Random "shot"

Wow, lots has happened in the past two months!  I guess I'd better get typing!

~Judah had his 2 month check up on May 13th.  He weighed in at 13 lbs, 3 oz, so only up a pound from his 1 month check up.  He's certainly not growing like his siblings did!  Percentile wise, he was 85th% for height and weight, and 50th% for head.  Could he actually be somewhat..... normal sized?!?!  :)

~While he still fits into much of his 0-3 month clothes (with the exception of Children's Place footed PJ's... those he outgrew weeks ago...) I think it's time to officially transition him into 3-6 month clothes.  They're still a little big on him, which is CRAZY since both Jeremiah and Jesslyn (especially Jesslyn) were rockin' the 3-6 month clothes about the time they turned 1 month!

  He can still wear a size 1-2 (they go up to 15 lbs) diaper, though!  Those size 2's are a little big on him, but good for nighttime!

~He rolled over (!) on May 21st, so around 10.5 weeks old.  I put him down for his nap on his belly, turned on the monitor when he started to fuss, and he looked like his was on his side.  Went in to get him up a few minutes later, and he was on his back!!  I was very excited, but also a little sad.... my baby's growing up so fast!

  He can also scoot around on his belly really well (or his back, depending on what he's laying on.)  His legs are really strong, and he'll stand up on your lap if you just help him with balance.  This makes holding him in a laying position nearly impossible, as he's always trying to sit up so he can look around better.  :)

~More recently, yesterday and today, I've been teaching him how to blow raspberries!  He LOVES it!  I was doing it with him last night, and he was cracking up! (That's a first "crack up" too, btw.... When the laugh comes from the belly, THAT'S a laugh!)  He sure does drool a lot, though, in the process!

~He's learning better hand/eye coordination.  The other day, he was in his car seat, and we have this crinkly soft elephant toy that hands from the handle bar on it.  He was punching that thing over and over!  And it was intentional---you just had to see the look on his face and in his eyes.... he was NOT thrilled that elephant kept coming back for more!

  He will also punch the toys hanging from his play mat (not sure how we got through two kids without that thing!)  At least, when he's not scooting all over the place on his back.  :)

~He's finally starting to EAT!  For the longest time, he would only eat an ounce or two, and he would do that all.... day.... long!  He finally started to eat 3-4 or more ounces at each feeding, and as a result, is starting to sleep better.  During the day, he's been taking three 2-hour naps, and one short nap before bed.  He's only up for about an hour in between naps, which seems really short, but that's what he's happy with.  Maybe now that he's napping longer, he'll start staying up longer (not that I mind the short awake times.)

  As far as nighttime sleeping goes, he had two nights last week where he slept from 9 p.m. to 5 or 6 a.m.!  That was GREAT!  BUT, those were days we were out late, so he did get to eat a little extra before bedtime.  On a normal night, he'll still wake up once or twice a night.  Last night, he slept from 10 p.m. (again, we got home late) until 4 and then 'til 10:30 a.m.  But the night before that, when he went to bed at 7, he woke up at 12 a.m. and then again at 6 a.m., before waking up around 9 a.m.  So it's still a little wonky.  But it's okay.  Once a night is awesome, twice a night is okay.  More than that, and Mommy has a rough day.  We're heading in the right direction, though!

That's about all that's new with Judah.  As for everyone else....

~Last week, Jeremy went to Vegas for 3 nights, so I had my first time alone with the three kids.  It went fine. We did spend one day at MeeMaw's house, and the next two days, MeeMaw came over for a little while (she had stuff going on in Herndon one day, and we all went to Ikea on another,)  so I had some help.  :)

~Yesterday was Memorial Day, and we all headed over to my parents' house for some pool side fun and barbecue!  The kids had a blast in the pool, with Jeremiah swimming around all on his own (his floaty coverall suit helped, I'm sure.)  Jesslyn had more fun sitting on a floaty and being pushed around the pool, or being carried around by MeeMaw/Poppy.  Judah did not get in on the pool action, though, and instead took a really long nap.  :)

That's all the time I have for now, as Judah's waking up from his [too short] nap.  But ya get the idea of what's going on with us!

Determination.

Well, I've slacked for too long. I've sorta lost my motivation for blogging. It no longer has the impact it once did, since I've had to make the blog private, and I also do most of my "updating" via Facebook now. But as I sit here on the eve of Jeremiah's 3rd birthday, I looked back and saw quite the history unfolding. It's sad to imagine I won't have anything further. So I'm going to try harder. At least once a week! Maybe I'll get back up to my every-other-day schedule I once held. Maybe not. But I gotta at least try!

