You Have (One) New Message

Javen has always loved to read. A few months ago we started reading his toddler Bible with him every night before bed. It's hands down his favorite book. He's at the point now where instead of us reading to him, he flips through the Bible and tells us the stories. (I'm a proud Mama.) I love the way he pronouces the names "Joe-fef" (Joseph) and "Go-wy-ef" (Goliath).

I love that he thinks that the lions in the Daniel in the Lion's Den story have big hair. He points that out every night.

I love how he makes me sing the Zaccheaus song every time we turn to that story. I love that he thinks that Jesus told Zaccheus to come down from the tree so he could go to his house to play trains.

"Mama? I wanna go to Za-kees house and pway twains wif dem. I wanna pway twains wif Jesus."

Another one of his favorites is Jonah and the whale. Tonight he pointed to the picture of Jonah on his knees, praying while in the belly of the whale."

"Mama, this is Jonah. He's on his phone getting his message from God."
"He's doing what, buddy?"
"He's getting his message from God. On his phone."

I love that he loves the Bible. Yes, perhaps we have a little clarifying to do about why Jesus wanted to hang out with Zaccheus, and that Jonah didn't get messages from God on his cell phone; but at the end of the day he's developing a love for the Word of God!

Innocent Wonder

This week at IHF the theme is "innocent wonder." I immediately thought of this photo of Javen and his friend. They LOVE to play in my tupperware cabinet...especially with the door. Open. Shut. Open. Shut. Even at almost 3 years old, they still get a kick out of peek-a-boo. :)

Check out some fantastic "innocent wonder" photos at i heart faces this week!

Cabin Fever

I'm finally on the mend and cabin fever has set in! I'm also joining in on the "I'm ready for spring" crowd. This gal is ready for some warmer temps so I can take the kiddos outside to play in the sunshine! Until then, I'll just keep flipping through photos from last year's family vacation in the OBX...

Complaining, Naps and Healthy Fries.

Soooooo.....I'm sick. My voice mysteriously disappeared on Monday and by Tuesday the rest of the symptoms hit me like a ton of bricks. Then another ton of bricks hit me on Wednesday and again Thursday. Today I'm happy to report that I'm no longer getting worse. Hopefully tomorrow will show improvement. It hasn't helped that Jake has had to work late every night this week and has to work this weekend as well. And that I can't breathe enough to be able to sleep at night. I'm literally sick and tired.

Stuff like this REALLY makes me wish I lived closer to family. Thankfully, my awesome neighbors came to the rescue and took the boys yesterday afternoon, fed them dinner, bathed them and had them ready for bed when I went to pick them up. Javen even asked me if he could spend the night over there. :) We are so blessed to have friends in our lives that take care of us in the absence of family.

In other news, Javen has been transitioning into pull-up-less naps. So far he hasn't had one accident during nap time in his boxers. (Yes...he wears boxers. It's SO cute!)

Liam is transitioning from 2 naps per day to 1. Transition being the key phrase. Some days it's one nap, others it's two. Either way you slice it, he's not napping at the same time as Javen any more and that is no good for this girl. Once he gets out of this flip flop phase, you can bet your bottom dollar his one nap will be at the same time as big bro's. He has no choice. It's for my the greater good.

On a random note, I made these Baked Zucchini Fries today for lunch. They were pretty good, but the whole chopping, egging, bread crumbing process took me f o r e v e r. I don't think they were worth the time. To be fair, I only got interrupted about every 2.479 seconds by one of my boys and every 3.621 seconds to have to blow my nose and subsequently wash my hands again. I stopped half way through and baked what I had ready for the oven. The rest of the zucchini is chopped and sitting on my counter top still. Not sure what I'm going to do with that yet. Suggestions?

Happy First Birthday, Liam!

Liam turned ONE on Saturday. This has been the fastest year of my life. He's such a joy and I'm beyond blessed that God chose me to be his mommy.

Saturday was quite a busy day as we were out running errands and going to a friend's birthday party. Jake had to work most of the day, so we decided not to do anything special. I made cupcakes and the four of us celebrated after dinner on Sunday evening. Just like his big brother, he HATES having messy hands....

(warning: photo overload is about to ensue)

Oh! This looks fun!

It's for me!

Haha! Yes!

Now, if I can just figure out...how do I get this goodness in me?!

Eww!! Get it off my hands! Get it off!

Ok, this is better.

A little messy...

I'll give it another go. This cupcake business is pretty tasty.

Nope! Still don't like it on my hands.

A little help, Dad?

And now my face is a mess too?! Ahhhh!

Well, at least it tastes good.

Mmmmm....

1/15/2011
38% for weight (22lbs)
85% for height (31 inches)
Loves music, books, big brother, dogs, being outside, eating and walking on his own

That Was Fun

Ok. So today was a bit rough. Javen and Liam were as good as gold, provided the circumstances. I called their doctor in late Nov. to make an appointment for Liam's 1 year well visit this month. (He turned 1 on Saturday! More on that soon...). The only appointment they had available was today at 1:40pm. Prime time Nap time. Ugh.

