Christmas

I can't believe it is almost Will's 1st Christmas and JT's 5th! WOW! I always heard time flies when you have kids, but never truly understood it until JT started getting older. We have a lot of plans this Christmas. Tomorrow morning the boys will open their presents from us, then my parents are coming over tomorrow night to eat and open gifts. Saturday (Christmas Eve) morning we are going to Conway with Zach's side of the family, leaving from there to go to Oklahoma, then to Sherman, TX. We will be back home late Sunday Night to see what Santa brought. 

I was a little worried a few days ago about JT's attitude towards Christmas. He knows the true meaning, and we enforce that in our house with the nativity scenes, "Jesus's Birthday Countdown" and off of our decorations. But he has been all about the presents this year. So to bring him back to reality I showed him some pictures of poor kids across the world online. As we looked at each picture I made him tell me one thing he is thankful for that the other kids do not have. He was amazed that not only do they not have toys, but many of them sleep outside on cardboard boxes, don't have homes, and don't have food. 

After we looked at those pictures we went into his room and decided after Christmas this year we are going to go through all of his toys and donate them to Main Street Mission for kids who need them. We also went to town and bought some blankets, food, and toys for the local animal shelter. He was so proud to take his donation in and pet all of the puppies. He loved seeing the dogs and wanted to bring all of them home just like his mommy, of course I had to say no because Daddy would have got us both. My mom and Will both went with us also, Will tried to bark back at the dogs. It was so precious!

So, I think I helped JT understand a little better what Christmas is all about. He is much more thankful now and has not asked once about his presents or Santa. :)

Since my last post: Will is getting so big! He is wearing 2T now at 7 months old. That is just crazy to me. My brother was even bigger than what Will is and it is hard to imagine. He has started saying a few words.. "Dada, Mama, Bubba, Bye Bye, and Mum Mum" along with all of the baby jabber that goes on he is a talking machine! :) We went to see Santa, the same Santa we see every year. He is amazing, the REAL Santa! He is always at Burger King so we get kids meals and talk to Santa the whole time. He told JT this year that his Poppy was on the naughty list. JT got a kick out of that and tells Poppy all the time now he better be good so he can get off of the naughty list. Will loved him, he kept pulling at his beard and Santa just laughed. I will always remember that day!

Mrs. Crafty...

I am officially finished with my teacher internship! You may now call me Mrs. Taylor, haha. I have only been finished for 1 day and I have already started on all my craft projects I have been dying to get to. I am loving all of these ideas I get from pinterest. Here is the one I am most proud of:

These are 99 cent blocks I bought for 40% off at Hobby Lobby. I then printed pictures on regular printer paper, cut out scrapbook paper, and mod podged them on. Then I painted "BOYS" on each block. We have a look through window in our kitchen and I have been looking for something to go here that you can see from both directions for a long time now. This works perfect because 1. I love pictures, especially of my boys and 2. I was able to put "BOYS" on both sides with different pictures. LOVE IT!

Elf on The Shelf

Santa sent us an Elf this year. If you haven't heard of "The Elf On The Shelf" you should check them out at www.elfontheshelf.com This is a great tradition to start with your family. JT has been having a blast with his elf, Sammy, this year. He has been up to some mischief around our house and we are all excited to wake up and see what else he has done each night. Here are a few pictures of things he has done:

He was in big trouble after this one. ;)

He left JT a note after he spent the night with Mema

JT thought this one was SO funny!

It has been a lot of fun watching JT look for him in the morning. I am already looking forward to next year, hopefully Will won't be scared of him. :)

Busy Days... Sleepy Nights

I don't know how much busier our family can get.... oh wait we start tee-ball in a few months! :) I have been so busy, this blog has been put to the side. On a happy note, I will finish my internship in 1 week and my house may actually get clean again. Something I have learned while being a "working mom" is that our family HAS to get organized. There is no way we are going to be able to keep everything up whenever I really start a job unless we have routines and organization. The past 4 years my schedule has been so crazy with classes at different times everyday that I haven't been able to get on a daily routine. I am actually looking forward to some normalcy, we just have to find that happy balance. 

We took some family Christmas pictures with my new background set the other day. Aren't the boys precious!?