So where to start?

How 'bout the holidays?

They. Were. Crazy!

~Thanksgiving was held at my parents' house. We had quite the crowd there, as 2 of my 3 Uncles and their families came. Jeremiah was a bit overwhelmed by the chaos (my cousins are pretty loud and rambunctious,) so we set him up with his Cars movie while the rest of us ATE! And it was YUMMY! However, the turkey was on the smaller side, so I didn't get my turkey fix, which lead to me wanting to do turkey for Christmas, as well. More on that, later.

~I do love Christmas. It's my favorite time of year, and having kids makes it that much more fun! This year is really the first year Jeremiah's starting to "get it." For a while, we debated on what to tell Jeremiah, regarding Santa, since we really want the focus to be on Jesus and His birth, and not on the gifts under the tree. For a while, we thought we'd just try to be as vague as possible, but in the end, I decided I wanted Jeremiah to wonder if Santa was "real." So I told him, "On Christmas Eve, Santa brings presents to all the good little boys and girls! When you wake up on Christmas morning, and you see the gifts under the tree, many will be from Mommy and Daddy, but hopefully, some will also be from Santa!"

One thing we did do, though, was still emphasis that Christmas was Jesus' birthday--this is a concept even Jeremiah can understand. To really hit it home, we even ordered a birthday cake for Jesus (okay, Mommy wanted an excuse to order a Costco cake. Mmmm.... Costco cake....) and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus on Christmas day. And if you had asked Jeremiah, "What day is next week?" the week before, he wouldn't have said, "Christmas!" but instead, "Jesus' birthday!" I know we did our job when the very last gifts to be opened (days later) were those from Santa, but you can still ask him who had a birthday recently, and he'll tell you, "Jesus!" We'll add the more important details as the years go on, but I think we're off to a good start.

~Before Christmas, we had some fun. I had a Cookie Swap, we had our Christmas party (during the first snow storm of the year! but we still had 30+ people!) and various other things that are all a blur at this point. We gave lots of stuff away, too! All year long, I buy toys and baby things on clearance for cheap cheap cheap! Some, I intend to keep for my kids. Most, though, is saved for Toys for Tots, or some other charity during the holidays. We weren't on our game this year, so we waited for our church to put up their Angel tree and took as many cards as we thought we could supply gifts. And it was quite a bit. Even once we dropped everything off, we could have taken more cards, since most people got ONE thing for each card, whereas we had multiple items (not many bigger ticket items, but we could have probably split each one in two.) It felt so good to get all that stuff out of the house, especially to know it was going to someone who might not have anything otherwise.

~December also brought our biggest snow storm of the century! Granted, we're only 9 years in, but considering we haven't had a white Christmas since 2002 (and that wasn't very white... more like a heavy dusting,) this was huge. The forecast called for 12+ inches. Then it was 16+ inches. Then it was up to 24 inches?! Yikes!

The night before, the Friday before Christmas, we decided to take the kids out to go look at Christmas lights. We got a late start, though, since we also wanted to drop off all the cookies I'd collected from the Cookie Swap to our neighbors. And then we hit traffic on 28 (rush hour traffic? still? at 7:30??) But we found the neighborhood we were looking for, and the lights were, indeed, quite impressive. Lots of over the top stuff, but the kids loved it.

On our way to another neighborhood, we stopped at Chick-Fil-A for dinner, and were surprised to find a Barber Shop group there, singing Christmas carols! They serenaded us throughout our meal, even reading the Christmas story from the Bible in between carols. It was really cool! After every song, Jeremiah would say to me, "I like that song, Mommy!" :)

Once we left there, we went on our search to find the house with the million white lights. We found it, and there really was, what appeared to be, a million white lights! Everything was covered, but tastefully so (think wrapping-tree-trunks with strands of lights, and then each branch was also wrapped...) They had several "tasteful" lawn ornaments, too, like reindeer and even a nativity scene! It was very impressive. To top it off, while we were there, it began to snow! A few flurries here and there, and by the time we left, a few had become many, so we stopped at Home Depot to get some supplies (more salt and gloves for Jeremy,) before heading home.

