Happy, happy birthday baby boy!

Well we returned Daisy and it was every bit has hard as we had imagined and perhaps even more so.  We had prepared Jake as best we could but reality didn't really settle in until we were driving away without her.  Even after she nipped him, he still really wanted her to be his dog.  It was a very hard day but on the way to return Daisy Jake actually told his very first joke and that's what I'm going to focus on in my memories because it was one of the only bright spots in an otherwise sad and dreary day.  

The day began with pouring rain and in the effort to get on the road Daisy got away from us and ran absolutely wild through the neighborhood for about 30 minutes.  When she finally came back she was absolutely drenched and filthy from running through the mud so Trip did his best to clean her and dry her even though we didn't have time to give her a bath.  We were just heading out of Boone when Jake said... "What does a train say when it has a cold?.... Ahhhh Choo Choo" and Trip and I both cracked up which was really what we needed to lighten the heavy mood.  When we arrived at Miss Anne's house we unloaded Daisy and all of her goodies that we had purchased for her and then said a quick goodbye as we were all fighting back tears.  As we backed out of the driveway I turned and looked at Jake and big tears were running down his face which broke my heart.  A few minutes later he looked up and said... "When are we coming back to pick Daisy up?".  We explained once again that Daisy was going to stay with Miss Anne and the reasons why we needed to give her back and then he got very quite before he said " but I didn't really tell Daisy goodbye".  We kept going instead of returning because we were afraid going back would make things even more difficult and as it turns out we probably made the right choice because the day went from bad to worse just a short distance down the road.

We had decided to stop on the way back home to let Jake go to the toy store and grab a bite to eat but when we stopped at the restaurant Jake mentioned that his tummy was hurting and that he needed to potty.  We pulled out his travel potty and quickly realized that he was really not well but he was hungry so we went in the restaurant and during the meal I took him to the restroom three times.  We knew we needed to get him home but didn't want to break our promise about the toy store so Trip stayed in the car with Jake and I ran in to pick up the Cars 2 car that was at the top of his "need" list and then we got back on the road.  It took forever for us to get home because every few minutes we had to stop so that Jake could use his travel potty. I'm so thankful that we have one and that I was overly prepared with supplies.  I'm not sure how we would have made it without that amazingly wonderful little red travel potty.  

We finally connected some dots and realized that he had gotten the Norovirus from his daycare which had been closed the day before because the provider and her family were sick.  Jake came down with it on Saturday but hung in there and kicked it after three rough days.  If you know anything about the Norovirus then you probably know that it is incredibly contagious so... inevitably... I came down with it on Sunday morning and Trip joined me late Monday night.  Tuesday morning ... Jake was better but Trip and I were so sick that we literally could not take care of ourselves much less Jake so thankfully my Mama and Daddy came to his rescue and took him to their house for three days while Trip and I fought through the worst of the symptoms that accompany the virus.  It was a rough week but thankfully we've all recovered and I have sanitized the whole house to try to insure that we don't get it again.

Jake has been able to read for quite awhile and now he's starting to work on spelling some things as well.  We met one night after work at a little Italian place in town to get some supper and Jake rode to the restaurant with his Daddy so he decided to ride home with me.  On the way home, he surprised me by spelling his last name out loud over and over again.  

We are so blessed to have family close enough to help out when we are sick or unable to make our schedules work out the way that they need to and Grandma and Grandpa came to our rescue this month as well.  Trip and I try really hard to coordinate our schedules to insure that we don't travel on the same days and to be certain that one of us is always available for Jake but Trip had to be out of town and I had to be in meetings from 7am to 9pm two days in a row so our little man gladly skipped school and played with Grandma and Grandpa for a few days instead.  I don't know what we would have done without them!  Not only did they come down and step in to take care of Jake but my very thoughtful Mother-In-Law also brought lasagna and her famous lemon glazed pound cake so I didn't even have to worry about food.

