congratulations to my sister in law and brother! cooper robert was born tonight! i’m still waiting on stats, so i’ll update with those tomorrow. our sweet little reagan is now a big sister!!

also, jamin’s quilt from “aunt julie” arrived last night. i got a few pics of him on it tonight - will have to post tomorrow. it is GORGEOUS. thanks so much, julie!!!!

i did a card the other day.

i am not one who is big on political discussions. i usually leave that to my brother and dad. lol. my brother really should have been a lawyer - he’s so intelligent and articulate. he has always been fascinated by political science and debating, while i have always been completely turned off about it.

this year is the first year i have actually CARED or thought about it enough to care about an election. maybe because i just never believed in anyone enough to care? i mean, don’t get me wrong, i voted for bush. but it was because he was the lesser of evils, not because i was incredibly impressed with him. this year it’s different. i love ron paul. i mean REALLY love him. i must admit, it’s because of his pro-life stance that i first started finding out more about him. but the more i read, the more i’m convinced of his worthiness to lead our country. i know there are many Christians who don’t believe he’s good enough because of his take on the the war. i personally believe he’s the only one in line with the constitution. block me for saying so, because what do i know? but for me personally, i don’t have it in me to vote any other way. i’ll just leave you with some links.
http://www.christiansforronpaul.com

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/homeschoolers/

http://www.militaryforpaul.com/

http://www.ronpaularmy.com/

as for the prayer part, i have permission to post more about my friend amanda’s loss. her little brother, who was 22, died in his sleep the other night. we still don’t know all the details. he’s in another state and they are trying to make arrangements to get him back home. please please pray for her whole family. she’s the oldest, then there’s her brother, then her two sisters. i just can’t imagine the pain!!

he’s had a pretty good day all around! we had fun at bouncertown with gramma!

if you’d like to see how big he is, there’s a new pic of him in the sidebar, taken today. isn’t he so handsome?!

thanks for the well-wishes!!

i can’t believe that my little baby jeremiah will be four years old in a few short hours. the thought boggles the mind. he has grown into such a little man! he’s so tall, so smart, so sweet, so fun.

today was full of his sweet, complicated self. there are a few things i need to write down now, before i forget them.

at about 4:00, he came up to me and said “mama, i want you to talk to God for me.” i said, “well, remember you can pray anytime you want. talking to God is exactly what praying is. why don’t you pray first, and then i will!” so he thought that was a good idea. the following will be paraphrased, since my memory is so horrible: “dear Lord, thank You for loving me. thank You for the nice day. i pray that you will make papa have to work only one day a week. i pray for the people at papa’s work. let them be safe, have sweet dreams and a good night. amen.” oh goodness, i almost giggled and cried. what a sweetheart! then it was my turn. i prayed that the Lord would lead us to a job for papa, one that would enable him to be at home with us more. obviously, that was NOT good enugh for him, because he gave me a sideways glance, and told me he was going to pray some more. he went off next to jamin’s swing, to be more private, i guess. now, we don’t do much praying silently (that he knows of LOL) so praying to him is praying aloud. this time, he started out with “dear God, i wish…” i interrupted him that we don’t WISH to God, we PRAY to God, so he changed it, “ok, dear God, i PRAY that papa can only work one day a week so he can be with me and my bubbies more. i pray that everyone is good and nice at his work and that they have sweet dreams. amen.”

oh goodness, i just love that boy. it’s hard to believe he’s going to be four, but at other times, it’s hard to believe he’s ONLY going to be four. he seems so well ahead of his years to me. other times, i see clearly how much of a baby he still is. oh i just love him so!!!
at one point, when i reminded him that he would be four years old tomorrow, he was running around the room. he stopped, mid-run and asked “but will i still be your kid?” *LOL* where on earth did that come from?! “yes, honey, you’ll always be my kid. you’ll be my kid even when you’re all grown up!” that seemed to satisfy him, because he went on running and having fun being all boy.

the theme for the night was definitely how much he missed papa. he kept telling me how hard it was when there’s only one at home. he meant only one adult, because only one adult means there’s only me to cook, only me to clean, only me to hold, read to and play with them. i’m often reminding them “mama is only one person. mama can’t do everything at one time, so i need you to be patient and wait.” he remembers every little thing that’s said to him. *sigh* so anyway, there was a big deal made about how much he missed papa, and i had to sit him down and tell him that, even though we are sad when we can’t have papa with us at all times, talking about and dwelling on that sadness isn’t going to help anything. it will probably make us feel even worse (this is a tip jerry gives me when i’m wallowing. it usually doesn’t help at the time. LOL). he seemed to really take that in, and made up his mind not to talk about it anymore. i was proud of him - he was much better in that than i have been as an adult. *blush*
tonight is very emotional for me. i really didn’t think it would hit me until tomorrow, but it’s really getting me. i’m so happy and so thankful for him. i can’t believe the blessing that he is, what he has been to me and our family. the Lord made him perfectly for us. he still has his ornery moments, but he is an amazingly sweet, smart, wonderful, caring little guy.

here’s an early happy birthday, to you baby! i love you, jeremiah thomas!!!!!!!!!!!!

