'tis the season

christmas.  my most favorite time of year.  spending time with family and friends.  christmas parties.  presents.  but most importantly Jesus' birthday.  josh and i are putting more emphasis on Jesus rather than santa this year.  we want both of our kids to understand the TRUE meaning of Christmas.  the best gift of all came in a manger.  join us in celebrating the real reason for the season….Jesus.

from my family to yours, we wish you a very merry Christmas!

the time has come

yes.  you are seeing correctly.  jake started K-4 this week.  how crazy!  we talked it up all weekend long and we prayed numerous times.  we prayed specifically for a wonderful teacher and assistant who would help, love, and be understanding of jake's anxiety and social/emotional/sensory processing issues. and let me just tell you…..the Lord answers prayers.  jake's teacher is a Christian and the teacher's assistant is a Christian as well.  and to add a cherry on top of that, the assistant's daughter has all the same "issues" as jake.  i'm telling you….God is GOOD!!!!!  jake seems to adore both of them.

we started very slowly.  just 2 hours a day.  now we are up to 3 1/2 hours a day.  i am beyond thrilled at the progress he has made this far.  he hasn't cried yet and seems to be adjusting well to being around a larger "crowd" (aka class full of kids).  if you think about it, say a little prayer for jake each day as he will soon be transitioning to full days.

this picture totally sums me up after dropping him off on the first day of school.  i held it together until he got out of the car.  then the water works began.   i cried.  i boo-hoo'd.  moms, you understand that "i'm dropping my baby (my firstborn!!!) off at school for the very first time" cry.  yep. it was ugly.  i managed to pull myself together before i pulled into the parking lot at my school.  luckily, the day went by quickly and my sweet kids at school helped keep my mind off worrying about jake.  

so, week 1 at school for jake was a success.  here's to week 2.  i hope it's even better than the first week.  keep those prayers coming!

happy fall

happy fall from these two adorable faces.  we've been super busy lately…..hence the lack of posts.  here's a quick catch up post!

allie enjoyed her first pumpkin decorating party.  she loved painting finger painting her pumpkin then adding glow in the dark stickers.  

jake got to help with his very first jack-o-lantern.  he drew a face on his pumpkin and helped take all the insides out.  (his exact words were "this is disgusting.  i need to go wash my hands!")

 from left to right:: allie's pumpkin, daddy's pumpkin, and jake's pumpkin

i think they all turned out wonderful and we sure did have lots of fun decorating and carving them together.

what's halloween without a pumpkin quesadilla?!?!!!  

(i totally got "you're the best mommy!")

 one of our favorite fall traditions is going to asbury hills with my grandma's church.  

here is allie with her great-grandpa (pa let).

my mom sure does spoil allie and jake.  they went apple picking, on a hay ride, and to a pumpkin patch.   i'm so glad they get to have fun opportunities and get to explore new things.

one saturday afternoon, josh and i took the kids to aunt sue's (a marvelous ice cream place). we leisurely walked around and just enjoyed God's beauty.  

needless to say, fall is my absolute favorite season.  i have so much to be thankful for.  

summer

i live for the summer.  i'm sure every teacher does.  spending the summer at home with your kids, family, vacationing, or just relaxing……it just doesn't get any better.  so as the summer comes to an end, here's a recap of my sweet summertime with my amazing kids.

we started off the summer with VBS.  jake memorized his bible verse and even said it in front of a crowd. if you know jake, that's a BIG step for him!  we took many, and i mean MANY trips to yogurt mountain.  it's definitely one of jake's new favorite places to go.

every morning we had "school time." jake would work on various concepts for about 30 minutes and then the other 30 minutes would be coloring time.  one day we made cards for all the shut-ins at our church and mailed them.  (see below)  jake kept saying "these people are gonna love my pictures!"

what's summer without dillard's ice cream?!?!!!!  we always meet pa and grandma fiske here for father's day.  it's simply the best.

we spent a lot of time outside playing either with the sidewalk chalk, balls, or on the back porch with the water table.  i made chocolate popsicles, lemonade popsicles, and grape popsicles almost every day so we'd have a cool treat to cool us down!

my mom and i took jake and allie on a day trip to riverbanks zoo. this was jake's first trip to the "big zoo" (as he calls it).  it was HOT, but we had a great time.

happy fourth of july!  jake wanted some sparklers, but once we lit them he wasn't so sure about actually holding them.   we have quite a few neighbors who always put on a good fireworks show and we enjoyed watching them from our front porch.  

swimming at aunt carol's house during the summer is a MUST!  jake is becoming so brave….jumping into the pool.  he is showing quite an interest in swimming, so perhaps next summer he'll be ready for swimming lessons.  and then there's allie who hated the water last summer and STILL hated the water this summer.  bless.  (pretty sure she might have inherited that dislike of the water from me….ooops.)

these two faces. gosh how i have loved spending every single day with them this summer.  yes….there was screaming, fighting, and not much sharing going on some days.  but the good days outweighed the bad days.  i sure will miss spending all my time with them.  goodbye summer.  you've been a good one!  

15 months old

look at our pretty princess!  she is such a typical girl.  flirting is her expertise.  the looks she sometimes gives could kill.  yet, there are those days where she is shy and attached to my hip….literally all. day. long.  she is fun.  she is a handful.  she is ours.  and we wouldn't trade her for the world!

allie sure does love to eat.  hmmmm…wonder who she gets that from! HA!  if the pantry door doesn't get closed, she's in there finding something to eat.  she'll bring it to me and say "pees" (please).  it's precious.  how does one say "no" to this adorable face? therefore, she's hefty.  25 pounds to be exact. (90th percentile)  and all that eating is helping those growth spurts.  she is 33 inches tall (99th percentile)….which is only 11 inches shorter than jake!  she wears mostly 2T clothes and size 4 diapers.  she loves to eat goldfish, oranges, bananas, apples, chicken nuggets, fries, waffles, pancakes, chips, fish, sweet potatoes, grits, and fruit snacks.  

she is our beautiful social butterfly.  she will talk to anyone and waves at everyone in the store.  every now and then she will have a day that she's just shy. (by the way, you can see how tall she really is in the picture above….crazy) she loves to pose for the camera and it's always accompanied by the lovely "cheeeeeeese!"  she is starting to say more words that we can understand now::

"pees" - please (which is accompanied by sign language)

"dane-doo" - thank you

"moe" - more (done in sign language)

no

"ya" - yes (also done in sign language)

"e" - eat (sign language)

"ow" - ouch

"bush" - brush teeth

shoe

"ba-pee" - paci

"ba-ba" - blankets

"jush" - juice

mommy

daddy

"me mow" - minnie mouse

dog

we sure do love our little princess and her wild personality.  she certainly keeps us on our toes, but we love every minute of it.  and even though she's growing up, i love the fact that jake still introduces her to everyone as his "baby sister."  happy 15 months allie!

the many faces of allie

allie has already perfected many faces.  we've got our hands full with this wild one!

similarities

                                    

                                     

easter

saying i've been a little busy lately would be a complete understatement.  i completely forgot to post our easter pictures.  wow….little embarrassed about this.  sorry y'all.  well, you know what they say "better late than never!"

we had a wonderful easter.  on saturday, we spent the day with josh's family just relaxing and laughing together.  on sunday, the kids woke up to candy filled easter baskets.  jake spread his arms open wide in front of the fire place and said "happy easter Jesus!"  talk about melt my heart!  we went to early service at church and went to my grandma betsy's for lunch.  jake and allie loved our little easter egg hunt.  we hope you had a wonderful easter too!