Back in the saddle again

Sooooooo it's been awhile,

2016 was a rough year for our family. Now there were some great moments and oh how did I treasure those moments but as a whole 2016  wasn't that great. I was glad to see it go. Because of the year of awfulness, it was hard for me to find the energy and time to blog. I missed it because I like having this virtual blog to look back on our adventures because one day I really do want to do scrapbooks but I just don't have the time for that right now. Anyways, my goal this year is to blog more. Starting with some catch up posts from last year (sorry second child) and then back to a regular scheduled blogging. I'm also thinking about changing the name and giving codes for my kids and stuff just for privacy but we shall see.

But since you are here...I figured I would give you some life lately pictures over the last few months =)

 He loves pushing his sister's strollers around with babies, trains, cars, etc in it

 We've gone to several Casa Mañana plays

Pushing our lawn mower around is almost an everyday occurrence

Lots of zoo trips

School work time

Going to homecoming at my alma mater

Lots of grocery trips with a fun ride at the end (sometimes with it not going on because mommy didn't have any quarters...oops) 

Fall pumpkin patches - one of my most favorite traditions 

 

I'm a sucker for themed pajamas. I'm going to ride this train until they no longer let me. 

 Traffic jams (with a few road blocks and road rage) are frequently seen in this house

Fall festival at our church 

Halloween 2016! Cutest Skye and Nemo I ever did see!

Cashing in on my Christmas present from 2015 - ADELE!! It was everything I imagined it would be and more!

Lots of family walks together

A quick stop at Magnolia Market on our way to visit family and go to a wedding in Houston 

Houston zoo trip with the cousin!

Wedding time with my love!

I have known this girl since elementary school (20+ years) and it was so fun to watch her marry her prince charming. We even discovered that her husband and mine graduated high school together! Small world!!

Cousin picture on Thanksgiving 2016!

Setting up the Christmas tree!

Breakfast with Santa in our neighborhood

Annual Christmas cookie decorating party with some of our dear friends. I think this is the 3rd or 4th year we have done it =)

His obsession with trains has begun. He LOVED the train under the Christmas tree this year!

Our "carriage ride" to look at lights around our little neighborhood. We did this several nights during December. The kids loved it.

Snowman breakfast on Christmas Eve morning 

Christmas Eve service 

Decorating Christmas cookies 

Playing with their recorders Christmas morning. I clearly had a lapse in judgment when I bought those for their stockings. 

Riding their big Christmas presents from us!!

Just a little glimpse into our world. I'll be back soon with monthly updates, a 4 year old post, and our fun trip to Florida. Glad to be back!!

13 months!

Oh my curious little boy!! Happy 13 months! You are so fun and make us laugh all the time.
(Yes these are late - bear with me!)

Here is what you are doing this month:

- You are great at walking now. You started a couple of weeks before you turned one and now that is all you want to do. At your sister's dance recital, we had to take you out into the foyer so you could walk up and down and up and down. Non stop.

- You will throw your hands up over your head and then make a half circle down to the side when we sing Walking on Sunshine. It was part of your sister's tap dance and you saw her practice it enough that you can do the hand motions too. So so funny and cute!

- You love to flip book pages and really love your touch and feel books. The monkey one is your favorite right now.

- You now like to say "Boo" or growl when you hear thunder. You will point outside when you hear it and then make the noise.

- You've started this new thing where you will stuff a whole bunch of your food in your mouth at meal times, chew it for a bit and then spew it all out all over yourself. Then you just continue eating other things on your tray like nothing happened. Silly boy.

- You got a Cozy Coupe car for your birthday and you love it! You like climbing in and out of it and like riding in it as we push you around in it.

- You wave bye and night, night, and can sign milk really well.

- You love to bring me things to show them to me so I can tell you what it is. You will also bring me things you are holding when I ask you.

- You will eat boiled eggs except for the yolk part. You aren't a fan of that right now.

- You love to give high fives to your family. Strangers it is a hit or miss.

- You are now sleeping in your crib for small increments! It's a work in progress. Naps are another story.

- You still nurse twice in the middle of the night but are down one nursing session during the day.

- You mimic car noises when you drive little cars around on the floor. It is so adorable.

- You are carrying around play phones and then put it to your ear to talk for a second but instead of your ear it goes more behind your head. Ha! You will carry phones around for forever. It's one of your favorite things to play with.

- You got to sit on a carousel horse for the first time this month and loved it!

- You are in your picky stage of eating. You don't want to eat a lot of meat, You eat some veggies but the only thing consistently that you will eat is fruit!

- You start dancing when you hear music but a lot of times you want to dance with me more =).

