The Awbrey Family

Small-Fry Basketball

2012-01-12T14:51:00.002-05:00

Here are a couple of pics from Jacob's first basketball practice last Friday. He is on a little 3 & 4 year old "team" at the YMCA. It's really cute to watch. Their team name is the Young Guns. Jacob is taking it really seriously and he loves it so far :)

The Young Guns

Jacob's 3rd Birthday

2011-10-08T00:05:00.003-04:00

Jacob turned 3 on Sept. 9. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. He has definitely rocked my world! I was such a know-it-all when I was pregnant with him. I read tons of books and articles on parenting and sleep training and I had everything figured out. HA! Since we were in the middle of a move and a lot of our friends and neighbors had already moved away in the summer, we decided to forgo a big birthday party this year. I might have overdone it a bit last year! We went out to lunch with a couple of Jacob's girlfriends ;) which was a lot of fun. His friends (and mine!) were so sweet, they brought cupcakes, balloons and gifts and made Jacob feel very special on his big day. When I asked Jacob what he wanted for his birthday, he said balloons and cupcakes. That was easy to handle but we also got him a helicopter from the toy store that he has been wanting for awhile now. Confession: I'm guilty of spoiling Jacob. I usually don't say no when we are out and he asks me for something at a store. For example, if he spots some little crappy toy hanging in the aisle of the grocery store, I will let him have it. This helicopter is not a crappy toy, but the point is that he has asked for the helicopter several times but it's not an item that I would buy on a whim. So he was SUPER excited when he opened up his gift from us. He played with it all weekend. He loves that thing.

Happy birthday Jacob!

Cottonwood Art Festival

2011-10-07T23:49:00.003-04:00

Last weekend we went to the Cottonwood Art Festival with some friends. It was hot but we had a lot of fun, especially Jacob. Here are some pictures from the afternoon. (Not pictured...$5 corn dog...$4 cotton candy...)
Jacob really enjoyed running through these.

Cullen and Mary Jo
Princess! If you look closely, you can see her 2 bottom teeth that had just broken through.
Jacob doing some excavating while Sis watches

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-31T08:00:00.000-04:00

Stamps

2011-08-26T16:05:00.000-04:00

Jacob is really into stamps right now. His favorite part of Kindermusik is getting his hand stamped at the end. Now he has stamps of his own and he will sit at the table for at least 30 minutes stamping a piece of paper. At first I tried to keep him from mixing up the ink (he has 3 ink pads) but I've given up. So far, he just likes to stamp the same thing over and over so I'm waiting to see if he will figure out that he can make a whole scene with the different stamps.

Made by Nana

2011-08-25T15:55:00.003-04:00

I would like to start out by saying that taking pictures of children is HARD. I have to give major credit to baby photographers. I literally took 30 + pictures trying to get the shot I was envisioning and I NEVER got it. I gave up. These pictures are like the "eh...that's the best I could do" version of my vision :) What I was trying to do was get a good picture of Mary Jo wearing this sweet dress that her Nana made for her. She's growing fast and I know she won't be able to wear it for long so this picture was meant to preserve it's memory. The pictures still turned out cute.

This is definitely an outtake but I love how Mary Jo is looking at Jacob. This picture is a great representation of their relationship. MJ adores Jacob and loves watching him play.

Another outtake of Jacob "just rubbin' his foot on sissy." He also told me he "not hurtin' her." Um, ok. Stop that anyway, thank you.

We have a few more outfits that need to be photographed but I think we are going to take a breather after this episode :)

MJ Birth Photos

2011-08-24T13:43:00.002-04:00

These are obviously REALLY late but it's taken me awhile to get over my appearance in these photos. I know it's not what this is about so I have decided to finally post them. Mary Jo was born April 6, 2011 at 11:32 pm. She weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz. and was 20 inches long. I had a fabulous epidural and the whole thing lasted about 4 hours.

She didn't cry at all when she was born. Jacob was the same way. She was bright eyed and looking around but very quiet.
Mommy meeting MJ for the first time. I'm getting all teary looking at these now!
Our family minus Jacob. He spent the night at our neighbor's house. It was my first time to be away from him overnight and it was harder for me than him.
I posted this picture on facebook and got a lot of comments about how "big" she is. I do realize she looks like a ginormous baby in this picture but she really wasn't.
At the hospital. Jacob wore a big brother shirt the first time he came up to meet her but we forgot to take a picture then. He was pretty disinterested in the baby while I was in the hospital. He mostly just wanted to sit on the bed with me and cried every time he had to leave because he wanted me to come home with him. It was sad. He also freaked out the first time he saw me nursing MJ.

