Valentine's Day

Of course Jer is my true Valentine...but I also have these two precious bundles of sugar that are my little Valentines...

Sweet Isabella Corrinne...

And handsome Jackson Samuel...

We had a splendid Valentine's Day together!  We enjoyed a morning at home together...then we made a special Valentine's lunch which included a heart-shaped peanut butter sandwich. =)

We made a Valentine for daddy...and had it waiting on the door when he arrived home from work...

We  mailed our special Valentines to She-She, Pappa and Mimi...

Then, daddy took us out for a special Valentines Day family dinner together!  Our new favorite Mexican restaurant...

Snuggles...

And Kisses...

When we returned from dinner, Daddy gave us each a special Valentine's Day card...and gave Boo a special candy bracelet!  She loooooved it!  We even let her sleep with it...I mean what's Valentine's Day without going to bed with a sugar high!?! ;)

Lots to be thankful for this Valentine's Day...I'm thankful most of all for my wonderful husband who loves the Lord with his entire heart, sould and mind...because from that love comes an abundance of love for us as his family.  In addition, I am thankful for my two beautiful, healthy children and the privilege to be able to spend my days raising them and enjoying life with them as they grow up.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!  Love from our family to yours!

9 months!

Seriously!?!  This little munckin of a man is 9 months!?!!  No way...slow down time!  As you can tell from these precious pictures that my mother-in-law took over our Christmas visit, Jackson is quite the charmer!  His tender little personality just warms my heart!  His smile brightens everyones day and his happy-go-luck little giggle certainly brings a smile to everyone's face when they hear it. =)

He continues to be a pure delight to our family.  The Lord certainly knew we needed sweet Jackson to balance our family dymanics!  He loves life...everything about life!  It's so fun seeing him begin to explore the world on his own as he crawls around..more like army crawls.  He is always ready for a good time and rarely pitches a fit...and he is in love with his beautiful big sis...

I'm sure there will come a day when he won't tolerate all her big sis ways...but for now he just squeals and giggles when she walks in the room!  He doesn't seem to mind when Bella plays mommy and drags him "carries" him all around the house!  (Don't worry...I try to always be close by...)  

Oh my...I love this little face...

Do you see the sweet sugar that just drips off that precius little chinny...chin...chin...

And these feet!  Look at those ankles...or should I say cankles!!?  I love kissing those toesies!!

This is one of our new family pass times...
Bella races around the island in our kitchen....and Jeremy holds Jackson in the flying position!  As soon as he sees Bella start running...Jackson starts pumping his legs and flapping his arms as he squeals....and Jeremy runs!!!  The faster he pumps the fast they run!  It's great!

He has decided the past month that he LOVES food!!  I finally figured out that he wasn't refusing the food...but he was refusing to be fed by a spoon!  This little guy is as happy as can be as long as he can feed himself!  So we pretty much skipped the pureed food and went straight to finger foods!  He loves it all!  He east a variety of veggies, fruits and grains now!

 "All done...give me more!"...

His stats:

Weight:  20lbs   55%
Height:  26 inches  55%
Head:  75%

His schedule:

6:30  Wake/Nurse/Breakfast

9:00  Nap

10:30 Wake/Nurse

12:00  Lunch

1:00  Nurse/Nap

3:30  Wake

4:00  Nurse

6:00  Dinner

7:00  Bath/Nurse

8:00  Bed

Lake Murray Dam...

This past Saturday, we did our first family run over the Lake Murray Dam.  It was a gorgeous day...70 degrees in mid-January!  We enjoyed spending time together...just the four of us! =)

Lake Murray is a huge man-made lake which is just a couple miles from our house!  Our church's property actually backs up to the lake and that is where they have their baptism services.

Here are the babies all loaded up and ready for the ride...

 It's 1.7 miles one way...making a 3.4 mile total run! 

After our run, we took Bella down to  the picnic area and we played in the water for a little bit.

Sooo much fun...

You knew this was coming...right!?  What two year old can wade in water without the clothes coming off!!??

The water was pretty chilly...but she talked mamma into getting my toes wet. :)

This is just 10 minutes from our house...so I'm sure we will be making lots of runs over the dam in the future! :)

Home Sweet Home :)

We are settling in to a good little routine here in our new city!  It's an adjustment for all of us...but change is good and exciting!

Bella is such a good little helper...she really thinks she is brother's second mamma! Ha!

We've ventured out for a few runs together...it's a little more hilly here than we're used to...but that will just get mamma into shape real fast!

Our house has walk-in closets in every room...so Bella and Jackson love having a special little nook to play in together...

Bella and I are slowly getting back into our routine of projects and doing "school" time together while brother takes his morning nap...we loved painting this week!

Bella and Jackson have sure enjoyed their Christmas present from mommy and daddy...a new kitchen!  

Just a few pictures of life in Irmo!  We have been so welcomed by our new church family and the community.  We've enjoyed several dinner dates with various families and look forward to beginning play dates soon too!  Jeremy is settling in to his new job and continues to be blessed by the wonderful people he has the privilege of serving with at Gateway.  I have enjoyed a night out with some new girlfriends...so sweet!  We had our first small group meeting this week with 4 other couples which was excellent.  I had fun a JAM this morning (once a month morning time for moms..brunch and a speaker).  I'm super excited about the Beth Moore study I'll be participating in on Tuesday mornings!
The babies had a week of being sick...but I believe we are on the road to being well for a while!  Park dates, library story time and play dates...here we come!!!