We did get our big snow, about 18" overall, and both kids LOVED it! Jesslyn is definitely part-Canadian, as she wasn't phased by the cold at all! Granted, they were well bundled up, but her face was so red when they came in, yet she was still smiling! I think out of the three of them that went out (Mommy stayed inside) Jeremy probably tolerated it the least! He also had the least amount of clothing on, which may have had something to do with it. ;) Mommy rectified that on Christmas. :)

~As far as Christmas day goes, we overdid everything! We got the kids WAY too much stuff (some of it is still sitting in the garage, waiting for another gift-worthy occasion,) but I kept finding good deals on things, it was hard to say no! My parents came over around 10 a.m., so that's when the fun began. Jeremiah got a Tag Reader (which he loved! though he didn't know it at the time--took us a few days to open it and get it programed,) a train table, some Thomas stuff and a bunch of other random things he doesn't care about (I thought for sure he would, too! I'm looking at you, Rocky the Robot Truck....) Jesslyn got a doll house (so cute!) a new praying baby doll, some "Mommy" gear (high chair, stroller, etc.,) but her favorite gift was definitely the shopping cart! Both she and Jeremiah push that around EVERYWHERE! At least Mommy got one good thing right! :)

After gifts, we had a yummy breakfast my Mom brought over (quiche!) and we made malassadas! Yummy! We took a couple of hours to chill (and Mommy took a nap) before cooking the big dinner! It was all tasty, but next year, I think we should just have brie chicken and maybe some sauteed green beans, or something--keep it simple!

~New Year's Eve was spent at my parents' house. We went over, ate dinner (stromboli!) put the kids down for the night, played cards, watched the ball drop and I fell asleep while Jeremy... did something! Not sure what. Probably on the computer. :) Around 2 a.m., Jeremiah woke up, so we decided to leave. Soooooo tired.... thankfully, so were the kids, and they slept in 'til 9:30 or so, which made the morning a bit more palatable.

That night, we went over my Uncle Nelson's for "Christmas". Normally, we do this part of Christmas on Christmas Eve, but they were away skiing in CO, so we pushed it back a week. It was a nice night, but really, I felt that the whole Christmas thing had gone on long enough. I was ready for the chaos part to be done! I miss the Advent part of the season. That's where the magic lies (see Christmas outing on snow storm eve above...)

Overall, we had a lovely Christmas and holiday season, but I'm too pregnant to do anything that crazy again. :) Next year, I'm going to try to simplify as much as possible! We'll see how well that goes.

And with that, I will leave you, for it is now Jeremiah's birthday, and I need to get some sleep before the birthday boy wakes up! Hopefully we'll be seeing you again soon. :)

Mother's Day Pics

Whoops, this is a bit late, isn't it? Well, I just discovered these pics whilst cleaning out the camera. Since I finally broke down and paid for a Pro Flickr account, hopefully I'll be able to post more, sooner.

I thought I had already blogged about Mother's Day, but looking back, it doesn't appear to have been mentioned. Ooops! I tell ya, you have a couple of people make a comment about the content of your blog, and you go from blogging nearly every other day to one or twice a month. Yeesh.

Okay, then, Mother's Day! Umm.... I don't really remember much about it. :) I know Jeremy woke up, for the first time ever!, and went out to get me flowers, cards, a balloon and a little cake. I think he was going to make me breakfast, but we didn't have time, since I wanted to go to church. And since we volunteer in the nursery on the 2nd Sunday of every month, we couldn't NOT go. Yeah.

It was fine, though. Watched the kiddies, sat in the service while someone ELSE watched OUR kiddies, then headed home. My family came over in the afternoon and we did a simple cook-out to celebrate.

That's 'bout it. :) And the only pics I have are of Jeremiah playing on his swing set.

He does look sweet, doesn't he?

But yeah, that's it. No photos of Jesslyn, or me (even though I looked GOOD that day--that I remember!) Just Jeremiah. Unless I have them on my OTHER camera (that I have yet to download.) I guess that'll be another late post for yet another time... :)

Easter Egg Time

We didn't have black, so we started putting it in every color we had, hoping to get somewhere near black.  The closest we got before giving up was brown.  Ah well.

Pretty...

I think Jeremy's more focused on the intricacies of egg-dyeing than Jeremiah.  See above for the "why."  :)

Happy New Year!

Wow, only 7 hours left in 2008. I've got a couple of bottles of bubbly in the ole 'chill chest' ready to go, hopefully around 10 p.m. Seriously, we stay up 'til midnight or so nearly every night. If we truly want to celebrate the new year, and all it has to bring, we'll be in bed by 10. That's my goal, at least. Yeah, we're pretty boring...

