brody's birthday party!!

What an absolutely perfect day to have Brody's birthday! It was priceless! We had a small family party for him this morning and then skyped with Papa and Nana afterward and then played in the beautiful sunshine until naps.

What a privilege it is to be Brody's momma!

I love our precious, joyful, spunky little guy more than I can possibly express and I'm so thankful to the Lord for giving him to us. :o)

Brody's almost 2!!!

Our precious joyboy turns 2 tomorrow!! I can't believe it!!

I tried getting a good picture of him this afternoon... I tried several different poses and several different outfits but I wasn't getting that perfect picture. After a bolt of inspiration, I brought his birthday balloon outside and tied it to his wrist in hopes of getting a true smile. It was working! For 1 picture. Then his balloon somehow untied off his wrist (apparently I'm not a boyscout and can't tie the perfect knot) and floating into the heavens.

It was rather traumatic for Brody.

The rest of the pictures, he's staring straight into the sky, looking for his balloon.

#momfail

Good thing we have another backup balloon tied to his chair inside. Poor guy!

Splopping!!

The other morning at breakfast, and at each subsequent breakfast, Jasper has asked me, "May I please be a cowboy when I grow up!?" to which I answer a VERY enthusiastic "YES please!!!"

First, Andrew asked me to marry him.
Then, it snowed in Georgia.
Now, we have a future cowboy in the family.

Right here, ladies and gentlemen, is proof that all your dreams really can come true!

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In other news, Brody has started talking. A ton. As in, a ton a ton a ton. I remember at his 18 month appointment, his pediatrician asked me how many words he was saying. My response was, "Five words. Maaayyyybe 6." She looked at me and said, "That's going to change really soon."

I didn't believe her.

I should have. :o)

I guess that's why she's the professional and I'm not. Hah! :o) He's talking so much! Today, for the first time, he identified an emotion and communicated it to me. I was shocked!

We were at the park eating lunch and a big garbage truck pulled right up beside us and was sitting there, idling. All the odors and noise and fumes and exhaust came wafting right toward us. It was quite loud. Brody scooted over as close as he could to me, looked up at me with his huge blue eyes, and said, "I 'cared, momma! I 'cared!!" I said, "you're scared, Brody?" and he said, "uh-huh, I 'cared."

Oh gracious. It melted my heart! I wrapped my arms around him said, "It's ok, Brody. Momma's here! It's ok, Momma's here." Brody buried his face in my arms and repeated my comforting words over and over, "so-kay. momma here. so-kay. momma here."

Oh my goodness. It was such a precious, tender moment.

I was thinking about Body's rapidly expanding vocab and was trying to decide on what his most common words/phrases currently are. These are, in my opinion, his most-used words/phrases:

- "me, too!!"
- "where duh baber? where duh baber?" (aka "where's Jasper?")
- "I..see..gen." ("I see again?") said repeatedly after I show him and Jasper a picture or video on my phone.
- "my turn" said whenever Jasper does a cool trick and Brody wants to try
- "me mow muk!!! ("me more milk") for whatever reason, Brody is frantically addicted to milk. If he has to go an hour without a swig of milk, he totally freaks out and goes racing to the fridge and then pounds his little fist on the fridge door (not in a temper-tantrum way, just in a desperate sort of way) and hollers "ME MOW MUK!!!!!" to which I say, "Brody, ask with respect please." to which he turns around, faces me, and says in super sweet voice, an octave or two higher than normal, "Pease Momma!"

Those are Brody's most used phrases right now.

Which got me thinking about Jasper's most used phrases... As I pondered this, I realized that he certainly does have 1 phrase that he uses a million times more than any other phrase in the English language.

His most used phrase:

"Hey mom! Watch this!!!"

Oh, my! I hear this about.... 465 times a day. Sometimes, I hear it about 465 times an HOUR. This precious kiddo loves doing stuff (he's always been very movement-oriented) and he loves for me to watch him. Some examples of thing that he does every single day that he wants me to watch every single day include, but are no means limited to, the following (and please do not think I'm exaggerating as I write this list. I write TRUTH here, people!):

