Friday, December 17, 2010

i can't wait to see the dvd because as great as these are, they just don't do it justice...


Ainsley's preschool Christmas program.







Seriously, you guys. Go Tell It On The Mountain never sounded so good. All kinds of awesome.

Christmastime, but cheer...


Or is it, "Christmastime butt cheer?" Because that's how Jackson sings the song and honestly, knowing Jackson it would be the latter. In any event, Christmastime IS here and I'm still trying to figure out how that happened. Because really? We just got home from Disneyworld!

We headed up to the mountains a few weekends ago to get our Christmas tree. Remember last year? Super fun trip...picture perfect snow...everybody cold but got a great tree? Well, this year was even better! Mostly because Doug's parents were able to join us, but also because the trip provided us with one heck of a story that, thankfully, we can already laugh about.

We checked the weather the night before we left and saw that it was supposed to start snowing in the afternoon. We were a little bummed because we thought we'd miss it, as we were going up pretty early in the morning. Now, there are really only two times a year I actually wish for snow...the day we get our Christmas tree and Christmas Eve. So imagine our excitement when we arrived at the tree farm at 10am and the first flakes were already starting to fall!


It took awhile, but we were finally able to find our perfect tree...


(Sidenote: If one of your children dresses for a cold and possibly snowy day on the mountains in skinny jeans, footie socks and tennis shoes, you should make sure she wears something different, despite her eye rolls and protests that she will be fine. Because she won't. And while you might get some satisfaction in saying, "I told you so!" it won't be worth it if her crying threatens to ruin Christmas trees for you.)

This is a picture of our view out of the front windshield as we were about to leave...


And this is a picture of my happy husband just moments before...


...we slid off the mountain road into a ditch! Through a series of very fortunate events, no one was injured, there was no damage to the car, and a very nice man on a tractor was able to pull us out of the ditch so we didn't have to wait several hours (or pay) for a tow. All's well that ends well! And our tree is beautiful...



Happy Holidays!

disneyworld - a slideshow



yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for them


One of the coolest things we did during our DisneyWorld vacation was take Jack and Emily to The Pirates League on Halloween night for pirate makeovers.

Jackson getting his pirate tattoo.


Emily getting her nails painted. (If I have one complaint, it would be that there is only one package for girls...The Empress Package. Emily really wanted a scar painted on her cheek, but that package was only for boys. She did have a choice in colors for nail polish and lip gloss though, and she chose the black polish and the darker lip gloss (both of which she got to keep), so she was happy.)


The beginning of Jackson's transformation.


The finished product!

In addition to the make-up and tattoos, they also received swords, pirate teeth and a gold medallion from Captain Jack Sparrow's personal stash. They had a great time and got quite a few compliments on their costumes the rest of the evening at the Halloween party.

But have you ever tried to remove make-up from the face of a half-asleep six-year-old at one o'clock in the morning?


The morning after.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

disney jeopardy


"Because they look like Mickey's underpants!"



What is, "Why did Jackson choose these mouse ears?"

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

great times...not so great pictures


We had a wonderful time. And you're just going to have to trust me on that because you probably won't be able to tell from the pictures. Out of the over 400 we took, there are about 6 or 7 that are good. And this is probably my favorite:


Ainsley and Snow White

I'll post more soon, after I've tackled the 27 loads of laundry that are waiting for me...

Sunday, September 19, 2010

after our day on friday, i probably should have seen this coming


Just look at this sweet munchkin face.


From this angle, you almost can't tell that she found Jack's scissors this afternoon and decided she needed a bit of a trim...


The other missing chunks are mostly disguised in her curls and I'm sure no one will even notice if she wears her hair in a ponytail.



Thanks for keeping me on my toes, sweet girl.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Friday, September 10, 2010

i'm pretty sure he doesn't get the sports jokes either


Doug: So, Ryan, how was your day?

Ryan: It was fine, except we had to do pacers.

Doug: What are pacers?

Ryan: Oh, basically there is a beeping noise and everyone starts running and you have to get to the other side of the gym before the next beep or you're out.

Doug: Oh, so it doesn't have anything to do with Reggie Miller?

Ryan: (shakes his head and eyeroll!) Dad, you know I don't get your 70's jokes.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

i knew what he was talking about, but i can understand how she was a tad confused


Jackson: Hey, Emily! Have you seen my thing? The thing that is supposed to be my stomach, but really, I wanted to make it an ant farm with other bugs?