 

We made a trip down to Nashville (where Zach and I graduated from) for a reveal baby shower. My sister (my brother's girlfriend when he had his wreck) is having a baby with her sweet hubby (the boys uncle "Co-Co") They found out they are having a boy (my new nephew) and we could not be happier for them! While we were there we took Will and JT to my brother's grave. They have both been there before, but Will was only a couple weeks old and it has been a while since we took JT. It is still hard for them to understand exactly what happened. But I am happy they know their Uncle Mike through us. :)

It was really nice the other day, so I took the boys out for a VERY long time. They had a blast on their swing set. JT pushed Will for a long time and had him laughing so hard he could barely breath. They are already great buddies! I hope it stays that way!

 Will is growing like a weed on miracle grow! He is already wearing size 24 month clothes and he just turned 6 months old. He is so happy! He will laugh at anything, especially anything JT does. He is still waking up at night which makes mommy very sleepy, but I know one day I will miss those cries in the middle of the night. So I am enjoying it while I can.

"Good Family"

We got to take they boys' fall pictures. They turned out precious. I can't believe how big both of them are getting. Will is doing something new everyday. He is rolling like crazy and is holding himself up on his hands and knees really well. He is starting to lunge like he wants to crawl but can't quite get it. He also just started saying "Dada". It was the funniest thing at dinner last night I was trying to get him to say "mama" and he kept saying "dada" instead, just like big brother. Finally the last time I tried he paused a second and I just knew he was about to say it, then he grunted and pooted so loud. Zach about died laughing and told him "that's my boy." I don't care if they both say dada first, as long as they say mama the most! :)

Last night JT said, "Mommy I think God made you and Daddy meet just so you could have me and Will because we are a good family!" Is that not the sweetest thing ever!? :) I am so proud of JT, I can't say that enough. He is such a good kid and so sweet to us. We are hard on him a lot, but it is only because we expect so much out of him. I hope it pays off when he gets older. 

You can argue all you want, but I have to say I have the best mom ever. :) She has been such a big help with the boys during this internship. I don't know what we would do without her. She is just absolutely amazing! Thanks for everything mom! 

My sweet boys

Zach has officially decided to go back to school and get a bachelor's degree in Information Technology. I am so excited for him. He will hopefully start in January if we can get all of the paperwork together. If not, it will be next summer or fall.

It's Been A While...

I have gone so long without posting and I feel guilty because I do want the boys to read this when they get older. I think they will be more proud of the fact that I completed 2 degrees and got a good job where I can spend more time with them though, so it's ok. ;) 

The boys got their Batman and Robin Halloween Costumes!

My perfect Dynamic Duo!

JT and his cousin Madison, they had fun together.

So we have been pretty busy the past few weeks. My big boy (JT) is thriving at school. He has become a little ladies man! Apparently all of the little girls are going home talking about him to their parents. They all just love him, which makes me feel good as a mom. I want my boys to ALWAYS respect and be nice to girls. I think he is a lot like Zach. Zach and I met in the 6th grade and just about all of my friends were crazy about him. Not only was he the "new" kid, but he was also very laid back and didn't give us the attention we got from the other boys, so we all wanted him to like us. It's fun to talk about now that we are older and married. JT has also started reading pretty well. He is asking how everything is spelled. We used to be able to hide things from him by spelling it out to each other, not anymore. He can sound words out! We will have to figure out a new technique!

Will has been doing great also. For a while he was not sleeping at all at night. Come to find out he was just not eating at school and was starving all night long. So this momma was exhausted getting 3 hours of sleep and working all day without help from Zach. I really wish he could get a day job! 

Will and cousin Issac... They are going to be buddies growing up. :)

Now that we have figured out what was wrong with Will he is waking up only 1-2 times at night to eat. My poor baby just thinks wearing 18 month clothes at 4 months old is not good enough. He wants to get bigger! His teacher told me she used to go to the gym, until she started working there and now he works her out enough she doesn't have to! HAHA... He is also very lazy at school, to hear his teachers tell it. He won't roll over for them, but he will wait on other babies to crawl past him and grab their toes to chew on. Yes, I have yet another strange child. I think it is just because he is too fat to grab his own toes. 

