Jude's Blog

Haircut and looking like a big guy.

2012-02-10T15:24:00.001-08:00

Birthday, cont'd

2012-02-10T10:10:00.000-08:00

When Jude woke up on his birthday, he went into the kitchen to find party decorations! We had waffles for breakfast and Jude got to open a few presents. Mommy and Daddy gave Jude "wall tracks" -- Hot Wheels tracks that attach to the wall. They are cool!

Jude went to school on part of his birthday, and in the afternoon he went to see "Happy Feet Two" with mommy and daddy. We finished our evening with a kid's meal at Chick-fil-a. It was a great birthday!

Grandma and grandpa gave Jude a karaoke machine for his birthday, and he is refining his skills as a ham.

Bday party time

2012-02-07T18:48:00.000-08:00

Jude's 4th birthday party was a big hit with his friends from church. We played a ton of games, including tricycle races, ring around the rosy, duck duck goose, hokey pokey and freeze dance to name a few! One game that was not as successful was sharks and minnows -- a game of running and tagging that 3 and 4 year olds are still a little too young for. Somehow, when they are running, the kids don't see each other in their peripheral vision and many crashes occurred! All in all, we had a great time. Jude is a lucky boy with many sweet friends.

Another big hit at the party was Aunt Diane and her balloons. Diane brought a ton of "rocket" balloons that the kids loved to blow up and then let go! The balloons shot off like a rocket and the kids would chase them all over the gym. We love this picture below of Diane and our friend Colton, preparing to launch the balloon and then watching as it shoots into the air!

Watching balloons with Chi Chi.

Estee and Josh led the kids in a round of singing "Hey Jude."

Jude creates, tells and illustrated an audio picture book?

2012-02-03T10:45:00.000-08:00

Recently we found an app on an ipad that allows "lessons" to be made and shared.

We used this app, called "educreations", and let Jude tell and draw a story.

If you click this link you too can experience this one minute story, created, told and illustrated by Jude.

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/judes-story/433522/?s=qqF96X

Enjoy.

Christmas memories

2012-01-03T19:33:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! 1.5 weeks late! Jude and family had a wonderful Christmas and took some time off from the computer over the holidays. We spent the weekend before Christmas with family in Oklahoma -- see the memories below!

Jude cried when he had to leave Grandma's house -- just like his mommy did when she was little!

On Christmas morning, Jude received a book of mazes in his stocking from Santa. Here he is, eating his breakfast and working on a maze. He got other things from Santa too, but the $3 maze book was probably his favorite. Go figure.

Grandma and Grandpa Carel got Jude a video game that you have to pedal and steer to play. His favorite level is the one you have to wear 3D glasses to see.

Post Christmas nap on the couch with the guys!

Best Christmas Pageant Ever

2011-12-04T19:02:00.001-08:00

Tonight, Jude was a star in a constellation of many other Pre-K stars. It was their first year in the Christmas pageant at FUMC, and they were fantastic. This performance brought down the house! Enjoy!

Christmas in the barn

2011-12-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday night, Jude was playing with his barnyard BFFs when he had an epiphany. He's been learning that baby Jesus was born in a barn, and he happened to have his brand new pocket nativity set close at hand. So, why not combine these two great toys into one awesome nativity scene? Voila! Baby Jesus in the Little People Barn was born. Did you know that there was a pig on the scene in Bethlehem? Or a farmer and his tractor? Well, in Jude's imaginary nativity, these are definitely part of the scene. He was very proud of his barnyard nativity.

If you're thankful and you know it

2011-11-30T19:00:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving was a protracted holiday of many blessings for Jude. We spent Thanksgiving day at Nana and Pop's house, eating turkey and enjoying our family. On Friday afternoon, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for Thanksgiving part 2. Besides the turkey dinner, the Friday festivities had two highlights.

First, Jude put on a thrilling "Turkey Review" show, featuring one of the songs he learned at VBS, "Give Thanks." See the video for this part of the show. You'll see that Jude's favorite part is the motions to the word "strong." Also participating in the show were Josh and his girlfriend, Adell. This was our first time to meet Adell and we think she's super sweet, and she earned many cool points by decorating and wearing a paper-bag Indian vest along with the boys.

A second highlight was the amount of candy Jude ate while assembling his gingerbread house. We think that almost as much candy that he pasted to the house ended up in his belly. And now, four days post construction, the house miraculously still stands with candy intact. We'll see how many more days it can endure until it means the jaws of a candy-suppressed three year old.

Gettin Ready for Thanksgiving

2011-11-21T06:06:00.000-08:00

Turkey Day is on its way, and Jude is prepared. He had a Thanksgiving feast last Thursday at school. It was truly a preschool feast, with mashed potatoes, corn, green beans and chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-a. Jude ate . . . the cupcake. And a few bites of corn. He is not a starving pilgrim.

He and all his friends had Indian headbands, each with a special Indian name. Jude's name was "Quiet Elephant." We are pretty sure that last year, he was "Quiet Lion." That tells you something about his character!

At school, the kids also made Thanksgiving place mats and their teachers helped write what they said they were thankful for. See Jude's thankful thoughts below. Please notice two things:
1. Jude says he is thankful for "sister." Who is sister you might ask? Your guess is as good as ours! She's Jude's dream sibling!
2. He has all of his favorite people listed to the right (including cousin Jackson). Mommy and Daddy are written to the left, an obvious afterthought on the part of his teacher. She is a shrewd woman. We are thankful for her.

