We love this weather!

The weather here in Houston has been fantastic (I like using that word and saying it like my friend Emily's husband, Nick, who is from Chicago), I guess it is more liike fantaaaaastic! We're enjoying playing outside and having fun at the parks.

Gwyn is doing well, her stitches came out on Tuesday and her little finger is healing nicely. Her finger nail is in the process of falling off, so hopefully that new nail will be growing right behind it.

We have a new ipod player for the kitchen, and the kids just love to dance. We loaded some cds that John and Claudia had sent the kids, nursery rhymes and bible songs personalized with their names in it. One of them says, how old are you Jacob, and Jacob will answer 2! from whereever he is in the room. He loves the wheels on the bus and asks for that one to basically be put on repeat, which I only last a couple of times before I'm going nuts. We've also learned he knows all these moves to "This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.!" There is this part where it says don't let Satan blow it out, and he blows and then yells NO! It is hilarious, I know he learns those songs at his preschool when he goes to chapel and it is just fun knowning that he is retaining it. He also knows ALL the moves to The Wheels on the Bus, ones I didn't even know. Here is a picture of Jacob showing off his moves:

Brian and I had a great time with friends on Friday night. The kids did great with a babysitter that we have from church (she watches Gwyn in the nursery during my Bible Study).

Happy Birthday to my friend Lindsee, Stacy, Emily's daughter Grace (turning 2), and Neely's daughter Catherine (turning 1)!! We love you!

Jacob and Gwyn

Jacob is starting to do some really funny things. He gets in trouble for pushing the buttons on the stereo equipment, so today he was taking Gwyn's fingers and having her push the buttons. I asked him who turned the stereo on and he said it was her, and then I watched what he did again. He thinks he's pretty slick. I picked him up from school today and his teacher told me that somehow he got his socks and shoes and diaper (he left his pants on) off on the playground, and then he peed, so they had to change his clothes. Even his socks were soaked. I guess you've got to be pretty talented to get your diaper off with your pants still on. His feet were all dirty from playing without his shoes on, I asked him why he took his pants off and he said he had to pee pee. He's missing the concept of having to get your pants off and be in the bathroom. He's become a big meat eater, which has been really nice. He has always been so picky about eating, but he's finally started eating pretty much whatever we are eating, so thank goodness I'm not preparing him something different every night.

Gwyn, however, eats everything, and I do mean everything. I was filling out her baby book, and I couldn't find anything to write under foods she dislikes. She loves guacamole, and her new favorite is McDonald's cheeseburgers. She hightails it to the refrigerator whenever someone opens it up, and if she hears a wrapper crackling she is on you. She is just so cute, she got another tooth this week, and her smile is just precious. The kids play in the front yard while I load up the car in the mornings, and the other day she fell in the grass...her shoe came off and her bow came out. She immediately got up, grabbed the shoe with one hand and the bow with the other, and brought them over to me to put them both back on her. She REALLY loves shoes. She wants to have them on all the time.

Both kids love to play with Brian. He's so good with them, and they are pretty much all over him from the time he walks in the door until the time we get them ready for bed.

What a week!

Well, if you haven't heard, I accidentally shut Gwyn's finger in the back door when we were going outside to play on Thursday afternoon. It was a very traumatic experience for everyone, but she is doing fine and will get her stitches out Tuesday morning. God was with us that day because I somehow made it from our house to the emergency room in Katy in about 17 minutes...both my dad and Brian had to yell at me to keep me calm while I was driving, but we made it there safely. They take you back pretty quickly when you run in with a bloody, screaming baby. Brian was calm and Gwyn actually wanted to sit with him the whole time, I think I was scaring her because I was a bit hysterical at times. We know now who can handle themselves in an emergency (not me). Jacob did really well for being at the ER for 5 hours not getting any dinner. They x-rayed her hand and there wasn't any damage to the bones, and they said little kids heal so fast. Her finger looks really good, it actually looks perfectly normal except for the 5 black stitches, so I'll send out a picture next week once she gets her bandage off and stitches removed. Please continue to pray that everything heals back perfectly.

The outcome of only 5 stitches for 5 days really does not do justice in telling just how bad it was. I keep replaying it over and over in my mind and I see it after it happened and I still get emotional about it multiple times / day, so also please pray for me to get some relief from this guilt.

On a happier note, here are a couple of pictures of Gwyn enjoying a friend chicken leg when we stopped at Emily's house in Dallas on our way up to Tulsa last week for her birthday. She loves her some fried chickin!

Jacob's valentines party was on Wednesday afternoon. He walked in the room and ran over to me, so excited. It was nice to get to go to his party. They had snacks, he made a valentine, and of course, had cupcakes, which Jacob dove right into. He also got a tatoo on his arm, which he was very proud of.

Happy Birthday Gwyn!

We celebrated Gwyn's first birthday in Tulsa over the weekend. She looked really cute in her hot pink tutu and you could tell she knew the day was all about her by the way she was acting. She was dancing in front of everyone, running around, laughing, and really enjoying being the center of attention.

She is a Daddy's girl...

She loves strawberries, so we put one on top of her smash cake. She didn't really dive into her cake like Jacob did at his first birthday, she was kind of dainty about it, but did manage to get a little of it everywhere.

It was so nice having family around to celebrate such a big milestone. I still can't believe it has already been a year. I remember the night before we went into the hospital, Brian stayed up all night long, he couldn't go to sleep. We went to the hospital and I was so nervous, much more than with Jacob, I guess because I knew going into it that it was going to be c-section and that scared me. Everything went so well, and she was born at 7:56 am on February 7th (my mom's birthday too!). We didn't know whether she was a girl or a boy, and you should have heard how excited Brian was when he announced "It's a Girl!" She was such a beautiful baby, and she's turning into a beautiful little girl. Since she started walking at 10 1/2 months, she's already running. She is a joy and we've been truly blessed by her.

Anyway, the day was great, although we did have a couple of short meltdowns...

Jacob had a great time at the party...Brian's Uncle Curt came down with Brian's grandpa from Kansas City and brought a gift for Jacob too. It was Handy Manny, which Jacob watches every morning and he LOVED it! Good job Curt and Jan, it was so sweet of you guys to think of Jacob!

Sharing

We are learning about sharing in our house. Jacob is constantly having to share something with Gwyn, toys, food, you name it, whatever he has, she wants it. He has always been pretty good about sharing with other kids, I think mostly because it was always on a short-term basis while they were visiting our house, or knowning that the toys weren't his at someone else's house, but Gwyn seems to be around all the time and wants whatever he has all the time. He's doing pretty well with it, he still has his moments, but for the most part, he's gotten used to it. The picture above is a brownie bite that Jacob has and Gwyn wants a bite, she can be pretty persistent, especially when it comes to brownie bites.

We had a great weekend, went out to dinner with the kids on Friday. We did some shopping, visited with Jason, ate crawfish (yes, both Gwyn and Jacob like crawfish), went to a birthday party, and watched UFC on Saturday. We went to church, took naps (everyone but me), and are planning on watching the superbowl tonight, although I only watch for commercials.

This week is going to be busy, lots to do to get ready for Gwyn's first birthday on Saturday. I can't believe she's going to be one!!!