Been a while...

... sorry. :-( This couple of weeks was insanely busy. I had to finish my school year with an all day Junior High Musical rehearsal/performance on the 16th. I had 40 kids all by myself from 10 am until about 8 pm for the whole production. I have realized that my JH classes are now too big to combine and will have to do their own show from here on out unless my enrollment drops. Since that's not likely it may mean more work during the school day, but it will be worth it to avoid the chaos of that combined Saturday like this year. Ugh! The Monday following that I had the Max Awards (Oscar's style awards that our drama club puts together for the faculty and staff at the school), writing grading period ending tests, AND final exams, clearing/cleaning out my classroom for the year, setting up and implamenting an "Amazing PALs Race" and Lock-in to close out the school year for them, and getting all my grades done so I don't have to go back to work until mid-August! Whew!! I'm wiped out, but Richard reminded me to get caught up on here so we can clear out the camera and get ready for more! It was the least I could do today!

Richard is humming right along at work, then here at home he has taken the yard and landscaping seriously. We had planted the acorns earlier this year and now he added trees. We now have 2 Chinese Pistash and 3 fruit trees. He also clipped our lone Poplar in the back so it is looking very tree-like instead of like a giant bush. He has gotten all the edging around the house cleared out and we are hoping to do some planting next year there when the weeds have been under control for a while. He has taken over all of the mowing (which before had me running ragged to keep up with while keeping the house alone too). It has been so great. The yard looks nice and tended! He also was super sweet today and swept and steam mopped the floors (one of my usual Saturday chores) because I had that lock-in last night at the school and laid down to nap with Jansen. I woke up to squeaky clean floors! Yeah!!

Jansen started crawling (finally) Sunday the 24th. He crawls to something and immediately pulls up. He doesn't seem to have much love for crawling. For him it seems a means to get somewhere only so that he can get upright as soon as possible. He is standing alone for a couple of seconds at a time now so walking may come sooner rather than later, but we'll see. He is so active and busy now-a-days. It has gotten virtually impossible to get anything done during his wake time so that means this summer I will have to be stratigically planning nap time duties! At least he still naps pretty good so far. He also had his last day at the Amazing Grace's house. Since she is going back into the workforce this summer we have to move out on Friday. OK, so we didn't really have THAT much stuff there, but it did really feel like a good-bye. We have decided on doing a playday each week until school starts again so hopefully we won't lose her completely! She has been so wonderful and has become a great friend through out this year!! She made Jansen a scrapbook of his days with her and her kids and gave it to us on his last day. It is awesome! She will be a tough act for the next sitter or daycare to follow, I tell you! Jansen also says "Ka" now so when he gets going he sounds like a little crow "Ka-ing" away. It's pretty cute. We have also come back to a screaming/yelling phase again. It seems these phases pass, then return after a short time so... "It's baaaaaa-aack!" He also has two teeth cut now and it looks like at least on on the top and maybe two are shortly behind. I know I'm in no hurry for them to get here. This little guy is a rough teether. I think he got my temper, but definitely not my pain tolerence!

Jonathan is finishing up his school year this next week. I got out before he did this year. He brought wonderful news with him last weekend... He PASSED ALL his state tests. We were all anxious to get the results as here in TX you can not move on past the 3rd grade until you have passed that level of exams. The same will hold true in regards to 11th and graduating so we have a while before it is quite so heavy a burden, but he'll still have exams each year and if he doesn't pass those they generally make the kids go to summer school so it's still a big deal. He let us know by saying, "Well, I'll be going to 4th grade next year." He was so cool about it when we had all been so wound up waiting for the results! He's so funny! More pics of him this next round. I promise. We had no batteries for the camera last weekend so we missed out. Boo!

Cody has learned a way to avoid hurting Jansen that is really very sweet. He has such monster paws that accidentally catching Jansen with them is something that we have been stressing with him, especially now that Jansen is on the floor with him even more. He has taken to curling his front paws under his chest when he's laying on the floor by Jansen. It is really cute. He does get excited and forget so we do have to keep watching him (which we would anyway), but it really seems that he does it consciously. He also licks Jansen's feet, which makes him giggle. We're still working on not licking anywhere else though. The hands and face gross me out, but he generally does great with that too. He does forget now and then though if Jansen gets put back down on the floor after has been eating an especially yummy morsel.

Well ,That catches us up... My next updates should be more timely since I'M NOT WORKING until AUGUST!! WaHoo!!

Baby Wranglin' -Yee Haw!!

After bath time there is a naked little boy who likes to "move it, move it!" I decided to do the whole lotion, diaper and jammies on the floor so we had some room to stretch out and ended up wranglin' instead! Here's the process:

"If you want to put a diaper on this naked butt you'll have to wrestle me back down!"