Learning to write "JUDE"

2011-11-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

Jude is learning to write his name, and we're very impressed with his progress. I told him this morning that he is best at making the letter "E." He's still working on writing from the left to the right. Our next goal - learning to write in lowercase!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T06:52:00.000-07:00

Jude had a great Halloween at school and with his family! Jude was a vintage cowboy. His costume belonged to uncle Josh who wore it for Halloween 24 years ago. The chaps and vest were made for Josh by Great Grandma Wolf, and were lovingly saved for Jude and fit him perfectly!

At school, they had a costume show for all the parents. Jude's class was full of princesses. Jude the cowboy and Davis the army man were there to escort the princesses. Will was a rocket ship -- not the right kind of date for a princess.

In the evening, Jude celebrated with Grandma and Grandpa and Nana and Pops. The Carel family was all dressed up for the evening. Grandpa was Jude's partner (Grandpa said his cowboy name was Fergus, but mommy still doesn't get that). Grandma was a scarecrow who scared little kids when they came to trick or treat. Mommy was Flash the horse, another awesome costume handmade by Great Grandma.

Bringing Joy into the world via a bounce house

2011-10-28T09:50:00.001-07:00

Jude having a blast, using some energy and making the world smile.

Colorado Vacation - Part 2

2011-09-12T19:33:00.000-07:00

Before we left for Colorado, we asked Jude if he wanted to ride a horse in the mountains. His consistent answer was "no." So, imagine our surprise when Jude expressed an interest in riding a pony on the top of Vail mountain. The encouraging, supportive parents that we are, we were certain that he would chicken out the minute he got on top of the pony. We even made sure that when we paid the $10 for 12 laps around the pony corral ($10 for a pony ride!! who are these people?), we could get our money back if Jude refused to cooperate.

The mountain air must have breathed new courage into our boy, for he did ride the pony, and even managed a few smiles. The entire family was in awe. Estee's repeated expression when Jude finished his ride was "I can't believe you rode a pony!" and Donice finally had to tell her to shut up, or Jude would never think he could ride a pony again! We are very proud of our little cowboy.

Other feats of courage included a long bike ride in "the chariot." Any lazy person would love the experience of being pulled along the trail in a kid trailer, the crisp mountain breeze in your face, watching the scene pass by as you did absolutely nothing to contribute to the effort. But three year olds have this desire to "do it myself," so it took a little coercing to get Jude to ride in the buggy. But he ended up loving it, and his daddy ended up with very sore legs.

The activity Jude loved most of all was hiking. We hiked all kids of trails and the kid really kept up and led the way. We spent much of one day on top of Vail mountain and Jude was a trooper on a hike that left even Donice and Estee a little out of breath!

A final activity when Jude demonstrated his valor was at the river. Grandpa and Josh made brave attempts to cross the rapids and prove that they were man enough for the icy water. Rapids be damned! They got about halfway across and then realized that it was kind of pointless and turned around. Jude showed that he had the real brains though when he stuck his foot in and deemed the water too cold for anything but rock throwing. Brains before brawn indeed.

Colorado Vacation - Part 1

2011-09-06T19:53:00.000-07:00

Jude and co. returned on Saturday evening from a great vacation in Colorado. The trip was full of so many "firsts" for Jude -- first airplane ride, first hiking experience, first sight of the mountains, first pony ride! We've decided to do a few blog posts about our trip, to share the memories. We'll begin with the flight . . .

Jude's mom has a little anxiety about flying on a plane. Her palms get sweaty and she has to work really hard during takeoff to not scream under her breath each time the plane's altitude changes. We were both afraid that Estee's anxiety would rub off on Jude and that the flight would be a 2 hour ride of terror. But, luckily, Jude thought the whole thing was fun and not scary at all! The static electricity of Estee's anxiety didn't seem to rub off on him. At one point, after we'd taken off, there was a slight drop in altitude and Estee instinctually grabbed for the nearest thing to cling to, which happened to be Jude. Instead of being frightened by his mom, Jude just gave her a look like "what's your problem?" He's braver than we ever knew.

Another highlight of the trip was that it included uncle Josh. The altitude did something strange to both Josh and Jude's tummies, so they were the noisy, stinky brothers together for part of the trip. Jude got a big kick out of that. His mother was less amused.

Moving up

2011-08-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Jude's last day in Ms. Michelle's class at preschool. Starting on Monday, he and his friends will move up a class with a new teacher, Ms. Ashley. To celebrate the end of their year, Jude and his friends had a pizza party yesterday. Jude contributed Thomas the Train plates for the party, which he was very proud of. Jude loves his friends at school and mommy loves that Jude is still right down the hall on school days. We've got a good thing going!

Jude and Will

This is where Jude and his friends play house. Last week when I went to pick Jude up, Jude was at a doctor's appointment with Chi-Chi inside the house, and Chi-Chi was listening for his heartbeat.

All the friends with Ms. Michelle

Jude and Chi-Chi are big buddies! Her mom is a professor at UTA where she is, no kidding, a rocket scientist. We're hopeful that some of those smarts will rub off from Chi-Chi onto Jude!

The pizza party. Our picky eater was not excited about the prospect of pizza for lunch, and before we left the house that morning he made me fix him a sandwich. Go figure.

Another funny from Jude yesterday -- as I was putting him to sleep, he asked me to tell him a story. We had just talked about the name Joshua and how his uncle is named Josh and how there is also a Joshua in the bible. So, for a story, I told Jude about Joshua in the bible and how he led the Israelites into the promised land after they were in the desert for 40 years. After stories, Jude always tells me: "Mommy, come check on me in one minute." Last night, however, Jude said, without missing a beat, "Mommy, come check on me in 40 years." Classic!

