crazy faces

This is when it's nice to be the photographer. As you can see I'm not in any of the pictures.

Jude has a really funny smile where he crinkles up his nose and shows all of his teeth...but of course once the camera comes out he just looks at me with a blank face. And thanks to Jason for participating in our silly face-making game. This whole thing started with Ethan wanting me to take a picture of his Thomas pj's...again.

forget the sippy cup

Okay I'm kind of lacking in pictures lately, so this one is really just for the Grandma's...because to anyone else it's not that exciting. Jude has decided to go from bottle to straw without using a sippy cup. He doesn't like the idea of having to tilt the cup up so it's much easier to use a straw. I like to think that he's brilliant...but it's probably just being a bit lazy.

two peas in a pod

Their first pair of matching pajamas. Grandma Wood got these for Jude's birthday. I think Ethan was way more excited about it than Jude...as you can see Jude didn't care for the photo shoot.

beach day

This is why living in Hawaii is so great! The days we get to go to the beach...year round (not to rub it in but sometimes it's easy to focus on the negatives...being far from family, the expense, the heat, the bugs, etc.). It's been a while since we've gone as a family to play at the beach for the afternoon because of the winter season (I know you single digit weather people are probably rolling your eyes...but it is cold at the beach in the winter here...at least the water is). This is the first time Jude really had the full experience of the beach on his own without me having to hold him the whole time. He felt so left out by Jason and Ethan that he would try to crawl in after them...or look longingly from the beach. But once a wave knocked him over he became a little more cautious. The sand didn't seem to bother him...he was covered from head to toe...and even ate a little. Ethan had a blast boogie-boarding with Jason and then floating around in his blow-up ring while Jason boogie-boarded. All that to say, I think I've realized that I have two little fish that love the water and the beach.

mohawk hair

A girl at church told me that Jude had the perfect mohawk hair....it was longer on top and already stuck up anyway. So I thought I would try it out during bath time the other night....I must say he does have good mohawk hair.

drummer boy

I'm not sure where Ethan got the "1,2..1,2,3" thing but it was so cute to watch...and I think Ethans got some rhythm.

birthday fun

UPDATE: warning for all those parents that are giving their children sugar for the first time...make sure it's not a half hour before bedtime. Jude stayed up until about 10 last night giggling to himself and squealing in his room. Jason went to go check on him to make sure everything was all right around 9pm (since this had never happened before) and he ended up bringing him out to me because while Jason was trying to calm him down, it seemed to just wind him up more. Jason said Jude would just look at him and laugh. So we had a little play time with Jude around 9 last night....he was giddy with a sugar high. Poor kid. I think we won't load him up with sugar like that again.

he's one today

I can't believe our baby Jude is one. The year has seemed to fly by...and I amazingly have really forgotten those beginning days of Jude's life where I thought I would never sleep again (I think God designs it that way so that we would want more than one child). It's neat to look back at those pictures and see how much he's changed and grown in a year. It's funny to see how different our two boys are and see how well they get along. Jude is our more serious little boy who is very determined on what he's doing and then every once in a while his silly side will come out and he cracks everyone up including himself. He is also figuring out that screaming can get Ethan to do almost anything for him. He is our good sleeper and eater...so much so that he will even clean up the food he drops on the floor...gross I know. Jude is in the beginning stages of walking (which are the pictures below...they're blurry but you can get the idea of the raising the arm thing). For some reason he uses his left arm to balance by raising it in the air. So it looks like he has a question when he walks. He likes to make all sorts of noises with his mouth these days and tries to mimic things that we say...although it's usually the same sound for everything. We love our little boy and pray that his life will bring glory to God and that he will grow up to be a man of God desiring to love and serve Him.

We're going to have a party for him later tonight, so more pictures to come...

our little artist

This is the first time Ethan has had an attention span longer than 20 seconds to sit down and paint. It's been a while since I've gotten the paints out because it took so much time to set up...only to clean up all the mess a minute later because he was all done...yes lazy on my part, I know. Ethan asked this morning if he could paint, so I waited until Jude went down for his morning nap...that way we had more time to set up and clean up. But this time Ethan sat for about an hour and painted a picture "for Jude's birthday"...is what he told me. I love this new stage that Ethan is entering. He seems to be exiting the toddler stage and becoming an independent young child.

i've been tagged

Thanks to my friend Kat, I've been tagged. Well I don't think I have enough blogger friends to tag 3 other people but if you would like to play the game, leave me a comment with your closest book. The rules are:

1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, go down to the fourth sentence.
3. Post the text of the following three sentences.
4. Name the author and book title.
5. Tag three other people to do the same.

"We can learn many lessons from Mary and Martha. Most women are basically 'Marys' or 'Marthas' -- relationship-oriented or task-oriented. Marys have a special ability to be sensitive to the needs and feelings of others, whereas Marthas are the ones who recognize what tasks need to be done and do them."
~ Leadership for Women in the Church by Susan Hunt and Peggy Hutcheson

I know this isn't part of the game but I thought it helped wrap up the above text..."The blend of these two temperaments gives balance to our ministry."

We're reading this book in our WIC council. But we're far from getting to p.123...we only meet once a month.

daddy's guitar

Jason started playing his guitar for Ethan before bedtime...and it has become Ethan's request whether Jason is home in time or not. He doesn't understand that I don't know how to play the guitar but he thinks I should be able to pick it up and play like daddy.

Ethan has learned to sing some of the songs with Jason and others Jason will just sing to Ethan. It's so cute to watch them and if Jude is still awake we'll go in and let him climb in with Ethan to listen. He enjoys listening but I think he is more interested in climbing all over the bed.