A Happy Birthday & A Very Merry Christmas

Since Jake's birthday falls on Christmas Eve, we try to spend most of the day celebrating his birthday. The Elf hung some balloons & streamers. He also brought white powdered donuts because Jake had said he loves donuts (even though he's never had them with us, I figured he must have had them somewhere, so what a nice surprise they would be for his birthday breakfast). In true Jake fashion, he refused to eat a donut and instead wanted a nutri-grain bar. So now we have a box of unopened because I know I will eat every one of them once we open it donuts in our pantry.

 

 

On his actual birthday, we just have a small family birthday party. He'll have his big friends birthday party in another month or so (or whenever I get around to actually calling a place to reserve). My parents (Nana & Gran) & Robbie's parents (Mimi & Granddad) come up for our little party.

 

Of course there was opening birthday gifts

 

 

 

And cupcakes

 

That evening, we got ready for the Christmas Eve service. This Christmas Eve service was extra special because our family and both sets of grandparents all went together.

 

 

Afterwards, we went to the Bush's for supper. We then headed to our house to get ready for Santa to come.

 

We made cookies for Santa

 

And reindeer food

I've seen all over the place, people making reindeer food.
I have no idea what their reindeer food consists of, but I used what we had.
Which was brown sugar & pecans.
It worked for Jake and thankfully we didn't have ants all over
our yard the next morning.
 

My parents were spending the night with us. Nana read Jake some Christmas good night stories

 

Then off to bed Jake went & later that night, Santa came!

He brought Jake 3 gifts - a Power Rangers Megazord, Cars Racetrack & a surprise gift (because Jake kept changing the 3rd gift he wanted for Santa to bring) which was a new talking Woody doll. (His old one bit the dust a while back.)

Surprise gift was a hit!

Slight birthday & Christmas gift overload

Jake's gifts to us

Resting a little bit on Gran

Jake opened our gifts to him

 

 

My parents left mid-morning to head back to Prattville, and then Robbie's parents came over to see what Santa brought Jake & to exchange gifts.

 

 

Trying to put together a 500+ Lego Batman set which we thought was a great
late gift addition.

We had Christmas lunch together. Our menu was Honeybake ham, twice baked potatoes, greenbean casserole and macaroni & cheese (hey, we're a starch & cheese loving family). It was a perfect Christmas menu!

 

Then we headed outside to play with Jake's new electric plane. (Meaning, I didn't want that plane flying around in the house.)

 

 

 

You know you are old when you get a vacuum for Christmas and you are over the moon excited about it. I've seriously vacuumed our house top to bottom at least 9 times in the last 24 hours. This vacuum is awesome!

 

This was such a special Christmas. Jake is in that precious age where he still believes (without it being weird or us having to lie to him) and just seeing the excitement through his eyes is magical. And Christmas is just so extra special to us, because we received the best Christmas gift ever 5 years ago. This year was also special because both grandparents got to be with Jake on Christmas day. Growing up, Robbie & I had such wonderful Christmas's filled with so many happy memories. I'm glad our parents got to be a part of us making those sweet memories with our own child now. It was an absolutely perfect Christmas.

 

And again in true Jake fashion, 2 hours after opening all of his gifts, getting tons of toys & our house looking like a small Toys R Us store filled with everything he asked for, Jake look at us and asks the sweetest question....

 

Can I play with someone's iPad or iPhone?

 

Tis the season:)

Happy Birthday Jake

Today Jake turns 5. This time, 5 years ago, I had no idea that later that evening, at 11:30 on Christmas Eve night, that our little boy would come into the world almost 4 weeks early. I had no idea what was in store for us. No idea of the huge amount of love I would feel, worry I would go through, fears I would face or hugs that would touch my heart. There are so many things that I hope for, for Jake....

