This post is brought to you by the color orange and the number 5!

So what do the color orange and the number 5 have to do with this post?

Jaxson turned 5 months old today! I know (close your mouth) I think time is FLYING by too! We love him so much! I know I keep saying this over and over but he is such a good baby.

Today we did some firsts! We got out his Jumparoo! He enjoyed sitting in it but can't quite put his feet flat on the floor to jump so I am sure he will learn to love it more.

The color orange has to do with the baby food I made today for Jax!

I got out my NEW Baby food recipe book and made some carrots. I know how to make baby food because I did it with Ryan but this book tells you more foods to combine, etc. As I made Jaxson's carrots, I realized how much I love making baby food for my boys.

Daddy enjoyed feeding him tonight. Jax is getting good at eating. He even opens his mouth. He loved the carrots.

So on Jax's 5 month birthday here are a few of his most favorite things:

1. Watching Ryan, oh how he loves his big brother Ryan.

2. Baby food and ice cream (thanks, Aunt Amy)

3. Bottles!

4. His excerisaucer

5. His mommy and daddy

Least Favorite things:

1. Ryan's Hippp game, it is too loud which scares him.

2. When Ryan is rough with him.

3. Dirty diaper

umm....that is all I could think of because he is so easy going!

And for one more picture because he is too cute!

Our Weekend Part Three

This is the final post on our weekend, I promise! I know it is Wednesday and that means we are almost closer to the next weekend (Internship Marathon Weekend :( ) then the past weekend.

On Sunday night our "Under Construction" ABF group got together at Bryan and Tonya's for a late Valentine's Day Party. We had some yummy appetizers.



Then we got to INDULGE in this! Nothing is better than a chocolate fondue fountain for Valentine's Day.



These two were CAUGHT red headed eating dessert before their dinner :)


After a time of food and fellowship, we headed downstairs for our 3rd annual Newlywed Game. Troy and Jodi made up some GREAT but difficult questions.

These two are our church's "marriage counselors" and have been married the longest in our group. Yet, they always seem to do the worst in our Newlywed Games. We are praying for you Matt and Carmen :)

Chriss got himself in a little bit of trouble with Laurie when he answered the question, "What animal does your mother in law remind you of?"

Steve is lost of words as he is BEATEN by US on a tie breaker question!

It's ok, Steve. It is hard to the beat the two time champs of the Newleywed Game! Maybe next year!

But in all seriousness, the night was a lot of fun. I always enjoy getting together with our group, especially with no kids ;) We are blessed to know and be friends with these wonderful couples who all want to make their marriages pleasing in God's eyes! We need to remember to continue to pray for one another and our marriages!

Our Weekend Part 2

Well I DID it! I downloaded our video we made for Ryan for his birthday but didn't manage to figure out how to post it here so all of you could see it. BUT I did provide a link to Vimeo so you could view it still. (I hope this works!) This is our second year doing this for Ryan and we want to continue this tradition every year. It is our "scrapbook" for him. We hope you enjoy it!

http://www.vimeo.com/3351389

P.S. If anyone knows how to download a video from Vimeo into Blogger, let me know!

Prayer Request

I am currently uploading Ryan's video and hope to post it this evening when I get home from class.

Until then, I have a prayer request! I have been struggling the past week or so with a MAJOR lack of motivation. I have just one more class and the rest of internship to finish but I have NO motivation to work on things. I guess I am just worn out from ALL the school work and I am ready for a break. Please pray that I can be motivated to devote the time I need to finish this class and my internship. With my marathon internship weekend coming up, I worried that I will not be focused enough to get everything done that I NEED to get done. I want to use my time wisely so I can get EVERYTHING finished this weekend. Please pray that I can avoid distractions like Blogging or working on pictures! Thanks, your prayers mean a lot!

Our Weekend Part 1

Welcome to my 3rd birthday party! It is a Cars theme!

There were a lot of people at my party. My cousins, Eli, Carlos, and Ashleigh. Mommy, Daddy, and Jaxson. Nana and Papa, Grammy and Grandpa, Uncle Brad, Aunt Amy, Aunt Becca, and Aunt Amber.

We had pizza, veggies, chips, and pop for dinner!

I got LOTS of cool presents!

I loved when they sang Happy Birthday to me!

I blew out ALL my candles. Daddy let me do it TWICE!

Mmmm, the cake was DELICIOUS!

My brother charmed our Aunt Amy with his good looks and got her to feed him some ice cream! Shh, don't tell Mommy!

GUILTY!

Thanks for coming to my party!

Stay tuned to my Mommy's blog for the birthday video my Mommy and Daddy made for me!

Coming Soon!

Sorry but I am too tired to post tonight but coming soon...

- a blog about Ryan's party this weekend!
- Ryan is 2 years old video (if I can figure out how to post it!)
- The Newlywed Game Champions Again!

Until then, have a good week!

One Adorable (Scary) Lion!

This adorable lion was playing in our house on Friday.



It hard to believe he scared this little boy SO much!










Don't worry, he recovered after LOTS of hugs and kisses from Mommy!

Our Other Child

So much of the focus of this blog seems to be on Ryan because he is "doing" so much. But we don't want to forget our easy going, loving, and adorable 4 1/2 month old! His favorite new thing is blowing bubbles with his lips. It is too cute! I'll try to get a video of it soon!

We also thought you would enjoy this photo...


And this photo....

We love this boy!

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Well my first born turned three today! I can't believe it! He was so excited about his birthday that joy was seeping out of every inch of his body. We got him up early this morning so we could both see him before we left for work. I made him blue, chocolate chip pancakes and bacon. He also got to open up a couple of his gifts from us- he got a car, a Tigger and Pooh plate, and Tigger and Pooh fork and spoon. He made us switch his food to his new plate. He also got to open up Laura's present. She got him this great T- Rex shirt, another orange shirt, shorts, and some candy. He was SOOO excited! Can you tell?

