Happy 4th Birthday Jacob!

Happy Birthday big boy! You're 4 today and definitely not a little boy any more. You have grown so much this year and taken all the new challenges in stride. We have watched you become the greatest big brother Owen could ask for. You are so loving and playful with him and it is so wonderful to watch you try to help him or make him laugh. You have such a passion for learning and it is so fun to watch you learn something new and be so proud of your work. Your endless energy is amazing and the random I love you's and kisses throughout the day melt my heart. You bring us so much joy every day and I love hearing all the stories you come up with. I don't think we could have ever imagined just how wonderful having you as our son has been. Love you big boy!

Party Day

We celebrated Jacob's 4th birthday today with a fun party with all of his friends. We had a tough time deciding what to do for his party this year. We would have liked to have it at home (because it is less expensive!) but with his birthday being in January we never know what the weather will be like and couldn't count on being able to use the yard and we didn't think the majority of the kids were old enough to get playing party games. So after some online research we found a really cool gym that we decided would be great. We had showed Jacob pictures of the gym and he was so excited. We even made a paper chain to count down the days until party day. So this morning he was thrilled that we finally got to go. There was so much to do there and he had a blast running around with all of his friends. He did some flips into the foam pit (and daddy did some flips too!) and went on a zipline across the gym! It was such a great experience!

After the party we headed home and he wanted to get out some of his presents already. He got a scooter from Grammy so we put that together and he went for a ride on that, then he wanted to play with his new play doh toy. He still has lots of new toys to play with and I'm sure he will be into them first thing in the morning, but tonight he was out quickly.

I can't believe he is almost 4. Four just seems so much older! So I will enjoy my 3 year old for a few more days before he is officially four.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9 Months

Another month has some how passed and we now are the proud owners (I definitely just typed Owen there) of a 9 month old. This has been quite the eventful month here. Of course Owen celebrated his first Christmas and first New Year. He is so full of personality and this month it has definitely started to show everywhere. There is no more army crawling. It is all crawling or walking along the furniture, bathtub, wall, whatever. He has discovered that he not only can leave the room that he is in, but he can follow me and Jacob around the house. I have frequently lost Owen in the house for a few minutes when he follows Jacob and then either gets distracted or can't keep up when Jacob leaves a room. His favorite thing to do while I am busy in the kitchen is follow Jacob around or play in the play kitchen. This month has also brought a ton more talking for Owen. Lots of mamas and babas and sometimes he will throw in a pa in there. No dadas yet, but we try to encourage that. He will call me mama and Jacob baba and he just started calling Josh mama too. In addition to the talking he screeches. Loudly. He loves to hear his echo and will sit in the hallway and just screech over and over and over. It is so loud but hilarious. He also screams. Slightly less high pitched than the screech. But the scream is used to tell us when he wants something, food, sleep, blankie, a toy, to nurse, attention. I was slightly worried about Owen not talking much because Jacob talks so much, but with this recent development, I am reassured that he will make himself heard.

Owen has also started playing with Jacob so much more. He wants to play with whatever Jacob is playing with, eat whatever he is eating, be where ever he is. He loves his brother so much. His favorite thing to play with right now is Jacobs legos. He loves to unlock the lego box, take the lid off and dump all of the legos out and bang them. Then he plays with the box then picks up the big yellow piece and chews on it. As of today, he still has no teeth, but there are two little bumps on the bottom so we are anticipating them any day now. The lack of teeth does not affect his eating at all though! He eats everything we eat. His favorite food right now is graham crackers. He loves them! He is also fond of prunes, pears, apples, and waffles. Oh and feeding Cosmo. He likes to throw stuff off his highchair to see how fast we can get to it before Cosmo gets it. He has also started using a sippy cup for water. He seems to have figured it out fairly quickly. It hangs out in the living room during the day so he grabs it randomly and drinks some water.

His 9 month check up isn't for another 2 weeks. We combined his 9 month and Jacob's 4 year visits since that would have put us in the office twice in 2 weeks. So I will update with his stats then.

 

And because Jacob wasn't up for a picture today here is an outtake

 

New Year

We had a very  low key new year this year. I bought Josh tickets to the Heart of Dallas Bowl, which our alma mater was playing in, for Christmas. The game was on New Year's Day so we stayed in since we would be leaving early in the morning for the game. The boys hung out at home with Grammy while we headed to the game. The game was so great! We met at a bowl game in New Orleans 10 years ago and North Texas hasn't been to a bowl game in 9 years. So it was so cool to get to go to this one for so many reasons. After a slow start though, North Texas pulled off a win! So exciting!

