Washington D.C. Pics

Here are a few pics from Mark's trip to D.C. He had a great time!

Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool

The White House

Mark and Abe

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln Memorial

Spring Break Week

Wow, this week has flown by! It was Spring Break this week here in Little Rock. My Mom was great, she took a week of vacation so she could come stay with Jonathan. They had a great time. They took an afternoon and went to Wonder Place. It is one of Jonathan's favorite places to go, so needless to say, he was quite excited. I met them there after work and we closed the place down! Too funny!

Warning: Potty Training Info. Below...

The next morning they began potty training. Completely her idea but we were totally down with it. The first few hours went well until going potty started interfering with his play time. We made some adjustments the next few days, but it wasn't really until this morning that we struck 'gold.' Jonathan had received some chocolate pirate treasure at Katie's birthday party a few weeks ago. So today I told him that if he stayed dry and went on the potty, he could have a piece of treasure. The right motivation does wonders. Stayed dry most of the morning. (Did have an accident at Chick-Fil-A, but hey who wants to leave the indoor playground to go potty?) And so far so good this afternoon. I've about decided he does better out of the house than in it. Who knows why? Anyway, it is definitely a process. I kept hoping maybe we'd do this overnight, but no, that would be easy! So we'll keep working on it. I'm interested to see what happens at preschool Monday. Hopefully they will work with us to keep making progress. Oh, and I have GOT to get some more of his treasure. We are running low already!!

Mark spent part of the week in Washington, D.C. He had a great time exploring the nation's capital. He flew in a little early and went to the Smithsonian American History Museum, the Holocaust Museum, and the National Archives Museum (Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Magna Carta). The next day he was in meetings. He went out that night and saw the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and the White House. He had a great time and took a bunch of great pics.

Mark went to play paint-ball this morning with some guys from church. He had a blast and according to him, didn't do half bad either! We'll see how many bruises he has tomorrow! It was a cold and wet day to play, but he had a lot of fun.

Jonathan has a field trip to the zoo on Tuesday and Heather Owens is taking Easter pics of him on Wednesday. So lots of new pics to come!

I have just been thinking about how very happy and blessed our family is, and how truly blessed we are to have Jonathan. Jonathan is growing so big every day. He is such a good helper and tries very hard to be good. He gives great big kisses and love pats while you are holding him. He loves to talk and the things he comes up with are hilarious. Both Mark and I's work is going well. We are both happy and fulfilled in what we do. We have great friends both here in LR and around the country that love, care, and pray for our family. And we have our family who has always always been there for us. Things are not perfect, and sometimes things go wrong, but I feel so at peace with our blessings and with how God is holding us in the palm of his hand. One of the verses in our Sunday School lesson last week really stood out. The gist of the verse is Calm Down and Be Quiet. Do not be afraid. I am in control. (Isaiah 7: 4). (This is a complete pharaphrase.) Now how neat is it that God said that? And how fitting to LARGE parts of my life. I keep finding things this week that completely make me think of this verse.

Also just a few praises and prayer requests...
Praise- Russ & Tenille's baby boy Will is home from the NICU. God is good.

Praise- Doris's sister's twins arrived this week happy & healthy. God is good.

Praise- Mark returned home safely from another business trip. It is always a good feeling to have him home safe and sound with us. God is good.

Request- Continue to pray for baby Annette. This is the 6 month old child of a couple we know through some other friends from Tech. She has brain & spinal cancer, very aggressive. God is in control.

Request- Jamie Burton is on bedrest with her pregnancy. She is doing her residency and I know this must be a hard time for her. God will provide.

Request- a lady and good friend at work, DeJuana, is having multiple medical problems. The doctors have been completely unable to control her blood pressure or diabetes. She also recently found out that she has numerous pituitary tumors and sleep apnea. She has been the primary caregiver for her great grandmother for many years, and she passed away about a month ago. Her stepmother also has Stage IV breast cancer which they are treating, but not aggressively. So needless to say, she is need of lots of prayers. God knows the desires of the heart.

Request- A friend from Vicksburg's little boy was born with spina bifida. He is 18 months old now, but is continuing to have numerous medical complications. Please pray for healing from these complications and peace for his parents. God will provide.

