Jack turns THREE!

This guy. Ah ~I love love love you, Mr. Jack.

Jack 3rd birthday party was a race car themed play-date with alllllll of his little friends.

This little dude loves his Hot Wheels and his friends. He has been so blessed with so many bff's.

And clearly, I am blessed too... all these kiddos have mommy's who I consider some of my bestest friends.

We started out by playing one of Jack's very favorite games, Ring Around the Rosie.

That was a hit.

Running in circles and falling down? Yes, please. 

Then we moved downstairs from some musical chairs action.

This was pretty funny.

The level of understanding for this game was... NONE.

Even after splaning and splaning (and demonstrating),

 the concept of sitting back down and fast was beyond them...

it was adorable...

and hilarious...

 and good times.

Then it was craft time...

All the kids decorated a flag with their name on it to take home.

Next up, food and cake!

And I forgot to get a picture of all of my creative race car themed food, so what you see is what you get. Pretend like you are super impressed. Thank you.

But check out this amazing cake! I didn't make it, my friend Dawn did.

She's a cake genius.

Happy Birthday, Jackie Blue!

Then we topped off our day of fun with a racing game.

Even though it looks like they were having fun, it was a complete disaster.

{For future reference, don't have a game for toddlers where you have to wait your turn. Bad idea.}

J & B

... and mommy.

Jack and his buddy Avalon.

(^^^are you kidding me with this cuteness?!)

A group shot

(minus two kids who left before we thought to do the picture).

I LOVE all of these kids and their mommies too.

We are so so blessed to have such fun family and friends in our lives!
Thanks everyone for making Jack's 3rd birthday so very amazing!

BentleyTurns7MonthsMerryChristmasHappyNewYear!

Happy Birthday little B!

This month you:
 learned to sit up...

Played trains at Barnes and Noble with your brother and cousin...

(they had more fun than you did)

played in your first snow with Jack...

 held lots of business meetings in the kitchen...

took up reading as a hobby (we're still working on proper book orientation)...

...and spread LOTS of Christmas cheer.

When you smile, you smile with your whole darn face. And those cheeks... they're not getting any smaller.  In fact, I've noticed that after you've been crying (yep, this still happens on an all to regular basis) a little tear will just sit on your cheek below your eye.  Your cheeks are so big, they can hold the little tear puddle there for hours without drying up. I pretty much can't even look at you without telling you and your fuzzy little head how much I love you. The end.

CHRISTmas was loads of fun this year... Jack really really got into the 'pressies' and Jesus' birthday and Santy Claus. Like a typical seven month old, Bentley spent lots of time just trying to figure out what was going on.

Jack checking out his new Llama Llama book.

 Safety first!

Busted! Doing what... I'm not sure.

 Jack jamming on his new saxy-phone.

This kid looooves music. Especially the sax because his big cousin, Sam, plays the sax.
Jack loves to watch his band concerts and now he has his very own sax to be just like 'Shammy'.

We had so much fun celebrating God's greatest gift... His son, Jesus.

I guess we didn't get any family photos and this is the only picture of Chris and I that I could find.

Tonight is New Years Eve... more family fun!
For my part of the family fun, I'm bringing bacon wrapped jalapenos and Oreo bark... yea baby.

2012 will have to be pretty amazing to compete with 2011.
Thank you, God for all the wonderful blessings in my life.

Jack, two and a half years of awesome

A tsunami of awesome, if you will (a couple people will get that).  Never has one little person been able to make me so mad and so head over heels madly in love all in the same minute.  Can I get an 'amen' from you mom's reading this?? 
Thankfully the head over heels part reigns most days :)

So I thought it was time for an update on my favorite oldest son. 

Here goes, this is Jack at 2 1/2-

You loooove to help me in the kitchen.  We do this often...
thus the emergence of hundreds of new gray hairs on my head.

You've got your ABC's down pat; as long as you're singing them

(I'm the same way, buddy).

You have recently discovered the question, 'why?'.  However, you think the appropriate word is 'because'.  Several times a day I hear

'because, Mom, because?'. 

{Precious doesn't even cover it.}

On a related note, you have dropped Mommy and Daddy from your vocabulary in favor of Mom and Dad. What the wha... where is this coming from?

You potty trained at exactly 2 1/2,

 which is ironically the same time you learned that the actual toilet is not necessary.

You love to do art projects with me and you even learned how to use scissors...

gah, more gray hairs!

 Rooooaaarrrrrr. 

Finished product below!

You learned to pedal your bike...

 and then joined a neighborhood gang 
(don't be fooled by how cute they are).

You have demonstrated your own way of sleeping.

You love both your brother and chapstick. Equally.

 You are always ready to keep Bentley company.  Even in your undies.

 You love to take silly pictures.

 You spend half your time bugging your brother with lights on his head,

cars on his head...

 making him cry...

 and the other half loving all over him.

The best is when Bentley is crying and you say,

'Don't cry B, I'm here. It's okay, B. Jack is here, don't cry'. *sigh*

 I have about a million other things I could say... but I will stop for now.  The most important 'other' thing I want to say is that I love you, Jack, so much more than you will ever even begin to realize and I thank God for you daily.  I'm so proud of you; you amaze me on a regular basis with how quickly you learn new things and how much love you have for family and friends. And what's more... I really like you, Jack.  Keep on being you... you're pretty awesome.