Daily Moments (7/17-7/23)

Daily moments of our summer...can't believe we are so close to the end of July.

Sunday-July 17th-Jake & Daddy in matching swim trunks. I know Jake's eyes are closed, but I loved his hand on his hip. Jason had these blue swim trunks & a few weeks ago Jake saw his at Old Navy & was so excited. He told me "he needed them because boys should match their daddy's & be the same." Thankfully they were on sale because after that explanation I couldn't tell him no.

Monday-July 18th-one of our new pets...we got Jake a fish tank(post coming later this week). This is a yellow mickey mouse fish...can you see the black mickey mouse in it's tail?

Wednesday-July 20th-When baking cup cakes with Mommy of course the best part is licking the beater! Yummy & Messy!

Thursday-July 21st-Jake brought several of his puzzles into the living room this morning. Seems this is how a lot of our days have looked lately...lots of toys in the living room.

Saturday-July 23rd-Nana bought the big boys these foam airplanes, of course it was up to Pawpaw to help all the boys put their planes together. I love how they were all surrounding Pawpaw while he worked. (pic taken on cell phone, not the best)

Night Time

Most evenings it is just Jake & I.
Our days are usually full of fun mommy & Jake activities, play dates,  along with errands and other necessary daily life stuff.

But evenings we almost always follow the same routine.

Jake gets a bath most nights(a definite in the summer). We head up to his bathroom and do the whole brush teeth, bath, and jammies stuff.  And then it is time for cuddling up in his bed to read books. It has been a fun transition from the rocking chair to his big boy full size bed. Jake always gets to pick the books we read...usually a couple...sometimes more.

As soon as we are finished with books we say our prayers...which are immediately followed by the words "will you stay in my room for a little while." My answer is "yes." I know you might not agree with this.  I know that he is 3 1/2(really a lot closer to 4 then he is 3) and one day he won't ask me to stay in his room. And this is how it transitioned from being rocked each night. I have started reading a prayer from Stormie Omartian's book "The Power of A Praying Parent." While I do this Jake reaches his hand out to me and I know he wants me to rub the back of his hand. And I do...marveling at how much his once tiny hand has grown so big and child like. No more pudgy little baby hand. My heart filling with each little memory of just looking at his hand.

When I have finished the quiet prayer over Jake he asks me to sing songs. It used to be just me singing to him, but now he sings every song right along with me. "You are my sunshine," "Jesus loves you," Jesus loves the little Children," and our made up "Big Boy"(which started as "baby boy") are always requested by Jake.  After several songs he leans up to give me one more kiss & hug, we say "sweet dreams, sleep tight," and Jake's favorite part "don't let the bed bugs bite." And I walk out of the room.

I always walk out of his room feeling so blessed at being able to call this little boy mine. I think our night time routine might be one of my most favorite parts of the day. Jake is usually cooperative and "ugly" mommy doesn't make any appearances. Just sweet tender moments with my little boy. 

Daily Moments (7/10-7/16)

Well, I suppose a daily moments from last week is better a day late then none at all. Hopefully I can get next weeks up on Tuesday. But until then enjoy some pictures from last week.

 Sunday-July 10th-We celebrated Caleb's 4th birthday at a pirate ship in door sand box place. The biggest hit for all the kids & the daddies was there air cannons that shot soft little balls.

Monday-July 11th-Sometimes when we are out watering the garden I spray Jake with the hose...and he loves it. Today after we finished watering the garden he stripped down to his underwear and played in the sprinkler.

Tuesday- July 12thJake & I made homemade slime...it was a big hit & super easy to make. It only calls for glue, water, & borax.  I got the directions from here, but I am sure you can google it.

Wednesday-July 13th- We finally made it to see Cars 2 in 3D. Surprisingly Jake kept his 3D glasses on the whole time. When it first started he kept saying "whoa," every time something seemed close to him.

Thursday-July 14th- Our 1st look at our sweet baby....11 weeks.

