- Sam is THREE, not THIRTY... keep this in mind as I share this story... This morning I was putting Sam and Jake into the car to take Sam to school (running late, per usual). I asked Sam to get his arms in his seat belt so I could come buckle him up (quickly). He YELLED across the car, "NOOOOO!!!!" I looked up, said, "Excuse me?" in my best authoritative voice. His response was, "I was saying OHHHHHHHH!" Seriously... no lie or exaggeration. This is SOOOO something BJ would come up with... but he's THIRTY (32 actually), not THREE!!!!!!
- As I mentioned earlier, basically since school has started, we have been sick, coughing, puking, sniffling or SOMETHING. It's frustrating! Nothing has been as bad as the stomach bug we ALL caught. For 10 days, SOMEONE was puking. And it was never one or two pukes, it was relentless all night / all day puking. Jake was the most considerate sick child I have ever seen. Each time we would have to change him, his bed, etc, he would say, "I so sorry Mommy." Rip my heart out!!!!
- I also mentioned that we had a garage sale at the beginning of November. It went pretty well, I must say... and what we didn't sell that Saturday, I sold on Craig's List. I am now a junkie, and BJ is afraid whenever I get the camera out now!!! Sam was trying to grasp the concept of 'Garage Sale,' and asked, "Why are you selling the garage?" Me: "We're not selling the garage, we're just using the garage to sell some of our stuff." Sam: "Are you selling the cars?" (The cars stay in the garage... quite logical). Me: "No, we'll pull the cars out to put our stuff in the garage." Sam: "Well please take my toys OUT of the garage. Don't sell any of my toys, please!" AWWWWWWW....
- Sam will take a nap still (thank God), but many days he must 'talk himself into it' by saying he'll "just take a tiny nap." Or when he wakes up (3 hrs later), he'll say, "I'm so sorry I didn't sleep!" Soooo cute!
- Jake is quite the talker. And by quite the talker, I mean he IS NOT QUIET... EVER!!!! He is always and forever discussing SOMETHING... and if I 'ignore' him (I never really IGNORE my children... wink, wink), he grabs my face and looks me right in the eye to tell me what he was trying to say. Drives me crazy and makes my heart sore all at the same time!!!
- When we were at the doctor weekly or bi-weekly due to relentless sickness, the nurses would call him Jacob (good, b/c that's his name!), and Jake got to where he would say, "NO JACOB!!!!! NOOOOO JACOB!!!" Poor little guy!!!
- Jake is so cute when he misses me or BJ around the house, he starts making laps yelling, "Where are you Mom (Dad)? MOOOOOOMMMMM, where ARE you???"
- Jake also likes to play with Stormie. He gets her toys and tries to get her to follow him. It really only works when he has food that Stormie likes, but it's so cute to watch him try to get her to follow him... she's not so into the idea!!!
- Sam and Jake wrestle all the time. I can't stop it. I must embrace it or I would just have to lock them both in their rooms and only let them out one at a time. When they get too rough and I pull Sam off of Jake (as it pretty much always goes), Jake will jump up and say, "I ok... I ok Mommy!" ORRRR... if he thinks he can get Sam in trouble, he'll whimper or cry and say, "Bubby did... Bubby pushed me... Bubby hit me!"
- One morning I was brave and left the boys downstairs watching TV while I went up and got myself ready for the day. I was brushing my teeth so I walked to the landing to check on them. I started yelling at Sam to get off of his brother and Sam looked up at me and said, "Mommy, I can't understand you while you're brushing your teeth!" Funny.... that's what BJ tells me too... Mmmmm....
- Jake, in all of his relentless talking is also a wonderful backseat driver... he is forever saying, "Go Mommy, GOOOOO!" When I explain that there is a car in front of us or that we're at a red light (after numerous "Why" questions), Jake starts saying, "It's green... GOOOOOOO!!!!" or "It's red, STOOOOP!!!!!"
- Christmas decorations went up before Thanksgiving this year... I just didn't have time AFTER to do it... but I paid the price. For about three weeks, the kids were unbearable. And by kids, I mean Sam... Jake merely fed off of Sam's excitement and became a cohort in crime - the result being that they were both unbearable! I took them to the store to let them 'show' me what they wanted for Christmas. Another mistake. Sam pointed at EVERYTHING! I would ask him what it was, and he was very honest with his "I don't know" answer! Sam would also walk up to a large gold Santa in the foyer and have conversations with him. Santa has a present in his hand, and I don't know how many times Sam convinced himself that Santa was holding it for him (b/c "I've been good Santa!") and try to take it! Then I would hear him say, "Santa's not giving it to me!!!" Glad Santa had a good hold on it!!!!
- Christmas carols are wonderful with the boys... they're usually running around or in the back of the car yelling (I mean singing), "Jingle bells all the WAY!!!" Or "Jingle bells ALL THE WAY SANTA!!!!" I can't hold it against them... BJ and I can't carry a tune either - they really have no chance in that department!!!