- You LOVE to shut doors. If a door is open, you shut it. Sometimes when I don't want you to just yet =)

- You like to help put clothes in the dryer but you also like to stick other things in there. I have found one of Elyanah's shoes in there and a couple of toys. Ha!

- You make motions with patty cake patty cake. You will clap your hands and pat your stomach or legs. It is really cute.

- You are trying to run but aren't quite there yet.

- You like to help put Lucye in her kennel when we leave the house. You will follow me as I put her in the kennel and then you like to come and close the kennel door after she gets in.

- You like to poke mommy and daddy's eyes and when we ask where your eye is you will grab our hands and make us poke you in the eye.

- You can climb on to the dishwasher door when it is down.

(Also taking these pictures was a piece of work, you have no desire to sit down. You have no desire to look at the camera. Getting you to smile on command is never happening. Haha. Love you sweet bear)

You are such a joy sweet boy!! Looking forward to the next month!!

J's first birthday

We celebrated Judah's birthday on June 4th with friends and family. The theme was Dr. Seuss. I have always wanted to have a Dr. Seuss theme birthday party if I had a boy, and so I am thankful that I was able to do it. 

The table with all the food and snacks

Pink Ink Drinks

Cute little banner over the entertainment center 

The kids decorated little stars (for the Star bellied Snitches)

We also played a short game of Pin the Hat on the Cat

My cute little girl enjoying some of the snacks

Some of the crew before all the fun started 

After games and everyone got snacks, we sang happy birthday to the birthday boy and watched him eat his cake. 

His cute little cupcake

Singing happy birthday to him. He started clapping for everyone that was singing. So cute. 

Trying his first bite of cupcake and icing 

He loved it! He almost ate that entire cupcake by himself. He sat there happily content eating his cupcake and then I promptly gave him a bath afterward because there was frosting all over his chest and hands.

After his bath post cupcake, we opened presents. He liked playing with the paper more than anything (of course) and big sister helped open the presents.

Then she got bored and went and hung out with her uncle 

All the guests had a chance to take their pictures either in front of the truffula trees or with the poster board to be Thing 1 or Thing 2. 

We did a couple of pictures of the birthday boy in his cute little shirt that I made! Isn't he the cutest?

And then when you forget to take a family picture the day of the party, you dress him back up in the birthday outfit the next day and take a picture then!! Ha!

It was so much fun to plan this party and to celebrate this little joyful boy of ours!!!

12 months!

Dear J,

And just like that you turned one! Oh my sweet boy! My heart can not handle that you are technically not a baby anymore.  We are so thankful that God chose you for our family. We can't imagine it without you. God knew we needed you here. We never knew if we would be blessed with another baby, and God gave you to us. Your name means "praise" and we named you that because we will always give praise to the One who gave us this surprise blessing. My prayer for you is that you will always sing God's praises. That you will know that he is a God who is faithful and who fights for you always.  You are so so loved my sweet boy. You are precious blessing to us. A wonderful gift. We can't wait to see how you grow this next year.

You are so joyful and full of laughter. You find something to laugh at everyday (usually something your sister does).  Your personality is sweet tempered. You only get upset when you are hungry or tired. You easily go with the flow and are happy to play by yourself for a few minutes before happily checking in with us. You love to cuddle and to follow your sister around. You love to be outside. You are so curious and just want to figure stuff out.

You are a walker now!!! You started walking about 2 weeks before you turned one. You are still wobbly which I think is super adorable. You fall down and get yourself right back up and keep going. I'm sure you will be running before I know it. You love to push the kitchen chairs across the kitchen floor. You get down from eating and start moving them around. So funny! Walking has helped you move faster so you can follow your sister around easier =).  You still love to play at the dishwasher.

You are a mouther of everything! I am constantly having to swipe your mouth to see what little thing you have put in it. I keep small things out of your reach,  and I vacuum but you somehow manage to find the one thing that I miss! You keep me on my toes for sure! You love to eat finger foods now and love to feed yourself. You don't really like me feeding you at all.  You tried cantaloupe and watermelon this month. You know LOVE spaghetti and eat so much of it when we have it. Although you aren't much of a meat eater right now and prefer your fruit and veggies more.  You now have seven teeth! Two more popped up this month but they didn't seem to bother you much.

Your favorite toys this month: Big sister's hot wheel cars, balls and blocks. You love to shut the doors in the house. If there is a door open, you feel like it was meant for you to shut it. You still LOVE patty cake and will start clapping with me when I say it. You love to take things in and out of containers and in and out of the safe cabinet in the kitchen. You love touch and feel books - the That's not my tractor and That's not my monkey books and the farm animals book. You love to flip the pages of books too.

