My sister-in-law Traci puts together the Jones family Christmas slide show every year, bless her heart. This year she joked that I always send pictures of my kids in laundry baskets or some other storage container. I didn't think much about it till the other day. I took all these pictures the same day. Maybe they're headed for Cirque de Soleil or something.

Why We Love Kellen

Because he won't be swayed from eating the whole fried shrimp, starting with the tail: "Mommy, it's crunchy and good!"

Because when I walk in the kitchen on Sunday morning, he says, "Mommy, you look so beautiful."

Because he loves hugs and gives great ones, just like his daddy.

Because he's interested in whatever, as long as we can talk about it at length.

Because he likes rap music, which we hear at basketball games, as a disclaimer. He will tell me "Mom, I LOVE this song!" and dance like the white boy he is.

Because in a few months or years, he won't be as innocent as he is right now, and I really cherish this time.

Christmas Pictures

In random order, of course. Bonnie considering the sprinkles on her donut. opening presents, of course
Uncle Chad is definitely the coolest. He plays the drums, climbs rocks, and has a garden we can throw dirt in.
While Kellen was occuped playing drums, Bonnie made a special trip to come play with his dinosaurs.
cooking with Gran

Avery and Bonnie are about 6 months apart.
goofy cousins
Ooooh...
playing piano with Aunt Lesley

Christmas, in Brief

OK, I decided to give a quick rundown of our Christmas marathon, mostly because those who really care were there.

1. The kids and I picked up Josh last Friday night from his game at Killeen Shoemaker. Headed to Lubbock and got there about 1:30AM. Kids did great and slept most of the way. Parents very surprised.

2. We spent Saturday and Sunday with Josh's family, but stayed at Lesley and Chad's house. (my sister and brother-in-law). This was Christmas #1.

3. We spent Monday with my dad and his wife Ginny, his dad, and Lesley and Chad. Christmas #2.

4. On Tuesday we went to Weatherford to see my mom and grandmother. Christmas #3.

5. On Wednesday we drove home and opened presents here, since we didn't have the room in our car to take presents other places just to open them. Christmas #4.

6. Today (Thursday) Josh is back at work at a tournament.

I consider the trip a success. We saw everyone in our family and no one caught a barf bug. And we have more toys now than Walmart.

OK, as of this minute I officially take back any judgemental thought I might have ever had that was along the lines of, "How can she let her child leave the house looking like that?" You can't see in the picture the paint stains on Kellen's sweatpants (he insists on "soft pants" these days.). We are journeying to the frozen Northcountry (a.k.a. Lubbock) to visit family for Christmas and will make our way back through Weatherford. If I still have my sanity at the end of all that driving I might post some pictures. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Aggie Basketball

I just thought I'd post a couple of pictures. We took the kids to the Aggie basketball game on Sunday afternoon. I think this is the first time we've taken them to an A&M sporting event in at least a year (I know, two percenters). It just seems like Aggie sports usually conflict with either Consol sports or church. Anyway. Here's Kellen with Santa, who it turns out is an Aggie. Who knew? Kellen asked for "a big shark" for Christmas. It was exciting to sit with Josh during a basketball game. I think Bonnie camped out on his lap pretty much the whole time.
I'm pretty sure Kellen passed out in his nice, comfortable chair about 3 minutes after I took this picture.
Hopefully I'll have some more interesting pictures next week. It really will be interesting if Santa brings that big shark.

Ahead of her time...

So, I noticed Katie Holmes's new 'do recently, with the "heavy bangs". I mean, y'all, Bonnie has been rocking this haircut for months.
It must be genetic. My mom wore Minnetonka moccasins for like 20 years before other people started.

Well, if y'all don't check out Josh's blog regularly, you should read this post. Funny. Or at least I think so. Maybe everyone else is sitting back thinking to themselves, "Yes, those two were lucky to find each other."

A Night Out

Last night, our plans were cancelled and Josh had the night off, which (understatement here) doesn't happen very often. So, I decreed that we would be having some Festive Family Fun. After checking out the website for Santa's Wonderland, we agreed that we'd rather pay for college (or our utility bill) and decided to visit the I'm-sure-not-as-awesome-but-hey-it's-free Christmas in the Park. We knew from previous experience to get there early so as not to wait in line for the hayride, which was fun. I guess our kids don't spend much time doing fun stuff because they are so easily impressed. But that's how I like it.

