White Christmas?

In Texas? Who would have thought?

The day before Christmas eve in the Dallas Fort Worth area, I was regretting having only packed my heavier clothes for forecasted 30s and 40s in Colorado (Where we would be headed after Christmas) and lighter winter clothes for the forecasted 60s in Texas. Why? Because it was 76 degrees and I was a little hot!

Have you ever heard the expression, "If you don't like the weather in ___ (insert which ever state the person is from), just wait five minutes!" The story is always accompanied by crazy weather stories to which the hearer feigns interest- not because they're not interested, but because they are thinking of the even crazier weather stories from the places they've lived. Well here is a story I'm adding to my list. The day after it was 76 degrees, on Christmas eve, it snowed! In the exact same spot it was 76 the day before! And it wasn't your normal, 'It snowed in Texas- there's an eighth of a centimeter on my car' kind of snow. This was a good blanketing snow that thoroughly excited me, made Jake sigh and Abigail pleasantly happy, not knowing how good of a thing she was getting. Over the next two days, we had an all out snowball fight with cousins, made snow angels, ate snow, and built a few snowpeople. Ahhhh... how nice.

(mid snow"ball" throw)

(Gramma checking out the view)



(decked out with her new umbrella. BTW- isn't the clarity of this picture awesome? This is thanks to the new lens that Jake and my mom got me. THANKS!)

The snow was almost totally gone on the day after Christmas, the day we were leaving for Colorado. Jake checked all the road conditions and even looked at live video of a few places along the way for our trip and everything looked good. Well, not too far out of Dallas Fort Worth, we hit snow and ice on the road. A lot of snow and ice. We're talking 2-3 inches of ice and everything covered in snow. We were going 10-15 mph and passed quite a few cars abandoned in the snow. It was a little crazy. There wasn't much we could do but follow the car in front of us and pray to get out of the ice safely. Two hours later, we did.

(this picture doesn't show the dramatic whole-road-covered-in-ice part.. but you can see a couple of abandoned vehicles!)

First Hair Cut!

We took Abigail to get her first haircut last Saturday! We decided to take her to one of those special kid places for her first time, so I found out about one, called and made an appointment. I was telling some friends we were going to take her there and they said, "Oh yeah, and she'll get glitter in her hair?" Uhhhh.... glitter? Suddenly, I wasn't as excited. The store is called Sweet and Sassy, it is a chain started in Texas and does parties and other such things but also has a salon side. They market to little girls who like to dress up and do make up and hair, but claim that they don't want them to look like mini-adults and instead are more age appropriate. When we walked in on Saturday, sure enough, two little girls around 6 and 8 were coming out with fresh hair cuts and glitter in their hair. Thankfully, Abigail did not notice because there were plenty of princess things and candy to look at. I asked for a no-glitter cut and was relieved to see a normal looking salon section (shaped and colored fun though). Abigail had her hair washed and cut and dried. We barely got a smile out of her the whole time because she was self-conscious and a little nervous, but she enjoyed it and got to watch a party that was going on (the girls were all dressed up and dancing and having their hair put up). Here are our pictures!

(holding on for dear life)

(how she tries to not put her fingers in her mouth)


We forgot to get a picture there, but here is what her hair looks like! Can you tell a difference?

Victimology

We have a long time professor, pastor and friend who always claims he is going to write a book on victimology. He is 'collecting' stories for it. Well, here is a portion of my chapter.

Have you ever had a dream and in that dream someone did something dreadful to you? Something that causes deep-seeded anger and resentment? For instance, stealing your last cookie? And then, have you woken up in your anger in the middle of the night, yelling at that person, when your emotions overcame you? My husband has. In fact, he did just the other night. Unfortunately, I believe I was the victim of this entirely fabricated story. However, I will never know as Jake never remembers what his dreams are in the morning. That is why I always have to press him at the time he wakes me up with his shouting or shaking or pushing or jumping (yes jumping) to tell me what his dream was about. Anyway, the other night I woke up to my husband angerily shouting, "What do you want me to do?!!? HUG YOU?!?!" I quickly figured out that he was sleep talking and even quicker became very offended and angry (a fault of mine- I easily get angry at offenses when I'm half asleep) at the reason behind this outburst. I said something that of course I don't remember except that it was to the point and not so nice. He didn't hear me and instead carried on his conversation in a rather angry voice, "Well that's what I'm here for!!" "Ugh!" I said and turned back over to go to sleep. Like normal, Jake has no recollection of this outburst- but that means I can tease him endlessly about it. Don't worry, my dear readers, this is nothing like my husband's normal temperament. Although the night before we had watched a House, MD episode where a husband had frontal-lobe inhibition (I think this was the right term for the tv doctors) where he couldn't lie... maybe Jake got some of that truth serum?

Here I must own up that I too, have had dreams in which people have offended me deeply. When I wake up, it's really hard to let go of the emotions, even though my head knows that I made up the story myself. Isn't that crazy?

