Monday, June 30, 2008

Take Me Out To The Ballgame!

Here is a video that our worship minister made of Joshua and Jason the other day. He was able to come out and take some pictures of Joshua's last game and then made a video out of it. He used the video to set up our praise and prayer night, which had kind of a sports-theme. I love the smile on Joshua's face as he's running the bases. Enjoy!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Jackson At Twelve Months

18 pounds, 15 ounces, 29 inches





I can stand alone.

I am still cruising, but will probably be walking before too much longer.

I love playing peek-a-boo.

I can say momma, dada, hi, bye, uh-oh, and (what sounds like) Jack.

I love trying to make Joshua and Abby Kate laugh (especially at meal-times).

I am starting to self-feed.

I love yogurt!

I am getting a sweet tooth.

I can turn the faucet on in Momma and Daddy's bathtub.

I hate being told "no".

I scream when someone takes something away from me.

My new favorite game is "pass the baby".

I like to climb.

I love getting in the cabinets.

I give the best kisses.

Diaper changes are turning into wrestling matches.

I still sleep with a burp cloth.

I finally drank out of a cup.

I laugh really hard when I drop stuff on the floor.

I can drink my milk cold now.

When I cry now, I put my hands over my mouth.

I have 8 teeth, but I am about to have some molars (and Mommy can't wait).

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

It's My Blogiversary!!!

It's been 2 years since I started blogging. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love it. I have recently been reading over some of my older posts and am so happy that I have all of my thoughts preserved on my web-log. My blog has been a great way for me to reconnect with some of my friends who live faraway, for my family to catch up (mainly through pictures), a way to actually let my friends that live in town know what is going on, and a way for me to make some new amazing friends in the blogosphere. It is wild to see the changes that have occurred along the way. Thanks for following along with me and sharing in our journey!

Two years ago!

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Repeat

It seems as if my life is on repeat right now. I guess that it is just the week that I am having, but I am having to repeat everything right now.

It all started with a call to reschedule an appointment yesterday. I had already made arrangements with my friend to take the kids, so I had to rework that up with her yesterday afternoon after getting my new appointment date. Then, after leaving one of my kids with my friend, I made it on time to my next appointment for the day. After finally sitting down, I was kindly informed that my appointment was actually not that day, but the next (meaning today). When I pulled out my appointment card that had that day's date on it, they kindly told me that someone had just made a mistake and written down the wrong date and could I come back again tomorrow (meaning today). Just a few minutes ago I got an email from my photo lab telling me that my order had been canceled. When I called to inquire, they kindly told me that they thought the order was a duplicate one and deleted it. Only, I could not just resend the order, I had to go and take the next 20 minutes to resubmit my order. (And that was actually the 3rd time resending it since it didn't go through the first time a few weeks ago either).

I am getting a little tired of having to do things over and over again. It doesn't help that my kids are at that great stage of asking me the same thing over and over again either. It is no easy task to find the time to create a picture order only to have it canceled. It is hard enough to find a friend willing to keep my kids while I go to an appointment only to be told that I showed up on the wrong date. And it is no easy task setting up your week around another appointment only to have it rescheduled for another day. I have 3 kids and I am just trying my best to get things done.

Now that I have vented, it's time to move on and enjoy the journey! Thanks for letting me share! :)

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Jackson's Birthday Cake

Here's the video from Jackson's first birthday party. Hope that you enjoy!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

I Finally Took The Plunge

Well, after taking my dear sweet time thinking about Facebook, I finally decided to join! Yes, I have actually taken this long to decide! What can I say, I really tend to over analyze things.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

My First Year With Jackson

I can hardly believe that we just celebrated our baby boy's FIRST birthday! This past year has been so wonderful. I am so thankful that God blessed us with Jackson. He has brought us all such happiness and "peace". Jack is, by far, the best little baby! After going through another high risk pregnancy, we were so pleased to have our little baby in our arms.

This past year has been filled with so many precious memories. I am so happy that I was able to feed Jackson for the first year of his life. (He did stop one week short of his first birthday, but I'm calling it a year.) Jackson is our last baby. Because of this, I have soaked up each and every moment. I know that each little hardship along the way is short lived. That is how I have viewed the screaming car rides, the non-stop feedings through a growth spurt, and the teething pain. If he cried, I picked him up. (Yes, he does know how to self-soothe and "cry it out", but if I could have avoided that, then I did). I don't feel like I spoiled my baby during his first year, I feel like I gave him the comfort and security that I could when he needed it.

I have loved watching the way that Jackson interacts with Joshua and Abby Kate. It has been so sweet and special. He thinks the world of them and they are so sweet to love on him. Abby Kate has always been so gentle with Jackson. She plays the "mother" role pretty well. She cannot stand for Jackson to be upset and she will come and get me at a moments notice. Joshua is "Jack-Jack's" rough and tough play buddy. They sure do have some fun times together, but there are those other times that usually end up in a time out for Joshua.