"Missed me, Mom... Now to drive my keepsake box around the room. One of my favorite things to do!"

"I think I can, I think I can... stand with this thing that is!"

"Oh My Gosh!! You caught me!!! Now I have to yell and do push ups to get geared up for the next round. I refuse Jammies!! Say it with me... I refuse jammies!"

"Hah... back in the driver's seat. Get me now, Lady!"

"Man, I didn't realize lock-up was the penalty for driving naked around my room. I may have to think twice about this, but it sure was fun!"

Memorial Day

Mommy and Jansen just hanging out on Memorial Day evening after I got home. I had to work on the holiday, darn it!

Relaxing and Playing

Jansen was so busy this night that he wore himself smooth out by bath time. After bath it was nursing time and he passed out snoring in the middle of it. When he turned his head this is the result! He USUALLY has managable hair that falls easily into place save for a small swirl in the back. This was flat out WILD!!

Stuck... with all this new moving around comes moments of frustration, like getting stuck in the crib slats while playing in there.

I smell disaster, but it's so fun to watch the discovery part! He found the bag of games that I hadn't put up today when I got home from the lock-in with the PALs last night. He did end up pulling it over, but he was having such fun with the string and the bag itself (and the sounds they made) that we let him play while we watched.

Videos

So I'm still not very good at the video thing, but I'm learning. I capture a decent moment, then drag on and on so if you watch the first few seconds, you'll see the good stuff. The rest is pretty much just me trying to coax Jansen to do more and he just keeps doing his thing rather than what Mommy wants! I guess getting a 9 month old to perform on cue is unrealistic (duh) so I'll just try to keep them short from here on out, unless he is voluntarily continuing the cool stuff! Richard is still so much better at the vids than I though!

I had a lock in with my students on the night of the 29th. I was too tired when I got home to put everything up, so Jansen discovered the bag of games and was playing with it. We were watching him and he was having such fun. Right after Richard got this video, he pulled the whole thing down on top of himself (he was fine, just scared) and that spoiled his fun for the evening though.

Jansen perusing the classifieds. I guess the economy is freaking him out so he's job hunting early or something!

Pulling up in the crib.

Pre-crawling in his room after bath time. I had to wrangle him to get the diaper on even! He's so busy!!

Oops...

I was tired and I missed some important photos yesterday when I was updating. I'm going to add them in here albiet out of place!

Here's my hodge-podge:

Jansen may be 9 months but he's still a little squirt! Here he is sitting nicely with Cody. Granted Cody is a monster of a dog, but it is kinda funny to see the difference in the two. Whenever I feel like Jansen is growing up too fast all I have to do is make Cody sit next to him (for now) and I feel a little better!

The bros playing. Jansen was quite entertaining this weekend in the jumper for Jonathan. Jonathan kept asking to put him in there again because it is so fun to watch him jump away!

Ok, so most of you already know that Grace watches Jansen and that I think she is the best, most awesome babysitter ever. I am so fortunate that I can also call her friend! She has been an angel here on Earth this year for our family, but especially my little munchkin. I (and Jansen) will be lost without her next year since she will be re-entering the teaching workforce. I am saying all that on here for two reasons: 1) to lay on a guilt trip (ha-ha, just kidding) and 2) to let her know how much we love her. She pops in on the blog now and then so I'm hoping this is a post she'll get to see! Well, for my first Mother's Day she made me these two necklaces. One is Jansen with "I love you" on it, the other is a pic of the 4 of us and says "family." Along with a hand made card. I got all misty when I opened them. They are so cool!! I wore the white one to church today and got stopped so other mommies could admire it and beg to know where I got it! If she wanted to she could probably sell them! She's so creative and thoughtful!

9 Months AND Mother's Day Weekend

Well, my BABY has reached 9 months already. I can't get over it! He still doesn't care to crawl but scoots around backwards and does push-ups yet. He does like to hold our fingers and walk around though. More evidence that he'll probably skip the crawling thing (or maybe just do it briefly) I guess. I'll ask the doc when we go on Monday for our 9 month appt. I am kind of sad about it though. I really like seeing those little butts wiggle back and forth in the air when they are crawling! *sigh* Oh well, we will take it one milestone at a time!! He is starting self feeding, but I'm not pushing it too much until after school's out because I still want it to be easy at Grace's. Sending commercial babyfood is much easier than trying to cook him a lunch to send!! Most of my friends with Little Ones have said that once they started with self feeding regular foods, the baby foods were refused. We'll start that when I'm off of work.

