Pay It Forward

Have you heard about it? Pay it forward? A friend of mine had posted about this and I decided to take up the challenge! The rules? For the first 3 to comment on this PIF post who want to particitpate: You will get something handmade from me, maybe not anytime soon, but sometime within the next 365 days. Here's the catch...if you decide to participate, YOU must do the same on your blog, and make something for the first three people who comment on YOUR PIF post. You never know what you will get! Doesn't this sound like fun?!? (I must say the catch for me was the 365 days! NO PROBLEM with that time line!) :-)

Terrible Twos?

This past weekend I was able to go away with MOPS friends on a shopping trip to Philadelphia!! We had a great time, found some good bargains, and Jon & Jackson had fun at home. I came home Saturday evening and everything was fine....then came Sunday morning when the Terrible Twos hit! For the first time ever, Jackson didn't want to go to church - "no no no mama" with lots of screaming. I don't know what has gotten into the boy but he is definitely going through a rough phase right now - yelling, pushing me away, tantrums, etc. Now I know this is something every child goes through at some point, but I wasn't ready for my quiet laid back easy to please son to do this!! Last night was especially interesting as we had Josh & Christy over for dinner and I spent the entire time in the other room with Jackson because he was throwing a fit! He had only been spanked once ever in his life, but this week alone it has been 3 times. Not fun. After last night, poor J & C won't be wanting kids anytime soon! Thankfully, Jack is getting back to his old self and had a wonderful morning, when I took these pictures. Besides the little phase he is going through, his personality is starting to change a little to - into a crazy silly little boy!!

A few updates on Jack for those of you who don't get to see him & hear the funny random stories on a regular basis:

He is starting to PLAY with TOYS!! Instead of spending hours upon hours reading books, he also loves to play with Mr. Potato Heads & also is again a huge fan of his Little People. I am so glad that he will probably always love to read, but I'm also glad that he is starting to be a KID and PLAY!!

He loves to count, especially to 6. I often hear him saying "one, two, three, four, five, six, GO!"

He loves to pretend! I love that we can already see his little imagination at work as he feeds all his little people animals (and then proceeds to give each one an Eskimo Kiss - one of his other new favorite things).

Not much else new, we have been keeping ourselves very busy as usual and are looking forward to March when we will be hosting a Japanese exchange student for 3 weeks!

a few more pictures...

Since my computer is so slow it's easier to do a few separate posts than put all the pictures in one!

For some reason, Jackson wanted to wear my fabulous C&C sweatshirt....very big on me...ginormous on him!

He has really liked dressing up lately.... this monkey costume is a favorite and he wore it for about 2 hours the other day.

GG's 90th!

Jackson racing cars up & down GG's legs

It's snowing outside! Normally it wouldn't be that exciting of a thing but I am gearing up for SnowCamp this weekend!! Plus I talked to Keith this morning and he said back in MD they have at least 8 inches! (Just for the record...I'm not really wishing for that much).

Our lives have continued to be busy lately...we are always relieved when we have an evening "off" to spend at home but with meetings, youth group and such, it hasn't happened much recently! That's ok, it's a "good busy". We are having a lot of fun at this point in our lives!

Last week I started babysitting for a friend's 4 month old. For now, I'm babysitting one day a week and we'll see how that goes. So far it's been great! Jackson loves the baby and even cried one day when he woke up from his nap and Baby had already gone home!

Last week Jackson and I had another first....Music & Motions class! It's at a local church and only an hour, but it was very fun. We met some friends from church there - the first 1/2 hour the kids just run around and play and then the 2nd 1/2 hour they sit in a circle and sing and dance. Last week Jackson LOVED it. I have never seen him dance so much. This week he didn't like it as much...mainly because the little girl sitting next to him was eating crackers and I didn't have any for Jack. (and this girl wasn't in a sharing mood....not that I would have asked, but really....if you insist on giving your kid treats in front of everyone, at least bring enough to share. Next week I will be prepared). Anyway the class is $2 and was just really nice to get out and do something different.

Last weekend we traveled to MD and western PA for my Grandma Otto's 90th Birthday! A lot of the family was there and we ate at Grandma's favorite restaurant and then went back to her house for awhile. Jackson does really well considering he doesn't get to see most of these relatives too often. Happy Birthday GG - we love you! Jackson also had lots of fun with Pap, Grandy, and Uncle Mark. We even made it to my old church, Glade Mennonite, and got to see lots more people that we haven't seen in way too long! We wish we could see you all more often!! Come visit!
Jackson sliding down the steps with Uncle Mark!

A highlight of this week was having a few hours out with a friend! She is nearing the end of her pregnancy and can't reach her toes, so we figured that was a good excuse to go get pedicures! We went to the Mount Joy Vo-Tech where seniors in high school are being trained in cosmetology and full pedicures are only $5!! I definitely recommend it if you have a few hours...they really take their time :)


Today my neighbor came over for lunch with her 4 1/2 month old daughter. It's something we have been meaning to do for a long time but never got around to it. We are lucky to have nice neighbors who are close in age to us...most of the street is retired. I'm glad Jackson will have "neighbor kids" to play with when they are older.


This weekend, as I mentioned already, is Snow Camp! We are going with our Jr & Sr High Youth Group to a camp ....actually I'm not exactly sure where it is...somewhere up North. I'm excited to go! Last year we had a lot of fun, but since I had Jackson with me, I was in a separate room away from everyone else, and couldn't really interact with everyone and hear the speakers as much as I would have liked. This year (for better or worse!) I will be bunking with all the other girls! Jackson will be spending his weekend with Aunt JoJo, Nana, and Peeps. I know he will have a great time too! I will miss him though! We're in for more fun next weekend when my friends Keith and Brandi are coming to visit!!! Keith has a volleyball tournament in Lancaster and so we are excited to spend some time with them!

