Mama's Helpers

It was funny, one morning I was making the kids breakfast when I turned around and Parker said "I want to change Jonas' diaper"... within a second he took off his diaper. He was very confidant and excited to give it a try, so I wouldn't want to discourage that! Brooke quickly came running over as she feels she is the diaper changing expert. I told her to let Parker try while she is trying to wait patiently biting at the bit to jump in at anytime. Jonas was not really awake yet and didn't mind the extra attention. While Parker tried to figured out how to pull out the tabs guess who jumps in to help?... little mama herself 

His 1st diaper change .. I think he's pretty proud. 

I ask Jonas who's changing your diaper and he says " bubba" 

Brooke dove in to help .. she is truly a natural little mama. 

J- Man

Sometimes I'm really not sure why but I call Jonas "J-man", probably because he walks runs like an old man and at any minute you think he's going to bite it because he runs with such a forward lean. My little Jonas has been one busy bee this month.. he has kicked it up to a NON stop pace, I mean the boy doesn't stop until his head hits the pillow. At 16 months he is keeping me on my toes literally .. there is no sitting down, the minute I do he is pulling my leg trying to get me to stand up. There are so many funny things he's gotten into lately. One of my favorites was baby powder all in his hair... unfortually no photo. I decided to document a few of his favorite things to get into.. it only took me the typical morning to capture all these shots .. granted you might think I'm a bad mom I would like to think of myself as a mom with three children that's easily distracted:)

He LOVES to tease me that he's about to climb up the stairs .. just for you worry mom's out there ..I usually have a gate but the twins take it down all the time. 

He's saying "pleeez"  can we go upstairs? Off to the kitchen next ..

He climbs up the stove .. this time he happens to get stuck and thought he could get down but do you see the left foot actually touching the ground .. a little drama boy at times:) Next off to the back door... 

Within the last week he has learned to open doors around the house. This one is tough as the twins can never remember to lock the doors behind them. 

Now into his favorite room, The Bathroom 

On the left he's pretending to blow his nose into the TP. I stopped him before the bathroom looked like whats on the right as he did this a few weeks ago... he loves to shread the toilet paper into pieces around the house. Also what's more fun than pulling out all the wipes?.. he could do this for hours.  

Right before bath time I go to get his PJs and I hear" uh oh".. he had dropped the baby wash into the toilet.  When he's not playing in the water he loves to drop everything in the toilet. We have had cars (one actually got flushed down the toilet no plumber problems yet knock on wood), 
a hairbrush, a bar of soap,  a couple of books.

My favorite ...I gave Jonas a fun box to play in while I tried to pay bills, within a minute I hear him grunting and I turn around to see him upside down in the box.. he's laughing as I'm laughing and then wants to do it over and over again because i thought it was funny. He's such a ham. That's all I captured for one day, then the next morning within an hour he has dumped out all the business cards in my purse and taken dog food from the Lucky's bowl. You can see he's trying to get away before I see him do it. 

If you've been wondering what I have been up to this last month, this is it every minute of the day. I know this stage will too pass and I have to stop and laugh. If not I might go crazy so i do a little bit of both. Yes, J-man you keep me on my toes that is for sure but I wouldn't trade it for the world. 

My First: Embrace the Camera

One of my dear friends started an embrace the camera every Thursday on her blog...check it out http://www.andersonfamilycrew.blogspot.com/. It's such a cute idea, here's what she wrote about it.....                    

do you have pictures of yourself, with your little people?

in this day and age of the "momarazzi", many of us are always behind the lens...rather in front of it.

some of you feel much more comfy behind the lens, and i get that.

look, you think i want pictures of myself in the same velour jogging suit for the 3rd day in a row {i slept in that jogging suit each night too---i know, gross, right?}

well, i don't really want those pictures...but my kids do---or, at least they will one day.

how many of you LOVE looking at pictures of your parents, when they were young{er}?

i'm raising my hand!

sadly, i don't have a lot of pictures with me and my mom from when i was younger.

i am off to change this for my kids.

i want them to have an abundance of pictures...to remind them of these days that we spent at home together.

the days may seem to drag...but honestly, the years fly.

is my son really about to graduate...from kindergarten?

wasn't it yesterday that i was wiping his diapered bottom?  and now i am wiping his pee up from all around the toilet. embrace the pee.

and embrace the camera.