I will say that things are great now. The transition from 1 to 2 has been so much better than I had hoped or expected. Jacob is a very sweet big brother and it melts my heart to see my babies interacting and loving each other. Babies are very demanding and time consuming and adding MJ into the mix has definitely turned my world upside down again but I wouldn't have it any other way!

He's a talker!

2011-08-13T16:00:00.000-04:00

Sheriff's Animal Farm

2011-06-14T22:57:00.003-04:00

Oh Key West. You really are one of a kind. I took Jacob to the animal farm at the jail again on Sunday. We have been there many times but Jacob still enjoys it and now that we are probably/hopefully/maybe leaving soonish I feel compelled to get some pictures of the unique places we have frequented during our time here. This picture just cracks me up. Jacob is growing up so fast and he is finally willing to stand still and let me take his picture.
I took this on our way out and he was hot and tired but I still think it's cute :) We saw the same animals we always see (Bucky the llama) Jacob held the baby alligator this time and he really seemed to enjoy that. We went back to check it out a few times. But he refused to pet a bunny because it was scary. Alligator vs bunny?!? I was really baffled by that. I guess he is just a reptile guy. This was probably our last trip to the animal farm. It's been good to us!

2 months old!

2011-06-06T13:45:00.003-04:00

The time sure is flying with this sweet angel. I can't believe she is already 2 months old. These last several weeks have just been a blur of learning how to take care of two children--changing diapers, reading books, trying (and failing) to get MJ to sleep in the pack n play. My days are full of those repetitive mommy duties that aren't all that interesting :) Mary Jo has been smiling since she turned 1 month old and she is very responsive and smiley. She has started cooing and babbling a little bit. Jordan has even gotten a couple of little laughs out of her. She is a peanut compared to Jacob at this age. She is still in 0-3 month clothes but she is starting to get rolls on her arms and legs. Her cheeks are also getting chubby. She doesn't like to lay on her tummy but we're working on it. She usually sleeps in a bouncy seat or in my arms.

Jacob loves her most of the time. He will tell anyone she is his sissy and he is always trying to get in a hug or a kiss. We are still working on being gentle. She doesn't take a pacifier which has been a great disappointment for Jacob. A couple of his friends have baby siblings and he always takes it upon himself to give the baby the pacifier, remove it from their mouth and put it back in. He has tried many times to get Mary Jo to use a pacifier but she just isn't interested. Jacob never took one either so I can't say I am surprised. He has asked me to put Mary Jo back in my tummy or to take her back to the hospital a few times. But overall, he has not been too jealous and he is really a sweet big brother.

Water colors

2011-04-04T17:45:00.003-04:00

Jacob has been painting with water colors lately and he is really enjoying it. I am also enjoying it because the clean up is so much easier than the paints we have for his easel. We do a lot of painting at preschool but he seems to have a hard time focusing with the other kids and toys around. He is usually the first one up from the craft table. At home, he gets really into what he is doing and creates what I (in my biased mommy opinion) would call masterpieces! :) He is also starting to flex his independence muscle. He doesn't want any help from me and usually after he is done he will tell me that his painting is "NOT for you mama, it's for daddy." Well, thanks. None of his paintings have been designated for me. Yet. I'm still waiting.

The one on the right is his first go at water colors. Jordan and I are both very impressed. The one on the left is something he made at preschool with a wine cork.
I see a bird in this one. A crane or something. I'm sure that isn't what he had in mind but art is open for interpretation, right?

Jacobisms Pt. 3

2011-04-04T17:43:00.002-04:00

Go-mana = Banana

Go-licious = Delicious

Go-pee sun = Capri Sun

Lusic =Music

Lustache = Mustache

Moddy = Mommy/Daddy combo, usually comes out when he is urgently trying to get his dad's attention

Emotional

2011-03-25T22:50:00.002-04:00

Wow. I can't even believe this is my baby. I'm getting all teary looking at it. He's so big and I don't even realize it until I see undeniable evidence such as this. (He has since gotten a haircut)

We are preparing for baby sister to get here. Jacob still seems to be excited and I'm very thankful for that. I hit 37 weeks yesterday so it's just a waiting game at this point. My cousin came last week over her spring break and I tried to show her a good time but I'm not sure I succeeded. There's nothing like having younger, single relatives come for a visit to show us how old and boring we are :) We went to the beach for the first time this year and Jacob had so much fun. We also took Lacy to the Butterfly Conservatory which is always a hit for Jacob. The big event of Spring Break was driving up to Miami for the day to go to the zoo and take Lacy to the airport. I love going to the zoo and Jacob hasn't been as often as I would like. If we lived closer to a zoo we would go all the time. He was really excited about seeing the gorillas this time. One of his favorite movies right now is Tarzan, who is of course raised by gorillas. We also got to eat at Chick Fil-A which I think was sadly the REAL highlight of my day off the island.

