Christmas cards are on their way

I have started mailing out our Christmas cards with a little help from Jake. As you can see above he is carefully placing Christmas stickers on the envelopes. I will not post the Christmas card picture nor the outakes here until after all of the ones I have posted have a chance to be delivered, but look for them later this month.

Parades and Fulton Midway Marina Christmas Open House

Mari and I in front of our church watching the Christmas Parade and occasionally running inside to get hot chocolate to keep warm!
Mari, Jake and James watching the Annual Reed's Department Store Christmas Parade in Tupelo. It was the first event that we took Jake to after bringing him home from the hospital (my mom joked that they were throwing a parade just for him) and last year it was the first even we took Mari to after bringing her home from the hospital. It has become a tradition and so this was Jake's fourth Reed's Christmas Parade and Mari's second.

James and Mari join my parents and Jake on board the train from the parking area to the marina.

Jake and Mari get presents from Mr and Mrs Claus at the Midway Marina.

A cold Mari!

Sunset over the Tombigbee Waterway from the end of the dock at the Midway Marina in Fulton (the town where my parents live).

Above are some of the boats decorated for the open house.

Mari is sick!

Mari has strep throat and sinus congestion. I will blog about our fun trip to the doctor later. I am working on updating my blog but right now it is difficult to even take a shower as she wants/needs held constantly.

Trimming the Tree

Friday night we kicked off our personal family Christmas Holiday Season by selecting and trimming our tree. Friday was my final day of my classes for the semester (although I had to drive down Monday for my students final exam) and so we were really in a celebratory mood. Jake and I baked Christmas cookies, which you can see Mari eating above. Below Jake is partaking in his "Christmas chocolate" which is what he calls opening his advent calendar (it has a different shaped chocolate for every night).

We got a short tree this year. I put it on a table behind our couch as it was the only strategy I could figure out to keep it safe from Mari. We did something similar when Jake was the same age. As you can see Mari would rather eat ornaments than put them on the tree (I bought a bunch of safe shatterproof plastic balls which are the ones you see her with--so don't worry she wasn't in any danger). Jake enjoyed putting the ornaments on, but I later had to "redecorate" it as he put them all in one place.

The best Santa Claus picture EVER!

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving with the Carr family. From left to right: Emily Carr (James's first cousin) is holding Cayson Hunt (James's first cousin Kris's youngest son born in April), in the middle is Hadyn Hunt (Kris's oldest son) and then Jake and Mari of course!

We had Thanksgiving with my parents the next day.

This was Mari's first Thanksgiving Holiday. I know that seems weird as she has already celebrated her first birthday, but as it is not a set date (like Easter) her birthday this year was before Thanksgiving, although last year she was born after Thanksgiving. As you can see she enjoyed the food. Oh, and I immensely enjoyed not being pregnant for Thanksgiving!

Even more Birthday Fun!

Jake surprised us all by asking to go to Pizza Hut (I don't think we have been there since Mari was born--if so no more than once). We used to go to the lunch buffet quite a bit when I was pregnant with Mari though!

Fun was had by all and Jake was impressed by the red pepper flakes. He informed us that they were seeds. James told him to try some and Jake laughed and said "NO, birds eat seeds Daddy!" he then told us they were a spice (he calls spices pew wees--I guess because some of them have a strong fragrance--all this he learned while playing in my parents' panty).

He was very excited to get to drink sprite (a rare treat)!

We took James back to work (he just joined us for lunch) and then I took the kids to the new play center in the mall. As you can see above, Jake loved the Jeep. They both seemed to really enjoy it. We have taken them to it before but did not have the camera with us. I don't know that I will take them by myself again as it was a little scary because you can't always see both of them at once. So from now on I will take them only if James or another watchful set of eyes is with me or if Jake actually learns to obey me better (coming when I say come here instead of saying "What Mama" or ignoring me and running in the other direction).

Mari was very excited by all the things to climb on!

Jake is Three!

James and Mari attempt to wake Jake up so that James can wish him "Happy Birthday" before going to work today. We are supposed to meet James at lunch time for a birthday lunch. We are going to let Jake decide where so it will probably be McDonalds (chicken nuggets). I will edit in a picture of that later.

So as of 4:30 this afternoon, I will be the mother of a three-year-old. I can't believe it! He is so big and smart these days. He has been heard quite a few times saying "No Mama, your silly, that is not right." The scary part is a few times he has been right! He speaks vry clearly now, but on the off chance he says something I don't understand he will so "Jake no say that, say this" and repeat what he is trying to tell me. This holiday season is very exciting for he and I as he remembers his birthday last year and Thanksgiving and Christmas as well. He is able to anticipate things with excitement and tell Mari all about it. He has picked up on the many nicknames Jame and I throw their way and occasionally addressed Mari as Miss Mari, Monkey Foo Foo and Mari Moo. He will even "correct me" if I call him Jake, he will say "No Jake Mamma, Jakey Poo and Mari Moo". He is still trying to insist that I have "two babies" but I keep telling him that Mari is growing up and so I don't have any little babies anymore, just two big kids! He isn't buying it yet, but hopefully it will work soon. He really enjoys Sunday School and

