Yep, that's about right...

This pretty much fits the bill.

Poor Jack

Flowered blankets...



Future ballerina bibs...



Always with little girls...



"Flamboyant" shirts (as Mark calls them)...



Every now and then, he gets to do manly things, like work on cars...



Oh, Poor Jack.

I think he'll make it.

This is the Life!

Little friends and ice cream.. does it get any better??

Jack Man

Jack Man,

Boy, are you ever crazy! If I hear silence for longer than a minute, I know there's trouble.



On our way out the door the other morning, you managed to pour out 1,000 tiny rubber bands from Kate's hair stuff box. I'm not exaggerating that there were 1,000 either. That was a fun mess to clean up.



You are hilarious and keep us laughing. You have the best facial expressions.



When something is stinky, you plug your nose and squint your eyes. Then, you want to plug everyone else's nose, too.



You like to pray at the dinner table. It's so funny. You hold your hands out for us to take, then you squint your eyes and open and close your mouth like you are talking. Then you throw your hands up in the air and yell, "Ayyyy!" Then, you want to do it like ten more times during dinner. You're a prayin' fool!



You're also a dancin' fool! You've got some moves!



You are sweet, sweet, sweet. And you love your mama. One morning, you were sitting in the little rocking chair in the living room and I was in the kitchen. I was blowing you kisses from across the room, and you were doing the same. I guess you decided you wanted to give me a real kiss, so you got up, headed towards me, and as soon as you hit the kitchen floor, you bit the dust and fell down on your belly. You didn't cry or anything. You just got right up, came over to me, kissed me, and went back to your rocking chair. It was adorable and just made me melt.



You have started to give kisses on the cheek now, too. Real kisses, complete with the smacking sound. No more slobbery, open mouth kisses.



You like to hear your voice echo. Whenever we go into a public restroom, you start yelling at the top of your lungs with a big smile on your face. You yell into microphones, the vacuum hose, anything that will make you louder. You are loud enough without any help, my boy.



You and your sister have a love/not so much love relationship. Usually, you have a blast together. If Kate is dancing, you are dancing. If Kate is laying on her belly watching t.v., you lay on your belly right next to her. If Kate is laughing at something, you let out a loud "Ahh-haa-haa" and throw your head back to laugh, too. But, you both can go at it, too. You get so frustrated with her pulling you around everywhere and will usually just kind of whine or scream at her. She gets mad at you when you mess with all of her stuff. Typical brother/sister stuff.



Your vocabulary is coming along. You have more understandable words now and have 100% mastered the word "gum". ha!





You can say:

haaa- hot (you will hold your hand up to something like my coffee cup and say "haaa")
ahhhheee- eye (your point to your eye)
Uh-Oh
Ow
Da-ee- Daddy
Der!- There he is!
Whoa
"Ba"- you call your lovey, my phone, and your blanket a "ba" and we always know what you mean
Ish- Shoes (I only know this because you say it as you bring your stool over to your shoe drawer and carefully pick out a pair of shoes)
ke- keys (and you point to where we keep the keys)
hi- you wave when you say this
bye
You sign the word "more" and use it so effectively.

Even with a limited vocabulary, trust me... you get your point across.



You brush your teeth everyday, but are so stubborn and will hardly open your mouth.



You are fearless. Tumbling off the ottoman is one of your favorite pastimes. You are always falling or bumping your head. I know it's probably not too long before we visit an ER from one of your adventures. Cautious is not really in your vocabulary.





You are such a good little sleeper. You nap right after lunch time for at least three hours. You sleep 10-11 hours each night. As soon as you are sleepy, that thumb goes in your mouth. We can just lay you down at naptime and bedtime with no problems. As long as you have your thumb, your lovey, and a blanket, you are one happy camper.



I think you are surviving on milk alone. You have given up on eating. Every now and then, at a meal time, you will eat really well and I am thrilled. Most other times, you just pick. You LOVE your milk, though.



You are precious. You are just the sweetest, cutest boy ever and your daddy and I love you so much!!! We can't imagine our life without our Jack Jack.




Love you, my sweet boy.

Painting Pottery

Megan and I took our girls to paint pottery one day last month (notice the trend of me blogging things at least a month late??). It was quite the adventure. The girls had designs of their own in mind. ha!




I realized after looking at these pictures that my purse was dangerously close to the paint! EEK!

Kate and Allie both picked out star plates. They picked out their own colors. After trying to give Kate some "direction" and getting shot down, I just let her go at it. Meg and I just sat and visited while the girls painted.







In the end, after the plate was fired and we received it a week later, this is what it looked like.



I love that her "A" is upside down. She writes it like this about half the time and I'm so glad it showed up on this plate. Memories.



Gotta love that big blob at the top left. When we unwrapped the plate, Kate pointed to that spot and said, "What's THAT??". I said, "Well, that's where you got tired of making nice little dots and just blobbed it on there." She wasn't too happy with that, but it is SO "her". Patient for only so long. ha!

New do

Little Miss Kate has a new do!

Thanks, Vicky! We love it!!

Balloon Race

Last month, Mimi and I took the kids to the Forest Park Balloon Race. Mark was working at a conference at church.



We had not been in YEARS. It was SOOO much fun! I want to make it a tradition. The kids had an absolute blast!!





When all the balloons were out on the field, they let people walk out there to take pictures and see all the balloons.

Kate had her camera all ready!

















Purina Farms was there to put on a show.



The kids had fun just running around on the blanket and watching the balloons.













Next year, hopefully Mark can join us and take MUCH better pictures!!