Prayers

Please pray for THIS family. They had twin 20-month-old daughters and one of them died in her sleep last week. I can't even imagine losing my sweet boy, and I know they are going to need some serious love/support/prayer over the next few months. Thanks.

What We'll Be Doing Today...

HOOAH!!!

Jax and Elijah

A few months ago, my MIL and I bought matching outfits for Jax and Elijah to wear. We figured that we would take pictures of them before the holidays, then use them for gift-giving to grandparents, etc. A few days ago we finally got around to actually taking those pictures. Or at least attempting them. Needless to say, it's rather hard to get pictures of a squishy 2-month-old and a squirmy 18-month-old TOGETHER. It was no problem to get pictures of them individually, ha! Looks like we will be doing round 2 of pictures sometime in the next week. Take a look at what we got...

(Don't fall, Elijah)

(Squishy hugs)

This is probably the best (cutest) one, but you can't see Jax's face so it's not really frame-worthy

Here's a couple individual shots... just for good measure. Can you guess which kid was more willing to smile for the camera? Ha!

Hopefully better luck next time!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well, we are now 3 days into December (Happy 18-months-old, Jax!) and I am so stinkin' excited that Christmas is just 3 weeks away! I have a few small gift cards to buy, but other than that, my shopping is DONE! I think this year has been my most effective/early Christmas shopping year. I suppose having no husband around, plus extra income makes it a little easier than other years. As much as I don't care for deployments, you really can't complain about separation pay! I took advantage of Black Friday deals online, plus I've just been keeping my eye out for other good deals. Most everything I've purchased has been through Amazon... you can't beat great sales+free shipping+not dealing with holiday crowds! I'm very proud of my money-savviness and I think everyone will be pleased with their gifts :)

Last Sunday we took holiday (Christmas card) pictures. I was unsure whether or not to do it this year since it is just Jax and I. But I decided that having those pictures, especially of Jax, was important enough. I hired a girl from our church who has done some other photo sessions with people I know. I got Jax and I all dressed up and we headed to the park. Well, of course it was a day that Jax decided he wanted nothing to do with it. He was all kinds of clingy and moody. Poor kid... I think the cold weather didn't help. We ended up giving up and deciding to do another session inside at a later time. But I am SO thankful that we still managed to get some adorable pictures. I know I'm a little biased, but I sure do have one cute kid!!

18 months!

We're about a week away from Jax turning 18 months old. WOW. Where did the time go? He's about to be closer to TWO than he is to ONE. It's really true when people say that time flies, because the last 18 months certainly have flown by. I'm happy to say that he is slowly gaining weight and now weighs 23 pounds. Yay! He is also 32 inches tall. I forgot to ask what percentiles those number are in, so maybe I'll try to look it up online and figure it out myself.

I'm amazed at all of his new developments. He is picking up new words every.single.day. Today I asked him what he wanted for lunch and he said "pizza". Ha! He got chicken nuggets instead :) He is always repeating what we say... so I need to be careful not to say things that I don't want repeated! He is also working on his last 3 teeth. They are all so close to coming through and then he'll have all his baby teeth, except for his 2-year molars which are hopefully still a little ways off.

He's really great at following direction... but he's also really great at being stubborn and acting like he can't hear me. Overall though, he's such a great little boy. He is constantly cracking me up! He is ALL boy and he loves to be outside or wrestle or run around yelling and banging things together. I am so blessed to have him as my little man!

Turkey Day!

We had a great Thanksgiving today! We started the day with cinnamon rolls, bacon, coffee and orange juice. Jax was a great helper!

After breakfast we cleaned the house and worked on cooking a Thanksgiving feast. Jax and I took a break from things to head to Ryan's grandparents house. Jax had a great time playing with this baby. He LOVES babies and I can't wait to give him a sibling. He's going to be such a great big brother!

This is the sisters/cousins with our little ones. From left to right- Ryan's sister Val, his cousin Amanda, his cousin Aly with Madison, and his sister Jenny with Elijah. And of course his wife, me :) with my sweet boy.

The patriarch, Grandpa Del giving a little speech to everyone

We left Ryan's grandparent's house just before they sat down to eat. Unfortunately they had planned to eat about an hour before my family, so Jax and I couldn't do both. We headed back to my parent's house to finish up the cooking and get some food in our bellies! Here's all the "kids" (cousins) on my mom's side. Bottom row, left to right is my brother Ryan, cousins Joey, Jacob, Elena and Emma. Top row, left to right are my cousins Stephanie, Nate and Kevin. Steph and Nate's daughter Willow was taking a nap so she's the only one not in this picture.

My mom and I made lots of food and even tried a few new recipes. It all turned out super yummy!

