Merry Christmas!

Tis the season to be busy, crazy, joyful, sick, excited, nice, naughty, celebratory, reflective, and exhausted!  That about sums up our Christmas season this past year.  As it is now February and I'm just now posting on December, I think you can see the truth in that!  

Here is a picture recap of our 2013 Christmas Season:

We bought a beautiful tree that we stopped watering sometime before Christmas because, well, we just plain forgot.  FYI-Christmas tree needles get really sharp when they're dry!  Taking off the Christmas lights was a rough and very prickly job this year!

Cooper and I decorated for Christmas the week before Thanksgiving since Thanksgiving was so late this year, but we didn't get our tree until the weekend after Thanksgiving, as is our tradition.  I thought Cooper would love putting the ornaments on the tree.  No.  After just a few, I lost my helper! 

When it came time to go see Santa, Cooper decided he wanted to have a 3 year old day and be a complete pain.  He didn't want to get in Santa's lap (not because he was scared, just didn't want to), and once we made him, he of course wouldn't smile for the camera.  Santa was amazing though and super patient.

It was one of those times where you feel your blood pressure rising by the second.  Finally I told him to just get down (after telling him that he was in jeopardy of being put on the naughty list and that he would not be getting one of the delicious donuts with sprinkles they were passing out).  I was able to get some really sweet pictures of Santa and Jake though.  

In fact, Santa couldn't get enough of Jake and offered to hold him while I walked around the store and shopped.  He was loving this sweet baby!  Jake was definitely on the nice list!

While I shopped a little, Karl talked Cooper into getting on Santa's lap.  In the mean time, Jake had his first blow out dirty diaper.  Awesome timing.

"It" was only a little bit on his clothes, and I really, really, really wanted a picture of Santa with both boys.  So...I did a horrible thing and gave Jake back to Santa.  Karl was really mad at me for doing that.  I know it was wrong, but Jake is strictly breastfed, and he was only 8 weeks old, so how nasty could a little, tiny bit of his poop be?!  It was basically dry on his clothes at that point to because it was such a small amount.  Guess I deserve to be on the naughty list too!  What made it worse was that Santa was so happy to have Jake back that he kept holding him and coming up with new picture ideas for us to take!

Then when it came time for Cooper's school's Christmas program, he decided that, once again, he would give the pain-in-the-booty gig another whirl.  He never acts up at school, thankfully, but that day he did.  In front of all the parents.  He walked to the front, crossed his little arms, and turned around with a big pouty face.  He wouldn't hold his star like all his classmates were doing.  He wouldn't sing.  He just pouted.  Karl whispered to me that he hoped he didn't start picking his nose.  He didn't.  I guess that was the positive to the program!  It was such a precious, wonderful Christmas program, and I am already looking so forward to next year's.  Hopefully next year we'll remember how to be good!  Are you noticing that Christmas was not our best behavior season this year?!

Then it was time for our annual baking day with Niecee (Karl's mom).  Every year we bake Christmas cookies together, and already it has become something that Cooper looks very forward to as well.  Pappy (Karl's dad) set up the boys' train set from when Karl and Wade were little.  Cooper was enthralled!  It blows steam, whistles, and goes various speeds.  It really is amazing (and sad) how much better toys used to be made.  

While we baked, this little helper was an absolute angel!  He sat in his rocker, smiled, and tried cooing (this was when he was first starting to coo and it took a lot of concentration and effort!).  He even took little naps too.  He was just as sweet as could be, as usual.  

And this little helper was a fantastic little baker!  He helped press out the butter cookies, sprinkle all the cookies, roll the dough for the molasses cookies, and cut them out.  He even sampled a few bites of the molasses dough (no eggs in it) to make sure it was good!  He loves to help in the kitchen, and it was so much fun having his help this year.  He worked really hard and took a lot of pride in his work!

Cooper is like Karl and doesn't like having his picture taken, and some battles are just best not fought.  Luckily Jake is too young to have an opinion on the matter, so I took advantage and got some pictures of my baby by the Christmas tree testing out the Bumbo seat.  He is really such a wonderful baby and was by far and away the best present we got this year!  

Back at the end of November I was able to get some pictures of both boys in their matching Christmas outfits though.  

 

Their faces in this picture crack me up!!

