sweet brothers!

Grady LOVES his baby "budder" Jett or Jettoo (b/c Mommy calls him Jettaroo!:)

This was a few weeks ago...Grady totally tackled Jett & Mommy was worried, 'til I saw this! It lasted for about 5 minutes! SO sweet!!!

Grady always wants Jett to sit in his chair w/ him...

~jen

Earth Day

If you know my husband, you know he is on the edge of being a tree-hugger...sorry, honey - it's true!:) True story...we didn't have recycling service at our old house, so Aubrey bought bins for the garage, where we sorted out paper, plastics, aluminum, etc. He would then haul it into Frisco every week in the trunk & back seat of his car! Now that we live in Frisco, it's much simpler - it all gets tossed in the same bin & they haul it off for us...ahhh!:) If I'm being honest though, I have to admit his "green-ness" has rubbed off on me. Even though the environment wasn't the main reason we decided to cloth diaper, it feels good not contributing to the 18 billion disposable diapers that are thrown in landfills each year (which take as many as 500 years to decompose!)

This year, in honor of Earth Day (& because we saw a really cool episode of Curious George), we decided to build our very own compost pile! Now we won't have to throw out banana peels, coffee grounds or egg cartons AND our grass & flowers will benefit too!!!

Daddy's big helper!

Grady meets his first worm...
the finished project...

We also took a trip to Shades of Green, one of my favorite spots in town & Aubrey got me some gerber daisies!:-) Here is Grady bug, helping me water my new plant! He LOVED watering everything...the grass, the plants, the side-walk...he kept saying "ma wawer pees!"

It was a beautiful day & a very fun family project!!!

~jen

Are you still there!?

Hello, fellow blog readers...are you still there!? Life has been crazy & blogging somehow fell to the bottom of the list. Now I'm wondering if anyone's still checking in besides my Mom (Thanks, Gigi!:-)

Can you believe how big this guy has gotten...

And look at this little ham...

More updates soon...

~jen

Joy

I've probably heard it said a hundred times in different ways over the years, "Joy is not based upon circumstance. It transcends the ebb and flow of happiness and sadness. Joy is not so much an emotion as it is a way of life.”

This is a perfect word for our journey as parents? Our kids fill our worlds with happiness and yet they can bring us so much frustration. One minute we are laughing and the next we are calling upon our back-up self-control reserves to keep from squeezing their little cheeks off. This ain’t no sweet grandma cheek squeezin’ mind you. This is the kind of grab their face, get their attention, growl through gritted teeth squeezing. Don’t even pretend like you haven’t at least wanted to go there!

Personally, the best way to endure the seemingly constant back and forth parenting affords us is to focus on the joy that our boys bring. It’s not necessarily found when they are acting like angels or lost when they are going crazy like little devils. It’s there all the time. The joy of our children is there under the surface of the shifting tides of our daily routines and interactions with them. The times when I see most clearly through to the heart of joy are when everything is quiet and still, the night has taken my focus away from the colors and shapes of the day, and in my arms I hold a sweet little body with a face and a heart and a name. In these fleeting minutes, I try my hardest to close my eyes, breathe, forget the world outside of this little embrace, and hold my little one, my child, my little joy.

~A

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I have 3 precious sweethearts this year for Valetine's Day...

I LOVE my boys!!!

Sorry we've been such bad bloggers lately...there's SO much to catch up on!

~jen