Snakes and Super Jacob!

This picture is of the kids watching Dora...they are addicts.

Today we went to a snake birthday party...yes, there were real, live snakes there and surprisingly, Jacob held one! My friend Julie came late to the party so that she could miss the snakes, and she asked Jacob about the snakes and he told her there were big ones and little ones. He liked the little ones, and wanted nothing to do with the big ones. Gwyn even reached out and pet one once, I was a little nervous, but I kept my distance! Jacob said the snake was trying to lick him.

Jacob prefers to be called "Super Jacob" and he wears his Spiderman mask (which he will be for Halloween) and his cape that Emily made him for his birthday every single day. He runs in, puts his hands on his hips and says "SUPER JACOB!" It is pretty funny. One funny thing this week is that he though some shrimp and crabboil mix (basically salt and cayanne pepper mix) was like fundip and tried some....it didn't turn out like he expected, and I figured his mouth burning was punishment enough for getting into it after I told him to go put it up.

Brian started on some of the furniture for Gwyn's room and Jacob LOVES being outside in the garage "helping." Brian gives him some scraps of wood, a tape measure, and a pencil, and he uses his toy hammer to build me a house, isn't that sweet! Here he is hard at work:

Gwyn likes to go out into the garage to see what is going on, but prefers to be inside with me, usually cleaning! She makes sure she gets in at least 50 books a day, and has no problem bringing a stack to sit in front of whoever comes over to visit. When Jason comes, she is relentless on him, and has him reading to her non-stop, the same book again, and again. I hardly got any pictures of Gwyn this week, she loves to say cheese when you take the camera out, but nothing holds her attention for too long (except for Dora), so here are the only two pictures I was able to get of her this week (she's big into juice and snacks):

All Aboard!

Rick and Sue were down last weekend and we went up to Zube Park for a train ride. Jacob loved it and afterwards when we were driving to the park for a picnic lunch, he said "Mommy, I need to tell you something." I asked him what and he said, "I want to ride that train again." We waited in line for about 30 minutes, but by the time we left the line was past the 90 minute mark, so there was no way we were all going to last for another ride. It was fun. Here is a picture from the ride itself, it was pretty long and lasted between 10-15 minutes and went through the woods.

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids at the park, they love the park, which is why we frequent them weekly, especially now that the weather has finally broken!

I did get to see Christina and Murray's new baby, Tyler this week, he's so cute and just tiny! I can't believe we are going to have another one 5 weeks from today! Sue helped me clean out Gwyn's closet, so I now have some room to store/hang some things for the new baby, so at least I feel like I'm making some progress. I've also accumulated (over the past 2 weeks) a jumbo pack of size N, size 1, and size 2 diapers, so I'm at least feeling like I'm doing something to get prepared! Here is a picture of her new things:

I thought Gwyn looked so cute in this outfit that Rick and Sue had gotten her and she's wearing a bow that Erika Mulsow made her. Of course I took at least 15 pictures and not one of her smiling!

Jacob's new favorite word of the week is awesome, it was pretty funny, but he also learned the word stupid, which wasn't so funny. He is just talking so much and he says he LOVES everyone and everything so much. He loves his kids shows, he loves us, he loves Gwyn, he loves chocolate milk, he loves his dog??, he loves his books, etc. He also asked Brian why God made him. Oh, and miraculously after correctly him constantly, he now says please and thank you and no thank you for just about everything, and everytime he does I make such a big deal about how nice he is that he just keeps doing it! Oh, and I got a call from his teacher, and when I saw it pop up on caller ID, I thought, great, what did he do, and she was calling to tell me how good he was and even used the word angel (to which I couldn't contain my laughter), but it did make me feel good that she went out of my way to let me know how well he was doing in class. Oh, and since there is another Jacob in his class, he's learned his last name, which he thinks is Katahungry!

Gwyn loves Dora and she is constantly saying "Oh Man!" which is what Sniper the sneaky fox says (Jacob calls him the stinky fox). It is hilarous and I've got to get a video of her repeating it. She still loves pigs and dancing, when any music comes on she says "dance!" and starts shaking it. She also wants to be first at everything. I made the mistake of telling Jacob to get up into the car first, and ever since then she demands to be first at everything, especially with the book she has picked out to read.

We got this video of Jacob riding his John Deere tractor. John and Claudia got it for him when he was 1, and it is still getting constant use. It is also a favorite toy for Gwyn, but she's not near as fast as Jacob, and yes, he has crashed before, but surprisingly it didn't do too much damage.

Why Daddy??

Jacob is in a very entertaining phase right now. He comes up with all kinds of stuff, asks questions, and just says and does things that only a three year old can do. We went to look at this house over the weekend, and Jacob kept saying "it stinks in here" when Brian and the realtor were looking in the attic, and he said "there is poop in there" talking about the laundry room which had a spot on the floor...needless to say it was a bit embarrassing, but he just says what he thinks!