- Yesterday, Sam informed me that he forgot to tell Santa that he wanted a Batman movie, a Batman book and a big gray jet. BUUUTTT... he said, "I'm telling you though mommy, so you can get it for me because I forgot to tell Santa!" How does he get THAT already too???
- Jake has some kind of memory... He can hear the TV (not see it, only hear it), and he can tell me exactly what Mickey, Buddy or whoever is on at that moment is doing. It's amazing. That or I let them watch way too much TV!?
- Sam told me last night that he wants Mimi and Pop Pop to be his parents.... not sure how to take that, but he DID reassure me that he still likes me and BJ - whew!!!!
- Sam told me the other morning that he doesn't want to go to Heaven just yet. I'm not sure how to react to this, but I gently questioned his reasoning behind this (out of the blue) statement. He said that it was way far away and he didn't want to ride that far! HAHA! Cute answer, but still can make a mommy sad to talk about such things! Sam also said that "Daddy and Jake could go, but he didn't want to..." I tried to explain that we all want to go together, and Heaven is going to be great - but just not yet... it's a tough subject - and it's hard to be truthful, yet put it on 3-yr-old terms. Heck, he saw Donald get run over by a bus and asked if he was dead! Ugh... now I need to be sure that he understands that HE doesn't need to get run over by a bus b/c it would NOT be a good ending, but Donald is just fine!?!?!?!?!
- I can't believe I'm posting this story, but it's so stinking funny... and if you've read this far, you deserve to be able to read it!!! BJ took Jake to the bathroom at a restaurant last weekend... Jake went tee tee, then BJ went. As he was going, he started telling him how big boys tee tee AND poo poo in the potty (Jake is AWESOME with the potty training... no accidents, but still no poop in the potty - he only does it in his bed... still a work in progress there --- so that's why we throw these 'big boys go in the potty' talks in at every opportune moment). Jake looked 'at BJ' and said, "That's boot-ful (beautiful) Daddy!" HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! BJ was so proud!!!! ;-)
Alright... that's all for now! I feel better having gotten some of this down!!!!
Merry Christmas!!!!
Jake walked right up to him and said, "I want McQueen toys!" Sam was right behind asking for all kinds of stuff too! Santa was quite impressed with their tuxedos! I think they may have left an impression on Santa... a good one this year as opposed to last year! Although... that is still one of my favorite pictures!!!
Being difficult... out of shear excitement!!!
Santa was there too! This one got an earful too!!!
They had lots of 
This is 
Here are some of the crafts and 'loot' from the party!
Sam was so proud of his gingerbread house!!!! He and 
This is actually a really great picture of the two of them... Sam has a somewhat normal smile... and they're both looking at the camera! So rare!
Being that one or both kids have pretty much been sick for the last couple of months, this is what Jake has ended up with... we call it his 'dinosaur nose.' He has to do breathing treatments every night for a month. We're almost done now, and it has really helped... although he has a cold... again...
This is Jake staying OUT of the street... the 'white' is the CURB, and the 'black' is the STREET! He st
This is Sam's Thanksgiving party at school... there's Jake back there at 'his own big boy seat' at the table! He felt so special!
Daddy helping Jake!
Jake on the way home... feeling pretty proud of himself!!!
I put our Christmas tree up a couple weeks before Thanksgiving this year... for many reasons - but the main one was that we wouldn't have gotten another chance until 2 or 3 weeks AFTER Thanksgiving! That being said... the kids (mainly Sam - Jake feeds off of Sam) have been terrors because they can't control their excitement!!! I styled Sam's hair to fit his mood...
We went to "Chicken-
Let Thanksgiving begin.... and you wonder why the kids would rather be at Mimi and Pop 
Another reason Mimi and Pop 
Nanny even came out and 'played' on her ATV!!!!!!
Can you see that RED SPECK up at the top of the driveway? That's Sam's 4-wheeler up there. He picked up rocks, but instead of driving them back down, he had to run them back down... then go back and get his 4-wheeler!?!?! (actually the red 4-wheeler is Jake's NEW one he got for his birthday. Jake and Sam had to trade because the red one was too big for Jake to ride... we are just so thankful that Sam was so gracious to trade his 'old' blue one for the 'new' red one!!! **insert sarcasm**)
Here's Jake running to find us... he had to leave his 4-wheeler too...
because he stuck it in a tree. He 
Here he is bravely driving it out!
Sam is collecting rocks, sticks and flowers to give to Mimi!!!!
Photo op...
Another favorite activity at Mimi and 
Jake trying to sneak up to drive!
Sam ready to go!
Jake is ready too!!!!
The singing snowman is his FAVORITE... and it is SO LOUD!!!!!