Anyways, it's been quiet on the blog here for a while. Main reason: too much sickness. Seriously, who wants to hear about how sick everyone is. It certainly wasn't "in the spirit" of the holidays around here... Poor Jeremiah got it first--congested head and chest, cough, fever, zero appetite. Then as soon as he started getting better, I got a head cold. And to top it off, Jesslyn caught it next. The funny thing was, we all had different symptoms. Poor Jesslyn had everything Jeremiah had but no fever. However, as you're probably aware, babies have to breathe through their noses when they eat. Next time you're all stuffed up, try breathing through your nose exclusively for a while. Yeah, not happening. So the poor thing didn't eat hardly anything for 2-3 days. She's finally eating again pretty regularly, and we've never been more thankful! Seriously, there were two days there where it was HELL! Not the way we hoped to spend Jeremy's time off.

Luckily, everyone's nearly back to 100%, and Jeremy has another long weekend where we can try to have fun as a family. YAY! First on the list of things to do: get a new dining set for the breakfast nook. Ours is just barely holding itself together... Definitely time for an upgrade. Then hopefully the kids will enjoy a night with Grandma/Grandpa, and we can go out. YAY!! Still on the tentative list: a birthday party for Jeremiah. Kinda wanna do it this weekend, but kinda wanna next weekend... Hmm.... Doesn't help his birthday is on a Wednesday this year. Can go either way. I had wanted to do a "Noah's Ark" party (kinda like Build a Bear, but they come to you with lots of different animal choices,) but I think it's too late to plan that, and Jeremy doesn't think Jeremiah needs anything "big" as far as parties go. I'm sure we'll have fun no matter what we end up doing. :)

Kids updates: Jesslyn is SOOOO CLOSE to rolling over. She's got the form and technique down, just needs a little extra "oomph". She loves to chew on your finger if it's wrapped in a blanket, and has mastered holding her head up/sitting with support/lifting her chest and head up when on her belly. That's 'bout all for her.

Jeremiah's a riot. He's slowly adding new words to his vocab. His new favorite word? "Nooooooooooooo!!!" Not said in a rebellious-I-don't-want-to-listen-to-you-Mommy way, but rather an, "uh-oh, Big Fella, I'm going to run you over with my new dump truck!" or "oh no, Mommy's chasing me!!" kind of way. It's so funny. He's also saying lots of letters, and "counts" 1-2-3. The best, though, is still when he says, "apple." It's really more like, "ah-pull" but he says it perfectly, and will even say it in different ways, like in a whisper, or like "grandma" when she was sick and sounded like she was talking through a machine.... It's pretty funny. He'll also "moo" if you ask him what a cow says. We're still working on other animals.

And that's all for now. I'm on the crappy laptop, so typing is pretty annoying. Happy New Year, everyone! Stay safe.

Merry Christmas!

We just got home from my Uncle's house for the Portuguese side of my family's Christmas celebration!  It was crazy... Jesslyn was wayyy overtired (and sick,) so she was very cry-y.  But we survived and they both went right out.  In fact, Jeremiah never woke up--he was TIRED!  He didn't even wake up when we were changing him into his pj's.  We thought we'd take the opportunity to pose him with empty bottles and such, but all we had handy was a bottle of benadryl and his thermometer.  Awww... my little man was so tired!

Anywhoo, I'm trackin' Santa right now, and he's just left Chile... gotta finish a few things before he makes it to the East Coast!  Late-ah!

We're here...

We're just sick.  :(

In a nutshell, Jeremiah's been hit the hardest, with a runny nose, cough/congestion, and a fever.  Other than the fact that he's not interested in eating, he's himself--boundless energy, happy, playful, etc.  And with the help of a humidifier and Vicks Vapors, he's been sleeping pretty well, for the most part.  

Jesslyn seems to be coming down with what Jeremiah has, though it hasn't really hit yet.  Hopefully it doesn't.  

And I seem to have something completely different, but annoying nonetheless.  Hence the lack of posting.

And tomorrow's Christmas Eve!  Not exactly how I had hoped Jesslyn's first Christmas would go.  If there are no improvements, we may have to skip out on some family gatherings, which would SUCK.  But, that's the nature of the beast, I guess.  Gotta love this time of year.  

In other news, Jesslyn seems to have found her voice.   :)  She loves to squeel now, and uses that to let you know when she wants something.  Hey, it beats crying.  She definitely seems to be getting older (I know, no duh, but she's becoming less of a baby and more of a little girl.)  I love that she plays in her crib instead of just crying after her naps (definitely sets a nicer tone for her awake time.)  She's very interactive, and is so happy to just "talk" to you.  My little girl is growing up so fast!

Speaking of, I hear her squeeling now.  Guess she's done napping.  :(  Oh well.  We're just chillin' anyways.  

