Merry Christmas from the Jobe kids!

An Instant Classic

This Sunday after church we went to visit Santa at our local mall. We'd prepped the kids for the visit and both were as excited as can be--Andrew kept saying, "see Santa! see Santa!" and Amelia was jumping up and down as we waited in line. Then it was our turn. I said, "Andrew, are you going to let Santa hold you on his lap?" "yeah! yeah! yeah!" "Ok..." So Amelia climbed up on the jolly old elf's lap, as excited as ever, and we set Andrew on Santa's knee... and Andrew instantly started screaming. Of course. So it wasn't all Andrew had expected. Needless to say, therefore, this year's picture with Santa is an instant classic.
The photographer kept snapping pictures, hoping to get one where our dear son was taking a breath from all the wailing, and the whole time Bryan and I were just laughing, saying, "it's fine...we think it's funny!" Then to each other: "does this make us bad parents??" Anyway, hope this little gem gets you in the Christmas spirit. Ho, ho, ho!

Amelia's Birthday, Part Deux

So as you know, Amelia's birthday was last Sunday. However, for multiple reasons I decided to postpone her birthday party (with friends) until a week after her birthday. That party was today, and it turned out really well! We had six little girls (plus Amelia) and a parent for each. I think the girls had a good time playing games, decorating "magic" mirrors, having cake and taking turns dressing up as Snow White! Thanks to all for coming! Here are a few pictures from the party.

All the guestsPlaying the cleaning game
More cleaning game

Snow White and the 7 Dwarves Cake

Cake close-up

Happy birthday!

Huddled around for opening presents!

Happy Birthday, Amelia!

I can not believe I have a five year-old child! Amelia turned five yesterday and had a great celebration. Aunt Abby, Nana and Pops got to be here for the weekend, which is always a treat! Amelia played lots of Wii with Abby. On Sunday, Daddy had the whole church sing "happy birthday" to Amelia (she loved it!), then after church we did our traditional birthday meal at Red Robin (yum). We came home and had birthday cake and presents to finish the day. Amelia was so excited all day, as she has been looking forward to her birthday for a LONG time! We are having a party for her friends this weekend with a Snow White theme. It should be fun! Here is a picture of Amelia with her birthday cake on her big day. I love this girl!

Fondant class

I just finished my fondant class last night! I really enjoyed working with fondant; it really is like play-doh for grown-ups! Here's a picture of the cake I made for the "final project."
We also made little favor boxes in class, and while playing around with modeling something out of fondant I ended up with an elephant that I kind of fell in love with, so I attached him to the box. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but for now it's adorning my kitchen island.
Of course now with Amelia's birthday coming up this weekend, and my newly-acquired cake skills, the pressure's on to do something really cool for her cake. Oh, and did I mention her birthday party isn't until next weekend? So really I have to do two cool cakes. We'll see what happens.

Being sick STINKS!!!

Well, the last few days have been pretty nasty. Sunday morning Amelia woke up with a fever and proceeded to get worse throughout the day. We did take the kids to trunk-or-treat for a little while Sunday night (against better judgment, I know), which was fun. Then Monday Amelia was really lethargic all day, feverish, coughing, etc. I didn't want to jump to conclusions but I was really worried we might have the flu! Amelia rested all day Monday and started feeling better Tuesday, thank goodness. However, Tuesday morning Andrew woke up with a fever and was very lethargic, so he went to the doctor. The doctor said he didn't think it was flu, but to watch him closely. Yesterday he started feeling better and today he seems fine (no fever!). Poor Amelia was coughing constantly yesterday afternoon and last night (not much sleep), so we took her to the doctor today. She doesn't have the flu either, but her asthma is acting up, so we have a prescription to pick up for her meds. Through all of this Bryan was sick for a couple days (he's fine now) and last night I started feeling gross. Being sick STINKS!!! We had planned to go to Arkansas today for Harding's homecoming weekend and to see family, but because of all our sickness we had to cancel the trip. Hopefully we'll be able to reschedule soon.

So, that's what we've been up to. Oh, and before all the sickness hit, I made a bunch of pajamas for Amelia. Here are some pictures of them, as well as a couple from trunk-or-treat. Here's hoping the sickness is almost gone from our house!!!

The Grand Finale!

As I posted a few weeks ago, I've been taking cake decorating classes at a local JoAnn's store. Tonight we had our final class of Wilton course #2! During course 2 we made a BUNCH of different flowers, most using royal icing. It is definitely a different animal than buttercream! We saved all the flowers we made over the four weeks for the grand finale cake, which featured the basket-weave and the flowers (oh, and a couple birds). Without further ado, I present...my cake!
I've signed up for another class starting the first week in November: Fondant! I am really excited about learning to work with fondant, as I've never used it before. It seems like you can do so many different things with fondant, and I look forward to experimenting. I'll definitely keep posting pictures!

And the award goes to...

