What a Guy:)

I just wanted to take a minute to wish the sweet love of my life a happy 5th anniversary!  I can't believe it's been that long, but Tony, I love your freakin guts.  You're sweet, you're patient, you wake up with the baby when I sleep through his cries, you get up early to work or play with kids, you let me boss you around (for the most part) and quite frankly, you're ridiculously good looking.  I'm so glad I found you and get to spend forever with you!

Happy Anniversary!!!!

 

26!! A Fun Birthday Week

We had a really fun time the week of my birthday, so I thought I'd share (and write it down so I can remember it.)  My birthday was on a Tuesday, so Monday night Tony took the kids shopping so that they could plan my party.  He let them decide everything.  On the way there, Lily told Tony she wanted to get me a dolphin.  So she found a cute little stuffed dolphin, that she informed me was a river dolphin when I opened it.  I guess TJ had a really hard time deciding what to get me, so they went over to get the food for the party.  They decided on pink cake (Lily's choice) and white icing with sprinkles (TJ's choice), and hot dogs.  It was while picking up the hot dogs that TJ decided that he wanted to buy me bananas for my birthday.  Apparently Tony then convinced him that a watermelon would be even better.  When they got home, they baked the cake, and we decided to go ahead and have our party (they were excited, why wait?)  The cake was delicious, and I loved the presents. 

      Jaxon wasn't lovin' the party hat.

The next day we went to Lincoln Parish Park to "the beach", and had a blast swimming in the lake and playing at the playground.  That afternoon I got to have a giant nap while Tony took care of the kids.  Tony also got me a massage that I look forward to using as soon as I have worked out a few more days in a row and am good and sore (so that it's totally worth it). 


I was trying to get Jaxon to smile for the first time all day, and he finally did 3 days later, on the 10th, which totally counts as my present because it was still my birthday week.  He is, by the way, already almost 6 weeks old.  Here are some of the pictures I took of him at  one month.

That weekend we were invited to a birthday party for one of my kids little 2-year-old friends, Kyle.  It was fun to spend time with so many of our friends who have little ones, and the kids had a blast on a slip 'n' slide and a kiddie pool.  (And so did some of the adults.)

It was a very fun and relaxing week!

Happy Daddy's Mothers Day!

This is my dad. 

Just so you know, he's the best.  He's kind and sweet, and such a good example.  He is always concerned with making sure that his kids are happy.  He has always been a very hard worker and taught us the importance of work by example.  I loved it the most, though, when he was done working.  He would play with us, give us piggy-back rides, and take us for long bike rides (and then pull our bikes when we got too tired to make it home).  And I never even noticed if he was exhausted, which he probably was.  Now that I'm a "grown-up" and live far away, I love to talk to him on the phone, and he's a great listener.  He's also an awesome grandpa.  We love to visit our Papa, and wish we could come more often.  Thank you, Dad, so much for being so awesome and dedicating so much of your life to being an awesome dad and grandfather.  I love you!!

And then there is my sweet husband, and father of my children.  I have to say, he is an amazing daddy.  He plays with our kids in a way that amazes me (especially when castles and knights are involved).  He is patient, and loving.  He wakes up in the middle of the night, sometimes several times a night, to comfort after nightmares, fix accidents, and feed babies.  He also wakes up with the kids when I'm too tired, and loves and snuggles them or gets them breakfast and helps them get dressed if we're going to church.  And he works hard the rest of the time with his two jobs to make sure that we are all taken care of.  We love his guts.  Happy Father's Day Tony!

The kids and Daddy in one of his new father's day presents.

And last but not least, Grandpa Dunlop.  You are a very fun and caring grandpa, and we love you very much.

 Happy Father's Day Everybody!! 

Or as Lily put it, happy Daddy's Mothers Day!!


He's Here!