I tried putting the boys down early for naps, figuring some sleep was better than no sleep. It literally took me twenty minutes to wake Javen. The boy was tired and he was O U T cold. So I load my crew up into the car and head off to Liam's appointment. Here's how it went down:

1:30-Arrive

1:35-Nurse takes us back to exam room and takes Liam's height, weight etc. Mentions that the Dr is running a little behind, but should be in shortly. I'm prepared for a little wait time so I've brought a few books, snacks and toys. This works for about 30 minutes, then Javen is ready to get out of there.

2:00-Still stuck in tiny exam room with two fidgety boys.

2:20- Nurse comes back in to inform me that a news crew is in the office interviewing the Dr. She wants to know if he can come into the room and use some footage of the Dr with my kids.

2:21- I kindly decline and she apologizes for putting me on the spot. Then she leaves.

Side note:: I say no for three reasons ::
1. Liam is half way dressed. I do not want my kids on television without their clothes on.
2. If I say yes, that only makes it that much longer until we get to the actual exam and can get out of there.
3. My kids are tired. I had to wake them up from naps so we could sit and wait. I'm not feeling super co-operative at this point and neither are they.

2:25-The Dr. comes in and the news guy is right behind him. (!!!!) He asks me if the boys can be on TV with him. I decline again and he apologizes for putting me on the spot. The news guy smiles and says it's not a problem, he just wants to get some footage of the Dr. walking into the exam room and closing the door. Fine. Whatever. Can we just get this over with already?

2:31- The Dr. has given Liam the once over and is walking out the door as I'm in mid-question. I only have maybe 3 things I want to ask him and he literally walks out on me.

2:36- Buckle kids into carseats.

2:40- Bang head on steering wheel in frustration/exhaustion.

So glad I had the opportunity to wake my kids up from their naps so we could sit and wait in a tiny room for an hour.

That was fun.

Snow Days

Last week was quite the winter wonderland here in Nashville. We played outside in it every day! I didn't take my camera out every time, but did manage to snap a few shots of Javen before the snow falling onto my lens forced me to take the camera indoors.

Javen was OBSESSED with trying to mow the snow, which proved quite difficult as 4ish inches of snow packed on around the wheels. Look how hard he's working!

For more winter wonderland entries, be sure to head over to IHF!

P.S. I just have to share this photo...which is one of my favs right now. He's also obsessed with his new shark hat and wears it indoors as well. (Hello...sweaty!!) I think I'll call this one "Snow Shark".

To Do:

If I had all the time in the world (or more time that I did presently) these are a few of the projects I would be tackling right about....now.

Linen Wreath from Beautiful Nest. My bedroom walls are begging for some decor and this would be perfect!

Built in bookcases similar to the ones that Until Tomorrow, Val made. Swoon!

And if we had a basement, I would totally want to make a SLIDE like Decor Allure did. How COOL is this? (Jeff, can you make good on your promise and dig me a basement? Pleeeeease?)

Alas, my current projects aren't quite as fun as the above mentioned (well a couple are) but we're getting things done around here that NEED to be done. Until then, I'll just keep a nice little list of future projects I'd like to accomplish. Just don't tell Jake. He already thinks my current "to do" list is crazy enough. :)

Monday Smiles

It's been a while since I've joined in on IHF, and I'm excited to jump back in! This week's theme is smile, and I'm just in love with this recent photo of my black bean covered happy Liam. I can't get enough of this toothy grin!

For more fun with smiles, go check out all the other entries at i heart faces.

Pardon the Dust...

So I'm working on a little bloggity redesign. Thing is: I have no idea what I'm doing! If anyone has some tips on creating headers, buttons etc, I'm all ears. Till then, I'll be doing some online searching for tutorials and making changes here as I go.

Also, I know new posts around here have been few and far between. I've got a few different things going on that are taking up my usual blogging time. Don't worry...the camera is still snapping away and the boys are still as funny as ever so when I return from my other time consuming projects there will be plenty of material to catch up on.

Child Prodigy?

Javen and Liam got an easel for Christmas from Papa and Grandma McD. Liam always watches intently when Javen paints and colors, so one day after Javen finished, Liam crawled over to the paint brush and I decided to see what he did...

Ok...just have to get some paint on this thingy...

Hmmm...what to paint? What to paint?

And a little over here, some green over there...

A little splatter never hurt anyone! Creative genius at work here...

Mom, want to see my art?

...and that's the point where I decided to ditch my monochromatic plans and add a shade of indigo. I really think it drives home the expressionism of the piece.  What do you think, Mama?

Today

Today we played with every toy in the house while wearing the new shark fleece hat.

Today black beans were on the menu for afternoon snack time.

Today Liam gave me a bloody fat lip when he smacked me in the face with Javen's fireman helmet. But I'll spare you all a photo. It wasn't pretty.