Mommy and Jake :)

Stomach virus...continued

Jakob decided to share his stomach virus with mommy and daddy. We have been dealing with that all weekend. On top of that Jeremy left today for his TDY. Me and Jakob will probably leave Friday. We'll see. After the stomach bug hit the house I really want to get things scrubbed down and cleaned up. I ordered my dress for Kara's wedding, so that should be here in a few days. Less than four months till my little sis gets married...I'm happy for her, kinda sad I'm getting old (lol) just kidding :)

Stomach Virus...

So we are experiencing our first stomach virus with Jakob :(  On Tuesday morning I woke up and went to make coffee and the whole house smelled horrible, like rotting food or something. I was smelling all over the kitchen trying to figure out what the problem was. As I entered the back of the house the smell was 100 times worse. I opened Jakob's bedroom door and spotted the problem right away. He had thrown up all over his bed. Thankfully most of his food was digested (gross, I know) so really everything just needed to be washed. I scrubbed down his mattress -thank goodness baby mattresses are plastic on the outside!- but it still took about a day and a half with the window cracked to get rid of the smell. He was running a pretty high temp on Tuesday, but thankfully today there's no more fever. Tuesday he would not eat any food at all, he has only eaten a couple bites here and there since then. It is so sad when a little one is sick. He has just been watching a lot of cartoons and laying on the couch

This and that...

I turned on the bathwater today and heard a plunk. It didn't sound like one of Jakob's toys falling into the bathtub, it sounded strange enough that I took a look in the tub (thank goodness!!) and saw to my horror that a tree frog had fallen out of the faucet. I called Jeremy into the bathroom to get the amphibian out all the while trying not to show how horrified I was feeling at the moment. The last thing I needed was a husband who thought it was funny to chase me around the house with a frog. Jeremy stuck the frog on the back porch and declared that he would use it for fishing bait...Amber, you will probably get teary-eyed reading that, I don't know if he actually used it for bait or not ;) 

We are reading "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp for our Sunday School class. It speaks of reaching a child's heart when it comes to God. We can raise our children to do all the right things, but if we don't reach their heart then we have failed. We're only in chapter 3 but what I'm noticing more and more is just how important our relationship with God is when it comes to our children. What it really all comes down to is how we live our lives. We may know all the correct phrases to say and spiritual attitudes we should have, but our children will be like us. Kind of the whole do as I say type thing. Children know what you believe by your actions, not what you are telling them from your mouth. In some ways that is sooo scary to me. I also appreciated him pointing out that children are not inanimate objects either. It is our responsibility as parents to raise our children as God instructed us, but they also have a responsibility to God to obey what they learn and live for him. I can only imagine as a parent having a child who just won't do right. I can imagine the guilt that would put on a parent, but in the end every person must answer to God for their own choices. Jeremy and I were talking about this book, and it's nothing new. Every person who has been in church for a while knows all these truths. It's the living them out that's the hard part. I am glad to be reading this and reminded of these things while Jakob's young.

Jeremy is supposed to be going for 2 and a half (yikes!!!) weeks to Homestead. See that little red star on the map? That's homestead. Where he will be working is basically in the middle of the state. I was thinking about staying home just me and Jakob, but to be honest I don't really want to have 16 days of contact only with a 2 year old. I hope that doesn't sound bad, but I need some adult conversation! I know military wives do this all the time, but I was not aware that my husband was in the military, oh!, right, he's not (lol). So Jakob and I are planning on going with him. Jeremy has to take a work vehicle, so I will drive our car and me and Jakey will check the place out. I have e-mailed a couple people about vacation homes, but if nothing else we will stay in a hotel. I don't really know what all is in Homestead, but if we run out of things to keep us busy we can always head home. At least I won't be without my hubby for 16 days.

Can you believe Jakob will  be 2 years old next month??? I'm pretty sure we're gonna have to have a Toy Story birthday party (is there anything else?) Amber was telling me how she gets emotional looking at Charlotte's baby pictures and Char's only 3 months old. I know exactly how she feels. I get teary-eyed looking at Jakob's baby pics, because time has flown by, but also my heart just fills with thankfulness to God for giving Jakob to us. There were so many dark days when I thought we'd never get to experience this love. Now he's been around 2 years and I can't remember life without him :)

Still missing my camera...Hopefully I will get a new one before we go on our trip. It feels so weird to blog without pictures...that's why I looked all these up (lol) Anyways, hope you all are doing great, and having a great summer! Surprisingly the summer is speeding by for us. Kara will be getting married in about 4 months! I can still remember bringing her to Rocky Bayou as my show and tell :)

Pictures from Niceville...

