Christmas memories

So many wonderful memories from this Christmas I want to write down and not forget. First, there had been reports of possible snow on Christmas day for a few days before and I honestly wasn't really expecting any. However, I was pleasantly surprised when around 8 am Christmas morning it started snowing and kept coming down all day and in to the next! I've lived in Alabama my entire life and never seen a white Christmas. What's crazy is that we've had snow at least once every year for the past 3 years - my kids are going to think snow in Alabama is normal when I can only remember 3 or 4 times we had snow when I was a kid. The boys went out and played for a bit but they aren't quite old enough to really appreciate it. The snow wouldn't stick enough to build a snow man so after that plan failed it wasn't long before they were complaining about the cold and ready to come inside and get warmed up with some hot coco :)
After we ate our cupcakes it was off to open up our presents. At first the boys were so sweet and wanted to open up and play with every gift they opened. James was funny because as he was opening his gifts he would tell John-Mark "it's about God" - I think he definitely got the point this year that Christmas is about Jesus :)
The boy's each got a "big" gift - a bike for James and train and train table for John-Mark. After they had opened up all their other gifts from us and my mom and Papa Steve I took them to brush their teeth while Jeremy set up the big gifts. They walked in and each walked straight to their gifts without any talking. I must admit I was expecting a bigger reaction but isn't that how it goes. The one that I got the biggest reaction from was sweet Gracie belle. My mom got her her own stuffed chair so she can sit with the boys and watch cartoons. She knew immediately what it was and was sooo excited!!

This is what "tickled pink" looks like in a picture:)

James enjoying his new Cars sleeping bag -

My mom made the boys these super cute Cars book bags - James loves to collect all his favorite toys and carry them around in bags or boxes so he was pretty excited to have this book bag!One of my favorite dollar tree finds were these shields and swords for the boys - next week we are going to have a little fun lesson on the full armor of God with these :)And after all that - next to her chair this was Gracie's favorite place to be - pulling all the paper out of the trash :)

My dad has been so excited to get the boys a trampoline this year. He brought it down a few weeks before Christmas. The boys were so excited about their new "bouncy thing" and wanted daddy to put it up ASAP. Unfortunately is was super cold and rainy for the next several days and Jeremy was super dad and put it up one cold and sleet filled day. The boys haven't been able to play a ton in it because of the cold weather but I am super excited about warmer weather and being able to send them out and let them jump until they are worn out!
Jeremy had the entire week between Christmas and New Years off which made all of us SUPER HAPPY!! WE love it when Daddy gets to stay home with us! A few days after Christmas we headed south to spend some time with Jeremy's mom and even made a quick trip to Cedar Key to visit Jeremy's dad's side of the family that we haven't seen since James was an itty bitty baby. More pics of our trip and our fun in the snow.
I can't believe another Christmas season has come and gone - and I can't believe my babies are 3, 2, and 1! We're about to start potty training John-Mark and Gracie is going to start walking any day now. For a time it seemed like we would be in pregnant, baby world forever and now it is quickly slipping away. I watched a family in Target the other day and there was a sweet boy about 9 years old laughing with his dad and I had a glimpse of a few years down the road. I told Jeremy "James is almost 7!" to which he corrected me that he was not - but he is - I know it will only be a blink of an eye, only a few more Christmas' will pass before they are 6,7, and 8. Oh, I'm rambling - how I love these babies!

James' new funny
-All of you that have spent any time with james know that he is a TALKER - talk, talk, talk and there's always something funny coming out of his mouth. My new favorite (which is starting to get old because he says it often) is when he doesn't get his way he will say "mommy, you just don't understand me" - ha! I think this started from me telling him I don't understand what he's saying so now when he doesn't get his way he just assumes that I must not understand because if I did surely I would let him do what he wants!
John-Mark's favorite thing to tell me when he gets in trouble for messing with his brother or sister is "I just playing mommy" with this big grin on his face like this makes everything ok.
Side note on John-Mark - about a week before Christmas we realized his tonsils were extremely swollen. We found out it wasn't strep - just a virus and needed to run it's course but he was pretty miserable. He has been a snorer since birth it seems and Jeremy has always been worried that he doesn't sleep really well because of it. Now we're pretty sure his enlarged tonsils are part of it. We are in the process of eliminating dairy from his diet to see if that helps any - then we may have to go the full gluten free diet - which is probably best for all of us but it overwhelms me to think about. But just say a little prayer that diet changes will help give him some relief.

