Is it August already??!!

Where does the time go? My my. Well I start school next week (kids don't come for another week) and I can't hardly believe summer is comming to a close. It has been a rather relaxing summer for the most part, just Allison and I hanging out, running our errands and playing with toys. We got to eat lunch with daddy most everyday and Allison thinks "DA" is home everytime she hears a noise out front.

We have switched to 1 nap that doesn't last long enough most days, but I will take what I can get. Some mornings I can drag myself out of bed early enough to be ready by the time she wakes up, but many times a shower and some reading is all I can get done before she gets up.

She is still quite a ham. Any store we go to she waves at everyone as we are leaving and blows them kisses, and recently she has started reaching out to complete strangers wanting them to hold her! She has an old purse of mine that she loves to carry all over the house and sometimes when we go out. Anything that has handles immediately becomes a purse as well. She loves to have her hair fixed but usually pulls it out in the car or within a few hours. (even though she still loves to twirl it while sucking those middle two fingers)

She loves going to church, the bath, shallow water, (still not a huge fan of deep pools but if she can walk in and out she is in heaven) dogs, purses, talking, and sucking her fingers. She is our little angel and I am having so much fun watching her grow up!

Jason's parents finally moved back to Texas at the end of July and we are so glad to have them close. (although Granbury is still too far in our opinion :) ) But it's for sure closer than Chicago! Alyssa turned 19, I mean 13 at the end of July also. She only has 1 more year of middle school left, how is that possible??

In other news we found a house we like and are hopefully going to "start the process" this week. It's all a little daunting but we are trusting God and trying to let him lead. I'll keep you posted.

Her new hair-do. I think she looks like Red from Fraggle Rock.

Her classic sucking the fingers twirling the hair pose

We start em young!

ok just kidding, there wasn't anything left in the cup, I was just trying to get her to hold still so I could get her picture, so cute! (although the flowers in front of the ponytails were an easy way for her to pull the whole thing out!)

Allison helping Pa Paw

No it's not a laptop case, it's a purse!

Allison helping sissy with her birthday present

Alyssa with her b-day present from MaMaw and PaPaw

Allison in her special chair

Coloring with daddy and going off the paper

A guest who overstayed his welcome, Jason ran over his friend 2 nights later

We are very independent now and like to feed ourselves :)

What's wrong with this picture?

(scroll down to see aforementioned picture)So how about once a month? It's summer and I know I'm supposed to be "off" with nothing to do so my blog should be updated 3 times a week right? Something like that! Allison is quite the needy one right now in our family, she now has 3 molars, one more bottom tooth in the front and is still working on the last molar to complete the "set."

Jason went on his Quest at the end of June and it radically changed all of our lives. I registered for a Heart Quest (the first one available is in November and now they are filled up through the end of this year for Heart Quests) Anyway, absolutely completely radically transformed Jason and subsequently me and our family. God has shown us his love and mercy like never before and we will never be the same! I am expecting great things for my Quest and I am excited about God's timing for it all.

I officially only have 4 weeks of summer left, boo! We are trusting God with my "work future" but are hoping that this will be my last year of full time teaching. We are praying about continuing to expand our family (both in number and house) and I would like to be home more if and when that does happen.

As I mentioned above we are now looking to purchase our first home! We are currently renting a house a block from my parents and while we love the location the house itself leaves a bit to be desired. So we are currently about half a step away from getting our finances approved and have begun looking for the future Jacobs' residence. The first day we looked solely in Coppell at 6 houses. We were sorely disappointed and decided maybe Coppell would not be where we would purchase our first home. We prayed and felt a lot of peace about looking a little north in Lewisville, or possibly Grapevine. We did try and look at a few houses during the next week, but everything went wrong! Seriously. I have the realtor 7 addresses to look at, 4 of them went under contract the previous day, 1 of them she couldn't get ahold of, and the 3 that we did see....... 1. People had gotten the call during dinner but didn't pay attention to it so they were very surprised and the house was strange. 2. We got there and the people said they are going to go with the contingency contract. Weird. So we didn't see that one. 3. Everything started normal enough, but then when we got to the master bedroom the door was locked. Weird, but we continued. They upstairs we heard something coming from a room. That room was locked also and there was someone in there watching a movie. (the sound got louder as we tried to open the door) Hello people??!!! Do you want to sell your house or not??? (we didn't like the house anyway)

So at that point we surrendered to God and said, Ok not yet. Our Realtor is going out of town this week so we told her we would just look again when she came back. We both have peace about this but are still very excited to see just what God has waiting for us!

