Jonathan's FIRST Birthday!

We celebrated Jonathan's first birthday with lots of family and friends this morning! We had a brunch open house, which was a wonderful way to celebrate! There were lots of adults and 16 kids under the age of 8, all squeezed into our townhouse! It was a wonderful time, filled with fun, laughter, playing, presents, and lots of good food!

Jonathan, we love you so very much! You are a wonderful little guy! Happy 1st Birthday!

Thanks to all our family and friends who helped us celebrate Jonathan's birthday! Thanks for the great gifts!! We've read all the books, played with all the new toys, and wore new jammies to bed! We've had a great day!!

Gingerbread house

It's become our tradition to decorate a gingerbread house right before Christmas. The boys had a great time and made a huge mess! It was fun! Well, maybe not the cleaning up part! :)

Finding the perfect tree...

...was difficult this year! So, we just let the boys pick one out! They did a great job (though, it's much shorter than we normally get.)

The most handsome boys ever!!

I may be a bit biased! I am their mommy after all, but I have the world's most handsome boys ever! Don't believe me? Check out these pictures!

Jonathan's ONE!

Happy Birthday, sweet Jonathan! You are a wonderful little boy and you are so loved! We had balloons ready for you when you woke up in the morning. We had a present for you, that Jackson helped you open and that everyone played with all day! Cupcakes were served after dinner and you had fun eating the frosting! We love you, Jonathan!! Hope you enjoyed your day!

(Check out our new floors! We love them!!!)

Let it SNOW!!

Hooray for snow!! The excitment on a little boy's face at the sight of snow is infectious! It's precious! Our boys love snow! We got our first sled this year and our boys were so excited to get out and use it!

Jonathan was too little to enjoy snow last year, so this is his first time playing in the snow!!

Hmmm? Not sure I like the taste of snow!

Jackson's pretty good at making snow angels!

Joshua decided to stay inside and "help" Daddy work on the floors, but the tools were too loud, so he watched a cartoon instead!

The week in pictures

We have removed all the carpet and vinyl flooring from our whole downstairs and we are putting down hardwood floors, hopefully tomorrow! It has not been easy living in our house with such a mess and trying to keep the boys away from everything, but the end result will be wonderful!! Stay tuned for pictures!

Jonathan loves spaghetti!! We've been eating picnic style for a few days and it's so messy!!
Jonathan and Daddy love laughing together---this was before Jonathan developed a fever and turned into a cranky baby!

The only thing we've done to decorate for Christmas has been to hang up our stockings! So much more to do in the next couple of week!

A few updates

*We are in the middle of renovating our downstairs, ripping out the carpet and vinyl and putting down Brazilian Cherry hardwood floors! We are so excited!! Well, let's clarify, I'm excited about the end result, not the mess and dust and ripped-apart house with three small children part, but certainly the end result!

*Grandpa is doing pretty well these days. He had trach surgery on Tuesday and it went really well. The next day he was able to breathe on his own for about 12 hours! Amazing!! There's still a long road of recovery ahead as he needs to regain all his strength and continue to get better, but it feels that now he is beginning to stay stable and out of immediate danger.

*We are still searching for a nanny for our boys for when I go back to work in January. It's proving to be more stressful and emotional than I had ever imagined. Please pray that we can find the right person who will love and care for our children!

*Jonathan's 1st birthday is next week!! Where has the time gone?? How is it that my baby is one already!? He's doing really well these days, very close to walking!! He "talks" all the time and when you ask him, "Where's Daddy?" he points to AW with a huge smile on his face. Super cute!

*I took the boys to an outdoor mall earlier this week and then we had lunch at Stir Crazy, one of my favorite restaurants!! It was my first time taking the boys to a sit-down restaurant on my own and I was a bit nervous. The boys did GREAT!! Jackson and Joshua sat and colored and drank apple juice while we waited for our food and I fed Jonathan. After our meal a lady came up to me and told me that I must have the world's best behaved boys! She sat behind us and was so impressed by the boys' behavior!! I was so excited! While they are far from perfect, they did so great and I was so proud of them!! We might have to venture out to restaurants more often! :)