Brody's birthday weekend!

I totally forgot to put up the pics from B's birthday and blog about my parents' visit that weekend!! It was wonderful. Absolutely wonderful! That whole weekend was such a treat!

On Brody's actual birthday, Friday, the only thing we wanted to do was to have a picnic at the park and play together all afternoon. So... that's what we did!! And then later that evening, we had pancakes for dinner and Mom Meade joined us! Super special!!

Saturday was very special, also, because my parents and my Grandma Sally came to visit for a few days! They got in around dinnertime on Sat and left Monday after lunch. Saturday night, we had a joint party for Brody and my momma, which was a blast! Sunday, we went to church and then to Meat and Greet afterward for lunch. We took naps, watched the cooking channel, and then the Superbowl. Monday was awful b/c we had to say goodbye. But, it was such a fun weekend, and we all had such a special time!!

Lots of pics from that weekend...

Brody's birthday breakfast- pbj and fruit loops:

love these 2! 

spitting together... 

spitting together... 

 and laughing together.

watching the squirrels and the birds that provide endless hours of free entertainment.

Playing together at the park:

be still, my heart 

watching the ducks together.

Talking to the ducks 

 Jasper was "fishing" (aka he put a stick in the water) and was desperately, desperately hoping he would catch a fish like his grandpa.

 swinging- Brody's most favorite activity on earth.

I tried to take a family pic, but the camera fell off it's little tripod, so we got this instead. 

spitting together in the sandbox. 

Our wonderful time at the park had to end in Brody's most dreaded place... the bathtub (aka the torture chamber).

The pancake dinner:

Jasper helped grandma decorate Brody's cake:

Saturday evening, watching for my parents to arrive:

They're here!!!

Nana and Brody's joint bday party:

Meat 'N Great for Sunday lunch:

A group shot:

here's the best group shot of all of us. Unfortunately, it's a bit blurry, but that's ok! it still captures the essence!

Saying goodbye that dreadful Monday afternoon:

And Nana had the wise idea of leaving after a "goofy face" picture:

date night tonight!!

My sweet hubby let me sleep in this morning! What a treat!! Then, as I was rushing to get ready to take Jasper to our "Valentine's Day/Pizza Party" at the 'Haups house, Andrew spoke those wonderful, magical words...

Andrew- "hey hon! did you see mom's text this morning?"
me- "no! what did it say?"
Andrew- "She and dad are offering to watch the boys tonight so we can go on a date!"

The heavens opened up.
The birds starting singing.
I felt 50 lbs lighter, and the sun started shining.

Not only did I get to sleep in, not only do I get to spend the morning laughing and playing with Jasper and our Georgia best friends, not only do I get to go for a glorious 5k run when I get home, but I also unexpectedly get a DATE NIGHT with my all-time, no contest, hands-down, most favorite person in the world??!!! And not only is Andrew my most fav ever, but he's also quite manly, macho, handsome, and dashing!!!

And, as if this all wasn't good enough, Andrew just informed me that we're doing karaoke tonight!!

best. day. ever!

photo shoot #3

For today's photo shoot, I decided to do "a day in the life of Brody". This is by no means a "complete" day in Brody's life, but it covers a few of the high points from this morning until nap time this afternoon. Enjoy! :o)

" Hi! I'm Brody! I'm about to turn one, and here are a few things you might like to know about me: I'm a great sleeper. A super, duper great sleeper. My parents are very thankful to the Lord for this! On the flip side, I'm a horrible eater. I'm a super, duper horrible eater. I'm extremely picky and will only eat what I want, when I want. My parents pray about this to the Lord constantly. When I get a little older, I'm sure my parents will help me learn that I need to eat what the family eats; but until then, I will ONLY eat pbj's. For every single meal. And every single snack. I will not eat yogurt, fruit, vege's, goldfish, chips, or other "kid stuff". I ONLY eat pbj's. As a result, I eat about 6 whole pbj sandwiches every single day. My parents are VERY grateful that our church gives out free bread every Sunday morning, because our family currently goes through about 5 loaves each week.

During the day, there is only one thing that I want to do: it's whatever Jasper is doing. I love him. I yearn for him. i'm sad without him. And I need him like peanut butter needs jelly. If I can't find him. I search and search until I can. I'm desperate for his attention and he's the one person who can always bring a smile to my face.

I have 7 teeth and use 'em to chomp up my pbj's. Within the last day or two, I've really wanted to start walking; I used to speed crawl everywhere, chasing after my big brother, but now I realized that I don't want to do that. Instead, I want to RUN after Jasper. My momma helps me by holding my hands and we walk. And walk. And walk.

I must always sleep with my bear. I don't really need Bear other times throughout the day, but I must have Bear in my crib. I also suck my thumb, but ONLY when I'm holding Bear. So my parents think that's pretty great.

I love to hold things. If I'm not holding things, I will find things to hold. If I can't find anything to hold, I will find something anyway (often including Mommy's hair, mommy's purse, big brother's hair, etc). I sqwak and squeal and spit. I love to spit. I also recently learned how to cluck my tongue and kiss. But mainly, if I'm super happy or super excited, I show it by spitting.

I love my mommy and daddy very much, Jasper holds a sacred place in my heart, birds and squirrels proved endless entertainment, and I can't wait to walk!

love you all!

with much spitting, Brody"

watching the birds after breakfast

 diggin' in to my 3rd sandwich of the day. Millions upon millions of joys!

