I'll never forget

Dear Jack-
A monumental moment happened in my life the other day... a moment I will cherish forever. And it was all thanks to YOU.  You've brightened my life from the moment I met you, and expanded my heart. In turn this has made me more emotional, fearful, and vulnerable than I have ever felt.  My Mom and Dad tried to explain these emotions to me my whole life... and the day you were born they all made sense.
The other day, as we attended a wedding, I had a parenting moment I wish never to forget...  It went something like this:

Jack "what are they doing?"
Adam "they are getting Married"
Jack "I want to get married"
Adam "do you know what it means to get married?"
Jack "no"
Adam "  when you grow up and find a woman that you LOVE SO MUCH that you wan to spend the rest of your life with her, you get married."

Jack... long thoughtful pause... "Daddy, I want to Marry Mommy" followed by a tight hug, and kiss on my cheek.

ME    tears of joy 

Thank you, Jack, for loving me so much. Thank you for calling me your "best friend" when Daddy isn't around.  I'll try not to cling to you forever, I know someday I will have to let you go. But for now, the feelings are mutual. You can stay with me and Daddy forever.
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH,
your mommy

Family Pictures

"What are you doing?"

I have made it a priority since Jack was born to take family pictures each year. We usually take them in the Fall around Jack's birthday, which works out well for Christmas cards.  NonaJane started sitting independently before she was 6 months old,  which made it even easier to get some great pictures this year.  Don't be concerned by her overly serious facial expressions, she tends to "think" and be very serious anytime she is in a new or interesting environment. You can make silly faces and try to get her to smile, but then she only looks at you like your crazy.  So although she may look grumpy, she is actually a very happy little girl!

He is a BEAUTIFUL boy :)

yum yum... "you again?"

Adam trying to elicit a smile from our serious little one

All packed up and ready to go

The Nona Monster

The Nona Monster in action

NonaJane is an awesome baby.  She cracks me up... and keeps us on our toes.  I swear she is the most mischievous little girl! If there is something dangerous in the room, she will zone in on it and be-line for it.  when Jack was a baby I laughed at all the baby proofing products because we never needed them! He was sweet, calm, content, and happy to follow all the rules. Jack also didn't crawl until he was 8 months and 3 weeks old, but NonaJane started crawling at 6 months and 3 weeks!  She is SO happy about it, and has taken her reign as "in-charge."  We started giving her the endearing name of "Nona Monster" when she took to the fun activity of attacking and destroying anything that Jack is trying to play with.  Now don't pity Jack just yet, he isn't afraid to push her down, sit on her, or pull her by her arms to protect himself. But what cracks me up, is that NonaJane seems to think even that is funny. I can't tell you how many times I have come into the room to find Jack riding Nona like a horse, and she is SMILING! What??? I yell at him anyways... but who am I to interrupt their sibling play.

Their favorite "toy" the ipad

I will admit that i was expecting my second baby to be much like my first, and have ultimately decided that so far my two children are polar opposites.  Jack was an amazing sleeper and hated to eat... NonaJane thinks sleeping is over-rated and will eat ANYTHING with a smile on her face.  I wonder if she will be a perfectionist like Jack and I, or if she will take a more carefree approach to life like Adam???
So much fun to watch them grow... but can I just keep them small like this for awhile? (except for the sleeping thing, that sucks... )

Things I've learned from HGTV...

 I've heard it's a girl thing, not sure if it's true. Sometimes I just get a crazy whim, and get the NEED to change things up around the house. Perhaps I'll paint the kitchen blue while Adam is sleeping, or re-arrange the living room furniture while he's at work.  Was the old arrangement bad? Could I not live with the paint colors as is? I don't know why I torture myself with these household projects. I always have it in my head that it won't take that long, or that it won't be that hard.  I also manage to convince myself that I can do the projects "all by myself" but usually end up roping Adam into them for his manly skills.  How would I feel if he continually started projects and roped me into them? I would feel annoyed. So here is my acknowledgement to Adam for helping me fulfill my HGTV and pinterest dreams,  I am very aware that I am quite pitiful on my own :)