He also got to listen to a special message on Youtube this morning from the Sayers' kids. They sang Happy Birthday to him. I think he has watched at least a dozen times. I let him watch the Cars movie this morning. Then when I got home from work, he was cutting his "pretend" birthday cake and passing out pieces to everyone. How fun!

I thought it would be fun to interview him and tell you all of his favorite things. Here are his answers (well, I might have helped him along a little when he didn't understand the question) but I know he loves all of these things!

Favorite color: BLUE
Favorite TV Show: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Favorite Movie: Goofy cartoons (a collection of old cartoons)
Favorite Song: Going on a Bear Hunt
Favorite Book: This week, he loves Birthday Monsters!
Favorite Food: Soup (Chili, we had it for lunch)
Favorite Thing to Do: Go to Chuckie Cheeses (He gets to go tonight for his birthday, do you think it is on his mind?)
Favorite Friend: Ian
What do you want to me when you grow up? Truck driver, vroom, vroom!
Who is your favorite, Mommy or Daddy? MOMMY! (Ok, I really didn't ask him that but I thought I would throw that one in since I am writing this post!)

Ryan is very understanding, full of energy, and compassionate. He loves his brother but also enjoys ALL of Mommy or Daddy's attention (typical first child). He loves to read, play cars and animals, and play games. He is onry as can be, always testing the waters. He is imaginative and smart. He can't talk very well but he is working on it. Lastly, he is fantastic at any gross motor sport.

We love him with all our heart! We can't wait to see him grow this next year!

Last Day Being TWO!

This is the LAST time you will see me as TWO! I turn THREE tomorrow.

Oh, what a year!
The TWO's have treated me good and I'm ready to take on THREE!

What do YOU think the next year will have in store for me?

Happy Valentine's Day!

UPDATE:

Words to the book Ryan's reading:

"Hearts on the... mailbox, door, window, floor, cake, box, shoes, socks, table, chair, and wall. Hearts EVERYWHERE!"

_ _ _ _

We have had a fun Valentine's Day at our house. This morning I made pink heart pankcakes with V-Day M & M's for Ryan. He ate 6 of them!

Chad spent time with the boys while I got ready for the day.

Ryan has learned to "read" his first book.

Brotherly LOVE!

Ryan went on a heart hunt for his Valentine's Day present today. He had to find the hearts 1-5 around the house. Each time he found one, he stuck it on his shirt. He enjoyed finding them but LOVED the present at the end. He wanted to read his Mickey Mouse book and listen to his Mickey Mouse CD right away!


This is what I did for Chad for Valentine's Day. He got a HUGE smile on his face when I walked into the room wearing it. I also wrote him a letter.

I took the boys to the library. Every Saturday morning they have therapy dogs come and you can kids can read to the dogs. Of course, Ryan LOVED doing that! He even read his book to the dog. He was so proud of himself. Jaxson and I enjoyed playing together while Ryan occupied himself with all of the library toys.

Waffle Friday

It is WAFFLE FRIDAY!!! YUM YUM YUM! We try to make waffles every Friday at our house with our great waffle maker. The batter is made the night before so it is already for you in morning when you're all sleeping eyed and hungry.

Today, I did something different for fun. I colored Ryan's waffle purple (his pick) with food coloring. He loves waffles. In fact, he usually eats TWO! Oh and he got a dallop of whip cream!

I hope I didn't make you too hungry!

No, we have not fallen off the face of the earth!

These past couple of weeks have been so busy for me. It started last week with starting my last class. The professor is very eccentric but interesting. There shouldn't be too much work except for A LOT of reading. Actually, one of the assignments is rewriting the story of Noah's Ark. More on that later, maybe! On Thursday, I had an internship meeting which was very (pointless) helpful. Friday night and all day Saturday, I went to a grant writing workshop. It was very useful. I learned a lot and got some helpful resources. Saturday night, our favorite family came to visit, the Sayers. They brought pizza and a birthday cake for Ryan. They will not be able to come to his regular party so we celebrated a little early. Of course, Ryan loved doing that! Especially with ICE CREAM cake and presents.

The Sayers bought him this plate, a dinosaur cup, a Thomas birthday card game, and a card holder. He loves his new plate. He has eaten at least one meal on it everyday this week!

On Monday, Jaxson rolled over for the first time! He is doing it so much that he barely will stay on his back. He is also doing it in his crib which I don't like because of the scare of SIDS. But I guess I need to just let go and know God is protecting him.

This week continued the busyness in my life. On Monday, I had parent teacher conferences. Tuesday night, class. Then tonight I had administrative interviews for my internship. I am excited that those are all done though. We are planning for me to pull a weekend marathon the last weekend in February and try to get EVERYTHING done for my internship that is left. On Monday and today I stayed all day to do four inservices on special education for our departmental meetings. They went well and I learned a lot about providing professional development for teachers and running successful meetings.

We have been trying to take advantage of the warmer weather. On Wednesday it got up to 65 degrees. Ryan, Jaxson and I took a LONG walk. We walked to Megan's house and back to our house. It was nice to get out, breathe some fresh air, and catch up with friends. We even grilled chicken on the grill for supper that night. It was a nice change from soups and casseroles. It has been nice to get Ryan out too. He loves riding his Gator, playing out back, and just exploring. I think he misses being outdoors. I can't wait for spring!

Tomorrow I have the day off because of conferences. I am looking forward to a nice long weekend with my boys. I have some fun things planned for Valentine's Day so stayed tuned for that but for now its time for bed!