Kellen knew we were at the park and kept wondering when we could go "swing and slide together." This is as close as we got to Santa. The line was way too long, and Kellen and Bonnie don't know the difference. Luckily the reindeer was bribing with candy so I could get this picture.


And of course after like 20 minutes of walking around we had to refuel with snacks. The funny part was when Josh gave Kellen a sip of hot chocolate (which wasn't hot). Kellen spit it out like it had arsenic in it. Poor, sheltered children.
Anyway, we had fun. Maybe we'll go to Santa's Wonderland another year.

At the basketball game tonight:

K: DEFENSE!!!!!!

B: DEPENSE!!!!! GO TIGERS!!!!! HI DADDY HI!!!!!

K: Mommy, who's that wearing a O?

Me: That's _____.

K: Mommy, where's Defense?

Um, ask your dad. I forgot my copy of the Preschool Basketball Primer.

Now That's Appreciation

"Dear Mrs. Jones,

Thank you for the delightful treats that you have provided us for after the game. Your thoughtfulness has propelled us to a 6-0 start to our season. If it was not for your wonderful act of kindness we may not have made it to the championship round of the Dime Box tournament. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
JV Basketball Team"

Appreciation, or kissing up. Anyway, the team improved to 7-0 with a Dime Box varsity tournament championship. Way to go, guys, and to the coolest and funniest coach in the business, in my humble opinion.

A funny thing: One of Josh's player's moms is the nurse who helped deliver Bonnie. Small world.

Poor, Starving Children

"Please, Mom, can I have something to eat?"

"Oh, I guess. You can eat the miniscule pieces of cheese that are left in the front of the grater."

You would think after going to all this trouble, she might actually eat some of her dinner. But you would have another think coming. Because dinner involved things, like pasta and cheese sauce, that might have some unknown poison in them. Better to just eat half a banana and hope breakfast would be better. It was -- waffles are safe.

And today, I found Kellen scrounging in the fridge for some (thankfully cooked) chicken that I was thawing for dinner. He looked guiltily at me and said the "bacon" was "just for decoration." But there is a big blank spot in the bowl.

I don't have a brother, so some of the things Kellen says kind of take me aback. Like, it never entered my mind that he might say something like that. Not that it would have if I did have a brother, but various people have pointed out that not growing up with boys means you're a little less prepared to mother one. Since Lisa started out the "car conversation" posts by posting that Ethan sings the Smashing Pumpkins, I'll share our little embarassing tidbit of the day.

We were in the car playing one of those games that are just hilarious to little kids (well, my little kids anyway. As Josh and I point out often, they are our kids, so maybe they're a little weird.).

K: My name is goober!
B: My name goober.
Me: No, MY name is goober.

etc. etc. Kids laughing hysterically...

K: My name is urinal!

Game over.

Emma inspired me to post some pictures of our Christmas decorations, since Christmas is pretty much the only time I decorate all year. First we have the view when you walk in our front door:And here, of course, is the tree:
And the mantle, complete with Josh's Scottish Santa:
This is my favorite part. These are the "My First Christmas" pictures. Bonnie is a January baby so she was pretty old her first Christmas. Kellen is September so he was still tiny.

A White Thanksgiving

Catching snowflakes
Building stuff with Dad, while the Cowboys play -- a perfect Thanksgiving

Today's School Report

Directly from Kellen's teacher's note:

"Kellen had a really great day! No issues at all! Yeah!!!"

I guess I'd failed to report that there had been some, um, issues. But I let him know that if there were any more issues I would come and get him and Bonnie would get to stay at school. I guess that worked for today.

In the meantime, we'll wait for his cortex to develop.

Oh, and Kellen's last words before I left his room tonight? "Mommy, can I have a really giant hug?"

I'll keep him.

Some pictures from last Friday night's football game:
(This is how Josh spends most of his time. Ha ha)

What a Day

We got home from the football playoff game at 1AM this morning, so to start off with we were a little tired. Some friends had made plans to treat me to an early birthday breakfast at Madden's, and I needed to leave by 8:45 to be there (thanks again, friends!).