Tomorrow we are going to Springdale to watch "Papa's" football team and spend the night with them. I am also going to try to take some pictures of the boys, I will be sure to post them.

Fair 2011

Our little family at the Pope County Fair

We went to the fair tonight! We had a blast with the boys, but Will got too tired so Zach took him home while I stayed with JT and Mema and Poppy. JT loved the bouncy maze. He found a glow in the dark bracelet in it so I told him to ask if it was one of the little girls' that were still in there. Apparently he bounced his way around and asked every girl in there and reported back that they all said it wasn't theirs. So I told him to ask the boys and as he was asking a kid about 8 years old he got knocked down. As I was yelling for him to make sure he was ok (I was locked behind a fence and couldn't see down in the maze) he pops up and says, "Well I sure guess it wasn't his" :) I love how he has such a good attitude. 

Then, once we finally got on the helicopter rides he raced to the green one, but a little boy beat him to it. He had to settle for the pink one and wasn't happy, so when I took his picture he made a mean face at me because "pink is not his favorite color". The little boy who beat him to the green one ended up getting off because he was scared, but JT got over it really fast. His went the highest so it was ok that it was pink. :)

JT's mean face because he got the pink helicopter

Will had a great time also, he loved looking at the animals and watching Bubba (JT) ride all of the big boy rides. Every time we showed him a chicken he would smack his lips and say "Mum" HAHA! Just like JT did when he was little. This is the reason we have not bought a pet fish, JT always asks if he can make it grow really big so we can eat it. :/ I don't know whether to laugh or worry about this.

Will's mum mum face he made at the chickens. :)

Lots to catch up on!

I haven't posted in a while, I started my Internship on Monday! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE TEACHING! :) I am so excited I actually found something I enjoy. I am even in Junior High (which I hear is the hardest to teach) and I love it. I guess that is a good sign! 

So Will had his 4 month check-up today and I couldn't go. :( Zach took him for me though. His doctor said he is perfect (of course!) and he weights 19lbs 8 ozs, and is 27.5 inches long. He is a huge baby for his age! He also had to get his shots, he didn't even flinch until the end of the second one and he just pouted a little, but didn't cry. He then took an oral vaccine and gulped it down. Pretty sad he cried harder and louder over wanting a bottle than he does over 2 shots! He is also met every milestone for a 4 month old and even most of them for a 6 month old.

JT has been doing so good in school. He has come out of his shell quite a bit and is already starting to read. I am so proud of him. He is on a big angry birds kick right now. He got the "Angry Birds Knock on Wood" game for his birthday and he plays it every second we are at home. It is pretty funny to watch. 

We are huge football fans in the Taylor house. We are going tomorrow night to watch Har-Ber (my father-in-laws) team play for the first time this season. JT is so excited to get to play on the field and we are excited to take will to his first Har-Ber game. The boys have both already been to a couple Atkins games this season and loved it. JT even got a new girlfriend (my friend's daughter, Kylie). They are so cute together!

Will Sleeping at the Atkins Game

JT and his girlfriend Kylie

We are also going to the fair tonight. I'm excited for JT to ride everything, but dreading all the smokers out there. Yuck!

Poopy Pants..... and back... and shirt.... and legs....

Will eating squash for the first time!

I was sitting in class today and I got a phone call from one of the teachers at the boys' school. When I was able to I checked my voice mail and she asked if they could throw away Will's outfit, then she began to laugh and say he had an explosion in his diaper. At first I thought, oh he has had a couple of those before it can't be that bad. Then I thought, man if they are wanting to throw is away it must be all over! So I called her back and told her to go ahead (I send the boys in "not so new" clothes to daycare because I know JT has a tendency to get messy if he can and I figure Will is going to be the same way). So when I get to their school to pick them up I get JT first so that I can just carry Will straight to the car since he is a 20 lb dead weight. Then we go to Will's classroom and he is laughing at his teacher while she is making faces at him and her eyes got huge when she seen me. She couldn't wait to tell him all about it! They had a trash bag waiting for me with everything he exploded on, and one of the teachers even had to go to Wal-Mart and get new pants because he managed to get it all over her. I do have his outfit and I can't decided whether or not to wash it, and keep it for the memory so I can tell him when he gets older what he did, or just throw it away?

