Happy Birthday Jon!

My sweetheart is celebrating his birthday today! I'm so thankful that he was born and even more grateful that we have celebrated 6 of his birthdays together!

Jon truly balances me out and makes me want to be a better person. I love his willingness to try new things and spontaneity. He is a wonderful father and husband and loves his family.

I can't wait to spend another year together, celebrating his life! I love you sweetie and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Daddy, JD & the HOB

This weekend was all about Daddy & JD time.


On Friday afternoon, one of the medical helicopters made a landing near the firestation to show their new equipment. So I woke JD up from a nap a little early and brought him up to see it.






He was pretty impressed, even if he had a hard time waking up at first!





Afterward, Daddy showed JD around the firetrucks (again - he has seen them lots of times) and JD wanted to drive all the trucks over and over.



On Saturday morning, Jon took JD down to the auto show on the DART rail. I'm not sure which was more fun for JD - the train or the cars!




Jon says that JD picked out a new Yukon for me (Mommy's car!), but that he really liked the yellow truck the best.




On Sunday, we took Jon, Cara and Ken to the House of Blues downtown for the Gospel Choir brunch for their birthdays. They had lots of southern yummy food and JD really liked the singing!




Jon, Cara and Ken were brought up on the stage for birthday songs and dances! Pretty funny!



I think JD was a little embarrassed for his daddy, but cheered him on anyway!

Picture Pandemonium

We've been trying to get a picture with all of the grandkids for my mom since before Christmas. She bought some really cute outfits for all of the kids for a Christmas picture. We decided to wait since Madeline was born right before Christmas and she needed some time to grow a bit before her first studio session.

We scheduled a session last Tuesday, but had to cancel it at the last minute due to impending tornadoes in the Dallas area (there were 3 later on that evening). So we rescheduled it for last night.

Everything started off okay except JD really didn't want to sit still. He loves playing when his cousins are around, so it didn't make sense to him to sit or lay still for any reason.

But then poor Marin lost it. She is going through lots of transitions now with a new baby sister in the house and mommy going back to work. It was just a little too hard for her to deal with all of that and the stress of getting pictures taken.

But we managed to get a couple of decent pictures right before the meltdown.

And few funny ones during/after the meltdown.

The photographer had us sit with the kids for one just to get them calmed down. Yuck. I wasn't planning to be photographed. But the kids do look cute.

And a couple of JD right before he takes off running.

Whew. I'm thinking to hold off on any more group grandkid pictures until the youngest is 8. Just a thought.

JD's First Love

Since we are coming off of Valentine's Day, I thought it was time to talk about JD's first romance. She occupies most of his time these days and JD talks about nothing else when she is around. He loves all of the colors that she wears and frequently compliments her on her attributes. He asks me about her when she is gone and when we might see her again.

Let me introduce you to JD's first love.

I know that this is pretty typical for young boys, but it seems like my little guy is on the verge of obsession!

I always thought that the way to a boy's heart was through his stomach, but apparently whoever made that up didn't have access to these beauties.

Lovin' with the Cousin

For Valentine's Weekend, we fixed up a little switcheroo with Dan and Heather. They watched JD on Friday night and Saturday morning, so Jon and I could have a nice evening (we had a great time eating at Kenny's and watching a movie and going to brunch on Saturday). And we watched Kenna on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Getting a little Valentine's hug from my niece!!




Kenna has no problem making herself at home with JD and the toys, especially since this was their second day together! She knew just what toys she wanted!



JD, on the other hand, is apparently very good at sharing her toys, but not so good at sharing his! He was a little stingy with his cousin, and we had to remind him (several times) that sharing is caring.



But the afternoon and evening went so well! The kids took great naps (JD 3 hours, Kenna 2 hours) and ate snacks together.



After dinner, we put the kids in the bathtub for some blackmail pictures. JD showed Kenna how much fun it is to splash water EVERYWHERE!!



We tucked the kids in around 7:45 pm, and they both went down without a sound! That's a pretty remarkable end to this Valentine's Day! Let's hope that Sunday church preparations go this smoothly too!


Updated on Sunday morning

We had a fairly smooth Sunday morning, getting two kids ready for church! Both kids slept pretty well and got up around 7.



They both looked so cute in their red & black stuff!!

We heart time with KayKay!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Big Shoes to Fill

Anyone who has ever seen my husband and my son know that they are pretty much clones of each other, as far as their looks go. I'm still hoping that a little of me is in there somewhere - maybe in his personality.