The Fam

You can see what Great Grandpa is interested in :)

The grandbabies

Charlotte loves Aunt Shauna- she's talking to me here

Looks like I'm squeezing pretty hard (lol)

Love this girl!

Eating cheetos at Grandpa's

Jakob put himself to bed. We couldn't find him and were searching all over the house, I opened my mom's bedroom door and he had crawled up on her bed and put the pillow over his head and went to sleep.

The stickers on his bum are from my mom's door hanger that somebody made for her. Before taking his nap he had ripped all the stickers off the door hanger (sigh)

Eating trail mix and watching America's got Talent with Puppa

All the sisters

My baby boy

Abi and her nephew

hahaha!

The diva and her mommy :D

Me and my tubs

Charlotte says hi

Nana and Char-J

Me and Char right before she started crying

Eating fruit snacks in the airport

The little people had to come on our trip with us

Introducing Jakob to the joys of Old Mexico

He really liked it!

Chicken chimi-changa old mexico style...mmmm. Me and Jeremy sit around and talk about this meal all the time. Sadly we cannot get mexican food this good in our town :(

You know, you're getting old...

On Saturday I was washing my hair and I hung my head down for a second and when I picked it back up my neck hurt so bad. I have no idea what I did, but something was definitely out of whack. All day yesterday I had to turn my whole body to look at things because it hurt waaaay too much to turn my neck. Is this preparing me for what thirty will feel like??? (lol)  Jeremy told me stuff like that happens to him "all the time" and I always think he's over exaggerating. He told me I'm just getting old : )

Randomness...

 Remember when Jakob took the mop all over my house and bleached out the carpet? Well my landlord is about to have it fixed. I am happy about that, even though I barely notice the spots anymore. The landlord asked me to take pictures of the carpet and send it to him (I'm sure for documentation purposes) and I totally don't want to send them. I told him about the stains, but i'm so nervous that when he sees them they will be worse than he thought. I don't know why it makes me so nervous, we paid our security deposit for that exact purpose, but I don't want them to see it! Oh well. 

 I really miss my camera :( You don't realize how much you use it until you don't have it anymore. I keep forgetting to send my SD card with Jeremy to get my pictures off of it. Y'all have pretty much seen most of the pictures on FB anyways, I'm sure. 

 The other day I was in the grocery store waiting in line...(watching an older couple yell at the cashier in spanish, -and the cashier had no idea what they were saying- but that is a whole other story...) and I got out my keys and Jakob reached for them. I didn't let him have them and he said "key!" I was so shocked that he knew what they were number one and number two that he actually said a word without having to be prompted, so of course I gave him my keys. All day after that I kept asking him to say key and he even said it for his daddy. 

 Jakob is learning a lot of his animal sounds, but a lot of times they all end up sounding a lot alike. Like a little squeak. He loves sheep right now, and when he sees a sheep he says aaaaaaa in a shaky voice. It is really cute.

 Last night Jeremy and I were playing on the wii and Jakob was getting restless. He wanted to play too. We put on wii sports resort and he loves to play swordfighting on there. (another time when I need my camera!) He actually beats me on the first game easily. He will knock me down with 3 or 4 hits. (when he plays he makes a grunting noise as he swings the sword)  In the second game though he gets tired and then he's barely swinging the sword and his little avatar is hitting like a little old man. It is hilarious. I've got to get it on video.

 We are finally(!) getting rain down here in South Florida. All of the ponds near our house were getting very shallow, now they are just about full again with only a couple days of good rain. Jeremy is really enjoying having ponds so close to the house. He is an outdoors type of guy, so most days when he's home he'll go to the pond and fish at least for an hour or two. Sometimes we'll go with him, but when I go I have to chase Jakob around and make sure an alligator doesn't eat him (yes, there are alligators in the ponds, we see them) or he doesn't run into the pond, which he tries to do often thinking the pond is the same as the beach, so it's not quite as relaxing of a time for me. It is fun though. 

