Santa or no Santa??

Let me start by saying I BELIVE!!  :)  This week during lunch there was an ongoing debate about letting your children blieve, lying to them, never telling them about santa at all, tell them at what age, will they be betrayed, etc.....  We had a great service in church today and I guess it confirmed my positon all week.  As parents we can chose to raise our children as we want!  It's called freedom and I am thankful for that.  Weather or not your children believe in Santa or not, I believe as long as you teach your children to reflect God's love and giving spirit during this crazy Christmas season then you do what you do!!  So thanks to a great ongoing lunch debate/conversation all week, an awesome service at Grace Church today, and a great Veggietales movie about St. Nicholas last night with Julian, I am happy to say "As for me .......I BELEVE"  :)
I believe that God gave the biggest gift when baby Jesus was born.
I believe that God gave the biggest gift EVER when he GAVE his son to die on a cross for all of us to have salvation.
I believe that St. Nicholas was a more generous man than I could imagine and it is something that I admire.
I believe that any symbol that helps us to remember the importance or giving selflessly is ok in my book.
I believe that being excited about Christmas is ok as long as we remember the reason for the season. 

I pray I can help Julian grow up in a way to have the generosity of St. Nicholas..  I pray he will always allow Christmas to remind him of God's greatest gift.  I pray he is a reflection of God's love and goodness. 

Merry Christmas everyone!!  I hope you have been good this year so Santa can stop by your house.  Last year's picture:

Happy Birthday Julian!!

I can't believe our baby is 2!  Terrific 2's..  bring them on!  We had a great birthday weekend.  We celebrated his birthday on his PaPa's day (the 4th) and we made sure to kiss and send PaPa a birthday balloon.  I always wish my dad was here to meet Julian.  I know they would be a trip together. My dad would be so proud. It was all Backyardigans this year.  Julian loves loves loves him some Backyardigans.  Thanks to a Pablo pan sent from Lawrence and a lot of cake making advice from Kel, we actually ended up with a cake that actually resembled Pablo.  Of course Grandma was here to celebrate and a lot of great friends came over and joined in as well.  We had a bounce house from my school which was fabulous because we used it alllll weekend.  Julian had a great weekend.  It is just amazing that 2 years have gone by.  He is so big and becoming more and more independent everyday.  He had is 2yr check up on Tuesday the 7th and he was still well above average on all measurements.  37 inches tall, 32.7 pounds, and a big head.  Once again we were able to Praise the Lord when we were able to answer Yes with 100% certainty to all the "check-up questions.

Can he throw a ball?  We wish we could get him to stop throwing everything.  It hurts.  Especially when it's a hard sippy cup flying unexpectedly from the back seat. ha

Can he kick a ball?  uh...  check!!  too hard and again we wish he would stop kicking everything.  Especially Emmitt.  Poor Emmitt

Can he run?   uh..  faster than me..  which is very embarassing when you are at a park and you child is running away from you.  hopefully when I am fully recovered I'll be able to beat him again.

Can he jump?  haha..  yes!  off of the top of the couch..  off anything..  no fear

Does he have at least 50 words?  X1000

Does he use 2 word phrases?  Some examples:  "Come on Emmitt,"  "No one's home,"  "You push,"  "In Car,"  etc.....

We are slowly introducing small bits of milk, cheese, and egg.  Starting with things that just have a little in the ingredients.  So far we haven't seen any crazy reactions. Yay!!

Oh! We are beginning the stages of Potty Training.  Julian will tell us "Poop" or "Pee Pee."  They are used interchangably.  He will go anytime you put him on the potty.  He is obsessed wtih flushing so whatever he has to do to get to flush he'll do it. lol.  So I am thinking we are really going to try over Christmas break to get this Potty training thing happening. 

We are so Thankful for being blessed with such a healthy happy baby boy.  We are so proud to be his parents.  I tell him everyday that God made him to do great things..  God made him to change the world..  He can do anything..  I can't wait to see what God has in store for him. 

Happy Birthday My Love!! 

God is so cool!