Request- Please remember as always our prayers for our little man, Jonathan. Things are going so well for him medically, but please continue to ask God for the complete healing of his little body. We go back to OKC in May. I know that is a couple of months away, but that little flicker of fear has already planted itself in my mind. I am choosing to believe in God and his healing power and doing my best to shut Satan's doubts out of mind and thoughts. Also please remember him as he tries to potty train. He is trying but he is also a very busy 2 year old with his own priorities that don't really include stopping every 45 minutes to go to the potty! God loves our little boy and is in control.

Request- Unspoken. God is in control. We will seek His will in all things.

Long Time No Post!

Wye Mountain Daffodil Festival

Well I was enjoying our lazy Saturday and reading on other people's Blogs while Jonathan was napping. I realized that it has been almost a month since I last posted! This has just been a busy but good month. So here goes, the catch up on our lives!

For me, this has been the month of kid consignment sales. It is not like Jonathan NEEDS clothes, I mean seriously, the child went three weeks without me washing his clothes and still had plenty in his closet. And yet, I go to all these sales. They are fun, something different to do, and a good way to save money for our family while dressing Jonathan in some cute (and originally expensive) clothes! I've gone to a few with Doris from my work who is expecting her own little boy this May. It has been good to go with her as she has been able to shop early since she is expecting! So far, I've been to Peek-A-Boo, Rhea Lana Greater LR, Duck Duck Goose, and Children's Market. Surprisingly the best one was the last one. They had a TON of nice clothes at really good prices. Of course, I've picked up a couple of toys for Jonathan along the way as well! The other sale I have been to is Overstock Designs. It was new smocked, boutique outfits that were super-cheap. So, of course, Jonathan got a couple of new outfits from there as well. You can see one that he took pictures in at the Daffodil Festival and another one that is his going to be his Easter outfit.

The other fun thing that I got to do this month was to go to a Scrapbooking Weekend on Petit Jean Mountain. It was at the Lutheran Camp up there and was a blast. I have never been to one of these things before but my friend Edie invited me to go. She is the one who has gotten me into digital scrapbooking. It was really nice to take a break, enjoy some girl talk, and just do something for myself. I missed Jonathan and Mark terribly, but I did enjoy myself too! I actually finished my first book while I was there as well. Now granted, I started this book close to a year ago, but hey, at least I finished it! I am working on Jonathan's first year. I didn't get the whole year in the first book. You can put 100 pages in each book. I got from Dec. 2006 to the first party of July 2007. Hmmm...think we take a lot of pictures? I am going back for another weekend in May. Looking forward to getting more done on the 2nd book and hopefully finishing his first year! I've got to keep moving, I'm still about two years behind!!

Yummy Cookie Birthday Cake

Oh yeah, it is also my birthday this month! I have officially left my twenties behind. I am 30 years old! Crazy isn't it? Not too upset about it though I did feel OOOLLLLDDD for a day or two when I really thought about it. But hey, life is good, God is great, and I am looking forward to what life has to offer! Mark and Jonathan took me to Samurai Japanese Steakhouse for dinner. Mark even had them sing to me and got a pineapple boat (Jonathan devoured it!!). They got me a Garmin GPS for my present. I know that might seem odd to some, but I am really pumped about it. My parents are buying me all kind of accessories to go with it so I will be ready for the next road trip or place around LR that I tend to get lost at! Mark's parents are getting me some really nice Pampered Chef mixing bowls and I am really pumped about that as well! Plus the girls at work got me a gift certificate to the Spa so I am looking forward to a relaxing day sometime soon!

Jonathan at IHOP for one of my Birthday Dinners

Jonathan has had lots of fun activities going on this month as well. The end of February was Katie's birthday party. She is four, but her and Jonathan are big buds, which is nice as her parents and us are good friends too! (Her Dad is the one Mark is hunting with now, and her Mom is my best friend here in LR). They had the party at a church playroom and the kids had a blast climbing in all the tunnels. Jonathan is big enough now to play with the other kids and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. Katie's little sister, Megan, is just beginning to walk, and we had a great time watching her try to keep up with the big kids!

The weekend that I went to Petit Jean, Mark and Jonathan had a great time doing boy stuff. They were so funny but had a great time! Friday night they went to the SEC Women's Basketball Tournament which was here in LR. The game they watched was TN vs. FL, so they had a good game. Unfortunately, Mark said that he loved "Rocky Top," the TN fight song. Ugghh, makes me want to vomit! But he danced every time the band played and got in and out of the chairs a million times. On Saturday, they went to John Hardin's 2nd birthday party. Supposedly Jonathan spent the entire time riding in the battery-powered car. But he had a good time so that is good. He had come to Jonathan's 2nd birthday and they always have a good time playing together.

