Happiness is...

...Leyton being old enough to play T-Ball this year!! I have never been more excited! I have been looking forward to him playing since we found out we were having a little boy. I mean, of course there were other things I was excited about, but coming from a family that grew up at the ball field and then haivng a husband who would spend every waking moment at the ball field if he could, it's something I have definitely been looking forward to! I'm sure there will be many, many stories and pictures to come regarding that!



...Jada learning new words all the time! She's 15 months+ already! She can say mom/mama/mommy, dad/dada/daddy, pa, papa, ouch [oush!], hot [ha!], cheese, please [which also sounds like cheese], mine [my!], go [doh], hi, bye, uh-oh...and others that I can't seem to think of.



...Leyton saying hilarious things ALL the time! The kid cracks me up every day. The other day he was looking at our wedding pictures and couldn't quite comprehend why he wasn't in any of them.

He asked, "Mommy, was I at you and my dad's wedding?"

To which I replied, "No."

Through tears he asked, "But, where was I!?!?"

"Well, you weren't born yet."

"Was I in your belly?!"

"No, son."



I didn't quite think it was necessary to give any further explanation at his age. Eventually he'll learn all about marriage and the birds and the bees...just not now. :)





...Jada "singing" songs. Here's an example of her rendition of This Little Light of Mine. I love that girl...

and that boy. :)

Jada's 1st year Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Holy smokes, Jada is 1!

Somehow my daughter has already gone from this...

to this...

a beautiful, determined, full-of-life 1 year old!

Here's how we celebrated with family and friends at our house yesterday:

The celebration started a few days earlier when Leyton and I began making goodies. Leyton was such a good helper making oreo cookie suckers dipped in white chocolate. He was quite the sprinkler!

My sister Lindsey came to my rescue as an excellent helper on Friday evening. We got started shopping and making even more goodies by 9a.m. Saturday morning. We made homemade caramel sauce, caramel corn, white cupcakes and carrote cake cupcakes, and a pennant banner than said "Happy Birthday Jada". After about 16 hours, we were finally finished with as much as we could finish before the party Sunday.

It didn't take long for this quiet, empty backyard...

to be turned into a yard full of fun people like this...

Jada got so many gifts! I think Leyton was more excited about opening them than Jada was, but she quickly figured out how fun it was when she realized what was inside all the wrapping and tissue paper.

Lindsey and I found this cupcake tower at Wal-Mart. It was originally black with a topper that said "Trick-or-Treat". We found the leaves at the Dollar Tree for $1, so Lindsey stapled them on to cover the Halloween decor. It turned out pretty well!

Of course, Jada loved the cupcake!

After everyone demolished a cupcake, we painted pumpkins!

At the end of the day, we were all exhausted.

We are very thankful for a beautiful, healthy little girl. We couldn't have asked for a better day to celebrate the first year of her life!

A lesson

Leyton just got home from preschool. I asked him the usual question...what did you learn at school today? His response?

L: "Well, we went to chapel and learned that some kids had to sit in time out."

Me: "Did you get into trouble in chapel?"

L: "No, I didn't. Adam did."

[I know there's no little one named Adam in his class so I figured out pretty quickly what Adam he was talking about.]

M: "Adam and Eve??"

L: "Yeah. A snake told Eve to eat the apple, so she did and they had to sit in time out!"

Wow. He listens. :)

My favorite time of year!

I absolutely love fall, not to mention the month of October. Granted, my birthday just so happens to be in October, but now we have even more to celebrate...Jada's birthday! Can you believe she's going to be 1 in less than a week?! I can't! We'll have birthday celebrations to come, but for now, here are some pictures of how we've been spending our fall so far.

We went to the Jacobs' Family Orchard a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, it was ridiculously hot outside so we didn't spend a lot of time there, but we still had fun playing with friends. Jada is queen of the mountain!

Leyton was so excited to see Brady he could hardly contain himself.

We tried to get a group photo but we all know how difficult it is to get 3 kids age 3 and under to cooperate.

This past weekend we took a short trip to Wabash to visit the pumpkin patch. Jada enjoyed climbing on the huge pumpkins. As you can tell, the weather was a bit more like fall for this trip. :)

Leyton loved the animals. He was able to get up close and personal with donkies and goats. He was trying to coax the donkey to come closer by asking very nicely, "Mr. Goat, can you please come over here?" It didn't work, but it was a nice try.

How are you spending your fall?

Life on the Beach

We just got back from vacationing in Myrtle Beach. This was our first official family vacation, and I've already decided we're going to have to do whatever we can to make this an annual event. We had such a fun time. Leyton has been asking since the day we got home if we can go on vacation again today. I think he had fun too!

We spent a lot of time at the beach and the pool. Jada loved the salty sand and Leyton loved the waves. Both of them are far too brave. Leyton took off for the water without any fear of being washed away. We had to keep a very close eye on him, especially since Hurricaine Earl was lurking some 100 miles out. The waves were pretty crazy the first day we spent at the beach, but calmed quite a lot after that. Surprisingly, we didn't see one drop of rain. Earl skipped right past us, thank goodness!

Leyton is a pool fanatic. Every morning he woke up and wanted to go straight to the pool. We spent many hours there. Luckily for the kids, the pool was completely shaded. It was actually under the building, but still outside. It was perfect for not having to worry about them getting fried. Jada liked the pool quite a lot too, but maybe not as much as her brother. She wasn't afraid to sit on the side and hop right in to us.

On Sunday, we went to the Dixie Stampede. Leyton was mesmerized as soon as the lights went out. He loved all the animals. The food wasn't too bad either. Of course, we couldn't leave without him getting his own pony and cowboy hat.

I would definitely recommend Myrtle Beach for a family vacation. A lot of people told us it was a great place, and I would agree. There are still a lot of things that we didn't get to do that I would like to go back for.

Family vacation #1...success!

9 Months!

Jada is 9 months old! At 9 months she:

--weighs 19 lbs [56th percentile]

--is 26.75 inches [45th percentile]

--has 2 bottom teeth [finally!]

--says da-da and ma-ma

--crawls everywhere

--climbs up and down stairs without help [but not far, no worries!]

--stands up holding onto anything

--walks/cruises around the couch or anything else that will support her

--LOVES playing with her big brother

--sleeps about 12-13 hours every night and takes 2 naps during the day [such a good girl!]

--eats just about anything we put in front of her

--LOVES her mama. She doesn't like to be out of my sight when I'm around, but is a perfectly content, happy baby when I'm not.

--LOVES her daddy. She lights up the moment he gets home!

--loves to play pat-a-cake

--waves bye bye

...and much, much more. :)

She reminds me a lot of Leyton at this age. She seems to have just as much energy as he did, but I'm hoping I'm wrong. I'm not sure if I can keep up with 2 kids who never stop! :) She's such a great addition to our family and we're loving seeing her personality start to blossom.