JT right after we get home from school, he strips down to his undies everyday

JT has been doing great at school. He comes home everyday singing about Jesus and God. :) He is still saying everything was his favorite at school, and nothing is his least favorite, so I guess we are on a good track! He has also started playing good with the other kids. I get to spy on him a little when I pick him up because they are in the gym. In less than 2 weeks I won't get to take the boys to school, or pick them up because I will have to be at the school I am interning at on a different schedule. So I am going to miss those special moments like crazy! :(

Excited & Nervous

So I start my teacher internship 2 weeks from today. I have been in the classroom as a teacher very little and I am a little nervous about how it is going to go. On the other hand, every time I have been I have loved it. I am looking forward to getting to teach everyday, and I also hear the teacher I was placed with is pretty amazing. I will be teaching Junior High business classes at a local school. I think after the first week I will be ready to jump in with both feet! :)

Will has been mimicking noises I make for a couple weeks now, but the past couple of days he has been saying "Hi" whenever I say it to him. It's still in that long drawn out cooing sound, but he is getting it pretty quick! JT was saying "dada", "mama", "bobo", and "bye bye" between 5 and 6 months old and was saying several words by 9-12 months. It doesn't really matter when Will says his first real word, as long as it is mama! :)))

P.S. I think I finally got my youtube videos to show up at the bottom of my blog! Yay!

Pigeon....

A couple nights ago Zach and I were in bed with JT trying to get him to go to sleep. He knows when he says "I want to talk about school mommy," that I will let him stay up longer because I love hearing about all he does at school and he refuses to give me details any other time. So here is how our conversation went:

JT: "So I have this kid in my class I don't really like."
Me: "Oh, well why not?" (thinking he may have been mean to him)
JT: "Do you know what a P-Gi-Geon is?"
Me: "Umm... No, do you mean a bird, like a pigeon?"
JT: "Yeah that's what I said, I don't like him because he looks like a pigeon."

For any of you that have a preschooler you know how hard it is to hold in a laugh when you should be serious. Zach throws himself under a pillow and against the wall while I and struggling to hold a straight face.

Me: "Well that's not nice JT, you shouldn't like people or not like people from the way they look. God made everyone unique. You don't look like anyone else in your class do you?"
JT: "Well no."
Me: "Ok, and I bet your friends didn't want to become your friend because of the way your look did they?"
JT: "I don't think so."
Me: "Well, you should probably try talking to ____ tomorrow and maybe you can be his friend. He may be the coolest kid you will ever meet."
JT: "I don't think he will mom, he really really looks like a pigeon, like the bug eyes and everything."
Me: I lost it at this point.... then had to talk serious again!

I could give you the entire conversation, but I don't want to give away which kid it is in his class, I know for a fact though the child's parents will not read this so I think we are ok. :)

WARNING: Mommy needs to brag! :)

A few months ago we had JT "evaluated" to see if he was gifted. Of course only being 3 years old, they can't do much but compare developmental milestones to the normal range. The reason we had this done was because (1) I was considered gifted and wasn't tested until late middle school and (2) as a "soon to be" educator I know there are certain things that need to be done to help kids with this exceptionality. I wanted to find out as soon as possible for JT so that we could take steps to help him succeed in school. Here is a statistic for you, more gifted kids drop out of high school than "normal" or "special needs" kids every year. Why? Because they aren't being challenged enough and they are bored with school. I was lucky to have grown up in a town that the academics were challenging enough and I had many peers that were gifted as well and we helped each other out! Anyways, we found out that JT is indeed gifted! They were sure to let us know that this could change depending on his preschool milestones and they would test him again once he was in school and at the grade level that normal testing occurs. They base this on the fact that most of his developmental milestones have been at least 30% sooner in time than the normal child. Most of his are sometimes double that! I am one proud mom! :))

ABOVE IS A VIDEO OF JT RIGHT AFTER TURNING 2 SAYING ALL OF HIS NFL TEAMS! :)

So I have been keeping up with Will's milestones as well. Everything he has accomplished has been right on track with JT, if not a little sooner. So I am educating myself on how to raise them in a way they are challenged everyday, of course I don't want to exhaust them either. So I am mainly finding fun ways to challenge them. It is pretty fun for me too, because I can use this in my classroom one day!

