Ain't Gonna Paint No More

I have this thing for children's books. LOVE them! It is a problem really. Every time I would go to the store, I would come home with a new one until I realized, there weren't any new ones for me to buy. That's when I realized I needed to stop and learn how to use a library. Still haven't gotten that far but fortunatley for Jeff, I have stopped buying them! This is our latest find and our new favorite. One of Jeff's friends from high school is a teacher and was so nice to send us some books for the boys when she found out about Jakers. It is called I Ain't Gonna Paint No More. Go get it! It is darling... we sing it all day long.

Yuckity Yuck Yuck!!!

I have never been a fan of the month of January. It is so depressing and dark and cloudy and the holidays are over--Yuck! I hate that the kids are stuck in the house all day because it is so darn cold outside. In my perfect world, we will have snow until Christmas and then in January it will warm up at least to the 60's. Perfect. At least we have school for the kiddos to look forward too--oh wait! I forget. Jake's counts are still only at 300. They did go up a bit, but it means we are stuck indoors for who knows how long. It is so crappy for this poor kid to not be able to go anywhere or play with friends or really do anything. It could be worse. I don't know why I am complaining so much. We could be in the hospital or some other horrible thing. At least he is healthy and no fevers and no cancer and we have cute boys and a wonderful life together! All right, I'm done! Thanks for letting me vent. I think we need a vacation to Disneyland now.

P.S. If anyone has any at home ideas for us to do... I would love to hear suggestions!

Cole-train

Love this kid.  Sometimes I feel like he gets overlooked--you know the middle child thing.  He has kind of had a rough go of it the last little bit.  It has gotten a lot better in the last few months, but he did have his whole world rocked when Crew was born and then two months later, his best buddie turned into Mr. Hyde.  Needless to say, he struggled a little bit.  But that is okay.  Sometimes we all need a little extra love!:)  

Coletrain is now four and a half.  He takes completely after his father regarding his personality. (Meaning he is ruthless when it comes to teasing his brother!)  He already loves the 'gils' (girls), which slightly worries his mom and dad.  One of my favorite things about Cole is his bucket of things.  He carries his bucket with him wherever he goes and collects little things.  Batteries, erasers, pencils, little batmans.  You name it, he has it.  Once, he even tried to take one of those deodorant samples and stick it in there.  Love him.  Slightly OCD, but that is okay.  He is also very much attached to his bear.  He found him when he was 6 months old and has not let go since.  You will see bear in most pictures with Cole along with Jay-Jay who is Cole's imaginary friend.  He shows up every once in awhile, but last time we asked, Jay-Jay and Cole had gotten in a fight, so Jay-Jay left and now Cole's best friend is Super Yoshi.  He is such a great kid!  We love him to pieces and laugh at the things that come out of his mouth on a daily basis.  Loves.

(Update on our Jakers:  There has not been much to report the last few weeks.  We are well into Maintenance.  He has been off track since before Christmas, so no school yet.  We were getting ready to send him on Monday when low and behold, we had his counts checked.  Last month they were at 2300.  Three weeks ago at 900.  And today 200.  If someone wants to explain how the lame ANC works, I would be grateful.  I think I cried when I found out he can't start school on Monday (is that bad?).  It is hard because he is just so bored at home.  He has been so excited to go.  Oh well.  So, we are once again off all chemo to see if we can get that darn ANC to go back up again.  We will test it on Monday.  Hip Hip Hooray.)

Happy 31st Birthday to Jeff!!!

(So, I had this great idea to put up some pictures of Jeff while growing up... our darn scanner is not working!  Recent ones will have to do until I can get it going!!)

Wednesday was Jeff's 31st birthday!  (So make sure you call or leave a comment and tell him how great he is!!)  We are so lucky to have him be a part of our lives.  He is a great husband and dad and we don't know what we would do without him!  For those of you that know him, there is never a dull moment when he is around!  He loves to talk and to laugh.  He is a great water-skiier  (I can't put snow skiing in quite yet because I am still better than you!  hehe:)   I love that he read all four Twilight books within two weeks and LOVED them just as much as I did.  (Can a husband get any better than that?  Seriously?)  He has been so strong throughout the difficult trials we have had.  He makes them easier to bear.  I am not sure how we got so lucky to have you!  We love you honey!!!

Ho ho ho...merry christmas!

Once again, we are slightly late on this post--but who is counting? 

 We had a wonderful Christmas this year spent at my dad's house.  The boys were of course, spoiled rotten and got everything they asked for, plus some.   It was so fun to have everyone together.  I don't think that has happened for awhile.  Family just makes Christmas more special somehow!

Jake flashing his 'gang sign'  and sporting his and Cole's new water ski and life jackets.  (I wonder where that idea came from, Santa?)

Okay.  Can his little fang at the top get any cuter???  This is his new smile with his crinkly little nose and I LOVE it!  I just want him to freeze at this stage right now--he is so yummy!  He loved Christmas... more so because of the wrapping paper and boxes than the toys.  But who cares about that?