Friday, December 24, 2010

Wishing you.....

a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends.




photography by Paige Mobbs

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Celebrating {A Whole Hand}

Today is this guy's 5th birthday! It is really hard to believe. As I write this a little after 1am, I can remember 5 years ago just getting to the hospital around midnight to start my induction. He arrived about 16 hrs afterwards and it has been a blessing to have Jonas in our lives. There is more to say about our love for him and I will write another entry about what we have planned for his special day. Wanted you to know that the next 24 hrs is all about this cute dude, our son, grandson, brother, friend, child of God, that we call Jonas.


Happy Birthday sweet boy!!! And by the way, he is soooooo excited to be 5!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Jump Fun {december festivities}

In the mall, you can get connected to bungees and jump real high! The kids decided they would try it out. Here is Reese getting connected...
And Reese jumping high...

Jonas' turn...

Jonas jumping high...

And then it was daddy's turn......

I know the pic is blurry, but Jason and Reese were going at the same time...

Friday, December 03, 2010

red & green {the merriest}

For the first time, our family has an artificial tree. We got one this year for a couple of reasons.... 1) It's way more fun to decorate....or maybe I should say easier 2)Last year our tree farm was running low on trees and it took a while to find one (and we went the day after thanksgiving) The goal is to get a small real tree to put in the foyer, but that might be something we aim for next year.

I put the tree up along with the mesh a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. However, those cute ornaments didn't appear until turkey day. My parents were over and helped us decorate.

The tree topper, which might be my favorite decor! I have been collecting these glitzy stems for a couple of years now and was finally able to use them. They came from Walmart, Paul Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and Michael's.

Jonas putting an ornament on the tree. Of course the kids LOVED helping and put 90% of the ornaments on the bottom half of the tree. Jason and I were coming in behind them and rearranging.

This is one of Reese's first year ornaments. She was enthralled with it because it was a "baby".

This is our sweet little elf. He is our unofficial Elf on the Shelf. I found him for $16 compared to $30 for the original. And I must say, ours is cuter. He moves around at night, and you never know where he lands until the next morning. Jonas named him Lickey-Waki and someone suggested I make him a lei because of his hawaiian name. This is another fav for the kids!

Our front door. I had the swag hanging up there for a week before I got the garland up. It was warm today, so I worked on it while the kids played outside. It's fru-fru for sure!
And perhaps the most important part of celebrating Christmas. JESUS!

Jonas {the photographer}

I have done a post about this before where I collected a few pics to share from Jonas' camera. He just asked me to delete some of his pics because his card was full and I told him I wanted to look through his pics first. Here are a few things he has taken pics of....... mostly toys and other random things.... like this.

I think this is a toy from a happy meal.

The train station he built. I really like his design work :)

Pops! Apparently from this Spring when they visited.

Nana!


Poppa!

I like how he is getting creative with his angles!

just hilarious! fuzzy,but still wanted to share...

In the car....

Just a little something to share with you this Friday! Jonas is in a great mood but continues to have the rash. Reese stayed with my parents last night and will come back today. Hopefully Jonas won't be as contagious since he has had several doses of his antibiotic.
The plan today:::: put the garland up around the front door. Then hopefully pics to come soon!

Thursday, December 02, 2010

Home-Room Mom {first for me}

Since I am part-time, I thought it would work well to be Jonas' home-room mom this year. So far, it has been fun. I have tried to make his teacher wall art for each season. Apparently I didn't take pics of the pumpkin (or either can't find it). And it looks as though Christmas won't happen either, unless I do it ASAP! Here is the first one I did for the new school year. His mascot is an alligator, so I tried to make gators out of the kids handprints. I thought it turned out so cute. I also applied the handprints with velcro so she can re-use it next year.

Life {in sickness and health}

Both the kids "studied" and learned about pilgrims and indians. They each are wearing their indian headbands that were made at school. I might have blogged this already, but Jonas' class got to choose their own indian name. Jonas chose "Little Rabbit". That day I picked him up from school (it's usually Jason) and the first thing he said was, "Momma, call me Little Rabbit for the rest of the day."

Oh, and Reese's class even put on face paint. So adorable!

And this lil' fella came home from school early today. His teacher called right at noon to tell me Jonas had this rash on his face, chest, and arms. Jonas has had this before and he was positive for strep. I picked him up and we headed to my work. Jonas kept complaining of his belly hurting. After encouraging him to use the bathroom, he went ..... and then vomited right on the counter of the bathroom. And not in the sink. You know your a mom when you clean the vomit with your own hands. p.s. maybe you were not ready for the details, but thought I would share our day with you anyway :)

Our sweet man was a champ and his only complaint, besides his belly, was having to walk "a long way" throughout the hospital. He tested positive for strep (which i had that feeling) and we left to get some rest. He has had a dose of zofran and antibiotic and is watching The Incredibles as I write this. He has even perked up enough to request goldfish, his fav snack.
Our plan is for SuSu and Poppa to watch Reese for the afternoon because strep is so contagious. My dad will bring Reese back home a little after Jonas goes to bed. I work this evening and will have both munchkins at home tomorrow. One thing I will do is finish our Christmas garland around the front door so I can post pics of our decor. Then we have Breakfast with Santa on Saturday. I really can't believe December is here already. Where does the time go? As you might already know, our lil man turns 5 on December 22. Can't believe it!!!!!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving {turkey day}

I really can't believe that Thanksgiving is today. It seems that this year has flown by.

