Happy Birthday, David

As an adult when someone asks, “Who is your best friend?” It kind of seems like a silly question to me. It takes me back to elementary school. “Will you be my friend?” “I’ll let you be my best friend.” “I’m not friends with you anymore.” Oh, how kids can say wonderful things about friendship and hurtful things about friendship. So when I’m asked this question, my initial thought is, “I should say my husband or one of my parents.” Then my mind begins scrolling through all of my girlfriends trying to pick just one (impossible for a girl like me who has so many wonderful friends). And then I am always taken back to my brother, David Michael. I can use him as my sounding board; I know he uses me as the same. We can share our struggles and receive honest opinions from one another. He is about the only person who can give me constructive criticism from that I can accept graciously. (While I know I could use a lot of constructive criticism, he is the only one I can really take it from.)

Thirty years ago today God gave me a brother. One I didn’t ask for and one I sure wouldn’t have signed up for. In fact, my mom would find David as an infant crying with teeth impressions left in his arm…um, given by me. Growing up David and I were horrible to one another. Honestly, our parents weren’t sure if we loved one another. I am not sure if David and I even knew if we did until I left for college. Soon after this time I realized how important my sibling was. WOW – was I blessed! Now I could never imagine my life without David.

David Michael is a Godly man. He is a gentleman (with many thanks to my parents for raising him with “southern” manners). He is honest, caring, affectionate, loving, humble, polite, patient, exudes kindness, an athlete, a great brother-in-law, a wonderful uncle, and my best friend!

Our boys adore him. It is no mistake that David and Maddox share the same middle name. If given a choice, Brewer would choose to play with Uncle Day-Day over any of his friends. What’s so precious about this is that Uncle Day-Day would choose Brewer over any of his friends!

So to David…happy thirty years today! Thanks for being my brother and my best friend! I love you! --Jennifer

thanksgiving through the eyes of my 3-year-old

Brewer had his first "homework" assignment...yes, at the age of 3! He was asked to fill a cornucopia with photos of things he is thankful for. I started the project with him by asking Lou & him to go around the house and take photos of things Brewer is thankful for. I even gave him suggestions like his playset, bike, toys, car bed, etc. He said, "Frosty and Soft Puppy". (Those are his "lovies" that he sleeps with every night.) While in his room, he decided he was thankful for a Disney book that we read him every night. So we took a photo of that too. Lou and I encouraged him to take photos of other things such as toys but he kept insisting NO. So we sat down with the TOYS R US Wish Book for 2008. Brewer started going through it. He picked out five things he wanted to ask "Ho-Ho" (i.e. Santa) for but still nothing for this thanksgiving cornucopia. So he and I continued with this project. I asked him, "What are you thankful for?" He replied, "My friends: Ethan, Avery, baby Parker, baby Miles, Ms. Katie, Ms. (yes, he said Ms.) Brian, Ms. Amy, Mommy, Daddy, Maddox." WOW! Thank you son! What a delight not to have you rattle off a ton of toys or other material things. I decided he and I should get on the computer together and find photos of these people the best we could. While we were going through our family's on-line photos, he said, "We need PawPaw and Me-Maw and Day-Day too."

What a blessing for me to see my three-year-old pick out people as the "what" he is thankful for!

We had a little more room on our cornucopia so I asked him if there were anything else he were thankful for. He told me God, car, candy, and the football guys who wear red (i.e. Georgia). I filled in some of these things in the remaining space. Brewer: what a wise little boy; he is thankful for God. I wonder...does he even know what this means? Man, I pray he does! Lou was sitting at the table with us and said, "Brewer I'm thankful for Georgia too. I'm thankful they're stinky." I smiled and thought...maybe we should skip the Georgia thing altogether.

So here it is! Brewer's first homework assignment of his life ready to be turned in tomorrow; full of the things HE is thankful for! What a blessing he is to our lives and how thankful I am for HIM! I love you, Brewer!

In response...

In response to yesterday's FL/GA post...today was great! We all were dressed in our Gator gear. The boys stayed with Me-maw and PawPaw during the game. (Thank you to my mom and dad for that!) It was a fun day! Of course, it is always fun when you can "stick it to 'em" during a game! :) GO GATORS! We hope to be in Atlanta in a month or so cheering them onto a SEC championship (or CHOMPionship as we like to call it)!!