Jude and mom watching a puppet show

2011-08-15T06:00:00.001-07:00

VBS 2011

2011-08-05T13:08:00.000-07:00

Today, Jude finished up a week of VBS at mommy's church. This was Jude's first year as a participant, and he had a blast. Mommy taught Jude's class of 16 three year olds, and she is tired! We did all kinds of fun things, as you'll see below.

At crafts, we used glue and glitter and stickers to make sticky art projects, like these flower pots.

We ate snacks together on the playground. Snow cones were a perfect snack for the early morning heat. Jude's mommy stupidly wore white pants on the day we served snow cones to 16 three year olds. But by some miracle, she came home stain free!

At recreation time, we played lots of games like red light green light, relay races, and the class favorite, ring around the rosy.

In "Discovery Time," we did science experiments like making butter and ice cream (requires lots of shaking, which is good for wiggly three year olds).

This afternoon, we had our closing program with 250 other kids. Jude is in the very front, at the bottom right hand of the picture.

During the program, the kids sang the songs they learned during the week. Jude is a master of singing with motions which makes his mommy incredibly proud.

Like mother like son

2011-07-24T05:21:00.001-07:00

Jude and Estee at breakfast.

Sea Life

2011-07-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

Some of Jude's favorite people made a special visit to his house this week. Jordan, Jackson and Aunt Diane came to town and spent the night at Jude's house! Having his cousin Jackson sleep over is probably the ultimate experience for Jude. Not even chocolate milk tops that! While they were here, we spent part of the day at the new Sea Life Aquarium at Grapevine Mills.

Before our underwater adventure, we ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, which seemed like a great idea until the robotic gorillas started to howl and beat their chests. It was terrifying to a three year old, who clung to us like a scared kitten all through lunch. More on that later.

The aquarium was really worth the visit. We all enjoyed the beautiful fish and the cool exhibits. We did not enjoy the swarms of children who ran wild around us, but we figured out that if we went slowly, we could outlast the wild things whose attention spans were very short.

One factoid we learned: Did you know that sharks are some of the oldest creatures on earth? Scientists believe that sharks were around before the dinosaurs, and fossil records tell us that the ancient sharks looked a lot like sharks today!

Although Jude was completely traumatized by the robotic gorillas at the Rainforest Cafe, his cousin Jackson became a hero when he made a game out of the gorilla fury. Periodically, the sound would come on in the restaurant and the gorillas would begin to howl loudly. Below, Jackson and Jude demonstrate that they too have primate pride.

Fourth of July

2011-07-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

Fourth of July -- a day for too much fun in the sun, fireworks and snowcones. Jude played in the swimming pool all day on July 3, and then went to see a fireworks show with his family that evening. The star glasses topped off the day!

On July 4, Jude swam some more at Nana and Pop's house. All that swimming made for one tired little man -- we crashed early that evening!

2011-07-08T09:31:00.001-07:00

I love you this much

2011-06-24T08:25:00.001-07:00

Daddy is 'dained

2011-06-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

We are very proud that Jude's daddy was ordained on June 7. After the service, Jude gave Jason and big hug and exclaimed "Daddy, your 'dained!"

Beach experiment

2011-06-11T18:49:00.000-07:00

Jude just arrived home from his first trip to the beach. We went to Port Aransas for a mini family vacation and to see our friend Ray get ordained in Corpus Christi. Jude's first encounter with the ocean was . . . uncertain. Such a huge amount of water is scary to a three year old.

The first day, Jude wouldn't even get close to the ocean. Instead, he played in the small tide pools that dotted the beach. And, just to be safe, he sometimes held his shorts up so they wouldn't get wet.

By our second day, however, Jude was brave enough to stand ankle deep in the water, while holding tightly to his mom's hand.

Jude loved to pick up shells -- a trait he has in common with his Wolf family!

Walking out on the pier with daddy. We watched fishermen catch a stingray while we were visiting the pier. Then we left quickly!

Our friends Megan and Ray came out for a visit and brought their 7 week old son, Asher.

Song #2

2011-05-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

Another song for your viewing pleasure! This is another one of Jude's favorites. The words go:
"I had a little chicken, the chicken pleased me, I fed my chicken behind that tree. And the chicken said 'cooka-do-cooka-do coo! Everybody's feeding chickens I'll feed my chicken too." Etc. with other animals.
Actually typing those words out makes me think how nonsense they are! But they make perfect sense to Jude.

Let's go swimming . . .

2011-05-11T18:29:00.000-07:00

This is a new favorite song of Jude's. The words are:
"Let's go swimming in my swimming pool, let's go swimming in my swimming pool, let's go swimming in my swimming pool, out in my backyard."
The verses consist of fishes who"bubble," ducks who "waddle," etc.
We are not sure what Jude is doing with his eyes in this video -- he was just in a crazy mood!

A shirt I would like for Jude

2011-05-04T18:37:00.001-07:00

Jude and papa go camping.

2011-04-23T11:37:00.001-07:00

They made it to midnight then Jude wanted to go inside. Papa did not sleep well but Jude loved it. Next time they will work on fire building.

Easter Egg Hunt

2011-04-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

Jude hunted eggs like a pro today. The hunt took place at Estee's church, and Jude was ready to go after practicing all weekend with his great grandparents and Aunt Debbie! After he collected his eggs, Jude lined them up on the grass so he could count them out. He ended up with 15, a number he can't quite count to yet.

After the egg hunt, Jude and Papa and Pops went to the petting zoo where Jude was determined to share some of his Easter candy with the bunny rabbit. In spite of an earnest attempt to feed the bunny a jelly bean, Jude was unsuccesful. After holding the jelly bean up to the bunny's lips, Jude did surreptitiously pop the jelly bean into his own mouth, so we are watching him closely for some kind of weird bunny virus.

