4 Years Old

It is hard to imagine that 4 years can go this fast. Just yesterday I was working on 2-3 hours of sleep a night (at best) and thinking that I would never make it; and now today I am amazed at how much I miss those sleepless nights. Two days ago was our sweet baby boy's 4th birthday!!! WOW!!!! Just saying that, it seems so unreal and nearly impossible; nonetheless, it is true.

This is what JP looked like four years ago today when we left the hospital. There really aren't words to describe what it is like to bring home you baby and it was so wonderful. One particular memory I have about that day is visiting a friend of mine in the hospital before we left. She had come in to be induced with their second child. It was just kind of neat to share that special time in life with a friend.

Anyway, here is JP in his little car seat four years ago.....



And here is JP two days ago on his actual birthday......part of him turning 4 was that we decided to move him up to a booster seat. Really, how exciting and how sad at the same time. I don't have any car seats in my car anymore-so incredibly sad! But how exciting that I have two booster seats and children who are growing and thriving despite all that I do inadvertently and on purpose to thwart that:)



Thursday was a fun day. We started out the morning with cinnamon rolls and eggs. JP got to have a little party at school with is friends. It was so cute. After the children sang happy birthday to him and he passed out his birthday snack they went around the room and said nice things about him. Each child said one of three things...JP is a good friend, I want him to come to my house to sleepover, or JP doesn't bother me when I am doing my work. One little boy even said that he wanted to invite JP to come over to his house for 3 nights! I can't wait to call his mother and ask her when a good time for me to drop him of would be (hint: Dana Rowe).



Part of the birthday tradition that we do in our house is that birthday person gets to pick out what kind of cake they want, what we eat for breakfast, and what/where we go for dinner. It is something fun we do as a family and I hope that one day the children will look back on these special days with fond memories which will override anything detrimental that happens along the way-jk, well, no not really, maybe just a little.

This year JP wanted to have cinnamon rolls and hard boiled eggs for breakfast; since he is only in school for half day, he enjoyed a special daddy/son lunch at Hampton Lake; for his cake he wanted a cupcake cake....WHAT!?!?!?!?, how in the world am I going to figure this one out???....and since he never really said what he wanted for dinner we kind of convinced him that Cheeburger Cheeburger would be a good choice. After a yummy dinner of cheeseburgers and french fries we came home for some cake.

JP as we are singing happy birthday. This isn't the best shot, but check out that cake...a cupcake cake in the shape of a 4 (very creative, I know).



Shelby and JP enjoying their cupcakes



Sebastian poised for attack



Uncle Patricio and Tito enjoying a sugar high



Neely diving in




JP, you are a precious gift from the Lord and every day we are so thankful that God choose us to be your parents and trusted us with your sweet little life. We love you more than you will ever know. Happy Birthday!!!

Thankful Thoughts

Wow! I can't believe we are in the year 2011 already. When I was growing up I couldn't even conceive what life would be like in the 2000s...aren't we supposed to be living high in the sky, flying around, and have robots for house cleaners by now??? Well, whatever. I have to say I am very glad for where we are in life.

The last two days have been funky for me and in an effort to get out of it, I decided to make this a thankful thoughts/favorite things post....the power of positive thinking...right?!?!?!

1.-I am thankful for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The hope that I have because of Him is what keeps me ticking and gets me through the tough times.
2.-I am thankful for my husband who loves me when I am unlovable and even when he might not "feel" love, he chooses to love and remains committed to his vows to me.
3.-I love playing cards with Shelby....Go Fish, Old Maid, Crazy Eights...and I can't wait to teach her more games to play.
4.-I love that JP still twirls his hair and feels things with it. I have no idea why he ever started that when he was so little, but I just love that he still carries that habit with him.
5.-I am thankful for the best group of girlfriends that any girl could ever ask for. They encourage me, challenge me to be better, pray for me, and put up with my craziness.
6.-I am thankful for Praise and Worship music. When I listen to great praise and worship music I can really feel the presence of the Lord all around me and I feel an overwhelming sense of peace.
7.-I am thankful for my totally normal, well, okay totally whacked out family. You never know what kind of silliness you will encounter when my mom, dad, sister and brother are all together and I love that we can be serious together and also goofy together.
8.-I love listening to Shelby read. She has just started and I love sitting with her on the couch while she reads and seeing the pride in her face when she finishes a book.
9.-I love to hear my children laughing and playing together.
10.-I love looking at my children while they sleep. Every time I peek in on them my heart explodes with love over those cute, precious gifts that God gave me...oh how blessed I am!!!