So some of you may have heard already...because it happened a full three weeks ago.  I'm sorry this is a little late, but we've been a little preoccupied over here... counting tiny little toes...

and snuggling ...

 and making faces...

giving kisses...

and just generally adoring...

this perfect little guy...

Jaxon Connor.

     Jaxon joined our family on May 16, 2011 at 4:57pm.  He weighed 9 lbs. 2 oz., and was 21 inches long.  He has very light brown hair, and dark blue eyes.  He loves to snuggle on shoulders, and is a good sleeper (during the day).  He has long toes and fingers that we love to hold and play with.  He also has a long body and long, skinny arms and legs.  He's enjoys baths, and nurses like a champ.

     His big sister, Lily, and big brother, TJ, love his guts.  We worry sometimes that he may not survive it.  They can't get enough snuggling, kissing, and "tickling" in.  They call him their "little buddy", or "little fella", and both of them love to sing lullabies to him.  Lily likes to talk to him in a really high pitched voice (half of the words can only be heard by dogs.)  They're both very concerned if he ever fusses at all, and run over to sing a song, or rub his head and say "it's okay little buddy".

    

     

      We also got to have a fun visit with Nana the week after Jaxon arrived.  She helped us stay sane that first week of no sleep, and kept Lily and TJ very happy with all of her attention.  It was the first time we got to have her stay with us so soon after a baby was born.  And now we all miss her.  A lot.

      We're all doing really well.  Tony got off for the summer a day after my mom left, and since teaching summer school fell through this year, he's been home with us which is kind of awesome.  So far I haven't had any problems with  "baby blues", which is way better (than having them).  I think it definitely helps to be in a house, with a yard where we can all go outside, and having so much help is amazing.  I think it's looking up to be a really fun summer.  We can't wait until July, when so much of my family gets to come and meet Jaxon!!

Until then, pictures will have to do...

P.S.- A special thank you to our friend Christine Glassford for taking these pictures!  We love them!!!  If you'd like to see a little more of her work, she has a blog: christineglassford.blogspot.com

Money and More Batteries

     During this last week of pregnancy I've been trying to find the balance between wanting to sleep all the time and trying to do as much as possible with Lily and TJ before the baby comes and I can't anymore.  (And to be honest, I'm hoping that if I push myself to do things that are physically hard for me, I might go into labor a little early.)  So we've been doing things like going for walks, swimming outside, and going grocery shopping.  Yes, these things sound quite simple, but I'm amazed at how not simple they can be when you're 9 months pregnant with both a 2 and 3-year-old. 
     So we went grocery shopping this morning because we were almost out of milk and cheese (this equals a disaster in our house).  It went okay, and would have gone great if we hadn't needed to go to the post office afterwards, which just pushed it too far. 
     When we got home, it was very much time for an afternoon nap.  After a lot of tears, I finally got TJ to go to sleep, and moved on to help Lily.  She asked me, like she always does, "But what are we going to do after our naps?"
I said, "I don't know, what do you want to do?" 
She said, "Go shoppin'". 
"But we just went shopping."
"I just want to go shoppin' to a different kind of store."
"Um, I don't think we have enough money to go shoppinig for things for no reason."
"OHHHHH okay, we ran out of money?"
"Um, yah, kind of."
"Then I guess we just better buy some money.  And more batteries."
"Buy some money and more batteries?"
"Yah."
"Good idea."

     Was this a possible teaching moment?  Probably.  I could have gone into how we earn money by working hard and...um...something else very wise.  But I didn't.  Because I was tired.  And she was cute.  Maybe next time.  I hope having one more little sweetheart to pay attention to doesn't make me miss out on too many conversations like that, because they really make my day.  Plus how else would I realize that we're out of batteries?