 

I hope that he always stays such a heavy sleeper. One, because it just makes things easier, but mainly because it means every night after he is asleep, before I go to bed, I can go in his room and kiss him good-night one last time. It started when he was a baby and I had to go back to work so soon. Especially when I had to go back to work in the office and felt like I was seeing Jake so little. I would basically get an hour to play with him before he had to go to bed. So after he would be sound asleep, before I would go to bed, I would go and pick him up from his crib and rock him. Thankfully because he was such a heavy sleeper, he never woke up. I would rock him, sometimes for just a few minutes, sometimes for an hour. Even though he was asleep, it was a special bonding time for me. And I needed it. Still to this day, every night before I go to bed, I go into Jake's room. I kiss his plump little cheeks, I play with his hair, I tell him how much I love him and I hug him before I go to bed. And thankfully, he never wakes up.

 

I hope that he has as wonderful of friends as his father & I have. Friends make such a huge impact on your life, starting with preschool, all the way through college & afterwards. Great friends can make anything better, and I hope Jake has as great of friends as his parents were lucky enough to have.

 

I hope that Robbie & I can be the kind of parents to Jake, that our parents were to us. Parents who love each not only through the fun easy times, but the hard times as well. Parents who fight for their marriage. Parents who love each other and love the Lord. Parents who lead by example, not by demand. Parents who love unconditionally (even through the teenage years). Parents who raise their children in church and show them a relationship with the Lord.

 

I hope that Jake is protected from anything that doesn't bring him closer to God. I would love for Jake to feel no pain, no worry, no heartache. But I also know that those things are some of the very things that bring us closer to God. I know that Jake will face these in life. And as much as I would love to take them all away, so he never has to feel that hurt, I hope that those times strengthen his relationship with God.

 

I hope Jake has a close relationship with God. I hope that he remembers that God gives the best advice and the Bible is the best guidebook. I hope he talks to God, prays to God and always loves God. Even when life is not easy.

 

I hope Jake knows how special he is. I hope he uses his talents for good. I hope he will be a good friend to all, especially to the kids who need a friend the most. I hope he is always kind hearted and considerate. I hope he is strong enough to not cave to peer pressure but to always stand up for what is right. Even if it means standing alone. 

 

I hope he knows how much I love him. How his smile can brighten my day. How his words can make me laugh. How his hugs can melt my heart. I hope he knows that I would do anything for him.

 

I hope he knows that I thank God every day for the most wonderful gift I've ever been given, on this day 5 years ago.

 

 

 



Christmas with the Bush's

The weekend before Christmas, we celebrated it with Robbie's family. Friday after work, we headed down to Niceville to spend the weekend with Granddad Jake & Kathy. Granddad Jake had been in the hospital earlier in the week, so we were happy for him to be home & for us all to be able to celebrate together.

Jake & Jackson
Jake of course loved hanging out with his older cousin

Jackson, Jake & Mimi
At a Christmas décor exhibit

Jackson & Jake in front of the Mickey display
Jake is a nightmare to take pictures of lately
Robbie says it's because I take too many of him
He refuses to just give a normal smile

Their favorite was the huge train display with multiple moving trains

Saturday night, we opened gifts from Granddad Jake & Kathy

Chuck had given his father a remote control helicopter (Granddad Jake was a pilot in the Air Force). So the mission Sunday morning was to try to get it to fly.

Little Jake giving big Jake instructions on how he thought it worked

How many generations of Bush men does it take to fly a toy plane?

Little Jake is still insisting that he knows best

Finally! Off the ground!

Now they're experts at it

4 generations of Bush guys
Jake (Granddad Jake), Chuck (Granddad), Robbie (Dad) & Jake (over pictures)

Jake and his namesake

GG Kathy & Jake

Jackson & GG Kathy

Sunday afternoon, we headed back to Birmingham and exchanged gifts with Robbie's sister and her family.

Sword & stick fighting with Granddad

Jake was captured

Everyone was hanging out in the den talking, watching a movie & I found Jake in the breakfast room, just playing with his new toys.

 



Mad I interrupted him to take a picture

Granddad & Mimi with their 2 grandsons