Week In Review

Since Chris was in Nicaragua the past week, the boys and I stayed extremely busy (if we stay busy we don't think about him as much). Sunday and Monday was kind of slow and we didn't do much. Chris and I had a date night last Thursday and rented the Cars movie for Andrew to enjoy with the baby sitter. Since it was still at the house we watched it a million times. I really like that movie for him, except for the 2 bad words. Why do they have to ruin a good children's movie. I get that they are also entertaining parents, but after seeing it a couple of times my entertainment value has been met, while Andrew will probably (but not successfully) want to watch it 3-4 times a day. IF, and that is a huge if, I let him do that, those 2 words will have been heard 6-8 times. I just wish that kids movie companies wouldn't do that. (Enough of that rant)

Tuesday, we went to my brothers house to hang out with him and his family. Andrew loves to go there to hang out with his cousin Kirsten (that's what he calls her, like cousin is a title). Jonathan is experiencing some serious separation anxiety and took a while to warm to them. Once he realized I wasn't going anywhere, he unattached himself from my hip and played with everyone. The best part of that trip (besides the quality time with my family) was receiving my 4 boxes of Girl Scout cookies (2 thin mints, some kind of peanut butter, and somoas).

Wednesday, we went to NC for my check-up (everything was fine) and the boys got to play with his friends Kirby and Bennet. The boys had a blast and slept the whole ride home.
Thursday, we had a whole bunch of errands to run and later that night the Tate kids came over. Jonathan had another meltdown until 7:30. Then he decided that Mommy wasn't leaving and the kids were here to play with him and all is well. After he went to bed, I went on-line to learn how to make the perfect paper airplane, 35 steps later we completed it and it actually worked.
Friday, we cleaned the house to prepare for Daddy's arrival.
Saturday, Daddy came home!!

Mission Trip...

Chris just spent the last week in Nicaragua on an extreme mission trip. This team went into the mountains to share the gospel in several villages that missions teams have never been before.  This mission's trip has been very different from his previous trips due to lack of communication and doing things he has never done before. He did call last night and it was so good to hear from him. Pray for him and the rest of the guys as they return today.

Here's the extreme mission team.

Life...

Not to much going on here.

I was excited when Andrew actually smiled for this picture. Of course, I sat there poised with my finger on the button ready and waiting through all the silly faces, the poutful faces, the angry faces, and finally, the smiley face.

Here it looks like the boys are playing in the same corner. Andrew is actually in timeout and Jonathan is trying to figure out why he wouldn't play with him. Jonathan kept poking him with that blue paint brush.
In order to get out of timeout early he had to give me a smiley face without all the other faces first. Amazingly, he didn't have a problem with it. To bad I can't put him in timeout before every picture.

Peanut Butter

Yup, this is what happens when peanut butter* and jelly get into your hair, it stands on end...
and is very painful to get out.
*Apparently, you aren't suppose to feed peanut butter to children under 2 (something about allergies), so don't follow my lead.

Beefaroni Nite...

Typically, I'm one of those Mommies who makes their child eat whatever we are eating. I am willing to fight that battle--on most nights. Last nights wasn't one of those nights. I made steak and black bean chili, very yummy and a little spicy. Knowing that both boys wouldn't enjoy the heat, I made the boys Beefaroni--straight out of the can (my mom will now tune out to the rest of the story, due to the fact that I fed them something out of a can and called that dinner). Honestly, we have never had them before and I didn't even know if he boys would like them. Not only did Jonathan like them, he inhaled them. He is in that phase when he doesn't want me to feed him, he wants to feed himself. If I try to feed him, he will have a melt down until you put the food on the table. It is so weird to me because it's so different from Andrew. Andrew would never dream of getting his hands dirty with food. Jonathan, on the other hand, calls the meal a success when his face, clothes and body are completely messy.
Here are a couple of pictures to show you how messy it got. When the food wasn't on the table fast enough, Jonathan would put his face to the table and try to eat the food off the table--much like an animal eating at a trough. He is so proud of himself here:
Check out those hands. He got a bath after this dinner, no matter how hard I tried, that stuff wasn't coming off. Now, I have to clean the bathtub because of the Beefaroni grease ring around the tub.
Will we have Beefaroni again? Probably, but not anytime soon.

