JT - 2 and 1/2 years!

JT brings so much joy and noise and dirt and bugs and laughter and tackles into our home. He is all boy, fo' sho'! But that makes him fun. Here's a little of what he's been up to lately.


1. He is counting to 30. But he skips 6, 7 and some of the 'teens. "1 2 3 4 5 8 9 10 13 13 13 13 13 16 17 13 19 20..." then he gets the rest right.

2. It's fun to have a conversation with him at the dinner table (when he's not screaming or throwing his food...just sayin'). When asked if he had a good day at school, he'll answer with "Had a dood day with fwiends Wevi (Levi), Mason (Mason), and Uke (Luke)."

3. He likes to sing, like the rest of his family. He can now sing "Jesus loves me" and "Twinkle Twinkle" and "ABCs". He doesn't get all the words right but we can tell what he's singing. So sweet!

4. He is in 4T clothing and can tackle his sister. Poor thing can't get up if he gets on top of her.

5. He runs to give Mike a hug when he comes in from work. "Wuv you daddy". He gives Mike a hug when he leaves to go to work. "Wait daddy. Give hug. Wuv you."

6. He goes straight into school, gives us a hug and kiss, says "Wuv you", and sits in his chair. He had a hard time going into school at the beginning so we're thrilled at this independence!

7. If he can't find me in the house, he'll say "Oooohhh MOOOOOOOOMMMMMMYYYYY". Then Bella will chime in and say the same thing. This is hilarious and cute!

8. He likes to help set the table most of the time. He'll grab 48 forks and 39 spoons. He usually comes to me with each one and say "Sesster?". I'll respond with "Yes" and he'll respond with "OTAY". This continues until everyone has their utensils.

9. He wants to play with Bella alot and asks "Whered Seester go?". But, then he destroys whatever she's been working on. Boys...

Here's some fun pictures of the little man!

This is his 4T shirt.

He likes to pretend like he's going "night night" on the steps instead of his room.

Y'all, look at that hair. It gets really curly with the humidity. Adorable!

LL Cool J hard at work...

I was gone for 0.00394 seconds and this is what I came back to at breakfast time. Yes, that is yogurt. He did it the day before with oatmeal. The entire bowl on his head like a hat. "Look at me, Mommy!", is what greeted me that morning.

Oh, just some early morning reading. This is the book he picked out - the dictionary.

JT, we love you and look forward to seeing who you become and love who you are now!

The many joys of Bella

This little gal is full of love and joy and spunk and hilarious sayings! I wanted to post an entire blog of her sweet personality caught through the lens of my Mom's camera. Enjoy! And, Mom didn't tell her to do any of these poses either. They were on command!

Bella, you are a beautiful delight to us!

Croquet, ducks, and sleeping

Nearly rounding out the finale of the great week at my parents is a post on croquet, ducks, and sleeping (or the lack thereof).

We spent  lots of time in the backyard. Because why would you want to go anywhere else!

Jonathan loved the squirrel. And the alligator. He carried them around or pushed them around the whole week.

Granddad helped Bella on her croquet skills.

Granddad also set them up a sandbox. There was LOTS of dirt flying! Which of course made it more fun.

Daddy got home in the middle of the week. Here's what JT did right after his nap when he saw Mike on the couch. Yes, it did melt all of our hearts!

We made our annual trip to the park to feed the attackers - oh I mean - the ducks. My bad.

So far so good.

Nope, we're holding both kiddos. The attackers go straight for the face. Don't mess with my babies!

Check out Bella's legs in this picture. She was squeezing me extra tight with those little thighs of steel.

After feeding the mutant ducks we explored the rest of the park. I couldn't pick just one picture of my parents holding the kiddos hands. So I put all 58 of them on this post. It just gets me every time. Every single 58 of them.

And then you get a picture of my dad, my husband, and my son together? Yep, triple heart melter!

We were trying to get a family picture. Guess who the elusive one was?

I love this picture!

This wasn't a staged picture. We were just happy to be with eachother again.

Nothing like grandparents, right?

They were pooped!

And, until next time yet again...