Snow!
We finally got enough snow to play in a little. The schools around here were closed yesterday and on a delay today. I think total they said we had around 4 inches and then some ice on top. Nathan loved throwing snowballs (chunks of ice) and Jacob crawled around in it some.

Progress!!!

Question
So whenever Nathan eats anything with syrup and the syrup gets on his skin, it gets really irritated and red. Today he had pancakes and I made them small so he could dip them in the syrup. He only got a little on his skin this time but last time he had pancakes he got the syrup all over his chin and neck area. It was very red and yucky looking then. Here is what it looked like today...

Has anyone heard of this before?

Jacob's tongue is doing better. It seems to be mostly healed now. The only problem is that now there is a slice in his tongue. Like if he were to fold his tongue over it would open up and have a crease in it. If it doesn't close up more I may see what the doctor thinks.

Ouchy!
So we had to contemplate an ER visit for Jacob tonight. We decided against it but here is what happened...

Jacob was standing up and pushing Nathan's riding toy tonight in the kitchen. Here is the toy so you can picture it in your mind.

Something to note is that Jacob always has his tongue stuck out. Well, the next thing I know I hear a boom and a scream. I go over to get him and there is blood running out of his mouth. After a minute I found out that the blood is because he bit his tongue really hard. There are teeth marks in the top and bottom of his tongue. Yuck! Here is what his new piercing looks like:

After about an hour and a half it stopped bleeding and he seems to be doing well. I think he is going to be eating some soft food for a few days though.

Just Some Random Thoughts...

Fun Week
Last week Daryl was off work. He had to take some days he missed out on last year. So we got to do some fun stuff. One day we all went swimming at the YMCA and another evening we went to a coffee house in town that has play areas for kids. It was nice to have him home all day and enjoy our time together. This week I miss him being here when I get off work.

Weekend Fun
This past weekend we got to go to South Illinois to visit with Daryl's sister and their family. They have 5 kids and we had a great time. It was really cold all weekend so we staying inside mostly. Nathan had fun playing with his cousins and so did Jacob.

Potty Training
So tonight Nathan went pee pee on the potty for the second time. I think, if no big plans come up between now and then, I may use the first weekend in February as a potty training weekend and just go all out with getting rid of the diapers and preparing to clean up a lot of messes. We'll see.

Jacob Update
Jacob is doing well. He is being a slug at walking still. He can cruise around and get about everywhere he wants to. He can stand for a few seconds, but I don't think he sees the point! :) He is a few days over 14 months now, so it should come soon.

Dentist
Nathan went to the dentist a few days ago. He did better this time around. He did really well until it was the dentist's turn to look in his mouth. He started screaming and we had to hold him down... fun, fun!

Girls' Night Out
I got to go hang out with some friends a few weekends ago. Part of the night was a Once Upon A Family party. This is a company that sells really neat products to help you document family memories and build family traditions. Here is the link to the site to see what kinds of products they have. Here are two products I really like: Item 1 and Item 2.

Nathan wrote his name for the first time a few days ago. It was really neat. Here is a picture of it. He did really well. He really amazes us sometimes with the things he is learning to do.

New Posts & Pictures
I wanted to let you know that I have finally updated our online photo gallery. You can click the link on the right side that says Family Photos and browse if you would like. Also, there a lot of new posts on here, but I back dated them so you may need to scroll down the page to see what is new with us. Enjoy!

Potty Time!
Well, tonight was the first time that Nathan went pee pee on the potty. What a milestone! Hopefully it was not just a fluke. I'll keep you informed. He mentioned something about the potty on the way home from the store so when we got back, I asked if he wanted to sit on the potty. He said yes. Our potty chair is one where it plays a tune if he goes so in a minute or so the tune started playing. We were both shocked and I think Nathan was as well. We made a big to do about it. Hopefully it will continue!

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a great New Year's celebration. We had some friends, Angela and Darrin, pass through town and spend the night with us. Angela was a bridesmaid at our wedding and they have a son that is a little older than Jacob. They all took a bath together and it was cute...

Daryl Bowled a 300!

Well, it was on the Wii, but that is still impressive. He was pretty pumped, to say the least. He was playing my step-dad so that is player 2. Here is the picture to prove it...

Bowling!!!
So Nathan's new obsession is bowling. It is pretty funny. I think it started by him watching Daryl bowl on the Wii. He loves to sit and watch "Daddy bowl". He also loves to set up his blocks in towers and roll the ball to knock them over. We turn bowling on TV whenever it is on and so today we decided it was time for the real thing. We all went to the bowling alley and would take Nathan up to roll the ball and knock the pins over. He loved it!

