Jakey's First Birthday

Jacob turned 1 today! I can't believe how fast this past year has gone.  Jacob continues to smile and laugh all the time, crawls and cruises everywhere and loves to talk (just 3 words :-)).  He can say dada and momma, and babi which means bottle.  The other day he was able to stand by himself for a whole minute then plopped on his bottom.  He loves to walk and stand, and will find his way on whatever he can climb up. He's got 6 little teeth and bites everything!  This little boy brings us such joy we are so blessed God placed him in our care :-)

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Yesterday we celebrated the birth of our Savior by throwing him a birthday party :-)  I've been wanting to teach Elijah what to true meaning of Christmas is, but how do you really teach a 2 year old that? So I got a great idea from a friend to throw Jesus a birthday.  The week before we were able to talk about what kind of gift we should give Jesus and at first Elijah said a toy (specifically a T-rex and stegasaurus) but the more we were able to talk and explain what makes Jesus happy we were able to write down a prayer and wrapped it up for the party.  I made a felt board nativity scene and we played pin the star over the manger.  Then we read the Christmas story, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and opened his gifts.  I'm not sure how much the boys really got it, but if anything I had some great talks with Elijah before bed.  Ever since the party, Elijah has been saying "I love Jesus and Santa!"



Reading the Christmas story

Our nativity scene



Singing Happy Birthday!

Opening Jesus's gifts

This is what happens when I let Elijah use the sprinkles







The Treehouse

This past week we went a place called The Treehouse in a neighboring town with some friends.  It's basically an inside playground all cushioned with slides, tunnels, a basketball court and lots of baby friendly places to hang out.  They even have a cafe with real food (and healthy too!) and tons of leather couches and tables for people to eat and just relax.  Elijah and Jacob both loved it. It's nice to have a place where the kids can play and run since it's getting pretty cold and snowy outside. We got a groupon to it so we will definitely be back for more!

Jacob was all smiles, he loved crawling around everywhere

Henry and Elijah, tired after playing tag

basketball/soccer/dodgeball