Now I Look Like a Tough Guy

Coop had a fall at school today. First time I have gotten a call from the school nurse. He fell down the concrete stairs going outside for recess this afternoon. He's lucky that's all he got from it.  He said "he tripped over his own feet". His cheek bone hurts so he might have a nice shiner on top of it since that is what took most of the fall. He got some road rash but he is fine. I asked him when I picked him up "What does the other guy look like?" But he didn't think that was funny....Or maybe I should have asked "did someone take your lunchbox again?"

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope you have a wonderful day!

May it be filled with love just like everyday should!

1 Corinthians 13:4-8  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

I think today was the coldest day of the winter here in North Carolina! Might be right at freezing today! Yes, that is cold to me now, and I used to think cold was anything below 0! I still haven't dug out that heavy winter jacket this year. What strange weather we are having all over the US! My blood has definately gotten thinner after living here three 1/2 years now.  I don't think I could handle those cold midwestern winters again.
Braedyn sung in the youth choir today at church. The kids all sung beautiful. He enjoys singing so much. He took a break on guitar and might start back up in the summer when things slow down for us. He likes guitar but he just wants to be able to pick it up and be Brad Paisley. Cooper likes being goofy and singing at home but did not want to be in choir. I think he has mom's stage fright!
Jordan has just fallen asleep in our bed for his nap. He fights taking naps and maybe its because he feels caged. So he did not get out of his bed this morning and he called for me as usual. So that was nice, he didn't break an arm or leg by climbing out his bed again. I do think its time to transition. Maybe he would nap better.  Looks like one more thing for Charlie to do between basketball practices today.
I hope this cold spell doesn't last long. We have been spoiled this winter!
Have a wonderful week!
~A

One More Reminder My Baby Is Not a Baby Anymore

Charlie and I decided to sleep in today because usually on Saturdays the boys like to sleep in too. They also have become very self sufficient in getting cartoons on tv and getting breakfast cereal (unless they want cinnamon rolls they wait for me). I am talking about Braedyn and Cooper. Jordan is still in a crib in hopes that he will be until he turned three! However, this morning when I came out of the bedroom there sat all three of them watching one of their favorite cartoons. I asked the other two which one of them got Jordan out of his bed and they replied "we didn't". Jordan with a smile on his face said "I got out my bed all by myself, I put my yeg up and crawled out and fell on the flo." He has never once tried that so I was stunned. Leave it to the third child to figure that out! The other two wouldn't dare try. Looks like the transitional crib my parents bought us when Braedyn was born, as a baby gift, will finally be transitioned. It is supposed to go from crib to daybed to twin bed. We have never gotten that far it has just went to one baby, to the next, and then to the last.
I am not ready for my baby to be out of his crib. I thought I could keep him caged a little longer:)! One more stage in our lives that has passed. No more cribs in the Jacobson household. I thought those days would never end and now I don't want it to. As always they dictate what's going to happen next in life. So looks like we are truely onto the toddler stage saying goodbye to those baby days. We have yet to master the potty at this point so we are still buying diapers so I can still say I shop in the baby section at WalMart.

Time,It goes by too fast
Time,Making each moment last
Time, A blink in the past
Lasting forever in our minds
because sometimes
all we have is time...

Tonight, we will once again try the crib and see if the escape artists tries one more time and than we will have to transform his bed tomorrow. I think the babysitter tonight would appreciate that!  Yes, a date night! An early Valentines :)!