Josh had a shoot-around at 9 this morning and graciously agreed to take the kids with him, since we didn't know about that until after I had made my plans. So, a friend dropped me off at the high school at 11:30 and I took the kids home for a quick lunch and nap.

I woke Bonnie up at 1 so we could make it back up to the school for the varsity b-ball game (they won big!) at 1:30.

The game was over at 3:30 and our family went to eat at Roadhouse (again, in an early birthday celebration -- thanks, Josh!). After that I "needed" to go to a few stores before we could get home and get the kids to bed early.

I hit Ulta (College Station got an Ulta! Woo hoo! And Grand Opening means cheap new makeup for Erin.) and Kohl's (I had a $10 off expiring today and not spending it was just not going to happen.) before we were rear-ended by another guy on Harvey Road.

Taking care of that didn't take too long so thankfully we could make it to Target before coming home to put the tired munchkins in bed. And by tired munchkins, I mean everyone but me because Josh is asleep on top of our bed. I think I'll go veg on the couch and watch a chick flick.

Have you thought about the next election?

http://randyalcorn.blogspot.com/2007/11/sacrificing-children-on-republican.html

This is a great article I came across today. I personally will be voting for Mike Huckabee in the primary in a few months.

My self-concious nature really wants to apologize for the political nature of this post, but I won't.

I guess I haven't posted in a few days, so I'll do a quick catch-up. Josh had a scrimmage all day Saturday, so I took the opportunity to visit Dad, Ginny, and Mackenzie in San Antonio. We all went to Sea World on Saturday, which was super fun. I've said it before and I'll say it again: San Antonio is a great place to have family. I ended up spending the night because we stayed at Sea World so long, and came back on Sunday.

I spent yesterday playing catch-up, and Kellen woke up with a fever this morning so the kids are home from MDO today (Bonnie has a yucky nose anyway). Josh has a game tonight, which he's REAL excited about because he will have a total of 7 players on his team, due to football being in the playoffs. Grad school is taking a lot of time for him right now so his schedule is full of teaching, basketball, kids (ours), and grad school.

My "little" sister turned 26 yesterday, so Happy Birthday, Lesley. I hope you got our message.

Well, that's the story here. Hopefully the kids will get well soon.

The Forty Dollar Nap

How much is peace and quiet worth?

Yesterday I bribed Kellen to take a nap with candy and a trip to the park. Today I upped the ante with a promise of going to the store for new dinosaur figurines (I tossed his dollar store dinosaurs because of the questionable paint).

(I can hear you thinking right now: "Is she SERIOUSLY blogging about this? And why do I read this blog anyway?")

Did he nap both days? Yup.

I bought 4 dinosaur figurines at $5 a pop, then went down to stock up on sippy cups which we needed BADLY. And those things ain't cheap. And I probably wouldn't have bought them (see previous post about me being frugal) if I hadn't been spending $20 on toys anyway.

Trip to Target...... $36
2 hours of quiet...... Priceless

P.S. I think there is a giant black hole of sippy cups and socks. Just my opinion.

Hard Core

I'm a frugal person, but today I went hard core and bought the ingredients (on sale and with coupons, of course) to make my own laundry detergent. I'll let you know how it goes. Oh, and don't tell Josh.

Overheard

(at Target, while I was looking at the dollar aisle)

K: Mom, I ate some candy!

Me: Where did you get candy?

K: I don't know. From here (pointing to the shopping cart).

(In fairness, he was staying right beside me as instructed. I didn't say anything about not eating someone else's reject candy.)

********************************************

K: Mom, what is this? (said as I was getting ready this morning and he was looking in my drawer)

Me: A headband.

K: Do kitty cats wear these?

You know, cause it was just Halloween, and girls/women who dress like cats always wear headbands with ears.

*********************************************

Me: Kellen, do you want a burrito for lunch?

K (as nonchalant as you can get): Um, maybe I'll just have some candy.

Yeah, whatever.

Ways Little Sisters are Useful, Part 2

Little sisters are useful to practice your medical practitioner skills on. "Bonnie, say 'Ahhhh.'" And blades of grass are useful as tongue suppressor (sp?) substitutes.
Seriously, you couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.

Every party needs a pooper.