Why are you doing those crazy things with your eyes?

About a week ago I got jalapeno pepper oil in my eyes. Let's not talk about that. Only, you should know that it is OIL, and it only washes off with oil cutting soap. And you should use rubbing alcohol on your hands and in your finger nails if you are ever silly enough to not use gloves or something of the sort while cutting jalapenos. Please, please do not wash your hands with regular soap and then cup a lot of water in your hands and then splash it into your eyes after fearing you may have gotten a little bit of oil near your eyes. Especially with contacts on. Hopefully, if you disregard my request, someone will be nearby and be able to pour milk into your eyes while you lean backwards over the sink. This will cut the pain slightly as you try and get the contacts out of your eyes (though you still have the oil on your fingers). But lets not talk about that.

About a week ago I got jalapeno pepper oil in my eyes. The next day I had to wear my glasses. This is never very appealing to me as I am very near-sighted and, no matter how hard you try, you can't really make the lenses that small with my prescription. Anyway, Abigail and I went to the store and she was riding in the buggy (that is southern talk for grocery basket- not a baby carriage. Don't worry, we don't call it that, it was just a good opportunity to educate non-southerners about the word). We were walking along and I was looking this way and that and Abigail all the sudden asked me, "Why are you doing those crazy things with your eyes?" "Uhh...." I said. I tried to imagine what my eyes looked like from a 45 degree angle below, through the thick part of my lenses. "I'm not doing crazy things, Mommy just has to wear her glasses today." Silence for a second while she was thinking about that. I expected her to ask why I had to wear them. Instead, she said, "You shouldn't wear those." Smiling, I told her that Daddy and I happened to agree with her, but that it was necessary today.

We also took some silly pictures that morning, I thought they kind of went with the story.

It's December the What?

The 13th already?! Impossible.
We've been busy!
We got to go to a cookie factory with our playgroup! It was so fun! I highly recommend visiting cookie factories. Especially the ones that give you a ton of free cookies.

A few pictures from the trip. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the actual factory, only in the office and on the train before we started the tour. I hope my friends still love me after I post these :)

Unfortunately Tyler was getting away, but I was lucky to even get this picture- they all jumped off a second after this!

on the train

Abigail and Ruby

Forgot Some

Mommy, watch this!
Daddy, watch me!
Watch what I can do!
Watch me!
(followed by a feat of unbelievable talent, such as putting her tooth in the end of a straw or holding her first two fingers in scissor fashion to hold her lips apart or spinning around with her leg in the air or jumping onto her bed. Very precious talent indeed)

Daddy, that hurts my ears. I don't want it on. (about football)

My legs don't work- see? (when she doesn't want to walk but be held, with a show of walking slowly with her knees bent 90 degrees)

Playing pretend

Abigail is really into playing pretend these days. It's great. I love listening to her tell the dolls and animals and toys what to do. I went in her room one day and she was putting all her animals to sleep with the 'learning blanket.'

(Adding in an Abigail for good measure)

The only thing about the pretend- I'm getting the impression that I call her 'honey' and 'dear' too often. She is saying things like "Oh Honey, it's time for a nap." and "What Dear?" It is really cute when she says it. But I think if I heard myself I might be really annoyed!

Here are some interesting things Abigail has told us recently:

While talking about likes and dislikes as far as chocolate milk, regular milk, and water goes.
"I like everything I want"

"Our mouths are glued on so we can talk"

Abigail, what is your favorite food?
"Peanut butter and jelly, bread, and butter." (not all together)

Abigail saw the butter on the table at Thanksgiving.
"Can I have some bread with my butter?" ew.

(context: Abigail does ask why, but she's not in the 'why about everything' stage)
We turned on the TV to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade and a giant Abby Cadabby was floating along.
Look Abigail, it's Abby Caddabby!
"Why is that?"
(I'm a little flustered as to what question she is actually trying to ask here) Well, that's a big balloon. See the people holding the strings? They are holding her and walking along.
"Why?"
I tried a few more times, but she just didn't understand why that big balloon was there. I finally had to tell her I didn't know and leave it at that. Why do they carry big balloons through the city?

Courtney- I think she got this one from you. She usually says this when I'm laughing real hard.
"Are you serious Mommy. "

(I'm not very excited about picking out our Christmas tree- even though this is the first year we've done it. You see, we are the first customers and none of the trees are unwrapped yet (except this one) and all these boy scouts are moping around and some people are looking at me. They do have a cool giant inflatable gorilla though)

(I'm a little more excited now- about the tree and the fact that Mommy let me sit on the roof. And we also get to 'make Christmas.' I saw the Christmas boxes and I'm really excited to get the ornaments out.)

