Gabe's HAIR

My good friend Christie has a new camera and is doing awesome with it! I asked her to get some pictures of Gabe and his hair before my husband makes me cut it. I do agree it's getting a little out of control, mainly the mullet in the back... We will do a small trim... I just know they are gonna keep it short the rest of their lives probably once they are older...

Anyhow, I think she got some great pictures!

Jayce 4, Gabe almost 2

Just wanted to post a few recent pictures and write what the boys have been up to...

Gabe and Jayce are both very active and lively at this age to say the least, hence the little time for blogging lately! In the past, I have always said that at least God seems to only make one go through a challenging stage at a time, and how much I was thankful for that... Well, I guess he thought I had too much time on my hands and needed a new challenge! So, they are both a little wild and crazy these days! When friends ask if I am having another, I laugh and say that I think 2 boys counts as 4 already, so I get extra credit! No, really, I am loving them through this stage, the good and the bad... more the good of course and ready for it to get a little easier, but I know it is a phase!

I'm posting a few recent random pics and also some of Jayce's first field trip to the strawberry patch with Mrs. Rogers class! I had so much fun, rode on the bus with the kids and my sister in law was so kind to keep Gabe! I love watching Jayce interact with his little school friends!

Jayce:

The good-
Jayce is hilarious as always and makes me laugh 100 times a day probably.
Example: I just told him he needs to eat his macaroni and cheese and broccoli (leftover lunch) before having any snacks, he said, I will eat the macaroni but the broccoli really gives me a headache mom...
-he showers me with kisses and hugs and roses (from my rosebush outside)
-he loves to play with Gabe most of the time and tells him he is his best friend ever
He told me today that I am the "best parent ever" because I
"make him food, help him play things, help him get ready, help teach him to be good," this made me feel really good that he acknowledged I am doing something!


The bad-

Yesterday he colored on my wall with permanent marker (first time ever, right after having them painted last week)
He dumped water down my oreck canister vacuum (first time ever again, right after I paid 60 dollars to have it repaired last week)...
BUT, I think God is using this to show me things are things... Yes, he was definitely punished and lectured for destroying property BUT, I did feel reminded in the midst of my frustration that I am so thankful for my relationship with Christ as HE is the only one that will remain the same when all else fails...


Gabe
The good-
He is talking up a storm, loves to say
"thank you mommy" when I hand him anything,
sometimes "mommy daddy,"- Jay said last night, I think we have become one person to Gabe

Loves to say "yes" and NOOOOOOOOO (quite good at this one)

He calls cereal "re-al"

Calls his nanny "mimi"- no matter how hard we work on this one...

He is beginning to like to give hugs in the morning time while we're getting ready and it is the sweetest thing!

The bad-

He is definitely having roll around on the ground fits
Also, he will turn bright red and start gagging from screaming so loud and intensely for 45 minutes to an hour at a time when he is mad or restrained in a car seat or store buggy... this does make me feel a little insane!
He gets really mad if I do not:
let him play with outlets
let him play with my makeup, especially the mascara
let him eat toothpaste
let him dump out bags of chips, pretzels or anything else that could possibly make a great mess
let him climb and jump off the couch or any other piece of furniture
let him climb up the swing set in the back yard

Other than this, we are good!

The great-with both of them, the good moments are great enough to makeup for the tough and I am so thankful to be their mommy through it all!

Police Officer Mr. Jayce

Jayce hopped in the car from school the other day and said (with his handmade police hat on),
"Hello mama, I am police officer Mr. Jayce!" We have been Mr. Jayce for quite some time but now we have added a few credentials to the name! He is really interested in police officers, always talking about them. Not sure if that's a good thing or not?!

Jayce is full of life at 4 I must say! That might be another reason I've not had much time for blogging lately... He had dropped and then picked up his nap again, but we're back to no nap... It's a hard stage because he is getting a bit grumpy and I know he still needs the rest, yet he fights it so bad and it takes me lying down with him for an hour and a half to get him to sleep. By that time, Gabe is usually up and I can't get anything done, so I think we'll just stick this out and hope he adjusts to less sleep soon... He is SUCH a sweet boy when he has his rest! Maybe he'll catch up this summer...

Jayce's favorite thing to do is still to walk around with his backpack filled with everything you could imagine... hair gel, pullups for bedtime, his animals, snacks, toothbrush...even put a ladybug in there last week... he's something!

