11 minutes

until Christmas 2006.
It's been a bumpy ride- but here we are.
We've shopped, decorated, sat in Santa's lap, exchanged gifts, mailed cards, baked goodies, made gingerbread houses, looked at lights, sang songs... and this night has FINALLY arrived!

Santa has made his visit.
He ate the 2 dozen or so cookies that the kids left on a tray for him, drank his milk, and even had a frozen pizza...

He left Jacob a basketball goal, THE "big Superman," and some hard to find CARS toys. Along with a Lightning McQueen watch- and a stocking full of cool stuff.
Lucy got an adorable shopping cart, full and overflowing with groceries and appliances, and a talking Care Bear. Oh- and the MOST important "care bear snacks" that she was so sure Santa would bring. :-) He left a whole box!

I've already peeked in my stocking, and gotten my "big gift" from Cotton. I'll have to wait and post pics of it- words cannot describe. I couldn't be happier!
Speaking of indescribable.. there is also the gift that Cotton got himself. I won't say what it is, but it's 50 inches wide and HD. I was a little shocked when he came home with *that* thing! I must say my boy Romo is easier to watch these days...

No Christmas pictures tonight, sadly. blogger is giving me hell. (What else is new?) I have SO many to share, too!
But I did finally finish my Happy Feet post (scroll down), by adding pics the hard way. So- if pics are what you want- go have a look!

Merry Christmas my friends, my family, and any strangers that might be reading! I am off to bed!

I've decided

I do NOT want to have Christmas at my house.
I did Thanksgiving. And Christmas last year, oh... and Thanksgiving last year.

Someone else can do the work for once.

Now we have to wait and see if I get my way... wish me luck!

he was here...

and now he's gone again.


Aaron, aka "Bonk," got a 17 day leave for Thanksgiving.
It was so wonderful to see him, hug him, laugh with him.

Now he's in Washington state, 40 miles from Seattle. Who knows when his next leave will be?
He left Wednesday, and I miss him already. :-(

Happy Feet

We saw it, of course. The kids and I give it 6 thumbs up! We loved it!
I'm just not one of those parents that flips over "adult humor" and "innuendos." I was too busy laughing my ass off to worry about what was flying way over my kids' heads!

And after the movie, we went to the mall. While you wait on line for Santa- there is a big Happy Feet display. There are even clips and music from the movie playing!

Dorky as I am- I made the little people custom penguin outfits to wear to the movie...
I never got a decent picture of Jacob's shirt. Lucy is head-to-toe, matched to the "t", penguin. She even has a penguin bracelet by Susan, and custom bows. Yes, I am *that* bad. But in my defense- well... there's no good defense.
But Cotton told me long, looong ago that Jacob isn't my "dress up doll." Lucy is. So there.

Here she is dancing in line!



Here's the best shot I could get of Jacob's shirt. He looks absolutely thrilled, doesn't he?


Mommy and Jacob, with Mumble and Gloria


Mommy and Daddy



And just for fun... in case you were wondering how much their tushies have grown in a year, here's a great comparison:
December 2005


December 2006



Heehee!

Old St Nick

Although he looks really miserable- Jacob was bound and determined to talk to Santa Claus!
He climbed righ up in his lap, and told him "I want a BIG Superman, and Daddy wants a big TV."
Smiling was a bit more than he could manage... but that is okay. I am incredibly proud that he spoke to a stranger, and even sat in his lap.
Santa will, without a doubt, bring that big Superman. The TV... not very likely. That is more of a January/February gift in my opinion.






Our baby girl, unlike her brother, just couldn't do the Santa thing. She was REALLY flipping out, crying and kicking... we didn't even get her withing 5 feet of the big guy. We finally had to get her out of sight of him, so that she would calm down. :o(

regarding the tree...

I could never stand to see little "bunches" of ornaments like this...


I guess I've always been anal about my Christmas tree. But this year- with Jacob having enough holiday joy for a large city- I am not going to dampen his spirit...
He can hang ornaments however he likes, and there they will stay.

The fact that his little hands decorated this tree, makes it the most beautiful one I've ever seen!

And then this is kinda cute.
I don't remember hanging this ornament...
(and notice the 7 balls on the one branch above her head, lol!)


This, on the other hand, is SO NOT CUTE! Not once, and especially not 4 times! I am really on the verge of kicking the cat out!


