Noah John's Birthday Party

We had a small get-together Sunday after church. My mom was in for the party and for Grace's recital. As always, we loved having her here. Noah sang himself happy birthday when we sat the cake infront of him. He grinned from ear to ear when everyone reacted with "AHHHH" :) He is a ham! Grace helped him open his presents and show 0 signs of jealousy when he opened gifts. She was so excited for him to get new toys. The little party started with kiddy pool time and swingset playin'. Jonah, Grace, and Noah jumped, shrieked, splashed, ran, climbed, slid down the slid while Logan and Papaw threw ball. We have the best backyard ever. You could say I know a guy who took care of the sod. It's super nice and really pretty too. :)

Happy birthday Noah John Brumfield, the sweetest, spunkiest little boy I know and the apple of my eye! In this picture, we were adding sprinkles to the cake (Noah chose his icing color: blue!)

The theme? Thomas the Train of course! If I had found Chuggington supplies, that would have trumped....Isn't it cute? I like the bright, primary colors.

What's a sunny day without a swingset?

First Ballet (Baw-yay) Recital

Grace started ballet this past fall. It was a great experience for her as she liked to dance around with her new friends in tutus and ballet slippers once a week :). Mom and I had a good time learning to make a tutu and she wore it in the first half of the recital. See a sassy picture of it here.

The hair-do.......

Touch of makeup...

Grace is the little ballerina on her toes.

Great first recital! Grace did well, knew the routine months in advance (I think it was very simple because there were some 3 year olds in the class). Now I am just trying to decide where to put her in August...there are 2 options in the big metrop of Madville! Another studio focuses on Christian principles, which caught my attention. We shall see.

Our Son is 2!

Our sweet Noah John is 2. He was born weighing 8 lbs, 8 oz and was 20 inches long. He was born 3 days before my due date and 2 days before the csection was scheduled. My dr let me labor with him to try to avoid the surgery. After an hour of pushing and 13 hours after my water broke (in the same spot as it did with Grace!), I was wheeled to surgery. When I first saw him, I said through tears, "I'm so happy to finally meet you." (I was a tad loopy/sleep-deprived and just happy-emotional). Anyway, he smiled at me. I know that is hard to believe but he grinned. (My delivery nurse told me a couple years ago that I laughed out loud after I was delivered!) Back to Noah John's big boy accomplishments: He now speaks in full-on sentences, can count to 10 and recognizes that items are numbered...example "How many birds do you see?" NJ: "3".) He can repeat anything, loves to laugh at and make others laugh, has a will of IRON (which makes me wish parenting came with an instruction book), likes tv (he started out saying, "I una hotch pb" which is now "I want to watch tv.") His favorite movie is Alvin & The Chipmunks and Yogi Bear ("Wogi Beaw"). He likes tractors (imagine that) and trains. His bday party will be Thomas the Tank Engine. :) He also loves animals, like his vet-aunt, I tend to think. He likes sweets, french fries, chips, goldfish crackers, and by far, his favorite snack is pretzels. For example, Grace asks for apples as a side; NJ asks for pwench pwies. His favorite vegetable is tomato and his favorite fruit is banana. He loves to drink milk and juice (*watered down) and has figured out that when I go to the fridge door and push the button on the front, he is getting water (to which he complains sometimes but when he gets really thirsty, he stops!) I limit the kids' sugar intake/junk intake but I don't prohibit sweets and snacks entirely. He is the most active child I have ever seen. He runs everywhere, climbs everything, loves to be outside no matter the weather, and is a bit accident prone (which REALLY stresses me out!) He has a head full of dark brown hair with lot of natural body and a good amount of curls. He has bright blue eyes and long lashes. One of his most endearing traits to me is that when he gets shy, he diverts his big eyes up and over and rolls his tongue around in his mouth, turns it sideways, and sticks it out. It makes him look uncomfortable and embarrassed. It's really cute. Maybe I can catch it on video sometime :). He and Grace have just started fighting over toys, etc. He is determined to keep his toys but any time I intervene and ask if Grace can see it (or have her ask him), he always obliges. He likes playing in the sandbox, in the yard sprinkler, and the swimming pool. He has little to no fear, which again, greatly stresses me. He constantly has bumps and bruises and they barely slow him down at all. He is all boy! And he is so loved and cherished!

ANNOYED AT BLOGGER

I am having a difficult time redoing my blog backgrounds...well just all of it. I'm clueless as to what I'm doing and in my effort to "learn" how I have messed it up more! Stay posted for an updated, fresh look, but apparently it may take me awhile!

PreK Program aka Grace takes the cake! :)

Pics and post coming!

Flowers

I Peter 24-25
All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

&
Matthew 6: 28-34
See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I'm not sure how or if this relates, but in my mind, I keep mulling over this. These flowers in the photos are weeds, about to be plowed, turned over into the ground. What we consider flowers are really weeds in life sometimes too...because the only thing that is truly beautiful and lasting is God's word, according to scripture.

