Never (ever, ever, ever) say never!

Years ago Jake made me a promise, at my request. No matter what I said or did to try and convince him, he was never supposed to let me drive a minivan. My first car was a 66 Ford Mustang, that would never make the trip with me to Nashville. My awesome parents were kind enough to gift me their minivan. I'm thankful to have had transportation, but when I married Jake and the van was on it's last leg we said goodbye to the van and he made his promise.

And now, here we are in a new season of life. After a few long trips all of a sudden our CR-V seemed cramped with a baby, baby and hunting gear, and two dogs. Slowly the thought of having a van didn't seem so bad. We hadn't planned on it happening so soon, but the time was right and here we are. So hop on in, there's plenty of room!! And yes, I fully expect all my family to give me a really, really hard time about this :)

14 months and some change

Here's what Jameson is up to and what I find absolutely adorable (that's just about everything)!

Favorite foods: bananas, peanut butter on toast, sweet potatoes, feeding himself yogurt and oatmeal, organic chicken nuggets, joe's o's

Favorite books: any books with flaps or touch & feel books. Current faves are his dog book and Goodnight Gorilla. I will frequently find him "reading" to himself, which absolutely warms my heart.

Favorite words: "uh-oh" and "woof" and getting more verbal everyday. Although I am still working on signing with him, I don't think it is his preferred mode of communication. We are focusing on "eat" and "more".

Favorite toys: puzzles, cars and trucks, his fabric tunnel

Mischief: opening doors, biting mommy's shoulder when mad (suggestions?), stealing his own toothbrush, pulling Lila's hair, grabbing daddy's glasses.

Favorite music: anything! This boy loves to dance and especially likes to hear Jake play guitar. He gets mad when it is time to put away his mini guitar.

Favorite activities: bath time, being outside, riding in the stroller, being tickled or chased, peekaboo, and putting all daddy's shoes in the dog cage, then taking them all back out, over & over.

Least favorite activities: diaper changes and putting on clothes

18-24 month clothes, size 5 shoe, size 4 diapers

We love you Jameson, but quit growing up so fast!

Rain Rain Go Away

But at least we have a chance to wear our cute rain boots!!

Time flies...

When did my little peanut get so big? He doesn't need me to feed him his oatmeal anymore! He's getting very good at self feeding although it can get a little messy, which the dogs enjoy. I love Saturday mornings!

Thankful Thursday

I firmly believe that my hardships are really just minor occurrences in comparison to the daily struggles a lot of people face. For instance the last and first week of the year were not ideal, but I sought comfort in God. There is so much to be thankful for... Though not fully healthy, we got to spend Christmas with our families, even if it was less traditional than year's past. Yes, looking at homes is exhausting, but I have the world's greatest realtor (hi dad!) and some people are never able to afford their slice of the American Dream. Hardship (real or perceived) has a way of making blessings even sweeter.

This morning I read on Facebook "never panic. Just pray". Four simple words, but I find it solves a lot of the so called "problems" I may be facing. So today I am thankful for times of discomfort, stress, and hardship -- you're probably thinking I'm off my rocker now, right? Pray for comfort and sing thanksgiving. And never forget, you don't have to look far to see God's blessings.

Florida

We are back from sunshine and palm trees to our wintry wonderland. We are so happy that we got to spend a few days in sunny Florida where my two brothers-in-law live with Jake's parents visiting as well. It is rare that the whole family is together at once so it was a nice treat, along with the warm weather.

Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well and passed on an upper respiratory infection to Jameson, which is pretty much way worse than feeling cruddy in the first place. Each cough breaks my heart, but we are lucky it wasn't something worse and we are both currently on antibiotics and hopefully will be back to full health soon. We did spend a few hours at the beach on New Year's Day although Jameson did not appreciate the sand he was happy to people watch from his chair.

Jake, Matthew, Noah, and I also took a daytrip up to Orlando and spent the day at Universal Studios. We had a great time riding coasters and drinking butterbeer and it was a beautiful day. Jake took a lot of video with his new Go-Pro so hopefully I can share some of that soon. And though I hated leaving a sick little one behind, I don't think I've felt less stressed in months--why do I do that to myself?!

Jameson was also very happy this morning to wake up to his two best friends, our sweet dogs, who have been dearly missed since they have been with my parents since Christmas Day. I never realized how clean they keep my floors with all Jameson's debris from his highchair! He wanted down as soon as I took him out of his crib this morning to give them hugs and pet and chase them. My heart is filled with his little squeaks of joy!

Christmas

Christmas was a bit of a whirlwind this year. I had to work Christmas Eve which is when we celebrate with Jake's family. Unfortunately 3 of 4 were sick so the day was more low key than usual. I was able to join in around 8 and we got to spend a couple of hours together. We had a jam packed Christmas Day and by the end of it Jameson was quite tuckered out. I went back to work the next day so I could be done for the week and we could fly to Florida that night, but we got a blizzard that day and our flight was cancelled. So after much rearranging of plans we finally flew out on Saturday.

Jameson was interested in the paper of a few of his presents but mostly he preferred to visit with family and play while mommy and daddy opened his presents. He is one incredibly blessed little boy and we want to thank everyone for their kindness in giving. I'm sure next year he may have increased interest but I'm sure it will be another year or so after that when we really becomes excited. Now we just have to find places for all our new goodies and pack up our beloved Christmas decor. I'm always so sad to see it go! We hope your holidays were merry and bright!

Home Sweet Home

Some would call me a homebody. I consider our home one of our greatest blessings and I am so free in it. I don't know if it's the sweat equity or what, but this place makes me immensely happy and I try not to take that for granted.

I haven't blogged in a while and to sum it up the holidays happened, it snowed, we went to Florida and we've been sick. Oh, and I have been a terrible documentarian. I have a handful of pictures from these adventures but I am hoping Jake and my relatives documented more. I am happy to say that the lack of documentation is mostly due to living in the moment. That and having a busy toddler.

For now I am content to say I am happy to be surrounded by familiar walls. The adventures are always made sweeter by the prospect of returning to your place of refuge. Home sweet home.