 I'm showing my excitement over my pbj by spitting. Truly. I know I don't look that happy, but this is how I show bliss.

I. can't. get. enough. 

Mommy went upstairs to switch the laundry and came back to find this happening. This is just one of the many reasons why I love Jasper; he feeds me sugar. (PS- notice the yummy, homemade cheesy noodles on my tray. Yep. I either vigorously spit 'em out or clamped my jaws shut so tightly that they couldn't even get in.)

Watching big brother. Yearning to be with him.

 Hey mom! Look what I found!!

Let's dig!!!! 

 Watching big brother! And spitting, because I'm pretty sure he's comin' my way!!!!

 Attempting to watch my big brother, but my sweet little momma with her huge camera keeps getting in the way.

 I'm finally getting some hair!!! My mommy brushes her fingers through it all the time, because she's so thrilled. 

Ahh... Joy at last. PLAYING with big brother. Now my day is complete! (we were all walking up the road and big brother decided he was tired and needed a break. so we all sat for a little bit.)

PS who wouldn't want to look at this dude all day?!? He's definitely the coolest and kindest superhero I know!

photo shoot #2

We had the chance to snap some pics on this glorious day here in Atlanta! It's just beautiful and such a joy to be able to be outside! Brody wasn't quite into "taking pictures" today; he was a bit restless and just wanted to crawl after big brother the whole time. That's ok, though, because we were still able to capture a few sweet, real-life shots of Brody. :o)

1 year already??!

I can't believe our precious Brodybug's birthday is this week! Oh my stars!! Where has the time gone?!? He is such a joy! In the effort of trying to get a good "1 year birthday" picture of him, I'm going to try to have a few mini-photo shoots of him this week. Hopefully, I can get him to stop looking at Jasper long enough to look at the camera! :o) (he seriously can't take his eyes off big brother!)

here are a few pics from today:

All boy

Jasper is all boy.
I don't just mean that he is of the male gender.
I mean, he. is. ALLLLLL. boy.
As in, every fiber of his being simply oozes "boyness".
He looks like a boy.
He smells like a boy.
He eats like a boy, talks like a boy, acts like a boy, thinks like a boy, plays like a boy, drinks like a boy, laughs like a boy, and moves like a boy.

It is so precious, and I of course would never have it any other way.
But this week in particular, I've been struck by his "boyness". And I've also been struck with how I never know what's going to come out of his mouth next. Never.

For example:

On Tuesday morning, I went into his room to get him up for the day, and before I even had the door all the way open, he said (and this is word for word):

"Momma, momma!!! Wast night, I fought (thought) I saw a hyena in my room, so I got my swords and wrapped all dis stuff around dem to make dem wike fire swords and I made dem extwa dangerwous and i put on my superhero cape and I jumped out of bed wif my fire swords and started growling and I took my fire swords and I KILLED da hyena wif dem and i kept killin' and killin' da hyena to make sure da hyena was dead and I made sure dat da fire was comin' outta da swords and I kept growling because I needed to protect Brody from da hyenas because dey was gonna hurt brody and I woke brody up when I was growling but I kept growlin anyways because I had to protect Brody but den I realized dat it wasn't a hyena. Actually, it was just a block. So i got back up into bed."

and then later in the day on Tuesday, I went in to get Jasper up from nap time (I should preface this by saying that Jasper and Grandma found a dead squirrel in the back yard earlier that afternoon and he was kinda flat and grandma said that maybe it was because his body was starting to lose water)  and Jasper said, before the door was even open all the way:

"Momma, when da squirrels cwimb up wealllllly high in da trees and den dey fall outta da trees and dey bonk deir (their) heads on da gwound, HOW ON EARF does all da water come outta da squirrels body? How??? And why do dey even have da water in deir (their) bodies? Where does da water go? Do da squirrels need da water when dey are dead? What will dey dwink when dey are dead???? And when dey die, do dey go to heaben to live wif God forever or do dey go to hell to live wifout God forever?"

And a particular "blink. blink. blink" moment happened on sunday afternoon. We were at church, eating lunch with the Pastors and some elders and some other "new visitors" to the church (it was a "get-to-know-you" lunch). Jasper was a few seats down from me, and we were all sitting right next to an elder and his wife. Jasper is eating a lemon poppy seed muffin, when all of a sudden, he pipes up pretty loudly, holds up a poppy seed, and says:

"Momma, what's dis?"
and I said, "It's a poppy seed. It's kind of like a spice or a seasoning that you can put on muffins and things like that."

and by now, naturally, the elder and his wife are listening to us.

and Jasper replies, "Oh. I'm just gonna pretend wike it's a frog egg that is full of baby tadpoles. And I'm gonna chomp em all up wif my teeth and make sure dey are all dead and I'm gonna suck em down into my stomach wike dis (and proceeds to make this loud, awful sucking sound with his teeth and lips and spit) and I'm gonna have dead. baby tadpoles in my belly but dey are not gonna be swimmin' around because dey are gonna be dead."

and the elder, his wife, and everyone else at the table looks back at me.

me- blink. blink. blink.....

and then, "umm... (clear throat)... umm... ok buddy."
(lol! what else could I say?!? I console myself with the thought that this particular elder has 9 children, 7 of which are boys, so I'm sure he and his wife have heard it all.)

Oh, boy. He is boy. He is ALL BOY. and he is delightful. and ornery. and totally mischievous. But mainly delightful.