This week, I have cried over the finale of Big Love, trigonometry homework and getting hit in the head with a plastic tiger. I have also been known to be brought to tears by music and Disney movies in recent weeks. Don't say anything too nice or mean to me or I'll probably burst into tears! Jacob has been very compassionate, even if he was the original source of my emotional outburst. His big trick is to cover his face and then yell peek a boo! That usually does cheer me up, just because it is so sweet and innocent that he thinks that's all you need to stop being sad! He usually asks me "Mommy what's wrong?" And I'll tell him "Nothing" or "I don't know" which are both true. I'm not usually a crier but this pregnancy has me very touchy! We are all very anxious to meet this baby and I can't wait to lose some of this weight and hopefully stop crying so much. ;)

2 1/2 years old!

2011-03-09T11:15:00.005-05:00

Jacob is 2 1/2 years old today and (very) soon to be a big brother. I can't believe how fast the time goes. We have been looking at his baby pictures a lot lately while we are preparing for the arrival of baby sister. He always asks if it's him and he seems really skeptical. He was such a fat, chunky baby but still so little and helpless. I do miss those times but I love where we are now, too. And I get to start over so I won't be missing babyhood for long.

Jacob has a huge vocabulary but still mispronounces a lot of words. I can understand him most of the time but other people need me to translate pretty often. Today in the car, I was letting him chew gum and I noticed it was gone. I asked if he swallowed it and he said "No, it's in my tummy. By my belly button." And I said "Are you serious?" Then Jacob yells "I serious! I about to FREAK OUT!!!" He was doing really good with the gum, too but this is the second piece he has swallowed in as many days so I guess I'll put that hobby on hold for now.

Later, at home, he was watching something on TV that apparently shocked him because he said (very dramatically, I might add) "Oh my GOSH! What the heck?!?"

We are going for his 2 1/2 year check up tomorrow and I'm interested to see how tall he is. We were just at the doctor recently and they told me he weighs 31 lbs. but they didn't measure him. He is wearing 3T shirts and 2T shorts now. He was exactly 36 inches (3 ft.) at the 2 year check up and I'm sure he has grown a couple of inches since then.

Most of his friends are girls and he usually refers to whoever he is playing with as his "girlfriend." He does have a special liking for our neighbor, Haley, who I am pretty sure was his original girlfriend. If he had to pick, I bet he would pick her ;) Jacob is actually the only boy in his preschool class. I'm hoping next year there will be some other boys in the class too so he can get some male bonding time with kids his age.

This 2 1/2 year milestone feels huge to me. I can still remember his first months of life like it was yesterday. Time sure does fly.

Dancing

2011-03-08T08:04:00.003-05:00

This is Jacob's current favorite song from a show called iCarly that we (both) like to watch. This is one of our favorite scenes, it cracks us up every time. I finally downloaded the song to iTunes so he can dance to it whenever the mood strikes and we listen to it on repeat. It's only 1:29 long.

This morning the first thing he asked for (after his "logurt") was to hear the Spencer song. Spencer is the guy dancing in the video. So he is dancing around and looking at his reflexion in the patio door and I said "Wow, Jacob! You've really got some moves." and he looked at me like I was crazy and he said "No...I have nipples..."

Wordless Wednesday: Butterfly Conservatory

2011-03-02T07:00:00.000-05:00

Jacobisms pt. 2

2011-02-28T08:05:00.004-05:00

Some funny things Jacob has been saying lately...

(I realize I might be the only one that thinks these are funny!)

While he is crying, he will wail phrases such as "I'm CRYING!!!" "I'm really sad!" It's pitiful but it does make me laugh. It's a great tension diffuser. If I was mad, these dramatic and obvious statements usually make me laugh and then we can move on.

On that note, once I am able to get him to stop crying, he will do this silly fake smile through his tears and say things like "I'm happy!" "I'm smiling!" But he really mostly looks like he is still crying and possibly in pain.