Jude then tried to feed the bunny a carrot, but obviously the bunny just wasn't hungry. Who would pass up a jelly bean for a carrot anyway?

Tessa and Jude

2011-04-15T12:41:00.001-07:00

Cousins are cool.

Jim and Nancy, thank you for the giant Colonel Hathi!

2011-04-07T06:52:00.000-07:00

Our Friends Jim and Nancy Allen gave Jude a giant elephant whom Jude has named "Colonel Hathi".

We cannot go anywhere without Hathi these days.

Jude on his hog

2011-03-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

Camp Spring Break

2011-03-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

This week, Jude got to spend an awesome spring break with his Wolf family! Cousins Jordan, Jackson and Camden came down from Oklahoma with Great Grandma and Grandpa. Jude's Grandma and her sisters, Diane and Debbie, made sure all the kids had a "camp" experience to rival Camp Ozakie, the summer "camp" that Estee and her cousins went to when they were kids at their Grandma's house in Ozakie, Kansas (Grandma, am I spelling that right?)

What kinds of activities do campers do at spring break camp you ask? Well, we did garden crafts, played games, had a picnic, fed the ducks, flew a kite, went to the park . . . it was exhausting how many things we did! One of the camp traditions we continued that started when Jude's mommy was little was "Magic Circle Time." It's a time for each camper to share something with the group like a story, a song, or a joke. Jordan reviewed camp news for the campers at each Magic Circle Time. One evening, Jackson and Camden each read a 60 page Dr. Seuss book -- wow!! Jude helped lead everyone in singing "Deep and Wide." Great Grandpa told stories about going fishing when he was a little boy.

Another special activity we did was pack health kits for people in Japan. The campers were all very sensitive to the needs of kids in Japan who were scared and who need help. They assembled kits with hygeine items that we'll send to UMCOR.

Enjoy the pictures of our fun spring break week!

Magic Circle Sharing

Singing "Deep and Wide"

Musical events

2011-03-06T18:15:00.000-08:00

Today, Jude went with his mom to see his first musical. The show was "Beauy and the Beast" at Theatre Arlington. We were so impressed with the all-youth cast! The show was absolutely wonderful and we are are in awe of the work that Todd Hart has done (he's the Theatre Arlington Executive Producer and an FUMC member). I wasn't sure if the show would scare Jude, but he was riveted the whole time! He said that his favorite part was "the beast"!

Jude with "Beauty" and the "Beast"

Jude and "Lumiere" (the candleabra)

After, the show we went back to church for our own time to make music with the children's choir. Jude comes with his mom to choir every Sunday night and sings with the 1st and 2nd graders. Tonight, all the kids agreed to sing "Deep and Wide" with Jude so I could show his family what a great choir they are. Enjoy!

Just reading

2011-03-01T06:50:00.000-08:00

New bed

2011-02-21T19:08:00.000-08:00

Jude got a new twin bed for his birthday this year. He's actually doing really well sleeping in it at night (knock on wood). Tonight, Estee came home around 8:00 for a church meeting and went into Jude's room to tell him goodnight. She found Jude wearing sunglasses and talking to his animals! With a big boy bed comes the ability to get up and put some toys in your bed after your dad puts you down to sleep!

Jude's birthday

2011-02-08T05:23:00.001-08:00

Jude's birthday is today but Estee and I have this church stuff we are doing all day today. We will not be able to see Jude until it is near bedtime. If Jude reads this when he is older, we hope that he knows how proud we are to be his parents and how much we miss him!

Happy birthday Jude.

Birthday party

2011-02-06T19:21:00.000-08:00

Jude had a wonderful birthday party on Saturday with all his friends from church! All the kids and their mommies and daddies were ready to get out of the house after a week inside because of the snow! Jude's party was in the Great Hall at our church, and the kids were able to run around and expend the pent-up energy they'd had all week.

After time for free-play in the gym, we had a special guest at our birthday party. His name was Mr. Willy and he came to sing songs and tell stories to the kids. Jude loved him! Here is a video of the end of his storytime. Watch Jude's face at the end of the video, when Mr. Willy confuses him -- classic!

Before the party, Jude helped set up the cupcake table. He lined up the cups all on his own.

This is one of our friends, McKenna. She was crawling on the side of the bounce house and her hair was standing up from the static. The kids loved playing in Jude's bounce house!

Jude tells an epic poem

2011-01-11T06:17:00.000-08:00

at about 7:55am Jude began to tell an epic poem. There was a beast, a lion, rabbits and a slew of other characters.

At 8:12:am, I was able to get the camera out and document a couple of minutes of this epic poem.

This two minute video can be boring and it feels like I am posting a video to show people about my kid even though no one cares. In fact at about 1:28 in the video, Jude lets out a sigh that makes you wonder if he is tired of telling this epic poem.

Enjoy this exerpt from Ballard Judah telling the epic poem of "Jabberwocky and the beast"

Sunday's coming and Jude's working on his next sermon

2011-01-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2010

2010-12-28T15:00:00.000-08:00

Jude and family had a wonderful Christmas together! Enjoy some photo memories from our holiday. Ho ho ho!

Jude and his mommy made the cookies for Santa that we left out on Christmas Eve. Santa was lucky there were any left.

Jude's present from Santa is a tricycle, which he calls a bicycle. We haven't ridden it yet -- he needs to grow about a half an inch to reach the pedals!

We spent the morning and afternoon with Joe and Jan, opening lots of presents and having fun!

