Jake...melt my heart

Jake you have been melting my hear recently. You have such a tender, thankful heart and I am so proud of you. 

two days ago we drove through Starbucks, you got a hot chocolate, I got a pumpkin spice latte (I have since decided that I don't like them) and your daddy got a peppermint mocha. Anyway, we got home and were getting everything ready for bed and then we were going to sit down and drink together. You got impatient and grabbed what you thought was your hot chocolate off the counter. It was my latte. You spilled it all over the floor...all over the floor. I cleaned it up while you sat in time out. You got put in time out for being impatient and not asking for help, not for spilling my drink. After you and Daddy talked you came over and gave me the sweetest hug and then went to sit down. As you watched me clean I could just see you struggling. You got up and asked it you could help me clean up. I get you a towel and let you help, you did a great job. It's moments like that, that make me proud that you can't sit and watch someone clean the mess you made. That takes ownership plus a servant heart, I am so proud of you.

Than yesterday I was feeling overwhelmed with house work and such. You came in and asked if the clothes in the hamper were clean. I said yes, frustrated that they had been in there for a few days and hadn't made it back into drawers yet. Then you said, "Thank you"..."for what?" I responded. "Thank you for cleaning my clothes Mommy! I don't like having dirty clothes, thank you for washing them." I responded with a teary "you're welcome" I love that you are grateful for things that are easily unnoticed or taken for granted. Having a thankful heart is so precious and something I hope you keep. 

Today as I was washing dishes you came up to me very excited and said, "Thank you for doing the dishes, thank you for washing my blue bowl, I like eating cereal out of that bowl and now I can tomorrow because you washed it today! Thank you so much Mommy!"

You blow me away with your kind heart Jake. These things reaffirm in me that I am doing a good job raising you. It also gives me hope that the Lord can take hold of these qualities and use them as gifts to further His kingdom. You are such a blessing Jakob you do your Mommy's heart good!

I love you my sweet boy!

A Few Family Pictures

It has been a while since we all got together in front of the camera. It takes a lot of effort so I'm not always up for the challenge of getting everyone ready, setting up the tripod and camera and then hopeing that everyone will be in a goodish mood to not look angry...it sometimes happens and sometimes it doesn't. Well the other night it happened...by force...but it happened! 

Sometimes being on a budget sucks...I would love to have someone else take pictures of us...as a photographer that's a hard thing to do but I would still love for it to happen, I know the importance of not only documenting your lives but our family together. It's not in the budget right now so because of it's importance we use our fantastic camera and a tripod to capture the way our family is right now. 

Please excuse your mothers hair...it was windy...

Oh family I love you...my heart is yours, everything I do, I do for you, all of you! 

Squeezing the last drop out of summer

Can I just say, I love that we live in California. Yes the gas prices are outrageous and everything is generally more expensive but I love that we live with space around us, dirt to dig in, fresh air to breathe and fantastic weather to enjoy it in for a good chunk of the year. As the weather cools down we have spent lots of time outside in the heat of the day because the heat has been a delightful 80 degrees. On one of your Daddy's last days off we all went outside for a little water gun war and soak in the sun. We all had a pretty good time. 

Sweet Jack you just hung out and sat on the grass yelling if you ever got shot with water.

I love this shot...looks like something from the 70's

Daddy used two of the smaller guns

I love the way you hold this big gun up Jake...these guns are automatic, all you have to do is hold down the trigger and water shoots out...it's a little dangerous for anyone trying to avoid getting wet but it's a great way for you to be able to play water guns!

Shootin Daddy

getting Grandpa

got him...in the face!

ok look at your face in this picture on the left...amazing! 

Daddy I'm just going to shoot the ground just kidding...take down!!

I think you love it!

just a friendly war

I think you might be shooting the dog...ted isn't a huge fan of these guns.

get him!

get Daddy!

Mom...did you see him shoot me, I mean really!

Happy baby

serious concentration...yea golf ball!

first time in the swing, I'm not sure why you haven't been in it sooner, but you loved it!

You giggled and smiled the whole time, you especially loved when your brother pushed you.

Jake, I always love to watch you swing, it's childhood joy in it's purest form. Your smile and laughter bring me so much joy. 

So there it is boys our last drops of summer...no pun intended...or maybe now that I think that's clever...get it drops...water guns...ok

We sure are blessed to live where we do and we try to take advantage of it every chance we get. 