Mono

Shawn has been sick for 2 weeks and 5 days. It started with an eye infection, followed by another eye infection. He has been down and out....very weak, lethargic etc. (He slept 19 hours yesterday). We went to see his dr at Vandy Tuesday (he sees an opthamologist there) and she decided it was best to do a CBC and a mono spot. Her inclination was mono...and she was right! We are so happy to know what is causing his symptoms and to know it is nothing more serious than mono. He has been eating healthful foods and drinking water and even MILK! The whole time we have been married I have only seen him drink milk on the rare occasion that I fix chocolate chip cookies or maybe brownies. I am excited about those changes a whole lot. With all due love and respect, cooking dinner for Shawn is much like cooking for a child...he is picky, doesn't want vegetables, etc. It's annoying, not to mention discouraging in that I want the junk too! He is learning from his daughter haha!!! Shawn's mom says that she has learned from Grace how to eat healthy! She eats most anything and stops herself on junk food etc (sometimes). Still working on that son of mine! :) We'll get there...last night he ate sweet potatoes because I called them "candied yams" and today I called the tilapia "potato chip chicken" and he ate all I served him (small amount but it's progress)! In case you're wondering why "potato chip chicken"...it's because it has a yummy salty breading and the boy likes chips lots. I keep pretzels and tortilla chips in the house. When I bring in other things, he and I practically fight for the bag. ;p Anyway, in all seriousness, we are really glad Shawn is slowly getting back to normal, glad it's mono. Grace was so worried about him that she had a hard time going into to prek on Wednesday. Mrs. Bone took her and spent time with her. Together, they made a "Get Well Soon" card. On the inside it said "I love you daddy. Love Grace."

On Wednesday at 11, I had a meeting to review Grace's progress in preschool. Grace is doing very well in all areas: writing, pre-reading and some early reading, recognizing and writing numbers, letters (upper, lower, out of order), shapes, and some sight words. In some areas, she was well above average for her age. I am happy with the progress she has made this year. It has been a positive experience for her. My hope was that prek would set the stage for school and it has. She is a well-behaved little girl who according to the director will not get into trouble in school. "You won't be the one to get the phone call that your child is misbehaving." She also said that "Grace can hold her own" in social settings and that she isn't usually the first to raise her hand, although she knows the answer. I'm okay with that! I told her I just want her to take her work serious and be respectful. Mrs. Bone said, "She does that." Good job Grace! She has 1 more year of prek. Next year her little brother will join her on Wednesdays when they will both go 7:30-4. I just hope I made the right decision on which days to send Grace...apparently most of the moms work so most kids are there 5 days a week. I'm sending her on TWR and on TR she will be pulled with other "older" preschoolers who have completed the 4 yr class as well. (MWF would be a total review of what she has done this year). I decided to send her all day only on Wednesday...so will she be able to go from two half days and one whole day to 5 full days of k'garten? I hope. She has a late bday and will be 6 most of her k'garten year. Maybe that will help. I'm not concerned about her academically-if she has intrinsic motivation she will excel because she is very bright-but she has said prek wears her out and it's only 3 half days a week!

It is a beautiful, sunny day today. The kids are napping (fingers crossed) and after cat-napping with them for about 10 minutes, I am back to working on Chelsea's baby shower invitations. They are turning out so cute! I am excited about baby Jackson's birth. He is due August 1st. I will be an aunt again then! Anybody who knows me knows I like being an aunt almost as much as I like being a mom! And while Chelsea is technically my first cousin, we are like sisters and she has already told me that baby Jack will know me as "Aunt Shannon." :) Can ya tell I'm lovin' it? After he's born, I will get to spoil him, then send him 7 hours south to his hometown state of GA! ;) Double wink. That was just in case Chelsea reads this.

Noah's little hip has been acting up again. The dr said he has a minor subluxation (?) in his left hip. He hasn't had any trouble with it for a couple months and last night, for about 30 minutes, he limped and it was quite pronounced. Pray for him. This concerns me some but the dr said the xray showed a very minor difference, and not to worry but I know that limping isn't normal. I will talk to his pediatrician AGAIN next week when she is back in the office. My little ones consume my heart and mind. I have to remind myself to trust God.

I'm looking forward to spending some time outside w' the kids this afternoon. They have been couped up for days and it's finally sunny and warm enough out to let them run off some energy. I better go finish those invitations so I can do just that....

And by the way our baby chicks are soooooo cute. I will take pictures this afternoon when we are out. We have Easter Eggers (lay blue and green eggs), Wyandottes (look like baby penguins!), and my favorite ever Buff Orpingtons. I am so excited to get Rhode Island Reds and Foghorn Leghorns in about 3 weeks. We have 9 right now and I plan to get 2 or 3 of the rhode island reds and the leghorns. We might have to extend their chicken coop a little. The kids enjoy them so much. Glad we got more after that horrible incident when the pit bull and another dog killed our others about 2 months ago.