Easter

We were at my parent's house for Easter this year, and we went to my dad's mom's house for our annual hunt with the cousins. Levi's hunt started off poorly because he was upset his daddy had walked outside without him. (He's was going outside to get pictures of them!)

Caleb going for an egg...

Poppa helping Levi...

Levi was really slow because he wanted to open every egg and see what was inside before he decided if he liked it or not! He's got it all figured out. :-)

When The Mommy Is Sick...

...the boys will get into everything. They found the water hose in the back yard yesterday while I was sick and trying to stay as close to the bed as possible. They were a little too quiet, and when I went to check on them, this is what I found. Obviously Levi is an innocent bystander in this situation. (Or maybe not a bystander but a victim since he is being sprayed with water.)

Notice how wet Levi's hair is and how dry Caleb's is...

Luckily I'm feeling somewhat better today and Caleb is at school. It's hard being the mom of two toddlers when you just want to lay in bed all day and not move!

Life With Little Boys

Running, jumping, climbing, laughing, shooting each other with nerf bullets. Just our everyday life...

Finally...Peace

PICTURES AT THE END!!! (I know you're happy about that, Mom!)

Things have really settled down around here and inside me. Lots of people have been praying for me, and I can feel the difference. Just a few weeks ago I was suffering debilitating anxiety about our move (complete with nausea every time we talked about Singapore), but God has truly given me a sense of peace about everything that is coming. He has blessed my socks off by putting me in touch with a woman who is the wife of Justin's co-worker and also going to Singapore. (Hi, Andrea!) I finally feel like the range of emotions I'm feeling are normal for anyone in my situation...moving a family to the other side of the world. I feel more excited than scared now and THAT is truly a miracle!

A young couple came to look at our house on Sunday, and I'm praying that it will work out for them. I'd love nothing more than for a young couple wanting to start a family to move into this house. Justin and I were in that same situation when we bought this house, and it has been such a blessing living here.

My counselor strongly suggested that Justin and I have a weekend away before our move since that won't be possible again for quite a long time. Since Justin is now scheduled to go to Singapore for a week ONE MONTH before we move, I'm not sure that's possible! Our to-do list just keeps getting longer instead of shorter. We have a lot to do before June 1!

I wish you all could see the boys' passport photos. They were wearing matching sweaters and have the exact same expression on their face. They look like twins, and really the only way to tell them apart is that Levi has brown eyes and Caleb's are blue. It's pretty funny.

Levi has taken to calling Justin and I both Mommy. He refuses to say Daddy, even though that was his first word. He won't do it, which I think is a little funny. When I was loading the pictures below he kept yelling, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy." He was talking about Justin. hehehe.

Ok, as promised in my last post, I found some pictures that you haven't seen yet.

Levi and his sweet little face...

Big, (finally) toothy grin!

This was Levi's reaction when I said, "Did you make a mess?" :-)

Our little super hero. Outfit chosen by Caleb. This might be blackmail later in his life. hehe.

Justin and I had a great date night last Friday and drove up to College Station for the Third Day concert (one of our favorite bands). We got to meet the band before the show. Even Justin commented about how blue Mac Powell's eyes are...it actually shocked me when he lifted his head and looked me in the eye. They are that blue.

Us before the concert. It was terribly windy and cold (it was an outdoor ampitheater).

Mac on stage...

Things are well here...thank the Lord!

For Sale

Our house has a "For Sale" sign out front. It's not officially on the market yet, but it will be next week. Yesterday I met with my friend who's our realtor, and then I fought back tears all day long. I'm sad. I'm really sad to leave my family and friends here. I know that we'll only be gone temporarily, but that doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye to the people who have literally held me up the past few years. I'm also sad to sell this house because I really love it and it's the house we brought our boys home to. Justin and I have lived in this house since July of 2003, less then 10 months after we got married. Almost all of our memories are here and it's the only home our boys know.

Ok, moving on before I dissolve into a bucket of tears. (Yes, I know we'll make friends in Singapore and it will be a great adventure and it will change our lives and we'll be back before we know it. That's what people always say. I get that. I'm just sad. But I'm really excited, too.)

I'm in the middle of filling out the boys' and my passport applications so we can all 4 traipse up to the Post Office on Friday to turn in our applications. Thankfully I found my old passport while we were cleaning out our bedroom because you have to jump through hoops and sign away your life in blood if you lose your passport.