Our Family Traditions

7 years ago when Jeremy and I married we made the decision that we wanted to be home on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning if at all possible. We also started our own little Christmas tradition of going to our church's Christmas Eve candle lighting service and then dinner at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant. 7 years later we've done it every year and this was the first year that we did it as a family of 5! My mom and Papa Steve joined us as well and we had a great night. All the kids loved the Hibachi and of course James talked our cooks ear off asking 1000 "why's" and John-Mark barely moved as he watched closely everything that was happening. Gracie was a trooper as well and just loves being with everybody!

James trying out the chop sticks -

After a fun night we came home and started a new tradition - my mom and Papa Steve gave the kids a recorded book of them reading the Christmas story - it was so sweet to watch them listen to it and realize who was telling the story. (Gracie was already down for the night but she'll love this next year too!)

We have a family tradition of celebrating everyone's birthday with cupcakes for breakfast. We've been talking for weeks about Jesus' birthday being Christmas and James has been ready to celebrate!! I know they don't fully get what we're talking about but it's a start. A few nights ago Jeremy stayed up late building a train table for the boys and left his tools laying out and the next morning when James got up and saw them he asked "what are you making for Jesus' birthday?"
So, this morning the first thing we did was sing Happy Birthday Jesus and enjoy some yummy cupcakes :) Having not grown up in a Christian home these are things that I am so excited about sharing with my babies and I pray they will be traditions that they cherish when they have children of their own one day.
After that it was time to open their presents - more pictures of that to come :)

Merry Christmas!

My heart is so full with love for my family and thankfulness for my Savior -
"But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." Luke 2:19

Cutie Pa-tootie!

Can I just tell you how much I LOVE having a little girl to dress!! So. much. fun! I think I take a picture of her everyday in each new outfit I dress her in. This winter her style is mostly jumpers and leggings which is soo stinkin' cute and keeps her warm. Since she's not walking yet I don't do a lot of long dresses because she just gets mad when she tries to crawl in them. Yesterday was a pretty chilly day and I remembered these blue jeans we have that are lined in fleece and thought they would be cute. For some reason I'm not really big on blue jeans for baby girl even though the boys where them 90% of the time - but guess what - they are just as adorable on her as her little jumpers and leggings!
She is giving me a huge grin here because she is so proud of herself - yesterday for the first time she started pushing toys and walking behind them!
How adorable is this sweet little pink sweater!?! She looks like a big ball of cotton candy!

My happy, happy girl!

Relaxin' in her brothers Elmo chair - check out that leg kicked up and her chair leaned back!

Today my baby girl is officially 13 months old! Yesterday she started drinking everything out of sippy cups and I was able to pack up all of the bottles in the house and get some cabinet space back! I realized that this is the first time in 3 1/2 years that we don't need bottles anymore! Kind of sad and happy all at the same time.
This is a picture of what goes on here most days- one of the kids gets an idea of something fun they want to do and then the others follow along. On this day John-Mark got his hands on my whisk when I was emptying the dishwasher (it is hanging in the front of the picture under the table) and started making "eggs" to which James joined in and got a big container to mix the eggs in - then they ended up under the table where Gracie followed along and here they all are - playing and entertaining each other - Love it!

Christmas time is here!!