I didn't get pictures of Zoolight Safari this year or of Santa on the firetruck (we were having bad weather that day, so they went by pretty quickly), but I'm very glad I pulled out the camera on Christmas Eve because I did not do a good job taking pictures on Christmas Day.  I can't believe I didn't capture Jake's first Christmas better!  On Christmas Eve, we did a little more shopping, had a wonderful dinner with just our little family, and then went to Karl's boss's house, as we do every Christmas Eve.  Cooper was so excited on Christmas Eve, and I was really afraid he wouldn't go to sleep.  We kept telling him he better go to sleep fast or Santa wouldn't be able to stop at our house.  We got home past his bedtime, and he was still really awake and really wild! Nevertheless, after a little coaxing, our sweet boy drifted off into a happy slumber.  

As soon as I heard Cooper stirring on Christmas morning (bright and early of course), I ran in the living room and turned on the lights and grabbed the camera.  Then we rushed into Cooper's room and told him Santa had come!  His excitement quickly turned to sadness when she saw that Santa wasn't at our house still.  He didn't care about the presents; he just wanted Santa!  It didn't take long though for him to perk up and dig in to the presents!  Santa was very good to all of us this year!  Cooper had only wanted one thing: a green garbage truck.  At first I thought he wasn't very serious about this, and I didn't take him seriously.  However, it was all he ever asked for.  Thankfully Santa came through, and there was a green garbage truck!  Out of all his goodies, it was his favorite thing too!
These are the only pictures I ended up getting on Christmas.  I still can't believe I didn't do better!

We made a yummy breakfast of sausage patties and a Cinnamon Roll French Toast Casserole (sinfully delicious) and a big pot of coffee.  We visited with family throughout the day and evening, played with our new stuff, and just breathed a big sigh of relief!  Christmas was a bit overwhelming this year for this mama!  But it was very, very special.    

There's something about having a little baby at Christmas time that makes Jesus's birth more meaningful and real.  It's hard to imagine giving birth with animals around you.  It's hard to imagine the simplicity of the most important birth our earth will ever know.  There was no special "coming home" outfit to dress the new babe in.  No birth plan.  No decorated nursery.  No hoopla.  Not even a crib.  

And then it really, deeply, truly hit home with me: The beauty of Christmas is in Jesus alone.  

Merry Christmas, and Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Jake~2 Months

Wow, I can't believe my little baby is two months old!  That's because he's not...he's three months! Ha! :)  I'm behind.  It definitely isn't due to a lack of love though.  In all honesty, it's mainly because I have trouble putting this little pumpkin down to do anything.  He is so sweet and cuddly and loves to be held against my chest when he sleeps.  I know better than to hold him while he sleeps.  I know this can and probably will backfire on me big time.  

But...

Jake is probably the baby of the family, and I know how fast this stage of being so little goes by.  I know that it is a privilege to get to snuggle him while he naps.  He's already grown so much that it's harder for him to get comfortable on my chest than it used to be.  He wiggles and squirms, and we call him a fish out of water because that's what he looks like.  But then he finds that "just right" spot, and he sleeps.  It's beautiful and peaceful.  And perfect.  Newborns need their mamas, and mamas need their newborns.  

So that's my excuse for my lack of documenting our life lately, and it's a pretty good excuse if I do say so myself!

Back to our little pumpkin at two months though.  This baby is sweet.  Oh so sweet!  He smiles and coos and laughs all the time.  He really started cooing around 7 weeks, and it was so cute because he would work so hard to make a sound (his legs and arms would be moving and dancing, and his whole face would be working), and then one little sound would come out.  We would get so tickled, and he would just smile at himself with such pride!  Then it would start over, and with all he had, he would work and work and then make another adorable little sound.  However, with each day, those little sounds got longer and easier for him, and now he loves to "talk" to us.  My favorite sound, of course, is his laugh.  Outside of hearing their heartbeats when I'm pregnant, their baby laughs are my favorite sounds in the world!  

Jake was cooing during these pictures :)

Our baby Jake still loves to nurse and is so good at it.  He eats about every two hours during the day and still cluster feeds in the evening.  He really prefers to just nurse nonstop from about 7:00 until I go to bed a few hours later.  He'll doze off while he's nursing, and then wake up, nurse, and doze back off.  He's using me as a paci (which he still isn't really interested in-if I give him one, he'll suck on it for a second, and then spit it out).  All his eating is paying off too.  Our little baby really isn't so little.  He wears 3-6 month clothes and size one diapers (barely).  His legs are so chunky that getting a diaper on him is a little hard!  Although he is chunky, he's mainly just long.  If I remember correctly, his height is in the 90th percentile.  

