Just some recent, random pics!

  This is just a short and sweet little post with some recent pics. 

Both of these love the bath, but it is just so much more fun with each other!

Brookelynn said, "Momma, take a picture of me with the tree!"

I love our humble little Christmas tree, and I love letting the kiddos decorate it!

Jared and Jared. Nuff said. 

We went to the Christmas tree lighting and parade this year, which has become a tradition the last few years. This time, they had to get their picture hugging the Snyder buffalo, since we stood next to it during the parade! ;) 

Jared, and his many faces...This kid always keeps us on our toes!

Aren't they so cute? Thanks, they're ours. 

Face number 2. He has about 50. He takes after his momma! 

This one is out of order, and I think the next one is too, but oh well. Life's crazy right now, and we go with the flow! They pretended to be pilgrims and Indians this year during school. It was cute!

We celebrated cousin Timmy's FIFTH birthday. I cannot believe how time flies!

When Daddy steals your bike while he's trying to teach you how to ride...

...And the victory hug! She gave him one all on her own - a proud sister! And Momma and Daddy are proud too!

AJ and little Jared. They spend a lot of time out here in the backyard together (good buddies). 

New hair. Momma thinks he looks so grown up! He's 2 1/2 ya'll....This is getting serious!

Santa time. Poor Jared - he doesn't look too thrilled! And - there were too many camera flashes going off at the same time. No one knew where to look! 

I always have to get a Christmas cantata pic of somebody in our family each year, since we go every year to Colonial Hill Baptist Church to see Justin's sister and her family, and his dad, sing. This year, Justin and Jared got to be in it! 

Kaleb...He's forever making us laugh. This time, he drank too much Kool Aid at dinner, and was super hyped up on sugar! Don't ask me exactly what he was doing, but it looked as though he had made a perfect mustache with the red juice, so he was trying to pretend to curl it. But he called it his "weenies". He's so funny! 

  That's all I got for now. But I feel good about at least doing some sort of an update, since these have been so few and far between! More coming after Christmas! 

Amber 

Little Lightbulbs

I love having a two year old...Yes, I do. This is just a short and sweet post about our little Jared. 

Today, I was in the bathroom with him, and he was washing his hands. 

He LOVES to "wash his hands". 

He's just started getting the little kids stool in the bathroom, and washing them, all the time. I think he does it because it's just one more thing that makes him like us - he can be big! 

I will be walking past the bathroom, haven't seen him for a few minutes, checking on him, and he'll just be in there, with the water running over his hands, smiling big at me. 

It's pretty cute. 

He'll say, "Wash my hands, mommy, wash my hands."

Well, today I was in there while he was "washing his hands," and I said, "Jared, can you use the soap?"

He looked all around and said, "Soap?"

Really, he didn't know what it was!

He looked straight at it, then at the towels, and was clearly confused about the word, "soap". 

So I smiled, and showed him what "soap" was. He's used it before, he just never really listened to the word. 

And he smiled really big too, because it was just one more thing that makes him big like us. He gets to use the "soap."

And I briefly thought to myself, l love these moments in my two year old's life, when that little lightbulb goes off. "Soap. Yes, that's what that stuff is called that I use to wash my hands."

It's the little things, ya'll. These shall pass, and someday, I will look back on this post, and smile, I know. It's the little lightbulbs that go off in their heads that make these hard two year old days worth it. The days when I try to hold it together, when I try to love, amidst feelings of frustration, amidst all the laundry, and the tantrums and the dishes piled high in the sink. 

I know when I look back, it won't necessarily be the dishes I care about.

It'll be a little blond headed boy, washing his hands, and for the first time, understanding the word "soap," because Momma showed him what it meant. 

It'll be the little lightbulbs that go off in his head. 

It'll be the moments that I take a step back and smile. 

Happy birthday, sweet seven year old!

Kaleb Lee...

  Mommy and Daddy cannot believe you are seven! 

It seems like yesterday in so many ways that Mommy found out about you in her tummy. But it's been a wonderful seven years since then, and we cannot wait to see what God has in store for you.  

  We are so very proud of the polite, sweet, sensitive, smart young man you are becoming. You are such an amazing big brother, and truly, God has made you a "leader" already, and that is what Caleb was in the bible, whom you are named after. 

 We thank Jesus for your heart...

September 16th, we celebrated you! 

You requested a robot theme. :)

  Happy birthday, big seven-year-old! 

Love, 

  Mommy and Daddy 

"But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land into which he entered, and  his descendants shall take possession of it." Numbers 14:24