Yesterday, JD decided it was time to become the man of the house, starting with Daddy's shoes. He then found one of Jon's fleeces and wanted to wear that too. So we played "dress-ups" with Dad's clothes!! (This is where my personality comes into play - I LOVED dress-ups as a kid)

He turned out looking more like Alvin and the Chipmunks than Daddy, but the resemblance to his daddy is there!

And JD loved playing Daddy for awhile!

Cuts, Bruises and Bloody Noses

I know - everyone's thinking, "You have a boy! What do you expect?" Well, I'm used to girls, so I am still getting used to my poor guy getting himself bruised and bloodied.

The aforementioned cut was actually in regard to a recent haircut, nothing more serious than that.

Here is the before:

And here is the after:

Did you notice the bruise on his cheek from hitting the table corner? We can't seem to get a break from the facial bruises. He is always banging into something. He stands at the perfect height for tables and armoire doors to bang him on the head.

And then last night, he slipped on one of his many cars and hit his nose on the floor. So my poor baby had his first bloody nose!! It was so sad (for Mama, JD didn't care quite as much).

I'm trying to prevent a trip to the emergency room in the near future, but I am thinking that it might happen anyway.

Cooking It Up Right

We had another Food Creates Community event this past weekend and it went so well!!

The week before FCC got a mention on D Magazine's food blog Side Dish, so we had a bunch of attendees that are readers of that blog.

You can also get a more formal view of the event and what was served at dinner on the FCC blogsite.

We worked a really long and tiring night, but the guests were so appreciative and seemed to really enjoy the food.

Josh, Jon and Jordan getting ready to cook it up right before the guests arrive.

The always supportive wives helping to set the table and serve.

I'm recommending the paired wine to one guest.

Jon's cooking up the sauce for the risotto.

Jon is plating the fish, risotto, spinach dish. Yum!

Emily, Jordan's wife, really didn't want to serve these cookies. She wanted them all to herself! (I can't blame her - they were great!)

Dara was getting ready to serve the limoncello gelato for dessert. Jon made the gelato!

All of these great pictures were taken by Josh's dad - Edd Eason, who attended.

It was a lot of running back and forth during the dinner to make sure that everyone got their food hot and wine and water glasses were full.

But don't think that we were resting after dinner was over! Then we started in on washing the dishes!!

This picture is from one of the guests who attended and thought it was hilarious that we were in the garage washing dishes!

But I am so glad that the event was a success and we are still getting great comments from those who attended and even on the Side Dish blog!

Pillow Talk

JD really didn't want to go down for a nap today. Even though his little eyes were droopy and he was yawning, he insisted that he wanted to "play cars." After an hour and a half of hearing JD talk in his crib, I went up to let him know that it was time to go to sleep. Here is how the conversation went:

Me: "Naptime mister."

JD: "Play cars."

Me: "Lay down. It's naptime."

JD: "Play cars please."

Me: "After nap. Lay down."

JD: "Please please please please. Play cars PLEASE!"

Me: "Naptime."

JD: "Cars. Please. Play. Cars. PLEASE!"

Me: (Trying unsuccessfully not to laugh) "Naptime now."

JD: (As I am walking out the door) Crying, "CAAAARRRRSSSS!! PLEEEEAASE!!!"

I thought it would be easier as your kids started to learn how to talk. They could tell you want they want. Well, I know what JD wants, that's for sure!!

Learning to Speak JD

In honor of JD's 22nd month of life, I wanted to capture some of JD's linguistic developments. It is amazing to me how he hears one thing and when he repeats it, it comes out completely different. And he is starting to string them together into phrases, which can make it even more difficult to decipher.

Gicky - "Mickey" (as in Mickey Mouse)
Poopee - "Excuse Me"
Peas - "Please"
Date U - "Thank You"
Wuh Wuh Wuh - "I love you"
Diddles - "Wiggles"
Oofy - "Goofy"
Poo NaNa - "Pooh went night night" (I heard this one for the first time this morning)
Burr - "Bear"
Yaayo - "Yellow"
Yeyee - "Ellie"
Gucket - "Margaret" (or it can mean bucket)
Tetzel - "Pretzel"
Mama - "Mama, Emma, Grandma"
Come - "Thomas" (As in Thomas the Tank)
KayKay - "Kenna"
Teetza - "Pizza" (which started off more like peepee, so I'm glad we evolved that word)
Pay Cars - "Play cars" (which basically means do anything other than what I am doing right this minute)

I love hearing JD talk and my favorite is "Wuh wuh wuh," as you can imagine! We can have quite the conversation now, but he will get really frustrated if I don't understand what he is saying right away!