Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Matthew's Birthday Celebration!

Poor Matthew had to share his birthday with Thanksgiving this year.  Even though his birthday fell on a holiday, I tried to make his day special and fun!  We started out our day singing Happy Birthday to him!  I think he was starting to catch on that it was his birthday!


 I let the boys play with their Melissa & Doug birthday cupcake fun set.  They love to pretend play with it!  It's very cute!



 I made a special breakfast of monkeybread (which actually turned out not so great, but I don't think they cared!) and then we played for a bit before opening presents.



 He sat just perfectly in his little chair and opened his presents like a champ!  He got some great books, DVDs, and a few fun toys as well.



The boys played with all their new toys the rest of the afternoon.  It was pretty warm that day so they played outside and also ate lunch outside.  After lunch it was time for cake....


 


I decided to do a bowling birthday for him since he likes to play bowling around the house!  I think his cake turned out SO cute!



I still can't believe he's 2!!



Here we are singing Happy Birthday to him!  They were completely obsessed with this cake!  They drooled over it all morning and they couldn't wait to have some after lunch.



Sweetest little 2 year old I know!  We had a wonderful day being thankful for Matthew!


Friday, November 25, 2011

A Very tiny Holiday

It's no secret that I love stationary!  I love personalized paper, I love Christmas cards, I love baby announcements!  I even have my very own "stationary lady" back in Alabama that still makes all of my calling cards and stationary for me!

Whenever it's time to send a birth announcement or order Christmas cards, the first place I point my brower to is tinyprints.com.  We've used tiny prints for 2 different Christmas cards and we also got Noah's precious birth announcements this summer from tiny prints.

I just got our beautiful family pictures back from my friend Bethany and I was immediately on my computer to start trying out different Christmas cards with our family pictures!  I've browsed and browsed and even checked out other sites, but ultimately I ended up loving the William Arthur Collection that I found on tiny prints. You can check out the whole collection here.

It's a little different than what I usually do, as it is an actual picture attached to the card, but you cannot deny that this collection is gorgeous!  Here are my favorites:





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Annnnnnnd I saved my favorite for last!  I love this simple, understated, yet elegant Christmas card!  The colors go great with the color we wore for our pictures!



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

You can check out all of the tiny prints options by simply clicking here!

 

 


Hmmm, Christmas really IS right around the corner.  Time to get our Christmas decorations up!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thankful

Today I am thankful for my precious family!  We have so much to be thankful for and I am so happy to have sweet, healthy little boys!



We hope y'all had a blessed Thanksgiving!

Matthew is 2!!!

Matthew, today is your birthday!  I feel so badly because I know you're always going to have to share your birthday with a Thanksgiving holiday, but when we had you we knew we were the most thankful family ever because you had joined our family.

Matthew, you started out as one BIG baby!  Nearly 11 pounds and 23 inches long, we knew that you were going to be a big, tall boy!  We were right.  You weight right around 32 pounds right now!  Where to even begin......

 Last year it seems like you were still just a little baby!  You were such a sweet little guy; always smiling and getting into LOTS of mischief!



 


 As we entered 2011 you still had your precious baby curls.  As you grew bigger you wanted to do so many of the things that big brother did.



 


 I look at these pictures and I think how much you were still my baby.  You were still nursing to go to sleep and I knew it wouldn't be long that you would be growing up to be a big boy!



 


 Around 16 months we got your curls trimmed up.  You really did start looking like a little boy then.  I was sad, but happy too because you were starting to grow into your funny, cute little self!



You are a great little eater, sleeper, and such a sweet boy.  Matthew, we could just eat you up you're so precious.  I tried to make our alone time (while big brother was at school) precious and it still is precious to me knowing I got a few days of alone time with you...just you and me! 



 Starting around May we could really see you were turning into more of a toddler, and less of a baby.  You are starting to love things that GO! and you are starting to really love sports!  You love to play baseball and golf. As the weather has gotten warmer we can play more outside and you just love to go outside!


 



 


 We're not exactly sure where you get your destructive tendancies from, but you sure love to throw things around, explore, and smash just about anything.  We lovingly call you Destructo!



 


 We pretty much live outside this summer!  You and big brother love to play in the water table (and I do mean IN it) water the garden with daddy, play on our swingset, and eat dinner outside as much as possible.  You are such a mess; literally sometimes!



 


 Later in the summer you became a big brother.  That means you are no longer the little baby of the family.  I think the role fits you perfectly.  You slowly and gently warm up to your new baby brother, Noah.  Now that you're used to him you pretty much cover him in kisses and you love to pat his head.  Daddy also got you a really big big-boy haircut.  I think you look so grown up; it makes me sad.



 As you've grown I've noticed that while we may call you Destructo sometimes, you have a quiet, soft spot within you.  Your sweet brown eyes tell a lot when I look into them.  I am so happy to be your mama!


 



 


 By now we've noticed your love and skill for sports.  I think you might come by it naturally, seeing as how you're probably going to be tall and built big.  Who knows, but we think you've got some pretty impressive golf and hitting skills to not be quite 2!



 


Matthew, as another year of growth and development comes to a close, I hope you feel loved, safe, happy, and adored by all of us!  Although you are now a middle child, I hope you never feel stuck in the middle.  Sometimes at the end of the day I worry if I gave enough to you; I talk to JM all day and while you can say a LOT of things, I feel that having a new baby brother and and an older brother that you might feel a little left out.  I hope you know how much we love and cherish you.  I'm happy that I still get to occasionally rock you to sleep for nap or bed and when I do I am in pure heaven!  I will never stop thanking God for the blessing that is YOU!  What a wonderful addition you are to our family, sweet brown headed middle boy.  Happy 2nd Birthday Matthew James! 


