She'll Either Save My Sanity...

...or we'll both lose our minds!!

Aaron is traveling for work this week (Happy Birthday Honey!), so Mom came down to stay with us while he's gone. Whew!! Last week was a train wreck, so I'm glad she's here. I just might have ended up going stark-raving mad had she not!!!!!

I babysat a little 1 yr. old boy for a couple days last week. The added body and energy was tiring (he's a really good kid just has a lot of energy!! :)). One evening I corralled Jacob in the Pack-N-Play. Then Anna got in and they thought it was great fun! Even decided to "nap"!

Jacob...he's officially TERRIBLE TWO!! Wow. He is going to test every single boundary! It's so tiring. But I KNOW if I'm not totally 100% consistent with him he'll take complete advantage and we'll have to start from square one again. It's like the book "If You Give a Mouse a Muffin" (or is it Moose?). Give an inch, he'll take a mile!!

Climbing on top of the table is a battle I've decided not to fight, though! I might regret it later, but oh well!!

This day...this was a bad day. He was a mess. Anna was a mess. I was a mess!!

But hey, they're coloring nicely with each other. At this particular second, anyway.

I'm afraid Jacob is a combination of Jamie and my cousin Seth. Grant it, if Jacob turns out even close to what these two guys have--he'll be great. But it's the getting there that causes stress and heartache and NIGHTMARES OF MY SON DESTROYING MY HOUSE...oh wait, those aren't nightmares! It really happens!!!! I love Jacob more than life itself, but heavens to Betsy does he ever test me every minute of the day! I think the Lord is sitting in heaven saying "Daughter, I'm trying to teach you patience...aren't you getting it yet???" :) Today, Mom had the air mattress rolled up sitting in front of the TV cabinet. Jacob is fascinated with the DVD/VCR and we're constantly after him not to touch it (he's already gotten one DVD stuck in the VCR part!). So anyway, he kept climbing up on the mattress and trying to mess with the VCR. The first time, Mom told him "No. Don't climb up there." He did it again. The second she stopped talking. She took him down, swatted him, and said "No. Don't climb up there." He did it again. The second she stopped talking. She took him down, swatted him, and said "No. I said don't climb up there." He did it again...............are you getting the picture?! This had to have happened at least 6 times. And then it was like he thought Okay...she's really serious about this. I'd rather go play with my tractor than test Binga. Well, that was the morning. He decided he wanted to try again this afternoon...see if maybe Binga had forgotten about the whole air mattress thing during naptime. No such luck for him, but he still kept trying at least 6 more times!!! Whew. What a stinker. I pray that persistence will one day help him in doing something GOOD!!! :)

Saturday was Warrior Fest...a fun celebration the weekend of the College's first home game. It was fun. All the sports teams were out, there were bouncy things, food, booths. And the weather was PERFECT! Jacob loved playing with the soccer boys! He had a lot of fun kicking the ball. Not always in (or even toward!) the goal, but fun no less! :)

That tongue! We can't help it!!!

One bouncy house was only for preschool kids, so it was nice not worrying about Anna getting plowed over by the big kids! They got pretty crazy on the slide! This little boy was actually balancing himself on either side, not catching air:)

Anna went down all kinds of ways!

And JAKE even showed up!!! Anna Mae too:) Those 3 were more than excited to see each other!

Jake going head first!

Wheee!

Anna going headfirst backward!

Alright, I better get to bed! We're going to visit the new baby tomorrow!!!

Fun Day!

Today, Kim and her kids came with us to the zoo! And then we went to Scott's ranch to ride horses!! The big kids were super excited.

So, here are a bunch of pictures from our exciting day:)

These lemurs were hilarious! At first they were just laying around but when they noticed us standing there, they sat up like this...like they were "performing" for us. The kids thought it was pretty funny.

Jacob was allowed out of the stroller INSIDE the aquarium building:) He loved seeing all the fish!

We also met my cousin's wife Amy and her little boy Daniel at the zoo. He was very enthusiastic (contrary to this picture!) :)

This is a piranha...I'd never actually seen one before. If you look really closely, you can see its teeth! One of them in the tank was missing part of it's top b/c the others had started eating on it! The worker said that if they don't get fed, they just start eating each other. They get fed little mice and the piranhas eat them whole!

The Annas :)

The tigers! They have a white tiger, too. Those are some magnificent animals! Jacob did NOT like them, but all the others did.

Anna Mae, ready to explore!

I am just in awe of God's creations!

The white tiger looked really old. A lot older than I remember from last time we were there a couple years ago.

Everything is "dada" for Daniel! He is very enthusiastic about things, though! He'll point, jump, and forcefully say "DADA!" It's so funny.

Anna watching the spider monkeys.

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Now the horses!! It was so much fun and Anna and Jake were SO EXCITED about it. We had our sack lunch and the kids about knocked the door out when I asked if they were ready to go ride! :) Kim and I had our hands full...Anna Mae does NOT like dogs, so she wanted to be held. And Jacob would just take off, which wasn't good b/c there were several horses in the pen when the big kids were riding! And Daniel was the same way! So we alternated between holding kids and taking pictures:)

Once we got out of the riding pen, we didn't have to keep them so close. And Jacob went right up to this horse and tried to pet him! Not the least bit afraid.

Just a little closer horsey!

Mr. Horse Rider himself! I put him up there and right away he grabbed the saddle horn and raised up one hand, as if to say "Come on Daddy! Let's get goin'!!" It was so funny.

SO CUTE! :)

Anna Mae, on the other hand, was not so impressed! Even with big brother Jake on there, she was having none of it! Jacob didn't like it either. He was up there by himself and he just screamed!

He preferred the ground and playing with the puppy Hoss. He just squealed and laughed!

Mama's girl! When she first got on, she looked like she wanted to scream but after a few steps, she really liked it.

Jake LOVED it. He was so completely excited and started talking 100mph! And he didn't stop talking the entire time he was on the horse! :)

He just pointed and jabbered:)

Friends

Yesterday, the other Jake and Anna came over to play! It's been a long time...between sick kids and spring break and traveling. It was so much fun. They are such good kids...I told Kim the only time it felt like I had 2 extra kids was when I had to fix 4 plates for lunch instead of 2! Jake and big Anna get along really well and had so much fun playing. Baby Anna just hung out and watched all the action for a while then she decided to join in. Jacob just thought it was funny to watch them run around!

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This is a video of all four of them putting some little tractor/truck puzzles together. Anna decided Jake needed some encouragement, I guess...

I think she's smiled at me twice in her life! She's really a sweetie, but I can't get her to crack a smile!!


Intently (or maybe bored??) watching the big kids put the puzzles together.



I just love this one of baby Anna...notice she's almost smiling, but she's NOT looking at me! :)

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This afternoon, I finally got an appointment for Jacob's long over-due haircut! I'm still shocked every time at how much of a difference it makes. He just looks so much older. Still ornery, though!

A little Dennis the Menace cowlick up front ;)

We call him Buddha Belly...you can see why :)