If I don't post again, Merry Christmas, everyone!  Hopefully we'll have happy, well babies to photograph and post!  :)

Christmas!

Alright, here ya go:  Pics of our Christmas Trees!  That's right, trees, as in, more than one.  This year, Jeremiah is too big to simply barricade away from the tree, and since we spend most of our time in the family room, I wanted a tree in there, but didn't want him to destroy it.  So we bought two trees.  Well, one was free (thanks, Grandma's work!) and the other was only $20 from Home Depot (pretty good size for $20, I think!) So not a bad deal, all around!  

I love them both.  The tree in our "formal" living room is the "fancy" one, with all our sentimental ornaments and pretty ribbons.  Jeremiah's tree, in our family room, is definitely more whimsical.  Bought some funky ornaments from Walmart and Target (all the ornaments on both our trees are shatterproof, but they sure look like glass!) and made a construction paper chain as a garland.  When was the last time you made one of those?!  So fun!

So yeah, Jeremiah's is fun and kooky, yet we still have our "grown up" pretty tree.  It's a win win all around!  

So without further adieu... pics!

The "Formal" tree.  Pics just don't do it justice...

The "FUN!" tree!  Notice how most of the ornaments are towards the top?  That's because Jeremiah insists on pulling them off.  So when I put them back on, they go higher and higher...

He helped make that snowman!  And the snowflake, right in the middle of the pic.  We actually used those for our Christmas party--the numbers for our Yankee Swap were on the back of the ornaments, and then you got to keep your ornament as a favor!  That snowman is actually Uncle James'.  He took it yesterday, but not before I snapped a pic while it was on the tree! :)

Happy Halloween!

Today is Jeremiah's 2nd Halloween. Once again, he's a ferocious lion... RRRRAAAAWWWWRRRR!!! And Jesslyn, a cuddly puppy. Awwww...

A group of neighbors formed at the pipestem as we were getting ready to head out for trick or treating.  Jeremy tagged along with them while Mommy and Jesslyn stayed inside to hand out candy.  Jesslyn promptly decided to have a bottle and fall asleep, which left Mommy with lots of free time to address birth announcements whilst waiting to hand out candy.  

Apparently, Jeremiah wasn't too sure about walking around the neighborhood with all these people wearing masks and face paint.  But after a few houses, he was fine, and was really getting the hang of knocking on doors and taking candy.  Sometimes, he tried to get an extra piece or two, not understanding it's not a free-for-all (though I'm sure many folks had plenty to give out.)  At one point, Jeremy brought him back home (they'd just gone around the outside houses in the neighborhood,) but he whined to go back out.  Guess it was fun!

And yup, Jesslyn slept through the whole thing.   Didn't miss much, though.  We probably had 30 trick or treaters, with enough candy for 150.  At one point, a little girl came up, probably 4 or 5.  I gave her a piece of candy, just like I did her brother, said, "Have a good night!" and closed the door.  She immediately opened the door, saying, "I want another piece of candy..." and casually started digging through our stash before coming out with a blow pop.  "I want a lolli pop," she said, as she walked back out the door.  Stunned, all I could do was say, "ummm... that's kinda rude..." but she ignored me.  Okay, if she'd asked for a second piece, I'd probably given it to her, no problem.  But she opened the door, came in our house (umm... kinda scary, parents, don't you think???) and just helped herself.  Oh, and no "thank you" either.  Someone isn't learning manners in their house....

Ah well.  We have plenty of candy left, of course, and it's really not welcome here.  Jeremiah enjoyed picking through his stash with Daddy, and got all hopped up on sugar.  We have a little video of him spinning in circles, but it has Jesslyn crying in the background, so I dunno if we'll post it.  Suffice to say, he was having a great time (even put on some music for him to dance to!) And he got sticky enough to warrant a bath, even though he had one last night (we're on an every-other-night schedule.) Dreamland came fairly quickly for that one.  :)

And now, pics of cuteness!!!

The "Gang"

Daddy and his "cubs".  On a side note, our neighbor thought I was carrying a "real" puppy, when I was walking around with Jesslyn (when he saw her from behind.) :)  

Too much excitement for this puppy.  She went right out after her bottle!  If only she were this easy during the day...

Oh! She's up!  How 'bout some smiles.... :)

No?  Okay, still cute.

Family shot!  Jeremiah's got a mouthful of candy.  He then spit it out when I asked him, "What do you have in your mouth??"  Yeah....