So, as soon as we wrapped up Thanksgiving we started full ahead with Christmas! I even went to Wal-Mart at midnight on black friday to get James a bike! I have never participated in this whole black friday phenom but it wasn't too bad. While the babies were all napping I put up the Christmas tree. The boys were SO EXCITED when they woke up and we had our very own Christmas tree in our house! They have no idea that gifts come with Christmas - they are just loving all the lights and seeing Santa every where (aka Christmas as James refers to him or muffin man as John-Mark thinks - don't ask, I have no idea) James doesn't seem to realize that Christmas is the season but he thinks it's the person of Santa and he'll ask me "what is Christmas doing? Where is Christmas? and on and on - this is an improvement from last year when he thought Santa was Jesus :)
Every year I like to get the kids matching Christmas pj's. This year my mom made them for us and they are super cute!! What do you think:

I can never just show one pic - I think you need the full effect of how many pics it takes to get a good one :)

John-Mark wanted to take a break from picture taking to give his big brother a hug and kiss :)
This is why you should never teach your kids to say "CHEESE!"Also, with the holiday season comes the annual family Christmas photo for the Christmas cards. One of my dear friends Anne-Michelle came over and took them - she just does pictures for fun but I think she does an awesome job!! These are some of my favorites!

Gracie Bell is almost 13 months and I thought I would add a couple notes just about her. Jeremy thinks for sure she'll be walking with in the next two weeks - I'm not so sure but she is super proud of her new learned ability to stand up without holding on the anything. She gets up, gets her balance and then gives you the biggest grin and claps for herself, which usually causes her to loose her balance. One of my favorite things she does right now is take her baby dolls and hold them to her chest and pat them and say "ohhh, ohhhh" whenever we say "love the baby" - melt my heart baby girl!! She is a very smart girl and will bring you almost anything you ask her for - her baby, shoes, etc. Just this morning she pointed to her shoes and said "shooooze?"

This girl loves to swing!

Could life get any better? My 3 sweet babies clapping and singing about the Lord with Miss Patty Cake - we love her!

Too much t.v

Lately we've been watching a lot of football so the boys have not only been watching a lot of t.v. but lots of commercials. We really need to get a dvr so we can fast forward through them and not have to worry about what little eyes are watching - it's quite ridiculous what you might see just watching a football game! Anyhoo - last night Jeremy and the boys were sitting outside by the fire and James was talking and talking about the alligator that has fire in his mouth and spits it out. Jeremy had no idea what he was talking about. Then he said "but it's ok, he's a doctor" to which Jeremy cracked up because he realized he was talking about the Dr. Pepper commercial with Kiss - if you haven't seen it you've got Kiss on the stage in their get-up and pyrotechnics are going off all around them and at the end Gene Simmons says "it's ok - I'm a Dr"
May be a little too much tv - what do you think?

CBS performance :)

I've raved about Community Bible Study on here before but let me just say again how much I love it and how thankful I am for it - not only for me but for my babies. They are learning so much of God's word each week that I am able to build on. I am so thankful for everyone that gives up their time and talents to bless my babies each week.
Last week they had their end of the semester "recital" and all the kids over 3 got on stage and quoted their memory scriptures and sang songs of praise. I cried the whole time - even when my babies weren't even performing. The 4th graders memorized all of Revelation 5! Impressive! I can't even imagine how much it touches our Lord's heart to hear these sweet little ones praising and singing his Word. James' class memorized Psalm 119:42 "I will trust in your word" and Hebrews 13:6 "The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid". Then they sang two songs - Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." and a song called "Thankful". James did a great job and of course was moving to the beat as soon as the music started :) Precious! Here are a few pics

Singing his heart out

Doing some of the hand motions - praising God!

Here's my social bug waving at someone in the audience

Random - here's a pic of James and Gracie - do these two look like fun or what?!?