...Amelia! She was chosen "Super Student of the Week" in her Pre-K class. This award is given by the teachers to a student who "makes good choices all week." Amelia got a certificate, and got to choose a prize out of the prize box (a little spinny top). She was quite proud of herself, and we were quite proud of her!Last week was fire safety week at Teddy Bear Daycare, and the students got up close and personal with a fire truck and firemen! Each student received her very own "Ypsilanti Township Fire Department" hat; it's already gotten a lot of wear, but not by Amelia...see below! Every time Andrew puts the hat on, he shakes his arms for a couple minutes. Who knows what that's about, but it's cute!

My Little Ponies: A New Musical by Amelia Jobe

Enjoy this original song Amelia came up with today while playing. Broadway, here we come! ;-)

And so it begins...

Last week, Bryan and I each reached a milestone; I became a soccer mom and Bryan became a coach of his kid's team! Amelia is playing soccer in the preschool-age league run by our township. The first practice/game was quite an experience (Bryan compared it to herding cats)! Amelia had a lot of fun playing, and even scored a goal! Bryan is a great coach and I think the kids will have a great experience being on his team.

Amelia also started pre-ballet and pre-tap class last week, so we're getting kind of busy (thus the title of this post)! She has really enjoyed class the last couple of weeks and informed us that she likes ballet better than tap "because the shoes are prettier. They're pink." So there you go! The class is closed to parents except for the first week of the month, so I'm looking forward to next Thursday when I get to see what she's actually learning. If I can video, I will!

Andrew, of course, is too little for much organized activity, but he's quite a trooper in tagging along and cheering (he can actually dribble the soccer ball quite well!). He has recently started saying a lot of words, including bus, tractor, truck, (do you see a theme here?), cracker (which sounds a lot like tractor), puppy, ducky,doggie...and that's all I can think of for now. Oh, and he calls Amelia "YaYa." I think that's pretty cute, myself. Hope all is well with everyone in the blogosphere! Enjoy the pictures!

Return from a break!

Hello, readers! If you are reading this then you've been very faithful. :-) I've taken a break from blogging over the summer, but now that we're back in a routine, I figured I'd better get back to blogging!

We had a great summer, but we're glad it's fall! Amelia started school again last week, which we're ALL happy about. The Early K program we'd planned to send her to ended up falling through (thanks for pulling the funding, Michigan government), so she's staying where she's been and going to Pre-K every morning. There are two Pre-K classes this year, so she has a different teacher, which is nice and will give her a bit of a different experience. Her class is going to learn some French this year, which I'm excited about since I studied French in high school and college! It should be fun to practice! Amelia will also get to be present for music class at school this year, which I know she'll love. Here is a picture of her first day of school (it was raining, and Andrew wanted to be in the picture too!). Doesn't she look old? :-(

Of course the other reason we're glad it's fall is that college football is back; well I should say Michigan football is back! And BOY, IS IT BACK!!!!! We are pumped about the first two games, can you tell? :-) We have tickets to five home games this year so we will really get to get into the spirit. Here's a picture of us with our friends Anne and Ted Ledbetter after the first game.
And finally, I am taking a cake decorating class! It's the first course in a series of Wilton cake decorating classes offered at our local JoAnn Etc. and I'm really enjoying it! I'm really looking forward to taking a couple of the more advanced classes, but you have to take the 1st course as a pre-requisite. This is the cake I made for the first week's lesson, which was on using the star tip. Nothing spectacular, but it was tasty, and we ate it when we had friends over to watch UM's victory over the Irish! I'll post pictures of the cakes I do each week, so hopefully we'll see improvement!>Happy fall to everyone, and if you're reading, thanks for hanging in there!

We're back

We're back from our wonderful, two-week vacation to Kauai, Hawaii. It was so nice to have two full weeks to be in such a beautiful, relaxing place with our family! The first week we spent on the north shore in Princeville at the Hanalei Bay Resort, where my parents have a timeshare. We enjoyed playing on the beach and in the pool, eating shave ice, watching birds (and the multitudes of chickens), and playing Wii when it rained. The second week we went to the south shore to spend time with extended family at the Mariott Waiohai Beach Club in Poipu. My Aunt Andrea and Uncle Cam Henderson have the timeshare there and used those priveliges to get three units--enough for my parents, Abby, the four of us, the four of them (my aunt and uncle, and my cousins Austin and Brittany), and my aunt Mary Ann--so we could have a little family reuniuon. It really was great to get to spend time with them! I haven't seen most of them in about seven years, so it really was a treat. We haven't spent much time on the south shore before, and we really enjoyed it over there! We also had a lot of pool and beach time there, as well as fierce card playing at night. :-)

The trip to Hawaii was VERY long and kind of stressful but we got there all in one piece, and the trip back was also very long but the kids slept almost the entire way, so it made it much better. We are so thankful we were able to have a great vacation, and as wonderful as it was, we are still glad to be home. Here's a couple pictures, and I've uploaded a whole album on facebook if you want to see more. They're also on kodakgallery but I can't get them to link at the moment! I'll work on that!