Awww... so cuddly.  She's not really asleep, just didn't catch her with her eyes open.

Happy 4th of July!

Farmer Jeremy, lookin' after his "babies"

"tut-tut, looks like rain!"

We're having a low-key Fourth, ourselves. Took the opportunity during Jeremiah's nap to finish the garden. YAY!! For the most part, all of our plants are planted now (all that we were going to plant, at least,) so now we just need to wait and see what grows! We're not too sure what's going to come up where, actually... All the plants started out labeled, but for some reason, Jeremy decided we didn't need to keep track of what was what...

Aside from tomatoes (we know which those are,) we have three different kinds of squash (zucchini, yellow and butternut,) cucumbers (I know for sure at least ONE of those is a cucumber...) watermelon and one lone pepper plant. We're also keeping a tomato plant and most of our basil plants on the deck in pots.

The onions and lettuce seem to have disappeared. Then again, I'm not sure if onions actually sprout anything above ground, so they may be fine. However, our lettuce, I'm pretty sure, is long gone.

Oh well. We should at least have some squash, tomatoes and basil. Add in some yummy mozzarella cheese, and we'll at least have a yummy salad. Not sure what'll happen with the watermelons... But we'll see!

At least it's done now! Yay! Next year, we'll probably skip the whole potting process, and just put the seeds right in the ground. Good times!

We thought about going to Herndon's 4th celebration, but if it's still raining, I think we may skip it. Plus, you won't be allowed to leave once you park--you're in it for the long haul! I don't think I want to have to stay until 10:30 tonight. Maybe next year!

Enjoy your holiday! Happy Birthday, America! :)

Happy Father's Day, Jeremy!

Obviously, this post is for my wonderful hubby, Jeremy, (or as I call him, "babish") who also happens to make a wonderful Dad! I know Jeremiah is just smitten with him, and loves him to pieces! He's so proud of how hard his Daddy works so he can stay home with Mommy instead of going to daycare. He loves when Daddy comes home, and Mommy helps him climb through the window so he can "drive" on Daddy's lap. And nothing motivates him to run up the stairs faster than, "Oh no! Daddy's coming, Jeremiah!" (other than maybe, "Oh no! Mommy's coming!")
When it's playtime, there's no one better than Daddy, 'cause after all--Daddy means playtime, Mommy means business. And who else but Daddy is going to take him downstairs to see Big Fella, or over to Mr. Ed's house to see Dodger (their big ole german shepherd mix.) No one else is tall enough to help him reach the pull string on the fans, so he can turn them on and off (the "woo woo woos!" as they're called.) Nope, Mommy won't due--only Daddy.

So thanks, Daddy/babish, for being such an awesome husband and Dad (and for spending your afternoon on Father's Day mowing the lawn, in 90+ degree weather.) You're the best, and we're so blessed to have you!

From our rainy Saturday, yesterday...

I just love this pic.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to making a shopping list for Lowe's--we've got a garden to plant, if Jeremiah ever take his nap! :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Just wanted to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there--did you try to take today "off", only to find yourself still doing as much (or almost) as you normally do?? :) Good times, eh?

Hope everyone had a blessed day, and remembered to do something nice for your mother, too! Don't forget to tell her that ya love her (I know I don't say it enough!)

This year marks the 100th Anniversary of Mother's Day--the traditional gift to give back then was a single, white carnation. And there were no "cards"--they wrote their own letters! Moms really dig that kind of stuff. :)

Happy Mother's Day!

New Holiday!

Man, I wish we had one of these around here...

Stir Crazy, a 'crazy' asian restaurant, is hosting the very first "Expectant Mother's Day" on Sunday, May 4th. All expectant Moms get a free entree that day!

Unfortunately, we'd have to drive to Ohio or NY to take advantage of it... I just don't think a $13 meal is worth the drive to either state (though I'd love to go to NYC!)

Ah well. Guess I'll wait for Mother's Day a week after.

Oh and he got me this too...

And this wasn't for Valentine's--this was yesterday! :) Aww, he's so sweet.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know, I'm a little late. But that's because I got just my Valentine's Day gift from Jeremy today! No, he didn't forget or anything. It just took a little longer to ship than they originally promised him.