Of course, the main event... the TURKEY! Doesn't it look devine?!

With all the excitement, Jax didn't get much of a nap today so he was exhausted before we even ate dinner. Elena had a great time playing with and taking care of him and he loved snuggling with her.

He got a second wind a little while later and he had a great time playing with his Uncle Ry!

I am SO thankful for this little guy. He lights up my life!

Thankful

Things I am thankful for this holiday season... in no particular order...

-my health

-my loving husband

-my wonderful son

-my parents and their willingness to let us live with them temporarily

-my in-laws for not being obnoxious or annoying

-my tried-and-true girlfriends

-the beautiful cooler weather

-my husband's ability to provide for us and love us, even from far away

-good memories of old times

-my Mojo doggy

-Toy Story 3 (ha!)

-my gym membership (although I pay for that... but I'm still thankful for it :) )

-the ladies in my Bible Study

-Beth Moore for writing the Bible Study

-Coffee and sweats on a cold day

-My Savior and Lord!

HAPPY TURKEY DAY on Thursday!

3 Musketeers

As most of you know, Jax has two good friends who were both born in June 2009. Jax is the oldest (by 8 days) born on the 3rd, Max was born on the 11th and Ben was born on the 30th. Max and Ben's mommies and I have been enjoying opportunities to let the boys play together. Last week, I ended up watching both of them for an afternoon. They are really getting to the age where they are starting to play together and they do so well! They were so cute sharing their toys, binkies and juices. I did make sure that they weren't actually swapping any spit. Ha! I didn't get any pictures of all three of them because Ben slept most of the afternoon, then Max left before he woke up. Maybe I'll get some pictures of all 3 next time, but I still got some cute ones of each of them!

Max reading a book all by himself :)

Jax and Ben drinking their matching juice. Ha!

"Here's your binky, Jax"

Ha! Max wasn't actually elbowing Jax... but I sure caught a funny picture!

Handsome Ben!

Ben sharing his lovey with Jax

Cool Dude

I hope we can get these 3 together again soon... they sure do make a cute trio :)

Sicky

This past week has been a little up and down. Jax is working on his eye teeth, plus he's had a cold for the past few days. This basically means lots of TV watching and binky sucking. I'm not a fan of him still having his binky at 18-months, HOWEVER... we will be flying back to North Carolina in March and transitioning back there. So I have no intention of taking it away before that. And for times like this, it's a life saver. He will not have it on his 2nd birthday, but who knows when it will disappear before that.

I took him with me to Bible study this morning because I really hate to miss it, especially when it's a video week (every other week). Plus it's our last week until after Thanksgiving. So I went prepared with laptop, binky and Toy Story 3 in hand. Man, that kid is obsessed with that movie. I think we've watched in 5 times in the last 2 days. The good thing about that is that it distracts him. I plopped him in the corner in front of my laptop, gave him his binky, his juice and some grapes and he was a happy camper for over an hour. Although I'm not an advocate of using TV as a babysitter, I am SO thankful for technology at times like these.

To top it off, I started feeling not-so-great this afternoon. It doesn't surprise me that I'm catching whatever he has... isn't that how it's supposed to happen? Ha! Thanks for putting up with my posts lately. I know things haven't been fine and dandy, but I PROMISE to update with some cute pictures of Jax and his two friends in the next few days. Yay! In the meantime, I would covet some prayers for me and my boy. Thanks ya'll :)

Some Good, Some Bad

Which do you want first? Good or bad? I always start with bad so that I can end with something good!

Here's my "bad" list: a.k.a - things that are annoying me right now

-Having 8 million pregnant friends (maybe a slight exaggeration)

-Having daily reminders of these pregnant friends on Facebook

-Living in someone else's house

-Jax waking up in the middle of the night

-Always being paged to the nursery at church because Jax is wailing

-Using a borrowed, and much smaller than my own, car

-Losing 15 pounds but still having a flabby baby belly

-Being bored. A lot.

Ok, now let's be a little more optimistic! Happy things...

-Jax saying lots of words, most of them new (Mama, dada, boppa, nana, grama, bye-bye, ball, uh-oh, please, milk, towel, Jax, Mojo, binky, juice, snack, hot, cheese, NO, football, baseball)

-Jax knowing his body parts

-Jax knowing his animal sounds

-Thanksgiving in 2.5 weeks

-Christmas in 6.5 weeks

-Tuesday morning Bible study

-Spin class

-Losing 15 pounds (that's 5 pounds less than pre-baby weight!!)

-Buying new clothes in smaller sizes

I truly am very blessed and have a lot to be thankful for. What are your current bad and good lists?