Mr. Independent

I am happy to report that the terrible twos stage seems to have taken a break for now, after just a few days. Hooray! Our new phase is "independence." The picture is from this morning (note the bed head) when after I changed Jackson from his PJs into his clothes for the day. He decided that he wanted to put his pajama shirt back on (new Toy Story pajamas that he's been loving to wear lately!) and tried for quite awhile to get his sweatshirt off. This was as far as he got, but refused to let me help him. So after about 10 or 15 minutes (and a cold arm) he humbled himself and said "Help Mama." By this point, he was fine with leaving the sweatshirt on and saving the PJs for later. I am excited that he loves the PJs though - one of those great random finds at the Disney Store for $3!! We've also watched the Toy Story movie 3 times this week!And just to clarify on the last post...if you want to try it but aren't crafty, don't be scared! :) You can make cookies or do whatever! I really wasn't expecting to get out of making something quite this easily!!

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!