Happy Birthday John!

This past weekend, we celebrated John's 2nd birthday. (Today is his actual birthday.) Since it was a family party with mostly adults, we went out to lunch, but there was no shortage of fun. We opened presents while we waited for the food to arrive, and John had the special privilege of playing with his toys while he ate. We finished the meal with an iced pound cake. John was the last one to finish but was determined to eat the whole thing. We never once heard "All done!" from him. (In fact, I tried to hide what was left so we could leave, but he found it and asked for it back!) It was a lot of fun and so nice to be able to celebrate it with aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents.

Happy Birthday, son! We love you!

William

With all this toddler action, a baby who lays on the floor and looks around seems a little uneventful. But, even though he doesn't move much he's still very cute to look at and I realize I was neglecting him on the blog. So, today we have a post dedicated to William in all of his sweet baby glory!

Did I mention that he is the sweetest thing?

Shepherd

This past week, John's friend John Shepherd came over to play. His parents are our good friends and were so kind to us when we moved to Lexington. They generously offered to watch John so we could go out on a date or two and we've played with their kiddos to return the favor. They were also on-call if I went into labor with William in the middle of the night. (True friends I tell ya!) John Shepherd is the youngest of their four children and is such a sweetheart. They had fun building towers, poking the baby, and just being cute.

John has been asking for "Shepherd!" everyday. We'll have to invite him over again soon!

Tower!

Lately, John has enjoyed building towers using his alphabet blocks or his Mega Bloks. The other night while I was on the computer, he was quietly playing and I turned around to find the tallest tower/pyramid I've ever seen him build. I grabbed the camera before he "Uh-ohed" it, and snapped several pictures. Sadly, the memory card wasn't in the camera, so I couldn't capture his work. I vowed to put the memory card back into the camera from now on and caught him building this today:

Nice little tower, six blocks tall...

now seven...

going for eight...oh no!

Starting over again

Well, later in the day I was at the computer and John was quietly playing by himself. I turned around to see what he was doing and found this:

"Big tower!" as John would say. (Everything is big these days--big Jonah, big snow, big sleep.) Now, one might think that this can't be true since the tower is quite tall--taller than John, in fact--but he used one of his trucks as a stepping stool and made this thing!

Here he is, admiring his work before he knocked it down. It seems as though he's able to do so much more and learns so quickly these days.

And here's his sweet William, who turned 12 weeks on Thursday. He was sleeping through the night for a little over a week, but hasn't for the past two nights. He loves to lay on the activity mat, bat at the toys that hang above him, and talk to his reflection in the mirror. Time seems to be moving on quickly for this little guy and I don't like it!

Bread

In a wild hair of domesticity, I made some no-knead bread. It's not secret that fresh bread tastes good and is incredibly cheap. A friend from church made some and it was so tasty that I thought it was worth a try, especially since we were running out of bread and I didn't want to go out in the cold to get more! So, I tried my friend's recipe and here's the result.

Holy cow it was good! I've ordered a large loaf pan and I'm hooked! This first try was a little undercooked, but it was still very edible. Here's to many happy loaves!

Cousins Visit

Last week, Audrey, Jacob, and Sam came for a visit. They arrived early Monday morning (2 am!) and left after dinner on Tuesday. We had two full days of cousin fun!

Sam is walking and fun to watch.

John reads even when his cousins are around.

Jacob introduces John to Cars.

Ninety seconds later...Jacob is alone.

Oh blessed bath time with your cousin!

A little friendly dumping. (Soon after, water was on the floor and all over me!)

Practicing good oral hygiene is a must.

Playing before bed time.

Jacob enjoys Angry Birds during his rest time. Audrey and I enjoy a conversation with all the children asleep and content.

What's not to love?

We have so much to be thankful for.