Jude received a Thomas the Train set from Nana and Pops. You flip a switch and Thomas moves on his own. If only the track could be assembled by motorized elves!

In the evening, we went to Grandma and Papa's house for dinner and more presents. A day of presents left Jude expecting more presents everyday since! We are still trying to explain to him that Christmas won't happen for another year, but he doesn't seem to understand that yet.

Grandma and Papa gave Jude his own bounce house for Christmas. Papa told Jude that Santa set it up in his backyard. That Santa is pretty sneaky.

Jude's shirt says "Who needs Santa? I've got Grandpa!" Very appropriate!!

Christmas with Jude pt 2

2010-12-19T14:45:00.000-08:00

This video is of Jude in his first public performance. He is a shepherd and was supposed to sing, but he did not feel well, saw his mommy and then just lost it. This was the best we got.

Christmas with Jude

2010-12-19T14:25:00.000-08:00

Jude went to a parade and I am not sure if you can tell he waved the entire time and wished people "Merry Christmas."

Judenastics

2010-12-12T15:04:00.001-08:00

A Slue of little videos for your pleasure (a not too bad way to kill a little time)

2010-12-11T07:20:00.000-08:00

Each Thursday I tries to "catch" Jude playing with other kids in order to film a bit of it for Estee. As the kids get older they identify me as Jude's dad and will tell him when I am there, thus making it very hard to get any video of Jude playing. Here is a few seconds just after he is notified that "Jude's daddy is here."

While Grandma and Mom spent time together for Estee's birthday, Jude and Dad went to the Museum of Science and History in Fort Worth. I was blown away at Jude's instance on playing in the "market" to collect food. This was the busiest place in the Museum and Jude was one of the youngest in the bunch. I was concerned he would be run over by the dominate personalties and older kids. Attempting to be less of a helicopter parent, I stood at a distance and watched as Jude patiently stood in line and waited his turn to "check out".

Finally, later in same Grandma/Mommy day together, I took Jude to see a house in Fort Worth that is decked out in a ton of lights. This house had a Mr. and Mrs. Clause, an elf, the TCU horned Frog, Frosty, and Rudolph (with flashing nose!). There were many cars behind us and so the video is not the best quality but this place is crazy nuts for a house in Fort Worth just off one of the putting greens at a high end country club.

Singing with mom

2010-12-11T07:07:00.000-08:00

One of the rare times in which Jude will "allow" for Estee to play the piano. I suppose he will let anyone play the piano as long as he is the center of attention. There is a 2 year old for you.

Memories of Turkey Day

2010-12-02T19:57:00.000-08:00

The annual Wolf family turkey review was a great success, as always. Jude and cousin Camden kicked things off early with a time of playing in the leaves at grandma's house.

Jude gets ready for Christmas.

2010-11-27T11:44:00.001-08:00

He did this for 20 minutes straight.

In a magic cave

2010-11-27T09:19:00.001-08:00

Cousins are fun

2010-11-26T13:44:00.001-08:00

Jude builds a ginger bread house

2010-11-25T15:01:00.001-08:00

The traditions continue...

First pinata for Jude

2010-11-24T18:34:00.001-08:00

You don't have pinata at thanksgiving? You must not be American!

Jude's dinner request

2010-11-20T15:20:00.001-08:00

Jude as a monkey

2010-11-15T17:58:00.001-08:00

Jude walks like an elephant

2010-11-05T12:59:00.001-07:00

Jude as Maleficent

2010-11-04T18:33:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, my favorite Disney movie was Sleeping Beauty. So, although there is quite a bit of violence in it for a Disney movie, Jude has still watched it a number of times.

Tonight at bedtime, Jude wanted me to tell the story of Sleeping Beauty so he could act it out. The first time around, I was sleeping beauty and Jude was the prince. But the next time, Jude wanted to be Maleficent, the evil witch who curses sleeping beauty to prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die. 2-year-old appropriate, right?

Jude began the dramatization by telling me "this is a spinning wheel. TOUCH IT!" I proceeded to prick my finger on his finger and faint. Jude then looked at his dad and told him to be "Pince Phillip."

We played the game a few more times, continuing to rotate the characters. The funniest rotation was when Jude was Maleficent, Jason was sleeping beauty, and Estee was the pince!

Big imaginations are working at bedtime in our house!

Potty Milestone

2010-11-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

Tuesday's are Jude's day at Grandma and Papa Carel's house, and today they all celebrated an exciting milestone together.

Papa Carel documents the experience for us:

"While I was home for lunch today, Jude started getting that glassy-eyed look and I asked him if he was going potty in his diaper. He was straining and didn't have a response so Grandma (being on top of the situation) suggested that Jude go sit on his potty. I got him situated and read him a book (improvised how the three bears were really going potty) and after a few minutes a visual check combined with a smell check confirmed the presence of poop in the potty.

After a brief celebration I congratulated Jude on his accomplishment and then promptly left Grandma with the clean up."

Many thanks to Grandma and Papa for encouraging Jude and rewarding him with ice cream and M&Ms! We're glad that you got to share this significant milestone with him.

Jude, if you happen to see this blog post once you've become an adult and mastered the art of pooping on the potty, then we apologize that we are blogging about something so personal as your first poop. Someday, when you have kids of your own and have changed countless dirty diapers, you'll understand.

Jude loves The Jungle Book

2010-11-02T06:32:00.001-07:00

Cinderella the Gorilla

2010-11-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

Jude is at a stage when every other word out of his mouth is cute. I keep meaning to write some of Jude's "Judeisms" down so I don't forget, but then I forget.

