The blame game

Jordis was playing quietly in the toy room yesterday, which does not usually draw suspicion like it would if Xander were being quiet. But I thought I would join her so I went down the hall to see what she was up to.

That's when I found some of my photo albums strewn about the floor.

I asked her if she was using mommy's books without permission and she said "no" in the sweet little voice she uses when she bats her long dark eyelashes. So I asked her how the books got out since she was the only one in there.

Her reply?

"My baby did it."

This baby.

Though it does appear that she can feed herself already, so maybe she has more skills than I was aware of.

Our Charlie Brown Snowman

So we're all familiar with Charlie Brown and his tiny Christmas tree, right? Well, today we created a Charlie Brown Snowman.

When I was out this morning with Xander as he went to school, I was trying to teach him how to make snowballs. I "thought" that the snow seemed like good packing snow, so I told him that after school we could make a snowman.

It didn't go so well.

The snow was kind of icy, so it definitely wouldn't roll. Not that we had much more than an inch to work with anyway. We kind of had to stack it.

After about 5 minutes Xander quit helping and went to make his own snowman and then claiming boredom went in and sat and watched us work from behind the storm door.

Jordis was a little trooper, but her poor little cheeks were so red I knew we couldn't stay out long enough to make a full-fledged snowman. His body was turning into a cone instead of a ball because it kept falling down the sides, and it was taking forever to try and do something about it.

So our snowman just has a head....

as well as a scarf, plastic carrot nose, plastic hat, and eyes made out of rocks. He had a sea grass mouth but it's gone, and Jason found our plastic snowman pipe after the fact in the toy room.

Oh well. It was fun and the kids were happy with it, which is all that matters.

Not much to say

I've been a little lax in making posts lately because I really just don't have much to say. Which is precisely why I don't like this time of year. It's so BORING.

Xander went back to school, Jason's days off switched to Sunday and Monday and I still haven't found a place to put all the new things the kids got for Christmas. Oh, and our 10 1/2 year old dryer is finally on its last leg so our new one is coming next Friday. Gotta love those first of the year expenditures that were unexpected. Okay, I guess it wasn't totally unexpected since we've thought the dryer was going to go "any day now" for the past three years. But you know what I mean.

Since I have nothing to report I thought I'd share some of the photos we ordered from Disney. (Yes, I know you're all gagging since I already posted a million other photos of our trip. I told you, it's a slow month). They have stations all around the theme parks where you can pose for photos and then they charge you an arm and a leg for the CD, which you'll pay for, because you know 10 years from now you'll have to have that photo of your kid doing XYZ.


Here's Jason and Xan on the test track ride at Epcot.

Jason and I pretending to like each other (ha,ha).

Epcot at night has always been one of my favorite sights.

I let Jason wait in the character line with Jordis this time.

I think this is the most seductive princess I've ever seen. Not trying to be mean, she just has that look about her. It's not like these girls are REALLY princesses. I'd love to see them outside of work.

Xander actually asked to go see Goofy without being prompted.

We were all kind of exhausted at this point.

And last but not least...

...this was one of my favorites until Jason made an observation....

..Mickey is totally groping me.

2 going on 12

She looks two.

Chronologically she's two.

Countdown Calendars

But she doesn't act two. Within 30 minutes today I was told the following...

"I told you so" and "It's not fair."

Seriously.

Isn't she at least supposed to be in school before she learns these things?
A few weeks back she refused to go to bed because her room isn't pink and if she uses a straw she wants one that matches her shirt. I've got news for her, too. I don't care what color straw she uses, but if I have anything to do with it her room won't be pink for a long, long time. We spent way too long getting it the way it is to change it to something else (especially something I can't stand).

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's 2009 already! I'm not a huge fan of January (except for my dad's birthday, of course), and even though I love winter there's so much of it ahead with not much to look forward to. Easter is late this year and no one recognizes Mardi Gras as a holiday here, so there's nothing to break up the monotony between now and then.

My resolution this year is simple.....to have no resolutions. They're always the same so I've decided instead of the typical losing weight and exercising that all of us always plan, it would be best to make a permanent change to eating more healthfully and staying active. I think if those two things can happen then everything will should fall into place.

I can say that, aside from the three trips we were fortunate to take, 2008 was not our best year. I think I had a cold for more of the year than not. They've been messing with my Synthroid for the past seven months and even though it's the right dosage on paper, it's not agreeing with my body. The refrigerator broke and we lived out of coolers for over a week. Our dear "friends" at the auditor's office made an error on their part which resulted in us owing them thousands of dollars. Both of the cars needed major repairs. Xander had stitches twice. We've been fighting with United Behavioral Health for four months over some of Xander's bills and Jason worked for almost six months without a contract. You get the picture. Maybe I should make a resolution not to be so negative???

In retrospect, even though 2008 was not such a great year I've been able to come up with a lot of things that were worth remembering.

1. Louisiana trip Jason hadn't been home in almost six years and I just love it there. Plus we got away without the kids and could come and go as we pleased for the first time in YEARS. We indulged to our hearts content and got to do some (albeit quick) visiting with family and friends as well as partying with fans from both of our favorite college football teams. It doesn't get much better than that.





2. Jason was able to come home/be home both times Xander needed stitches, so I didn't have to take care of it myself (which would have been bad, bad, BAD).


3. Blizzard We got a TON of snow, the most I've ever seen in one day. We took the kids sledding and they loved it.

4. I showed the kids how to plant strawberries We didn't get that many but they got excited when we did and there's something nice about knowing where your food is coming from. Hopefully better luck this year.

5. My cousin had a new baby I haven't had the chance to see her as much as I'd like, but I love getting my baby fix now and then since we don't plan on having any more kids. I held her today until my arms fell asleep.

6. Kids posed for photos in fancy clothes This is a rarity.

7. Jason's brother and his family came to visit for the 4th of July and we had a really fun weekend

8. My flowers grew (even though some of them were the wrong color)

9. Ten years of marriage and a weekend away to celebrate.

10. Got one of the kids potty trained and the other is half-way there

11. Finally got Xander into the special needs preschool and he LOVES it

12. Florida trip Who doesn't love Disney World?



What blessed your life in 2008?

Family Christmas - Part 3 - Christmas Afternoon

After the business of Christmas morning and Jason's siesta, my mom and step-dad came over for the remainder of Christmas day. I'm not a big fan of ham so our early evening dinner entree was cranberry meatballs. My mom brought side dishes and I also made homemade sweet potato biscuits and coconut cream pie. (Okay, the crust wasn't homemade. But the rest of the pie was).

After dinner we attempted to take the kids out to ride their new power wheels. Jordis' battery had died though as we hadn't thought to charge it. They had to take turns with Lightning McQueen and that didn't go over so well. Xander needs some driving lessons, too.


After that it was our final round of presents.



Enjoying our new things.



Jordis is such a good mommy to her new Anna Bear.

Did anyone else see this?

I love the stillness of Christmas morning. The air is always brisk and it seems that cars and other daily outdoor noises are few and far between. This is what I saw when I opened the back door to let the dog out. I couldn't get it to show up in any of the four photos I took, but in my camera the light was reflecting in the shape of a cross. I took it to mean that maybe God was trying to tell me something, but I have no idea what it was. Whatever the message was I hope it was a good one.