Christmas #2

We stayed for a few days down in Florida and then headed back to South Carolina!  My sisters just happened to both be about 2 hours away celebrating Christmas with their in-laws so my whole family met up at our new house and we enjoyed spending a few days together!  

We enjoyed being lazy and catching up on some much needed zzzzzzzz's after our travels. =)

Bella sure loves her Pappa and enjoyed dancing with him (on his toes)...

They also had fun taking Pappa to our neighborhood park!  Sporting the Ironman hat of course...:)

I'm not sure any of us stayed up until midnight to ring in the new year...BUT we had a wonderful toast the next morning together!  (good ole apple cider of course)...hehe

Sweet cuddles with cousins and aunties, uncles...and Pappa and Mimi always make the holidays complete...

We were so blessed this Christmas to have had the privilege of spending time with all our family even in the midst of a move!!!  All my family was able to join us at our new church on Sunday...so fun to worship together and begin the new year together!  God is good...His timing is always perfect!  We are excited for what the Lord has in store for us in 2013!

Christmas #1

This Christmas season was busy yet full of fun adventures!  We were moved in to our new house 9 days before loading up and heading back to Florida to spend Christmas with Jeremy's family!  Before heading out, we actually had a chance to have our first family night out together!  We went to Buffalo Wild Wings and enjoyed a night out in Irmo!

Brother enjoyed making all the noise he wanted too......

Bella enjoyed her Mozzerella sticks!  Yum!!!

We had a few nights together to enjoy our fireplace and just be cozy together in our new home!  Here are a few Christmas pics...

Love my sweet babies!

All dressed for our Christmas Eve service!  We are having fun meeting new friends and getting in our new routine!

First Christmas :)

After the Christmas Eve service, we loaded up the babies and drove to Florida!  Then, we woke up Christmas morning ready to celebrate Jesus' birthday!  

Bella was in awe of She-She's Christmas tree!

We read the Christmas story...

And then opened gifts!  Which is OH so fun these days...

How special!

Such a sweet time together with family!

Jackson loved his new firetruck!!! (He wore the pj's Jeremy wore on his first Christmas morning!)

He also loved his first trucks...every boy needs trucks!

Such a wonderful first Christmas for our boy...

Merry Christmas to all!

Look at all this delicious food that we had for Christmas dinner.....YUM!!!

8 months!

My little handsome man is 8 months!  Slow down time...you go by too, too fast!  Isn't so true that as a mom of a 2 year old and 8 month old that the days sometimes seem to go slowly but the weeks go all too fast!  You know what I mean?!  It's like lunch time or that time between nap time and dinner time just seems to creep by...but then the weeks and months seem to fly by!  I honestly have to fight back my tears cause I just don't want my babies to grow up!  There's probably mixed reasoning behind those emotions...but I guess the main reason is that I feel they are safe and secure and mostly innocent while they are babies and toddlers......and.....soft and squishy and giggly. =)  But, as I pray every day and usually many times through out the day...the Lord continues us give me wisdom and discernment as we raise these little munchkins.  Every stage is a blast...and this little booger is bursting with personality these days!

She-She, (Jeremy's mom) took these pictures of Jackson in her new studio when we were down visiting for Christmas!  Ahhhh....don't you just want to eat him up!  I know he's my baby and I'm allowed to be biased....but he has got to be the cutest little guy around!!!

Jackson is becoming more and more of his own little person!  He loves people and will just light up a room with his sweet smile and cuddly personality.  He really never cries unless he's starving, has a nasty diaper or is sleepy!  Now, he's proving to us that he's not just gonna be an easy push over either.  In the past month or so, he has started to give a holler if Bella takes his toy one too many times! :)  He is adjusting just fine to our new home.

His schedule remains about the same and he has become an excellent self soother for nap times and  bedtime!  As long as he has his little lovey....he will usually doze right off!

He still babbles a ton!  But, we can't really decipher any specific words just yet.  If "mamma" or "dadda" is said...he looks right to us with a big grin!  He especially lights up when big sis walks into the room.  It's the sweetest thing!  He prefers to be sitting on the floor surrounded by toys!  He's not in the swing anymore...and rarely will stay in the exersaucer.  He hasn't started crawling yet...but I suspect it will be any time now!  He still loves nursing...but we are trying hard to introduce him to various foods!  I think he's just gonna go straight to finger foods here pretty soon.  It seems that he would much rather feed himself than be fed with a spoon!  Too funny!  We are enjoying every minute with our little guy and he continues to be such a sweet blessing!

His schedule:
7         Wake/Nurse/Solids
9         Nap
10:30  Nurse
12:30  Solids
1:30    Nurse/Nap
4:30    Nurse
6:00    Solids
7:30    Nurse/Bed
(He usually wakes once to nurse now.)

His Stats:
I'm not sure on his head and height...I will get that at his 9 month check-up...but he weighs 20lbs!