As if that isn't enough for the month... Trip had varicose veins removed from one of his legs and the surgery turned out to be much more painful than we had envisioned.  It also required much more downtime than we had prepared for when we made our plan for the week.  Trip was a trooper but having him "out of the game" for a few days was tough.  I always appreciate what Trip does around the house (cooking, dealing with trash, helping with Jake, etc.) and I know how blessed I am to have a true partner in life... but when you have "a man down" you begin to fully comprehend how much your partner really contributes to the day to day operations of the household.  My behind barely touched a chair for four days but I managed to keep everyone fed and cared for without too many bumps in the road.  Trip's legs have bothered him for years and have recently prevented him from being able to run and play the way he wants to so we're hopeful that this will be the cure for too many years standing on concrete floors while flipping burgers and sauteing vegetables in restaurants.

It is so hard to believe that another year has already past by and that Jake is now 4 years old.   He's growing up so fast!  Since his birthday is on Valentine's Day we celebrate our "Sweetheart" in the morning and then we celebrate our "Birthday Boy" for the rest of the day.  February 14th fell on a weekday this year so we exchanged Valentine's and had a special breakfast before leaving the house to fulfill the obligations of a work day.  We took cupcakes to celebrate his birthday with his friends at school before going to one of our favorite BBQ joints for supper and then back home for birthday cards and gifts.  Jake picked the BBQ place for his birthday supper because he wanted fried okra... yep ... you heard me right... I said he wanted friend okra.  He loves it!  The restaurant has live music and when the waitress found out that it was Jake's birthday she snuck up and told the singer and after he performed a couple of songs he started singing "Happy Birthday".  Jake's eyes started scanning the crowd to try to find who they were singing to and when he realized that it was him ... he practically glowed with excitement.  Before the song ended the entire crowd was singing to him and he was so pleased.  Our sweet waitress also brought him a special birthday dessert which put another huge smile on his face.

Our family birthday party was at our house the weekend after our little man officially turned four.  I had been planning for a construction theme at Jake's request but at the last minute (about 2 weeks out) he decided that he just had to have a Cars 2 party so we quickly changed gears and pulled it together.  He had a blast and he LOVED his cake!  He also especially enjoyed spending time with Gage's girlfriend.  She is a sweetheart who really made Jake feel special and he flirted with her unmercifully.  It's a good thing Jake is only four or he might be trying to give his cousin a run for his money in hopes of winning Faith's heart.

I have a new obsession and if you haven't invested any time on Pinterest let me be the first to tell you that you should.  I absolutely love this new social media platform.  It is a digital pin board where you can find and save recipes, crafts, products, ideas, designs, etc.  I have found some really wonderful recipes and tons and tons of great ideas including the inspiration for Jake's Valentine's that he'll share with his little friends at school this year.  You'll have to check them out below and let me know what you think.  I could not have been more pleased with the results and we received many, many complements so I think they were a hit.  If you would like to see what I'm pinning for inspiration you can click on the link in the right hand column titled "Follow Mama on Pinterest".

This has been the best birthday party yet!

I love you Grandma!

So happy that Grandma and Grandpa came to my party!

Uncle Russell and Cousin Gage partied with me too....

Uncle Russell loves my sweet Aunt Kristi and I do too!

Mamaw and Papaw love me so much!

Gage is trying to get in on MY time with Faith (his girlfriend).

This birthday cake is AMAZING!

Uncle Russell is always trying to make me laugh.

Finally, some alone time with Faith.

This is one of my favorite presents.

Faith and Gage do make a nice couple.

Grandma remembered that I wanted a combine!!!!

Enjoying some yummy food that Daddy made for my party.

Check out my awesome birthday sign.

Wow, Daddy, this is delicious!

This is THE best cake ever!

I can hardly wait to play with the cars on this cake.

This birthday card is so cool!

Daddy sent Mama tulips for Valentine's Day.

And, another great card!

Thanks!  This is just what I wanted.