Well, I have so many more things and will probably do this again, but as for now I have to go pick my sweet Shelby up from school.

Christmas Fun

I couldn't decide which pictures I wanted to include and which ones to leave out so I just made a slide show to maximize the number of pictures from Christmas I could show. We had a wonderful Christmas and hope that you all did too. May the Lord fill your hearts and bless you this coming year.

The Deer

Today while we were out driving we saw a poor little deer who didn't make it across Bluffton Parkway fast enough and Shelby was pretty grossed out by it and at the same time intrigued by it; so a pretty long conversation followed about how the dead animals get to the side of the road if they were hit where the cars drive and why weren't the buzzards there already eating the deer. All the sudden in the middle of the conversation JP pipes in and says, "That deer is going to Heaven with Jesus." To which Shelby replied, "No its not. It is going in the buzzard's belly."

Pimpering and Hookers

Over the years a lot of Shelby's vocabulary has matured and grown, but there is one word that she still hangs onto and I know that it will be a very sad day when she finally says "print" right. I think that I blogged about this before, but it has to be noted again. Anytime Shelby wants me to print something off of the computer for her she asks me if I can pimper out a piece of paper for her. It makes me laugh on the inside every time.

And now, we have pimpering and hookers in the house.....

Last night JP was playing with some of his construction toys. He had this one thing that has a hook on it towing the dump truck around. Everything was going great until all the sudden the hook came loose and he said, "All my hookers keep falling off."

Pratt and I died laughing and Pratt looked at me and said, "Wow, we have pimpers and hookers in this house."

Family Fun Days

Starting on Sunday we have had tons of family time and I just love it. At night when we have been sitting around the dinner table I feel like we are a picture of what family life is supposed to be. Those times I truly treasure up and try to soak it all in, but lets start with Sunday morning.

The children's choir at church did a little Christmas show at church on Sunday morning and it was so incredibly cute! I just love it when they sing. At the end of the blog is the video of the performance. At the rehearsal Shelby stood tall and sang loud, but once it was show time, a little stage fright set in and she just kind of stood there and moved her lips. She is so funny!

After church we met Aunt Suzy, Uncle Patricio, Sebastian, Grammie and Papa John at the clubhouse for Brunch with Santa. We knew that this would be tricky as Shelby has an extreme fear of the man in the red suit, but we were hopeful that it could be pulled off. Well, it didn't go to well and it took nearly 10 minutes just to get her in the clubhouse and then once we were in she hid behind a chair in the corner down the hall from the room that Santa was in. We had to ask to be moved to a different table because they had us set up in a room right next to the room that Santa was in, but it all worked out and after many talks and reassurances, we were able to enjoy brunch. JP went to meet Santa, but wouldn't sit on his lap or talk to him. He whispered in my ear to tell Santa what he wanted.

We enjoyed a really fun evening and dinner at home, just us and then went to bed. Around midnight JP got sick and that ended my night of sleep. Poor little guy was really sick...but, why does that always happen in the middle of the night. My children never get sick, have bloody noses, or anything like that during the day, it is always in the middle of the night....so weird!

Monday we took it easy around the house and by the time evening can around JP was as good as gold and we had another really great family dinner. After dinner we decided to decorate the gingerbread house and gingerbread train that the children picked out from Target. They had so much fun and JP ate more candy than he put on his train. His favorite thing was the candy cane. Here is a picture of Daisy getting in on the family fun.

