It was adorable and sweet (and we're watching it right now).

Christmas Pictures

Just some Christmas pictures. Rach, I'll forgot to take pics of your tree but I will.

This picture looks worse than it really was. This was Andrew's attempt to keep Jonathan still.
So close to a great picture.

Hay Ride

I forgot I took some pictures when went to a horse farm for lunch. My camera batteries died shortly after the hay ride. After the hay ride we roasted hot dogs over a campfire, and rode their horses. It was a lot of fun.
Jonathan catching a little shut eye.
Still chilling...
He absolutely loved this...

Puddle Jumping

We had a great Thanksgiving. They boys even ventured into eating some of the food. Andrew ate anything he could dunk into ranch dressing and Jonathan ate the turkey and rolls but that was it. They both loved my sweet potato casserole but that is just straight sugar so I'm not sure how much nutritional value is left.

It has been raining here for a few days. Yesterday, it rained hard all morning but then it just stopped. The boys and I dressed warmly and went out puddle jumping. Our neighborhood basketball court is very bumpy and has some great puddles. They boys would run and jump into them. They found a deep and muddy one and played in that one forever. It was fun watching them run and run and run.

He's Mine...

There are so many reasons I hold Jonathan near and dear to my heart. Here's just one example:
Since we are church planting, our food budget is limited to only the necessities. On occasion I will pick up a few treats but it just depends. On our last shopping trip Andrew was asking for chips. I went to get him some generic brand of chips but he wanted Doritos. Doritos are not affordable, so I got the generic brand, praying that they would be good. As it turn out, I like them better than Doritos because there are a lot more of those chips with extra spices.
Yesterday during lunch, I was watching Jonathan picking through his chips to find the ones with extra spice. It just melted my heart. Andrew on the other hand, gave those to me because he said they were too spicy. Jonathan also ate my Bojangles, extra seasoning, fries without missing a beat. He also likes to dip his chips in salsa. He is one spicy meatball.

Halloween

For the first time in our family history, the boys went trick or treating (TOT). We were told that our street was very busy with trick or treaters, and they were right. Chris stayed home and manned the door and I took the boys TOT. He said there was a steady flow of kids for 2 hours. We took the opportunity to drop invitation cards into each TOT bag to come to our kids ministry.
Meanwhile, the boys and I went up and down our street for candy. Then we piled in the car and I took them to a local churches Halloween festival. It was fun but Jonathan was getting bored being in his stroller and wanted to action of his own. We piled back into the car and headed to where all the action is in our little town. Let me tell you, I have never seen anything like this before. Rows and rows of TOTs as far as the eye can see, spooky houses, spooky costumes, and spooky because by this time it was dark out. It was a lot of work for very little candy. Next year we will probably venture down another street.
Jonathan in his super cute Superman costume. It also doubles as his pjs, once the cape is removed.
Spriderman in action.
Getting ready for trick or treating.
Just one more picture before we go...
Jonathan getting a head start on his candy bag.
Andrew giving the thumbs up that he is going to get some candy.
Jonathan wondering if brother is going to remember to get him some candy too.

Since Halloween Jonathan has improved his vocab to include 3 more words:
andy (candy)
uker (sucker)
tooti (cookie)

Picture Update

After realizing a lack of pictures of my boys lately, I got back in the habit of carrying my camera around. Jonathan and I are waiting for Chris to come back from dropping Andrew off at Cubbies. Sunday nights have become a solo time for Jonathan. It is nice just to do things with him, it is rare.
We have been trying to enjoy the last nice days of comfortable weather. We can typically play outside after lunch.
Jonathan was trying on his new (hand-me-down) jacket. It wasn't cold enough to warrant this winter coat, but I wasn't ready to battle with him to get it off. If he wants to sweat, then by all means, sweat it up.
Nice shot of his boogie nose. Both of them have faucets on their faces, and I'm running low on Kleenexes. He is still sweet looking.
This is one of those pictures that Andrew will hate me for posting one day. Since this isn't that day I can post as many as I can. We are still changing out summer for winter clothes. I don't know what the tie is about.
Elle came over for a visit. It was so sweet to watch the boys interact with her.
Jonathan was amazed by her. He tried to snuggle with her and love on her, but I was afraid he was going to hurt her. Just the day before, he and Andrew were chucking a baby doll* down the stairs and laughing. I could see Jonathan trying it thinking, if I could do it with the other baby, surely I can chuck her down the stairs. He was actually very gentle with Elle.
See, no babies being thrown about. This picture was so fun to take. I told Jonathan and Andrew I wanted to take a picture of Elle and they sat down like this. I guess they couldn't fathom a picture without them in it.
So there you have it, life around our house.
*The baby doll belongs to Moriah but she left it here. Now the boys throw it, poke its eyes, bite the fingers, but don't love on it.