Daddy is letting me use his knife and Mama doesn't seem to be happy about that so I had better be very careful.

Happy 48 Month Birthday to Me!

Mama made these cupcakes for me to share with my friends at school on my birthday.

Thanks for my Valentine's Day present!

Step #1 - Making my Valentine's Day Cards

Step #2 -  Making my Valentine's Day Cards

The Final Product - My Valentine's Day Cards.

It was worth a try...

Jake hasn't been able to shake the congestion and cough symptoms that he's been hanging onto for over a month so we took him back to see a PA at his pediatrician's office in early January.  Miss Allie was quite impressed with Jake and his manners and told him that he was a pleasure and that she thought he should teach a class on good manners for all of their patients.  Trip and I were so very proud of him!!!

Jake is beginning to ask a lot of very thoughtful questions about God.  Trip was bringing Jake home from school one afternoon recently and Jake was very quite for awhile and just looking out the window before he said... "Daddy, is God the sky?".  After a brief discussion he then asked... "Daddy, what is God made of?" to which Trip replied ... "Love".  These questions have made it clear that we need to find a church home for our family now that we have officially settled into our new house.  If he's ready to learn and he's interested then we need to give him every opportunity to learn about the love and the grace of our Lord.  

As you know, we promised Jake a dog when we got a house and a yard and as luck would have it a photo of an adorable one showed up on our community board at work with a note saying that she had been rescued and now needed a good home.  I stopped and looked at that sweet face over and over for a couple of days and then I brought a copy home to show Trip.  We talked and decided to find out more about her and to make arrangements to meet her in person.  We discovered that her name was Daisy and that she was a Great Pyrenees mix.  She had been found along a hiking trail with a broken leg and severe malnourishment.  She was very lucky to be found and rescued by Miss Anne who took great care of her for several months while she was nursed back to health but Miss Anne didn't feel like she could keep her so she was looking for a family to adopt Daisy.  We had a very nice visit with Miss Anne and Daisy and decided to give her a home.  Jake was over the moon with excitement and could hardly wait a whole week to bring her home.

Unfortunately our adoption was short lived because just ten days after bringing Daisy home with us we determined that we were going to have to give her back to Miss Anne.  Daisy is a great dog and will make someone a wonderful companion but it will most likely need to be someone without small children.  She seemed to like Jake but the herding tendencies of the Great Pyrenees part of her were too prevalent to work well with a little boy.  We quickly discovered a notable concern.  Daisy began nipping at Jake constantly and 'herding" him to the point that she wouldn't let him stand up or move from room to room without our intervention.  The nipping had us pretty concerned because she was only doing it to Jake and the frequency seemed to be increasing instead of decreasing.

Trip called a dog trainer who said that Daisy thought she was in charge of Jake and that she was nipping at him to change his behavior or movements because that was part of the herding instinct.  She told us that if Jake were older and bigger (10-12)  that she would be able to do private training to establish Jake as a leader but that since he is so little that it would be virtually impossible to stop this behavior because dogs with this personality won't accept "little people" as their pack leader.  The trainer also cautioned us that while she sincerely believed that Daisy was not trying to hurt Jake that she could still accidentally hurt him trying to do what she believes to be her job.

This threw all of us for quite a loop because we went into this planning to be Daisy's forever home and then found ourselves afraid to let her play with or be alone with Jake.  The final decision didn't come until one night when Daisy was resting/dozing near us while we were all playing a board game in the floor of the family room.  Jake decided to go get some yogurt and when he stood up and started to walk around Daisy it must have startled her even though he didn't touch her and she jumped up grabbed him by the right shoulder and threw him to the ground and might have done more if we hadn't jumped up and separated the two of them.  This one wasn't just a nip... she chomped down on him pretty good and left a bite mark and some bruising.

It is with great regret that we have come to the sad conclusion that we aren't going to be able to be Daisy's forever home.  She is a beautiful dog but sadly we can't take the risk that she might inadvertently cause Jake serious injury so we have made arrangements to place her back in Miss Anne's loving care.  We're really dreading next weekend when we will be returning her and aren't sure that Jake fully understands yet but we feel like we've made the best possible decision given the situation.

