Winter Days

One of the good things about living in Texas is that we actually get seasons here. Unlike California where its summer 10 to 11 months out of the year and then all of a sudden winter for 2 weeks. we have a nice transition between all four seasons and they seem to last the length that they are supposed to. For example - in late October, and November, its nice weather with light sweaters time - and the leaves change color and there's a cool breeze. Definately autumn.

Right now we are obviously in to the winter weather season and although we do have some nice days of 60 plus degree sunny weather, we have had some bitter, not out of the 30 degrees weather too. I enjoy it, but since its our "dry season" - there's no snow involved - just bone-chilling coldness. Its about this time that I start wishing for Spingtime....

I know the kids long for spring too - they can play outside, and run....we can start to have picnics....and no more eskimo jackets! Here's a picture of Joshie and Jenna when we were getting ready to leave school yesterday - it was in the low 40's all day and windy....

Although they look cute - you try buckling them into a 5-point harness carseat with freezing cold hands!

Designs by Debbe

My mom is an amazing seamstress. She made this sundress and hat for Jenna....SO CUTE! I am trying to convince her to market these adorable abby clothes because she has such an amazing talent with clothes. She even made my wedding dress and my entire bridal party's dresses. I wish I was talented and could make my own clothes, but alas, I inherited the crafty side, but not the seamstress side. I did make a skirt one day - took me ALL day long and it looked horrible! My mom made the same skirt in less than an hour and it looked amazing. So anyways, I just wanted to brag on my mom - 'cause she made Jenna-girl some cute outfits. :) Love you momma :)

Instructions NOT Included

So what do you do when instructions are not included? Usually you can google the product, or find some sort of help line to help you. Why isn't this the case with kids!?

Jason and I have found ourselves at an intersection with our oldest - Joshie. He's a 2 year old (28 months) who thinks he is 5 and doesn't need to take a nap any more....This might seem like an insignificant problem, but the problem really isn't in the nap issue - its in the discipline department. There comes a time when kids aren't as easily distracted and their desire to explore and exert their independence and boundries becomes VERY apparent. This is what we are dealing with.

Our normally very compliant little boy who would regularly go down for a nap right after lunch with Jenna is now climbing baby gates, stealing toys out of the toy room and smuggling them into his room, "spanking" back, yelling, and ultimately being very defiant. It leaves us exhausted and puzzled as to what his "instructions" would say to do in this situation....I guess we will just have to find out on our own how to tackle this new challenge and guide him in this time of growing.

Instead of spanking now, we have seen this doesn't hold the same authority as it used to, we now give him a 2-minute time out and take away certain priveleges. We've also adjusted his nap time to be a little later - like 1:30 or 2:00. He is aware of wanting to do things like "ride in daddy's big truck" or "watch Cars" or even play with Jenna. When these things are taken away, or he has to sit out of play-time, its almost like a death sentence....for now....

I've often times said that "growing up is so hard, and being two is just so terrible. When you think about it - it really is! You have a little person who is learning how to live - what's right and wrong, and the boundry lines of everything. They are learning so much intellectually as well. Our little boy might be the size of most 18-month olds, and sound like a 4-year old, but deep down he's just 2...and learning the ropes....just like his mom and dad are with being the best parent they know how to be.

I'm thankful that he's young and hopefully by the time he's able to really remember things he will remember when we got it "right"....but somehow I think we will be learning until he's married. And of course Jenna is completely different than he is, and this new baby will probably be completely different that both of them are. So much to learn - such an adventure in doing it though.

"The Holidays"

Happy 2009! Seems that our kids are finally well again (took about 2 weeks for it to pass), and things are falling back into a routine. We celebrated Christmas here at the house and then went to my dad's house for New Year's. Here are a few pictures and stories of the past two weeks:

Joshie sitting on Jason's lap for his breathing treatment

The only way Joshua would go to sleep was if I "camped out" on his floor with his mattress next to me. Here's a picture of him FINALLY falling asleep after being up from 4am to 6:30am. I was so exhausted too!!

Grandma and Grandpa Lewis (my dad and Sherrie) got Joshie this cool easel for Christmas. He LOVES to color and draw letters on paper, so he thought this was the coolest present.

Here he is practicing his letters:

A New Year's tradition is to make your own sundae at about 11:00pm to ring in the New Year. Obviously my dad likes this tradition. Here's his HUGE ice cream - of which he did eat all of it!!

Little Jenna still has no teeth even though she is now 13 months old. So, she likes to gnaw on carrots to help strengthen her gums. She looks like she's smoking a stoggie though!! LOL

It was also a nice time of relaxing with Jason having some time off. He and I played some Nintendo (the original one!) and Joshua got a kick out of "playing" with us. Here he is pretending to play Mario Bros. with Jason:

Of course whatever Joshie does, Jenna has to do too - so she wanted some "daddy time" as well. She was so content just to be laying on Jason while he played.

Since I have been off, I thought it was FINALLY time to finish Joshua's baby scrapbook. I promised to make each child a scrapbook of their first year, chronicling every single thing from the first ultrasound to the first birthday. I didn't know that there would be so much that goes on in one year! Joshua's scrapbook is 4 1/2 inches thick, has thousands of pictures, but is priceless. It is fun to go back and look at all the memories that occured in his first year. Hard to believe that he's 2 already! Before you know it, he'll be 20! Here's a few pictures of the scrapbook:

The first page:

This is where I had left off before we moved:
And the last page - an explanation of the meaning behind his name "Joshua Eric":

I guess it would be a good time to start on Jenna's scrapbook since I have only ultra sound pictures in hers and the new baby J will be joining our family in April. I don't even have a scrapbook started for that one yet!! Time needs to slow down!