I wish I had some new pictures of the boys to post for you to "ooh" and "aah" over and make this post a little less heavy, but I don't even know where my camera is at the moment. We've boxed up so much stuff and made trips to the storage shed and taken donations up to the church and painted every surface in sight every night for weeks (or months, I'm not sure). So, if I find the camera and it has pictures you haven't seen on it, I'll make sure and post them here.

In happier news, I got a CUTE Vera Bradley purse and clutch wallet on eBay (for way cheaper than retail) and it arrived yesterday. It's the little things, really. ;-)

Testing

I just figured out that you can email posts to your blog. This seriously might change my blogging habits. Not really sure why I think it's easier; I guess because I'm on email all the time. And I don't have to log in or anything.

Interesting.

~Jennifer

"When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze."
~Isaiah 43:2

CHEESE! And Alaska!

Levi's new thing...saying, "cheese!" to the camera...(notice the TEETH!!! he has three of them!!!)

The boys at Grandma's, where they were all last week while I was in Alaska and then while their daddy and I were doing MASSIVE cleaning and organizing in the house. This little bench was in my grandmother's garage and no one wanted it. My kids LOVE it...it's just their size!

This is Caleb's "I'm 3 years old...do you think you can boss me around? I'll be on my merry way doing whatever I please no matter how many times you've told me not to do it" face. Enough said.

Last week I went to Alaska to meet this little guy! And his mommy is pretty special, too!
Ahhh...beautiful Valdez, Alaska. It was refreshing.

Sam thinks so, too...

Frozen harbor in Valdez. A far cry from Texas, for sure.

Well, I'm procrastinating the continued chaos of cleaning and organizing and moving furniture to storage and packing boxes. Back to the regularly scheduled lack of posting here.

Man These Kids Are Cute!

My House Is In Disarray and I Might Go Crazy

We're in the middle of a pretty big house project...refinishing (sanding, staining, varnish) the wood floors, painting almost every room, removing/changing the tile backsplash, and the list goes on. Justin's dad is here as our handyman, and we have worked him HARD this past week. Here are some pictures.

The floors before--see the damage from our dishwasher leaking?

The floors "during." Caleb was such a big helper (for the 30 seconds we were there for this!)

The floors after

Current state of our living room

Current state of the kitchen...the refrigerator is in the hallway!

Hills and Valleys

Last year was the hardest one of my life. It was definitely a series of hills and valleys, but most of last year was in the valley. I can't say this year has started any different, but I know that God is with me in the valley and will lead me to the top of the hill at some point. I still struggle with depression (which is partly to do with the fact that my thyroid levels have been out-of-whack twice this past year). There are decisions I need to make healthwise and several things I'm dealing with that I'm not ready to hash out on the blog, preparing to leave for Singapore being one of them.

On the LPM blog, Beth Moore is hosting a Scripture memory accountability group...24 Scriptures in 12 months. I'm needing to get some Scripture embedded so I can recall when I'm having a hard day. So, on the 1st and 15th, everyone chooses a new Scripture that they NEED to have in their heart and mind, something that means something to them personally. I never officially signed up, but I've chosen the following Scriptures this month, which pertain to where I am right now:

January 1 Scripture: Deut. 11:11-12 ESV, "But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, a land that the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year."

January 15 Scripture: Isaiah 43:2,
"When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze."

Merry Christmas!

May you be filled with JOY!

"I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." ~Luke 2:10-11

Many blessings,

Justin, Jennifer, Caleb, and Levi

photo courtesy Uncle Josh

Christmas Pajamas

Mimi (Justin's mom) sent the boys some Christmas pajamas, and they look so cute in them. I like dressing them alike since I won't be able to do that much longer before Caleb starts telling me he doesn't want to wear what Levi's wearing. For now he thinks matching is cool. (Especially if he can match his Poppa!)

I wanted to take a cute picture of the boys standing together in their pajamas, but Caleb wasn't about to cooperate with that. He ran off before I could even focus. So, this will have to do...

Here are the boys watching "Go, Diego, Go" on my bed

Caleb looks like he's ready to move to Thailand with this "wai," but he's just clapping along with Diego.

I'm trying to get a good headshot of Levi because my grandmother got him some books for Christmas that need his picture in them. I'm in charge of that.

Here's Levi saying, "cheese!"



Smiling for the camera with a little pumpkin bread on his chin...

