Terrific TWO!!

Jones turned two back in June, but I didn't get around to taking some two year pictures until August.  Poor, neglected third child.  As it is, he is so crazy-active and speedy, that only a few pics turned out.  

So here's a little bit of what Jonah Cody Halpin is like at 2 years old:

Every day he asks to wear his "boo(ts)".  I can't say no to his sweet fashion request.  

He runs and jumps and twists and turns and hops and races and kicks and spins all day long.  Jones is by far my most active and most physically advanced little guy.  He can handle a soccer ball with speed and agility, easily dribbling down the field and scoring.  "G----O----A----L!!!!" he rejoices every time.  Dunk the basketball?  No problem.  Hit a grand slam with his tiny baseball bat?  He does this as easily as he can volley a tennis ball.  Sports World, here we come!

You see that precious face??  He just radiates JOY all the time.  He is energetic and happy and almost sparkles...unless you tell the sweet baby "no." :)  He squeals with delight over the chance to climb in the bathtub.  He cheers for me when I serve him lunch.  "YAY, Mama!  Yay, Mama!!  YAY, MAMA!!!" Jones gets such pure enjoyment out of everyday life, and you can't help enjoying life too when you hang with him.  He makes my day.

Jonah is full of curiosity and energy and huggy-squeezy love.  He has a long attention span for a little Guy, spending a lot of our school day at the desk with us doodling little pictures with markers.  He loves to sing and be sung to, his favorites being "You Are My Sunshine," "The Lord Bless You and Keep You," and "Jesus Loves Me."  He hums himself to sleep, one chubby arm flung over his dolly, Julie.  He is beloved by our whole soccer team, but none love him better than his Brothers.  He can't wait to be big, and gets super irritated when he is obviously treated like someone younger than the Biggies.  He sings the "Poo Poo on the Potty Song" all day long (with great dance moves!) but he does not like to actually poo poo on the potty.

My Baby is growing up far too fast, but oh how I love this age!  I wish I could freeze him like this forever.  I am thankful to God every single day for blessing our family with wonderful Jones.  He is such an indescribable gift.

It Might as Well be the Plague

So we've been sick for most of forever.  Seriously folks.  It started out with Noah running a low grade fever and O breaking out in a mysterious, rapidly spreading rash.  This all started  back on July 16th. After becoming frequent fliers at Dr. Daniel's office over the next 3 weeks, he finally narrowed it down to Epstein-Barr (basically mono) or adenovirus.  Wonderful.  He also had some other pieces of thrilling news:  It would probably be at least 8 weeks until we were well again.  And we were extremely contagious during the whole virus.  So, we have been quarantined in our home since July.  Owen, Jonah and I are still running temperatures.  Noah's virus seems to have settled in his stomach, causing him lots of pain.  Thankfully, Jeremy has remained unaffected completely.

It sounds worse than it is, really.  We don't feel fabulous, but we don't feel awful either.  We can still get dressed and cook dinner and take care of ourselves.  We just feel puny and tired and can't go out anywhere.  

So how do we keep ourselves busy?  Take a peek!

 We take warm, yummy showers that are so long, floaties are required.

We practice our photography skills.  I have about 100 pictures of random corners of our house.

 We take wild rides on our pony in the buff.  Yee haw!!

 We go ahead and start school 3 weeks early...because what else is there to do?  We will appreciate being ahead once the weather cools off.  And if we can't be healthy, at least we can be smart!

We smile super big, even when we're on the way to the doctor for the fifth time.  And when we have full knowledge that a blood draw is in our imminent future.

 We practice our keen Jedi skills...all day long.

We get to make our own wardrobe selections every day, because Mommy doesn't care what we wear when we don't ever leave the house. 

We solve crazy hard puzzles and take pictures to ensure there is documentation that said puzzle is actually solvable.

We take long, very uncomfortable looking naps with our favorite giraffe. 

We take long walks in the rain. 

Sometimes, Grampsie (my Dad) braves the germs to spend a little outside time with his grandsons.  We figure the heat incinerates the germs.

We bake way too many goodies oozing with yumminess, because sugar is how Mommy makes it through the day sometimes.

So, if you've noticed that we have been AWOL, that is where we have been.  Riding out this bug in the comfort of our home, keeping the germs away from you.  Hopefully not everyone has forgotten us yet!

I Hope it's a Phase!

I had to document Noah's current fashion trend:

The Monochromatic Look

Every morning, he digs out black or navy shorts and a dark-colored shirt.  He then struggles to turn the shirt inside out.  No design may be showing.  Navy Crocs complete the monochromatic ensemble.  His reasoning behind his color scheme of choice?  "I like being a JEDI...and a NINJA!!"  Evidently, jedis and ninjas only wear solid, dark colors?  Thankfully, we have been too sick to go out very often, so only his brothers, Dad and I get to appreciate this fashion trend.

Crazy Noah.

Love him.

"Many Hands Make Light Work"

 This is a quote from John Heywood that crops up quite often around our house.  (I admit, I used to think it was in the Bible, until I attempted to do a Bible lesson about it with the boys.  Although this principle is taught in the Bible, the proverb was coined by Mr. Heywood.) We have many hands around here, so the work should be light for all of us, leaving us much more time to play together.

