Celebrating our Savior’s Birth

We’ve been talking to Jake about the birth of Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas. It is so easy to get caught up in the “magic” of Santa and forget to spend time talking about the real reason for the season!  Jake goes to a Christian school, so they also teach the kids the true Christmas story, which has been so much fun for Jake to learn!

Tonight, Jake and I made a birthday cake for baby Jesus.  Jake helped me put all the ingredients together, stir and even put icing on the cake.  Now, I’ll admit – it was just a box cake, but it was a lot of fun watching him help. We even sang “happy birthday to Jesus” while we baked!

We plan to eat it tomorrow at Nana and Dadoo’s house during the Veazey Family Christmas!  Excuse the way I look – I was off work today and didn’t bother with make-up – YIKES!

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."

Cousin Christmas!

We are so fortunate to have cousins who live in Cabot too…and the best part – they have 2 boys! 

This year, we decided to have an early Christmas dinner at our house with the cousins and exchange gifts, play and let the boys run around.  Jake thinks the world of Jack (5 years old) and I’m sure Eli will be just as fond of Ben (6 months).

Aside from celebrating Jesus’ birth, we also celebrated April’s birthday!  I made her a strawberry cake (her favorite), but I’ll be the first to admit that I wouldn’t win any style awards for its appearance!  It tasted okay though!  Unfortunately, our singing scared little Ben!

‘Tis the Season

We’re in fully swing, Christmas-mode around here. We’re reading The Christmas Story every night before bed, we’ve bought lots of presents, we’ve seen Santa – twice, we’ve eaten our weight in pre-Christmas goodies (candy canes, etc.) and – my personal favorite- are receiving Christmas cards in the mail from friends and family everyday!

Jake’s school Christmas program was this week. His sweet little 2 year old class sang “Go tell it on the Mountain” and it was precious!  His teachers have taught him so many songs this fall.  He is constantly singing “Jingle Bells,” “Father Abraham,” “The Lord’s Army,” and so many others. I just love listening to him sing and tell me all the things he is learning.

Speaking of learning, he is obsessed with shapes! He loves to point out octagons, squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles EVERYWHERE!

This weekend, we went to Searcy to see my dad’s side of the family for Christmas. It was a full house, but lots of fun. I don’t get to see this side of my family very often, but most of my cousins have small kids, so its fun to get together. Jake had a great time!

We’ve finally decided to name our 2nd born – Eli Gregory.  Its been so sweet to hear Jake talk about Eli and ask questions. Just tonight, I was sitting in the floor with him reading books before bed. Because I’ve been on the move all day, I was having some contractions. Well, a pretty big one hit me and took my breath away. I stopped reading and closed my eyes. Without realizing it, I had my hand on my stomach. Jake said, “Is Eli giving you a boo boo?”  I said, “Mommy and Eli are fine. Mommy just has a boo boo on her belly right now.”  Jake leaned over and said, “want me to kiss it?”  Then, he kissed my belly!  SO SWEET!  He is at such a wonderful age right now and truly has a heart of gold!

30 weeks and counting

We’re in the downhill slide of this second pregnancy! We’re still not settled on a name, but I guess that will happen soon.  This little guy has measured big every visit, so we went for an ultrasound today to see for sure.   Dr. Taylor was right – he’s a big boy!  Jake’s baby brother is measuring about 3 weeks bigger and is already nearly 4 pounds.  We’re set for a repeat C-section on February 7th!

Here he is sucking his thumb!

A profile shot…

Jake, on the other hand, is slimming up and looks more like a big boy everyday.  He’s doing great sleeping in his new bunk bed and is saying the funniest stuff.  Today, when I picked him up from school, I took him to eat at Burger King and play.  Greg had to go out of state tonight unexpectedly, so we decided to go have a little fun!  The playground at Burger King is definitely made for bigger kids, which – you guessed it – means Mom has to climb into the play gym and help Jake get up and down.  Yea, it was a pretty sight – a 30 week pregnant woman climbing around a Burger King playground.  When we were leaving, he asked to go to McDonald’s across the street and I answered—“maybe later.”  Well – now, Jake’s answer to everything is “maybe later.” 

Me- “Jake, can you sing me a song?”   Jake – “maybe later.”

Me – “Its time for bath, Jake.”   Jake – “maybe later.”

We bought a video monitor for Jake’s new room. I never had one when he was little, but decided to get it when we moved him to the big boy bed across the house. I can hook up a second camera to it for the new baby, so that will be nice too.   I bought one my friend, Tabitha, suggested.  It has a feature that allows you to talk to them from your monitor.  This morning, Jake was in his room playing in his bed. and I spoke to him through the camera in his room.  It was hilarious. He didn’t know what to do or where it came from.  When I went into the room, he was laying in his bed with the covers pulled up. He said – “its talking to me!” He was pointing at the camera like it was a monster!  This could get fun!!