I have loved watching Jackson's personality develop over these past twelve months. He is so independent and determined. He is my snuggle buddy and cuddle bug. He loves to make messes and he will recreate it the moment that I put it all back. Jack always has a smile to share. My favorite smiles are the ones that occur behind his pacy. You can always tell that he is smiling by looking at his eyes. He has the most gorgeous blue eyes I've ever seen. I love the way that he gently claps his hands and his peek-a-boo. I love how he "dances" to music. I love how he has started imitating the ways that we talk or the things that we do. Just the other day, he imitated Jason's nose blowing. I love to hear Jack's deep belly laugh! I love dressing him in blue (I think that it is "his color"). He has started saying "hi". I love that he says it over and over again. I am so proud to have a big eater. He has taken a liking to ice cream over the past couple of days. He loves to play with cell phones, pens, keys, and remotes - anything of mine or Jason's. He does not like to have anything taken away from him and will usually scream or cry BIG tears if it does. I absolutely love every little thing about my little man!

I am so thankful for all of the family and friends that have been there to love on our baby. We feel so blessed to be surrounded by the family and friends that we have. They truly accept us and love our children as if they were their own.

God truly "has been gracious" in blessing us with our Jackson Cash!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Jackson Cash Turns ONE!!!

Saturday, we had Jackson's FIRST birthday party. I wanted to share some pictures from his party. If we have the time, I really want to upload the video of him eating his cake. It was so funny! We also made a "First Year" video. It is pretty long, but I am hoping to get it on here soon. And, of course, I plan on jotting down some thoughts about this first year with our precious baby boy!














Thursday, June 12, 2008

Yes, That Really Was My Boy...

...that pulled his pants down to his ankles to "go potty" in front of the whole tee ball team, coaches, and parents.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Just Playing

Here are some pictures of Joshua and Abby Kate playing out back last night and some of my flowers.

Quick story about VBS - This is the first year that my kids have been old enough to attend our church's VBS. The kids have had a lot of questions about VBS. The other day when we were driving up to church, Joshua started asking me if we were going to CVS! Apparently I've made one too many trips to our local CVS!!!






Saturday, June 07, 2008

While Daddy Was Gone...

*I will warn you now - this is long. You can tell by reading this that I have been a little too consumed with all things kids.*

Jason finally comes home today! I am so thrilled! 8 days is a very long time to fly solo. My week started off pretty well. After going to bed at 12:00 AM, Jason woke up Saturday morning at 3:00 AM to ride down to the airport for his flight. Because of the plane crash, the Tegucigalpa airport was closed. The mission team had to fly into another location in Honduras and after their arrival that Saturday night, they finally arrived at their destination at 5:00 AM Sunday morning!

Saturday morning Joshua had a tee ball game at 9:00. He did great! He slides into EVERY base. Totally cracks me up. After getting all hot and sweaty, we headed home and spent the rest of the day outside.

Sunday was a bit hectic. It always is when you are trying to get 3 kids dressed and fed (oh, and you've got to find some time in there to take care of getting yourself dressed and fed). I am happy to report that we made it to church on time and I had lots of helpful hands.

On Monday, we spent most of our day outside. In my spare time (HA HA), I managed to get some of my class assignments done. I still find it hard to believe that I am taking a college class. So far, I've had to create a power point presentation about myself, state an article that I will be critiquing in the next few weeks (after searching for the article), read (via power point since they were out of my class textbook at all of the campus bookstores) the chapters required for the week, write a response, respond to 2 other student's responses, work on an assignment for defending the benefits of cooperative learning, attend an orientation at the school that I will be doing field observations at, and I will be attending class this evening for 2 hours. I am only 2 weeks into it, but here's hoping! :)

Tuesday our church had a preschool play date scheduled at the downtown park. We played, looked at the fish, fed the ducks, and ate a picnic lunch. My friend, Amy, and her boys were there and we had a fun time with them. When I was getting the kids out of the van, the ducks started walking up to us. Abby Kate and Jackson were just fine looking at the ducks, but Joshua absolutely flipped out!!! He started screaming and trying to climb back into the van. When I insisted that he join us and closed the van door, I seriously thought the boy was going to run out into the road. He spent the first part of our park excursion in the giant gazebo hiding from the ducks. (Now this is the SAME park that we went to last year a few weeks after Jackson's birth that he could not get enough of).