Gabe at 21 months

What? We are in the 20's almost 2???? Mr. Gabe is a mess these days. He LOVES strawberries as you can see here! We had a great time with our best friend Wallace, "Wally" at the strawberry patch last week! Thanks Tara for the cute pic!

Gabe's favorite things to say right now are: MINE, re-al (for cereal), baa (for granola bar), appy (for apple),
"Hey", "Hewo," "See yall," "go Outside," "Upstairs," "Bonk Bonk, Ewwie," (his cousins), "where's Wally, daddy, Jayce, bubby, etc..." Ro-Ro (for Mrs. Rosa at the gym), wee wee (yes, big bubby taught him that one)... they are such boys! "whew-wee" when he has a stinky or is about to do one(he actually cares and tells us when he has one, UNLIKE Jayce did), "I see Jayce or I wan see Jayce" "bye bye or night night or hey mommy!"

BIG highlight of our day, or YEAR for that matter- Gabe and I ran 3 errands today with loud talking, singing happy birthday to you , but NO SCREAMING throughout the store! WOW! This is big people!

Also, we have switched his car seat to the middle seat so he sits beside Jayce and it has cut our crying/screaming time down in the car drastically!

The past two days I have gone back to letting Gabe feed himself his yogurt or applesauce and, while it is pretty messy, he actually does get a good bit in his mouth and it's about the only thing that will keep him entertained for longer than 2 minutes, so I'll deal with the mess!

Gabe is just as social as Jayce has always been, he LOVES people! We cannot go anywhere without him trying to greet (often 5-10 times) each person we pass and waving excitedly at them! Everyone says, what a pretty girl!!! Yes, probably time for the first hair cut...we are getting a little mullet... I just need to get a few more good pics first!

Easter and Spring Break

So, I have been HORRIBLE updating the blog lately! It's been super busy around here! Now that I am "working" part time with my ebay store selling these personalized house flags, I am using all my free time doing that it seems. But, I promise to try to do better with updates here...

We had an awesome Easter! We had church that morning and the boys each had a chance to have their pictures made there. Jayce's turned out super cute, but Gabe was 1/2 children in our church (A BIG CHURCH) who would not allow them to have their picture made... His teachers could not believe he was so uncooperative, but he did NOT want to pose for that camera! Oh well, at least we got a few... This was Jayce's first year in a big boy outfit and he did look super handsome, although by these pictures he had lost his tie and his shirt tail had made it's way out of his pants, and I was too darn tired to fix it!!!! Anyhow, both boys were super handsome in their Easter outfits from Nanny! We had our annual lunch and egg hunt with the "cuzzies" and Jayce was super at getting eggs this year! Gabe was not really into it quite yet!

Spring Break-went to Hilton Head with daddy for a few days and FROZE but had a great time! The boys even ran in and out of the water, crazy!

So hard to believe school is almost out and summer is here! We have been spending our afternoons running through sprinklers and playing with the water hose, amazing the entertainment it provides!

More party pics

Thanks to my great friend Christie, I have many more pictures to post from the party... She was so kind as to experiment with her new camera at our party!

Jayce's 4th Birthday Party Pics

Jayce's party was a blast! I did not run around with my camera the whole time this year and just decided to have fun and it was great! Friends will be sending more pictures that are hopefully better than mine, so I'll post more later, but you can get the idea from these! We had so much fun this year... I made the cakes... along with 4 dozen cupcakes and I am caked out! I actually did 3 different recipes for cakes and icings last week trying to decide which I'd use and boy it's hard work! I really enjoyed it though! And, I even passed the test of the McLaughlin's saying my cake tasted good! That's huge! This was also my first experience decorating cakes and while I am certainly no Martha Stewart, I felt like they turned out decent for the first time... The car ride there got my dino a little smudged on the border, and I will definitely invest in a cake leveler next time for my layered cake as it was a little lopsided, but hey, I don't think the 4 year olds noticed and they still tasted good!

Daddy made all Jayce's banners and he especially loved his Land Before Time one!

At the party, we had a dinosaur egg hunt, did a pinata, and played pin the tail on the dinosaur! I am such a game girl so I loved being able to do these this year!

Jayce's main gift from us was his new big boy bike... spiderman, helmet, knee and elbow pads included! He does so well on it already, we were both really impressed!

Gabe went his first day without a nap and was in bed by 6:30 and I woke him at 9:15 on Sunday!

Never would have dreamed such a girly girl could have so much fun with a dinosaur party! But, just seeing how excited he was made it all so great!