Cute things you are doing:
- When you are nursing, you like to stick your fingers in my mouth and then flick my teeth. Ha!
- You like to make noises (like an Indian war cry) by sticking your fist against your mouth and then moving it back and forth
- You love to stand at the window and point to everything outside. You get so excited as I tell you all the names of everything out there.
- You love your wagon rides and get so mad when it stops moving.
- You like to poke my eye and then take my hand so that I can poke your eye too. Ha!
- You will say "ma, ma" and pull on my shirt sometimes when you are hungry.
- You like to shake your head (sometimes when dancing) and love it when we mimic you. This can go back and forth for quite some time.

You weigh 20 pounds 11 ounces and are 29 inches tall. You wear 9-12 month and 12 month clothes. You wear a size 4 shoe.

Oh J, we are so so thankful for you. This past year has flown by so quickly with you and we have enjoyed every minute. We all adore you including your sister. We love you and can't wait to see what this next year has in store for you.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

11 months!!

*totally know this is overdue. carry on*

Oh J!!

One more month and then you will be one. I CANNOT handle this. Stop it. Just stop growing =).

Sleeping is still the same. You still nurse twice in the middle of the night. You still like to be held. Nothing new there - ha! You are still nursing 6 times a day and eating two solid meals of lunch and dinner. You still get so distracted when nursing and you eat very little meals before saying you are done. You are really loving to feed yourself and getting better at it. Slimy foods still give trip you but you are doing great with non slimy stuff. You love to eat blueberries and sweet potatoes with cinnamon all cut up! You tried spaghetti sauce this month and you gagged on it at first but eventually got the hang of it. You also tried blackberries. You also tried macaroni (with butternut squash sauce) and LOVED IT.  Puffs are still your jam, and you will go find them in my diaper bag and pull them out to eat them. When I catch you, you just smile really big and continue to eat your contraband. Ha. You now have five teeth. You are starting to grind your top and bottom teeth together (cringe).

You are crawling everywhere and will walk with a push toy. You are into everything! I am constantly having to redirect you from things. You are constantly trying to get into the dog food and dog water bowl. You love to play at the dishwasher while I'm unloading or loading it. You will stand there and pull the bottom drawer in and out, in and out. You will immediately come into the kitchen if you hear me open the dishwasher regardless of what you were doing. You have tried to climb onto the dishwasher lid several times. You can stand by yourself for 15-30 seconds. You took one step by yourself on your 11 month "birthday" and can walk with one hand for about 5 steps. You love to dance to music. You will bounce up and down while standing and it is the cutest thing!

You can now sign "done" and say done. Add that to your words of dog and dada. You are pointing to things and love when I name the stuff you are pointing at. You love to clap. If we say "yay!" you are clapping, if someone is cheering you are clapping, if you see someone else clapping , you clap too. YOU LOVE PATTY CAKE. It is your favorite thing and you love for to say it over and over. You like to take your socks off especially in the car and then chew on them. You can wave bye and give high fives but you hand those out to only certain people. You rode in the wagon for the first time this month and loved it. You leaned your arms back and completely chilled. You would get upset when it wasn't moving.  You also went to the nursery at church for the first time. It's a work in progress. You don't like it at all and scream A LOT and loudly. We have had to come get you because you can't make it through the whole service but  I know we will get there.

Favorite toys this month: You love to push around the bike push toy over and over again. You can now shut all the doors to pop and turn toy and love to shut them over and over again. You love carrying around little hot wheel cars. You love blocks and balls. You even played ball with your sister and would hold the ball up in the air and then drop it like you were throwing it back to her. You would laugh and laugh the whole time you were playing together. You still love Lucye. You love to look at books. Your favorites are the touch and feel books. You could look at those forever.

You are wearing 12 month clothes but a lot of the shorts are still baggy on you because you don't have a bottom. I would guess you are about 20 pounds still.

Next time, I write one of these you will be one. My heart.

 Love,
Mommy and Daddy

This is it...

So I've been a horrible blogger...it's true. Which is sad because I love to blog because it's my digital scrapbook since I need it to make photo albums eventually one day. My brain doesn't remember anything! Anyways, I'm going to kick myself into gear and for the next two weeks I am going to catch up. I will probably have at least 8 posts. Not kidding. Feel free to read as much as you want but it's really for me to get caught up for document purposes. AND THEN I WILL MAKE SURE I STAY ON TOP OF IT!! So don't laugh when you see J's 11 month post up later today, you know, since he is almost 14 months....Ha! Got to get caught up some how. Cheers, my friends