Personalized Letters From Santa

Last year I discovered that the NICUPS (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Parent Support) does a fundraiser every year in the form of Letters from Santa.  Its a great program with one of the local hospitals here in St. Louis and so easy to do.  You sign up now by filling out a form with information about each child in your family, pay the donation fee, and a few weeks before Christmas your kids receive a real personalized letter from Santa!!  J.David's last year was soo cute, and such an exciting way to keep the magic of Santa around just a little bit longer.  The letter even has a return address label from the North Pole, adorable! For anyone interested in participating or even just checking it out ,here is the website:  http://www.miraclebaby.org/

And once we find the battery charger for our camera (JD thinks it is a phone so maybe somewhere in his toys?) we will load all the pics from JD turning 2!  Well some of his bday pics, he still gets one more party in AR next weekend...is this a lucky kid or what?!?!

Mommy and me...

Did I mention that the last couple weeks I have officially become "mommy".  One random weekend J.David started calling Morgan Daddy instead of Dadda, and shortly after I went from mama to mommy.  There was about a week in there were he was calling me meemaw...ha ha ha...he would say mommy over and over really fast and then i think he would get the syllables mixed up.  Really funny!  He would call out to me in public "MEE MAW!!" I'm sure people thought i looked really good for my age...ha ha ha.  Anyway, just wanted to document the transition.  Bitter sweet to me.  He is getting older and more confident in his words each day but with each day he loses a little more "baby".  Good thing he'll always be my baby!!  This is the only pic I have of the two of us recently, i have probably 100+ pics to load onto my computer.  So here is my bday with my assistant candle blower. (and yes, i know i'm not 21, we didn't have a 7 so that is why there are 6 other random candles on there.  I am not in denial or trying to lie about my age....yet.)

Happy 2nd Birthday JDavid!!

Two years ago (exactly two minutes from now) J.David was born.  We had a wonderful day celebrating today!  Happy Birthday James David!!  (pics to come after birthday party #1 on Saturday).

Cooking 101

Yesterday JD and I made our first batch of chocolate cookies together.  I let him wear one part of his birthday present from us a little early and we went to work.  Here are some of the pics:

For Love of the Game

I think it is in his blood.  My son LOVES baseball.  This makes sense to anyone that knows his Daddy and/or Pap-pa.  Morgan played baseball his whole life and holds records at Harding University, and my dad has a passion for the game, specifically the St. Louis Cardinals.  It is such a treat for me to watch my favorite boys enjoy this past time together. 

J.David and I have been to almost more games than anyone else in the family this year.  With all of my parent's travels, morgan's travels, and season tickets, JD and I got really lucky!!  Its been such a fun season to watch and he LOVES it!  Last weekend we got the chance to go with just my Dad.  He had just returned from Singapore and was so excited to share a day at Busch Stadium with JDavid.  WHAT A DAY!!  Aside from the fact that we won (GO CARDS!!) Morgan and I (team effort) caught a foul ball, Pap-pa took him to build a Fred Bird (build a bear @the ball field, which also happened to be a special day there so we received a free autograph teddy bear for later use), and he got a Matt Holliday photo ball that they handed out to the first 25000.  AWESOME!!  JDavid sat with Pap-pa and watched almost the entire game.  He will cheer and CHARGE...so cute.  I don't think he understands what is going on, but reguardless he loves to watch it.  That is the 2nd game he has literally watched from start to finish, and since we've been home he has asked to watch "beesball" on TV, talks about it non stop, and watched some of the post season games with his Daddy.  Like I said...it is in his blood.  ha ha.  Here are some of the cute pics from last Saturday: 

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Thanks to everyone for my birthday wishes yesterday.  I had the BEST day!!  Morgan made me a cake with pink icing all made from scratch, I got my favorite pizza (Dewey's), and so many wonderful cards and gifts.  I am so blessed with such a wonderful family!! As I was thinking about the last year and realizing all the changes that have occurred I thought it might be funny to share.  I give J.David updates so why not a mommy update?  ha ha ha...so here it goes...enjoy!

1.  I must have a least one cup of coffee everyday with at least 1/4 of the cup being my favorite creamer. 
2.  My days of drinking that coffee while watching the Today Show have now been replaced with Finding Nemo, Handy Manny, and The Incredibles (whatever the mood of the day is)
3.  "Jammin" in the car is no longer to the Top 40 or my favorite country station, but to Veggie Tales, and Colin Buchanan (a fun Kids praise CD from Australia...check it out!!)
4.  Did I mention that all of that is occurring in my minivan??
5.  When I go shopping I still walk out of the mall with bags of goodies, only very rarely is any of it for me. (It's not my fault that they makes kids' clothes so stinkin cute)
6.  My most used phrases during the day are "no", "sit on your bottom", "say ..please and thank you", and "I LOVE YOU!!"
7.  My daily accomplishments are no longer how much I sold or what I helped someone design but the amount of laundry I completed, how many blocks we could stack before they could fall over, and teaching JD something new.
8.  Talking on the phone consists of constant interuptions..."mama, mama...where's daddy?" (repeat 50 more times as fast as you can)
9.  Spending time with friends is a great skill...we can eat, feed our kids, answer their questions, and still maintain the subject matter at hand, even if it means we spend 30 minutes simply exchanging our greetings.
10.  Nights out with the hubby may be limited, but date nights consisting of a movie and ice cream after JD is sleeping are among my favorites!

Some may look at this list and wonder how I keep my sanity.  I look at this list and wonder what I did to deserve such a wonderful life!!  The hugs and kisses I receive daily from my almost two year old are what make me even more excited to continue to add to this list of change.  My life will never be what it used to be...and I couldn't be more thankful for that. The years ahead are far too exciting to ever wish for the past...so bring on the birthdays, because if this is what getting older holds, I'm ALL IN!!!

Humpty Dumpty

This week J.David received his first cast!  That's right, he fractured his forearm!  Poor thing.  Wednesday he fell off the kitchen chair onto the hardwood (he has had so much interest in my parent's kitchen chairs since we've been here).  He's got a pretty high tolerance for pain so i knew when  he kept crying and showing me his "boom" that something was wrong.  We went to the Dr. office that evening and everything appeared ok, there was no swelling, brusing, or deformity anywhere.  So we went home and gave it that night thinking he maybe just jammed it or brused his wrist real bad....WRONG!  Still hurting after a short night in mom and dad's bed we went to gete xrays.  FRACTURE!!  One of the bones in his forearm is fractured a little below his elbow and the top of it is angled pretty badly.  OUCH!!  I think he handled the pain better than I would have.  He would only cringe or wimper when pressure was applied and proceeded to play like normal.  Now he has a red cast ( in honor of Cardinal post season and the fact that Fred bird was his comfort toy of the day yesterday) and thinks it is so cool.  He wants to show everyone, including the dogs and Morgan (again) as his first order of business this morning.  ha ha.  Now that he has it on its like he's always had it, such a boy!!  I just have to follow behind him to keep him from climbing on things, which is his #1 activity everyday....I'm in trouble!  Here is a picture of our little touch guy!!