Jake spent Thursday & Friday night with his Mawmaw & Papa Jack. We missed him terribly the whole time he was gone. I am sure he didn't miss us nearly as much as we missed him & I know he had tons of fun. But I didn't take any pictures while he was gone.

12 Weeks

My goodness it seems so surreal to already be at 12 weeks. Had a doctors appointment last week & everything looks great. They did an ultrasound to confirm my due date. Which was such a sweet surprise to see our tiny baby(now the size of a lime, according to baby center.) on the screen looking so perfect. It was great to be able to see & hear the heart beat...beating at a steady 169 BPM. They did change my due date from my estimated February 4th to now January 30th...but I am sure you all know how due dates go!

This pregnancy has been different from Jake's & I really have been feeling sick ALL THE TIME. The past couple weeks I have finally had a few days here and there that I feel ok. It is then followed by a day I feel horrible the whole day. So I have yet to get too excited about my feeling good days. (even though I did have a couple in a row this week)!

Looking forward to being at the end of the feeling sick...but torn between wishing my pregnancy away. I mostly enjoy being pregnant and want to soak in every moment of this time. Jason says 2 is good for us so it makes me want to remember every moment of this pregnancy and take it all in. What if I really never do it again? Of course nothing is set in stone yet.

I have had a few cravings...mashed potatoes(I think I might even dreams about them), ice cream & milk have stuck around for a little while. I have the super strong pregnancy nose(way worse then with Jake). I feel like I live in a permanent state of something stinking or just smelling way too strong. Some food has started to taste different too...like certain things stick out way more. Yesterdays grilled veggies were way too lemony even though I love grilled veggies.

Jake is super excited about the baby & talks about it all the time. He wants to rub my belly(not really baby yet), he talks to the baby & everything he does he can't wait to show the baby when it gets here. It is so fun to hear him talk about the baby so often. Praying his excitement sticks around once the baby is here.

Wondering about out Garden?

It has been several weeks since I posted a garden update.  After our trip to the beach it has been hard to get back into a regular routine and back to taking as many pictures. But finally here is a garden update.

We are into week 11 and it still seems to be going a little slow.

I try really hard to not compare to other garden's, but it is hard. Especially when I see my in laws have tons of tomatoes. However, Jason did remind me that their plants were a lot bigger then our plants when we planted them. So we are probably a couple weeks behind them in how our garden should be. That made me feel better about how our garden is coming along.

                                         A couple cucumbers....these 2 jalapenos were growing from the same stem...
We have gotten a couple of tomatoes, tons of jalapenos, several cucumbers and a couple green peppers too. Our carrots are doing great, but not really sure when to pick them. It is hard when they are hidden under ground to know for sure when they are ready. It seems after only a couple squash...that our squash plants really were ruined in a hail storm several weeks back.

But other then things seeming like they have been slow to ripe...it is all still growing out there and new growth is appearing every day.

Did you plant a garden this year? How are your crops shaping up?



A couple of our watermelon growing...we have about 7 growing right now and several more tiny ones.

Feeling Guilty

Being pregnant this summer has really changed the way things are going around our house. And I hate to say I feel guilty about it.

Over the last 4 weeks I have been sick. Like the all day every minute, don't turn your head to fast nauseous kind of pregnant sick. I know this is mostly normal(there are the select few who don't get this during pregnancy), I didn't have it like this with Jake. Usually there was only a couple hours in the evening I didn't feel well. Along with being tired...this pregnancy is different.

This is not an attempt to complain about being sick...I may not feel well, but WE ARE HAVING A BABY!! Being sick is to be expected during this stage & I am ok with this.

But this pregnancy is different not only with the sickness, but I have Jake this time. When I was pregnant with Jake there wasn't another child I felt like I was leaving out.

Here is where my guilt has been...I spend a lot of time lying on the couch. Do you know what Jake does while I am lying on the couch? Most days he watches tv, brings his toys in the living room to play with...by himself. Of course, he at 3 1/2 years old has never complained about having to watch tv or play alone. We do have times when we read books together or color...but I don't feel like it makes up for all the time he spends playing alone.

But I feel bad not playing with him.