Caleb is literally in the middle of saying, "STOP taking my picture." It was a lot easier when he was little and wanted his picture taken.

Stop Me If I'm Repeating Myself

Last Thursday Caleb took a 2 hour nap at Mother's Day Out. I should have known then that he was sick. Of the 3 times he's taken a nap at Mother's Day Out since September 2007, 3 of those times he's been sick.

So, we bundled up and loaded up yesterday morning for the doctor's office. You cannot know how happy I was to hear him say Caleb had an ear infection. Not because I'm just that mean, but because every other time I've taken one of the boys to the doctor recently they've said, "It's a virus, there's nothing we can do. Thank you for your $20 copay and driving 45 minutes with two kids in traffic to see us. Have a nice day. See you in a couple of weeks and we'll repeat the process." Or something like that. The doctor actually said this time, "Mom hit a home run." Finally.

So he has the ear infection and is generally puny-feeling from all the snot and fever and such. It probably has nothing to do with the fact that the temperature outside has gone from 75 to 35 to 55 to 38 to 78 to 40 in a matter of hours this past week. We're all a little under the weather, so to speak.

This morning Caleb and I had a conversation that went like this:

Me: What do you want for breakfast, Caleb?
Caleb: I don't want breakfast. I want a snack.
Me: Ok (I choose not to argue semantics). You can have a cereal bar, oatmeal, waffles, or yogurt.
Caleb: I want candy.
I wish I could tell you how many times he's asked for candy for breakfast. He never gets it.
Me: You can have a cereal bar, oatmeal, waffles, or yogurt.
Caleb: I want marshmallows.
Me: stop me if I'm repeating myself. You can have a cereal bar, oatmeal, waffles, or yogurt.
Caleb: But I want marshmallows.

And he proceeded to follow me around the house saying "marshmallows" in his most pitiful, whiny toddler voice. I didn't budge, so he finally decided he wanted waffles. We go through something similar to this every morning. I guess he thinks he can wear me down. He has no idea how stubborn his mother is!

I'm so sad he's sick today because it's his Christmas program at school today. I'm hoping he'll feel up to going in a couple of hours. One of the saddest things about moving to Singapore is that he won't be going to this sweet little church for Preschool. He'll be entering Kindergarten about the time we get back. boohoohoo.

(In the middle of this post I had to run in my bedroom because Caleb was calling out to me from my bed where he has been watching Noggin and NickJr for the last 24 hours. I heard these delightful words, "Mommy, I peed on your bed." Really? "Why did you do that? Why didn't you go to the potty?" "I didn't want to.")

I'll leave you with some "photography a la Caleb"...

His new favorite thing...NickJr computer games. He's plays them all by himself. (And apparently takes pictures of his accomplishments. This was one of many.)

The gorgeous ceiling fan in our computer room...

Self-portrait

Smile, mommy!

Self-portrait #2

Me and My Firstborn Child

Tagged by Camille...This is a fun twist on the usual getting to know you/question game..Here you go mommies - a different kind of survey for a change - it's all about you and your first baby.

About Caleb and me:

1. Were you married at the time? Yes, for 2 years and 5 months

2. What were your reactions when you found out you were pregnant? I was totally elated! The timing was PERFECT because I wanted to stop teaching that next year.

3. How old were you? 26

4. How did you find out? Pregnancy test

5. Who did you tell first? Justin. I called him on the phone at 5:30am. He was living in Louisiana for work, and I had to tell him immediately when I found out. He said something to the effect of, "Are you sure?" (with NO enthusiasm in his voice) because I had thought I was pregnant the month before. And he was shaving at the time.

6. Did you want to find out the sex? Yes

7. Due date? September 25, 2005...my parent's anniversary

8. Did you deliver late or on time? I was induced on September 19, one week early

9. Did you have morning sickness? yes, pretty bad, but not like when I was pregnant with Levi (he takes the cake on that one!)

10. What did you crave? corn tortillas (they were the only thing that didn't make me want to puke!)

11. Who/what irritated you the most? being away from Justin and my doctor not letting me travel after 28 weeks when my husband was living in another city!

12. What was your first child's sex? Boy

13. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? 12...I lost a lot at the beginning

14. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? No

15. Where did you give birth? Memorial Hermann Memorial City

16. How many hours were you in labor? 7 before the emergency c-section

17. Who drove you to the hospital? My husband, Justin

18. Who watched? Justin and several dr.s and nurses

19. Was it natural or c-section? c-section

20. Did you take medicine to ease the pain? YES! (Hello, they cut me open. Yes I took pain medicine. I don't know how Camille only took it for 8 hours because I took it as long as the pills were in the bottle. I could hardly stand up straight when I left the hospital!)