FL/GA weekend

So it's called the biggest cocktail party in college football. Jacksonville is "a buzz" the whole weekend. I love FL/GA for the excitement of COLLEGE football. However, it is also a little nerve wrecking for me. If the Gators win, we have no problems. If the Gators lose, then Lou won't be the same until at least the following Tuesday. And in a big game like this year's...he might not be the same for the rest of the college football season.

Brewer has a book called Gator Alphabet ABC.

Last night he picked it out for me to read to him at bedtime. When we got to the letter U the page read like this:
U is for Uga,
Georgia's mascot of high breeding and class.
Unfortunately this little mutt is so ugly,
His face cracks any mirror's glass.

Brewer leaned down, put his cheek on the page, and said, "I love this dog named Uga." Oh, son...how your daddy better not hear you say that. I said, "Brewer, you can love dogs. But this dog is a bad dog. He cheers for the bad guys." Brewer replied, "I like the bad guys. They wear red."

So that was the start to our FL/GA weekend. May God bless Brewer as he may need it if he fights his daddy and me about getting his Gator gear on tomorrow for the game. We believe in freedom of choice for our kids but not in their college football pickin's!!! LOL!

GO GATORS! Chomp * Chomp * Chomp!

Date Night

Here's a blast from the past photo of Lou & I when we first started dating. WOW! How we have both changed both physically, mentally, emotionally, as a couple, etc... Time is an interesting thing. As our family has grown from the two of us to now the four of us, the time Lou & I have had together has lessened. In almost every "marriage" book or class I've read or taken, I've heard that couples should continue to have date nights even while married. A few weeks ago, Lou & I committed to a weekly date night. We have a babysitter (thank you, Becky) come every Tuesday night and we go on a date. It is so nice to know we have this time together to talk, laugh, discuss, or just sit in quiet with one another. We've done nothing "grand" so far...but it certainly has been something I look forward to at the beginning of the week. While Brewer doesn't like that we are gone every Tuesday; I love telling him that I am going on a date with his daddy. I want Brewer and Maddox to know that Lou & I love each other and make time for each other.

Who knows if Lou & I will continue this date night forever...but we are committing to it until the end of the year and then we'll re-evaluate. So for now, Tuesday is our date night!

Blog link

So yesterday I posted all my thoughts about blogging. If you missed it, check it out below. If I am going to commit to this...then I am thinking maybe I need to "link" my blog to ours and vise-versa. If you want to do that...post a comment below or send an email. You can see from my previous post that I am totally committed to this. Oh, what to do??!! :)

So behind on this blogging thing...

I am so behind on this blogging thing...sometimes I wonder if I should just quit. I mean, how many places can one person document their family's life? I have scrapbooks (that are so behind, it is sad), Facebook, a Shutterfly website...and now this! My original intent was to start the blog just to get my son's videos published so he could watch them. I didn't know how else to do it. Now we have a second son (Maddox). He was born 8 months ago and I don't even know if he's made it to this blog yet at all...oh the product of a second child.

Then there is also the issue of blogging -- do I make it public or private? I mean, can the whole world see my kids? Do I want that? Do I care? Ugh...the internet security issue.

And one can't forget these other things -- am I the only person in the family who will blog? does anyone care enough to read an update on our family?

So here I sit wondering if this blogging thing is worth it for ME??

But while I am logged on...I am going to post some of my favorite photos from the past few months...

Brewer immediately assumed the role of being the big brother and loves to help Maddox with everything. Here he was helping with a bath early on in Maddox's life.

Maddox next to a stuffed bear at one month and then again at seven months...oh, how the time flies by!

Brewer loves to dress up...here he is at Buzz LightYear, Spiderman (yes, he even wore it to the grocery store one day b/c I didn't have the energy left that day to say no), and Handy Manny.

Maddox -- I LOVE this photo. And what is so great is that Brewer took it one day when he was "playing" with my camera. Thank you, Brewer!

Our trip to the pumpkin patch. We decorated our pumpkin using one of the Mr. Potato Head pumpkin kits...so smart for young children! Thank you to whomever invented that!

Maddox in his Halloween costume for October 2008 -- he's a turtle.
We've had some beautiful weather here in Jacksonville lately. Here are two photos of the boys out on the playset while swinging.