Mama said that I looked too cute not to take a picture, so....

Happy 47 Month Birthday to Me!

Mama even takes my picture when I"m sleeping.

I read Daisy a bedtime story to make her feel safe on her first night in her new home.

Look at me!

Just sitting in a box, watching Cars 2.

Making blueberry muffins with my Mama.

Daisy is a beautiful dog!

A big family Christmas...

The first Christmas in our new home was wonderful.  It is so nice to finally be settled again.  The rental house was a lovely place to lay our heads at night but nothing compares to being in your own home.  Believe it or not four months in and we're still working on getting all the boxes unpacked and really need to get some things on the walls but we have plenty of room to entertain so we became the gathering spot for the family Christmas celebrations on both sides of our family.  

First... we hosted a Christmas brunch for 20 and it turned out great even though we haven't purchased a new "breakfast" table or bar stools yet.  We just haven't found exactly what we want yet and didn't want to feel pressured to buy something simply because we needed seating.  As the date for the brunch loomed closer my anxiety level increased because I couldn't figure out how we were going to seat everyone and then a light bulb came on in my head which allowed me to realize that we could rent a banquet table and folding chairs from a rental company.  It was easy, inexpensive and worked out great so who knows we may take that route again before we finally find the table and chairs that we really want to purchase. 

The brunch was so much fun.  We had my Mama and Daddy, my brother, his wife and their three kids as well as my Aunt & Uncle, their son and daughter along with their families and loved ones so the house was filled with love and laughter.  Everyone brought a dish to help out and the food was fantastic.  We all ate entirely too much and enjoyed having some time to visit with each other during such a magical part of the year.  It was a very blustery morning so Jake decided that he really wanted to stay in his footie pjs instead of changing into real clothes.  He was the envy of everyone.  He also took on the role of tour guide for our guests and as soon as each family arrived he would take them throughout the entire house to show them around which was just adorable.   He would even open the bathroom cabinets to show them Mama's stuff and Daddy's stuff.  It was all over much too quickly but we're planning on doing it again next Christmas and maybe sometime over the summer as well.  Family is too important to only see each other once a year so we'll try and hope that "life" doesn't get in the way of making it happen.

The magic of the season is so precious through the eyes of a child and Jake was so excited for Christmas this year... so much in fact that he was a bit overwhelmed which caused him to be a little out of sorts.  I think the unending events and the presents at every turn can be a little to much for little ones to process.  The holiday season brings family gatherings, parties and parades just to name a few things but it also means that schedules are out the window and exhaustion is not a little fella's friend.  This culminated in a few "un-Jake" like episodes which resulted in the threat of coal in his stocking but Santa decided to cut him some slack.  This is the first year that Jake has really understood the whole Santa concept.  He was determined to tell Santa that he wanted a JCB backhoe which he did in such a "big boy" way and the sheer joy in his eyes on Christmas morning more than made up for the holiday induced meltdowns we experienced over the two weeks leading up to the big day.

We spent Christmas Eve at Mamaw and Papaw's house with Uncle Russell, Aunt Kristi, Gage, Katie and Abbie.  We even enjoyed a quick visit from Laura, Thomas and Uncle Don which was a wonderful surprise.  I love being at my Mama and Daddy's house on Christmas Eve.  It brings back so many wonderful childhood memories.  The kind of memories that I want Jake to have of his childhood.  There have been only a couple of Christmas Eve nights that I haven't spent at Mama and Daddy's house and Trip has graciously allowed that tradition to continue for the more than twenty years that we've been together  but this year we decided that Jake needed to be at home for Santa so after a truly wonderful afternoon and evening with my family we headed back up the mountain to create our own memories.  It was so special to help Jake get milk and cookies ready for Santa and to listen as Trip read him the Christmas story and Twas the Night Before Christmas (among others).  He was so anxious that it was tough for him to go to sleep but he finally did along with his Daddy so I got to play Santa before turning in for the night.  Jake was so tired that he slept late on Christmas morning which I imagine won't happen again for several years.  I remember when I was little that I tossed and turned for hours on Christmas Eve trying to go to sleep but then Russell and I would be waking Mama and Daddy up before 5am to go see if Santa had visited us.  When Jake finally did wake up it was like he wasn't really expecting that Santa had come because we had the camera set up and when our adorable sleepy headed little boy walked into the family room he didn't even see his dream gift he just walked up to the camera where Trip and I were standing and then you could see him realize that Santa had been there and his reaction was so precious (check out the video below).

