Happy Birthday Jacob.

12 years ago today, Jacob played the best April Fool's Day joke ever on our family. After 3 days of a crazy labor, he finally entered the world by c-section, and he was a BOY! Our doctor had assured us that we were having a little girl. And for about 4 months, we prepared diligently for our sweet Zoe.

When I awoke from surgery I was quickly informed that our little Zoe was actually our sweet little man Jacob. This explains why we had to bring him home from the hospital in this little red rose-covered outfit:

Grandma was beaming over her new grandson:This is one of my favorite pictures. We affectionately call this, "I don't want an easter basket, mommy": This was the picture we sent out in our birth announcements:
So maybe we overdid things a bit...

This little hooded towel has been used thousands of times.

We still have it and Sophie still uses it sometimes:

I have to pull these pictures out from time to time to prove to Jake & Emma that they really were best buddies:

So sweet:Jake has always adored his uncle Matt:We still have this teddy, although now it's packed away in his closet:

Happy 12th birthday Jake. We love you more than you know.

Nursing Nana.

I did not blog about our Christmas this year. I think it must have been because I was so sick in December that I was just happy to get through the holidays with my kids fairly satisfied. While I was picking up the girls' room tonight though, I stumbled upon Sophie's favorite Christmas present, which I definitely think is blog-worthy.

The present was from Aunt Betsy & Uncle Steve.

Have an open mind.

It's "Nursing Nana"

Sophie's face in the picture in no way portrays how elated she was to receive this gift.

Take a closer look:

Yep, Nana is nursing her puppies!

Nana has little magnets so their noses latch on firmly.
Sophie's always had a fascination with nursing. Maybe because she was my last baby and never saw me nurse her siblings.
Who knows?

Now for the kicker.
Guess what she wants for her birthday in 3 weeks?

It's Nursing Nuna!

AND, Nursing Nina!

It's time to come down.

He's moved down from the cupboards and into ... a basket?

I removed his food from the top of the fridge last night.

It's time for him to come down.

I don't think he's happy about it.

Does anyone else do this?

Apparently my kids think the answer is "no."
They think I'm a little weird.

Sometimes (ok, a lot of times) when I'm driving I see something that is so beautiful that I pull out the iPhone
and snap a few photos.

Sometimes the pictures turn out,

and sometimes (for obvious reasons like I'm driving!), they don't.

I have also been known to pull the car over to the side of the road and snap a quick picture.

See the double rainbow?

This past fall I was driving to my parents house and I looked over at Jake and it struck me that he had turned into a young man. His feet were getting so big. He seemed gangly. I could imagine him as a teenager, looking just like this, sleeping in the car. So... I snapped a few pictures to remember this moment. :)

Whenever I pick up the kids from school, I always drive by these birds:

Just driving down 8th North and the mountains looked stunning on this day:
And sometimes the pictures don't turn out, or,

I can't remember what I thought was so great.

Some things just don't translate well onto iPhone:

I think Tom (Joseph's cousin) said it best. He told me I do this because I'm getting old. In your 20's you don't care as much about this stuff, but as we age, we learn to appreciate the world around us a little more. I think he's onto something...

Randomness.

Some random thoughts and pictures this evening.

We've really been enjoying the sugar snap peas at Costco lately. My kids have figured out that the average pod has six peas inside. We hit the mother load with this one:

Jake and two of his friends are now in charge of raising the flag and taking it down everyday at school:

Every time I leave Scilla home alone, when I return, there is always a random piece of my clothing sitting in the middle of the living room. Once it was my robe, another day it was my sweatshirt and on this day it was my shoe:

This make me happy:

Bella & Scilla have decided to be friends.

They actually slept on the foot of my bed last night.

Getting Scilla is probably the best thing that ever happened to Bella.

Now she is no longer tormented by this:

Sammy's not so tough now that there is a dog in the house. In fact, this is where Sammy has chosen to live for the past three weeks. We actually moved his food dishes up there.

As if he not sedentary enough, now he literally never moves.

Lame, I know.

Emma's 10th Birthday.

For Emma's 10th, she had a pajama party.

We had pancakes, bacon & cake of course!

She begged all night for a pillow fight.
I finally gave in at the very end of the party...



Then on Sunday night, we headed over to Grandma & Grandpa McRae's for a family party. Grandma & Grandpa Heywood were there too!


Emma & her two proud grandpas:

Emma & Grandma McRae:

Emma with her two adoring grandmas:

(notice the pyro in the background)

The coveted iPod Touch:

I wish I had a video of the melt-down Sophie had when Emma opened her iPod Touch. She was screaming "No Fair! Now everyone has a iTouch or iPhone but me!" Joseph actually had to pick her up and take her out of the room. Oh, sweet Sophie...we love you.