My oldest....Jordan/JC

*Warning-----this post contains weepy, sappy, and hormonal outpourings of affection from a mother about her child. If you are a man, proceed with caution....don't make me say I told ya so.

Well, I just realized that Jordan is hardly in any of the pictures that I posted and it's not because I'm purposefully trying to keep him out of the pictures, it just seems that he quietly slips out of frame right before I snap. You know the old I'm almost a teenager, my mom is crazy and hopefully nobody sees her trying to get pictures of me....? Yes, a teenager. In just six short weeks, I will become a full card carrying (literally....he gets ID cards at the Y and for the neighborhood association) mother of a teenage boy. I'm slightly diffused by the fact that he is, indeed a boy and not a teenage girl. That would be another situation entirely, I recognize that blessing for what it is...although I will get my chance eventually.....times two. Somewhere along this road I've called life the past thirteen years, my baby has metamorphed into this smiling young man you see above. When did this happen? While I wasn't looking, my pudgy little baby boy has grown into a truly remarkable young man. A lot of times people close to me will hear me grudgingly complain about his absentmindedness or lack of responsiblity....and not often enough do I outwardly focus on his positive attributes....I just never want to seem as if I'm bragging or am afraid if I voice it out loud, he will turn around and do something to completely negate any of the positive uplifting things I said. With that said....I do want to let him and everyone else know that I see and notice all those choices and things that he does that make him truly special. He was born with a sense of compassion the likes I haven't seen since my dear mother left this earth...I can see her in him daily. He truly has a special spirit....even when he was a small child people that would spend time with him, would afterwards come up to us and say that's a special kid and follow it with a little act or comment Jordan had done or said. Of course every parent thinks their kid is special, and I do think all of mine are...but Jordan has a uniqueness all his own. As a baby, he was so very easy going and content to observe the world around him. He possesses a sense of intuition that even seems to outdo what I thought was one of my best abilities, knowing when someone is sad or hurt even if they put on a cheerful shell, he can see through it. Always he was willing to share and receive love and affection...he LOVED to be held and cuddled...we just couldn't bear to put him in a crib, and kept him with us until, well...fairly recently. He doesn't like to be alone and loves being a part of this family, although sometimes the responsibilities of being the oldest seem so unfair to him, although I always counter that he has more priveleges than his siblings, it still doesn't quite seem to even out for him. In school, his teachers always remember him and you can tell he's a favorite...maybe not the student with the highest grades (although he's never NOT been on the honor roll), but he would be the one that could tell if the teacher was having a bad day and would ask her how she was, or to be the one to crack a joke at just the appropriate time, so that his teachers always told me what a joy it was to have him in their class. We still keep in touch with a few of his elementary teachers to this day. Now he's about to complete the seventh grade (did I just write that?) and is taking all honors classes in which he has excelled. We always said we would push our children to do their best and set their goals high...and we encourage him with the knowledge that we KNOW he can do anything, and he's never let us down. OK my hands are starting to shake.... I see now that I'm losing him. More and more he wants to be with friends, all the signs are there. I'm comforted by the fact that we still have our little talks...about life, love, politics, science, religion, you name it...although, they are becoming less and less. Sometimes in my prayers, I choke up with the gratitude that I have to my Father in heaven for bestowing upon me and my husband this special spirit that is our son. That we were chosen to be his earthly parents and were entrusted to teach him the path back to live with Him again. That we have been blessed to love and be loved by this boy, soon to be man, is one of the most precious gifts that we could be given in this life....in short, it is.....JOY. We have found it....here in this house, in our family, in our son...my son, my baby. Years I yearned for a daughter....never realizing that the relationship I was craving all that time, the special connection between me and my son is not even describable in words...it is something I would hope all women could experience, if not in this life, then in the next. So here's to all us mom's who have sons, and cringe at the thought of turning them loose someday to the cruel world outside...for a bit longer, at least, he's still mine and I cherish every moment. I found an old journal of mine the other day and wanted to share an excerpt..."March 10, 2000...(Jordan was 3 and a half)....Dear Journal, When I got out of work yesterday, Randy and the boys were waiting for me in the parking lot. He said they were done at the doctor's office early, so he thought he would stop by and see mom to surprise her. Jordan wanted to ride home in the car with me (Randy took Noah in the truck) and he talked to his mommy the whole ride home. I just love our little talks, he says..."Mommy? You are soooo booootiful! and Mommy? I your heart?? I tell him Mommy loves him SO much!! We even have a song we sing...(it's not the words, but really the way we sing it that is special)...it goes..."I love you so much, I love you so much, I can't even tell you how much I love yooooooouuuuuuuu...(big deep breath)...you're special to me, you're special to me....I love you so much and you're special to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!" "-------reading this journal reminded me........that I can't remember the last time we sang this song together:(

