EIGHT?!

Yep, It's true.  My first baby has turned eight.  Crazy.  

We had a great, relaxed day celebrating O.  

 We started off  the day at O Donuts (Owen is convinced it is his own personal donut establishment!), where Owen consumed the largest apple fritter I have ever laid eyes on.  Gigi and Papa got up early on a holiday to join us.

Next stop, a visit with our pal Chuck E. Cheese.  It was crazy crowded since school was out for MLK Day, but we managed to keep track of all our buddies.

 I love it that O got so excited to wear the generic Chuck E. Birthday sticker.  I'm so glad he's not growing up too, too fast.

We had celebrated with my parents (and delish frozen yogurt pie!) the day before, but we had to show them what eight looks like!   

Our second cake for the day.  O chose yellow cake with green icing.

The common themes in all these pics?  A smiling O and tons of hugs.  This is one blessed, happy Boy and we couldn't love him more!

Happy Birthday, Son.

Wishing You the Happiest of Birthdays, Gramps!

My Dad never wants gifts for his Birthday.  If asked what he'd like, anything at all, he always responds, "I just want to spend time with you!"  Sometimes, this can be frustrating.  We spend time together all the time!  I want to do something special and out of the ordinary for him!  This year, though, I had the perfect idea of a gift:

Tickets to the newly opened Perot Museum of Nature and Science.

The boys and I had been with friends the week prior, and I just knew Dad would love to explore this place.  It is incredible!!  We loaded up the minivan bright and early and headed Downtown to see what we could see.   Here are just a few pics of our day.  Actually, I was having way to much fun to take many pictures.  

I LOVE this picture!!  To me, it captures the essence of Dad and O.  Dad is telling Owen some crazy story and O is trying to decide if Dad is "pulling his leg" or not.  I love their relationship!

This Museum may be our new favorite place in Dallas!  We've been twice now and still have not seen all the wonders that it holds.  What a great addition to our homeschool curriculum! And thanks to Daddy's gift of a year long membership, we may visit every week!

A bunch of worn out people grabbing a very late Birthday lunch at Chipotle.

Happy Birthday, Dad!  Thanks for spending time with us.  It is really we who are gifted with such wonderful memories.

Reading with Gramps

On a cold, blustery, pajama-wearing, keep-a-fire-going-all-day kind of day, Gramps braved the elements in the afternoon to snuggle up and read with Noah, while O and I finished up his Math lesson.    Noah's reading has taken off, and it is so fun to watch him really enjoy a good storybook.

 Such a tender moment between these two.

Check out Nosy's legs: all banged up and bruised and scabby.  This Guy is all boy, for sure!

LouLou's Christmas

On the day we were to celebrate Christmas with Kyle and LouLou, our whole fam came down with a snotty, coughy cold.  The McCracks were heading out of town just a few days later, so we chose to keep our germs to ourselves and spare them from this misery on their vacay.  We were all so disappointed.

Finally, we found a time to get together and exchange gifts and a few Christmas yummies.

 My beautiful Sister. We are so night and day different, and yet we are the best of friends.  I am so thankful for her!

Thanks to Lou, there are archers in the house!

Jones, My Handy Helper

Jonah made a mess.  

Never fear!

He knows just what to do!

 He ran and got the broom and swept the mess right up.

I love his happy, helping heart!  Now, if I can just learn from his enthusiasm...and spread some of it to his Big Brothers.

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!