In a Flash

Somehow we went from here:

To here:

in a flash.
In the blink of an eye, we have a Kindergartner who will turn 6 in one week and 4 days according to the ticker at the top of the blog.
Six years goes by fast...

Summer Time Fun

Well, it has been awhile since the last blog. Much has happened!
We are in the new house and almost unpacked. The whole family (including Jake the Dog) loves our pool.
We love that everyone has their own room, the game room upstairs and the closet space. Sometimes we reminisce about our old house but we don't drive by anymore and this one feels like home now. We have a had a few family parties and I initiated the wall with a full lemon pie on Jeff's birthday. Before

After
Slipped right off the pie plate.
One of these days (hopefully soon) we will have the walls painted, decor hung and all the boxes unpacked. For now, we are taking one day at a time and enjoying all the little thing each day brings.

Splish, Splash...

Ready for the pool! I thought Charlie would love the pool because he LOVES his bathtime. His goal is to scoot his baby bathtub up far enough to reach the faucet. He does this by rocking back and forth until he can reach the water. He always gives me a goofy grin when the tub starts moving.
Anyway, he LOVES the pool and the waterfall!


Elizabeth is our fish this summer. She is already our coppertone cutie, I wish I could tan like she does! She is diving for dive sticks (in the shallow end of course) and is so proud that she can swim without her vest. I don't have any pics of that, yet, but here she is rocking a camo tankini and Jeff's sunglasses!

No pics of Emily in the pool but not because she isn't swimming with us. Our camera is here in our temporary home BUT we are so ready for the water by the time we get all three dressed, lotioned up and in the pool that the camera is the last thing on our minds. Our new house (we close Monday!) has a pool and surely we will capture more shots of all the kiddos swimming!

T-ball 2010

We were lovin' us some t-ball this spring with two sweet players!

Did I mention that I signed up to be the team mom?? Why? Who knows! It was fun and Jeff and Jenn helped me out a lot (thanks you two!). We love watching the kids, they are hilarious! At the end of every game, Elizabeth would ask who won and Emily's question was usually about the end of game snack. Next year the girls will move up to the "girls only" team. Emily is excited about the visor she will get to wear instead of a baseball hat. Next up for the Jacobs sporting adventures will be fall soccer. Mosquito haven, here we come!

Notice the difference in the girls gloves. Emily loved her pink and black light up glove while Elizabeth has a "real baseball glove".

No longer a disbeliever...

I never really took the "Oh, you are having a boy? It's a whole new world." comments very seriously while I was pregnant with Charlie. After all, I am in the education field, I work with children everyday, I know the difference between boys and girls. Boys are active, they like to run, throw, play and get dirty. Girls like to color, they will sit in your lap and let you play with their hair, they will watch a full episode of Sesame Street and wash their hands after using the potty. I thought I had a few years before I had to brace myself for the "boyness" of a son. Uh, I miscalculated the timeline. Charlie is a grabber and he doesn't just grab to see what things feel like, he grabs to see what they taste like. The girls used to pick up random objects and look at them. Every once in awhile (read RARELY) did they put those objects in their mouths. Charlie will pick up a random object and doesn't even bother to glance at it before putting it in his mouth. Nothing is safe with that child. We often misjudge the length of his arms. We move objects to a safe distance and he manages to grab them anyway. Just the other night he managed to dump the last remnants of my margarita on to me and himself. His onesie smelled strongly of tequila (don't judge) and we were both fairly sticky on the ride home.
Jeff took him to his 6 month check up and he reported that C destroyed the paper on the table (honestly, who doesn't), grabbed the dr.'s stethoscope with both hands and pulled and managed to grab various other objects during his examination. He also proceeded in getting one of the band aids off his leg and into his mouth by the time they reached the elevator.
Life will never be dull with this precious boy, the fun has just begun.

Birthday Party Overload

One might say that three birthday parties in two days, at the same location, is a bit much. I was that person, until I saw the wreckless abondon that my girls enjoyed. Watching them interact with friends and jump into a pit of foam blocks (germ infested, I know) was priceless. The fact that my presence isn't really needed anymore doesn't make me sad. It makes me feel like a secret spy into their social networking. Elizabeth enjoys the physical activity and her "best friends" that happen to be boys. Emily relishes the sqeauling and giggling of the girls but isn't afraid to sweat. Of course the cake and ice cream along with the goodie bag is the favorite of both girls. Elizabeth scrapes every last crumb and shred of icing off the plate, while Emily rushes through her dessert in hopes that she can squeak out one more moment of play/social interaction with her friends. As I stand with the other moms and converse about which swim lessons are best, how many days in preschool make a difference, I'm secretly watching my sweet babies grow into big girls. Time flies when you're having fun...

My Happy Place...

As the stress of selling and buying house, deciding between putting more money into an older vehicle or throwing in the towel and buying a new one and the chaos of life with three kids takes its toll, I find myself escaping into my happy place. My happy place(s) of late is rocking a sweet baby boy to sleep. Just as he is falling asleep and relaxing in my arms, he reaches up to feel my face (his eyes still closed) as if to say "just checking that it is still you mama". It was also watching the excitement of Elizabeth come home from school and announce that she is the "Special Helper" this week. She loves having this role but to her the most exciting part is that when you are the "Special Helper" your mom can come read to the class. She has been waiting for this day for a long time. I often hear about the other moms who come read to the class and she constantly asks when I will have my turn. When she found out that I was available to come and fulfill her dream she jumped up and down. I know she had her doubts about my availability because she told Jeff that he would probably have to come read because "Mommy has to work". Ugh, the sting of salt being poured into the wound otherwise known as the working Mom's guilt. The place I find the most amusement is listening to Emily sing along to the Rolling Stones. She loves one particular song, I have no idea what it is called, but she recognizes it every time it comes on the radio. I am too busy laughing at her singing along (not the correct words mind you) to notice which song is playing. Jeff is very proud of his influence on her musical taste and holds onto this as hope that she will come around to prefer this genre of music, even though she typically requests Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus as her top picks from the Ipod.
I know that we are blessed beyond what we deserve. Things will work out how they are supposed to with all the "stuff" and I will continue to escape to my happy places in this adventure known as parenthood.