(Best 30 cents Mommy has ever spent. She went to the dollar store last February and got three sheets of Christmas window clings. I think they're really great)

The twenty step guide to going to bed

by Abigail

1. Brush teeth
2. Comb hair (sometimes not though, since my hair is curly)
3. Get my vitamin, make sure it's a lion vitamin. If not, ask why
4. Go potty
5. Put on PJs
6. Get blankie, hide in one of my favorite spots
7. Wait for Daddy or Mommy to find me again
8. As I'm being picked up, leave my blankie
9. Yell "No! My blankie!" because I left my blankie
10. Try to climb on Daddy's back until he says that now is not the time
11. Let Daddy or Mommy start to pray
12. Interrupt in loud whisper "ELSIE! And Ava and Cohen!" (Insert names of all my friends in rotation. They need to be prayed for and I'm pretty sure Mommy and Daddy would forget if I didn't remind them)
13. Hug Mommy
14. Ask for sandwhich hug
15. Hug Daddy
16. Ask for another sandwhich hug
(Sometimes here I add a "whisper, whisper" for both ears for both mom and dad. This involves pressing my cheek to theirs, looking the same direction, and loudly whispering, "whisper whisper!" Mommy and Daddy aren't sure where I got this habit. Other times I add a special kiss for each, several times)
17. Say "Watch what I can do!!" and run to side of bed. Stand on edge of bed and jump onto my knees with my head at pillow. A jump for James! And sometimes another one for Jonathan
18. Get my covers on, make sure they are straight and covering all the way to the side of the bed
19. Ask if all my friends and their blankies are sleeping
20. Ask if Mommy and Daddy will be coming back in and they remind me that they won't be
(sometimes here I say "See you later!" and become quite upset if they don't say the same words back to me)

I hope you can sleep better now!

Halloween, etc

I'm told that some people don't like to hear all about other people's children- their antics, how they pronounce words, and what happened at the zoo today. I'm assuming that if you are reading this you are like me- you think children are pretty funny and love hearing those stories, even though you've heard them about other children many times before. But, I feel the need to write this every once in a while, just in case someone stumbles across here and thinks that I'm crazy for thinking anyone wants to hear all this: I'm writing this for those who care and I'm not offended if you don't! I'd love to read about your children and, sometimes, maybe even about YOUR antics too!

That said, I have to share these pronunciations.

Abigail and I watched a Pippi Longstocking movie a couple of months ago. She kept calling Pippi, "Kippy" and couldn't seem to pronounce Pippi right, despite repeated attempts. Well, thats fine. A few days ago however, when Abigail became excited about something, she started saying, 'Yea! Kip-PEE!" It's so precious. That, coupled with, "Knee-haw!" (we never say ye-haw, but I'm guessing what this is derived from- though it sounds very much like the Mandarin Chinese hello, Ni Hao ), is delightfully exclaimed many times a day in our house.

Our annual "on the bench with our pumpkin" picture

to see previous years, click here

This is for all of you who think Abigail just smiles all the time and is really easy to take pictures of. Here is a face I see a lot!

For Halloween Abigail dressed up as Shirley Temple! I realized that a little girl in a pretty dress doesn't necessarily look like anyone, so here is the picture to compare :)

We had a Halloween dress-up playgroup at the zoo! (no I didn't torture her, it was in the 70s that day!)

Too funny not to share
One of our pumpkins started to rot this year, so we cut out that part and then decided what to make (I think you can tell which one that is). For the other pumpkin, Abigail picked out a template. I'm really curious to see if you know what it is before I tell you though, so look at it first.
Abigail said she wanted a kitty face and I found a website with some cat options, this was one of them. Abigail LOVES the Lion King movie and so when she saw a template of Scar, she had to have it :). I told her that it might be a little scary but she was alright with it. She kept saying, "Scarf might be a little scary when he's glowing!"

Pumpkin Patch Merriment

This year we went to the pumpkin patch with our friends again. Here are some pictures from the trip.

heading in

the oh-so-important family picture (I warn Jake before going that I have to have one while we are there)

The annual kids picture

This is the first year we have had a picture with all of us!

this one is too heavy!

This one looks right!

Mommy Daughter Pumpkin

Best Buds

We had a great time, but it was a little sad since we probably won't all be together again next year.

Oh! She is three!

A couple of days after Abigail's third birthday, she sat (or rather, laid) down and came out with this, her first 'real' drawing!! How funny it is when your child can, all of the sudden, draw people as if they had been drawing them for a long time.

I wrote down what she said each object was. It was so fun to see her create these things! I haven't seen any more real drawings yet, so these are all the more precious. Please take special notice of the portrait of me.


To those of you who gave Abigail gifts for her birthday- the thank you notes are still in the writing stage! My time is currently eaten up by preparing photo notecards to sell at an upcoming craft sale at my mom's hospital, but you will see the thank you notes soon!

August 2009

Click picture to see our August photos!

Princess and Prince Party = FUN!

Birthday Girl!

Oh no! We forgot to get a picture with all the friends together! Here are few:

Thank you all for coming! It was so much fun to play and celebrate with friends!


Thank you also to all of our loved ones who couldn't be physically present, but sent birthday greetings and gifts from far away. We miss and love you!