Grandma and Grandpa arrived on Christmas Day and we enjoyed some time with them before the rest of the family arrived for another holiday celebration on the 26th.  Grandma has an amazing way with Jake and he absolutely loves his time with her.  You'll begin to understand why when you see the picture below where they are "writing" with their feet.  We were so happy to have the house filled with family again and this time in addition to Grandma and Grandpa we also had Uncle Paul and Jennifer as well as Carley, Nolan and Johnathan.  Jake hasn't gotten to see Carley and Nolan very much so he was thrilled to spend some time with them and they were both just great with him.  He had a blast playing football with the Nolan and Johnathan and he was quite taken with Carley so he had to sit with her at lunch.  It is such a blessing to have found a house that allows us to host our families.  Trip and I love our families as well as each others families which is also a blessing and  we want Jake to know and love them all too so being able to spend time all together makes the holidays even more special.

You'll see below that I've also included a photo of our Christmas card which has a little story to go along with it.  We took Jake to a local Christmas tree farm to take our Christmas card photo this year and ordered our cards in plenty of time to receive them, address them and mail them out.  Unfortunately, I should not have ordered them when I was clearly too tired to focus on the task at hand.  I typed in our sentiment, spell checked it and reread it several times but still missed that the word "peace" had been entered as "piece" so when the cards arrived I had to throw them all away and reorder.  Even with rush delivery I didn't get them until the 23rd which meant that they didn't get in the mail until Christmas Eve.  Oh well... hopefully it's true that it's the thought that count but at least it was an adorable picture of Jake.

Having lunch with my cousins, Nolan and Carley.

So fun to have a house full of family.

Mamaw and Papaw gave me this guitar for Christmas
so I decided to put on a Christmas concert.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

Grandma and Carley... aren't they pretty?

Playing football with Nolan.

Okay... no Charlie Brown tricks Nolan.

Playing with Carley and Nolan in my room.

Christmas Day play time with Grandpa.

Grandma taught me to "write" with my foot.

Cool... an indoor putting mat with real holes.

This is just what I really, really wanted!

I'm so glad that Santa put me on the nice list.

Look Daddy... it's Francesco from Cars 2.

Santa really brought me a JCB backhoe with a 

flatbed truck to haul it on and I'm so happy!!!

Wow!  This is awesome!

Mama said... "Merry Christmas Sleepyhead".

Wait ... was that what I think it was?

 I love all the twinkly lights, Mama.

I think I'll just stay up to make sure that 

Santa finds his milk and cookies... okay?

Gage and Uncle Russell are up to no good.

Abbie and Katie on Christmas Eve.

Another one for me!  Wonder what it is.

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Looks pretty good Mama.

Look Mama... I painted my hand.

Busted... sitting on the table eating leftovers.

Just hanging out in my room with Gage.

I love having my cousins here to play with me!

Papaw is wearing Mama's mistletoe headband.

I love spending time with my Paw!

You really didn't have to but I'm so glad that you did!

Christmas Brunch:  Table #1

Christmas Brunch:  Table #2

Mama's taking pictures so her chair is empty.

Getting ready to ask the blessing.

Be filled with wonder.

Be touched by His peace.

Believe in the miracle.