Brag, Brag, Brag

I need to do a post just to update on what is going on with each baby - I feel like I haven't done that in a while so this post will mostly just be brag, brag, brag :) (Also, I may repeat myself. I can never remember what all I've posted about and I never have time to go back and read through to see if I've already posted something or not - so bare with me :)

James is such a big boy. He is totally able to dress himself even down to his shoes (velcro of course) and he is so proud of himself. He tells us all the time "I can do it myself". He continues to be a virtual mini me of his daddy in almost every way. He is a talk, talk, talker and never meets a stranger. He loves to ask me "why" about 1,000x a day and eventually it gets to the point where I have to turn the questions around on him to get him to stop! I know this is part of learning but there comes a point when you just can't answer another question - especially when it's the same one you've already been asked. When I don't answer him he'll often say, "you already told me, mommy?" It appears that his primary love language right now is quality time. He LOVES to be with you and have your full attention. When we're outside and he's playing ball if I look away for even a second he catches me and calls me back to his attention. He also has a very sensitive heart. He doesn't like to see others hurt or crying (unless it's his brother sometimes:) and he himself can get a little sensitive at times - which can be hard when I have 3 babies vying for my attention but sometimes you just have to stop and hold the one that needs you the most :) He is starting to really love to "read". Often when it's bedtime story time he wants to be the one to do the reading. He's getting a couple new Leap Frog learning to read videos for Christmas that should help him start to put letters together to make words and then he's well on his way! I recently bought the Jesus Storybook Bible and we read from it every night and they both love it and often I will find him in his room looking over the stories again - melt a mommy's heart!
John-Mark continues to be our little fearless 2 year old that thinks he's 3. I told someone today that he's so focused he's clumsy if that makes any sense. He is always a little banged up and bruised somewhere from getting so focused on one thing that he misses the wall or table or stairs - you name it and boom! He is my slow walker that I have to keep close by at all times or he'll get focused on something and get left behind! In fact, last week he almost gave me a heart attack. We were at The Bass Pro Shop walking around and he and James were right behind me and within 5 seconds he wasn't. I went back thinking he had walked off in to a clothes isle and I couldn't see him - nothing. I began to panic which I think set James in to a panic because I'm yelling "John-Mark!" and he's running with me yelling "where' my brother! where's my brother!" Thankfully a store clerk got on the radio and found out he was at the front of the store. When we walked in I let them look at the four wheelers for a bit and he decided that's what he wanted to do again so when he saw his chance he B-lined it to the front of the store to play - No more free walking in the store - he must be in a cart at all times!
Our favorite new trick they do is singing The 50 Nifty United States song. They both know all 50 states and can sing it perfectly. John-Mark is the funniest because he doesn't pronunciate as clearly as James but it's super cute. Jeremy has been dying to teach it to them probably since James was born and I told him just to start singing it and they would learn it - and sure enough - in about 2 weeks they had it down. That is one family trait they get from both of us - they LOVE to sing. We are a singing family - we all love to sing. We listen to bible stories and songs in the car and it's amazing how much of it they know by heart! I love it! I'm working on getting a video of the 50 Nifty song on the blog - so stay tuned :)
It has become clear that while James is just like Jeremy, John-Mark is a lot like his mommy. He is just the cutest little thing ever (;) but he has a bit of a temper on him when things don't go his way. He's also much more thoughtful and deliberate in what he does (ie - planning his escape back to the 4-wheelers - he had been thinking about that for a while!) It's funny to see how we parent them differently and how I seem to have more grace for James' obedience issues and not so much for John-Mark and Jeremy is the opposite. Kind of crazy. I guess it's because we see so much of ourselves in them and we think we know the motivation behind their behavior and we want to correct it before it gets out of hand. As always - I can't imagine these boys without each other and they definitely keep me on my toes!
Gracie Belle is just our sweet little princess. We're not sure yet which way her personality is going to go. So far she seems to be a good balance of both of us through and through. Most of the time she is just a happy, laid back girl. However, it appears that ONLY with me can she get a bit demanding. She LOVES to yell at me when she wants or needs me. Just this loud, almost "hey!" thing she does. She also will follow me around the house crying when I'm in the middle of cooking dinner. She never does this with her daddy - she just plays and plays when she is with him. But as much as that drives me crazy she also melts my heart when I'm holding her and someone comes up and talks to her and she gives them a grin and then lays her head on my shoulder. It's like she's saying "you can talk to me but don't you dare try to take me from my mommy". She's my girl! One thing that has become very evident is that she also LOVES music and anytime she hears any she starts clapping and moving her shoulders side to side. I recently started letting her watch Miss Patty Cake and she LOVES her. That's my new way to get dinner cooked in peace :) We've also realized that while she started out not being a picky eater - the more food we introduce to her the pickier she gets - hmmm. Her favorite things right now are turkey hotdogs, turkey, ham, goldfish, applesauce, and any kind of babyfood. I have to keep giving her the babyfood to make sure she's getting her veggies! Oh- and chick-fil-a chicken nuggets! I swear she can eat about 6 in one sitting if I would let her! We took her for her 1 year check up about a month ago and she weighed about 18 1/2 pounds - Jeremy thinks as much as she eats she's going to put on some weight soon but pretty soon she'll be walking and probably eating more!
I know there are tons of things I am forgetting to blog about but that's all I've got time for for now!