Were you sick when you were pregnant? What did your children do to entertain themselves?

From the back

We took our annual boys looking out the window picture this past weekend. It is fun to see how much they have grown. This year we did one of the 4 older boys 1st & then did another with the newest boys.

 All 6 grandsons...Logan (11mths), Luke(11mths), Jake(3 yrs), Caleb(3 yrs), Tyler (6yrs), Austin(9 years)

 And for comparison...this is the 4 boys last year & the bottom one is them this year

It is so fun to see how much they have grown...and to see how the family has grown. Sorry about the pictures being so dark...I guess we should have waited until later in the day to get this years pictures.

Jumping for Joy

We are jumping for joy & so is our boy

To share our big news with you....

                                              We are expecting baby # Two


                        Estimated arrival early February 2012

Independance Day

 Daddy was working so we didn't get a picture of the 3 of us

We spent all weekend celebrating our country and the freedom we have living here. Of course it wouldn't be a summer celebration(or weekend really) without lots of swimming. We also enjoyed lots of delicious food.

 3 cousins jumping in together

Jake dancing in his 4th of July swim trunks
Sadly the fire works display we were going to see Monday night got rained out so we weren't able to see fire works on the 4th this year. Jake was content lighting some sparklers in the back yard & we even watched a few fire works shows on tv(although, it is nothing like in real life). We did remind Jake that we had just seen fire works the week before at the beach, but the last few days he keeps saying next time it is 4th of July the fireworks won't get rained out. Well hopefully a year from now that will be the case. (explaining time to a 3 year old is still a little tricky).

Half Way

Can you believe the year is half over? Does that sound like a pessimist? I am usually a glass half full kind of person. But I couldn't come up with a more positive way to say "half started?"

Did you make resolutions this year? How are you sticking to them? Do you need a do over. What better time then the middle of the year to reevaluate and make new plans.

At the beginning of the year I chose a word theme...our word for 2011 is Intentional. You can read all about it here. But overall I just want to be intentional with my time, especially as a wife & mother. I am sure you know it is so easy to get wrapped up in other things and not be totally present in what is going on.

I think I have done a pretty good job being more intentional, but as I have looked back over the past 6 months there are a few things I am going to be working on for the next 6 months.

We had our screen-free week and it really helped to get rid of some of our tv watching, but I still feel like we are spending too much time watching tv. (especially over the last few weeks) I don't want to make excuses for it, but with it being summer we have taken on a more relaxed approach to our days. Usually we are following a schedule(not every minute, but for the majority of the day) for summer we are just going with the flow. Spending time at the pool, reading, and hanging out. It has been in the upper 90's for several weeks now & makes it hard to spend much time outside. But I am taking back our time and working to eliminate more tv time.

The next is really me...the computer! I get so sucked into reading blogs, writing blog posts, and my new favorite time suck Pinterest. I am going to be more intentional about stepping away from the computer. Designating a computer time and sticking to it. When the time is up the computer is going to be shut off!

I want to be present. I want Jake to remember the fun we had not watching tv, while mommy is on the computer. I am recommitting the next 6 months to being INTENTIONAL!!

What do you do about taking pictures? I want pictures of everything, I want to make sure I remember everything that was there, every face that was made...but I feel like if I am taking pictures I am not being present. Do you have this problem? I have really tried to take some pictures and then make a conscious effort to put the camera away. But I still have moments when I feel like I might be missing a great picture.

Any tips on being intentional? How do you make sure you are being in the moment?

Time on the Town

One of our favorite things about where we stay in Florida is Baytowne Warf. It is a little village with shops, restaurants, and fun entertainment.

One night the grass area was filled with fun jumpies for the kids and a balloon making clown. Here are a few pictures from some of our time on the town. (excuse the pictures...these were taken with Jason's cell phone at night)

 Playing with the giant checker board

 One of my favorite pictures of Jake...especially since he is usually in the "don't take my picture" mood

 Telling the clown he wanted a red sword

 And his finished red sword...(again bad pictures from the cell phone)