Happy Valentines Day a week belated!  Although we don't go overboard with celebrating Valentines Day since Jared believes that it is a Hallmark ploy to make money and that...."We can show/tell each other how we love each other in little ways every day, not just on the 14th of February!" he still was very sweet and made it a special day!  I think that the holidays are more fun all the time as the kids get older.  We enjoyed hosting a play date with kids and mommies from our church the day before Valentines day.  Then the kids had a little party at their Moms Day Out program with pink pancakes, Valentines cards and treats.  Jared and I went out to eat the day before and then I cooked a special meal at home.  I thought that the kids and Jared would be excited about steak, mushrooms, heart shaped biscuits, and chocolate fondue with fruit.  They were until they noticed the pureed broccoli and carrots in the biscuits!  Although, they never discovered the avocado and carrot puree in the chocolate!

Other highlights of the month include hosting a Super Bowl party, going to the zoo with friends, surviving a quick stomach bug and transitioning out of our cribs and onto mattresses on the floor!  We definitely have a lot of highs and lows through out the day.  The twins have become very competitive about everything including who gets to brush their teeth first, who gets to get their diaper changed first, etc.  We are praying about how to decrease the fighting and competing!
Here's a few other things that they are doing new lately:
Julia has started "reading" stories to her brothers, which is fun to hear.
Kai really loves his bed time routines, which includes doing "nosies" (rubbing noses together).  He insists on doing "eyes, teeth and hair" also!
Isaac is running everywhere!  He still falls though and often he lays down with his arms to his side and "planks!"

The 18th of every month in our house is a time for me to celebrate and to be sad.  It means that each of my children are another month older.  A month taller? smarter? more mature? more independent? more gentle and loving? (Ha!  Not always the case here!)  Isaac is now 10 months old and Kai and Julia are 32 months old.  While I will always love the baby stage, I'm sure there will be many new adventures and excitement as they get months and years older!

Kai has slowly been transitioning from being, "my baby boy," to being "all boy!"  His motor skills have made huge improvements and he uses them for wrestling his daddy and siblings.  One of his favorite things to do is to playfully bump into Julia until he gets a girly reaction from her.  (Squealing or yelling)  He often wants to rough house when the other subject is not in the mood!
As for the update on his doctors' appointments at the Spina Bifida Clinic, we are very thankful.  His MRI came back fine (which means his shunt must be working), and his kidney ultrasound came back good (which means that there is no sign of kidney/bladder damange since stopping catheterizing him last June).  Praise the Lord!  The doctors and therapists were very happy to see a patient who is walking and developing as well as Kai is.  Although they mention that he may have to use a wheelchair to walk long distances as an adult, we know that there are no limits for the plans that God has for Kai!  We pray that he continues to surprise the medical community by his abilities and determination!  Our main concern right now is his speech delay.  He has difficulty vocalizing the second syllable of words.  We will have an evaluation with a private speech therapist soon, besides the therapy he receives through the ECI program.

Dancing

Julia also is changing daily.  She loves to talk, especially for her brothers!  Some of her favorite phrases are, "What's that sound?" "I yuck this! (at the dinner table)",  "I love you ____ (mommy, daddy, train, etc)."  She is very busy and loves reading books, painting, coloring, pretending to go shopping, and playing with her brothers.  We've been seperating her and Kai for naps since she talks to herself so loudly and often gets Kai all hyper.  We plan on signing them up for a group swimming lesson (indoors) in February, which I am sure she will love.  Although she can be strong-willed at times, she is still a joy!

Isaac is ten months old going on three years old!  He thinks he is Kai and Julia's triplet and wants to do everything that they are doing!  At nine months he started standing up in the middle of the floor and taking a few steps.  I believe that he will be running soon.  This guy loves to eat and will often stay in his high chair eating a meal for over 30 minutes or as long as mom continues to offer it!  He also loves to crawl under the kitchen table and eat any scraps that were dropped by the other kids and himself.  Who needs a dog!  I just need to be very quick with the broom!  Isaac is very playful and will cover his eyes to play peek-a-boo and will raise his hands to "so big!"  His laugh is contagious as he lives up to his name (Isaac: He will laugh).  

Jared has been motivated by the nice weather to finish clearing out the yard.  When we moved into the house just over a year ago, our yard was more of a forest than a yard.  While the trees are nice, there was a lot of dead plants, weeds, and leaves to remove.  He estimates that he has spent over 80 hours outside working on the yard since August.  I'll have to get some before and after pictures posted.

Although I don't have a lot of free time right now, I have been wanting to start a new hobby.  I ended up buying a used camera from a friend here in Texas (early birthday gift from Jared).  I am still learning how to use it and hope to get some inspiration and lessons from my brother, Zach.  Here are a few more shots that I took while practicing the past few weeks.