The fact that he feels like he needs to narrate his emotions in real time cracks me up.

Whenever we ask Jacob to do anything and the answer is yes, he says "Oh, of course." He hardly ever just says yes.

He has gotten really into surprises and celebrations. Anytime he does something nice for me, he yells "Happy Birthday" when I see it. I have also gotten "Happy New Year" a couple of times. He also pronounces surprise like "for-prise." So, I might get "Forprise! Happy birthday happy new year!!!" Usually my forprise is a block tower.

Everything is Jacob's "faborite" now. Whenever we are out somewhere, he finds the dinkiest little toys and begs me to get it for him. "Peeease mommy it's my faborite!!" He also uses this tactic at home when asking for his faborite popsicle, etc. He thinks loving something that much justifies an undisputed yes.

He thinks toots are really funny. Surprise! or should I say Forprise? He has lately gotten very specific and will identify what kind of toot he just did based on what he has been eating. This started one day in the car. He was drinking a milkshake and let out a little toot, then yelled "Milk TOOTS." This has since evolved into blueberry toots, rice toots, etc. Milk toots are his faborite though and they can occur from drinking milkshakes, eating cereal or anything else involving milk. I know this one is somewhat gross but hey, he is a boy and ____ toots is part of our daily vocab lately.

He really cracks me up. He is talking in complete sentences although it is sometimes difficult to understand what he is saying. He cuts the S off the beginning of all S words (ex: sticky = ticky) He can say his full name pretty well but pronounces Awbrey as Obby. He has also told me before that his name is Jacob Lucy Obby (his middle name is Luke, Lucy is our dog in case that is not clear) or Milk Toots Obby.

Valentine's Day

2011-02-18T15:38:00.004-05:00

Valentine's Day was good this year. Probably because we actually put some effort into it. I'm on the fence when it comes to the day of love. It just feels contrived and not natural. BUT. Like I said, it was good and I'm happy with the way things turned out. Jordan and Jacob gave me a dozen red roses and a bag of Lindt dark chocolate truffles (which I shouldn't be eating right now...but they were very delicious)! Jacob and I baked Jordan some cupcakes and Jacob made a card for Daddy. After he was done I asked him if he wanted me to write a special message on it. He said "A dinosaur for Daddy. I love you. You are my best friend." I know I'm hormonal or whatever but I teared up a little bit. That's just so sweet! We were planning to go out to dinner as a family but Jordan and I both had long, tiring days and I was (still am) sick so we ordered a pizza and called it good. I hope you all had a nice day of love, too!

My roses with "baby Jesus" according to Jacob :)

My cupcake stand my mom gave me for Christmas. It's from Williams-Sonoma and I love it! It was my first time trying it out and I thought the presentation was lovely.

A new ultrasound pic

2011-02-13T00:58:00.001-05:00

I got to have another ultrasound done on Thursday thanks to my big belly measuring a few weeks ahead of my supposed gestational age. Baby sister is looking great and she has definitely packed on the pounds. She has the chubbiest little cheeks and the tech pointed out several times how much hair she has! I was 31 weeks on Thursday but the baby was measuring at 33+ weeks. I'm not sure what that means and I won't know until I hear from my doctor sometime next week. The important thing is that she is healthy and thriving. We can't wait to meet her so I have my fingers crossed that she is bigger because she is coming sooner than expected! I'll keep you all posted!

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Sleeping angel

2011-02-05T14:03:00.001-05:00

I have a million pictures like this but he's just so angelic when he is sleeping. I definitely appreciate the calm and quiet ;)

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Lucy Accidents

2011-01-31T12:09:00.003-05:00

Lucy has been regressing in the area of doing her business outside. Rather, she has been doing her business INSIDE way too often for my comfort level. I got Jacob potty trained in time for the baby and I do NOT want to be dealing with dog poop either! Our back yard is not fenced in and Lucy was pooping wherever she pleased so we got a long rope to put her on. She has plenty of freedom but just can't get to any grass that is not in our own space. So this morning, I put her outside on the leash for at least 30 minutes, probably longer. I let her come inside when it was time for me to take a shower. When I got out of the shower, I discovered that she had pooped AND peed in Jacob's room and found another poop by the front door. WHY!!! She could have done all that while she was outside but she waited until the first second she was unsupervised in the house to unload. Gross. I have no idea why she is doing this. She is nearly 3 years old and was fully housebroken up until recently. And I mean, FULLY. We could be out running around all day and she would wait until we got home. She could hold it all night (something she is not doing regularly anymore either). And this morning when I was cleaning up her mess, Jacob got down on the floor before I had sanitized it and was smelling where she had pooped. I, of course, overreacted and screamed when I saw his face pressed into the floor and he started crying. Then he started pulling on his nose and saying "Get outta here poopy" which I am assuming he meant he wanted the smell out of his nose. Then he told me he had poop in his mouth so I spent the next 10 minutes vigorously brushing his teeth and scrubbing his tongue all while trying not to cry myself :) I will blame these emotions on the pregnancy. It was really gross though. And yes, I am aware I overreacted!!