Lack of Posting...

There are many reasons for the lack of posts lately. Mainly, the times I would usually blog are now spent doing MK and Facebook. I'm going to work harder and updating more often, no more excuses.

Jonathan is getting another cold. I'm not looking forward to this. When he gets sick all he wants is for me to hold him. I love it because typically he is not a hold me kindof baby. The sicko hold me is not as much fun as the well-child hold me. Besides an amazing amount of crying, whimpering, sneezing (right in my face), lack of sleep, he'll be producing an amazing amount of snot. I'm going to turn a blind eye to all of that and love that he wants me to hold him.

Superwoman

This is going to sound weird, but I enjoy going shopping with the boys. Sure, if I go by myself I can get a lot more done more quickly, but I enjoy the challenge and the unexpected. While we were there on Tuesday, Andrew grabbed one of the cards that play music. Typically, he grabs the Darth Vadar card and I get to hear that...dum, dumm, de, dumm tune. This time he grabs the Superman card and plays with it while we shop. I don't know what it is about that tune but it changes your mindset. I just knew I could leap over buildings (I don't remember any of the other things you can do as Superman, but you get the point).
It was funny to watch peoples reactions as I rounded the corner. They would look to see who was the Superman (or who was the weirdo with the annoying tune). As they looked at me I would just give them a little wink and grab the cereal (malt-o-meal please), chips, and Hamburger Helper.
That is what I love about shopping with the kids. It's never the same thing, it's never boring.

Andrew

We were driving* along yesterday and I was putting on my lipstick and had this conversation:

Me: Boy, I have 2 good looking boys.
A: I have 1 lookin' good Mommy.

Later as we're leaving on our way home I was eating some lunch. The people who provided my lunch forgot to provide a napkin and Andrew noticed me wiping my hands on my pants then said:

A: Mommy, don't do that. You look so pretty.

Chris has done a great job of teaching the boys how to compliment Mommy. His future wife will thank us.

*We do a lot of other things besides driving around but this is typically when we have our best discussions. He also asked me where does God live?, does Jesus live close to God?, if I have Jesus in my heart does God miss him?. I don't know what it is about the car but that is where we chat it up.

Such Sadness...

I saw these pictures of Jonathan and I just wondered what his thoughts are. I see such sadness in his eyes.

Andrew's Words...

We were walking around the Dollar Tree and I saw some yarn I really liked. I was deciding who I could make a scarf for, when Andrew and I had this conversation:

A: I didn't know you learned how to knit!
Me: Yes, remember GG taught me how.
A: But you are not even a grandma!!

One of the characteristics Andrew gets from his Daddy (besides a striking resemblance) is a decisive nature. When I give him options he normally pick one right away. Here's a conversation we had last week about snack:

Me: Would you like a granola bar or pretzels for snack?
A: I don't know, just surprise me.

I think he's been hanging around me too much.

New Niece and New Boat

On September 3rd, Andrew and Jonathan's newest cousin was born, Ella Patience. Andrew and I got to visit with them and I was able to hold the baby the whole time. It was such a sweet time.
Andrew and Tabor went to Lowe's to build a pirate ship. I would highly recommend this to parents. It is free!!! You get an apron, goggles, project, patches, and a certificate when you finish the project. I took Jonathan with me and we were able to come and go as we pleased. I'm not real sure what the skull is for that Tabor is holding.
Tabor built his ship like an expert but Andrew needed some help. Our helper guy was very patient with the boys.
The finished project. Notice Andrew's certificate is turned to the Spanish side.
Another optional use for the goggles. No mac and cheese in his eyes today.

New Kitchen

I was finally able to finish painting my kitchen. It's Laura Ashley Olive #3 and I love it. Here's the old blue. I liked it but it made a small kitchen even smaller.
Just another picture of it.

