Party Time at School

Bryce had a little birthday party at school this week. He was so excited to party with his friends! He carefully selected the color of ice cream cone holder for each friend as I wrote each name. As we were driving to school that morning I told him he was going to have ANOTHER party!! He asked " Does that mean I will turn 5 now?" Smart boy! I told him, "No, you will still be turning 4 at this party too!" I just like getting in as many parties as possible to celebrate his sweet little life!!

This was my first try with the ice cream cone cupcakes! They were yummy! Most of them just ate the icing off the top! Bryce was so tickled that his mama and daddy were there at school! He grinned the whole time!

Two parties down . . .  one to go! ~ j

Celebrating Bryce

We do enjoy celebrating a birthday around here at the Whitaker house!! I started up with some decorating the night before . . . He requested pirate cupcakes from me and a Lightening McQueen cake from Mema!

Evan woke up first and patiently awaited Bryce's arrival!! He made some funny faces while we waited to entertain us. He is quite a ham!!

When Bryce started moving around on his birthday morn, we all raced up to sing happy birthday to him! He was smiling ear to ear! He knew this day was something special!

Next, was down stairs for some breakfast bday cupcakes and opening presents! He loved his Chuggington Trains and has played with them nonstop!!

We played and celebrated all day long and headed out to dinner with family that evening!

I think he had a wonderful day! ~j

The boy is FOUR!

Happy 4th Birthday to my sweet boy, Bryce!

Bryce, this is where you started 4 years ago. . . you were so tiny and so sweet. When I watched this I had forgotten your little sounds, but when I heard them it all came back so clearly. You amazed us with your strength as tiny as you were!

Your Birth Day was a day full of mixed emotions. We were so joyful you were here and doing as well as you were. The neonatologist in the NCU said  . . . "He forgot to read the book about premies! He thinks he is a  full term baby!" We were also scared. Weighing 3lbs 6oz you were so tiny, but you opened those little angel eyes and looked straight into our eyes and comforted our souls. From that day forward your have filled our lives with a happiness I did not know was possible! You are truly a blessing from above!

You "graduated" from NICU after 11 days weighing in at four little 4 pounds.  We were over the moon becuase we thought you would be there much longer.

My mama, your Lo Lo, was waiting at our house to hold you in her arms when we got home. She had just finished 2 weeks of radiation and it was such a special moment for me to see you and her together.


 


 

We suprised your Mema with your arrival home. ( I secretely think your daddy enjoys trying to send her into a  mild heart attack!) We invited her over to eat dinner and had the baby tv monitor set up.  She looked at it when she walked in and there you were in your very own crib! Ofcourse, she just about fell out right then and there!! Mema visited you every morning in the NICU before she went to work to feed you and she sang you lots of songs. There are still several songs that are just between you and Mema and you will not let anyone else sing them to you!




You have grown so much, met so many milestones, and blessed our everyday lives with precious moments in your four years of life. You are no longer a baby - you are now four years old - which I think officially makes you a "little boy".

Happy Birthday to our Little Boy!

We love you so much!

                

~j

Five On Friday

....Sorry friends... this is not a new post! I did something wrong and lost my pictures and just wanted to add them back!

Here are Five reasons I am loving my Boys this Friday . . . .

Thanks, Martha, (The Compton's Corner) for this great idea!     

1.  Evan calls balloons, "KABOOMS", no matter how many times I correct him. It makes me laugh! I mean really laugh!!

                                                                         another picture by bryce!

(please excuse my no make up, no hair do look!)

2. It is really funny when you hear your fussin' words come tumbling out of your little one's mouth! When Bryce gets tired he will say "mama" over and over with nothing following it. Just mama, mama, mama!! I will finally say "Bryce! You keep saying MAMA over and over, please stop!" So, the other night evan kept saying Bryce's name trying to get his attention and Bryce popped one hand up on his hip, stomped one foot, and said " Evan! You keep saying Bryce over and over, please stop!! Seeing him mimick me, gave me a good fit of the giggles!

 

3. Evan has had a horrible, yucky cold which has warranted lots of snuggles and rocking. Several times he fell asleep in my arms, and reminded me of our nightly date his first year of life when I would rock him to sleep. Long, dark lashes rest on sweet, chubby baby checks. Precious, simply precious!

4. Bryce told me as I was tucking him in for nap yesterday, " Mama, I think I am growing a mustache!"

He is turning 4 (yes, FOUR!! can you believe it!?!) on Sunday, but I don't think we are quite

ready for shaving yet!! Three of his favorite men (Gran, Papa, and Mr Potato Head from Toy Story) have mustaches, so he thinks they are pretty cool!

 

5. Just because . . . .  Just because no matter how much I worry how many calories I can get into Bryce each day . . . .just becuase no matter how high my blood pressure must soar when Evan throws down with one of his tantrums . . . . . .  I love my boys  . . . just because they are the most amazing little beings that bring that special something to my life that there are absolutely no words for. . . .