This Thanksgiving God answered a big prayer!  Jerry got to hang out with his oldest son and Julian got to meet his big brother, Jerrious.  I have talked about Jerrious with Julian and shown him pictures since Julian was born.  So it was super cute when Julian repeated his name and it sounded a lot more like "juice" than Jerrious but it's so cute the way Julian says his name.  Jerrious was 11 when I first met Jerry and it has never been a question how much Jerry adores that child.  Circumstances were not like Jerry would have wanted at all but when Jerry even mentions his name you can see how proud he is to be his father.  So this has been a huge prayer of mine for 5 years now.  I always prayed that Jerrious was healthy, safe, happy and successful and that God would give him an open heart so someday he can reconnect and get to know and love this great man that I get to everyday.  Jerry has seen Jerrious a few time for a very short time in the past 5 years but a few weeks ago God really began answering prayers when Jerry received a call from Jerrious' dad.  Since then Jerry and Jerrious have been texting and talking and Jerrious wanted to come meet his other side of the family.  Jerrious came over Thanksgiving night with his mom and his dad.  It was super emotional for me.. I just kept saying to myself  "thank you Jesus!"   I definitely played it cool because how dorky would it have looked if I would have come out crying.  LOL. I could tell Jerry was so excited for the opportunity to hang out with him obviously.  The next day we even got to go over to their house and visit for a couple of hours.  The verse I quoted on the title of my blog, "God can do anything, far more than you could ever ask or imagine."  It is so true.  I mean my prayer has been that they could just get back in contact and communicate. But not only did that happen a few weeks ago but God made it possible for Jerry to get to spend several hours with Jerrious.  Julian and I even got to meet him.  So I would say that is far more than I asked for or even imagined.  I am so thankful we got to see that Jerrious is happy, safe, successful and all of the things we pray for daily.  I pray the same prayer still.  I pray God  continues to give Jerrious and his family a open heart and open mind and that Jerry and Jerrious can build a relationship.  I pray that Jerrious is happy, healthy, safe and super successful in everything he does.  Thank you Jesus for the opportunity to begin getting to know this wonderful 15 year old.   We are already looking forward to the next time.

Trip to Mandy's (a little late)

We had a great trip to Mandy's in October.  We went last October also so maybe we can make it an annual thing.  Julian did great on the trip. It was my first time meeting Miss Whitley and she's as precious as I imagined from pictures.  So cute!  Brett is such a big boy.  He definitely was Julian's boss for the weekend.  Mandy wasn't a fan, but I enjoyed the help. :) haha  I'm glad we got to enjoy some time with the Shows!! 

 matching PJ's  --  they can kill us when they get older :) 

 two little monkeys jumping on the bed

 with Mandy's mom (Nelda)

 Ready for the zoo!!

 Two little monkeys swinging from a rope

 I don't think Julian saw an animal while we were there..  He only saw the WATER!!!

Tired little boy

At the Pumpkin Patch in China Spring. 

Happy Halloween!

Julian and I had a great Halloween together. I have all these fun "family tradition" plans in my head which Union Pacific Railroad seems to try its best to destroy.  I will not let them beat me!!!  :)  So our jack-o-lantern was carved by me myself and I while Julian was sleeping and Jerry left for work. It worked out fine and I just pray better for better luck next year.  Julian was supposed to be Pablo from Backyardigans but he wouldn't keep his "head" on so he just looked pretty silly but still the cutest thing ever.  We were the first trick-or-treaters out so we just made the loop around the neighborhood and stoped at 4 or 5 houses that were pretty festive.  Julian is so painfully shy.  He doesn't do great being friendly "if you will."  :)  We had fun and got home in time to light our Jack-o-lantern, turn on the "spooky" espisode of backyardigans, and pass out candy.  Happy Halloween 2010. 



All about Emmitt (for Sal)

a Cock-a-Mo
Emmitt's dad:  black cocker spaniel
Emmitt's mom:  white miniture american eskimo
both parents 20-25lbs full grown so he should be somewhere around there
at first vet appointment we was 9 lbs
he eats puppy chow
his birthday is July 4th 2010 which makes him almost 4 months
he is NOT potty trained as of today..  we have had minimul accidents but enough not to trust him
poor guy is about 90lbs smaller than our other baby, Chaos
Chaos thinks he has a best friend to play with but Emmitt isn't that sure yet
actually not sure if Chaos thinks he's a new best friend or a new chew toy
when we let them out together, Emmitt just rolls over and plays dead and gets very very slobbery
one day he was scared of the stairs and the next day he was running up and down them
Emmitt and Julian are hillarious together
Julian doesn't want Emmitt taking his toys but Emmitt can't resist
Julian likes to be in Emmitt's kennell way more than Emmitt does

Well that's all I can think to share about Emmitt. :)


We LOVE Emmitt

pics

 New House

 Our newest addition:  Emmitt.  He is a "Cock-a-Mo"  (cocker spanier/ miniture american eskimo) 

 Emmitt

 My little Handsome!!

 At the park 10.10.10

 lol!!  Great picture

 Julian and I out with the Richard's at Texas Roadhouse... YUM

 so GQ!! 

Chaos:  getting bigger and bigger everyday!!