Christmas(es)

Our Christmas was very nice. It was the first time in 6 years we didn't have to travel across the country! It all started in Terre Haute. Here is a picture of Nathan and Papaw H reading the Christmas story...

From there we went to my grandma on my mom's side. Here is a picture of Nathan getting his train set...

The next day we had Christmas with my mom and then on Christmas morning we did gifts here at the house and then went to my dad's house. Here is a photo of Jacob opening a gift at the house...

The boys, of course, got lots of fun new stuff including a ball pit, a tricycle, a sit-n-spin, a kiddie basketball goal, a tee ball set, and clothes to name a few things.

To put you in the Holiday Spirit...
I thought this song was really funny.

Wedding

Today my "little" step-sister, Tara, got married. It was a beautiful wedding, and she was a beautiful bride. She started dating her man about the same time that Daryl and I started dating. I am so happy for her. Yesterday she graduated from college in nursing, so this is a busy time for her! Congrats Tara and welcome to the family, Matt!

Guest Blog: Jacob
Well, since my mom hasn't gotten on here recently, I decided to get you all up-to-date on our life. First off, I am one now! My birthday was November 19th and I had my party the Saturday before. I had a great time visiting with family and friends and eating cupcakes!

We even had a campfire for roasting marshmallows. I got lots of fun gifts although I think Nathan is going to try them all out for me first.

Then on Sunday I got dedicated at church. There were only 60 other kids along with me! I think I am famous because I made the large screen at church...

For Thanksgiving we went to Boonville to eat and hang out with some family from Daddy's side. Tonight we are going to put our Christmas tree up and I get a month to figure out how to knock it over.

I am really starting to get the hang of moving around. I am just starting to cruise and can pull up on anything. Mommy better watch out because I will be walking before long!

Joys of Home Ownership
So about a month or so ago when we were gone to visit family, a few floorboards in our hallway warped and popped up. We weren't sure what the problem was and figured it was the large amount of rain we had gotten recently.

The other day I was researching it and one of the causes I found was a leaking. I decided it was time to go in the crawlspace and rule that out. Under the house I went and there it was... a rainstorm! There was a hot water leak that was spraying out pretty quickly. I, of course, called the plumber and they came out the next day. They said they went under and it wasn't too bad and they made a little fix on the hot water heater and left. I went back under and the leak was still happening. I called them and they came back out. It turns out they had to pull out the water heater and replace the piping going down into the crawlspace.

I am glad we have that fixed. Now we just need to fix the hardwood flooring.

Jacob Crawling
So Jacob decided today was a good day to start crawling normally. Here is the video to prove it...

Happy Halloween from a Cowboy and his Horse!

Vacation Time
This past Thursday-Monday we were able to take off some time to go to Alabama to visit my brother and his family. Their son is 4 months younger than Nathan and they had a blast! They were best buddies the whole time. It was very cute. Where they live is about an hour from Atlanta so we went there one day and went to Ikea (yay!) and ate at Sweet Tomatoes (yum!). The drive there took about 9 hours with the stops. It wasn't too bad. We were sure and took plenty of rests. Here are some pictures of the weekend...

Been A While
Sorry for the lack of posts recently! I will try and give a recap of the last few weeks. Please forgive my erratic spacing. The space bar on my computer is messed up and sometimes will put one space, sometimes two... quite annoying!

Spa - I got to go get my nails done as a birthday present. That was a nice get away!
Zoo - A couple girlfriends and I took the kids to the zoo. 3 moms + 8 kids = a zoo of our own!
Parent Visit - Daryl's parents had the chance to come in town and visit a few weekends ago. It was good to see them. It had been a while.
Daryl Birthday - I missed the chance to do a cool blog posting for his birthday. Sorry! You'll have to settle for just an embarrassing picture of him.

I guess the biggest excitement recently was last weekend my mom and step-dad watched the boys overnight and we had a date weekend. It was so great! We officially celebrated our birthdays by going to a play, a very nice restaurant, and drum roll please... sleeping in!!! The dinner we had was at a restaurant called 610 Magnolia. The meal was a set price and came out in 6 courses. It was something I had never done before and was a very neat experience. The dinner lasted 2 hours and was wonderful. In the morning we ate at Lynn's Paradise Cafe. I had never been there and it was great!

Here are some random pictures. Jacob is getting pretty good now of pulling up to his knees. Sometimes he can get to his feet if it is the right height. He always looks so proud of himself...

Daryl and Nathan decided to take a nap the other day. Here is how I found them. Like father like son...