- general jumping
- jumping in place
- jumping while running
- jumping with his eyes open
- jumping with his eyes closed
- jumping with his tongue hanging out
- general running
- running while pretending to stand still
- running really fast
- running like a cheetah
- running like a panther
- running like a lion
- running like a tiger
- running like a horse
- running like a bull
- running like a hyena
- pretending to fly
- jumping AND running simultaneously, with eyes open. Or closed.
- general leaping
- leaping inside
- leaping outside
- leaping over a pile of shoes
- leaping over a pile of blocks
- leaping over a pile of pine straw
- leaping over Brody
- general hopping
- hopping in the living room
- hopping in the bedroom
- hopping in the bathroom
- hopping with 2 feet
- hopping with 1 foot
- hopping while holding an object in his hands
- hopping while holding his hands above his head
- hopping while trying to trick me as to where his hands actually are
- general climbing
- climbing the stairs
- climbing the couch
- climbing the chair (any...and every... chair)
- climbing the tree
- climbing the walls
- climbing with his shoes on
- climbing with his shoes off
- climbing a bench while trying to scare off the squirrels
- the general practice of "turning"
- turning his head back and forth
- turning his torso back and forth
- turning his body around
- laying on his back and watching his foot turn above his head
- turning in a slow circle
- turning in a fast circle
- turning in a goofy circle
- turning on one foot
- turning while watching tv
- spinning (which is not to be confused with turning)
- spinning Brody in the red chair
- spinning himself in the red chair
- spinning any manner of toy or stuffed animal in the red chair
- spinning like a top
- spinning with his socks on the wood floor
- spinning Brody like a top
- the general practice of "flopping"
- flopping off the couch onto pillows the floor
- flopping off the coffee table onto the couch
- flopping and yelling "timmmber" simultaneously
- flipping (which is not to be confused with flopping)
- flipping through the air
- flipping on his bed
- flipping cartwheels through the kitchen
- flipping Brody through the air
- flipping Brody on his bed
- and so forth and so on

As I write this list, I realize how much life and joy these 2 precious boys bring to our home. And what a privilege it is to get to watch them on and be their biggest cheerleader!! It would be dreadfully dull without them.

(an example of... turning. or possibly spinning. or flipping or flopping. Hmm... maybe we should put all of them together... how 'bout "splopping!!")

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In other news, we had the joy of watching the Riggan kiddos yesterday! They're such sweet friends to us!

it snowed!!!

I couldn't sleep last night because I kept begging and begging and begging God to let the temperature drop so we could get some snow. I awoke early, peaked out the window, and.... God gave us snow today!!! I was so excited, I woke the littles up, bundled them up, and we went outside and played for over an hour before coming in to get breakfast. We scarfed a hot breakfast, got Daddy, and went back outside to play some more!

We LOVE the snow and I'm so incredibly thankful that the boys got to experience a "snow day" this winter!

(we were throwing snowballs at the camera)

sweet time outside

we have had such a sweet day today! While outside, I grabbed the camera and snapped a few pics. We had the joy of having a sweet little girl spend the day with us today, and she and Jasper were 2 peas in a pod.

 I can't believe this little guy turns 2 soon! time's a flyin!!

 

Yesterday, Jasper made, and then accidentally broke, a catapult out of some random piece of wood that he and Brody found back in the woods. After it broke, J ran inside, grabbed his toolbox, got out a hammer and a nail, and turned his broken catapult into a "Jesus cross".

Can you tell Brody's trying desperately to get away? He's got places to be, people to see, bugs to capture, and random things to destroy.

a cute brother pic

Today, we (the littles, Mom Meade, and I) went to the Y and had line dancing class. As usual, it was a blast and continues to remain one of the highlights of my week. :o)

When we all got home, the weather was GORGEOUS so the boys and I decided to have a picnic outside and ride bikes and scooters and such.

We had such a sweet time playing outside and the boys were just bein' so cute, so I ran inside to grab my camera to snap a quick, cute pic of the brothers.

If any of you are familiar with how little boys operate, you will understand that there's really no such thing as a "quick, cute pic" of brothers. ;o) So here's a little insight into the picture saga...

I ran inside to grab my camera. I was gone probably 12 seconds. I came back out to photograph the littles and they were nowhere to be found. While I was gone for 12 seconds, they managed to devise and perfectly execute a plan to hide from me. I found them like this... hiding behind some bushes. I'm beginning to think they just might have a very profitable future being spies. :o)

Then, I got a sweet pic of Jasper.

Then, I brought Brode over and told them that if they took a nice picture together, I would give them a piece of candy. Which was a mistake. Because they got super excited. And this is them, super excited.

For some unknown reason, I told them to stop acting so excited and just smile nice. If they needed help smiling, I told them, think of monkeys. Why I did this, I'll never know. So, naturally, they started thinking about monkeys. And sounding like monkeys. And moving like monkeys.

more monkey noises.. "oh oh ah ah!"

and more monkey noises... "oh oh ah ah!"

So then, I told them to stop thinking of monkeys and start being excited again. To think about candy. So then they got excited and started throwing pine straw. For a long time. And had great fun.

So then I asked Jasper to just grab Brody's face and make him smile. So he did.

So then I gave up on trying to get a nice, quick, cute pic and gave 'em the candy.

Then, Brody saw that the camera was still out and gave me the biggest laffy taffy "cheeeese" in the whole world.

And then, when I had given up all hope of getting a nice pic, Grandpa pulled in the driveway, and viola! I got the best pic of the day.