After all of this bragging I just have to say I love my boys with all my heart, and however God planned for them to turn out is going to be perfect in every way no matter what... any mom out there knows what I mean. Your kids are perfect in your eyes and no one can tell you otherwise!

"Get You" and My Little Nerd

Will has really started getting a little personality. He knows when I say "Get You" that he is about to be tickled, and man is he tickelish! I had to search hard to find a tickle spot on JT when he was a baby, Will is the opposite. I can just touch him and he cracks up. Of course JT and I start laughing with him and it just gets louder and louder with the 3 of us going. Yep, we all laugh a little like my dad (Poppy), you don't know my dad without knowing his laugh. :) Will is growing so fast, I was blessed with 2 BIG healthy boys, he is 3 months old and already almost 20 pounds and wearing size 12 month clothes.

JT was horrified the night of open house at his school. He hadn't been all summer and we went the night before his first big day to meet his teachers. His "school" as I call it is actually a daycare, but they do so much teaching it is amazing! I honestly can not think of one bad thing to say about it, the teachers are wonderful and so caring and loving with all the kids, and the program is just outstanding! I really don't know if I would have made it through school without having such a great place to send the boys. Anyways, JT was scared to death and I was dreading making him go the next day and I was even more afraid of him being like Zach and not liking school. It didn't take but 2 days of going and he "LOVES" school! Everyday when I pick him up I ask him what his favorite part of the day was and his least favorite part was. Today, he had 5 favorite parts, and 0 least favorite parts. THAT'S MY BOY! A nerd like his mommy! I can only hope he carries it through college and also plays sports like me too. We will be set! haha.

Mario Mania

JT has been big into Mario the past few months, it has brought back so many good memories of growing up and playing with my brother. And I cherish every memory of him I have because he was killed in a car wreck when I was 16. Any memory brought back to me is a treasure.

I am sure any kid of the 80's and 90's could hum the tune of Super Mario World! JT is just like me, he wanted Zach and I to play it first so that he could watch and perfect it in his mind before he tried, and perfect it he did! He is the best 4 year old Mario player I know!

So today he got a gift card from one of his friend's grandma at school and he got a Mario costume at Walmart. When we got home and he put it on Will could not stop laughing at his hat and mustache. It was the cutest thing ever!

I need to say JT is an awesome big brother! We were worried when we found out I was pregnant again that JT would rebel or not like having a baby in the house. Since day one of finding out he has been so protective and loves everything to do with Will. He plays with him, helps give him his baths, helps feed him, and has only helped change 1 diaper, because Will peed all over his arms the first attempt. And he is not shy about telling any stranger all about it. :)

I'm New At This...

One of my friends shared her blog with me and I thought it was a great idea to share and keep a record of stories of my boys! Because the majority of this blog will be about them I will share a little about me and Zach on this first post:

Zach and I are high school sweethearts, we got married in December of 2007 after the birth of our first son, JT. Not the way we had planned it, but it has worked out perfectly. :) We are both entrepreneurs at heart and plan on having a couple of our own businesses eventually. Right now I am in my last semester of undergraduate school. In December I will earn my second bachelor's degree and third major. I have majors in Management/Marketing and Economics/Finance and will have one in Business Education. I will also get my teacher's license in December (whoo hoo!) I have always been a nerd and love school, so this career is going to be awesome! Zach has worked at Tyson for 2 years now to help me get through school. He has his associates in applied science and a technical degree in Collision Repair. He is such a good artist and one day will own his own custom paints shop. I am ready to help him reach that goal!

About our boys: JT is 4 years old now and Will just turned 3 months. Words can not describe how they have changed our lives. They have definitely helped us become more patient, especially because JT is the slowest kid in the world when you need him to do something fast. I am sure I will have plenty of stories to tell about him!

We often get asked if we will try again in the future to have a girl, the answer: NO! We are done, our family is complete and we think it is perfect. Plus I have a beautiful niece that I get to spoil. :)

Anyways, I hope this works out so I can have a collection of stories to share with the boys when they are older, and for whoever decides to read these you may get a few laughs along the way!