JP and his train

Shelby and I with her house

I don't know if you knew, but Monday night/Tuesday morning we had a meteor shower. Pratt came up with the idea to get up early to watch it because they said that they best time to view the shower was at 6. So we set the alarm to get up at 5:50 to lay out some mats and blankets for us and then got the children up and bundled up to go out in the f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g cold!!! We saw about 5-8 shooting stars and had so much fun. Shelby didn't really care about what was going on in the sky; she was way to concerned about every little noise she heard and didn't want any animals to come get us. JP thought is was a great adventure and I think that he really did see some of the shooting stars. At about 6:30 we all came inside and had hot chocolate at the table together before we started the race of getting ready for school.

JP, Shelby and I watching for shooting stars

Here is the video from the Christmas performance at church.....

Okay, so after waiting for 4 hours for the video to upload it didn't...I will work on it and hopefully post it under a separate blog.

A Boy and His Dog

As you know, we got a dog. Her name is Daisy and we have been very blessed by her. She was a great dog from the start, catching on quickly to the crate training and potty training thing. She is also quickly becoming JP's best pal. They play together constantly. She follows him every where with a toy in her mouth begging him to get down and wrestle with her. It really is something so cute to watch.....

And in other news....we have been having a great time doing all kinds of things and enjoying every minute of life. Pratt had shoulder surgery right before Thanksgiving and then Thanksgiving night Shelby, JP and I all came down with strep throat. For a family that is rarely sick or injured, we hit the big whammie!!! But, thankfully we all survived and Pratt's shoulder is getting better and better with each passing moment. He has full range of motion and about 7 weeks left with a strict order of no lifting from the doctor.

We decided to take it easy on Thanksgiving this year. In years passed we have tried to cram in all of our families and we end up running around like chickens with our heads cut off. It was a great relaxing day. I ran the Turkey Chase first thing and then we just chilled with our neighbors for the rest of the day until it was time to go to Papa and Grammie's for dinner.

Shelby is doing great. Next week is her last week of gymnastics and she is really getting so good. Her handstands and cartwheels have come along nicely and she always has so much fun. So naturally I assumed that she would want to sign up for another session, but she has decided that she wants to take tennis. We will see how this goes. She is growing so much and is learning like mad at school. This week she was able to bring home books from school to practice reading at home. This is huge and she loves to read to us while we are sitting on the couch. She is also moving along in her math work. She finished the pink cabinet which is the addition cabinet. She learned how to add all numbers and also did binomials; which is to help her get ready for algebra. Now she is in the blue cabinet which is the take aways. I still can't get over how big she is getting and how much she is growing up!!!

JP is doing great in school too. He is learning his letters and numbers and all sorts of other things. He really enjoyed learning about the solar system and space and would come home every day with some sort of fact about the planets, sun, etc. He is my talker and tells me everything that is going on and I love it. We did have a dental issue this fall. He had two cavities in is front top teeth. The first attempt to fill one was a huge failure. He did great with the little mickey mouse nose and was totally chill, but as soon as the dentist tried to work in his mouth he went ballistic!! So the dentist decided that we should try again and this time give him a Valium before the procedure. It was so funny to watch this drug slowly take effect and listen to all he had to say. When it was his turn he went back without a fuss, laid back in the chair, put the nitrous oxide nose on, crossed his legs and was one chillen dude. I thought that this would be a piece of cake, but once again when they tried to work in his mouth he went nuts; so, we ended up having to strap him down and then myself and the receptionist had to lay on him while the dental assistant held his head and the dentist worked in his mouth. For some reason I got totally tickled by the fact that it took 4 of us to hold him down....I mean, he is really strong and used every ounce of his energy to fight getting that filling. We were only able to get one cavity filled and for the time being the other one is being watched.