It's Warming Up!

At least, at the time that I took these photos I thought it was warming up! We had a week of super hot weather followed by a week of rain, a week of indecisive weather, and now this week is shaping up to be absolutely beautiful... if it weren't for the crazy wind, that is! Our heater has even been kicking on for the last few days because of this crazy cool wind!

But enough about this week's weather...

3 weeks ago, Sam turned 2 months old. We were having nice weather, so I decided to take his 2 month pictures outside!

I know what you're thinking. How did I manage to get photos of Sam all by himself without Jack noticing that Sam was awake and popping in the shot to steal Sam's attention for himself??? Well, Jack was slightly occupied with practicing his stump jumping "skills"

And eventually, he did notice that Sammy was awake, and stump jumping time ended abruptly.


He still adores his baby brother, and his baby brother still adores him...


... even though he occasionally looks worried that his big brother's adoration may squish him.

Don't worry Sam, Jack tells me daily "I love my Sammy Wammy and I don't squish him!"

PS. I know you're curious about what Jack looked like at 2 months...

I Heart Faces- Celebrating Mom

The theme over at I Heart Faces this week is Celebrating Mom! Once again, I had no time to come up with something new for this week. I wanted to participate, though, so here is a shot from my very first newborn shoot:

Head on over to I Heart Faces for more shots that Celebrate Mom!

It's Party Time!

Jack was so incredibly excited for his birthday party! We had a really hard time deciding what kind of theme to do this year, as his favorite things are things we've already done: a Choo Choo Train Party for his first birthday, and an Airplane Party for his second birthday. Dave and I asked him many times what kind of party he'd like for his birthday, and finally, we decided on a Racecar theme!

I'd like to pause here for a moment to say a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who said a prayer that Samuel would be an easier baby than Jackson. When Jack was a baby I couldn't even think about going to a party, let alone throwing one!!! So, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

On the morning of Jack's party, Dave and I decided to give our gift to Jack in the morning, before any of the guests got there. We got him a Hot Wheels Dinosaur Stunt Track... and it was HUGE! The box was (almost) bigger than he was! He was such a good boy... he waited until we were ready for him to open it, and he even let me take a picture of him first!

As soon as I snapped the picture, he asked "Now I can open my present, PLEASE?!" A split-second after I said "Yes" he tore into the paper. He was so excited to finally be opening a birthday present!

And he was even MORE excited once he saw what it was!

And by the way, I know that he is definitely my son. Take a look at exhibit A:

Apparently I was just as excited to get a pair of Jelly Shoes on my third birthday as Jack was to get this track at his third birthday.

Having Jack open his gift before the party was a great idea. Not only were Dave and I able to have a moment our precious three-year-old all to ourselves that day, we were also able to enjoy watching the pure JOY he had that day without any distractions. Added bonus: he was kept occupied while we made last minute preps for the party!

Jack was so excited for his birthday party! He wasn't quite sure what to do with all the people at his house, though... he has having a lot of fun playing by himself, and when some friends showed up he had fun playing with them, too!

When all the guests were here and the party was in full swing, though, Jack wasn't quite sure what to do. He's just like his daddy in that respect... he thrives in one-on-one situations, and hangs on the sidelines when there is a crowd.

As soon as it was time for cake, though, he came right out of his shell! He had been waiting so long for that cake! He had helped me to make it the day before, and he was asking me all day long if it was time to eat the cake, yet! Finally he decided that I wasn't going to change my mind about waiting until the party to eat it, and he gave up asking... he still was very concerned about it, though, as all evening long he kept telling me "I have to go see my birthday cake!" and he'd run over to the table that it was sitting on to look at it and make sure that it was still there!

The cake... I had decided that I didn't have time to make cars for it, so I just bought cars. And yes, I realize that Chick Hicks wins the race in the movie and Lightening McQueen comes in last, but this isn't the Piston Cup... it's the Jackson Cup!

(I was trying to get a picture of him showing everyone how old he was... at this angle you can't really see it, but he is holding out his first two fingers and his thumb)

He was so excited when he blew out his candles that he did a crazy little dance and gave Auntie Mimi a High Five!


While grandpa cut the cake, the kids participated in the pinata

And then it was time for gifts! He was so gracious about the gifts and I was so proud of him! He did a great job making sure that he opened the cards first, and he waited patiently while I read the card before he asked "Can I open my present now?" Then he'd grab the edge of the paper and look at me and say "I'm going to open it from right here!"

And when he was all done, he was very anxious to go play with his new toys! He was such a good boy, though, and stood up and thanked everyone for coming before grabbing grandma and dragging her into his room to play toys!

We had such a great time at Jack's party, and I was so happy that his friends were able to come and play! We had a great time!






Happy birthday, Jack Jack!!! WE LOVE YOU!