I am totally the princess this weekend!!! Mother's Day started for me on Thursday with a flower delivery at work (pics below) and then I hinted that combining my Mother's Day and Birthday (13th) to get the steam mop I wanted would be great. Sooooo... when I got home from school Thursday evening my steam mop had been delivered and was waiting for me!! WaHoo!! Then while Jonathan has been here they cooked me breakfast this morning for Mother's Day tomorrow AND we then grilled steaks to celebrate my birthday tonight!! I EVEN got a 2 hour nap with Jansen today after I had done a little spring cleaning and broke in the steam mop! I feel on top of the world!!! I may be spoiled, but I certainly appreciate it!!

Now I'm headed into a super busy week. Monday is Jansen's doc appt., Tuesday is a PALs night (I may skip and let them do it by themselves), Wednesday is my birthday, Thursday is a prep for Max Awards and the Junior High musical next weekend, Friday is a freakout day putting together all the missing links for the show Saturday, then Saturday I am at the school from 10 am until about 8 pm with my Junior High kids for their musical performance. Whew!! If anyone wants to come down, it will be a fun show!!

Richard is prepping for more trials since everything had been postponed a bit for the "pig bug" and Jonathan is awaiting his state standardized test scores from last week. He's ready for the end of school as well!

It's been a good week in our neck of the woods! Hope all is well with you all!!

Happy First Mother's Day!!!

Beautiful lillies arrived Thursday for me! The card said: Happy first Mother's Day. You are appreciated every day. We love you. Richard the Dad, Jansen the Kid, and Jonathan the Big Kid!

I also got the steam mop that I wanted since Jansen will be floorin' it more and more now!

Saturday (since Sunday's are travel days to take Jonathan home) we celebrated! I got breakfast made by my boys!! Jonathan's cooking the eggs! Yummy!!

Richard helping, just a little, according to Jonathan!

Jansen is directing the cooking action via kitchen utensils!

A finely tuned machine... all the boys working together to feed me!!


The final product. Not just edible, but scrumptious!!

May 7, 2009: 9 months

9 Months today and eating puffs and getting the hang of the sippy cup.

Happy 9 months!

That night he was doing a weird upside down thing on Daddy's lap! What a goofball!

May 3, 2009: Jonathan's First Communion

The years are flying by! I can't believe Jonathan is old enough for his first Communion!! What a special weekend for us all, but especially him! Richard, Jansen and I traveled down to him on Saturday afternoon so that we could be there. Richard was his sponsor.

Service has just ended and Jonathan has reached a milestone in his young life! Doesn't he look thrilled!! He was really in a great mood today, I think he was just tired of being in the spotlight for a bit!

Waiting his turn for the formal pics. Isn't he handsome, even without the smile?

Jonathan and his Mom on his big day.

Jonathan and his Dad on his special day.

The formal pic. I snuck in and took my own too!! =-P

Jonathan's First Communion

Today was Jonathan's First Communion!! We all travelled down to see him. It was really a special weekend. We stayed at the Holiday Inn where they had an indoor swimming pool and the big boys swam until they were shriveled! Jansen went early in the day with them, but then was too tired after supper to go again.

This is all I could get of Richard and Jonathan walking in "together." Jonathan was at a full sprint to his seat, I think, so I could only catch Richard trying to keep up!

When he got to his seat I did get to at least glimpse the back of his head!! He's the taller White Shirt on the left (second kiddo from left).

Jansen was naughty so we were outside. Terry (Jonathan's Mom) was taking pics since I couldn't actually be there to see. You can see them (Richard and Jonathan) in the far back center of the shot as he was recieving for the first time!!

Practice Time

Jansen got a glimps of Cody through the gate and tried so hard to get to him! He gave up and went for the box with his trash bags for his diaper pail instead. I guess it's time to put those up high and baby proof the baby's room!! I do have the outlets plugged, now I just have to go over the rest.

Richard says Jansen does better push-ups than I do, however I think we both feel the same about them!!

Playing with Daddy

All smiles when playing with Daddy and practicing "pre-"crawls!

Sunday Funday Jumps and Blocks!

Jansen loves jumping now, on one of us or in his jumper either way is fine with him!! He's tireless with it!

I was playing blocks with Jansen. I know that at this age they love to knock them down, but he isn't yet at the point where he can build them up himself. I was trying so hard to build them up so that he could smash them, but he kept demolishing it before I could get them stacked enough that it would be truly fun for him!! When I finally got them stacked up, he didn't want to smash them anymore. Ugh! It was still all fun anyway!! Especially when he finally figured out what to do with the stacks!

Sunday Funday

Jumping!

Sagging!

Moved on to blocks. Yum!

Mmmmm!

Mommy worked so hard to stack these so I could smash them! I kept smashing them while she was stacking, but then when she was finished and wanted me to smash them I just took one to taste again! =-P