Blogging and Praying that I never forget these days . . . .

Jay's 30th Birthday

October 22, 2010
We had a great weekend the past few days as we celebrated Jay's big birthday.  We were both off work Thursday and Friday and enjoyed the extra days with the kids. Jay spent numerous hours on the couch with his green peas, but by Saturday he was moving around. Friday night we had lasagna at the Kelley's house with family and friends.  Mary Kate loved her first meal of lasagna.  It is definitely one of our favorite dishes that Grandma cooks.  I pretty sure Mary Kate said that she wanted it for her birthday also.  She dug the noodles out and ate as many as we would gave her.  She even got to clean up the left overs on Mr. Jonathan's plate.  Max was really excited about his gift for Jay.  Max had all the "Train Your Dragon" Dragons until the movie came out with the short film on the DVD.  *Smart ones, those kid toy makers, they are!*  You see the short film introduced another dragon, and like Jay, Max has to have the whole set.  So, he decided to buy Jay the last dragon for his birthday.  Now Max has the whole set.  Smart Kid!  Don't be fooled, Jay was just as excited about having the whole set as Max.  Happy 30yrs Babe!  We love you!  Like I said earlier, can you believe it was 15 yrs (or 1/2 your life) ago that you had the party at the armory? Whoa!  Long time ago and we are still dancing and laughing.  I love you, my thirty year old. I hope you had a great birthday even if it was spent with PEAS.  Thanks for taking one for them team.


Mary Kate 9mo

Mary Kate turned 9mo on her Daddy's 30th Birthday.  She weighed in at the doctor's office at 18 lbs 8 oz and 27 inches tall.  She ranks 50% across the board for her age.  As the picture shows, she has really found her tongue in the past week and always has it sticking out.  She is still a very happy baby as long as you don't try to feed her.  She now waves her arms in the arm if she sees you with a spoon.  This makes it almost impossible to get a loaded spoon to her mouth.  She loves being independent and feeding herself with her fingers.  She is also continuing to babble all the time.  She is very loud and can cause some serious looks from others as she "talks" in public.  She knows that "DaDa" is Jay and she babbles it alot.  The word changes a little though and has more excitement in it when she sees him.  I have gotten her to say "Mama" on one occasion and I got it on tape, but it hasn't come out again.  I think I am going to have two very vocal children in my house!  That's okay . . .as Max says all the time "We love you Mary Kate!"

Pumpkin Patch

October 10, 2010
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Bubbles & Babbles

October 9, 2010
My M&Ms love taking baths and playing in the water.  Last week we had a very adventurous bathtime.  It started with Mary Kate doing her first long stent of babbling.  We are pretty sure she threw in some "Dada" in the middle of her story.  I uploaded the videos below for you to make your own determination.  Also, while we were giving her so much attention, Molly got jealous.  Next thing we knew Molly was in the tub too.  There is nothing like videoing, taking pictures, washing both kids, and then washing the dog all at once.  Wow, what an evening!  Enjoy!

Packed Weekend

October 2 and 3, 2010
Don't you just love weekends that make your head spin?  Weekends that make going back to work on Monday feel like a break?  Our weekend felt exactly like that!  It was jam pack with lots of friends, family, food, and fun.  The Four Fs!  We started on Saturday with SquareFest or the Festi-bul as Max called it.  We ran into Jack at the right time so that the boys got to paint some pumpkins.  I think they really enjoyed it.  Our pumpkins our now helping decorate the house.  Abby, how did Jack's shirt wash?  Jack had a little difficulty as he reached across his wet paint pumpkin to get more paint.  I think his shirt ended up with as much paint as the pumpkin did. Following the "festi-bul" we joined the fun at Trace and Ashton's Birthday party.  It is so hard to believe that our nephews are already 7 and 9 yrs old.  Where does the time go?  The kids scaled the tremedous slide all afternon.  They even got in a little bit of pool time before they froze.

Jack & Max

Jay and Ashton

Trace is NINE!
Sunday was celebrated with Mary Kate's Baby Dedication at church.  She looked so pretty!  We were joined with many of our family and several friends.  It was a very special day for us and we are reminded that she is one of God's children entrusted in us to raise.  We were given the opportunity the pledge as parents to teach her about God and provide a Christ centered home for her to thrive in as she grows.  Special Moments!  After the service everyone was invited to our house for a scrumptous dinner.  Thank you all for giving our little lady your afternoon.  It meant more that you can understand to us and will to her as she grows.  I am confident that everyone in attendance will have a special and unique role in her life.  You will each be helping us shape her into a Christian Woman. 

Mary Kate and her Nanny


September 2010

Gee Wizz, September is already gone and really October is half way there too.  As you know I am behind on the blog, but that is okay because we have had some great couple of weeks.  It had been beautiful weather here and I have been enjoying it instead of being on the computer.  It's raining today and Max is at school, so I am going to try to capture some of the highlights real quick from September. 
 As you can see from the picture Mary Kate has discovered the steps and conquered them.  She goes up with ease and Jay is teaching her the come down part.  She is so funny when she gets to the top because she just sits and laughs.  Its seems she is really proud of herself.  She has also learned to clap for everyone.  We spend most of our day saying "yay" and clapping.  Max loves it and is constantly encouraging her to do new things. . . .more of those in October's update.  She is still struggling with baby food.  She only eats it without a fuss about 25% of the time.  I am pondering about abandoning it all together and starting to dice up finger foods.  She continues to nurse well and I am leaving that all up to her since she isn't doing well with foods.


 Max is playing soccer and swimming this month.  I don't have pictures of swimming because they turned out dark and grainy.  He is a real fish in the water and is learning new strokes.  Soccer started well this year with no tears, but that quickly changed.  We had a rough week the end of September where Max screamed and sobbed on the field and Jay  . . . well we all know Jay.  The fact of Jay is that he is Max's coach this year.  It was funny watching Max throw his fit and then looking over at Coach Jay pitching his own little show.  Jay was trying to convince Max and making him play through his tears.  Little did Jay think about parents watching the game that didn't know Max was his child.  I overheard a parent on the sideline tell another parent, "Oh, No, No, that is his son."  Whoops!  I guess parents were discussing his coaching technique when a player didn't want to play.  (Jay was signaling to me across the field that he was going to choke Max.)  Of course Jay was just frustrated and would never harm Max.  Ha!  After that morning Jay decided he had to change his techniques.  He had also applied that at home and everyone is now a lot happier.  Jay is less frustrated and Max's sobbing has almost stopped.  I'm not saying tempers don't rise, but they are much more controlled for Jay and Max.  It has been a wonderful new leaf in our home.  Thank you God for allowing us to have introspection and change ourselves when we know it is not working.  Thank you for second chances at parenting.  I know I always need another chance and another idea or approach.
 Mary Kate happily turned 8mo at the end of September!  I truly believe she is the easiest baby ever.  Other than not eating baby food, she just goes with the flow.  She packs along with everyone where ever and what ever we are doing.  She hardly ever fusses.  Instead she just smiles and giggles at everyone.

 The annual  TUFF Fireman Competition was held this month.  Josh and Jon both competed on the Murfreesboro team and came in second place due to a penalty.  Their team did great and had the best time, but Josh knocked over a cone which caused a 2 second penalty and dropped them to second place.  He was bummed, but it was a great day.  We had all had a rough week that week and it was great to be together as a big family.  Max loves to see his uncles in all their fire gear doing their thing.

Go Flames