Life Happens

I was doing so great! I was a blog posting fool and just about caught up to real-time (which was my goal) when WHAM! Life happened. Again.

Last Saturday, Dave's grandma passed away. There is so much that I can say about this- what a wonderful woman she was, how grateful I am to her for her integral role in Dave becoming the man he is today, even how cute I always thought her little TX accent was- but really, I don't know what to say. I mean, I didn't know her as well as I would have liked and circumstances would never have enabled me to do so, but even though we didn't really know each other, I loved her and I knew she loved me.

And I'm sad. I'm sad that Jack will never get to know her and that Sam will never get to meet her. I'm sad that so many things had to have been left unsaid due to recent events, and I'm sad that after everything that's happened over the past year (most of which I've left unblogged, as it's not really my story to tell), we have to say our last goodbyes to her tomorrow. Mostly, though, with the loss of this wonderful woman I'm sad for Dave. I remember how, shortly after we fell in love, he told me how his grandma was his biggest supporter in his life. She and her husband lived with Dave's family as he was growing up, and she had a big role in raising him. He spoke of her kind heart, mentioned how she always went to his football games and wrestling matches, and told me the story of when she found his fake ID. And because she had loved my David, I loved her. And I found that went both ways- when she and I met for the first time, I knew that she loved me, simply because Dave did. By the end of our first meeting, though, there was more to it than just that.

We've been going through a lot this week. As if planning the funeral of a much-loved, much-missed woman weren't enough, we're sick. Miserably sick. On Monday night Jack came down with a low fever, and Tuesday morning he and I both woke up with a sore throat. I wasn't too concerned until the afternoon/early evening when Jack woke up from a nap with a 102 fever. I decided to look in his throat, and saw what I thought looked a lot like strep. So, to the doctor we went for a throat culture and some antibiotics. The next day, Jack was worse, and the fever hit me: fever, chills, sweats, and the worst sore throat I've ever had in my life. The next day Dave came home and mentioned that his throat was beginning to hurt as well, and as the day went on he began to feel increasingly worse. The days that followed were full of rashes, blisters and very painful sore throats, and as things turn out, we have a bad case of Herpangina, or Hand, Foot & Mouth disease (people will tell you that it sounds worse than it is, but I promise that's not true- it sucks!). And it's been kicking our butts. So far Sammy has been spared (yay, breastmilk!), and we are praying that it stays that way! Dave and I are certain that this is the worst that either of our throats have hurt in our lives- poor Dave's throat is so sore and his tongue is so swollen that he can hardly talk- and as hard as it is on us, poor Jack Jack has it much harder! He has been unable to eat anything for a few days... I've even offered him chocolate ice cream many times, only to be met with "No, that might hurt my throat!" Today we managed to get him to drink a total of 12 ounces of a generic strawberry-milk-flavored vitamin drink called Fortify, but that is really all he has had all weekend.

Apparently, though, as suddenly as it comes on, it leaves. This morning I woke up and my throat barely hurts! This was also the first morning since this happened that Jack has woken up not screaming bloody murder, though he is still definitely in a lot of pain as he was up screaming 3 times last night (one of our easier nights with this disease, believe it or not!). He seems to have more energy today, and while he still is very clingy and refuses to let us look in his mouth (I did get a peak this morning- it's not a pretty picture), I am hoping that his bug is on its way out, as well.

And through all this, Dave has been planning a funeral for a very important woman. It seems the poor guy can't ever deal with one thing at a time! In two weeks it will have been a year since we moved his mom down here, and since then it's been one thing after on top of another for him. In the last year he has been compelled to take care of many important things that he does not want to do, which has the unfortunate effect of taking his time away from the boys and the things that he does want to do. It's not fair that this all falls to him. And, it's not fair that at the end of this long year, he has to say goodbye to woman who basically raised him.

Life won't stop tomorrow, as we say goodbye to Eva Louise Reeves. This whole experience has been pretty miserable but Dave will still be sick as he pays his respects to his grandmother, I will still be worried and praying for the health of my family as I say my final goodbyes, we aren't guaranteed that the wind will hold off as we honor her memory at her graveside, I'll probably get a sunburn, and Jack probably won't want to sit still and be quiet as the mourners listen to grandma's eulogy. But that's the way it should be. Life shouldn't stop as we say goodbye to the ones we love. As much as we want to give them the respect they deserve by having everything go perfectly smooth, they wouldn't want us to put our lives on hold for them. Life will continue to happen tomorrow, and life will continue to happen when tomorrow is over. I just finished making the programs for her service, and as Dave looked over my final draft and gave his approval, he said to me "When this is over, I want to start to plan stuff that we want to do."

And maybe I'll be able to catch my blog up to real time, too. You know, to keep up with life as it happens.