On Wednesday, I met up with Amy at the movie theater. Jackson got to visit with one of my good friends while we were at the movies. Our regal cinema has free summer movies at 10:00 AM all summer long. The kids were really excited to be going. I did not have to pay for the movie, but the kids did want some popcorn (at 10:00 AM). I got tickled at Joshua yet again. While standing in line, Joshua started yelling that his tummy was scared. Apparently he was really terrified of the crowd that was around us. After the movie was over, Joshua took off running out of the theater - without ME! The theater held about 300 people and he ran off into the hallway of the theater. We had a SERIOUS talk about his running off! Abby Kate had not even put on her shoes and he was clearly out the door. Scared me silly, so I had to scare him! We grabbed lunch out at Chick-Fil-A and then headed home for our naps. Later that afternoon, I felt really cold and started getting the chills. I checked to see if I had a fever because I knew that with the heat there should be no reason for having chills. Sure enough, I had a fever and it just kept climbing all through the night. We missed church because I did not want to chance "spreading" whatever it was that I had.

My fever finally broke on Thursday morning, but my chest had been hurting all night long. Since I was still running a fever (had been for 17 hours) and my chest had hurt me all through the night, I decided to put in a call to my doctor's office. Turns out that the asthma that I had last year is back! About a week ago, I told Jason that my breathing felt the same way that it did about this time last summer. Apparently I am allergic to something and this is the way that my body decides to react to it. I am now taking 2 inhalers and I can use my nebulizer for breathing treatments. I will go back to see the doctor in a few weeks and we will discuss what needs to happen next. I really don't know how people deal with asthma that have it all the time. I feel like I am having the hardest time breathing. I cannot imagine feeling like this all the time. The crazy thing is that I went to see the doctor about this very same thing last year - on the exact same day (June 5th). It is really kind of freaky! That afternoon I was able to get in a nap, but after waking up my fever came back.

Can I just tell you that I have the best friends ever! I have received so many phone calls and emails from my friends that are just checking in on me. I cannot even begin to tell you how blessed I feel. It is so hard having to be a mommy to 3 small children all by yourself. Whenever you are sick, it becomes even more difficult. My friends have been there for me and I truly appreciate each and everyone of them! Yesterday, my friend, Stacy, came by to take all 3 of my kids for the afternoon and night. They all (5 kids and 2 adults) had one big sleepover so that I could get some much needed rest.

I'm sorry that this turned out to be so long. Here are some pictures from the park the other day and at dinner the other night.

Abby Kate and Ryan feeding the ducks (or goose/geese - whichever you prefer)


Joshua and Michael looking at the fish from the bridge


Michael, Joshua and Ryan


I found Jackson sleeping like this the other night, so I had to take a picture






Friday, June 06, 2008

Free Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

Today is Doughnut Day at Krispy Kreme! We've already made our trip through the drive through and received our free doughnuts. Each person gets a free doughnut of their choice! I hope that you all enjoy!

(Call to make sure that your Krispy Kreme is participating).

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

My New Mission

I now have a new mission! Jason and I usually don't take the kids out to eat at many restaurants. Time, money, atmosphere, the ages of our children and the quality of food are some of our reasons for eating at home most nights. (Now, I'm not trying to paint a dull picture here. We do eat out more than we ever have with the kids.) With our most resent travel to the Gulf Coast, I found us eating out at more restaurants than we usually do.

I don't know what it is about being out at a restaurant that makes my kids want to visit the restrooms. (I know that I am not alone in this. I am just speaking out for all of the mommies and daddies in the world.) What is with the fascination of seeing (and using) EVERY restroom? On any given trip to a restaurant, Jason and I will take one (if not all 3) kids to the restroom. This does not happen once, twice, three, or even four times, but FIVE times! Five trips is our record for the most trips to the restroom during ONE meal.

I'm not kidding here. The other day on our way home from the beach, we stopped off at McDonald's for some lunch. *If you don't care to read the "potty" details here, then just skip to the next paragraph.* I took Jackson to the restroom to change a dirty diaper. Jason stayed back with the twins. Upon my return, Jason took Joshua to go potty. When Joshua was done, Abby Kate insisted that she needed to go. (Of course, this is after we had already asked her to go when Jason was taking Joshua to the potty.) As soon Jason brought us our food, Abby Kate loudly exclaimed that she needed to poop. So off I went with her to the potty again. As soon as we got back and I started eating my food again, Joshua told us that he needed to poop too!!! That was 5 trips to the nasty McDonald's restroom for our one lousy meal!

It never fails! All of my kids are determined to use the potty (have a diaper changed) at least once! I've tried the "well you'll just have to wait" line and they only insist all the more LOUDLY begging me to take them. So, my new mission is to see if I can visit each restaurant restroom only two times in one meal (I'm trying to be realistic here).

If not that, then I guess that I will embrace the frequent trips to the potty. Who knows, maybe I can beat my previous 5 trips to the restroom with 6 trips!

Monday, June 02, 2008

In Case You Were Wondering...

...I prefer "Baby" Goldfish.



What about you?