Today I finally got Mom to help me fix it GOOD! Lol!
Just a little hook in the ceiling, and some fishing line...
Of course- now I'll need a plant to hang there January-November.

Cutie pies

In their Christmas outfits last year!
Hopefully we'll have some of this year soon... hint, hint!!!

grab a cup of coffee

prefferably peppermint mocha- as that's my current favorite!
I am going to try to catch up on this blogging thing!

Chopsticks

We took Grandma out for lunch the other day- for Chinese. YUM-YUM!

She was a little bit surprised that my 2 and 4 year old don't eat with chopsticks- and took it upon herself to teach them the *proper* way to eat their sesame chicken.

Jacob was a natural. Would you expect any less? he even managed to eat his lo mein with them!

Lucy did pretty well, too- but got a little clumsy and messy. Again- what did you expect? Lol. She abandoned the chopsticks for the fork after she decided she'd rather *actually* eat!

And of course- the pics!

Puppy update

Emmitt is now 6 months old, and coming along oh-so-nicely. He very rarely has to be crated anymore. Only at bedtime, really, and when we have company.

His manners are quite nice, he is a little afraid of me lately, especially since he knocked all the bottom branches from my Christmas tree. He's even realized that Jacob is above him in the pack, and will follow a few commands if Jacob uses a "big voice."

He's such a sweetie, thinks he's a lap dog, and hates to be left outside alone for more than 2 minutes.
He gets a little excited when we have lots of people over, or lots of food around- but how much can you really expect from a puppy?

I've decided he's the cutest and smartest dog ever. Of course, I may be a little biased. ;o)

the Egg Incident

It's never good to wake up next to this:


And then rush to the kitchen, only to find this:


My daughter is just full of surprises. We have so much "fun."

the Horizon

It's not often that I see one of these, so I had to take a picture.
I also had to HURRY- because I didn't want the owner to come out and find some freak snapping pics of their car!

My first car was a Plymouth Horizon. 1989, I think.
And it looked just like this!



I had to crawl in through the passenger door, it had a seat belt that didn't work, and we spent more money working on it than we paid for it!
But man, I loved that car!

Mardi Gras?

In November?
Maybe just a little. We had beads and a serious lack of shirts, so... draw your own conclusions!






Doesn't my poor boy look super skinny?
That was right after he went 3 rounds with the stomach virus. :o(
He's eating plebty to put some weight back on now, though!

Family pictures 2006

Taken by my favorite photographer!
*click to see them bigger*


As always- she did a totally fabulous job. I love that she captures more than just your regular old family pictures. (and this is all I can say, because she has banned me from describing her work to anyone! Lol) She manages to show some of our personality- a little of the family dynamic... a LOT of "Little Miss Personality" shines through when Christine shoots her- as you'll see here!
Thanks, BFF! I love ya!



My 3 babies!




Awwwww....


I love this one- it's like she's saying "Oh no Santa! I forgot to be good!" Lmbo!




the whole set

slacking

I know I am. It's no excuse- but I really have been busy as hell!
If I ever empty out my camera, I've got tons of stuff to share!

Halloween- take 2 (or is it 3?)

I didn't get many pictures the actual day of- but I got a couple!

First- Jacob had a party at school. I took tons of pictures there- but they all have other people's children in them.

We went Trick-or-Treating downtown later that afternoon.
Daddy had to work that night, so we had to get in some fun acyivities before dark!





Okay- this is the sad part...
After Cotton went to work, we met some friends to TOT some more.
This is the only picture I got. :o(



I had to pin Lucy's bow to her hat, because once it got cold enough to wear it- people kept calling her SuperMAN. She kept saying "I a SuperGIRL!" Cuteness that she is! :o)

The saddEST part is that these are the only
3 pictures I got Halloween night.
The other sad part is that we only hit one street, and my kids got tired--- so my candy stash is mighty small. Almost gone in 7 days, in fact.
That is definitely NOT enough free chocolate!

I cried

Jacob has been drawing these awesome pictures lately. People, cars, hummers, animals... all recognizable!
He brought me this amazing picture of Superman the other night, and wanted me to "put it on the freezer."
I told him to go write his name on it for me.

You see, last week he
brought home a picture of a firetruck from school, and I was amazed to see all of the letters in his name clustered on the corner of the page. I wanted to see him do that again!
So he goes back to the table, and I walk up behind him and see this!