We started our day (at 6:30am) listening to the kids talk about their elf. {We have an elf the kids named "Lickey-Waki"} I guess we are sorta doing "Elf on the Shelf" but we didn't buy the actual elf and book combo. I found a cute elf (that I will post another time) that hangs out in our living room. Last night, the elf climbed our wall and perched himself on top of a speaker, right by the ceiling. It was hilarious listening to Jonas & Reese talk about how Lickey-Waki climbed the wall. They were shrilling over him!!!!

My parents are coming over at lunch and we will have a low-key, family-time, kind-a-day. Parade. Football. Full tummies.
Here is our menu:
turkey
ham
sweet tater casserole
broccoli-rice casserole
butter peas
dressing
broc-cauliflower salad
rolls
coconut pie
pecan pie
pumpkin pie
apple pie with chocolate/pecan/caramel streusel


These are pics taken just a few minutes ago. Jonas wanted his hair to stick-up this morning. He and Jason did his hair.


These are questions I asked Jonas:
Who are the pilgrims? "They wear hats."
What did the Indians teach the pilgrims? "How to hunt and fish"
What is thanksgiving? "chicken, mashed potatoes, meat and turkey, ummmm, corn, pumpkin pie"
What are you thankful for? "I am thankful for Ms. Barbara & Ms. Monika, mommy and daddy, Aunt DuDu and KuKu, and everybody... uncle buddy and susan, alrighty, ummm, susu and poppa, reesie, and hmmm ...and Millie, and cats and alligators, and lions. And sadie. And myself.
I am thankful for everybody. I am thankful for God too.... and Jesus."
We wish our friends and family a very thankful, thanksgiving.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Silver Dollar City {and a little extra}

This is going to be a semi-long post as I explain the pics and then include a couple of things that are going on around here!
First off: We have Silver Dollar City (SDC) passes and have not been going like we thought we would. Thanks to SuSu and Poppa (my parents) for buying them and giving them to us as a Christmas present LAST year. We went back in the summer and had gotten so busy and didn't make time for it again until last weekend (Nov 6th). So, Jason, the kids, my mom, and I traveled to Branson for the day! It was a long day, but we had a great time. The weather was cool and the Christmas lights were everywhere! Put us in the Christmas spirit immediately!

There is something about how the sun is shining down that captures me everytime I look at this picture. I love it.

There are lots of rides the kids can go on this season. We have even moved out of the kiddie section to the school age area and ride those too. The kids both love the thrill of rides, especially Jonas. A couple of their favs include the swings and a roller coaster called Fire in the Hole.

Here is Mom, best known as SuSu, around our house. An extra about us is that we are on the road to SKINNY..... well, skinnier. We are doing Weight Watchers and I have been working out consistently since February. I wish that I could tell you how many inches I have lost, but I am not sure except that I have gone down a pants size. WW'ers is newer to the life-style and believe me, I make lots of mistakes. The key is to keep right on truckin' and stay on track. Someone once said when making a choice to eat that high calorie food, "It's not as good as skinny feels." I can't say that I have taken that advice everytime, but I have for sure cut out some fat and increased my fiber. Mom has dropped 30lbs so far and is feeling much better about herself. So proud of you MOM!!!!!!!

We are waiting on the parade to begin..... and the weather is much cooler.



So those pics were from last, last weekend. Well, this past weekend, we decided to go back! This time, my parents took Reese on Friday night and we drove up Saturday afternoon. Jonas had a bday party to attend so Jason, Jonas, and I met my parents around 3p at SDC. (Will post pics from party another time) The weather was even cooler, actually COLD.... So the kids were bundled up.... and here is a pic of their sweatshirts that we bought at SDC the previous weekend. Of course I had to monogram their names on them and then added an extra touch to Reese's.

Some dear friends of ours were there at the same time and we met up for a few minutes. Here is Kristin (hubs with her but not in pic) and they were alone without kids...which is always a treat to get away! We know Kristin and Brandon from church and have remained close friends. Their children are close in age to ours.

By this point, it was freezing! The kids had on snow suits on top of their clothes.
We stayed in Branson for the weekend, thanks to mom and dad. We spent Sunday shopping before heading home! Now this week, we are working on decorating the house for Christmas. Pics to come!