Kickin' back and lookin' cute!

Brody is hanging out watching Sesame Street on Mom and Dad's bed!

Potty time!

I realize Brody is pretty young for potty training so don't look at these pictures thinking I am crazy. The other day Jake and I thought that it couldn't hurt to start having Brody getting used to sitting on the toilet. He doesn't understand what he is doing sitting up so high or that its a toilet or even what a toilet is. But Brody is having fun while I sing songs to him and he plays with his bath toys.

Brody can play basketball...with some help!

One of the great things about this time of year is that Jake doesn't go to school so he has more time to spend with Brody and me.

Brody and Jake were playing outside yesterday and I just had to share the video. Brody was just so thrilled to make the basket. There were some cool pictures as well.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY JAKE!

On this day December 30th 4 years ago I married the love of my life. Now that I look back to the day and the wedding itself it was a very inexpensive and very low key wedding. Not to take away from anything from that day. Everything looked beautiful at our reception and it was a wonderful day. I guess its because since that time I have had siblings and many other friends get married. I was telling Jake the other day that I also don't really remember planning much. All I remember is spending time with him whenever I could and just not really caring how the wedding day went. In a lot of ways I guess its nice because I didn't become a "bridezilla" during the planning process or on the day of the wedding. I didn't really care what the center pieces looked or how the room was decorated. I just wanted to be with the person I loved. The day went by way to fast but I still remember how handsome Jake looked and feeling just so much peace and happiness with the decision I made. I knew that life, no matter what happens in it, I would be happy because I have found someone that makes me so happy.

Since that day a lot has happened in life. But I still feel that every day I spend with Jake is a gift because I feel so grateful to be with him let alone be his wife. I still wake up in the morning and wish more than anything that we both had nothing to do but hang out with each other. After all the years of knowing him (8 years) and being married to him (4 years) I still cannot get enough “Jake time”. He is everything to me and I love him more and more everyday. He has brought so much happiness to my life, both little and big things: watching movies, talking about the day we have had, talking about frustrations, the funny things that happened on Scrubs or The Office. In the history of our marriage Jake has always had a job and also worked very hard in school. He takes care of me and wants to fulfill my needs. He is has also been a wonderful father even with all that he has to do.

One of the attributes about Jake that I love is that he is always striving to be better. Even with all he has to do he still has goals to spend more time with Brody, doing projects around the house and improving his mind. Jake is also a very romantic guy and I could go into more detail but I think this post has already been very mushy. But I will end with saying that Jake loves me for who I am and I have always been able to myself around him and that is very important to me. I have never had to be someone I am not in order for Jake to like me and not only that but he adores who I am.

These are just some of my feelings about the love I feel for Jake and why I feel that way my. I just hope that everyday he knows how much I love him.

CONGRATULATIONS

Congrats to the Van Dusen family. Natalie had a baby girl on December 27th around 4 pm. She was 7lbs 5 oz and her name is Lila Adele.

Christmas Card picture

As some of you might already know, because you received our Christmas card, we included a family picture with our card. This year we decided to have a "family" picture as opposed to just including a picture of our kid on the card. I would have rather had just Brody because well as a "family" its difficult to take a picture where we all look good. But Jake made the point that last year we had a picture of just Brody. Jake also got his braces off recently so we thought why not. We didn't want too much of ourselves in the picture (Jake and I have some unwanted weight we'd rather not let all of our family and friends cherish in a photo). The picture below is the picture we chose, though of course the one printed on the card came out a lot darker.

Precious moments...well maybe not precious!

I did not do anything to set up this picture. I just looked over at Brody when he was watching TV and he was standing there with his pants slowly creeping their way down his bum. It was just too perfect so I decided to take a picture