Look at that PERFECT name!
Not to mention that Superman, complete with cape- peeking out from the other side no less!!! Red boots, blue supersuit,
a "cross" face (yes, cross=mad, he speaks British from watching Thomas. Lol)
This isn't his most detailed face by far, but the cape coming out from both sides blows me away!


I got extremely choked up, and had to wipe some serious tears off of my face. Ask Cotton, he saw me. I was very emotional over seeing a written word from my child's hand!

When did my baby learn to WRITE!?! And since when can he draw like that?
I am so in awe of my son right now. I just cannot believe the things he can do, the words he can use, the way his little mind comprehends so much!
Not so long ago, he was a BABY. My sweet little baby boy. And now... he is growing up way too fast!

Here we go again

Round 3 of the Jacob vs the stomach bug.
Today he will have to miss school because of it.

Anybody want to come babysit?

Wow!

So I was super proud of Jacob last week after he scored 2 goals in his soccer game.
Now, however, I am convinced that he has real talent!

We were playing a team this Sat that was really pretty good. They ahd this one little girl that was FAST, and that little cutie was taking it to the goal, left and right.

Our best player was hurt. Our other very talented kiddo was not there.
The "yellow team," as Jacob called them, was runnning the ball down the field, about to score their third goal. Suddenly, you see this little guy with an orange striped toboggan (that would be MY SON!) run out of the herd- with the ball! He takes it ALL THE WAY down the field, and scores a goal for US! The yellow team, and the fast girl, are on his heels the whole way- but he's just a little faster! And he is determined!
I was screaming so hard that thought I'd lose my voice! Cotton was running behind him, not daring to breathe. Lol.
Once the ball flew into the goal- Cotton started hopping all over the field, screaming "That's MY boy! That's MY boy!" he threw Jacob up in the air. We probably did a little excessive celebrating...

So, unfortunately that was his only goal for the game. But he broke it loose exactly in the same fashion at least 2 more times, and took it all the way home, only to miss his shot. The rest of our team was pumped after that first score- and we ended up winning like 7ish to 2. (we don't actually keep score in this 4yo league, but our kids were scoring like crazy!)

It is such an awesome feeling to watch your kid excell! I really had no idea that he was that good!
I am guessing that since we have 2 other players that are *extremely* talented on the field most of time- the rest of the kids just let them handle the ball all of the time. If you take those 2 out of the equation, you get a chance to see what some of these other kiddos can do!

GOOOOOOOO Jacob!

Only one game left! This Saturday at 9:30. I'm really sad to see it end- but there is always next season.

I need a nap!

Ugh.
So Wedneasday night/Thursday morning at 3:30AM, Jacob wakes us up by tossing his cookies in our bed. Shortly thereafter (and very shortly after Cotton got the bed clean, lol) Lucy gives us an encore for him.
So... I was up all night Wednessday night with them. By Thursday evening, everyone seemed to be fine.

Then LAST night (Sat), Jacob wakes up around 2AM doing "that cry."
Oh no. At least he was in his bed (in my room) this time. I can honeslty say I have never seen so much vomit come from one person. TMI- I know, but GEEZ!
I get him cleaned up and into his bed (in his room), turn on Sprout (24 hour preschool TV! You don't know how great that is until you need it!)...
I make myself and Lucy comfortable in his other bed (in his room).

*Let me interject here that, if you haven't figured it out yet, we are a cosleeping family. Jacob now sleeps in a toddler bed in our room- Lucy sleeps wherever Momma is.
We made a choice to do it, and we are very happy with it, except for when someone pukes in our bed- of course.
Back to the story*

Jacob actually seemed to have emptied out on the first run this time- so as they watch Boobah and Teletubbies, I start to snooze...
Only to be awakened by a strange feeling on my leg.
Lucy had very quietly thrown up all over me and the bed, and was gently whimpering "Momma?" Poor girly. :o(

I'll spare you a few details- although why bother at this point, right?
But we also went through a lot of diapers and a couple of underoos. Stomach bugs are so awful.

Now at 11:30, I've been awake for an hour. They are eating- watching TV (yes AGAIN- give me a break, I'm exhausted), and seem to be okay. Cotton is at work.

And I just need a nap.