Are you ready for some football!?!

This past Saturday one of the boys favorite friends had his 3rd birthday and it was a football party! Everyone was decked out in their favorite team jerseys and they even put up a mini goal post and spray painted the yard like the end zone. I think everyone's favorite part was when the boys got to run out on to the field from the "locker room" and we all cheered, clapped, and waved our shakers and noise makers. They wanted to do it over and over. I wish I had video of their sweet happy faces running out and just eating up all the cheering! Here are some cute pics from the day:
Ofcourse we had to represent the family so we have a Florida and an Alabama football player and a Bama cheerleader :)

Giving me a big ROLL TIDE!!

James with two of his best friends - Beau and Zach-ie (the birthday boy:)

Refueling at half time :) (He was done with it after he ate all the icing off and wanted to give to me to finish so he could get another piece :)

All my loves! What a lucky lady I am!!!

The Birthday Party!

We just had a small family party for Gracie's 1st. I decided to do a little "princess tea party" for our princess. Who knows if she'll ever want something like this when she's older and since this was my first party for baby girl I had the liberty to do something girl-y and I had fun! I pulled out our china and made chicken salad croissants and had fancy cupcakes! Baby girl had a great time with everyone here and loved enjoying cake for the first time (as I've stated before - this girl LOVES to eat and cake was no exception!) Here are some pics from her party:
The day before the party we had to try on her birthday hat and James wanted a picture - anytime they are doing something cute he tells me "mommy, take a picture!"

I found out a couple days before her birthday that the lady who made our wedding cake has opened a bakery in town (Dreamcakes) - I have been craving our wedding cake for almost 7 years so I was super excited!! I splurged and went and got an assortment of cupcakes for the big day! They all were yummy but I think her wedding cake is by far my favorite (which she makes in a cupcake as well - YUMMY!!)
The birthday girl getting ready to dig in!

Making quick work of that cupcake!

All done mommy!

I think the boys were more excited than Gracie to see what she got for her birthday - she had lots of help opening her gifts :)
Going to check out the little tea set Mom-mom and Papa Steve got her. When you tip the tea kettle over it makes a sound like it's pouring out - Gracie always looks in the cup and then up at me, like "where is it!?!"
I was so excited to get Gracie a baby doll for her birthday. She has a little plush doll that my mom got her last Christmas and she loves her so I knew she would love a more real looking baby - she loves to love her baby and hug and kiss her! I love having a GIRL!!!

She loves to put the paci in her mouth - such a little mommy :)

The best family shot we could get!

Gracie with my mom and Pap Steve

I must add that the boys love her new toys maybe more than she does! They are constantly pouring the tea and feeding it to "baby". James likes to tell me he's taking the baby to school and carry her off on one of his riding toys. It's really quite sweet to see them "mimicking" me and being a good little care giver to the baby - we just may need to get a couple more if Gracie ever wants to be able to play with her!

Seriously, wasn't this just yesterday!