Saturday, November 19, 2011

A Preschool Thanksgiving!

Last week John Michael's preschool had a Thanksgiving feast and parents were welcome to come!  Jordan met up with us at school and we joined JM for his first school Thanksgiving!

All the children came in (with JM holding up the line, of course) and lined up to say the Pledge of Allegiance.


JM looked like a deer in the headlights.  He just stared and stared and didn't really say any of his Pledge or the Blessing.  He said a little bit at the end of the blessing.  I think he didn't understand why all the parents were at school!



All the kiddos wore their cute Indian headbands and each child ate at their own placemat that they made.  It is SO precious!  I love the turkey he made for his placemat!



Here's their feast!!



I am proud of my little Indian.  He ate a great lunch and then we all came on home for a big, big nap!  I went ahead and checked Matthew out early so I wouldn't have to drag Noah up from nap just to go get them like an hour later!  They were all so tired!


Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Shhhh! Baby Jesus!

A few weeks ago the boys found my "Little People" Manger scene that I had stashed away in the garage.  I was wanting to wait until closer to December, but they insisted they must have it!  See how excited JM was?!



So we came inside and unpackaged it and the fun (and learning!) began.



I'm very surprised at how much they just LOVE this manger scene.  I knew I wanted them to have one they could touch, hold, explore, and play with.  This one is great!  It has provided tons of opportunity to talk about Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men, and how important that day was.



I love how much they love to play with it everyday and I love how it gives me a chance to talk about the Christmas Story every day with them!



Even Matthew can get in on the action and play with Baby Jesus and pretend to make the donkey and camel walk!



 



Best $30 we ever spent!!


Saturday, November 12, 2011

Thankful-Tree!

We did a fun little art project last week where we cut out all the boys' handprints and wrote down what we were thankful for.  Even Noah's handprints made it onto our Thankful Tree!



I think I was the most proud when John Michael's first response when I asked him what he was thankful for was: God!  It made my heart happy!  He also said that I made him happy!



JM was wanting to work on his scissor cutting skills (which we've been having some trouble with lately) and I couldn't find his toddler scissors, so I let him use the regular scissors.  Of course, I sat right beside him and supervised him carefully!  He did a great job!  Who knew scissor-cutting could be so hard to learn! You can tell how proud he is that he is starting to get the hang of it!



Matthew drew on paper and helped me glue on the "leaves" of our tree!



I'm so thankful I got to make our very first Thankful tree with the 3 little ones I'm most thankful for!


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And just for fun, so I wont' forget, here are our favorite John Michael quotes from this week!


-"Here Matthew, it's your turn to play guitar.  I play Dave Matthews now you play Dave John Michaels."


-"It's really dark in here when I close my eyes"


-"When I grow up I want to be a Daddy too!"

Monday, November 7, 2011

Thankful

No fancy picture or anything like that today.  I'm just simply thankful that even though Jordan's car broke down Friday on the way home from work, it was able to be fixed today for under $100.  We are SO thankful it was fixed, especially right here before the holidays!  God is good!  He cares for all the little things!

Gettin' Crafty

We had a fun day at home last week and we just didn't do anything at all!  We read books, hung out, and I forced the boys to work on an art project.



It's like pulling teeth to get them (ok, mainly just JM) to do an art project.  BUT, after awhile, JM was loving using his glue!  He just squeezed and squeezed it and then I hear this:


"Look Mama, a music note!"



He was right, it was a music note.  I have no idea how he knows this and I have no idea if he meant to draw it with his glue or if it just happened.  Either way, I think that's pretty smart!



Overall, we stamped footballs and baseballs, used a whole bottle of glue and some blue tissue paper to make a "bird", and glued some other construction paper.  Fun times around here!  I just wish they enjoyed it more!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Just Roll With It, Baby!

Noah decided that it was high time he rolled over!  No more of this being a little baby business!  I took this picture right after he rolled from his back to his tummy! We were all together playing in the den, so everyone got to watch and cheer him on!



 



And just for fun, here's a picture of Matthew learning to roll over for the first time.  He rolled over just a few days before turning 4 months, and Noah is 4 months and 2 weeks.  Funny thing is, I had Noah in this exact same outfit this morning before church!



You can definitely tell they are brothers!



Noah says, that was hard work!!



Then he promptly spit up, that's why Jack is in this picture.  He loves him some spit up, he's so gross.



Right after all the excitement of rolling over, the boys had to do the Hot Dog Dance!  Here's Matthew showing off his hot dog skills.



And John Michael wanted to say cheeeeese!!



*And just for record keeping, poor Matthew is still complaining of his ear hurting.  He stayed home from school on Wednesday and I took him to the doctor, and he ended up having an ear infection.  We are so very blessed to not have many sick days (besides just runny noses and colds) or doctor visits.  The doctor put him on an antibiotic and we've been giving him Tylenol AND Motrin and he's still crying and holding his ear and saying "ear huwrt".  By Saturday we realized the antibiotics were not doing their job, so we've got him switched to a stronger antibiotic and we're still doing the Tylenol and Motrin for him.  I am SO hoping that by tomorrow he'll be feeling better and his ear will ease up.  He's such a tough guy and never gets hurt by anything, so I know it's hurting him.  I have to admit, when I was pregnant with JM and SO, SO sick for so many months, my ear drums ruptured, and second only to childbirth, it was the worst pain of my life!  I hope he is on the mend soon!