So, all of this is to say that I need some HELP! Advice! Anything. I am completely grossed out and I really hate the idea of Lucy having accidents in the house in the coming months when I have a baby crawling around on the floor. I need to end this ASAP.

7 months

2011-01-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

I am 29 weeks today, which is the second week of the 7th month. I think. This pregnancy seems to be going by so much faster than it did with Jacob. I can't believe it's almost over. I don't love being pregnant though so I can't say I'm going to miss it. I'd much rather have my sweet baby in my arms than waddling around feeling fat and miserable :P Speaking of miserable, I am still getting random waves of nausea, usually at night after I have gone to sleep. It wakes me up and then I lay there for awhile kind of afraid that if I get up, I'm going to puke but it's too uncomfortable not to get up. So I have this inner battle with myself and eventually I get up and drink some water and it goes away. At least I am not throwing up!

Jacob pats my belly and talks about his baby sister all the time. He has a couple of big brother books now that he likes to look at and he seems to understand more and more what is coming. Poor little guy probably doesn't have any idea what he is really in for but at least he seems to know that the baby is coming. I can't seem to convince him there is not a baby sister in his own belly though. He thinks we both have one!

Last week, I took the 1 hour glucose test but I haven't gotten my results back yet. That is the nastiest drink and it's nearly impossible to choke down. I have prepared myself for bad news since I have already gone through this once. If I failed the 1 hour test, I am just going to ask them to go ahead and treat me like I have gestational diabetes. I don't think I can stomach another one of those drinks. It's making my stomach turn just thinking about it!!

With Jacob, I took a belly picture every week. I think I was mostly just fascinated with my changing body. These days, I can hardly bring myself to get in any pictures, much less ones that showcase my "curves." I have only taken 1 belly picture (at about 26 weeks) so I'm going to make an effort to take more. I know I am getting bigger by the day so now is the time to get some good documentation.

And, finally, I *think* we have agreed upon a name. I'm going to give it a few more days and if we are still in agreement I will share it here!

Just 11 more weeks to go :D

Wordless Wednesday

2011-01-26T21:42:00.001-05:00

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Baby naming

2011-01-18T00:53:00.002-05:00

I can't sleep. I have baby names on the brain. Why is it so difficult to come up with a good name? Girl names seem much harder because there are so many good names out there and the pressure of how permanent it is really gets to me. Naming Jacob was much easier in comparison. Boy names are pretty straight forward. We are going for a double name with the first name being Mary. Coming up with a good middle name that we both like AND goes well with Mary is proving to be practically impossible. Please send me some suggestions! I think we need to branch out a little bit because we have considered most of the traditional Mary double names and it doesn't seem like any of them are right. This is me venting to my blog :) But I am serious, someone PLEASE send me some naming ideas! Thank you!!

Now entering the 3rd trimester!

2011-01-14T10:59:00.001-05:00

This image is from TheBump.com and I really like the visual it is giving me. I'm 27 weeks along now and although the pregnancy app on my phone says I started the 3rd trimester yesterday, I have determined that it doesn't really start until next week (28 wks). It's amazing how much faster this pregnancy is flying by since I am so busy with Jacob and finishing school. I don't have as much time to just sit around and ponder my pregnancy or make excessive plans that won't be implemented once the baby arrives. We still haven't decided on a name, mainly because we can't agree on anything. Baby naming is the most frustrating part of the process, I think. I can still clearly remember the relief I felt when Jordan I were finally able to agree on Jacob's name. It was a long road and it is proving to be no different the second time around.

Jacob has been calling this baby "Baby Sister" from the start and he now tells me that he has a baby sister in his own belly. The Chinese gender predictor chart was right for both of my babies so if I ever have another baby I'll be checking that chart right away, as well as consulting Jacob because he obviously knows something we don't!