             

             

Have a wonderful weekend! ~j

       



End of the Rainbow

Our St Patty's Day Rainbow Cupcakes were a success! Bryce and I had fun baking this fun goodie for his class at school. Bryce mixed all the colors and found it magical that yellow and red made orange and so on! He was a good little helper and very proud of himself. Remembering my days teaching in the classroom, I have always tried to tie lessons to cooking and baking, but the boys generally lose interest and are off to play cars or trains or pirates in no time. Today was different! Bryce was all in! He was breaking eggs, mixing batter, "reading" the recipe, measuring and pouring, and giving me specific directions as to what order the colors of the rainbow should be. The mommy in me and the teacher in me thought this was fun, fun, fun!!

As you can tell by the smile on his face, he was very excited to deliver these to his friends at school! Evan has been sick with a cold and fever and missed out on all the rainbow making fun, but he has gotten lots of extra cuddle time to make up for it! Hopefully he will be on the mend soon.

I also wanted to include a picture Bryce drew for Emily and Maggie as a thank you note a few weeks back. (Sorry Em, the envelope is still sitting on my counter! I will get it to you soon!) He drew it with out any prompting or suggestions from me and when he told me it was a rainbow, I could completely tell what it was! This was a first!!

Sweet days with family is definitely what is at the end of my rainbow! What is at the end of yours??
Happy St. Patty's Day! ~j

Fact vs. Fiction

Sunday was a gorgeous day, and I had these wonderful thoughts and plans of what we should do to make some memories!!

Fiction: This is how it looked in my head . . . . . Mama, Daddy, and Boys load up in the mini van and go pick out flowers at Lowe's. Then we come back home, enjoy the sunshine, and plant our flowers. All the while, we are having quality family time and I am getting some precious pictures of the boys planting flowers that I can send to school with the boys on Monday to go along with their unit "How Things Grow."


Fact: This is how it really went down: . . . .After we finally got pants and shoes on both boys, we threw them in van screaming. We put on the DVD player to distract them the whole 1.2 miles we have to drive to Lowe's. When we get there, they are much more interested in sitting on the riding lawn mowers and playing hide and seek in the outdoor furniture section than picking out flowers. Evan is seconds from a complete meltdown, so John takes him on back to the van and Bryce and I pick out flowers. This part actually goes well, and I enjoy watching B carefully select each one. I tell him the different names of the flowers as we go up and down the aisles and he says very seriously "Mama, I really want the snap dragons . . . . .  but, do they bite??" That little cutie comes up with the best one liners to make me smile.


We get home and unload and they have ZERO interest in planting flowers. Oh well . . . So much for my picture op and my great idea to correlate home to school learning! So, I plant some flowers as they run and play and giggle and scream in the sunshine. Even though things did not go quite as planned (and I am use to this because they rarely do!!), days like these are what it is all about!

Go grab some sunshine and some "unplanned" memories!  ~j

Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo! How about you, you, you?

We could not resist a family visit to the zoo with the beautiful weather we had this weekend!
The sun was shining and we had our sunglasses ready . . .

Bryce took this picture of "mama and daddy" ! I think he did great - it is a keeper!!

Happy Monday! Jill

What's in a name?

I felt like I needed to explain the name of my blog a little! My mama's first name was Grace. She passed away when Bryce was 6 months old. I found out I was preganant with Evan a couple weeks after she passed away. She was everything to me. These little boys saved me from my grief in a way I did not know was possible. So in a round about way  . . . that is how I came up for the name of my blog! I love her so much and I miss her so much my soul aches. All that is good in me is because of the mother she was to me.

Hi Friends and Family!

I am just getting started and I am going to try this out to document my little ones precious moments! I have always enjoyed keeping a little journal by my bed that I write about the boys in. I like writing and I love looking back on past entries and remembering all those little things I would otherwise forget. By finally joining the blogging world, I can attempt to share this journey with friends and family. I so very much in enjoy keeping up with several of my friends blogs and watching their littles grow eventhough I can not always be there. I started reading a blog called Enjoying the Small Things and i was inspired! So . . . here it goes!!!

What Oh What To Do An A Rainy Day . . .

. . . . .Evan thought a rainy day would be a good day to start sitting on the potty!! Yay!! He has been refusing to even discuss the "P" word (potty) for months. He will be 3 in May and I have to say I was thrilled he was just sitting there! Nothing happened . . . but it is a start! He got lots of praise and lots of chocolate gold coins for even considering to participate in this thing called potty training!! There is a toy sitting on the mantel to taunt encourage him to keep up the good work and actually put something in the potty!! . . . . 

 . . . . Bryce thought a rainy day would be a good day to hang out in a box and watch his favorite show Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Bryce also decided a rainy day would be a good day to start drinking milk again after a 10 month break from it. That makes the mommy in me that constantly worries about his nutrition very happy! . . . .

A rainy day is definitley a good day to eat popsicles in pj's and play with best friends!

(This is good for mama's and kiddos!!!)

. . . . This was last week, but rainy days are definitley good forgoingon a splash walk and finding some good mud puddles to jump in!! A walk is always much more fun if there is the chance you can get wet and muddy and you get to wear cool accesories like umbrellas and rain boots!!

What a fun day!