Ok, now the part you probably just scrolled to anyway :)

Below is said picture. See anything wrong?

Apparently Miss Allison decided she did not like the restrictions of her diaper while napping the other day and I was quite surprised to look up and see a full moon staring back at me! Needless to say she now wears shorts to nap in too!

Being a ham. I was trying to get a picture of her new little "pebbles" ponytail on top of her head. She loves to twirl it while sucking her middle two fingers. (pictures to come)

Daddy got her a new balloon, her pride and joy!

Daddy bought me some beautiful flowers!

My new do

Ok before they were a stretch but now they are real pigtails!

And here are 2 videos for your viewing pleasure

Coming soon: Allison showing you her body parts and immitating different animals.

Apologies

Well I'm afraid I've gotten a bit lazy about blogging lately. I post lots of pictures on facebook but forget to post them here too! We have been having a wonderful summer so far. Lots of playing, running errands, and we start swimming lessons on Monday. I also just discovered that Allison has a molar that has come through already! So now she has her 4 front teeth (2 on top and 2 on bottom) and a molar. How crazy!

She has also started talking up a storm! I have no idea what she is saying most of the time but she is saying something! I have started doing animal noises with her too. She loves them! Anytime you say the word doggie she scrunches up her mouth and does her own little "Woof woof" sound. I'll try and tape it. So I have started adding to the list of things kitty, lion, bird, monkey, you know all the favorites.

On to the good stuff! Technology got the best of my today so the pictures are in the reverse order of what I want them to be. Her birthday pictures are at the bottom.

These first few are her with her most prized possession lately. She won't go into a different room without the balloon. She loves it! She got it at a grocery store (she was playing with it and the guy let us keep it)

I love this one!

See the balloon string? :)

She loves her doggies, yes she is laying on P.J.

Her favorite book!

Those cutie teeth!

Her first popsicle

Playing in a bucket of water at Grammy and Grandpa's

Birthday cake

Her "O" face

Opening presents

Her ball pit

The Party

The birthday girl

Good Grief!!

Well I guess I can check one more thing off of my,"Never Have I" list. Before today I could claim that never have I run out of gas while driving. (not to mention I had Allison with me and it was pouring cats and dogs outside!!!) Thankfully I had enough time to exit the free way and get most of the way out of traffic and then a nice guy came and pushed my car into a parking lot. Then my wonderful mother (shout out!) came and rescued me. I have always been one to push it to the limit with gas in my car, but I think that might change. I don't have a counter or anything, I just know I have at least 30 miles once the light comes on. I think from now on I might just get gas as soon as I see the light!! (duh! Isn't that what it is for??!!)

Sugar and Spice

I don't have a lot of time (I'm supposed to be grading papers right now) but I couldn't wait another second to post these pictures. I just checked my email and they were waiting for me! I do have lots of pics from her party as well I just have not had 2 minutes to upload them. And with Benjamin's wedding this weekend it will probably be next week before I do. Looking forward to seeing everyone that is coming!! :)

1 year ago today...

Jason and I were getting ready to go to the birthing center.  I was in labor and the long awaited day had come.  (Little did we know how much longer we were going to have to wait!!)  It was the 27th of May, but for those of you smart ones out there you know that Allison was born on the 29th.  That's correct.  Now before you start counting how many hours of labor that is, she missed being born on the 28th by 17 minutes.  But apparently the girl really did not want to meet us on the 28th!  I have been reminiscing all night as I bake cakes getting ready for my sweet little girl's birthday party on Saturday.  One year ago today I had no idea what it was to be a mother.  One year ago today I was just beginning a 24 hour journey that showed me how strong I really was.  One year ago today I had never met my wonderful little princess named Allison.  One year ago today I was so sick of being ginormous I couldn't hardly stand it! And today.....how can I imagine my life without my Allison?  I never could have dreamed that I would be back in my old clothes and loving my little girl so much, one year ago today.

This little piggy....

Here's a sneak peek at her flower girl dress!

Uncle Ben and niece Allison

She really is all girl!

She adores her new front facing car seat!!

Well we are t minus 2 weeks people! I picked up all the supplies for Allison's first birthday today and I have finished shopping for her too. I'm going to try out some different cake recipes this week and her photo shoot is on Wednesday. I'm so excited! I'll post the results. And if I can ever get a video of her making her dog noise I'll post that too, it's hilarious!

P.S. Allison did finally get her top two teeth this last month. They are creeping down, I hope she smiles big enough on Wednesday to see all of them, they are pretty cute!