But I remembered today. Here are two:

When we went to school today, Jude and I asked his friends what they were for Halloween. His friend KK told us that she was Cinderella. When we came home and were eating dinner, I quizzed Jude about his friends' costumes. He told me very seriously that KK was a gorilla. When I said, "no, I think she was Cinderella," he said, "yes, a gorilla."

Jude comes home from school incredibly dirty. We literally pour the sand out of his shoes. It is crazy but I guess its good that he is outside long enough to get so dirty. Today he had dirt smeared on his face, cheeto crumbs on his shirt, and sand in his shoes. Obviously, we didn't go inside the house right away. Instead, we sat together on the front porch and got cleaned up. When we were finished, I said "good job boy" to which he responded "good job girl."

Jude as the "lion of Judah"

2010-10-31T15:04:00.001-07:00

He refused to wear the head, so you just have to imagine.

Jude on the roof

2010-10-31T15:03:00.001-07:00

Jude on a hippo

2010-10-11T15:59:00.001-07:00

Jude does his chores

2010-10-10T15:04:00.001-07:00

2010-10-08T13:15:00.001-07:00

Just some pictures

2010-10-08T07:55:00.001-07:00

Jude in the rain

2010-09-02T06:14:00.000-07:00

Still trying to get the audio action to work on the different ways in which we can take and upload videos to this blog, so if you do not hear anything it is a problem on our end not yours.

This is Jude playing in the rain.

Jude goes to a minor league baseball game

2010-08-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

Jude arrives at the Cats baseball game only to be overwhelmed by the sights and sounds. He is not a fan of having his picture taken and proceeds to hit his father with a stuffed lion upon discovering a photo was snapped.

After a couple of hugs to make up for the swat with the lion, Jude wants to show his father that he can stand while the national anthem is being sung by the Arlington Heights UMC choir.

Jude's father was a bit of a dolt and sat Jude on top of the visitor's dugout. This was a double dumb move in that there was no net to protect Jude from stray foul balls and there was a sign which read "do not sit on dugout". A worker informed Jude's father that he could not stand there. A few pitches later a foul ball was collected by that worker and he shared it with Jude. Good people there at La Grave Field.

Finally a the Klemm family takes pity on Jude's father and gives Jude all their fries. Jude was pleased.

Blast off

2010-08-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry that the video is on the side, I did not know that it would record that way (I am still learning how to use this phone for this sort of stuff).

Jude really thinks that he is in the production and I was able to get just one clip of him dancing around during the songs.

Playing and singing the ABC's

2010-08-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Recently, Jude has taken again to the four key 'piano' he has. This video, again, on it's side, Jude shares his virtuoso skills on the piano.

From Jude's Blog

Jude got some Animals from Aunt Diane

2010-08-10T06:00:00.001-07:00

Jude's Aunt Diane sent some animals in the mail. He was so excited that we could not get the camera out in time. So this video was shot on Jason's cell phone which was handy. It is sideways, but you get the gist.

From Jude's Blog

Pictures from Missouri

2010-08-05T06:00:00.001-07:00

Jude and Ray Jammin

2010-07-31T10:43:00.000-07:00

We had some house guests the past week, Megan and Ray Altman. They are some of our friends from Estee's days at Southwestern. They are some of the most talented people that I (Jason) know and have a heart for God and the Christian way of life that inspires. Everyone needs a Megan and Ray in their lives.

Ray and Jude decided to pick up their respective instruments and play an impromptu jam session. Hidden cameras were there to film this rare occasion.

Trip to Kauai

2010-07-05T14:10:00.001-07:00

Jude's mom and dad recently had a great trip to Kauai, paradise on earth. Jude didn't come to Kauai this trip -- instead, he went with his Nana Valendy to visit family in Missouri and had a great time!

If you'd like to see picutures of Estee and Jason's trip with the Carel family, you can check out our photo albums on facebook. One album is pictures from Josh's camera, another is from Estee's camera:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2193855&id=18311097&l=5e36579202

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2192800&id=18311097&l=e221ce9348

Trip to the zoo (on a hot day - we are crazy)

2010-06-05T18:26:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we took Jude to the zoo for a friend's birthday party. That's right - the zoo, in Texas, in 90 degree heat with a 2 year old. All I can say is we survived! The Fort Worth Zoo thankfully does have a really cool new exhibit called MOLA - I can't remember what that stands for, but it is basically an air-conditioned sanctuary full of reptiles and creepy crawlies.

We are smiling here because we are SO THANKFUL to be inside!

This is Jude touching a snake. Grandma Carel is terrified of snakes, so Mom if you are reading this, close your eyes and keep scrolling down.

On the ride home from the zoo, Jude's parents were worn out. But not our two-year old!! He had lots of energy stored somewhere. Here, he demonstrates his awesome singing ability after spending hours at the zoo with no nap.

Wedding fun

2010-06-05T15:26:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Jude and family attended our second cousin's wedding at a vineyard in Grapevine (where else?!) Jude partied until 10:30pm -- the latest he has stayed up to date! Celebrating with our family was a great way to kickoff summer.

Once it got late and the adults got to dancing, the boys got a little bored.

But, when it was their turn to dance, they sure perked up!

And eating cake was probably one of the best parts of the night for Jude. The sugar high is what got him through the late hours.

Jude always has a great time when his family comes to town and misses them when they are gone. All this week, he has been asking for Jackson and Jordan (his cousins). To one of his many questions of "where's Jackson?" Donice told Jude that Jackson lives in Oklahoma. So, now if you ask him, he'll tell you that Jackson lives in Oklahoma and Jude lives in Texas!