Whew! Finally back to blogging...

I can't believe it's almost been a MONTH since I updated my blog!! I thought a blog would force me to keep on top of my life and make me want to document EVERYTHING...nope!! It seems the more busy my days are, the more apt I am to feel like I can't stay up with what is going on and what a HUGE chore it would be to bring my blog up to speed. SO, I'm going to follow this post with a few pictures of what has gone on in the past month. These past few weeks have been filled with detective exams, Easter holidays, girls' camp meetings, skit/hike planning, form collecting, leader searching, field trips, TAKS testing, Dyslexia conferences, baseball/t-ball games, freezer meal planning/cooking, playgroups, homemade roll baking, surprising discovery of a local political nutcase, garage sales, shopping, dance classes, church ward campouts, scout meetings/banquets, photography, cleaning, shoe searches, birthdays (my little girl turned five!!), visiting friends, resurgence of the kit kat obsession, groundings, class projects, missing checks, book reading (Secret Life of Bees...buy/borrow it, read it....DON'T watch the movie first), awareness of VERY exciting new blogs (hehe), condolences, weiner dog races, babysitting, meal deliveries, hair appts, swine flu mania, thwarted nicknames, heated spats, and apologies......not in any particular order. Up to speed? Now, I can start fresh and feel that April has had a chance to have the screen time it deserves:) On to the pics....

Our SeaWorld Spring Break:)

FINALLY got all the pictures downloaded from the trip. Of course, my camera battery ran out just before we left on the second day...SO, I missed pics of the sea lion show, our hotel, AND our trip to the Alamo on the last day:( Here is what I did manage to get...we had SO much fun, even with the crowd. We can't wait to go again now that we have the season passes!

Dangerous Invasion....

The other morning as we stepped outside to take the boys to school, we found this cute baby bunny on the back patio, shaking and looking so lost:( Noah picked it up and we took it over to the side of the fence to set it free. A few days before, a friend of mine one street over from our house had a strikingly different encounter on her back patio. She came in from work in the evening to find a snake slithering around on a pile of rocks they had on their patio. Upon further inspection, she recognized its diamond shaped pattern and saw a small set of rattles on its tail. Her hubby came to the rescue and the snake is toast, but in our neighborhood newsletter it warns that rattlesnakes have been spotted on her street, my street, and two streets on either side of us.....SCARY!! My other friend found a rat snake in her yard last week too, although those I wasn't too worried about, but RATTLESNAKES????!!!!! I mean, I know they exist around us...but this seems crazy that they seem to be overtaking our corner of the subdivision...I'm scared to let the girls play outside in the grass, in our own backyard! Randy says its because of the construction going on nearby our side of the neighborhood, and it's spring, so they are all out and about looking for food. SO, it make me think of the bunny in our backyard and how this part of the neighborhood is overrun by bunnies too. You can't even drive down our back alley at night or early morning without seeing bunnies scatter everywhere. Sometimes even during broad daylight, they just hop right out in the yard or hop right down the street! I've never seen so many bunnies....then it hit me....all the bunnies having babies equals a feast for the large reptiles in close proximity to the boom....aaaagggghhhhh. Got. To. Keep. Bunnies. Away. That poor baby bunny you see in the pic probably ended up as dinner:( And anyone who knows my husband is aware of his one fear and giant phobia........SNAKES!! ANY snake, but he about lost all color when he found out venomous snakes were seen all around us. Now he won't walk out of the house without first kicking, banging, rattling, and yelling at the door in hopes of "scaring" the snake waiting patiently just outside the door ready to strike him down. Before he goes to the bathroom, I've seen him carefully inspect the toilet bowl as if a serpent could be waiting for him there ready to swim up and bite him? He even keeps going in to work late in the morning, with the excuse that he is staying to help get the kids off to school, but I'm secretly wondering if it's just because he doesn't want to leave when it's still dark...hmmmmm. It's a sight to behold, that's for sure...the man is deathly afraid of snakes and over the years it seems to have created this "snake karma" that follows him wherever he goes. He has had more personal encounters with snakes, just by happenstance, than anyone I know! He's even stepped right on top of a snake.....TWICE! I could tell you so many good stories, and probably have if you know me well...hehehe:) The poor guy...just hope either the bunnies move on and the snakes follow them...or the snakes eat them all up and go back to where they came from, because I know...heaven forbid we find a snake in the house....we will be moving! Broken lease and all he would NOT come back....so pray that doesn't happen!!! :)

