Easter (LOTS of pics)

We had a great Easter weekend!  Aunt ZiZi (Lindsay) came to spend the weekend with us and we had a blast!  We all, especially J.David, were sad to see her go home.  Here are pics from the super cold egg hunt from the weekend before and from the beautiful Easter weekend we were so blessed to have.

Hunting for eggs, he would NOT look at the camera...ha ha ha.

@dinner with ZiZi

Dying Eggs, he LOVED it!!

Checking out what the Easter Bunny brought!  A water table a basket of goodies (most of which he has already taken out of the basket and tossed to the side...ha ha ha)

Looking for those eggs!

Cheesin' before church, again the best we could get.  His smiling for the camera days are nearly over.

 

Bible class proudly wearing the egg hat he just made!  And yes, he wore it for about 1/2 the church service as well...ha ha ha.

 

Hunting Eggs at Granny and Pappa's house

Each time he found an egg he would shake it and determine by the sound if it was jelly beans or money and then announce it to us with excitement!  Too cute!

Pre-church family photo

Beautiful Weather!!

Spring is finally here and we have really been enjoying the afternoons that we can get outside!  Here are a few pics that I've collected but we've been so busy playing chalk and T-ball that the camera has taken a backseat.  I plan to work on that this week! 

WEEEEEEEEE!!!

Lounging and being silly on my chair

Chasing Grady at the park

In his little "hide out".  This is behind his bed.  He takes all this toys back there and sneaks his paci (which is bedtime only).  He will play there for large chuncks of the day.  Notice the stamps on the wall, he decided it needed a little decorating one day....AHHH!!

This is what happens when mommy is cleaning out her closet....ha ha ha.  He thought he was SOOOO funny!!

Disney on Ice

Two weeks ago Morgan, J.David, and I went to Disney on Ice.  It was worth every penny!!   J.David loved it soo much, I don't think he took his eyes off the show once.  During intermission he even asked to watch it again.  ha ha ha.  He loves the disney characters but especially Mickey, Pluto, and Goofy.  Every time one of them would leave the stage he would get all concerned about where they went and when they were coming back. SO CUTE!  To top off the whole night he even got his to have his first cotton candy experience.  I'm sure the dentist will love me, but it was worth it, b/c after getting over the texture issue (he wouldn't touch it at first) he loved it.  The best part as a parent was when we walked out he looked at us and said, "I had fun!".  What more could we ask for!

Mommy and JD at the HardRock Cafe for dinner

Looking good in his magic Disney hat that came with his cotton candy!

This was his concentration level most of the night...ha ha ha.

The Toy Story clan closed out the show, and he is still talking about it!

One Year

First I want to start by saying Happy Birthday to our sweet Alexander.  This day last year was by far the hardest day of my life.  Losing Alexander was a shock to us all and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that it has taken us the entire year and then some to begin to recover from it all.  We have been so blessed with family and friends that have persistantly shared their love and concern throughout the entire year. Thank you.  Even if we didn't show it fully every comment and hug was cherished in our hearts.
We have come so far and are so thankful to have a God that has wrapped his arms around us and led us through the darkness.  2009 never quite seemed to "get better" so ringing in the New Year in January meant so much more than a party and resolutions to us.  It was the start of a new beginning.  The start of moving forward, never forgetting, but living better for it.  Today we have declared a day of celebration in our house.  Our goal over the years is to find a charity or cause that we as  family can make an annual contribution to, (both time and monetaril)y, but this year we had a hard time choosing a cause that felt like the "the one".  So this year we went to breakfast with my mom and sisters, took some beautiful flowers to Alexander's gravesite, and spent the rest of the day enjoying being together until church.  Then Saturday with Morgan we are taking J.David to do something fun, sharing a nice dinner, and finishing the day off with a special dessert.  Sound like a birthday celebration?  That was the plan.  I have relived the night of March 3, 2009 so many times over the last year that we decided to not allow this day to become another day of saddness, but a day where we honor the miracle that was Alexander's life.  His precious short life with his strong beating heart that has changed who we are for all of eternity. 
I've always found comfort and healing in music lyrics.  Give me a circumstance and I'll give you a song to go with it.  With that said, in December I asked my sis-in-law for a copy of a mix CD without knowledge that this song was on there or what it was about (she didn't realize it either), but the biggest lesson Alexander has taught me is that God has perfect timing and a reason for everything.  I could go into the mountain of coincidences God planned events over the last year but instead I will leave you with the words from the song Held, by Natalie Grant.  Its the chorus that brings me to tears nearly everytime I hear it, and what I try to remember with every trial, not just this one.  We serve an awesome God and I find this to be even more evident during our times of struggle. 

Two months is too little.

They let him go.
They had no sudden healing.
To think that providence would
Take a child from his mother while she prays
Is appalling.

Who told us we'd be rescued?
What has changed and why should we be saved from nightmares?
We're asking why this happens
To us who have died to live?
It's unfair.

Chorus:
This is what it means to be held.
How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive.
This is what it is to be loved.
And to know that the promise was
When everything fell we'd be held.

This hand is bitterness.
We want to taste it, let the hatred know our sorrow.
The wise hands opens slowly to lilies of the valley and tomorrow.

If hope is born of suffering.
If this is only the beginning.
Can we not wait for one hour watching for our Savior?

This is what it means to be held.
How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive.
This is what it is to be loved.
And to know that the promise was
When everything fell we'd be held.

Oh J.David!!