So what did Jeremy buy me to express he undying, never changing and everlasting love for me? How do we spell 'romance' in the Wilcox household?? Apparently, "e-l-e-c-t-r-o-n-i-c-s." :)

Yup, my uber romantic man-o-mine bought me a laptop for Valentine's Day. Not just any laptop--I "got a Dell, dude!" It was one of those too-good-a-deal-to-pass-up deals on Slickdeals the week of Valentine's. So he didn't. :)

It definitely isn't what I was expecting. We had kinda agreed to get "traditional" Valentine's gifts for each other--chocolates, flowers, cards. That's it. When he gave me the printout of the order confirmation (since it was delayed--originally it would have arrived that day, I think. So romantic, huh? :) I was a bit stunned, but didn't run out and buy him anything with a plug. He still got chocolates, a card, and a freakin' huge balloon that sang, "Hey, I Think I Love You" [by the Beatles, I think? lol, Nope, I googled it and it was by The Partridge Family] and that's it. I guess you could say the singing balloon was electronic... [And in case you ever think it's a good idea to get a freakin' huge balloon that sings, be aware that it will probably drive you crazy before it ever makes it to it's final destination. It played every time it moved, which mean it was going constantly from Herndon to Tysons, and then from the van, through the mall to Godiva, Starbucks, and then across the street to Jeremy's office, up the elevator, down the hall, and finally, by the time it arrived next to his chair, the batteries had died, and it would only say, "Heyyyyyy---" lol)

I am very happy with the new lappy. It's got some neat features that my old one didn't have (which I got for Christmas last year, so we'll probably sell it) including 4x the amount of RAM, an SD card reader built in, an anti-glare screen and NO IMPORTANT BUTTONS ON THE FRONT OF IT! My other lappy has the wireless switch in the front, so I was constantly hitting it, or it would hit a button on my jeans and turn off... sometimes, it wouldn't come back on, so I'd have to reset it, blah blah blah. Stupid. Oh, and THE SPACE BAR WORKS GREAT! After letting Jeremiah "work" on my laptop a couple of times, I noticed that the space bar doesn't always "space" when you hit it now. You can still type just fine, but I type pretty quickly, and was constantly having to backspace to add a space.... frustrating...

Oh, and can I just say that I love dissing Internet Explorer?? First thing I did when I started it up for the first time was go to Mozilla's site and download Firefox, and set it to my default web browser. Of course, IE has always had this honor, so it was a bit hurt and thought I might have been confused when I did that. The next time I opened up IE (which I'll do when I want to have various yahoo email accounts open at once.... I have a few that I never use but some people still do,) it asked me, "Internet Explorer is not your default web browser. Would you like to change it to your default browser?" CANCEL! and "Do not ask me again." Loved it. I know, I'm stupid, but I can't STAND IE, and use it only when I need to open said email accounts and don't want to log out of my primary or FF is PMS-ing, which happens every now and then. Anyways...

So, thank you, babish! (don't laugh) You're the best babish in the whole wide world! :)

Well, don't we feel stupid, part 2.

Well, I guess this one's mostly on me.

For a few weeks now, we've been looking forward to a post-Valentine's Day dinner that our friends Allison & Kevin were hosting. It was to be a nice chance to get away and have conversations with adults that didn't involve the words, "Da-da," "ma-ma," "nose," "belly button," "poopy," etc. And we get to dress up a little bit, which is always fun every now and then (Jeremy gets to dress up all the time--me, I usually stick to jeans and a sweater or something... not like I walk around in my PJ's all day, but I definitely don't wear the few skirts/dresses that I have very often.)

My brother, Stephin, agreed to come over and baby-sit Jeremiah on Saturday for us. So yesterday, Friday, I went to pick him up in Warrenton. Brought him back here around dinner time, and we began to make our dinner plans. "Hey, let's order ZPizza!" (If you haven't had it, and there's one near you, try it! It's so good--you won't be able to eat Domino's or Pizza Hut again [at least, not without a bunch of toppings--it's amazing how little you need on a pizza when you have quality ingredients on it.] And this pizza is good for you! At least, as good as pizza can be for you.) Okay, so while Stephin & I put Jeremiah to bed, Jeremy went to pick up the pizzas.

After Jeremiah was asleep, I changed and got comfortable, ready to spend a relaxing evening at home. Jeremy came home shortly after, and I knew something was up, because he kinda shouted down the hall as he came into the house, usually when he's got something to say that will drastically change the tone of the evening. :) Can you guess where this is going?

Apparently, while picking up the pizza, he received several phone calls that he didn't notice since his phone was in his pocket. When he did finally answer, he found out that the dinner party we had planned on going to Saturday was going on right now. The first thing I thought when he started talking about it was that he was going to say the party had been canceled. Then I thought, "why did they move it up to Friday and not tell us they changed it?" Then I re-read the invite. Sure enough, it said "Fri, Feb. 15th"

........