Birthday Day...

On his actual birthday we took him to his favorite playground. He loves to climb through the trees and down the slide.   The playground is at a local church, and the whole place is Bible themed.  Both of the boys really like it.
Here's the boys getting ready to go down the slide.  If you can't tell by the look on my face...I didn't mean to be in this picture. 

Birthday Party

Jonathan is officially 1 year old!!!! We were going to have a birthday party for him at the house, but all the guests couldn't make it. So we decided, if the party won't come to the house, we will take the party on the road. We jumped in the van, and spent the weekend at Chris' parents home, and had a party there. It was a fun time and it was nice to see the boys get spoiled with lots of sweet treats.

This was his first birthday cake.  He really enjoyed playing in it and didn't care to much to eat it.
More playing...
The end results of the playing.  As if his kisses aren't sweet enough, he added chocolate to them.
Jonathan even got to open a few presents (I mean Andrew).  Do you like the wrapping paper?  It's newspaper.  We usually use the comics, but we didn't have any.

The family celebrating his birthday.

Random Shots...

Here are some random pictures...
Andrew liked to wear his Pa Pa's cowboy hat.
Jonathan's new favorite past time...climbing stairs.  Andrew will sit at the top and encourage his brother.
Andrew likes to take a little walk on the treadmill (and I mean little...only 2 calories are burned).  I think he is listening to TobyMac on his iPod.  

Another Week...

This week was just another week for us.  Nothing real exciting happened.  

-Jonathan is walking around a lot now.  He likes to see how far he can go before he falls.

-Jonathan is down to one bottle a day, and I don't think he's too happy about it (that is if he could talk).

-Jonathan did not have his mental break down at Bible study this week.

-Jonathan does not like to drink milk.  If any moms out there had (or have) this problem and can give some advice on how to get him to drink milk, I would greatly appreciate it.

-Biggest news of all....Jonathan is turning 1 on Tuesday.  This weekend I'll probably cry a lot, realizing my baby is no longer a baby.

-Andrew decided he wants a dog with 4 legs and we'll call him Bear.

-Andrew also decided that Jonathan wanted a chocolate cake for his birthday (sure Jonathan wanted it).

-Andrew then decided that Jonathan also wanted the Cars movie for his birthday...hhmmm.  I see a pattern.

That was our week in bullet point form. 

More Stories...

I remember when I was pregnant with Andrew the word 'normal' took on a whole new meaning.  It was always such a relief to hear that his heart was normal, his brain was normal, and whatever else we were checking was normal.  I think we all want our children to be extraordinary, but I'm grateful for normal.  

I tell you this because I think somewhere between the womb and Wal-Mart, on Monday, my child went from normal to weirdly funny.  We were walking down an aisle (not isle, as I learned from my friend) and there was this young boy and his mommy coming toward us.  He points to Andrew and says 'Look Mommy, a boy.'  She was polite and talked to Andrew and asked her son to show Andrew his shirt, and he said 'Look, I have transformers.  What do you have on your shirt?'  For some reason, unbeknownst to me, Andrew plants his feet in a rock star stance and shouts 'LADIES AND GENTLMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS, INTRODUCINGGGGG...SPIDERMAN!!'  When  he finishes his introduction the mom looks at me with eyes that scream 'Ohhh, you have one of those children.'  I wanted to tell her, 'No he's completely normal but I think the fumes* at Wal-Mart have finally gone to his head.'  

Yesterday, the boys and I were riding around town.  I still don't know the town well and I wanted to see different parts, and look for a house for my friend whose moving here.  As I was driving around, I think I made myself carsick.  When I got home I laid on the ground and tried to recover from the nausea and major headache.  Andrew, being the most tenderhearted boy I know, asks me if I wanted a cold wash cloth.  I said 'No thanks.'  But he goes and gets a washcloth wet and puts it on my head.  He sat there and rubbed my hair and kept saying its okay Mommy.  Jonathan tried to help too, but all he wanted to do was bring me toys.  I love them so much.

*Our Wal-Mart doesn't have fumes, but I couldn't think of the right word.  Still can't.