Sunday, July 31, 2011

2nd Birthday Bash

Jake had his 2nd birthday party this Saturday and we HAD A BLAST!  It was a Mickey Mouse theme and all the mousekateers had a good time.  This Mouseka-Momma is WORN OUT!

We started off the weekend on Friday afternoon when Greg got in from Omaha. Greg and I gave Jake his gift from us --- a John Deere gator!  He LOVED it…as any little boy would!

gator 1gator 2gator 4gator 3gator 5gator 6

About an hour later, my parents and Hunter arrived to help us celebrate. We had a little birthday celebration at home Friday night, including some pizza and cake!  This was Jake’s first experience with candles, and in my Mommy mind, I thought --- we’ll practice for the big party! Well, turns out, telling Jake to get real close and blow out the candles might have been a bad idea. Somehow he got TOO CLOSE and burnt his little nose hairs.  Poor guy! Here are the play-by-play pics!

birthday cake 1birthday cake 2

birthday cake 3birthday cake 4

birthday cake 5birthday cake 6

birthday cake 7

The birthday celebration started around 10 am on Saturday; and once again, I was reminded of how blessed we are. So many friends and family showed up to help Jake celebrate his 2nd birthday. I tried to capture everyone on film, but just wasn’t able to get everyone.  We had the party at church at the Family Life Center, and turns out – it was a great location. Plenty of room, lots of toys and happy kiddos!  Thank you to all our friends, family and loved ones who spent their Saturday morning with our sweet boy!  What a great feeling….

avery steelmanBen Veazeybirthday boy

adults at partybrad april jack benbrylie and jolee

brylie katecaden scaifechristel and hank

faith theislingfaith and joleegart jd brad

grandpashank caterhunterkevin mom robindiane and tammy]

jack and jake veazeyjack veazeyJolee Moore

jake steelman cupcakekellan rowekristy brylie jake

madison shirronpeggy kristymaggie mcnulty

makaylamax mcnultymom dad jake

morganrowe kidsryan hefner

sabrina and mckenziebirthday boy eating cake

birthday cakebirthday tablebirthday present table

thank you coloring books

Happy 2nd Birthday, Jake! We love you more each day!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

All Grown Up… *sniff, sniff*

Jake is two! I really can’t believe it.  People told me when I was pregnant with Jake that time would fly by once I had children.  Honestly, that didn’t make that much sense to me, but it is OH SO TRUE!  The last two years have been the most wonderful in my life. Jake is so full of energy and he discovers something new everyday.  Part of having a two year old is learning to appreciate even the smallest wonders! 

I wanted to do a post to talk a little bit about what he’s like right now. It will be boring to most of you, but its mainly for my record keeping!

Jake is a whopping 32 pounds of precious.  He has the thickest hair of any child I’ve ever met and could stand to get his hair cut every 3 weeks.  Unfortunately, haircuts have become dramatic, and I just don’t have it in me to get it cut that often.  He has a mouth FULL of teeth and thankfully, he’s quit using them so often on other children!

Jake, like most two year olds, learns something new everyday.  In the last few weeks, he has started singing a lot.  Among his favorites – “Jesus Loves Me,” “Row, Row, Row your Boat,” “ABCs” and “The wheels on the Bus.”   He knows, recognizes and points out all his letters from A-I.  He could probably learn more, but we just haven’t made it that far in teaching them.  We’ll be in a drive thru and he’ll tell me all the letters he recognizes on the menu.    He is learning his colors and knows yellow, green, red and blue pretty well.  They tell me at daycare that he also knows purple, but I haven’t seen him do that yet.   He LOVES to look at books and has started “reading” them out load to himself.  Its funny, because his bedtime book he has memorized, so he actually gets some of that right!

His love affair with remotes from his first birthday has now translated to a love affair with Mickey Mouse and Elmo.  We limit his time with both, but he LOOOOOVVVVVVVES them both so much!  He calls Elmo – “Eemo.”   He’ll come to me and say, “mommy – sesame street?”  Only most the time it comes out – “mommy, see-street?”  And let’s be honest- who can resist that?

He adores his grandparents.  He’ll say , “call papaw?”  He regularly asks me where Nana and Dadoo are and will sit and stare at pictures of his Nan and Papaw all the time.  

We’ve started talking “potty” with Jake and he sits on the potty each night before bath time. I honestly don’t think he is aware of the sensation of having to go yet, so its really just practice sitting on the potty! Tonight, I said – “Jake, go pee pee!”  Jake says, “It won’t go. It broke.”  So Cute!

Jake is a great sleeper and goes to bed every night at 7:30.  (Blessing number 9,945,565 God has given me).  He is a pretty picky eater – but LOVES grilled cheese, yogurt, pizza and ravioli. He enjoys being outside and playing with other kids.  All in all – you’re the best kid ever!  (I’m not biased at all)

Happy Birthday, sweet boy!  You’re going to be the best big brother in the world!

jake 2 and half weekssweet face

                2 weeks                                                2  Years

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Throwback!

Greg’s mom found one of his old t-shirts, and I put it on Jake this week!  SOOOOO CUTE!   This is a 3T shirt – so, either its been washed in hot water OR kids are much bigger now! 

 

throwbackthrowback 2

Next up – the BIG 2nd birthday…..

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

An Abundance of Blessings

Greg and I have been attending First Baptist Church in Cabot for about 2-1/2 years.  We love the church and now Jake does too!   We were lucky enough to find a Life Group (new fancy word for Sunday School class) that we adore and couldn’t be happier.   BUT, the point of this post isn’t really to be a PR person for our church or the Aldridge Life Group.  The point is to share the ABUNDANCE of blessings God has given our class….all blessings that come in about a 7 pound, 6 oz size! 

In the last 2-1/2 years of being in this class, 13 babies have been born! Yes, you read that right – 13 in 30 months!  WOW!  And that’s not the only children – several were born before we joined this class!   PLUS- 3 are due in the coming year!!!  Our class has been continually blessed with beautiful, healthy children from God and we couldn’t feel more blessed.  Greg and I have been able to share this exciting time in our life with some of the sweetest, funniest and kindest people.  A TRUE BLESSING.

abigailaverybrockcadyjackson

jakejoshuakeelannathannorthcutt baby

oliviaraynrebekah…AND 3 COMING SOON!!!

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.”  Psalm 127:3