So anyhoo, I had been spending a lot of time in our room nursing NonaJane, which meant I had nothing to do but sit, think, ponder, and stare at the ugliness of our room. Our room has been ugly for years, and for some reason, with little to no warning, I decided to do something about it.  I texted Adam at work "How mad would you be if  I sell our bedroom furniture?" "Whatever you wanna do." Was his reply.  So I posted the furniture on Craigslist, and it was gone by 9AM the next morning.  I vowed to use ONLY the money from selling the furniture to do a complete makeover on the room- in true HGTV style.  This gave me $875. I started by vacuuming the shocking amount of dust, random items and hairballs found under the old furniture (ick.. apparently under our bed was the cat's grooming zone). Then I dragged Adam and the kids to JoAnn's fabrics.  Picking out fabric turned out to be extremely overwhelming. Textures, patterns, colors, styles... before I knew it I was sweating and slightly panicked.  I received a pep talk from Adam, a few rude comments from the worker who could tell I obviously did not belong in a fabric store, and we made it out alive.  It was then on to the Home Depot, and Bed Bath and Beyond.  A fun filled day of domestic torture for Adam and the kids. Then at home the endless hours of painting,  building, and sewing begun.  The project that was supposed to take a day or two (they do it on HGTV, but they are full of crap) ended up taking the better part of two weeks.  Adam built the headboard, and recovered the ottoman (turns out I am fearful of the staplegun... and every other type of powered tool). I even ended up begging my mom to come over and help with the kids while I painted (and she ended up helping me sew the zippers into my new pillow covers). I purchased some "antique" dressers and a nightstand off craigslist.

 (Adam feels they would be better classified as "old and crappy.")  I wanted to put new hardware on them, but had hit the top of my budget. So instead I used ribbon (as seen on pinterest) and think it turned out pretty nice! In the end I still went slightly over budget, by about $50, but absolutely love our new room! It truly was a complete overhaul. I have yet to paint the ceiling and recessed portion of the walls and also plan to finish some art/decor projects including silhouettes of the kids. But for now I am burnt out. So those ideas will have to wait for another day, when I get another crazy whim. You never know when it's coming...

Good Old Family Fun

The Thanksgiving Turkey!

The past 3 Thanksgivings have been some of my favorites by far.  Perhaps this is because we have added Jack and NonaJane to the family and have so much to be thankful for... or it's because the whole Crabb clan has gathered for good old "family fun" at my brother's house.  This year we again invaded Mark and Katie's house to celebrate Thanksgiving.  The last two years we  road tripped to Ft. Dodge Iowa where they were living. This summer, however, they moved to Fond Du Lac Wisconsin. (it means "foot of the Lake" and apparently I pronounce it quite wrong. It sounds like a dirty word to me, but is actually a very pleasant place!)

The boys enjoyed the car ride

Loading up and heading West.. well NorthWest

 Anyhoo. Fond Du Lac is a 9-10 hour drive from Kansas City. My parents, Adam, Jack, Michael, Ethan, and Henry road tripped it both ways. Julie, Luella, NonaJane, and I flew to Wisconsin, but then Nona and I joined the boys and road tripped back home. Flying with Nona was a bit easier than entertaining her in the car for 9 hours, but either way we made it safe and sound. For that we are thankful!

And the girls enjoyed their flight

But back to Thanksgiving. My sister in law, Katie, opens her home and hosts our entire family for 3 days. I honestly don't know how she does it. Imagine children with sticky fingers, 5 young potty trained boys peeing in your bathrooms, and toy explosions in every room of their house. Toys were strewn and mismatched in a way that they may never find their matching pieces again... ever!  This year there were 8 children under the age of 7, and 8 adults spreading the holiday cheer. Despite the dishes, the mess, the noise, and hard work Katie remains delightful. She bakes, cooks, offers alcohol, entertains us with fun outings, and stays up late filling our evenings with games and cheer.  Not a minute of the day goes by when there isn't some sort of delicious and fattening dessert, snack or meal available (kind of like when you are on a cruise). Michael, Mark, Dad, and Katie sample various holiday ales ( reading between the lines, my brothers drink a whole lot of beer) and the rest of us enjoy some wine. My Dad drinks enough that he is actually willing to partake in family games such as "telestrations" or "sherades" which is a huge feat because my Dad has always refused to play any kind of social game.

Nolan says "you taking pictures of me?"

Growing up he always claimed they weren't any fun... but he sure seemed to be enjoying himself! Then once my brothers are nicely intoxicated we dance like idiots to "Just Dance 4". Except for Katie, somehow she manages to look really good when dancing... we can only assume that she rehearses
thru out the year. Anyhoo as the nights get rolling, the time seems to go by faster and then I end up getting mooned by my oldest brother (this should not surprise those of you who know Michael). So I know it's time to go to bed.  But a restful night is not likely. Babies thru out the house wake up in intervals just to make sure that those of us with MOM ears won't get any sleep at all.  My daughter decides this is a nice time to teeth and actually manages to stay awake for the majority of the night.  Lovely.
3 days later we have gained weight, lost sleep, and had an absolutely awesome time together as a family.  I am so thankful that we have an excuse to all stay together in the same house, and really spend 3 days together. The kids played non-stop, we even got to watch "Christmas Vacation" (a family favorite), drove thru the town's Christmas light display, went bowling, and enjoyed each others company.
 Thank you Mark and Katie for hosting, sorry for some additional stains to your carpets, a heap of trash for trash day, some dirty bathrooms, and a pile of laundry.  Hope you are looking forward to seeing us all again next year!!!
We LOVE you !!!