Fun times

I typically start off my journal by writing:  "It's been awhile since I've written"  The same is true for this blog.  It's been awhile since I've posted anything.  But don't let that fool you, we have been busy and are doing well.  I will do a quick recap and then let the pictures tell the rest.

•  Christmas:  I had every intention of writing about Christmas, but as you can see time kept marching on and then it seemed like it was old news.  But to Jacob, Christmas is not old news.  In fact, before going down for his nap today he had me read him his Curious George Christmas book.  Also, when we first started potty training him he brought us his little potty and said, "Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas", and then sat down and left a little present.  Thanks  :)  Anyhow, so back to Christmas.  We had a lot of fun, Jacob enjoyed opening his presents.  He loves cars and trucks and got a whole bunch of them.  It was a fun day.  I love that he is getting old enough to really enjoy it. 

• Jacob is doing great.  He is talking a ton, and he says the funniest things.  I was with my friend and Jacob wanted to go swimming in a fountain he saw.  I told him he couldn't go in, because it was too cold, and so my friend told him, "In the summer you will have to come to my pool to swim."  To which Jacob just matter of factly and very politely replied, "Sorry, I can't swim."  It was too funny.   I had never heard him say he couldn't do anything.  Another thing he always says that makes me laugh, especially because it is completely out of context is: "Be careful, don't choke."  He gets his pronouns mixed up a bit.  He likes to use my bathroom to go potty.  So if he is dancing around I will ask him, "Do you want to use my potty, or your potty."  To which he will reply, "my potty" (meaning mine).  It is funny.  Or if he breaks something he will say, "he broke it"  rather than "I broke it". 

• Jacob loves to laugh.  He is usually laughing when he wakes up from his naps.  He will just be saying a random word or sound and think it is so funny.  One day he was shouting "nut face" at the top of his lungs and then laughing hysterially about it.  He also loves his sandbox and can spend hours outside shoveling the sand and moving the wood chips around the yard. 

•  Easter:  We had a very nice Easter weekend.  Jacob's birth mother came to visit, and she brought eggs filled with confetti and candy for a little egg hunt in the backyard.  It was really fun, and Jacob loved it.  I had fun watching Jacob dye Easter eggs.  He looked like a scientist dropping the eggs in the dye and then watching them turn colors.  He had a fun time that weekend eating tons of Easter candy and playing with the toys that were in his Easter basket.  He got Woody from Toy Story from his grandparents and loved pulling his string to make him talk and also taking his cowboy hat off and having Woody say, "Where's my hat?" 

• April Fool's:  It was a successful day.  I tricked Rob and he didn't trick me.   ha ha ha.  I always like to just do one harmless but pesky prank.  On April Fools, while Rob was showering I moved his car out of the driveway and around the corner.   Then when he went out to get in his car to drive to work it wasn't there.  I was watching from the window, and I wish I had gotten a video of it.  It was great.  He looked around and was all confused.  Then he came inside and said his car wasn't there.  I was having a hard time keeping a straight face, and I needed to tell him April Fool's before he figured it out or else he would pretend he wasn't fooled.  So all I could get out was, "really, you're kidding me"  Before I shouted April Fool's.  He admitted I got him good.  It was fun.  :)

   That's my recap.  So life is good, I am happy it is spring time, and I am looking forward to a fun summer.  

 

We went on a Santa run.  That was a lot of fun.

 Christmas Eve

 

 Christmas morning

 

 Jacob loves to stack

 and stack

 He loves helping me in the kitchen.  This can make cooking a bit challenging at times :)  But we had fun making pizza together

 We go on runs together.  On this run, we ran to the donut shop and got a treat. 

 Jacob loves tortillas.  And until we finally moved the bread box and secured the kitchen chairs, at least twice a day I would hear him say "tortilla" and then hear him moving the chairs over to grab one.

 sandbox fun

 

Dying Easter eggs

 Easter with my little boy

 Cracking the eggs open. 

 I love this little guy.

Just the same

I reread this poem a few weeks ago and wanted to share it here.  Some people might wonder if a child who is adopted can or will be loved the same as a child who shares the same genetics with their parents.  Having only adopted our one little boy, all I can say is that I love Jacob so much and our family wouldn’t be the same without him.  I love him deeply and with my whole heart and soul the same as any mother loves her child.   I think this poem beautifully describes adoption and the love and joy it has brought to Rob, me, and our whole family.

Just the Same

By Diana Lynn Lacey

Sometimes--

God sends rain

Straight from the sky

To nourish the young flower

and it grows.

Sometimes--

God sends rain from the sky 

To the mountaintops,

Then over hills and through valleys 

Until it reaches the flower

and it grows, just the same.

Sometimes--

God sends a child 

Straight from His realm

Into a mother's arms

and love grows.

Sometimes--

God sends a child

From heaven to another's arms,

Then over hills and through valleys

Until he reaches the arms of his mother

and love grows, just the same.