Jonathan, Jack, and the train table.

The next week was busy as one of Mark's oldest friends, Alex, and his girlfriend stopped by to visit. He is doing his internship year in Kansas City before moving to Houston for his neurology residency. Needless to say, he is very busy, and we don't get to see him very often. So it was really nice to have a chance to catch up. Later on that week, PawPaw and Grandma came to visit. It is Spring Break in MS, so they came for the weekend. While they were here, we went to the Wye Mountain Daffodil Festival. It is one of our favorite Spring activities. A PERFECT place to take pictures of our little man. Everyone had a really good time and we had a nice picnic lunch after ALL of our pictures. Check out Jonathan's picture site for more pics. There are WAY too many to post on here! Jonathan also went to another birthday party on Saturday. This one was for Jack B. His Dad works with Mark and we have known them since we moved up here. Jack had a very cool train table that Jonathan had a wonderful time playing with. They had pizza, cake, and an ice cream cup. I was so surprised when he ate the entire thing of ice cream. He LOVED it! Mark's Mom went with us to the party and she had fun holding Jack's baby sister, Savannah.

Lots of fun at the Daffodil Festival

My Dad also had Spring Break last week. He came up Sunday night and stayed til Wednesday morning. Jonathan stayed home from school and played with his Grandad. They had so much fun and completely wore each other out. They played inside and outside and did all kinds of fun stuff. Grandad got to to to Gymboree with us on Tuesday night. Jonathan had fun with Grandad there and I think Grandad had fun watching Jonathan do his thing. Mark went to Seattle this week so it was nice to have Grandad here for a little extra help.

Jonathan 'found' a blue sucker with Grandad.

He was quite proud of his blue tongue!

We spent the day today cleaning out all of Jonathan's toys. We joke that our house is Toys 'r Us on steroids, but honestly, it does look that way. The toys were overflowing so much that Jonathan couldn't even get to most of them. Plus half of them were just too young for him now. So we had a great toy divide into the piles: keep, attic (potential future child), trash, and goodwill. Surprisingly we put more in the other three piles than in the keep pile. Of course, most of it went up the attic, actually four totes full of stuff. Seriously, too many toys! Knowing stuff is going out always seems to lead to more stuff coming in. Mark's parents bought Jonathan a new basketball goal while they were here and several new books. My Dad brought him a huge new fire station and firetruck set. And a lady at work gave him a train/car toy table and a small table full of Legos! So we spent the afternoon looking for new storage solutions for his room, the living room, and the dining room. Looks like we are getting a rug for the dining room to put under the table to make the room more comfortable to play in. We are also getting a toy chest to store toys in that room. For his room, we are getting a wide but short bookcase to put under the window. He loves to read books, and we do not have a good way to display them right now. So there are our plans. Next will be cleaning out his closet, and his overabundance of clothes! That is another huge chore.

Our little man is growing up so very fast. He is talking all the time and the things he says are hilarious. Also the tone and inflection that he says things cracks us up. He is very big in to singing right now as well. His favorites are "Jesus loves me," "Jesus loves the little children," "The B-I-B-L-E," "Noah ABC's," "E-L-M-O (YMCA song)," "Dorothy's song (Elmo again)," and "The Farmer and the Dell." He sings them over and over and just giggles. Oh and the theme song to Little Einsteins. He loves that show. I like it too as they have a classical piece of music and art piece in each episode.

Next week should be a fun one as well. It is Spring Break here in AR and preschool is closed. Unfortunately, therapy is not, so I will be working. My Mom is going to come for the week and keep Jonathan. She has big plans for the two of them and I know he will enjoy spending time with her. She is going to try and potty train him this week so hopefully that will go well. I have been washing training pants all day to get ready. I'm sure I will be washing many more as the week goes on. Mark is going to Washington D.C. this week (good timing right? no potty training for him!). He is excited as he has never been there (that he can remember anyway). He's hoping to have a little time between meetings to see some of the sites there.

So now you are all caught up! I'll try to do better and keep up! Love to you all!