Finally...

It finally happened...a family photo. A friend of ours graciously agreed to take our picture. He came up to help capture our church launch on film. After the service he took all the families outside and we all got to have a family photo. It was such a blessing!!If you are interested to find out how our church launch went check out Bedrockchurch.com.

Undate on Dishwasher & Pacifier...

Dishwasher delivery men were not friendly and thought I was a bit odd for being so excited about my new dishwasher. I think they're men and don't get it (although my husband did, but that might be because he's tired of all my complaining...that couldn't possibly be it, right?!?). They were also not excited that I made them take the old insulation off the old DW and put in on the new one. It truly wasn't that much more work, sheesh.

Day 1 w/o pacifier: 30 mins of crying at bed time
Day 2 w/o pacifier: 20 mins of crying at bed time
Day 3 w/o pacifier: no crying!!!!
Day4...

Red Shirt...

Here are some unfortunate events that have happened recently in our home:

We were given a super cute red Olympics t-shirt. That shirt has now turned all of Andrew's clothes pink. Some of the worse hit victims...his Transformer, Batman, and NASCAR underroos. They aren't as manly now that they are pink. All the other former white, now pink clothes have been put in the trash. Now I have to go and buy new socks, t-shirts, and...well actually he still wears the underroos because he doesn't care.

My dishwasher caught on fire. I hate to say this, but I'm totally a spoiled American. It has been the longest two weeks of my life (slight exaggeration). I use to love washing the dishes by hand. In some strange way is was relaxing to me the repetition of washing round and round, rinsing in warm water and drying round and round. Not the case these days, with all the dishes and I like the idea that the dishwasher kills all the germs.

As I write this, the dishwasher delivery guys just called and said they would be here within the hour. I might bake them some cookies or buy them some flowers because I'm that grateful to get it back.

Tonka Ride

Last night was a big night for Jonathan because he went to bed without his pacifier for the first time. He cried for about 25 minutes and then not another peep till morning. It was much harder for me than I thought it would be. I kept wondering if it was the right thing to, was Jonathan ready for this, or was I just being to harsh with him (and by I, I mean we because Chris is for this too). I know it is going to be a rough few days but that is going to happen whenever we decide to take it away. We still battle with Andrew sucking his fingers at bedtime and it drives me crazy. A wise friend of mine, Felicia, once told me that they will cry it's just a matter of when they will cry. My husband and I thought it would be easier now because he's still in his crib and can't come out his room, he still isn't talking well (although doing much better, but that's for another blog), and we had weened him from having the pacifier during the day. We'll see...I'll keep you up to date.
Here's a cute video of the boys playing together. I'm not sure why Andrew has a coat on, seeing as how it was 90 degrees outside. In the second video you get to see the ugly side of Jonathan's personality. If he doesn't get his way he throws temper tantrums.

Andrew's Words...

Leaving the bank:
A: Mommy did you get me a sucker?
M: No, baby. I'm so sorry. They didn't give me any.
A: That's because you didn't ask. You don't ask because you're afraid they're going to say no.

I'm not sure how I feel about a 4 year old psychoanalyzing me. Don't get me wrong, he nailed the reason why I didn't ask but I just didn't want to hear it from him. FYI, he said it to me in the sweetest voice. I almost turned the car around for a sucker.

During preschool:
M: Andrew, I don't hear you reading your story.
A: That's because I'm reading it in my brain.

That makes sense.

More Pictures...

Not too much going on in our lives. Just the ordinary summer time activities.

This was actually a sweet moment when Jonathan wanted to love his brother. It didn't come across that way in this picture.
Here's an example of Andrew's love of order. Most of the foods he eats has to have order to it.
Andrew revealing in the order he has created.
Popcicle time.
Who doesn't like to show off their tongue when it's blue.
We are painting our kitchen. Andrew is helping me get the stuff down from that shelf. He thought this was awesome. I have yet to paint the kitchen. It took 3 coats of primer to cover the blue, so I'm a little unmotivated to paint.
Jonathan's trying to help too. Moriah's just wondering what is going on.
Monkey see, monkey do. Jonathan loves to copy whatever Andrew does. Sometimes that is good, most of the time it is just bad.