Ensign April 2011

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be grateful for.  We were grateful to have Rob's family come out and spend Thanksgiving together.  The food was great and we had a fun time seeing everyone.  Jacob loved the attention he got and still talks about the fun time he had with everyone.  

Getting ready to enjoy the feast.

Yum.

There's always room for dessert.

Boys on cleanup duty

 Playing catch with his aunt and cousin

He caught it!  I like it when Jacob says, "good job" or "almost" (if he doesn't catch it) when he is playing. 

 Yea Jacob!  He had so much fun with them.

 Good job!

 He's ready for more

 

Little Lion

Here are a few pictures from Halloween.  Better late than never I suppose.  Jacob looked so cute in his costume.  After a little candy to bribe him to wear it, he was sold on the whole costume wearing, candy collecting concept.  Perhaps a little too much so as you will see in some pictures below.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.

pumpkin patch 

playing in the hay

Rob trying to convince Jacob to put his costume on.

It's on!

At the high school fair

Trick or treating with friends.  Jacob going in for some candy

He is happy with the candy he got, but his friend is not so pleases.

Thinking about getting more, but decides against it.  Good idea,  his other friend is ready to defend her stash.

Look mom!  (he was not too happy a minute later when he had to give it back)  But he recovered quickly after his bag started filling up.

Fun times trick or treating.  

At a trunk or treat. 

Love this picture of my little lion

Riding the train.  He was so excited and focused.

Holidays are so fun with little ones.  We had a great Halloween with Jacob this year.

Future Big Brother

I always love seeing how much Jacob loves babies.  It is interesting to me how much he really likes them.

One day he noticed a figurine we have that has a dad and a mom holding a little baby.  From then on, every morning Jacob would ask to hold it, and give it a hug and a kiss.

Shortly after that one of his friends became a big brother and so Jacob would talk about this friend but then also include his baby sister in the conversation.  He loves tickling babies toes and mimicking their cries.  He will say, "baby cry, waaa".  It is pretty funny.  He loves holding his friend's baby sister and getting toys for her to play with as well.  Also, and during a time when I was having a hard time getting Jacob in his stroller, I was out with my friend and once he heard he could hold the baby when he got in in stroller, he couldn't get into it fast enough.

Sharing toys

I love how happy he is to be holding her.

I have loved watching him when he looks at and holds the baby Jesus in our nativity sets at home.  When we brought out the Christmas decorations for the first time and he saw the baby Jesus figurine he immediately started carrying it around.  I love this picture I snapped of him getting ready to read him a story.

Another time after we watched a little video about the Christmas, we went to look at the baby Jesus in our nativity and he had Mary hold the baby Jesus for awhile.

 He also prefers the horse and camel on top of the nativity roof rather than the angel.  :)

Jacob is such a fun, kind, and sweet little boy and I think our future children will feel lucky to have him as their brother.

Summer Fun

It has been a fun summer.  We have tried to stay cool and have fun.  With everyone heading back to school, I realized it had been quite awhile since I posted pictures, so I thought I would share a bit of what we have been up to this summer.

Jacob loves running through water and enjoyed the fountains and kid water play areas around town.   We had fun spending time with family.  We went to CA and spent some time at the beach.  It was funny to see Jacob's reaction to the sand.  We have been to the beach before, but this time, he didn't like the texture and feeling of the squishy sand on his feet.  He tried to stay on his towel but eventually his desire to play with a ball that was out of reach and on the sand helped him come to terms with walking on the sand.  The ocean water was too cold for Jacob, but Rob and I had fun playing in the waves with our brothers.

While in CA we also saw some of Jacob's cousins, grandparents, aunts, and uncles.  We had fun going to an aquarium, eating treats, playing at the park, and playing with cars and trucks.

Back home, Jacob spent time running through water fountains and going up and down the slide and teeter totter at the park.  He is saying a lot of words now.  I love them all, but a few favorites are: happy, catch, truck, apple, walk, hot, bye bye, and night night.

Toddlerhood is a fun stage.  Jacob loves to laugh.  He laughs a lot when I pretend to stumble or fall down, or when he throws a ball up in the air and it ends up bonking him on the head.  Jacob is such a good little boy and I feel so blessed to be his mom.

Here are a few pictures of our summer activities.

Jacob loves to line things up or stack things on top of each other. 

I love my little family

My happy little boy

Spending time as a family.

Enjoying the 4th of July with his grandma.

Out on a walk

Uncles are so fun.

Avoiding the sand

Safe on his towel

Fun times at the aquarium

Lining up and counting the spices after he removed all of them from his grandma's cupboard.

Eating his apple and petting the bunny.  

Enjoying the park with cousins.

Driving a truck

Joining in the competition to see who could last the longest on the ground while it rained and win an icecream treat.

Enjoying the splash park

Summer fun with cousins and grandparents.

Playing catch with his cousin

Summer fun

Hanging out in the lego box

Laughing and enjoying having his stuffed animal stuffed up his shirt.

Playing guitars with Daddy

Playing tennis as best he can.

As you can see, we had a great summer.  Hope you did too.