J.David has been SO funny lately!!  Here are some examples of why its hard me for to have a bad day!!

He is doing really good at his letters.  He knows almost all of them, only when you ask him what they are he will give you the word that starts with it as opposed to the name of the letter.  This is thanks to the awesome Melissa and Doug puzzle he got for Christmas.  Example: 
Me:  What is this? (pointing to the letter H)
JD:  E for Heart!  ha ha ha.  (All the letters sound like E)

EXCEPT for T.  For some reason he decided a long time ago in the bath that his foam letter "T" looks like a hammer.  So when asked about the letter T when doing his puzzle he says, "Hamma" and proceeds to tap it in its appropriate puzzle location as though he was building.  ha ha ha.

He LOVES CARS, everything is a car!!  He plays with the Cars matchobox cars all day long and would watch the movie all day everyday if i let him.  LOVES CARS!!  car noises are commonly heard coming from his mouth.  He will pretend to drive anything from a book to a sippy cup.

 He loves Jaxon!  He wants to play with him all day long! 

Today I was cleaning the floors and had all the kitchen chairs lined up in the living room.Of course he had to play on the randomly placed chairs!   I heard a bit of a boom and hear the dog park:
Me:  JD are you ok?
JD:  I fell on Jaxon!  I sorry Jaxon!
ME:  Its ok.  He forgives you.
JD:  Jaxon loves me!

Also today in the chairs he was squeezing through them with his hands in the air sucking in his belly saying, "cuse me, cuse me, cuse me chair"  ha ha ha. 

I was bent over putting away laundry the other day and was startled by a little hand!  Then I hear,"Mommy has sticker on bottom!  ha ha ha" 

One night after we prayed before dinner and had started eating J.David stopped abruptly. 
JD:  "MOMMY!!  PRAY!!"
ME:  What?  We did. 
JD:  NO! (then bows his head and folds his hands) God, thank you for Mater, and lightning Mcqueen, and blue car.  Amen!

He is loving books and is starting to memorize some of them.  So one day we sat down to read one of his favorites The Prince's Bedtime (a MUST HAVE for little boys), and he started "reading" it to me.  He learned the story and the pictures and told me a general idea of what it was.  He's been doing this with some of this others too.  It is so cute!

Lastly, after months of crying when dropping him off in Bible class we finally have had a break through.  A few weeks ago I sat down with him and tried really hard to explain that its ok to go to class b/c mommy will always come back for him.  Surprisingly, this worked.  Now everytime before class he asks me, "mommy, come back?" and then after i pick him up he say almost surprised, "mommy, come back!!"  No more tears and he is really enjoying it!  No more tears in the parking lot. 

FROSTY!!

I couldn't get him to look at the camera.  Ha HA!  We FINALLY were able to get outside and make a frosty!!  He was a very good supervisor.  I tried to get him to try to help and he kept saying, "no, mommy try."  oh well!  It was fun and since I haven't set the bar too high any frostys from here on out will be AWESOME! 

February Fun!

Along with being a terrible blogger, I have also been a bad photographer lately as well.  Ooops!  Here are some great J.David updates along with a few pics I actually do have.

Despite our continued struggles with getting JD to eat, one thing I can say is that he LOVES fruit!! Here he is eating one of his faves: Apples!  But he will eat pretty much any fruit that is laid in front of him in mass quantities.  If only he had that mentality with all things.....wishful thinking. 

Riding his new bike on the one nice day we've had nearly all year.  (Its been COLD and snowy, we're ready for spring!!)

In our desperate attempts to stay entertained in the cold we have a new favorite hang out: Monkey Joe's!  Its a giant place full of blow up jump toys!!  He loves it b/c it is fun, Mom loves it for the nap that is easily provided after every visit.  This is our little dare devil sliding down the HUGE slide!!  Parents aren't allowed on the toys so he climbed this all by himself!!  He was by far the smallest one on this slide, such a stud!

The first snow with temperatures decent enough to go outside in.  Still a little cold for my taste but for the grand 15-20 minutes we were out there it was great!  Still waiting on that frosty building snow though (snowman that is).  He was a little unsure of the snow and very disappointed that we couldn't make a frosty, but cheered up after Daddy came out to go sledding! (penguin style?)  ha ha ha.

Look at the rim of his bowl.  ha ha ha!  Breakfast for dinner night at our house and he chose cereal.  He then proceeded to count each one after the line up.  He can count to 10 if you kick start him with a, "one", but this night he decided to count free-style, "two, four, eight, eleven, nine".  Maybe he will follow in his Daddy's accounting  footsteps?  ha ha ha.

Today's outing: Ice Skating!!  I've referenced before his love for hockey so this day was a long time coming.  We were trying to hold out for the beautiful Forest Park outdoor rink, but arg! the cold! So, since Morgan took the majority of the day off we headed to the ice.  He loved getting on his skates, and was really excited to get on the ice, until he immediately slipped.  Then it took a little more effort and only once around the rink before he preferred to be a spectator.  And he was a great one!  He laughed and pointed (oops!) every time a kid fell on the ice.  (He must have learned this from his Daddy??)  Upon leaving he admitted to having fun, but said he didn't want to try it again.  I told him next time we'd get him a real teacher and he liked that idea better.  I guess one can't "homeschool" ice skating unless you know to skate well yourself.  ha ha.  We followed up a short hour (most of which getting skates on and off) at the rink with a long but fun lunch at Mimi's Cafe.  Thanks Auntie Em for joining us today!  Sorry we lacked more pics of you on the ice!