I was a better Mom before I had kids

Have you ever heard of the book, I was a better Mom before I had kids? Well, I haven't read it, but I certainly feel like I could have written it! I was always the one in the restaurant or the grocery store that would roll her eyes and mumble to myself about how a parent needed to control their kid; now occasionally I'm the one with the kid screaming "No! No! No!" I also used to hate how society softened up and said to use time-out instead of spankings; now I understand the expression "This hurts me more than it hurts you"....I can't stand to do it! I used to tell Moms to NEVER bribe their kids or reward them for things they are supposed to do. But come on, who are we kidding? Even James Dobson recommends a little "incentivizing". So that's what we do! Like he says, would you work if you weren't receiving a paycheck? So we've decided "incentivizing" is acceptable while:

1.Potty training

2.Staying quiet in church

3.Staying still in a restaurant

4.Sitting nicely on Santa's lap for a good picture

Sure, that may take us out of the running for Parents of the Year, but sometimes you just do what you can to make life easier!

Anyone who has tried to take a picture of Jacob anytime in the last year knows that it is not an easy task. As soon as he sees a camera he yells "No want to!" and runs away. It is very frustrating! Enter, another ammendment to the bribing...I mean incentivizing....rule. When offered a single jelly bean, we went from this (notice the puckered lips):

to this:

.....I rest my case.

As Jacob would say...."TA DA!"

May I present, by popular request....The Adventures of Jacob and Reece!

Two of my New Years Resolutions were to take more pictures of our kids and to start a blog about them. Well now that it's March, I figured it's about time I get started! A lot of our friends have blogs about their kids, and I've thought about doing one for a long time. We have a lot of family and friends who love to get emails about Jacob and Reece, but alas, I never send any. So I thought this would be a perfect way to keep everyone up-to-date on what's going on with Jacob and Reece. This has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that we have the 2 most precious children in the world. Nor does this have anything to do with the fact that we are very proud of them and love to show them off. We're just doing this for everyone else! :)

One reason I've put off doing this is because I'm a firm believer in sibling equality. (Mom- stop laughing!). I didn't like the fact that I would be starting this while Reece is a baby, and I never got to share any cute stories/pictures of Jacob when he was a baby. Then I remembered an idea I got from our good friend Emily Fuller (author of the infamous Twins Come in Twos- Adventures of the Fuller Five blog). Every now and then I will do a "Flashback Friday" or "Turnback Tuesday" or something and post an old picture, story, whatever. But I won't commit to either, because anyone who knows me well knows that I won't be able to stick to one specific day every week. As a matter of fact, this might be the one and only post this blog has!

Here is a recent picture of Jacob and Reece that has gotten a lot of praise. My mom had an idea to do a "Where's Waldo" type picture of the kids and send it to Jason while he was in Japan for 2 weeks. It's turned out to be one of everyone's favorite pictures. I'm even considering doing a whole book of "Where's Jacob and Reece" and do a different theme with every page! You know, once the dishwasher is unloaded, the clothes are folded, the kids graduate college, etc.

Hope y'all enjoy!