We had such a wonderful year last year. We were so blessed, with a wonderful 3 year old, our amazing new addition, great jobs, and lots of fabulous friends. This year brings some decisions to be made and possible changes in our life. Hopefully we will find that we will be as blessed this year in our new adventures as we were last year.

Great Article

I came across this article and thought it was very well written and captures our feelings about having all boys. (We assume if we have another it will be a boy since we make pretty awesome and adorable boys!)

http://www.whattoexpect.com/wom/pregnancy/the-wrong-reason-to-try-for-a-fourth-baby.aspx

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas here. Owen's first Christmas and while Jacob got Christmas last year, he remembered it this year, so he was really into Christmas. We started Christmas Eve with church followed by dinner and friends at Grammy's house. It is always fun to hang out with the Morrows on Christmas Eve, but with both kids this year we didn't get to play our annual Christmas trivia game. Both boys fell asleep on the way home that night and stayed asleep when we got home (a rarity for both boys.)

Fortunately, they also both slept in on Christmas morning! What a wonderful Christmas present for me and Josh! Jacob was so excited when he woke up though! He came into our room and said Santa brought lots of presents then ran back to the living room. We had to make him come back to our room because he was trying to open his stocking before we got out there! There was so much stuff under the tree this year, and due to crappy toy packaging, lots of really big boxes. Jacob was excited to rip into everything. Owen was amused with the presents, but Jacob, Josh and I had to help him open. And then he liked eating the paper and playing with the boxes or playing with the toys Jacob had already opened.

We hung out and played for a while after opening presents while waiting for Grammy and grandma to get here for breakfast. Owen took a nap so when Grammy got here we ate breakfast and then started round 2 with presents from Grammy. Jacob was so tired and said he was too tired to open any more presents. We told him we will just tell Santa not to bring so many next year! After we finished with Grammy's presents grandma got here and we opened her presents. Now we have a house full of new toys and books and movies that we have to figure out what to do with! But the boys had a great Christmas and it was a great first Christmas for Owen. I can't wait for next year to do it again!

Owen ready for tamales

 

Owen opening his first present with Jacob's help

 

 

Jacob playing Santa

 

Opening his first present, Planes DVD

 

The boys with the girls

 

And this is why we have professional family pictures taken every year

 

I love this face

 

 

Pretty mantle

 

Round 1

 

Greatest picture ever

 

 

 

He wanted a globe for Christmas

 

Who needs toys, I've got a box!

 

He had been asking for this since October, he was so excited!

 

Josh was super excited for his tickets to the Heart of Dallas Bowl

 

Round 2, and Jacob did not want a picture

 

One of Owen's presents was bigger than him!

 

Loving his new suitcase from Grammy

 

The aftermath

 

Merry Christmas!

8 Months

Yep. 8 months already. I feel like time is  moving so much faster with Owen than it did with Jacob (and it felt fast with him!). This month has been a month full of accomplishments for Owen. He is now crawling on his hands and knees 90% of the time (sometimes he crawls on his belly on the hardwoods), which also means he is moving more quickly and into more things. He pulls to standing on everything, couch, tv stand, laundry basket, toy baskets, crib. In the past two weeks walking into his room to get him from his crib he has frequently greeted us by standing in his crib bouncing and yelling. We will be lowering the crib mattress over the Christmas break. He is also crusing along anything he pulls up on. He can go the entire length of the couch now. He also likes to walk pushing his dino. It is slow but he does go. He still doesn't have any teeth, but that has not stopped him from eating everything we are now. He loves fruit and there are usually not many leftovers for Cosmo to clean off the highchair now. He loves his blankie and grabs for it when he is tired. He is very attached to me and when I get home from work he wants me to hold him rightthissecond, do no pass go, do not collect $200. Josh has to follow me around holding Owen no less than 5 feet from me while I change. When he is tired he doesn't want me to put him down. He is very vocal about what he wants, if he is hungry or tired he crawls over to me and squeals to be picked up. When someone takes something from him or he wants something he can't get to he screams. Owen still wakes up 2-3 times a night most nights, but in the last week or so he has started getting on a normal day time napping schedule. It is so much harder to always ensure he gets his naps than it was with Jacob.

 

Trying to escape