 I've slowed way down on potty training. I was talking to Shelly and she said potty training is so  much easier if you just wait until the child is ready. You can try to train them early, it just takes more effort, but it works faster and better if they're ready. So now if I feel I have the patience for the day, and if Jakob is cooperating he will wear undies. If we need to go somewhere and I know I can't be consistent that day, or if he has two accidents in a row and is showing me he's not into the undies on a certain day then I'll stop and I don't stress about it. I would love to not have to buy diapers anymore though! 

 I can't believe there's less than 2 months until my baby boy turns 2!!! Time sure does fly when   you're having fun. 

That's about all I can think of to write about at the moment. Hope you all have a great weekend :) 

-Remember to pray for little Payton. My heart is so sad for her and all she's about to go through. Pray that God will use this situation for good, and that he will give peace to the Bailey's, I know it's gonna be tough for them to be so far away as Payton goes through all her treatments.-

A Father's Love...

 ^{Psalm 103:13-} Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

On Sunday at church we read through Psalm 103. The verse that stuck out to me the most was verse 13. Of course Sunday being Father's Day my mind was on Jeremy and the wonderful Father he is to Jakob. My heart was struck, and then filled with gratefulness when I really thought about what this verse means. God gave us an example of His love for us in this verse. -(I realize not everyone has a good example of an earthly Father, and for that I am very sorry and I hope you have someone who has been a Father figure in your life)- When I look at Jeremy and the pride and love he has for Jakob it makes me very happy. I know that Jeremy would never do anything that isn't in Jakob's best interest. Sometimes he may have to sit back and watch as Jakob makes choices that would cause him some pain, (i.e. running and falling and scraping his knee, disobedience that need discipline,etc.) but ultimately Jeremy knows that it will help Jakob be stronger, make better choices and grow as a well rounded person. Jakob's daddy will always be there to pick him up after he's fallen, to wipe him off and encourage him to keep going. Now think about God as a Father. If our earthly Father's can love us that much, how much can the God who created us love us? God's love cannot change, it cannot be affected by circumstances as earthly love sometimes can. God the Father would never allow us to go through situations that would be detrimental to us. He does allow us to go through hard times, but it's always to make us better Christians, to help us to know Him better, to love Him more. Looking at God's love in comparison to a Father loving his children gives me comfort. It tells me that no matter what I go through God is doing what's best for me. It may be hard, it may be scary, but my Father only wants the very best in my life. Oh, and a little tidbit Jeremy told me...

Did you know that back in the Bible days they thought it was blasphemous to think of God as a Father or any sort of close way? He was God, so far and high above any man, he could never be considered to have anything personal to do with man. That's why the Jews hated Jesus so much. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. Jesus came to show a different side of God. Yes, he is the creator of the world, and the Judge of the whole earth, but he loves us. Enough to send his own Son to bring us salvation. God desires to have that Fatherly relationship with us. I think many times I take that for granted. Something so special. Anyways, I thought that was interesting :)  