Things we do

2010-05-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

Lately, Jude has really been in to hamming-it-up. He has learned how to say "cheese" and smile for the camera, so we can usually capture a smile if we're quick enough. Jude loves to build with blocks and it less about knocking his block towers down now. We're glad to be semi-passed the destructive stage. Or maybe it will just morph into something else! Finally, we are quite pleased to share Jude's talent of singing his "a-b-c's" with you. Yes, he slurrs L-M-N-O-P together, but you've got to give a two year old some credit!

How much do I love you?

2010-05-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Feeding the animals

2010-04-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

One of Jude's most beloved toys continues to be the animals he received from Great Grandma and Grandpa Wolf. The lion, elephant and giraffe go everywhere with us. Today, they had a lovely plastic meal of cookie, spaghetti and pizza with a side of plastic ketchup. Jude set this all up by himself while mommy was cooking real food in the kitchen. The animals even have forks -- how's that for good manners!

Yes, Jesus loves me

2010-04-09T18:01:00.000-07:00

Jude picked up his kid Bible today and started singing "Jesus Loves Me" right out of the blue. I was amazed! It is eerie how quickly kids pick up on things -- he learned the song at school and made the connection between his Bible and the line "for the Bible tells me so" in the song. Crazy!

Flowers and weeds

2010-04-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

What's the difference between a flower and a weed? Why do we discriminate so hatefully aganist the weeds that invade our yard, but nurture flowers with love and care? Jude could care less if something that grows out of the ground is a weed or a flower -- especially if it has a bloom. He likes to pick the "flowers" out of our backyard and collect them in his buckets. It makes me wonder - what if we loved the weeds in our lives as much as we loved the flowers? How would that change our perspective on things? Life lessons from a two year old!

Easter Sunday

2010-04-05T17:18:00.000-07:00

We spent Easter afternoon with all of Jude's grandparents. Jude enjoyed a Easter egg hunt in Grandma's backyard with no competition from other kids and no need to hurry! It was a wonderful day!

Ready for Easter

2010-04-03T19:17:00.000-07:00

Jude is ready for Easter Sunday! Above, he's modeling the bunny ears that he made at school. You can't see the ears, because they are floppy and fell back behind his head! We've been to two Easter egg hunts so far, and he's getting the hang of it. He hasn't been at the head of the pack with the other kids who run to cram as many eggs as possible into their Easter baskets. Instead, Jude stays back and takes his time. He wants to open each egg before he picks up another, which takes a while! We're very deliberate!'

At the egg hunt at Estee's church, there was a petting zoo that was fun, but a little scary.

On Friday night, Jude and his mom and dad were able to go to worship together, which was a treat! On the way to church, Jude entertained us by reading a book about a black bear who wants to do everything by himself (a familiar story -- Jude wants to do everything by himself too.) In this video, he "reads" to us - he has one or two lines memorized that he repeats on every page!

Jude can say his name

2010-03-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

More birthday pics!

2010-03-09T18:40:00.000-08:00

On Jude's birthday, we took a trip to the newly remodeled museum of science and history in Fort Worth. He loves it there! They have a play area just for toddlers that is fantastic. Jude was over his cold and had a great birthday playing with his mom and dad at the museum.

Exhaustion kicked in on the way home.

Birthday tickles with Dad.

Birthday pics . . . finally

2010-03-09T18:34:00.000-08:00

Finally, a month after Jude's birthday, we have birthday pics for you! We waited and waited for uncle Josh to get us pics off his new fancy camera, but we're still waiting! But Nana pulled through and sent us some pictures from her camera. We had a birthday party for Jude on the Saturday before his birthday, but he had a cold and wasn't feeling well. So, we don't have lots of pics because he didn't last very long, but here are a few.

"It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!"

Haircut blues

2010-02-19T13:38:00.000-08:00

Whelp, Estee and I finally ponied up our courage and a half hour to take Jude to get his haircut. While we did not do a "before" picture I did snap this one with my cell phone moments after Jude's cut. Yes, he did cry. Yes, eating pure sugar on a stick made him fell better. Yes, he is still cute sans curly hair. Yes, the hair blower freaked him out the most (he looked like someone scared him and put ice water down his back at the same time.)

Needless to say, we are good to go without this "wonderful" event for a while.

Since Jude was not in the snow at Christmas, here is a second chance

2010-02-11T09:58:00.000-08:00

E - i - e - i - o

2010-02-08T19:10:00.000-08:00

Jude had a fantastic 2nd birthday today! We are still getting all our pictures together to post for a 2nd birthday tribute, but in the meantime enjoy some farm tunes, courtesy of Jude.

Strong Man

2010-01-24T18:08:00.000-08:00

Last night, Jude and dad had a muscle showing off contest. Jude won. He thinks he's awfully strong!!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-26T08:28:00.000-08:00

Jude's 2nd Christmas was white! We woke up to a backyard full of snow. What fun. The snow accumulation was not fun however - Estee and Jason had to drive home from church in pretty scary conditions. But we made it. And Christmas was great.

We woke up and opened presents and ate eggnog pancakes. Jude got some books and toys from his mom and dad. His big present was a tent that he loves to hide in!

The Carel and Valendy families came over to our house in the afternoon and we had a big fun family Christmas. Jude received so many fun toys and we are grateful!

One big hit was Jude's new rolling suitcase that looks like a tiger. He spends lots of nights at his grandparents' houses, so it will come in handy.

Another favorite present was Jude's "cozy coupe." Uncle Josh had a car just like it when he was Jude's age, and I remember calling it a flinstone car. The new model is improved since our childhood - it has a floorboard that is removable, so for now, Jude puts his feet up and gets the luxury treatment as we push him around the house. Soon, we'll take the floorboard out and he can push himself - I hope.