He takes a good, consistent morning nap about an hour or so after he wakes up in the morning, and he takes a good afternoon nap while Cooper's napping.  Then he also gets in a few more naps during the day when he can.  I have been putting him in his crib for his morning nap, but his afternoon nap he naps on me (as I talked about above).  He is still sleeping in the pack and play in our room.  I know he needs to go to his crib, but I have several excuses for leaving him with us for now.  None are really good excuses though.  The main truth of it is that I like having him so close to me.  He gets up twice a night to eat but goes right back to sleep.  I'm still holding him upright for about ten minutes when he's done because of the acid reflux, but that seems to be improving too.  Sometimes he'll wake up to eat in the 5:00 or early 6:00 hour, and after that feeding, I normally just hold him until Cooper wakes up (around 6:30 or so).  I'm able to get a little extra sleep that way.  When he wakes up in the morning, he'll stretch for such a long time.  He puts both arms up and stretches out his legs as far as he can.  He kind of wiggles too like he's trying to make sure everything gets stretched just right.  He'll arch his back when you pick him up and bend his legs behind him and then stretch them out straight again.  It's so cute! 

He is such a happy little guy.  He loves eating, bath time, being with Cooper, any attention, and his swing.  Those are definitely his favorite things.  I think mommy is his favorite person though.  I get the biggest reactions out of him, and he prefers me to hold him over anyone else.  It's probably because I have the milk though!  He is doing so much better about car rider line that last month.  Overall, he really enjoys being in the car and will either go to sleep or just look out his window.  The only thing that he really doesn't like is being on his tummy.  That typically makes him mad enough to cry.  I did get a good laugh the other day because I had put Jake on his play mat to play.  I put Cooper in his bed for nap.  I went in the kitchen to unload the dishwasher.  I peeked in the living room to see that Jake had just gone to sleep on his mat.  I looked at the monitor and Cooper was doing somersaults in his bed.  That's our boys!  Very different personalities!  If Cooper doesn't want to do something, he'll fight it--hard!  If Jake doesn't want to do something, he'll fuss for a second, but then just go to sleep!

He's a very easy baby.  Karl and I were very specific when we prayed about Cooper while I was pregnant.  We got everything and more that we prayed for, but I learned maybe I should leave out words like "strong willed" and "determined" the next time (although I love these things about Cooper, it might be hard to have two super strong willed and determined children)! With Jake, we just prayed he would be healthy, happy, and easy!  God answered!

Hello Again

Long time, no post, I know!  Life got busy after I wrote about how blissful everything was going.  My oldest decided to embrace being three and thought he was more like thirteen and became excessively bossy, stubborn, strong willed, cranky, and defiant.  It was so not fun.  I wonder how many times in the past couple of months I've just offered the good ol' explanation "he's three." The funny thing is anyone with kids goes, "Ooohhh! Gotcha!" Karl told someone that two was nothing compared to how three has been going for us.  The person looked at Karl and said, "Didn't you know the terrible twos last for three years?"  I'm starting to fear that wasn't a joke!  

Then I got the flu the week before Christmas...not good timing when you haven't completed your Christmas shopping!  Out of all four of us, how did I catch the flu?!  Thankfully, it was just me, and no one else got it, and it was a mild case (thank goodness the flu shot did something good for me).  I wasn't able to go to Cooper's Christmas party at his school either.  I missed the Open House in October because it was the week after I had Jake.  Then I've missed all but one birthday party too because Jake was too little to take around small children.  I bet the parents in the class think Cooper only has a dad!  

Then it was Christmas, and wow, is life anything short of chaotic and rushed when it's a holiday and you have children?!?!  Plus, Karl was off work for about two weeks, which was great on one hand (always nice to have extra help around here), but at the same time, that kind of added to our craziness.  Karl is more fun and lenient than I am, and Cooper knows that and takes full advantage.  Some days I felt like I had three children, and our house definitely looked that way.  I was actually excited to take down the Christmas decorations because it meant we were getting closer to being back in our normal routine.  I like routine.  I like normal too.  A nurse once told me normal is only a setting on your dishwasher.  Which reminds me that after almost 8 years of living in our house, a lot of things are starting to need attention.  We had to get a new thermostat, have repairmen come fix our washing machine, and get new parts for our garage door all within a span of two weeks.  Thankfully Karl could fix the garage door.  I looked around the other day and started making our spring cleaning/repair list.  I told Karl I just want to move! 

Anyway, life got B.U.S.Y.  but beautiful nonetheless. Now that Jake is three months old, I'll do his two month post soon.  And who knows, maybe I'll even get around to updating about our Christmas around Easter time!