Cookie Friday with Reese and the Girls...

After school on Fridays, Jonah and his best friend Luke take turns going over to each other's houses to play. They look forward to it all week because they just love hanging out together. Yesterday was Friday and it was Luke's turn to come to our house, but when it's our turn to host I just can't resist having his little sister, Reese over too:) It's become kind of a monthly tradition to have Reese over to bake cookies with the girls on those special Fridays. She is one of the girls' best friends, they just love her and so do I:) She calls me 'SuperV' and I think that is just too cute, since she can't pronounce our last name. Anyway, yesterday I had to make a dessert to take to the RS Birthday dinner at church, so since Reese was coming over, we just made cookies. They usually like chocolate chip, but I was out so we made peanut butter cookies that I let the girls roll into balls then roll in a bowl of sugar. They all wore their little aprons and just had a blast rolling the dough into balls and playing in the sugar (it took me an hour to rid the kitchen of the scattered sugar). They turned out great and Reese took some home to share:) We just love having our little ReeseyBoo over on these special Fridays, and as soon as she is gone, the girls start asking about when she's coming over for the next time:) It makes me so grateful that we are able to raise our kids in a great community and neighborhood, with truly awesome friends! We love you Reesey!!

Western Day...A Comparison....

So, after we start getting ready for school this morning, Jonah informs us that for Kindergarten it is Western day. That means they get to dress up in western clothes for the day, even though there isn't any note anywhere that I can find informing parents of this. I'm a little skeptical, but Noah then says he overheard another child telling her mom the same thing yesterday, so I figure it's legit;) Now, I'm trying to figure out how to throw a cowboy/western outfit together in five minutes, but Jonah says, "don't worry mom, I'm going to wear my vest!". This is the leather vest my Aunt Ginger made that Jonah wore for Halloween when he was three:) He was ready to go!! I had to snap this pic before he left, he was so proud:) I had to think, though, that it's too bad that this is all we can come up with for western wear in the boys' closet....and we are in Texas....we don't even own one pair of cowboy boots, how sad!! Although, not sad enough for me to go shopping for western clothes.....I mean, didn't I get enough of that when I was little?? If it was up to my mother, I would have worn clothes like this every day...and I did for the first few years of elementary!! This is my first grade picture (and I assure you it wasn't supposed to have a "western" theme). I am Jonah's age in the pic...it even looks like the same vest! Now do you see why I'm scarred for life when it comes to dressing my kids?? Someone should have pulled my mother aside and gently explained to her that I AM A GIIIIRRRRLLLLLL!!!!! Seriously.

Give Me....

a cheesy grin any day, and I will take it!! Especially from a sweet three year old:)