Well, we got home from our trip on Friday. I was absolutely exhausted! That's the only problem when you are visiting with family, you stay up late talking and spending time and wake up early and do it all over again. Jakob went to bed pretty late every night mostly because he was out of his element. At home when 9 o'clock arrives we take him and lay him in bed. He lays right down and falls asleep. At my mom's I would lay down with him and he just wanted to play with me. One night I was so tired and I kept opening my eyes (in the dark) to see a little grinning face right up next to mine. It was too hard to be mad at him because he's just so darn cute! My mom was usually the one to rock him to sleep once everyone else had gone to bed. Traveling on a plane (just me and Jakey)  is getting pretty exhausting too. I try to make everything as easy as possible (take shoes off and put in carry on bag till after security, have stroller already folded for metal detector,etc.) but with a little boy who is ready to take off and run at any second the airport itself is a chore. My shoulders were pretty sore from toting Jakey around the airport. We also travel at small airports,(where you have to walk across the tarmac to the plane), so I either have to have his stroller folded and carry both of them across the tarmac or roll the stroller up to the plane and risk him taking off running (on the runway!) while I try to fold the stroller. There were very nice people in the airport that offered to help me with my bags though. On Monday we went to my grandpa's house. I was very glad we made that trip. Most of you know my Aunt Betty and Uncle Jim. We haven't had a chance to see Aunt Betty since Uncle Jim passed away, so it was great to see her. I also haven't seen my grandpa since Jakob was about 8 months old, so it was good to visit with him. Jakob loved swimming in my grandpa's pool. The only thing he loved more than that was Lady my grandpa's dog. We had a few doggy encounters while we were home and it really makes me want to get Jakob a pet. We have decided though to see what happens in the next few months. We have some decisions to make about where we want to live once October comes and our lease is up on this house. As you can see from the picture above I took full advantage of holding baby Charlotte. You forget how tiny babies are when you haven't held one in a long time. I have to say I think she liked me. She smiled at me alot and gave me a lot of goo's. She is precious. Oh, and baby girl clothes make me want a girl so bad! CUTE!!! I did take some pictures (Cat!) but unfortunately my camera is broken. It will not turn on at all, so Jeremy is going to have to take it to work and put my pics on a CD for me. On Thursday we went to the beach for my mom's birthday. I had forgotten how gorgeous Destin is. This year I have been to the beaches on the East Coast and a few on the West Coast, but none are as beautiful as Destin. The sand is like white flour on the beach. So soft. A big military helicopter flew just above the water while we were there, and it was neat for Jakob to see. Our guys were all in their camo uniforms and they were close enough to wave to us. Pretty cool. Not too many places where you'll see that. It is also encouraging to see the sand dunes building back up. I still remember after hurricane Opal when you could see straight from the road to the water. Thank goodness Eglin owns all that beach or else there'd be condo's and hotels built all over it. Jakob did so    good on this trip. As he gets older he is so much less work and so much more fun. -Not that babies are not fun, they're just fun in a different way.- We hit Gymboree at the perfect time and Jakey's Gamma bought him some new clothes. I was getting him whole outfits for 7 bucks or less. They outgrow their clothes so fast! Anyways, we had a great time. It's so much fun to get all the sisters together. Me and Amber still make each other crack up over the goofiest stuff. All in all it was a great trip, it only seems like there's never enough time. Hopefully one day we'll all get to move closer to each other. Family is so important. I will try to get the pictures up soon. I guess I'd better start looking for a good deal on a camera! -Oh! and you know what Jeremy told me he wanted for Father's day? Toy Story 1 and 2 on dvd. (We only have them on video) That's when you know you're a real daddy, when you ask for Father's day presents that will make your baby boy happy. So sweet :) More on Father's day later...

Lately...in pictures :)

Jakob's favorite toys are the "little people" he has a little people farm and a little people airport. He carries these toys everywhere he goes. They travel in the car with us to the grocery store and church. I love to see his likes and dislikes

Mother's Day 2011. Me and my little man <3

The child loves to wear shoes now. He brings me shoes or socks just about every day so I can help him put them on. He will be running around the house in just a diaper and his tennis shoes (lol)

We went to the mall and instead of taking the stroller with us Jakob walked. He was so fascinated by everything around him. He had to stop and touch everything! I mean every kiosk had to be touched by his hand. (I know, kinda gross, but that's what purell is for right?) It took a lot longer than if he was riding in the stroller, but it was so neat to see the mall through his eyes

Did I mention we're climbing everything now??? Mommy's bed, the playpen...

I think he thinks he got away with something (lol)

...even climbing into our crib...I think it may be about time to start looking for a toddler bed. I actually had just checked on him and he was sitting on the floor playing with his toys, I walked away and came back a few minutes later and he was sitting in his crib playing with the same toys. I had to stop and think for a few minutes whether I had put him in his crib!

We had two of these little guys on our back porch the other day!!! Jakob was so upset but I wouldn't go out side at all after that. The weather here is South Florida has been so dry! They say it's the worst drought they've had in a long time. It's not good that there's a drought, but the weather at night is so awesome! It's in the low 70's and dry with a little wind. I just need these snakes to get lost so I can enjoy my back porch!!! We're all packed and ready to leave Sunday afternoon. My flight leaves at 4:15 so we will go to our church Sunday a.m. and then be at my parents house in time to go to church with them Sunday p.m. :) I already have friends texting me that they're coming to visit, and me and Amber are planning a girls shopping day. I can't wait!!! (and I really can't wait to hold my chunky little neice! I think she may beat Jakob in the chunkiness department)