I don't like Halloween. Yeah, the kids are cute and the Snickers are good (don't need those anyway), but I really truly don't get the point. Unless the point is to celebrate evil and then I really don't want to be a part of it, but I'll leave that discussion for another time. But if I were going to dress up I think I came up with the perfect costume: OK, I digress. Josh's nephew Luke's birthday party was today and it was a costume party. So I figured I needed to come up with some costumes. Of course, those costumes had to fit my Halloween-Scrooge guidelines:

1) Most importantly, they can't cost any money.

2) They can't take any time.

3) They can't require any forethought.

4) Oh, and Kellen requires a costume that is basically regular clothes, since nothing can feel strange in any way.

So, here's what we came up with at the last minute. Seriously, while Kellen was using the bathroom before we left. Kellen went as a construction worker (don't all construction workers wear shirts with dump trucks on them?) using a Bob the Builder hat we already had.

And Bonnie went as super-something, using a costume we'd gotten as a hand-me-down. It's a size 3 and I had the sleeves rolled up at one point but they fell down. Doesn't she look happy? Well, Cole looks happy anyway.
I'm expecting my Mother of the Year nomination at any time now.

If there is anything sweeter than a little one who is clean, lotioned, combed, brushed, and in his or her PJs ready for books, prayers, songs, and bed, I'd like to know what it is.

A am not an athlete.

If you are surprised at that statement, then you have never met me. But thank you for your kind thoughts, anyway.

BUT I have found that I enjoy playing soccer with Kellen. Really, someone kicks it and then we race to see who can kick next. Sometimes I even beat him. After a few kicks we have to stop so Bonnie can kick the ball, which gives me a chance to catch my breath. But it's exercise for me with the added benefit of releasing some of that boundless boy energy.

On another note, Kellen's day was made today because we got to go watch construction trucks in action. They are building a road behind our house and we stood for awhile and watched the digger, dump truck, and one of those rollers with the bumpy things. Very cool.

Oh, and I'm having trouble explaining being married to Kellen. He maintains that I'm not married because I don't wear my wedding dress every day.

K: Mom, you're not married anymore.

Me: No, I got married to Daddy like you saw in the pictures and we will always be married.

K: No, you're not.

Me: Yes, I am.

etc. etc.

However, we played "match the spouse" and he pretty much picked out everyone's husband or wife, so I guess there's hope.

Funny story

Today, I was at Kroger at 5:30PM. I was signing up for the newspaper in front of the store when I noticed Kellen standing by a potted plant with his shirt tucked beneath his chin and his thumbs hooked in his pants. Thankfully, the pants were still around his waist. I did catch him before he christened the plant in front of the whole of our town. Laugh or cry, right?

It has begun...

Today was Josh's first day of basketball practice. I kind of think of basketball season like having a newborn baby. You know that the season will pass quickly and you will enjoy the result (hopefully a winning season and players influenced by a Christian man), but when you are in it (i.e. up at 3 in the morning with a screaming baby) it's sometimes hard to see the big picture. Josh got home about 7:30 tonight, we ate dinner, put the kids to bed, and cleaned the kitchen. (We stayed home from church because Bonnie has a yucky nose.) Saturdays are spoken for until January at the earliest. I once again made Josh promise that he would find another career the second he either wasn't making a difference or having fun (this promise-making is a yearly tradition).

So, if you see a little less of me or hear from me a little less, I'm still here. I'm probably at a basketball game with Kellen and Bonnie, or trying to put them both to bed by myself (I don't have this one perfected yet -- any advice is welcome).

Also, I'm curious: who is still reading my blog? I don't get many comments (of course, I don't comment on other peoples' very much because I usually read through Bloglines) but I'd love to hear from you if you're reading this.

Is it already Wednesday?

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Weatherford and Lubbock. We got to see several friends, 2.5 cousins, 5 aunts and uncles, 3 grandparents, and 2 great-grandparents. Oh, and some dinosaur bones at the Texas Tech Museum. Here are the kids with my Pee Paw (dad's dad). Playing the piano at the Starr's.

Triple trouble: Logan, Ethan, Kellen
Rachel, Ethan, Logan, Kellen, Bonnie
That's my grandmother's fishing hat and my granddad's cowboy hat, here with "Grandma Connie" (mom's mom).
Kellen, our official Hwy. 180 navigator: "Yep, that would be Albany coming up in a minute."