He's been asking alot of why questions, which creates even more why questions from his little copycat Gwyn. He asked Brian why he drinks coffee, why is it hot, why he put milk in it, why he stirred it with a spoon, why it turned colors, all in the course of about 5 seconds he can ask about 20 questions! Gwyn really does say and do EVERYTHING that Jacob does. He'll say he wants to watch kids shows, and then she starts yelling "kids shows, kids shows, kids shows." She loves Dora the Explorer, and always asks for "Dora!" She is still in a yelling phase, and reading books can be funny at first and then a bit annoying since she yells whatever animal she sees and then makes their noise for you. She keeps getting louder until you acknowledge what she's doing, it is pretty funny.

After Labor Day, Brian told Jacob that he had to go back to work on Tuesday and he couldn't stay home because he had to go make money...Jacob said "I don't like money, I want Daddy to stay home." It was really sweet, to which Brian's response was that Mommy likes money!


Gwyn is a little spitfire, she has so much energy and personality and is just talking non-stop. I tried unsuccessfully to take her pacifier away, which she only uses at naptime and bedtime. My thinking was if there was enough of a break (6 weeks from Tuesday, by the way!) between her having her pacifier and the new baby (which we now call Nuny because that is what Gwyn calls the bunny Ruby on Max and Ruby - a kids show that Jacob likes), having her pacifier, then she would realize that pacifiers are for babies and not need it anymore. Anyway, I laid her down in her crib and she asked for her paci, I said you are big girl and you don't need that and I turned around and walked out of the room. She went nuts! I was standing outside and heard her not just crying, but screaming at me. Then she quit, and I thought, what an awesome mom I am...then she came walking out of her room with tears in her eyes, her lip stuck out and was asking for Daddy....she had climbed out of her crib! I asked her if she was mad at Mommy and she said yes. I tried to put her back in her crib and she just flung her leg over, held on to balance herself and then flung the other one over and lowered herself down. I then had to get Brian to lower the crib to its last notch, which she can't get out of right now, and we gave her the pacifier. I guess she'll give it up when she is ready, and from now on, I'm not messing with a good thing. She will just tell you when she wants to go nite nite for naptime or bedtime, you walk in, give her the pacifier and lay her down and walk out and you never hear a peep out of her until morning. I'm going to count my blessings that she goes to sleep and sleeps so well, and let her have her pacifier until she's ready to give it up.


Our week was pretty busy, I had my Bible Study kick off on Tuesday, Jacob was in school Wednesday and Friday, and Jacob had a drs appointment on Thursday, and I had my OB appointment on Friday. This coming week is even busier, so we are REALLY looking forward to Rick and Sue visiting Friday-Sunday, and then Brian and Rick are going to the Cardinals vs Astros game on Monday evening (the tickets were birthday presents from Sue to both Brian and Rick), and Brian has been looking forward to it.


No pictures this week, my small camera is messing up (it has lasted just over 3 years and has pretty much been usued constantly and carried around in my purse getting banged up), so I've just posted a few videos this week. Enjoy!

Back to School and End of Summer Fun

Well, since the last blog, we had a fun little stop at Jacob's friend Josh's lemonda stand to benefit Alex's Lemonade. The kids were more into their new puppy and the free lollipops, than the lemonade, but it was pretty cute watching them stand in line.

We went to our friend Nicholas's 2nd birthday, it was at a bounce place, but they have some playground equipment inside. Gwyn wanted to spend the whole time in the house, but HAD to have her Daddy in there with her, and since she has him wrapped around her finger, Brian spent a majority of the time hanging out playing house with Gwyn.

Sunday we made the trip down to League City to visit Brad, Erika, and Maddy. It had been awhile since we had seen them, and the kids played together great. Jacob and Maddy had weekly playdates until they were 1 year old, and it is amazing how much they are growing up. Gwyn just tried to keep up! Brad cooked some crab for us and it was YUMMY!

We also went to visit Jacob's school, since he started back last week. We went up on Tuesday and spent almost an hour playing in his room. His classroom has a science center, a hamster, a dress up area, a puppet area, lots of toys, a "home" area, and two different craft areas. He was super excited for school on Wednesday, was a little scared about going in, but on Friday, he walked right in like a big boy who didn't need his mommy anymore! I was proud and sad at the same time. Gwyn REALLY wanted to go, I had a hard time keeping her under control because she wanted to go to "scool too."

We had a great rest of the week and weekend. Here are a couple of pictures that I thought were cute. This one is of Gwyn getting to play with the waterhose...she usually doesn't get to because Jacob LOVES the waterhose, so this was a rare occasion, of which went sour really quickly when she couldn't control it and soaked herself and got REALLY upset...I missed a picture of that.

Jacob is getting into dress up, big time. Here is him on a typical day:

Here is Gwyn on her zebra rocking horse. She gets a little out of hand on this and has gone over backwards several times, she loves her "zeba."

We went over to Jason's place on Sunday evening to swim and eat pizza! It rained a bit on us, but we had fun! Oh, the first picture up top is of the kids drinking some undiluted kool-aid that Brian gave them, needless to say, neither came up for air until they had drank it all!