Chaos and Cupcakes

If you know my family in real life or follow this blog, you known that I’ve had some pretty scrawny babies.  Taylor was 19 pounds at a year and Cameron was 20 pounds at a year, so skinny since they were tall, but it was a decent weight.  And even though Andrew was the smallest and sickest baby, he did a good job catching up and was almost 18 pounds by his first birthday.  The last three babies, however, have had difficulty gaining weight their first year.  Olivia was only about 14 1/2 pounds at a year, Sawyer was only 16 pounds at a year, and Parker was just over 14 pounds at a year.  Scrawny babies.  Once Olivia and Sawyer hit a year, though, they started catching up and filling out and we stopped worrying.  Parker is now 16 pounds at a few days shy of 15 months, so he has gained weight, just not as much as we (and the doctor) would like.  I would really like to see him hit that 20 pounds mark.

However, just because Parker still looks like a baby doesn’t mean he isn’t turning into a very mischievous toddler.  He gets into EVERYTHING!  He goes up and down the stairs in a flash.  He can get down off of beds and couches by himself.  And he climbs on everything.  Today he found a new temptation… the kitchen counter.  This very resourceful guy pushed the step-stool over to the bar-stool and proceeded to climb his way up to the counter:

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When I took the Christmas decorations down after New Year’s, the blah of the post-holiday comedown combined with the blah of the January skies gave me an itch to want to do some decorating around the house.  Jared hates when I get this urge.  Not only does he hate the expense of my proposed projects, but he is leery of what tasks will be required of him.  When we lived in Louisiana and bought our first home, he did a lot of painting.  First he painted our master bedroom and bathroom (which included many, many hours of stripping wallpaper), but that didn’t hold a candle to the next chore of painting the entire exterior of our home.  That made him decide that he had done enough painting to last him for many years.  So we came to an agreement that if he would tape (I am a terrible taper) than I would do all the painting in this house.  Here are the results of the fruits of my labor (and a little bit of Jared’s).  The pictures were taken at night so excuse the darkness and/or lighting glares.

Powder room (went from beige to green; added new towels, pictures, and switches):

Kids’ bathroom (changed from duck theme to penguin theme; painted an accent wall):

Living room (painted an accent wall):

Hallway (from beige to Tobacco Road):

Family room (painted the back wall; added new chairs and a rug):

Mudroom (from beige to green):

Dining room (Tobacco Road):

Bedroom (no painting done here; just added the chaise and a painting):

And here is a picture of my helpers:

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Today is Jared’s birthday.  It has been an awful birthday for him.  First, we missed the movie we were going to go see on Saturday night to celebrate his birthday, just the two of us.  Then, a bunch of us have been sick, including me.  So he spent today taking care of the kids and me, picking up prescriptions, working, etc.  He didn’t even get a cake since I was too sick to make one or to go to the store to buy one.  I feel so bad.  We were going to go celebrate with my family tomorrow but now since we are sick we can’t do that.  I promise we will make it up to you later in the week, Jared!

I am the luckiest girl in the world to have such a wonderful husband.  I could go on and on about how fabulous Jared is.  He is the best father.  He loves to play games with his kids, to teach them, and he loves to just be with his family.  He works so hard for us and is so good at his job.  He is the smartest man I know.

I would write so much more about how wonderful Jared is, but I can barely stay awake.   Just know that I love you with all my heart, Jared.  Happy birthday!

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