Ready

     For the last couple of weeks I've been wishing this baby would just get here.  I suddenly realized though last week that I wasn't technically ready for him to come.  So when I woke up not hurting as much as usually and with slightly more energy, I decided it was the day.  I cleaned, scrubbed, organized/ re-organized, hand-mopped, disinfected, and did ALL of our laundry.  It took about two days to do the bulk of it.  My kids mostly watched movies all day for two days, with the exception of when I had them help clean their room.  Which, by the way, Lily was actually very helpful with, which was awesome.  Tony finished painting and putting together and building a rail for the new loft we got for the kids at the thrift store (it started out as my project, but he loved me enough to notice that the more pregnant I became, the less likely it was going to happen, and took care of it himself).  The kids seem to finally be getting over their crazy virus they've had for a week, which is a good thing to be done with before a baby should be here.  And Tony's staying late today to figure out sub plans for when he has to miss work.
    
     So it's been a week since we started "getting ready", and now I finally actually feel like if this baby were to come tomorrow, we would be ready for him.  Our kids have also been training us for a newborn this last month or so by waking up about every two hours and needing us for one reason or another...nightmares, sick, fell out of bed, wet the bed, etc.  So between that and already feeling exhausted from being pregnant, we really feel like the baby might as well be here too.  Can somebody please pass that on to the baby?  Because I really haven't figured out how to.  And I'd really appreciate him knowing.  Because it's not up to me when it happens.  Oh, but if it were...

  WE'RE READY!!!!!!

Our Easter Fun

     I hope everybody had an awesome Easter last weekend!  We had a very fun, busy celebration weekend this year.
     Lily and TJ ended up doing 3 separate Easter egg hunts, all on Saturday.  The first was in our living room, where the Easter Bunny left them all sorts of awesome stuff.  They had a fun time finding them, especially Lily.  TJ was a little distracted though...every time he found one he just said, "I kwongwy" (translation: I'm hungry) and just wanted to eat the few he found. 

     Then after all of that excitement was over Tony went to Squire Creek to work at their Easter Party there.  He called about an hour later to see if we wanted to come to it, and I thought it would be fun for them to see the Easter Bunny.  So we all got ready and headed out there for Easter bash #2.  It was a gorgeous hot day (which Tony informed me was actually just warm, apparently I'm just pregnant) and they were really excited to meet the Easter bunny.  TJ especially was on his tippy toes in line and could hardly contain his excitement trying to see this bunny.  Lily hung back a little, he scared her a lot.  I debated whether or not I should tell them that this Easter Bunny was actually their Daddy in dress-ups.  I decided not to at first, but when it was our turn to take a picture TJ got a little nervous and Lily was terrified.  We couldn't even make her get close to him.  So I decided to tell her it was Tony.  She even peaked inside his mask, but still she would not take a picture with him unless I was holding her, and even then she was not happy about it.  She warmed up eventually during the Easter egg hunt and gave him a high five, but that was it.
     When TJ found out it was Tony he was pretty excited.  It was hard to tell if he was thinking that his daddy was dressed up like the Easter bunny, or if his daddy was the Easter bunny.  Either way, he kept track of that bunny for the rest of the morning, giving him a high five or a hug every chance he got.  He kept saying, "Where Bunny Daddy?" whenever he couldn't see him.

Lily really got into this Easter egg hunt.  She just rab right out there with the other kids and got a big bag full.

 

Later that evening the kids went over to Grandma and Grandpa Dunlop's house.  They had one more Easter Egg hunt and had a fun time playing there.  Tony and I were attempting a date night before the baby gets here  but it was cut a little short.  We had almost made it to West Monroe before our van made a crazy sound and gray smoke started coming from the hood.  It turns out it was just he A/C and we could have just turned it off and moved on, but we didn't know that at the time, so we went home.  

Then on Sunday after church we went back to Grandma and Grandpa Dunlop's for dinner and some fun times with family.

Lily's in her Easter Outfit

TJ in his new studly Easter suit.

Trying to pose for a cousin picture at the Dunlop's.  Does anybody know how to make 3 kids look and smile all at once?

 Happy (Late) Easter!!!