School Days

Jonah loves all kinds of cars and trucks!

Painting is so much fun!

Happy happy!

Giving the donkey a ride

Jonah loves Lego just like his big brother!

Showing his teacher how the dinosaur says "Roar!!!"

Fun playdoh that matches his shirt!!

Some quiet time playing with the airplane (we have this toy at home, but of course he never plays with it!)

Jonah truly loves going to school each day!  He has wonderful, loving teachers and great friends to have fun with!  Each day we receive a report telling us what he did and the teachers do an amazing job planning fun activities to keep him busy all day!  My favorite thing is getting a picture emailed to me during the day and seeing what my little guy is up to!  I am so blessed to do what I love each day and have a great place for Jonah to learn and play!!

Phone Pictures

Lately, we've enjoyed a wonderful mix of fun activities together as a family, date nights and relaxing time in pjs or comfy clothes!  It can be a lot of work to get the boys out and about (making sure we don't leave any essentials at home by accident!) but we made a resolution to do so more often.  It can still be challenging to find age appropriate activities for everyone to enjoy because of the boys' age difference but one thing we all enjoy is a meal at a restaurant!!!

Movie night popcorn time!! 

Enjoying lunch at Posados after church.  Yum!

Jacob loved the decor at La Hacienda.  He was so excited to be in the "Wild West" and wanting to look at all the mounted animals!

Jonah waited patiently for his food with his cars and dinosaurs.  He loves his special restaurant bag filled with goodies he only plays with when we're out to eat.

The day we picked up Jacob's glasses, Jonah decided he wanted glasses of his own.  He found these sunglasses and wore them for the entire afternoon and evening!

After a very cold week, the weekend weather was perfect for a family walk.  We are trying to enjoy the few spurts of nice weather while we can!

Eyes

This summer at Jacob's kindergarten screener, we discovered that he needed a follow up appointment with an eye doctor.  It didn't come as much of a surprise since Nathan and I both wear glasses (Nathan since 4th grade and me since college).  Of course, it's not as easy as just popping by an eye doctor and we had many hurdles to jump (like getting locked out of the house and car on the day of our first appointment) before we finally made it to his appointment on our day off from school.  After only a few short minutes, it became abundantly clear and Jacob does, in fact, need glasses.  He was fitted with frames and we were told to come back in 6 months for a follow up.  Thankfully, he is actually excited about his new glasses (he told me he's the first person in his class to get glasses!) and we just hope he continues to see it as a positive thing and not something to be embarrassed about.

New Year, New Hair

After our trip to Branson, it became clear to me that it was time to finally give in and cut Jonah's hair.  His curls started really coming in this fall and I have pushed off his first haircut since then.  Jacob had his first haircut when he was 14 months old, but Jo's curls were just so gosh darn cute!  The one thing about them, though, is that they are NOT low maintenance.  I had to wet his entire head, comb and then the fluff each morning.  But then they didn't stay looking well groomed all day long.  The time had come, but I was still having a hard time letting go!

Nathan took him to the same place Jacob gets his hair cut.  I felt like a bad mom for not being there, but in all honesty, I just couldn't watch someone cut off all those adorable curls.  I thought about just having them trim the curls so his hair was a bit longer, but without mommy looking on and monitoring, that's just not what I got. 

When Nathan and Jonah arrived back home, I instantly started crying and regretting my decision.  Yes, his hair will be much easier to fix before school each morning and yes, it will look much more "put together".  But, those curls were part of his little personality!  He still looks absolutely adorable, but definitely has become a "little boy".  Who knows, maybe the curls will return as his haircut grows out a little.  I can dream, right?

Jonah was feeling a little apprehensive about letting go of his curls (or is that just mommy projecting???).

He loved playing with all the toys while sitting in the racecar!

The curly aftermath.

My baby with a little boy haircut!

Silver Dollar City

While we were in Branson with the Finkelstein crew, we visited Silver Dollar City.  My family had been several times when I was a child, but I hadn't been back in years.

We loaded up the cars (I swear it was a scene from Home Alone) and headed for the park which was only a five minute drive from our cabin.  From there, we split up.  The ladies attended a cooking demonstration while the men took the kids for some fun and games.

We met back up later in the afternoon for some more fun, but unfortunately, Jacob had gotten sick on one of the rides and wasn't feeling his best!  After dipping candles and a few more rides, we decided to go back to the cabin and rest.  Lucky for us that we did because Jacob ended up vomiting two more times on our way back to the car!

The park was decked out for the holidays and we enjoyed an afternoon outside, especially with the beautiful weather we had!!

The ladies loved watching a food demo and getting to taste some yummy treats!

Mim and Drew must have been very bad!

Jacob really got into character here!

It got a bit chilly so Jonah decided to sport his new hat!

Jonah was basically the center of attention all week, crazy hair and all!  He loves his cousins!!

Our little family loved spending time together!

I promise I've been good Santa!

Christmas 2013

Christmas was an absolute whirlwind this year!  The entire Finkelstein crew headed to Branson, Missouri on Christmas day, so our routine was a bit different from normal.  We headed over to Mim and Poppa's house on Christmas Eve afternoon to open gifts and enjoy some munchies before going to Christmas Eve service at Mim and Poppa's church (also the church Nathan and I were married in!). 

Mim and Poppa's tree was decked out!

Lots of little boys=lots of presents!

Sam and Nikki played a duet while we all listened...

...then it was Drew's turn!

These two crack me up!

Mim reading the Christmas story while the younger boys help out.

Jonah loves his Poppa!

Ready to open some gifts!

After church, we came back home so the boys could exchange gifts and they opened their new pajamas from mommy and daddy!  Then it was time to set out the cookies for Santa and go to bed!

Dressed in their Sunday best for Christmas Eve!

A new remote control car from Jonah!

Jacob picked out a little people farm accessory for Jonah.  He loved it!

Homemade chocolate chip cookies all ready for Santa!

Christmas morning came super early, Jacob came into our room for the first time at 4 o'clock!  We had made the mistake of not telling him what time he could wake us and that boy was so excited!  We were able to hold him off until Jonah woke up at 6 and then we headed downstairs to see what Santa had left!

Jonah's stack...

...and Jacob's.  We discovered this year for the first time how difficult it is to keep it LOOKING equal.  Jacob's gifts were much smaller, but they are more expensive now!!

Matching pjs and ready to see what Santa brought!

Jacob's "big" gift was a Lego castle set!!

Jonah LOVES having his very own anywhere chair!

Jonah had a blast opening his own gifts this year!

Jacob's first official Baylor sweatshirt-complete with a hood (he is obsessed with hoods!).

After opening gifts and a quick breakfast, we all got ready to hop in the car and drive 7 hours to Branson.  It was definitely difficult to get out the door and leave all of our fun new toys at home, but we were excited to spend an whole week with all of our family!!

Trying to be patient waiting for daddy to finish packing the car

One happy boy ready for our roadtrip!