By this time, the party had been going on for over an hour, and it'd be almost two before we'd be there. But we tried anyways--ran upstairs, dug through the closet to find something evening appropriate, put on some makeup, and tried to fix my hair (that had been in a ponytail all day, and had never seen the hair dryer.... yeah, when you've got long hair that sits all tied up all day, it gets that awesome crease in it that makes it impossible for you to wear it down, or do much else with it without making it blatantly obvious that it had been up in a ponytail all day....)

SOMEHOW, we made it just as they were finishing up the soup course, and we still got to sit with everyone and have a nice dinner.

Now, how did this happen. I don't know. I read the invite, and I do remember reading "Friday, Feb.15th." But in my mind, Saturday night is party night so I guess it translated to "Saturday, Feb. 15th" And I remembered the date, and remembered that it was the day after Valentines.... So I'm not sure how I became so convinced that it was on Saturday... I'm still baffled by it.

Jeremy tries to get out of any blame in this, saying he never saw the invite, but I did show it to him when it first came in. Ultimately, though, it was my fault. I'm the wife, after all! We have day planners instead of brains! I hope I haven't mixed up any other dates!

Sigh... placenta brain lives on, strike two!

Ya gotta wonder what's next?

We did have a great time, though, and the food/drinks were excellent, so thank you very much, Allison & Kevin, for throwing that shindig! Thanks so much! And sorry to Laurence & Katharine--we barely talked to you guys before you had to leave (that's usually what cocktail hour is for, huh? Whoops, we missed that part! Grumble grumble...) Next time, I'll have Jeremy put it in his calendar, and maybe we'll get there on time, on the right day. (I'm glad we got a phone call, or we'd be showing up there tonight, and look even more stupid....) Now that would be funny!

joshnjess.blogspot.com???

I was beginning to think we were the only ones who waited until last minute to send out Christmas cards--and then we checked our mail on the 26th to find it full of 'em! Yay!

One of them was particularly interesting.... It was addressed to "The Wilcoxes" and our address was written on it, but it was from someone in NW DC. Odd, we don't know anyone who lives in DC....

Open it up, and it's a nice photocard, with two beautiful children on it. I studied their faces, hoping there would be some recognition, but nope, never seen them before in my life. Inside, the card was written to, "Jess & Josh" (????????) and signed by "The Sterlings, Andrew, Catherine, Jane & Calvin"

"So great to hear from you! You're still part of the family!" was also writtin inside....

Uhh.... a bit strange.... I could see getting cards for a previous owner, or a card for us being sent somewhere else, but never expected a card to someone who's probably a long lost cousin or something to show up at our house.

Cute kids, though. And I checked Zillow, just outta curiosity.... It's a big house, worth big money. The kids kinda look like the long lost children (grandchildren?) of Condoleeza Rice.

Amusing. :-)

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve at my Uncle Nelson's house--Jeremiah was more interested in the bows than anything else! He carefully took each and every one out of the bag.... and then proceeded to stomp on them.

Playing with my cousins Sofia (almost 9) and Julia (5).

"No, Mom, I'm not trying to get the presents.... see how angelic I look??" Apparently, digital cameras do not work well when cold (probably has something to do with the LCD display... it warmed up pretty quickly, though!)

Oh, and he was really trying to get the ornaments that had fallen off the tree. Don't worry, it wasn't glass... one of those fancy unbreakable ones (I guess more appropriately dubbed "shatterproof", but you get the idea.)

"Oh no! Granddad's attacking me with.... Louie the Lamb? Willy the Lamb? I forget."
Love the "My First Christmas" outfit in a size 18 mos. :-)
Too bad it'll be way too big for Jess Jr!

So happy! Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had a happy and enjoyable Christmas!

We got some good news over the weekend....!

We spent our day opening gifts with Jeremiah (not so much fun... he was afraid to tear the paper... :-) eating a nice big meal, and opening more gifts! Jeremy's parents are in town right now, so we had a full house, especially since my family was able to join us as well (they should be in Portugal right now, but couldn't catch their flight due to bad weather in Boston last week.)

I wonder if anyone can figure it out.....!

The rest of the week should be more relaxed, as the crazy shopping days are over, and leftovers should keep everyone full for at least another day or two.

We're not telling anyone yet, but the suspense is killing me!!

May God bless you and your families! The Lord has truly blessed us this year, and we are very thankful for all He's done for us--most importantly, sending His Son so that we may have eternal life! Merry Christmas!

Any guesses??!!! It's just a "little" something we came up with recently.... ;-)