Happy 3rd Birthday Jayce!

I cannot believe my baby boy is 3 today! Does this mean he is not a baby anymore? I know I am in denial, and have been for 2 years... We have had a wonderful day... Jayce's party is not until Saturday so we tried to make it as special for him today as we could... We baked cupcakes this afternoon for him to take to "school" tomorrow and this evening, we got a sitter for Gabe and took Jayce out to Red Bone Alley for a special birthday dinner! He said he wanted pizza and macaroni and by golly he got it! We ordered both, just b/c it was his birthday! Of course, he didn't actually eat it all... he saved room for dessert! He got a special birthday dessert and was especially fond of the "cream" on top... he loves whipped cream!

His gifts from us this year were:
a few dvd's for road trips

a table top easel for his art projects

lots of art supplies (to keep him nice and busy!)

his "own camera" which was his special request and actually something I had wanted to get him... this was his biggest gift and he loves it... took 65 pictures in 5 minutes of course!( By the way, it is very durable and made especially for kids... we'll see how well it holds up with Jayce :))

a little robot hand thing which he absolutely loves!

Jayce-
I am so very proud to be your mommy... You amaze me each day with your eagerness to learn and your sweet spirit. You told me today, "mommy, you are my favorite friend" and I cannot help but tear up over how precious you are. I am so thankful to your Heavenly Father for blessing me with a child who is SO full of life and LOVE! The way you raise your little eyebrows in excitement and the way your eyes light up when you are "so happy" brings me so much joy! May you always have such a sweet and bright spirit! Happy Birthday little man!

Happy Birthday from Daddy

Happy Birthday Jayce. I'm so happy that you're my little boy. You make me so proud and I have been truly blessed to be your daddy. I love you, Daddy.

Sweet little sayings and life without naps

I have been keeping little sticky notes all around the house with cute things that Jayce says so that I could eventually get them on here before I forgot them! Some of these things I might have written on here before and I apologize if so... bear with me... I don't have the time to look back!

Not only has Jayce stopped to say so often lately... I love you mommy or mom... whichever kind of mood he is in... but he will now stop and say I love my brother mommy. It is moments like this that make every temper tantrum worth it!

Also, he loves to help teach Gabe how to talk... he is always looking at him, saying, say bubba Gabe! say bubba!

You know he has been calling Gabe boo boo Gabe and then started calling me boo boo mommy and Jay boo boo daddy... the other day, I called him boo boo Jayce and he said yes, I am boo boo, and Gabe is bat bat...it appears he will have many names!

He is very imaginative these days...he loves to crawl around on the floor roaring at people.. sometimes this can be awkward... he says he is a lion... And yesterday, he told me that he was Little Bear...

He loves when he is talking to Gabe and Gabe starts laughing... which happens every time they converse... and Jayce will exclaim "He likes me mommy! He likes me!"

The other day, I called Jayce a cutie patootie (sp???) and he quickly corrected me and said, "no mommy, I'm a Jayce!"

On a side note..just an update on how life is going with no naps... I still definitely miss them.. BUT, here are the positives... I don't feel as if I've run a marathon every day at 3:15 after fighting him to go down for a nap...
He will actually tell me at 3 that he is getting sleepy and say he needs to lie down on the couch and willingly will lie down either in my bed or the couch and read books or watch a movie for about 2 hours...
I am able to get things done during this time... such as workout or work on Southern Living stuff or work on the computer... fix dinner... whatever, so it is not so bad...
And at 7:30, we are putting on pj's and ready for bed... Jay and I look at each other at 8 o clock like, what do we do? It is so nice to have that time to talk before bed when we used to only have time to say a few words after putting the boys down and before collapsing ourselves... I think I am going to be able to handle this... we have made it 2 weeks now.

Goodbyes

So, here are some pictures from our goodbye party we just had for Jayce's good friend Grayson (and my good friend Molly)...
The first however is a picture of our little ones at one of our earlier play groups... This play group started with seven of us moms and babes when they were all literally still in their carriers... We had the first one at my house in Old Quarter and I wish I had that picture of them all lined up in their carriers that first time... but it is on my old computer and I haven't gotten it on a disc yet... ANYHOW, this is one that I COULD find... and you can still see how much those who were pictured have all grown( it's always been a challenge to have everyone present for a group picture)!
I must admit this group was more of a play group for us stay at home mommies than it was for the kids most of the time.. It was an outlet, and therapy and reassurance for me that I was not the only one going through a challenging phase...For quite some time, we met every Friday, and rotated houses, most of the time even having a really nice prepared lunch most days! Then, the tots got a little more active and it became harder for us to fix lunch and so we simplified and met and had snacks or coffee... THEN, they became even more active and it became hard for us moms to even chat during play group, so we started a monthly girls night out and that has always been a highlight of my month! It was through this play group that I really made some great FRIENDS in Florence, that I really had things in common with!
So, the girls nights out have continued and we have tried to get the children together every several months since then...although the occasions for which we've met lately have not been to my liking! Our group has slowly dwindled... starting with Lauren and Mac leaving a few years ago actually... and Hope and Claudia left a month or so ago, and now Molly and Grayson... so sad... They all have had bigger and better things to move on to and I have been so excited for all of them, of course, but I will always remember and cherish the old days of Friday play groups and monthly nights out... where even on our nights out, we talked about the kids the whole time anyhow... I really do love these girls and their precious children and will always have wonderful memories of these good ole days!


PS these last pictures of Jayce digging into the cake are what happens when you leave your toddler unattended... even for a moment... don't leave cake out!

cupcakes

SO, it's my birthday today... the big 31.. man that sounds old! Jayce is SO into birthdays these days... as we've been talking about his party for months now it seems... So yesterday I told him that for my birthday, I wanted him to sing happy birthday to me and let me video tape him... as this is his favorite song to sing... then he said, mommy, who do you want to come to your birthday party? What kind of cake do you want? When I explained that it would probably just be the 4 of us and that I didn't need a big party like he will have... he said you have to have cake mommy... what kind do you want? Then he said... before I could answer... you probably want chocolate cake!
This morning, I went to get him and said, you need to sing to me now... he said, Where are the cupcakes? The boy LOVES some cake!

Here's Jayce

I accidentally put Gabe's picture on here twice... whoops... here is Jayce!

Easter Pictures

So, I went yesterday to take my boys to have their pictures made... things never go as planned right? It was actually much easier to get Gabe's picture than Jayce's... not what I was expecting... but being that we've given up the nap, Jayce was pretty tired, and put on this shy, grumpy face as soon as we walked in... and it was all we could do to get this one half smile out of him... He usually is such as poser these days for the camera... Gabe did great!

Then we got home and I tried to get a few more of them all dressed up, but to get them both to smile at once is pretty much impossible I've concluded!