Jakob Daniel and Everleigh Grace Hall

Who says only boys like to play with trucks?

Jakob's best buddy Graham turned 3 on January 17th, so we headed to the Gilmans to help him celebrate.  There was a truck and cars theme, which all the little boys loved, and all the kids got a kick out of the yellow hard hats.  Graham requested a menu of mac and cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, yogurt, cheese sticks, and graham crackers, so all the kids ate well (just about all of Jakob's favorite foods!)  He also wanted a red cake with blue frosting and green M&Ms, and needless to say that was popular with the kids as well.  Jakob talked about blowing out the candles the whole way over the mountain, and fortunately Graham was willing to share one of his awesome truck candles with Jakob.  It was such a wonderful time! This is my idea of culinary perfection, right down to the truck spoon! Anything I can put in my mouth, including this hat, is my idea of perfection Mommy got to have a glass of wine, which she also thought was perfection! Is it time

Jakob has recently started to feed Holden his dinner.  Although Holden ends up with varying amounts of food, and there's usually a bunch of kibble that gets left in the floor around his bowl, it's nice that Jakob is showing interest in helping out.  That's definitely something we want to encourage!  Jakob also loves giving Holden his bacon treats. I'm a contributing member of this family!

Way back on January 5, 2013, I posted a series of pictures of Jakob when he was sitting in front of our couches and playing in the sunshine.  In early January of this year, I just happened to take very similar pictures of Everleigh doing exactly the same thing.  They're almost the same age in these pictures (Jakob was only a couple of weeks older than Everleigh), and it's fun to compare how the two of them look.  This may be one of my favorite posts on this blog!

Kenya just plopped down next to me Clearly this is my lucky day Hooray for kitty pets! I love playing with Kenya and getting kisses from her So much happy screeching going on

We've been having lots of fun together on the days I'm off from work, especially now that Everleigh is big enough to sit on her own and watch Jakob play. Lots of sibling love

Grandma and Grandpa Hall were our first visitors of 2015!  The kids were so happy to see them, and they brought even more gifts for the kiddos, which Jakob was naturally excited about.  The visit was too short, as always, and we're looking forward to seeing them again! Look at this!  Grandma and Grandpa brought me a stuffed Mater! You'll be snuggling with me in my bed tonight I love getting time with Grandpa Ha!  Grandpa put his hat on my head!  This is so silly! I've inherited Grandma's pickle loving genes Why aren't there any pickles on my plate? Thanks for helping me with dinner, Grandpa! I'm taking a little break from playing with the solo cups, as you can see in the background

Meal times are getting incredibly messy in our house!  Give me that spoon and let me feed myself Not sure if any of that cereal got into my mouth, but I'm having fun trying

I'm the cutest niece right now, but my cousin will no doubt give me a serious run for the money when she's born in a few weeks!

Who knew a little bit of pee could bring so much happiness!?  All day today, Jakob willingly wore big boy underpants without a diaper, and he spent lots of time (hours, all together) sitting on his potty.  He had two accidents during the day, but he didn't get discouraged and kept trying to go on his potty.  I took Everleigh upstairs for a bath, and at about 7 I heard him running across the kitchen floor to the bottom of the stairs.  I could just hear the thrill in his voice when he shouted up "Mommy, I DID IT!!!" Because he went pee on the potty for the first time, Jakob earned a new train named Hiro.  He was so happy that he jumped up and down chanting "I'm excited!"  We're so proud, and hopefully we have more potty training success now that he's got one under his belt. This is how Jakob spent most of the day He liked pretending his shirt was a scarf And he liked running around in just his undies... ...a lot! There it is!  His

Mommy is hooked on my smile

Everleigh has been getting very vocal lately, and although I'm not sure Dan is ready to admit this yet, I'm officially making the call that she says MaMa now.  :-)  (Score one for Mommy that she said this before DaDa.  If you're wondering, Jakob said DaDa light years before he said MaMa.)  She's been making the "m" sound for a while, but I firmly believe that she's progressed to "ma" now.  She also makes "ba" sounds, although less frequently.  And there's still lots of happy screeching and bubble blowing. Last weekend, Dan and I both noticed on separate occasions that if we ask Everleigh where the cat is, she'll look around until she sees one of the cats, then she stares at it and laughs.  She can do the same thing when we ask her where the dog is.  What a smart baby doll!!

Everleigh loves playing with her sippy cups, and she's getting better at actually drinking from them and keeping the water in her mouth. Is it time for my sippy cup? You know how much I love this! Banging it is just as much fun as drinking from it Just like my mommy, I like to stay hydrated

Everleigh turned 8 months old yesterday!  She's been in a bit of a rough stretch lately with her two teeth coming in and some nasty colds, but she's still the happiest baby I've ever seen. Happy eight months for a happy baby!  I spend a lot of time chomping on my fingers these days Hmm, what should I do now? I know, I'll toss my bunny around Being eight months old is great My eight month close up.  I was born ready!