Today, we could be found cleaning tile grout with toothbrushes.  What fun, right?  It actually was fun, singing songs and telling jokes.  That is until the boys started fighting over the stains.  That's right, folks!  They were actually fighting over who got to clean the stain.  Now that's a good problem to have!  

After we got all our work done, we had plenty of time to whip up some cupcakes for Connect Group.  And who got to lick the bowl?  All my handy helpers, of course!

Artsy Fartsy

Enjoying our newest summer fun idea:

Rotating art supplies left out all the time for spontaneous crafting.  I have been surprised at how often my active, energetic Boys can be found creating away at the school desk!  I love the new projects they come up with and present to me for display on the bulletin board.



Lost?

Oh no!!

Where on earth could Jonesy Boy have gone?

He is nowhere to be found!

(He works so hard to get himself all tucked in!)



SURPRISE!!

The game that never gets old!

Driveway Fun

Our driveway and garage door provide the perfect place for us to volley a few tennis balls on sunny mornings.  We won't mention how many balls we've lost so far to our rain gutters. :-(  We've enjoyed it so much that three of us are going to be starting lessons next week!  Now, I wonder if I can pull off a cute tennis skirt?

Best Buddies enjoying a strawberry spinach "noise" (smoothie) and the refreshing breeze.



In the Swing of Things

Someone at our house taught himself to pump this Spring.  Teaching a small guy to pump is one of the hardest things for me to try to explain.  "Pull back with your arms.  Thrust your weight forward.  Out-In-Out-In with the legs.  All together now!"  It's a good thing that Nosy figured it out on his own!  If ever Noah is missing, he can be found out back pumping away.  He literally swings for hours!  He says he likes it so much "by-cuz it's FUN!"

The Ones Who Call Me Mama

Every day is a Happy Mother's Day with these three amazing guys!  My heart overflows with love and gratitude to the One who blessed me so.  May I be a good steward of these lives entrusted to my care.  There is no greater calling or privilege than to capture their hearts for the LORD.

Times Are Changing!

When a well-worn baseball glove shows up among Nosy's favorite sleeping companions, summer is in the air!  Bring on the watermelon, weenie roasts, water gun fights and, perhaps best of all (to one certain 5 year old!), a rousing game of baseball!

Getting Dunked

It was every bit as wonderful as I thought it would be.  All of our family was there.  All of them.  (It meant the world to me that you all came!!!!!)  Just to celebrate O.  Our friends were there.  Our church family.  The people we raise Owen along-side.  His Children's Church teachers who pour into O every week.  All people that love Owen and were rejoicing with us. 

What was even more special was that Daddy got to do the dunking.  It was a moment none of us will ever forget.  I thought I'd bawl my eyes out.  I was prepared with kleenex and everything.  As it happened, I was too busy trying to capture it all on video to bawl.

 

Joel asked each candidate for baptism a question.  O was the last one.  I was a little worried.  We had not expected this.  Maybe we should have practiced?  But Owen did perfectly!  When Joel asked him what he wanted to say about Jesus, O answered, "Jesus died for me."  Yes he did, Kiddo!

 

O's creative writing assignment this week was to write a report about being baptized.   He worked on it for a couple of days.  He wouldn't even let me sneak a peek until he was completely done. 

So, so proud of my Boy!

After church, we had a great, big Celebration of O.  When a seven year old gets to plan the menu, this is what we end up with:

Lemonade

Hot dogs

Pepperoni pizza

Green beans

Watermelon

Red and green grapes

Chips and queso

Sugar cookies with icing (green icing!)

Chocolate cake from Costco

We enjoyed it all!

So many sweet cousins!

 

Owen and his precious Mimi

 

My parents, Gramps and Yaya

Jeremy's parents, Gigi and Papa

What a great, fantastic, amazing, wonderful day.

My Heart Just Might Explode

With JOY.

Because this guy:

is getting baptized in the morning.

I can hardly wait. I am as happy now as the day he was born.  Maybe even more so.  My son has his whole life ahead of him to follow hard after the LORD, to serve Him, to bring God glory.  Or if God calls him home tomorrow, my son will spend the rest of eternity praising God in heaven.  I tear up just thinking about it.  What a privilege it is to have the chance to pour into this little boy's life every day! 

O had only two concerns about getting baptized.  He knew without a doubt he'd accepted Jesus as his Savior.  That was never a question.  But he was very concerned about getting his church shirt wet.  And he felt very unsure about how long he would be held under the water.  Funny boy!

O wrote a sweet paragraph about getting baptized that I'll post soon.  Right now, I'd better go prepare the crazy menu Owen requested for our celebratory lunch!

Happy Birthday to Yaya!

We baked you this beautiful, yummy cake.

And we gave you the solar system in a box.

 We love you so.

Owen & Noah

Sweet Success

"It's the first time I ate a whole plate of yucky stuff!"

Followed by a special dessert and a lengthy lecture from Daddy about being respectful to the cook.

Love him.

We Love Library Day

T.R.O.U.B.L.E.

It's just a feeling I have, call it mother's intuition, but I think this guy may be up to something.