Jake's 3rd Birthday Party

**Since Klusman wrote such a great blog about Jake's birthday party I thought I would just "borrow" it. I always know I can count on Klussy to take great pics at any occasion and then immediately blog about it! We had a great weekend celebrating the birthday boy and I am worn out! Now I need to start planning Hudson's 1st birthday :)

Jake's 3rd Birthday

Today we went to Jake's 3rd Birthday party. I can't believe he's already 3 years old - 3 sounds so OLD! He had a transformer birthday party at an indoor playground at a church. I helped Sloan make the invitation and learned everything there is to know about specific transformers when I was searching the Internet for an image. I'd pick an image and Sloan would say, can you find one of Optimus Prime? So then I would have to google who that even was! Grayson's not really into any of those boy shows yet which I know he will be soon. So for right now, I enjoy being able to sit down next to him and watch Sophia and we sing "We're having a roy-al sleep-over a roy-al sleep-over!"

Lewis Family! Sloan wanted a family picture and I had to promise Jake a birthday present to get him to take a picture. Good thing I was prepared!

Hudson on the move

Blake and Grayson

Suzi trying to help me get a smile out of Reese. I think we actually made Brian come over so we could get her to smile. She ALWAYS smiles at her daddy.

Presley and Carsyn

Carsyn and Camdyn in pigtails.

Cutting Jake's transformer cookie cake

Blake rock climbing

Grayson hanging on this monkey bar that slides and wouldn't let go.

Fake pouting (and trying not to laugh)

The Carter's last day as a family of 3. We can't wait to meet Ryan tomorrow!

Me and Sloan. 20 years of friendship - LOVE this girl!

A year to remember

How is it already New Years?? I can't believe 2012 is coming to a close and tomorrow we will wake up and it will be 2013. I have to say that I will be happy to close the book on 2012. Although 2012 joy as we welcomed Hudson into the world it was also full or heartache and sorrow as we lost Kevin's mother. My MIL passed away on August 17th and not a day has gone by that we haven't thought about her. It was sudden and terrible and Kevin has had a rough time ever since, understandably. Seeing the person you love the most in the world grieve the loss of a parent is horrible and I don't wish it upon anyone. I know we will all leave this world eventually and I know we will experience more loss in the years to come but when its sudden and you don't get to say goodbye you are left with a lot of questions and what ifs. I have said it before but children do make losing loved ones a little easier. Jake and Hudson have helped Kevin start to heal, I know it, I see it but he,we, still have a long ways to go. What I have learned from her passing is that you shouldn't waste another day being angry with someone especially family members. Life is too short so say you are sorry and move on. So with all this being said here are my goals for 2013:

1) Spend more quality time with the boys, Kevin and family
2) Put the phones and computers away when the kids are awake-I have been really bad about this lately
3) Get back to the budget and stick with it-We want to move within the next few years so hopefully that will be a good incentive for me to not overspend :)
4) Come up with some way to generate income-I would love to find something part time or commissioned based so I can have some fun money for me. Mommy needs new cloths and her hair done stat!
5) Get out with the boys and do more things that are educational based-don't get me wrong I love going to the mall playground and Chic Fil A but there are so many fun and FREE things to do in Dallas and I need to start do those things more
6) Do more educational activities at home-similar to the one above but at home
7) Be more patient with Jake-He's almost 3..enough said
8) Start saying "no" more-I over extend myself and our family all the time and it leads to nothing but stress on my end. I need to learn to say "no" and be ok with it. We don't have to go to every birthday party, every get together etc. It's ok to stay home and just be with my boys
9) Make my marriage a priority-They say "A child changes everything" well isn't that the truth! Add one more child to the mix and boy do things really change. It's not that my marriage isn't a priority but at the end of the day we are both so tired and we need to both get over it and make time to talk. The nights when my parents keep the boys need to be spent together having date night and not using that time to get together with friends.

I am sure I could go on and on but that's a good start.

Cheers to 2013!

A Jam Packed Christmas

Wow what a week it has been! I feel like we have been going non-stop since last Friday and today has been the first day that we haven't done anything and it has been wonderful! My family was making fun of me for taking so many pictures but I told them they would all appreciate it years from now when they can look back at Christmas 2012 :) Christmas this year with Jake was AWESOME!! He loved everything about it and "got it". Next year will be even better. Hudson was my little angel as always and I am really looking forward to next year and seeing the boys interact and play on Christmas morning. Last night Kev and I were laying in bed talking about what a wonderful Christmas is was and I told him that I didn't even really see anything that he got and he said the same about the gifts I got cause we were way more interested in watching the boys open theirs. The holidays are now about spending time with the ones we love and not so much about the presents and gifts and I love that. Watching Jake's face as he opened his presents was magical. He patiently waited for Transformers and his patience paid off cause Santa brought him five and as soon as he saw those he was in Transformer heaven and didn't pay attention to anything else the rest of the day. He didn't even eat..seriously he ate NOTHING all day! Crazy kid. He and Hudson made out like bandits and my parents went overboard as usual. They are two very blessed little boys. So another holiday season has come and gone and my sisters and their families have gone back home to Oklahoma and I already miss them and can't wait to see them again. So until then here are some pics from our Christmas.

