lazy fall day

Today has been one of those good days, where you just spend the day laying around not doing much of anything. We slept late. After 30 minutes of debating at 7:00 this morning, I finally convinced John Mark it was not time for "bk-tst" (breakfast), but in fact was time for sleeping. He finally complied, and we got to sleep until 9:00. So nice!

John Mark played and played until he finally fell asleep and took a long nap. Then we went shopping and got his AWESOME Halloween costume. I took a bunch of great pictures, but I'll have to wait to post them until after Halloween. We have to have a surprise costume, you know! I will just tell you that he looks beyond cute in it, and he loves to roar...

I hope you all have enjoyed the beautiful day.

update

John Mark decided the other day that he needs to feed himself now. So I got out his new little spoon and set out some applesauce. 45 minutes and a HUGE mess later, he finished it. I have to say though, he did feed most of it to himself with the spoon... I only looked over a couple of times to see him eating with his hands holding the spoon triumphantly in the air. He has tried to eat pudding and yogurt by himself also. He's getting better at it... it's still not to the point I can send it with him to school!

Jonas and Eric came to see us a couple of weeks ago. JJ's car has a bench seat in the front, so we piled all three boys in the backseat, and all three mommys in the front seat. We laughed a LOT and had a great time. The boys had a big time eating at Saturn Grill, shopping at Babies R Us and Old Navy. They had such a big time, in fact, that this was the picture in the backseat by the time we got home.

John Mark has also learned how to crawl up in our chairs. He thinks that it's a game and loves to run for the chairs and climb into them as soon as one of us gets up. He has also started a singing-dancing combo that is hysterical to watch. He sings "dadadadada" over and over and spins around in a circle. It's so funny how he is daily picking up on the things that Micah and I say. Last week Micah said "yeah" and bobbed his head and so now John Mark runs around bobbing his head saying "dah" (apparently he's German) and just laughing hysterically.

He also loves the theme song from the tv show The Office. This is a funny video I took of him dancing to it the other night. This dance is actually pretty subdued compared to other dances we've seen him do during this song!

houston, baby!

We had the fun, fun, FUN privilege of spending this past weekend in Houston with our best friends, the Van Zandts to celebrate Jamie's birthday. We flew in on Friday, and then came home on Monday. John Mark stayed with BB & Poppy, and had a great time. This was the longest time we've ever spent away from him. We had a BLAST, but we were beyond ready to be home when Monday got here. John Mark was pretty pumped to see us.

Another fun part of the weekend was seeing the Wehunts. They drove over from San Antonio and spent the weekend with us. It was so great to just relax and do nothing with the people in the world who understand just how great it is to do nothing together!

We watched an entire season of the office, the OU game, ate a TON and did a lot of shopping. We ate at a chicken finger restaurant (that was just for Jamie) and a hibachi grill. The guys ate sushi one night, and apparently it changed their lives. It was all we heard about the rest of the weekend! The girls went to Cheesecake Factory for Jamie & Kelly's birthday dinner.

It was a fabulous weekend. I feel so blessed to have friendships that remain intact across hundreds of miles. You are awesome friends, and we love you very much. Thanks for opening your home to us, and carting us all over Sugarland.We had a great time, and can't wait for the next reunion. (and girls, I have a ton more pictures, so if you want them, email me... also i want copies of your pics!)

first day of school

Today was the first day of school. I tried and tried to get a good picture of John Mark with a little first day of school sign. Have you ever tried to wrestle a toddler into holding a piece of paper long enough for you to get a picture? I don't recommend it... It's way too much trouble!

All in all, it was a good day. John Mark made it through lunch eating only his lunch, Caroline's green beans and cheetos from the girl next to him. Poor thing never saw him coming! This is his little lunch mat that he eats lunch on each day.

This is a picture of my classroom. My very own classroom- aren't you proud of me for finally using my degree, mom & dad? Not that I'm teaching business to my pre-k kiddos... I had a great day with my class. I have sweet kids, and they are all very smart. My assistant is amazing too, so that really helps. I've already become totally spoiled to this place. I think it's going to be a great year!

bring on the food...

John Mark loves to eat. Now, I know what you are thinking- that's not that unusual. But I don't think you understand just what I'm saying... John Mark LOVES to eat. You've heard the saying "eat to live, rather than live to eat"? He has not. When he wakes up in the morning, he points down the stairs saying "mmmmm"... he repeats this when waking up from naps, or any time he sees anyone within a 5 block radius with anything that even resembles food. And he will eat... and eat... and eat. I really think that he would sit in his high chair eating ALL DAY LONG if I would let him. Maybe one day I will write down everything he eats, just for the fun of it.

To give you another example of this- his teacher at school told me that she has to sit his food out first, then rush around to give everyone else their food, and then finish him off with something extra. If she does anything else, he goes around eating other kids food. And apparently, one day this summer he finished off an entire BOX of snacks. Not one snack, but the whole box. Fortunately for us, she thinks it is cute and doesn't mind the hassle. Also fortunately for us, he usually has the remainder of Caroline's meal to finish off, since eating is not her first priority!

Speaking of school, tomorrow is the big day, so if you wouldn't mind saying a little prayer for me and John Mark, it would be appreciated!