Dear Jake

Dear sweet Jakob, 

You crashed little brothers 7 month photo shoot. I didn't mind, it's not everyday that you volunteer to let me take pictures of you. I think you are generally sick of having a camera in your face. This time in your life is pretty dramatic. You are feeling strong emotions and you don't quite how to handle them. You love big and feel strongly about thing. It has resulted in some pretty tearful time outs and some very special cuddle times. You are such a smart boy. You listen and learn so quickly. I am so proud of you. We have talked a lot about changing your attitude when you feel grumpy. You change your attitude better than me...I'll admit sometimes I choose to stay grumpy at a situation...so we all are doing some growing up!! You have cruised through these terrible twos with ease and more grace than most. I feel rather proud...proud of who you are turning out to be. You are so sweet, so caring and very smart. You have the sharpest wit...which keeps me on my toes. You are very determined, which we are trying to channel in the right direction...with great success I might add. If you fall you get right back up and conquer the task you set out to complete. 

You bring me so much joy Jake. It is a joy to teach you about life and the Giver of Life. I love watching you learn new things and the joy it brings you. You are such a sponge and we are doing are best to help you soak up good things. You have the greatest imagination, you have your Daddy to thank for that, he has helped you from very early on play imaginatively. We pretend your bed is a fort, castle, boat or tent and you just run with it. I love playing with you!

You have such a servants heart already, you want to help with everything we do. I will do my best to always allow you to help even when it's not convenient because you love to help and I want you to want to help in the future. To not just help me but to help those around you, having a servants heart is such a powerful ministry tool, one that I hope to help you foster and develop.

 There are times that I feel like I'm failing or not doing enough for you. I'm sorry if that is ever true. Know that I always try to do my best. You are my everything and the biggest blessing that I never saw coming. I always heard people say, 'Children are such blessings', I always felt...'children are a lot of work'. No offense, but the sleepless nights and constantly being graciously available is tiring. It is easy to loose sight of the goal and purpose of our lives. You being my first child everything was new. I always knew that I loved kids and wanted to be a mom. What I discovered is that there is no greater joy than watching someone that is a part of you grow, learn, explore and love life. Even when you tell me you don't like me, I find joy in knowing that you recognize your feelings and can verbalize the way you feel. I also find joy in knowing that in about 30 seconds you will tell me you love me and say sorry for the way you acted. When you get angry I find joy knowing that you understand enough to feel strongly about a situation. Of course I find joy easily in the times when you are silly, cuddly or interested in learning. Those times are the majority, I just have to remind myself of that sometimes. You have taught me so much, about myself and about who God is. I have seen and experienced his heart more than ever ever before by becoming a mom. For that I am truly grateful. You have changed my life, not always in way I wanted but always in ways that needed changing. You have made me better, more self confident, self aware and generally nicer all around. These are things that you didn't have to try to do, just your existence has brought great refinement to my life. 

Jakob Robert,  I adore you my sweet boy. 

Where ever you are that's where my heart will be....

I love you, I love you, I love you

Love, Mama/so proud of you!

The School Area

I'll call it a school area, although you could call it a school hallway...but that doesn't sound as nice. I really, really enjoy having a special spot for us to do school activities in. We do circle time on the floor out side the boys door and I moved a book shelf next to the desk to store all of our supplies. I got sick of running back and forth from a different area of our house. So here is a little tour...

Main wall...a desk, book shelf for storage, a cable for hanging art work (this week we were studying space), our calendar, a frame that holds the memory verse of the week and some artwork for some inspiration!

This is another shot of that wall...the mirror ended up there on accident but it has been great to keep Jack busy while Jake and I work, it has also come in handy for practicing facial expressions and emotions!

This is the opposite wall...a world map, a magnetic white board and that canvas will soon be a flannel board (just like sunday school way back when!!)

the frame that holds the verse of the week

Did  you know that there are no boy bible printables to be found...annoying. So I made some. Real mean trust in the Lord...so mustaches felt appropriate. 

because dinosaurs walked in love i'm sure...

This is from our first week...All about me...I just loved this so much it had to stay. 

I just love theses jars as storage...they look cute and as functional...perfect!!

See these things that look like big crayons...they are dry erase crayons and are amazing!! They don't smell terrible and they wipe off of just about anything with a microfiber cloth!

There little flashcards are from mr.printables and are so cute. Usually I make most of my own things because I'm never satisfied with what I find but these are great! 

I have really enjoyed putting this all together. It has been some work but I have loved putting together lessons and I'm excited for what I can teach next!!