Winning and Humility

So with three boys in this household that are very close in age and very competitive,We need to already start teaching some humility and lay down some new rules.  I am glad I got a few pointers from Tim Tebow's book "Through My Eyes". He had two older brothers that were all very competitive also.
Cooper got home from his game last night and he was so proud as was his dad. They played a team that outscored them last time 24-0 and there was a girl on that team that was an excellent little ball player and she pretty much drove to the basket and scored all the points for that team. Last night the outcome was a little different. The score was 11-8. So it was quite the moral victory. Cooper came in and said "I almost won the whole game myself." He scored the 8 points. The one game I decide to miss and stay home because Jordan was tired; was one of Cooper's best games. He kept that girl from scoring and had quite a few fouls and blocked shots on her. I was proud listening to him tell me about it and could tell the excitement since this is the first time their team even came close to winning. Dad looked over at Braedyn and could tell he was kind of sad. Here Cooper was bragging about getting 8 points in one game and Braedyn's gotten a couple of shots in all of his games combined. It's not because Braedyn does not shoot but their team has a lot of good players and everyone gets a chance. So after seeing his facial expressions, we needed to lay down some new rules and tell Cooper we were proud of him, but there will be no bragging in this house about how many points are scored in any of the games you play. You are not to talk or brag about your own accomplishments unless someone asks you how you did. If someone asks you how you played you can tell them without volunteering the information.
This can be found in Proverbs 27:2
Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;a stranger, and not your own lips.
In the book "Through My Eyes" Tebow explains how that also helped them realize over time it was nicer to not hear them brag about their own accomplishments and it faded away. Then if someone complimented them on their character to his parents, his parents gave them a dollar, so they became focused on things that matter, Character and Humility, rather than what happens in the game that day. Maybe their onto something....
That was my first experience with that. Another lesson learned from my child's eyes. If we hadn't seen the sadness in Braedyn's eyes we may have not realized we needed to be aware of our reactions to our child doing so great in a game.  They teach me new things everyday whether good or bad but we are all on a path to hopefully better ourselves and those around us if we just take the time to see them each for who they are and what they feel.  I read somewhere, "doing what it takes to be in tune with our children is one of the greatest gifts we can give them, and a gift we give ourselves for if we really know them we'll see the image of God in them as well."
~Allie

Growing Puppy

Jake had his second puppy visit today! He had a hard morning...Now he stole my chair and is relaxing in the sun...
He is a little over four months old now and 36 pounds. The vet told me today by the size of his feet the way he is growing he is set to top out at about 80 pounds. A big doggie!

The Jacobson Resort

So many of you have asked for pictures and progress as we were creating our backyard oasis and I wasn't organized enough on sending those out. I also did not want to boast about it on facebook and have people know about the project, so I did not post any on there (my mom did:) . So I will post the pictures here and tell you a bit about it. Most people close their pools on Labor Day weekend, we opened ours. So the project started last May and we were waiting with excitment for it to be done. It was very neat to see our  backyard being transformed but what a mess! The boys just loved the BIG huge dirt piles as tall as the garage and the big equipment that was out here moving the earth. Even my parents were amazed. They happend to be here when the pool was being sprayed. That was quite the process once they finally got it done at 11 pm with lights on their heads. That was a long day for the workers! First their truck burnt the generator that allows them to spray it then they called someone to come fix it and a new truck and those people were stranded on highway 40 because it was the day that a semidriver crashed his semi into 4 or 5 vehicles and it was a horrible accident and people were stranded in traffic for hours. When they finally got here they sprayed the concrete out of this big gun. I guess maybe that is why it is called a gunite pool and the process was called "shooting the pool". The basektball court went in quickly. When they poured the pool decking by the bar and the driveway to the garage portion of the poolhouse, they then poured the concrete for the basketball court. That was ALOT of concrete. It was all completed at the end of August. The last thing to go in were the solar panels on the roof of the poolhouse which heats the water in the pool. We were able to swim until Halloween this year. We are very excited to be able to use it when spring comes. So the project included a saltwater solar heated gunite pool, a poolhouse with a kitchen /bar and bathroom with shower, a extra garage, a basketball court. They did an excellent job and we are happy. The main goal was to get the pool done to use in this HOT Carolina sun so I do not have to sit the plastic baby pool anymore. That has become Jake's bathtub. So the other landscaping will be a process. The plants,trees, and bushes will be added as we go to make it pretty. I look forward to enjoying some quality family time and a big THANK YOU to my husband for making this dream home become a reality. I am truely blessed.I also look forward to enjoying it with friends and family! Cheers!



Starting on the poolhouse and garage



set up and ready for inspection



Cooper having some fun




framed up and pool is framed up



Digging the hole!



It took alot to get some major rock moved. In Minnesota this hole would have been dug in a couple hours. This took a couple of days! The ground here is shale not much dirt. At least it wasn't red clay! My house would have been full of it that stuff and it stains!



getting ready for concrete



Shooting the Pool as they call it...




before the concrete got sprayed



shooting the pool



starting on basketball court





concrete done



boys having fun in the dirt



Now thats a tamper! They run this over the basketball court area to get it smoothed out





another load of concrete





The decking of the pool....Brown color



Ready to be filled!



The tanning ledge with Bubblers and Umbrella pole holder
Three dolphins one for each boy!



Today is the day they were filling the pool can you tell Jordan was excited he already had his swimming suit on!





Cooper's Favorite goggles!




Charlie cleaning pool




catching some rays and dad being silly




Ready, Set, Go




Just Hanging out!



Peace Out!



Thanks for viewing! Stop by for a cocktail! They'll be cold!