This is my first embrace the camera with my sweet Parker. I just can't tell you how helpful, respectful and loving he is. This past month has been challenging for me but it never fails, Parker is right there being so supportive. He will just fill up my water bottle without me even asking him too, he loves to say "I love you mommy" all the time, I ask him to do something and he almost always says"ok mommy" so cheerfully. He's truly a lover not a fighter kind of boy. He will jump on any opportunity to cuddle up with you on the couch. 

I'm so proud of him and the little person he's becoming.

Plus he's just so darn cute and handsome too.

17 weeks

I'm officially 17 weeks preggers .. here's my first actual belly picture. I finally feel like I'm getting out of that awkward chubby stomach phase:) I do have to tell you that I'm one of those women that loves being pregnant just about every part of it. Last Monday night, I was reading the kids a book when all of a sudden I felt the baby.. I said oh wow and grabbed Brooke and Parker and told them I felt flutters and Parker with his most excited voice  said "is it a butterfly in there?"  Brooke and I died laughing. Then they wanted to know if that meant the baby was coming and I said no we have many months until then. Then a few days later, on the 22nd I was lying on the couch reading while the kids were napping when I felt the flutters like crazy on my left side then I push my hand into my side and all of a sudden there was a strong kick back. my heart sank .. yea! I did it over and over about 5 times she kicked right back at me. I just don't think there is any better thing in pregnancy than feeling your baby move. It's absoultly amazing! 

A little bit of Sunshine

Sunshine is the nickname of our sweet little baby. Where she got this name you might wonder? It was just a few weeks after finding out we were pregnant and we were all laying around doing our normal Saturday morning family cuddle in bed. We were talking about names for the baby and Parker had some good ones like truck, dirt, and my favorite turban but then Brooke had said SUNSHINE! We threw out a few other names and she kept saying "sunshine, sunshine" which honestly I think is pretty cute. Once we found out it was a girl I told Brooke her nickname can be sunshine until we decide on her forever name. We have no clue as of now what her name will be as we really only had a few boy names we liked.  So until we figure it out... her name is Sunshine. Plus we probably won't share her forever name until she's born as we love to keep it a surprise. 

A Taste of Chicago

For this New Years one of our dear friends got married in Chicago. It was a fun celebration and a very beautiful wedding. We left our warm weather for some snow. I was excited to show the kids... there was just a little snow left from the big storm the week before.

Chad aka the groom had actually introduced Scott and I about 10 years ago. We are forever grateful he paired us up and knew we would be a good couple. We both have known Chad for over 16 years... it's so fun to see him so happy and in love with such a sweet wife.


The reception went late into the New Year. It was by far one of the prettiest weddings we have been too.
Our 48 hour trip was short but it was another one to remember. Chad- I wish you all the happiness you deserve and a wonderful loving marriage as mine has been.. I'm forever grateful. 

And the best wife in the world award goes to.....

Hey it's Scott, Heidi's husband. I have never posted on this blog, but figured it was about time. When Heidi first started this blog, I never imagined in my wildest dreams that it would become such an amazing tool to share our life. Heidi, I am so proud of what an amazing writer you have become. For someone that was self conscious about her writing, all I can say is "WOW!" God truly speaks right though your fingers when you write. It makes me so proud when I read comments from people that you have touched through your writing. Thank you so much for investing time into this amazing blog that you have put so much of your heart and soul into.

If God lined up every woman in this world and asked me to pick one, I would pick you...every time! I love you with all my heart, mind, and soul.
-Scott

1st Christmas with us

Jonas these days has been bursting out his little personality even more. I think you can tell what a ham he is.. he cracks us up and even better he cracks himself up. Christmas was so fun .. he could have cared less about his toys as all he wanted to do was play. He loves the attention from everyone and would much rather play with people than toys.

His big present this year was an automatic Cars ride on. Which we didn't have charged and had to wait until the next day to try out. When we did he's a mad man on it... he has no fear. He gets this huge toothy grin and laughs as he takes off.. it's too funny to watch . I will try to capture a video but he's just so fast. Really the biggest present for Jonas is that he's going to be a big brother and he's going to love to have another little playmate to share life with. It was truly one Christmas I know we all will remember.. Soooo blessed you're with us Jonas, you bring us an amazing amount of Joy, Laughter and Love!