Kai tickling/tackling Julia 

At the park

 My other hobby has been trying to prepare healthier meals for my family.  My goal is to get more fiber in their diets, especially to help with Kai's bowel issues.  The kids and Jared were brave and tried Green Smoothies with Spinach, Flax Carrot Apple Muffins, and Taco Soup with extra beans and hidden veggies.  I haven't noticed a difference with Kai yet, but Julia and Isaac's diapers have been epic!  This may make our potty training attempts with Julia almost impossible, but we'll give it a try!

A Very Merry Christmas

December has been a very fun and memorable month.  The twins are 2 1/2 now and very into the Christmas festivities!  It's amazing how fast they catch on to new routines and look forward to them.  One of their favorites was reading the family Advent book each night followed up by the chocolate and scripture verse found behind the doors of the advent Christmas tree.  They became a bit fixated on the "chocolate" and we may need to replace that with something else next year!  

The kids loved helping make Christmas treats.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well they unwrapped the chocolate kisses, placed them carefully on the pretzels, then put another pretzel on top of melted chocolate.  Their self control to not eat the candy was amazing until they spotted mom sneaking a few bites!  Kai and Julia also enjoyed making/eating a gingerbread house.  As with any project with toddlers, it was quick and messy!  I know that any project can go from "fun" to "disaster" quickly with these two, so I was overall very pleased with the results!

Kai & Julia looking very proud in their aprons from Nana!

Gingerbread house

We resisted most of the "Santas" in town but did hit up one at the Highland Village fire department.  The twins refused to sit on Santa's lap last year, so this experience was an improvement.  I think they view Santa like a Trick-or-Treat character who likes to give away Candy Canes.  Yes, they are a bit confused, but that is fine with us!  Here are a few of the pictures....pretty funny!

"I'm not too sure about you?!"

"Wow, I would love to pull all of that facial hair!"

"If I smile, can I have my Candy Cane and leave?"

"That's better!"

The highlight of the Christmas season was having Papa & Nana Christianson visit from Washington.  The kids loved having their grandparents around to play with and Jared and I really enjoyed the extra two pairs of hands!  We took a trip to the local Bass Pro Shop and went on the reindeer carosel and took a few family pictures on the Grizzly bear. There was a much shorter line for the bear than for Santa!

Papa & his boys

Isaac riding the Grizzly!

We also enjoyed looking at Christmas lights near Grapevine downtown.  We attended a great Christmas Eve service at our church and ended the night with singing around the Christmas tree, eating Creme Brule and opening one gift.

Nana & Papa w/ kids

On Christmas morning the kids woke up, ate a Happy Birthday Jesus French Toast Casserole cake, and then had a blast opening all of the presents.  We enjoyed having our neighbors join us for Christmas dinner along with the fried turkey & potatoes that they brought with them!

It warmed up here in Dallas after Christmas and the twins loved being outside with Papa & Daddy while they did "yard work."  

In the midst of all of the Christmas activities, Isaac turned nine months (sigh!), Julia has learned new skills and phrases, and Kai had his biannual MRI, kidney ultrasound, and appointment at the Spina Bifida Clinic.  I have lots to share, but I will wait to do this on next post! Have a Happy New Years!

Thanksgiving to Remember

Well, this Thanksgiving we spent time thinking what we were thankful for and also spent sleepness nights taking care of those kids that we are "thankful for!"  We joined my family in Nebraska including seven cousins (four babies and three toddlers).  My poor parents are probably still trying to catch up on sleep after the flu bug spread through the house and kept babies and parents up most of the nights.  Here are some pictures from the Jones family circus!

Four peas in a pod!

You can imagine how much rest everyone got this week!

Great Grandma Jones

Grandma and Papa Jones w/ the toddlers

Zach teaching Julia how to golf

Kai loves his Grandma!

Isaac and Great G & G Barry

McKinley loves her cousin Isaac!

Going in for the kiss!

Adelain

Erin & her girls

Uncle Zach & Kai

Izzy & Julia

Izzy & Kai

Feeding the ducks w/ Megan & Amelia

Kai ate more bread than the ducks did!

Gilbertson family

Playing dress up

We miss Izzy already!

Isaac helping out in the kitchen!

We returned back to Texas and enjoyed getting all of the Christmas decorations out.  As you can see Jared got smart and put a baby gate up around the Christmas tree after the kids broke several ornaments and Isaac tried to scale the tree!  

Jared and I also enjoyed a date night at an outdoor skating rink in Frisco.    Our Texas friends should check it out!  Another recent highlight was attending a parenting conference at our church.  It was a good reminder that "controlling behavior" is not what the goal is, but to point our children to the Lord and the purpose they were created for.  It's been a challenge to teach two year olds that life does not revolve around them and to really identify heart issues as cause of their disobedience.  It is very humbling for us as we have to examine our own hearts!  I'm so thankful for a patient God!

We are counting down the days until Christmas and looking forward to a visit from Jared's parents.  It will be special to host our first Christmas.  It should be memorable!