If you're thankful and you know it . . .

2009-11-29T12:34:00.001-08:00

Memories from Jude's Second Thanksgiving

Running up the country road with Dalton, our cousin Celcie's friend

Holding hands with cousin Tessa.

Playing in the leaves.

Learning to drive at great-grandma and grandpa Wolf's house.

Cousin Camden decorating her gingerbread house.

Jude's gingerbread house. He meticulously stuck M&M's on the roof of his house, and then he realized that those M&M's were tasty! So mom had to fix the roof.

The Wolf family "Turkey Review," our annual compilation of silly sketches about Thanksgiving. Here, members of the family perform a skit about a hungry lady who befriends the turkey meant for her thanksgiving meal.

Uncle Josh, classically, played the turkey.

Jude's skit was "If you're thankful and you know it . . . clap your hands, stomp your feet, say "Amen!" He was shy in front of everyone, but audience participation was huge!

2009-11-25T12:02:00.000-08:00

Halloween take two

2009-11-24T17:15:00.000-08:00

Jude's Nana is awesome and managed to get a picture of Jude in his halloween costume, with the hood on. So now you can have the full effect of the monkey suit. In the other picture, Jude is practicing trick-or-treating!

Town Center Lights come on and Jude is there

2009-11-24T08:26:00.000-08:00

Jude, Mom, Dad Nana, Pops, Grandma and Grandpa all went to the lighting the Southlake Town Center's Christmas tree. While somewhat busy (Grandpa actually could not find a parking spot!), it was a great time. Jude not only experienced light out of darkness (a very Biblical theme) but also horses pulling people as well as another set of horses pulling Santa (not a very Biblical theme).

Nana snapped this picture of the three of us standing in front of the Christmas tree.

What is Jude looking at? (The most creative responses get a prize sent to them in the mail from Jude!)

Halloween!

2009-11-03T14:36:00.000-08:00

Jude was a cute monkey for Halloween. All of his grandparents came over to join in on the fun. We did a little trick-or-treating to our neighbors. Jude didn't like to put his monkey hood on, so it's hard to tell what his costume is!

Uncle Josh was in town for the fun, and sported a fake mustache that made him look like a frenchman.

Exciting times

2009-10-26T18:07:00.001-07:00

Jude's life has been pretty exciting lately. He is "learning" to play the piano, and with his skills and his hair, we are pretty sure he's going to be the next Mozart.

Look at that posture! That form! That hair! What a talent!

Oh my! He's even a prodigy with his feet! What a genius.

Listen to Jude's beautiful playing. You are sure to be amazed.

In other exciting news, Jude's parents received a big fat check from the federal government today. Can you believe that they are paying people to buy houses! What a deal!! Below is a short clip of the Valendy IRS money dance. This continued for several hours.

Fossil Rim trip

2009-10-03T13:36:00.000-07:00

Today we took a trip with Nana and Pops to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose. It reminded Estee of her childhood trips with cousins to Arbuckle Wilderness in Oklahoma. Jude really liked throwing food out the window to the "deers" as he calls them.

Ostriches are the most freaky creatures around. We don't have any close-up pictures of them, because everytime they would come near, Estee would freak out a little bit and insist everyone roll up their windows. No ostrich was going to get its beak in the car, that's for sure. We didn't feed them either. Yuck.

Feeding the sweet deer was allowed.

Looking out the sunroof, Jude said "WOW!"

We sanitized our hands really well after this encounter.

And this one. The giraffes were super smart. They tried to get in the car for food from all different angles.

School funnies

2009-09-19T09:59:00.001-07:00

Jude is having a good time at school. On Wednesday, he was sitting at the table eating his afternoon snack with his friends. The teacher told mommy that Jude's friend Owen was sitting next to him and was eating a very messy pudding snack. Owen had pudding all over his face and hands and the table. The pudding mess was highly concerning to Jude. He knows messes are bad. He kept looking at Owen with wide eyes saying "uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh." Way to go Jude!

At mother's day out on Thursday, Jude and another friend played a game. They would both sit by the door and one would run away. The other would go chase and catch him and they would laugh and laugh! And then they would run back to the door and do it again. Wish I had that kind of energy.

I can slide by myself!

2009-09-02T19:43:00.001-07:00

Jude's new favorite thing is going down slides by himself. Big slides, little slides, he doesn't care. He just wants to slide over and over and over again! Here are some sliding pics from a recent trip to the park with mom.

"Boy oh boy oh boy! I am going to wear myself out!"

Sliding by oneself also means climbing up to the slide by oneself. Any offers of help are met with an adamant "No!"

The excitement grows as he prepares to slide . . .

Somehow we lost a shoe on that run!

On the super sliding day, we also took a trip to the library for "toddler time." Jude, unbelievably, is enthralled.

Toddler time always ends with bubbles. That's the best part.

Day at the zoo

2009-08-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

Wow! I can't believe it has almost been a month since we posted. So sorry!! We took Jude to the zoo yesterday to celebrate Nana's birthday. We did this last year for her birthday and hope to make it a tradition. He saw way more animals this year than last too! He was very interested in everything and kept us moving from one animal to the next. Our little tour guide also provided animal noises in case we forgot what each animal sounded like!

The tour guide checks out the map before we set out.

Dad and Nana in front of giraffes

There is a huge giraffe in the background beyond Jude. He was too busy looking at the ducks to notice.

Pops, Jude and the elephants

Jude's all-time favorite, the lion!