i’m fixing eggs, bacon and apple oatmeal for breakfast tomorrow, and later, gramma is taking the boys and me to bouncertown. it’s kind of like chuck-e-cheese’s (i still want to call it showbiz!) but has those big bouncer things. we will either eat there or go somewhere afterwards. should be fun!!!

in other news, jamin is now officially in his crib. he’s slept in the pack-n-play the past 3 nights, and jerry moved the p&p downstairs and the crib into our room, so all is “normal”. i guess. LOL. i hope he does great all night long in it!

josiah now has night terrors, just like jeremiah has had. it’s so horrible. the past few nights, each of them has ended up in bed with me. i feel so helpless with things like that. do some parents just ignore the crying? i can’t, even when i need the sleep.

i would like to ask that you pray for my friend amanda and her family. she just lost a family member, someone very dear to her. i don’t want to say more, because i didn’t ask her about it. but please pray.
God bless you.

so this morning i’m changing jamin’s diaper. it’s poopy, so he’s completely thrilled to be getting cleaned, so he shoots me a huge smile. what’s that? i wonder, looking closer. he has ANOTHER tooth through!! both middle bottom teeth are through the skin!! no wonder the little sweetie has been a bit cranky! i just can’t believe how fast he’s growing up. *bawl*

oh the flickr pics are finally uploaded. i am not done with all of them, but that’s all i’m putting up for now. link is in the sidebar!

i know we’re nearly halfway through with january, and here i am posting the first post of the new year. pretty sad. i was really wanting a new layout for the blog, and didn’t have the time to devote to it. i finally did it last night, and i have to say i love it!! it’s one of my favorites ever.

so what are the changes in store? i am reading a book about procrastination, a book about clutter-busting, and a book about parenting. the parenting book shouldn’t come as a surprise - i’m almost always reading one or another. this one i think is different though. it’s written by someone i know online, a mother of 10. pretty amazing lady, and i’m loving the book so far. she gives advice that’s straight to the point. i wouldn’t call it “easy” but it’s very practical and do-able. i’m also in a challenge on my favorite message board to be a better parent. i have high hopes. of course, i didn’t at first. things were really raveling out of control for a while. i felt like i was going to have a nervous breakdown.

on top of the parenting aspect, i was trying to take care of the clutter and procrastination as well…it’s a lot to tackle all at once. throw in trying to cut HFCS from the boys diet (along with dairy, that we’ve been cutting out for a few months) and then jerry having some atrial fibrillation episodes three days in a row… well i guess it makes sense why i haven’t had a lot of extra time to work on the blog!!

at the same time, i really don’t want to neglect it. i want to be able to record the boys’ childhoods. for example, i don’t remember when it was or who it was, or if i posted about it, but one day when we were out shopping, one of the boys spotted an older gentleman with a long flowing white beard and white hair. the boy said “look there’s noah” or “is that noah?” see i can’t even remember exactly. now that kind of thing is priceless, and should not be forgotten. i need to MAKE the time to post about things like that.

also, i’m trying to get some pics up at flickr. i tried last night but it failed. i don’t know if i tried to upload too many at once or what! but check back again later for those.

jamin is 5 months old now. he weighed 14lbs 6oz and was 26in. he is getting 1 bottle of formula a day - the rest is all mama milk. i couldn’t be happier about that! this week he cut his first tooth - the bottom left. he’d been working on it - slobbering and chewing - for a week or two. it was a surprise to me yesterday, though it shouldn’t have been! he’d had a really rough few days crying and screaming and not wanting to eat. i was thinking it was from his vaccinations and was pretty worried. i’m sooo thankful it’s just a new tooth. he is such a sweet, adorable, fun, wonderful little guy. i love my snuggle puppy!!!!

i am in awe that jeremiah will be four years old in 3 days. how can this be?! we will be having a family party at my parents’ on sunday. he wants it to be buzz lightyear. mom and i went to the disney store and mom bought him a really cool buzz lightyear outfit, leftover from halloween, 50% off then an extra 40% off. i was so happy to get it for him. he’ll be wearing it at the party. she also got him some buzz jammies there. i’m going to try to make a cake that will do buzz proud. i’m not really sure what we’ll be getting him as gifts, as we don’t have much money. things are really really tight. he has plenty of things already, so i’m not overly concerned.

i honestly wanted this to be even longer, but my memory is so horrible that i can’t think of all i wanted to mention. but that does remind me of the phonecall i had with mom yesterday: she called me to ask something about her email. i said i didn’t know. she said i’d told her before. i said, “you’ve asked me this before? i don’t remember.” she said “yes, but i don’t remember what you said.” i said “well what can i take to help my memory so it doesn’t get as bad as yours?” she said, “i don’t remember.” *ROFL* i love my mom!!

God bless and i hope to hear from you guys soon.

i am just posting to say i promise i will be really posting soon. like, if i don’t post tomorrow, you can hunt me down!!! i have so many things to write about…jamin is five months, jeremiah will be four next week…tons of pics i need to upload to flickr (three of which are cropped down and on the sidebar - aren’t they SO CUTE?!), blog layout to make and update…oh so much.

for now please keep us in your prayers. love you all!