21. How much did your child weigh? 7 lbs, 10 oz

22. Did your child have any complications? No.

23. What did you name him/her? Caleb Andrew

24. How old is your first born today? 3 years, 2 months, 26 days

There ya go!

It's Christmastime...Here's How I Know

1) We are finally putting up our tree. Ornaments are disappearing left and right, and I find parts of them on the ground and go in search of the culprit (Levi).

2) I am spending an obscene amount of time saying, "That does not go in your mouth." (Maybe that doesn't mean it's Christmastime, but Levi was just in here with two wooden ornaments, one of which he put in his mouth, so I think it counts.)

3) IT SNOWED TODAY!!! In SE Texas! Amazing. It didn't stick, of course, because it was about 75 degrees sometime yesterday, but it was pretty neat nonetheless. We definitely don't see that often.

4) Our tree is now, after 20 hours or so, only decorated on the top 2/3 of the tree. Christmas with toddlers, it is a joy.

5) I finally made our Christmas cards and ordered them at CVS. They were ready last night, but it's been too cold for me to want to dress the kids warmly, bundle them up, drive in the sleeting rain to CVS, get the kids out in the stinkin' cold, try to keep them from touching EVERY.THING.IN.THE.STORE, hurry back to the car in the stinkin' cold sleeting rain, and drive home to address them. If you're expecting a Christmas card from us, it'll be a while.

6) My put-together, organized, pregnant-with-a-toddler-in-tow sister had her Christmas cards out last week. Show off.

7) The Christian radio station here is playing Christmas music 24/7. I love that! Not that I ever hear it because I only listen to the radio in the car and we don't get out much (see #5). When we do get out, I have a 3yo and a 1yo in the car. I don't hear much of the radio.

8) We're doing a Jesse Tree this year, so each night we read a little devotional and open that day's ornament. A group of us got together and made one day's ornament (25 of them) and then each got to take home one for each day. We are loving doing this with Caleb. It's such a great way to reinforce the Bible stories and prepare to celebrate Jesus' birth!

Guess What?

Our family has GREAT news to share!!!! I'm so excited to finally be able to tell everyone!!

In other news, I'm 30 today. Weird.

My parents are so young I vividly remember my dad turning 30 (I was 9!). It feels a little strange today, but that may be due to the serious lack of sleep I've had over the past few days since Levi seems to think sleep is not a necessary thing. We were up so many times last night and nothing was helping. He'd lie down for a minute and sit up and scream. Then he'd repeat the process for hours on end. We *think* he's finally cutting a tooth (or all of them at once). It's miserable for him and for us. I hope they just pop on through and let us get on with our sleep lives.

I really need a laptop

I really would blog more if I had a laptop. That way I could be wherever the kids were and write about their happenings. But I don't have one and the computer room is a dangerous place for the kids to be (way too much clutter in here!). And they won't stay put anyway.

Caleb is getting pretty good at working a computer mouse, though. He likes to play the online toddler games like Little Einsteins. He's growing up so fast; today it really hit me that he's a big boy. Sad.

He was sick for a week or so with a high fever and pretty much no other symptoms. Don't really know what it was, but he was responding to Motrin so the doctor didn't need to see him. It finally went away Saturday night. Weird.

Well, I need to get to sleep if I have any hope of getting to the gym in the morning. That all depends on whether the boys sleep well tonight. One of them has been awake multiple times a night for weeks. Sometimes both of them several times a night. We're pretty tired around here.

No Teeth

Have I mentioned that Levi is 13 months old and has NOT ONE TOOTH in his little head? Seriously, I can't believe he's still toothless. The doctor said that he asked his son's pediatric dentist about it and she said she wouldn't be concerned that a child had no teeth until they're two years old, and only then because the parents would be concerned.

I'm just waiting for the day we wake up and he has a mouthful over night. :-)

First Big Boy Haircut

I've trimmed Levi's hair before (as much as he'd let me do), but today he got his first REAL big boy haircut. Where did my baby go? Now he's all grown-up and handsome for his one-year pictures that Uncle Josh will take this weekend. I can't wait to see how they turn out...Caleb's were great!