Amelia's art

Amelia loves coloring in coloring books and drawing pictures with markers and crayons. The other day at school her class was talking about what they wanted to be when they grow up, and Amelia told me she wanted to be a mom and an artist. Sounds good to me! Another interesting thing is that lately she's been trying to sound out words and write them; here is an example below. She's written PRNSESAS (princesses), U "heart" I (I love) and Amelia (she obviously does this one right!). This translates to "Amelia loves princesses" in Amelian. I am quite proud of her since she spelled "prnsesas" on her own without asking for help. Good phonetics, Amelia! Oh, by the way, on the left is Amelia, then Cinderella, Snow White (with Grumpy and Dopey), and Sleeping Beauty. They're in front of a castle.
And here is a Mother's Day card Amelia drew for me at church last week. It cracked me up. Here is the front:
and here is the inside:
Happy Mother's Day, everyone...thanks for the meatballs! ;-)

Spring

Spring is finally (I think) here to stay in Michigan. Hooray! Driving around in the past couple days I've seen daffodils and tulips all around, so that's a sure sign, right??? It's been so nice to have warm enough weather for the kids to be outside. They get cabin fever with it being cold for so long!

So I looked at the date of my last post and realized I've not posted anything for a month. I've been slacking! Actually, it's probably more like nothing all that interesting or new has been happening, so I haven't felt the need to share. :-) Anyway, hope everyone had a happy Easter yesterday. Below are a few pics of the kids. We were only able to get one picture of them together in their cute outfits before church, as Andrew fell asleep in the car on the way home from church and then had completely soaked his clothes by the time I got him up from his nap. Oh well! This one will do until I stage an "Easter" photo with them another day. Happy Spring!

An exciting update to an earlier post!

Okay, so the earlier post was a long time ago last year, but still, those of you who've been reading this blog a while, you'll remember! I had been going back and forth about whether or not to send Amelia to Kindergarten in the fall (in Michigan, you have to be 5 by December 1st). Bryan and I had reached the decision that we'd wait a year since she'd be one of the youngest in her class, and we'd keep sending her to preschool (Pre-K) like we've been doing this year, but instead of sending her three days a week we'd send her every day, for a half-day. We were both happy with this situation (although the monthly cost would be substantially higher, not happy), and then....

...my friend Michelle told me that she'd been to the Kindergarten Roundup (for parents of incoming kindergarteners) for our local district and they were very excited about a new program they're starting up this fall: Early K! Basically, it's a program designed specifically for kids who turn 5 close to the kindergarten cutoff date (between July 1 and December 1). You "commit" to the program for two years; the first year, your child goes every day, for a half day, and the next year, your child's classmates and teacher "loop" (stay together) and go up to full-day kindergarten. The teachers can adapt the curriculum to provide extra help or more challenging material, based on the needs of the individual kids. Michelle knew our dilemma with kindergarten next year, and thought of me!

I am SO glad about this program! I immediately contacted the school for more information and spoke to the principal (who is very nice) and got Amelia set up for an appointment to register. Yay! So now Amelia will technically be going to Kindergarten, but it's a much better situation, and we'll basically be getting the same (actually a little better) thing we would've been getting at TBDC (Amelia's current school)...but for FREE!!! When I went by the school to pick up the information packet, Amelia went with me, and she was SO excited to see the new school (especially the playground). Every day since she's been saying "I'm a big girl and I get to go to Kindergarten soon!" We can't wait to hear more about this new deveopment and we'll give updates as we know them. I love it when things work out!

A Big Day

Andrew turned one year old yesterday. I can hardly believe it! He is walking everywhere, getting into everything, cutting teeth, babbling up a storm, playing peek-a-boo, and keeping us entertained. Here is a "year in review" slideshow for you. Most of the pictures will be ones you've already seen if you follow the blog, but it's interesting to look at them in succesion.

Aha!

We were finally able to get a video of Andrew walking. Enjoy!

11 months

I realize it's a bit late to be saying "happy new year," so happy 2009! Since I last blogged, we had a wonderful Christmas with family, got about 12 inches of snow (not all at once, but that's how much is on the ground now), Andrew took his first steps, I turned 30, had dear friends visit from out of town, we got a new president, and Andrew turned 11 months old. That's a lot, if you ask me!

Andrew has never been in the snow, so I decided for his 11 month picture I'd put him in a snowsuit, take him outside and see what happened. He was less than thrilled, although I suspect most of that was due to the fact that he couldn't move with all that padding (think: kid from the move "Christmas Story" and see picture below). I haven't been able to catch Andrew walking on camera, and he really only does it a couple steps at a time (and that only when he doesn't realize he's doing it), so I thought some of him standing up would substitute fine. Thus the assortment of 11 month pictures below. Enjoy, and I hope your 2009 has started out wonderfully!