Mothers Day Out (at St Lukes). He has a bunch of little friends there (most of them girls) and looks forward to going the one or two mornings he and Mari go. I am still amazed at his memory and he is quite literal. Sometimes he will hear James and I discussing something and he will tell us no, and set us straight. He did this to my dad a few weeks ago when I went to pick them up. My dad was saying that Jake hadn't had any candy (because he didn't realize Jake had) and Jake said, No Papoo, Yes candy, ate M&Ms (or MNMs as Jake calls them)." He has so many interesting ideas about things and we never know what he will say next that will have us thinking or laughing. Jake got a set of tools for his birthday and I was telling him that they are just like Daddy's and he replied "No Daddy's are metal". He wasn't upset, he was just stating a fact. He is so funny!

Mari is one!

Above Mari is demonstrating her mad skills climbing stairs (James and I are both just outside of the edge of the picture so it isn't as dangerous as it looks). Below, Mari and I look at pictures from her birth. Some of them are really gross as we had someone actually take pictures of the birth itself, but we the picture she is looking at here is of James holding her for her first nap outside the womb. I still tear up when I think of how amazing it all was, I can't believe it was a year ago already!

I can't believe Mari is now one! Where did the time go? I don't know if it is because I have vowed not to do any school work from Friday night until Tuesday night (in observance of birthdays Monday and Tuesday and in preperation of the dual party that was held Saturday) and so I am able to just enjoy their company and see how much they have changed in the past few weeks (that I may have been too busy to fully notice), but she seems much older than she did last week. She is saying quite a few words although they aren't always clear. She still calls me Eye-ya (Isla) most of the time, but she does say Mama occasionally. She says Dadda alot and has even said Daddy a few times. She recently started saying Dake (for Jake) and here, there, okay and yeah. She can also verbalize baby (her dolls and real ones in the nursery and in the store) and bottle. Yesterday she brought me a diaper when she wanted me to change her (not the first time she has done that). She is mostly a happy baby, but VERY hard headed and determined. She bites a lot and we are currently working on breaking her of that habit. She is a good eater, (although I keep forgetting that since Jake was not able to eat well because of his reflux) and I hope to work on getting her completely off the bottle over the Christmas break. She likes carrots, sweet potato, english peas, chicken, rice, butter beans, pretzels, cherios, toast (not as much as she used too). She can drink from a cup with assistance, but doesn't really seem to like sippy cups. She doesn't like juice at all (neither did Jake) and I am about to start her on whole milk over the holiday as well. Her one year checkup was supposed to be Monday, Dec 1st, but the doctors office called and asked that we reschedule (I think Dr. Sheffield takes her vacation then, because we had this problem last year when we took Mari to her one week check-up). I will update on her stats on the 19th after her new appointment. She is walking almost everytime we take her shoes off and is just a right wee mess. Sunday she was trying to wake Jake up from his nap and I thought she was loving on him because she had her head on his arm. No! She was pulling his fingers out of his sleeve and biting them! He started crying and she started laughing and that is how we figured it out! She is adorable and dangerous!

Jake and Mari's Birthday Party!

Mari and Jake wearing the official birthday hat!
I wish you could have heard the sound Mari made when we first but it on her head. It was a confused, but curious little noise as if to say, "Hey what happened to the lights" Jake was more than happy to wear it this year as had an audience to show off in front of! I can't believe how big he is now!
Above, Jake is posing in front of the birthday table. Below you can see Mari trying to eat her way out of it.

Jake and Emily (James' first cousin) play outside while we wait for everyone to get to the party. We just did a family party again, maybe next year we can have a bigger party and invite their "friends." I think it was harder to pull there party off this year than it was last year even though I had only had Mari a week before the party last year. This year I had to turn in a lot of coursework and research the week before the party.
Above Emily helps Jake and Mari unwrap their gifts and Leslie (Emily's mother) reads Mari one of the books she got as a present. James' mother, Ann, is pictured to the left and his sister Cheri to the far right.

Above, Jake blows out his three candles and below Mari is not happy about wearing another birthday hat.


These pictures are of them opeing their presents together with the help of Emily.

Somehow when the pictures got loaded the order got inverted (I load them five at a time, which is the max Blogger will let you do at a time--sometimes it works just right sometimes it is all screwy). But after a solid day of error messages I am just glad Blogger will allow me to post now! These next four pictures are of Jake and Mari eating their cakes. In our family we follow the tradition of letting the baby eat their own cake on their first birthday, but as Jake's reflux was so bad that he couldn't really eat his cake on his birthday and then he is to young to understand why Mari gets to do something and he can't so we decided to let both of them participate this year.


After it was all over and every body went home, Jake and Mari enjoying Jake's new remote control truck.