8 More Months

No, I'm definitely not announcing a pregnancy.... just in some mourning that it will be 8 long months until the next time I get to watch another Steelers game, thanks to the disappointing loss last night. It was a nail biter to the end and we did have a great time watching it with our fellow Steeler fan friends on their new big screen TV! We really felt like we were at the game with the huge tv, surround sound, and being in an unheated room :) It really set the mood :)

Anyway, Jackson and I finally got a picture of us in our matching Troy Polamalu jerseys, which we probably won't get a chance to wear again until next football season! (He's still being a stinker about refusing to look at the camera, but oh well!)

Today after Sunday School all the Mohrs went to a huge buffet at Willow Valley...YUM! We are sad to see Joelle go back to school, but if we get to go out to lunch to celebrate the occasion.... :) Just kidding Joelle, we will miss you!

...and Hello 2008!

So far it's been a great year! :) On New Year's Eve we played games for a little bit with Jena, Ryan, Joelle, and Marc and then came home around 8 to put Jackson to bed. Jon and I stayed up and watched movies until the New Year (I was really surprised we made it that late because Jon had already fallen asleep at 830 when I was doing work in the kitchen!)

Speaking of work in the kitchen, most of my day New Years Day was spent cooking and preparing freezer meals. My mom got me the book "Once a Month Cooking" for Christmas and I was so excited to try it out. New Years Eve I chopped all the peppers, carrots, onions, etc I would need for the next day. Let me tell you, many tears were shed over the 5 onions and 2 bunches of green onions I chopped!! It did end up saving a lot of time though. I decided to try the first cycle, which is planned for 2 weeks, but since our family is small I was able to divide a lot of the meals and ended up stocking my freezer with 23 main courses!! I was so excited at the end of the day. The book is great....it has a few different 2 week cycles and a few one month cycles to choose from. It gives you all the information you need...grocery list, recipes, and step by step instructions of what to do in order to get everything done in the quickest way. Most of the things I made I was able to freeze in gallon bags so it didn't even take up that much room in the freezer. I didn't follow the plan exactly, because different meats were too expensive, so I bought the kinds that were on sale and found recipes in the book for those. I'm thoroughly excited about this new plan....I'll let you know how it goes when we actually eat some of the food! (I have a few things thawed out from when I was making room in the freezer, so we have to eat those first).

Wednesday before church Jon & I had to get our licenses renewed, so we went to Lancaster. Miraculously, it took us less than 1/2 hour at the PennDot place so we were able to go out for a quick sandwich at Sloppy Jane's and then decided to go check prices on furniture! We are planning to buy Jackson a big boy bed within the next several months and wanted to start looking at prices. We're thinking of getting bunk beds that can be separated into 2 twin beds. We looked at several places but weren't too impressed with quality vs. price...we'd like to get something good enough that it will last a long long time! One lady told us that prices everywhere will be going up in February....who knows if that is true or not, but we'd like to try and find something before then if possible. Any recommendations?

Last night was our final Christmas get-together of the season. We always look forward to celebrating with Jon's cousin Noel who spoils all of us! Here's a picture of the group from last night at our house:

Happy 2008!

Goodbye 2007!

I can hardly believe that 2007 is almost over! We have been blessed so much in the past year and are excited to see what happens in 2008! I haven't updated for a long time....so I'll try to hit some highlights and show a few pictures.

Christmas is definitely my favorite time of year! I love all the baking and preparing, checking the mail every day in anticipation of a Christmas card, and all the excitement. One highlight is the annual cookie exchange where several of us get together at a friends house and make dozens and dozens of cookies to share with each other....its a busy day with lots of baking and kids running around everywhere, but it is so much fun.


Jackson was much more excited about Christmas this year....I think next year will be the really fun year though. He did like opening presents and would want to play with each one he opened for awhile before he realized there were more! His first present of the year was opened on Christmas Eve - the traditional (as traditional as we can make it sound when this is only his 2nd Christmas) new pajamas! He also got his new ornament - a Dr. Seuss "Fox in Socks" ... I was having a hard time deciding what kind of ornament to buy him and knew it would either be Sesame Street, Little People, or Books, so on a whim I typed in "Dr Seuss ornament" on eBay and found one that was Fox in Socks....one of his very favorite books! He loved putting it on the tree, and then would bring the book over, sit down, and read it to the ornament. So funny.
Opening up his new PJs!

We woke up Christmas morning and had our family Christmas at our house, then went to Jon's parents for the rest of the day...the big surprise of the day was when I got Jackson up from his nap and walked into the room to discover that he had evidently been awake for awhile and had pulled all kinds of decorations & flower arrangements (pretty much anything in his reach) into the pack&play with him. As soon as he saw me, he said, "uh oh!" I think that is the most mischevious thing my laid back little guy has ever done :)

Fun present from Nana & Peeps to share with cousin Owen!

We all were struggling with colds over Christmas, and then the next day I woke up with a urinary tract infection....not fun! I was expecting to clean the house and get ready for my parents & brother to come that day, but instead I ended up spending a good part of the morning at the doctors! A few days and doses of medication later, I am feeling much better and my pee is almost back to its normal color. (Sorry if that grosses everyone out but the medicine actually made it turn bright orange). We had a great visit with my family! One of the gifts we had asked for was an air mattress for when we have lots of company...and they got us a really nice one that we decided to try out! Friday night Jon & I camped out in the living room on the air mattresses & sleeping bags and were very comfortable! When Jackson gets a little older we'll make it a family night!

I was hoping to add a lot of pictures on this, but my computer is being so slow, I may have to save most of them for another time.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas...best wishes for a Happy New Year! We made many attempts to get a family picture using the tripod and timer on my camera....here was the only one that turned out half decent!