 

Friday started with Jake picking up these terrible foam fingers at Academy. I sent this pic to Uncle Boob cause he is the only one that would appreciate it. Gig 'em

 

 

Hudson the reindeer

 

 

Aunt Mickey is turning 30 on 12/30 so we celebrated with an early brunch at Whiskey Cake

 

 

Kev's burger was as big as his face but he still ate the whole thing :)

 

 

Adults only dinner at Coal Vines. Dinner with out the kids is such a treat and very rare

 

 

Love this guy

 

 

My sweet parents..my Mom won't let me tag her in pics anymore on Facebook but she never said anything about my blog..hehe

 

 

That dinner was delish

 

 

Christmas Eve day we headed to Northpark to see the train exhibit

 

 

Sweet Beckett

 

                                              

 

Gigi and Hudson

 

 

Loved having my sisters in town

 

 Aunt Mickey and Beckett

 

The Dudley's

 

 

Mom and Dad

 

 

Merry Christmas from the Lewis'..love this picture but sad Hudson was already asleep

 

 

The matching jammie tradition lives on. Can't wait until Marley Reed's first Christmas so she can match the girls!

 

 

Eating Santa's cookies...they didn't understand that they weren't for them

 

 

The best present we got this year

 

 

Loving his toys

 

 

Lining up his Transformer for the millionth time

 

 

My parents pretty tree

 

 

 

Playing outside in the snow! It really was a white Christmas. Jake is definitely my child though...he hated the snow and didn't want anything to do with it. He refused to wear his coat and gloves and wanted to go back inside stat! Kevin was devastated. I told him we will be a beach family.

 

They say it's your birthday

"They say it's your birthday..it's my birthday too"..Kevin can literally sing that song to his sister and it be true. He and his oldest sister Vicki have the same birthday. I will state for the record that his birth certificate and every official document says his birthday is 12/6/1977 but according to his whole family and to his mother who gave birth to him say that his actual birthday is really 12/7/1977. Who am I to tell them that that makes no sense but he has celebrated his birthday on the 7th his whole life so I go with it. This year he turned 35 and is lucky cause he doesn't look at day over 25. I wanted to make him feel special since he has always had to share the spotlight on what is supposed to be his special day. Jakey woke him up and took him all his gifts, well Jake opened all of his gifts and took them to him, then he sang happy birthday to him. We practiced for weeks and he did awesome! He gets his voice from his Daddy..thank goodness!

 

 

Kev has wanted a shotgun forever so I got him a gift card to Bass Pro so we loaded up the car and out we went. 3 hours later he got his gun. Note to self...don't go with Kevin the next time he wants to get a gun or needs to talk to someone at the gun counter. Luckily there is a ton of stuff for kids to do there especially since its Christmas so Jake was ok for the first hour and a half but after that not so much. 

 

 

 

 

He would have stood at that train table for hours

 

 

The birthday boy and Huddy

 

 

Kev and Vicki

 

 

Happy Birthday LOML

 

 

Papa Jon and his friend Nan

 

 

Jakey and cousin Tessa

 

Happy Birthday Kevin we love you!

 

 

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

I wish that the title actually matched how Jake's first Christmas performance went but sadly it was not. It was more like "The Typical First Christmas Performance/Don't Worry Mom and Dad You Didn't Miss Out On Anything" type of performance. I asked Jake for weeks to sing to me the songs he was singing in his Christmas play and of course he refused. But I would hear him singing to himself here and there. Jake basically stood on stage next to his favorite teacher, Ms. Dawn, and looked around with one finger in his mouth and the other in his shirt. He looked so cute and was all "dressed up" in a button down shirt and since I never dress him in a button up he felt the need to have his hand in his shirt all day. Oh well at least it wasn't in his pants, right? So his performance was a bust but his Christmas party was great! I was in charge of it with another mom and I thought everything turned out perfect. I was super stressed up until the party cause I took it upon myself to actually get crafty; I find myself crafting more and more these days; and make ornaments with all of the kids pictures on them. They turned out so cute!! I will say that having the party at 1:45pm was not the best idea. They had to be woken up from their nap so they were all groggy and one little girl slept through the whole party.

 

All of the sweet kids in his class

 

The other mom that helped has a monogram business so she monogrammed each stocking

 

His sweet class

 

Again not in the mood for pictures

 

The best gift I will receive this Christmas! These are the real presents that I will remember forever