Emily: Huh?






Tuesday, September 7, 2010

preschool - before and after


Happy and excited...


One last hit of chocolate milk before we get in the car...


Just...can't...wait!


Now, off we go!

This is the part where I thought I would tell you that she gave me a kiss and a hug and ran off to play with her new friends, because she's been talking about this day for over a year. So excited for when it would be her turn to go to school. Except it wasn't quite like that. We got to her classroom and my leg became her life preserver. I knelt down and gave her a hug and a kiss and told her that I would be back to pick her up when school was over. "But what if I need you?" I explained that if she needed anything she could ask her teachers and they would help. "But what if I want you?" Sigh. I gave her another hug and another kiss and reminded her about all the fun things she would be doing...Coloring! Puzzles! Playing on the playground! And then I passed her off to her teacher and let her go. I could hear her screaming down the hall, and so I paused for a moment outside the school administrators office. She smiled and asked, "Which room?" I told her and she took off down the hall to have a peek. When she came back, she said, "Well, she's still a little upset. But she'll be fine." And in my heart I knew that she would be better than fine. I knew she would have fun. So I held it together...until the barista at Starbucks asked me how my morning was going so far. I'm sure I'm not the first to shed tears into my Caramel Macchiato, but still...

Anyway, I managed to keep busy until it was time to pick her up. When I stood in the doorway of her classroom, I smiled. Because she was smiling. And playing. And her face lit up when she saw me and then I heard her say exactly what I hoped she would say. "Mama! I had fun!"

And then she crashed...



Update: We were doing fine this morning (day two) up until it was actually time to get in the car, at which point she began wailing that she didn't want to go to school because "school is soooo tiring!!" Heh. She cried a little longer this morning than yesterday, but the outcome of the day was the same. "I love my school! I had so much fun today! I got to dress up like a pink butterfly! I'm not going to cry next time." We shall see...

Friday, August 6, 2010

mom always said one day i would pay for buying kate that snoop dog cd

Jackson is really into music...well, actually, we all are. Our iTunes library has a little over 9,000 songs and it would take 24 days of non-stop listening before we could get through the entire library just one time. Jack's favorites are anything with "hard guitar" and he absolutely loves Collective Soul. Lately though, he's been venturing out and wanting to try new things at the library.

Jackson chooses his cd's much the same way I sometimes choose wine - by the label. If it looks like fun to him, he'll grab it without knowing much about what kind of music it is. A couple of weeks ago, he chose "Caribbean Fiesta for Kids" and played it at bedtime. When he woke up the next morning, I asked him what he thought about it and he replied, "Well, it sort of felt like it was in Spanish mode, if you know what I mean."

On our last trip to the library, he grabbed this cd:


I didn't pay much attention at the time. I saw that it was Jimmy Buffett and thought it would be a fun cd for him, having grown up a Parrothead myself. It wasn't until we arrived home that I turned it over and looked at the song selection. First up is Margaritaville. A little inappropriate for a children's cd, and while you might be thinking "Um, isn't most of Jimmy Buffett inappropriate for children?", I would disagree. There are lots of great songs completely appropriate for listeners of all ages. Little Miss Magic is beautiful and remains one of my all-time favorites. One Particular Harbor? Also a great one.

A few songs later we come to It's Five O'Clock Somewhere, which also pushes the appropriateness envelope, in my opinion. But I think the one that really gets me is this:


I promptly loaded the cd into the player and was totally relieved to discover this was an INSTRUMENTAL cd. (If you're not familiar with this particular song, feel free to google the lyrics. Let's just say I'm really glad I'm not going to have to explain to my six-year-old what a "snuff queen" is. Ahem.)

And then I just happened to turn the case on it's side and saw this:



Sleepytime worship? Jimmy Buffett? Why Don't We Get Drunk? Children's CD?

A little crazy, no??

Monday, August 2, 2010

vacation sneak peak and a request


Our week at the lake was phenomenal! I can't wait to show you all the pictures, but it may take a few days (or weeks!) to go through all 540 pictures I just transferred from my camera to the computer. I'm so glad I took the camera out on the boat because I got some great action shots of our last day on the lake:


Emily & Ryan


Jessica & Dane


Hayden & Michael


Jessica


Emily & Ryan


Dane & Ryan


Dane & Ryan


Emily, Dane & Ryan



Ryan


And now for my request...

Our local paper is holding a photography contest and the theme is "How I Shot My Summer Vacation." I would like to submit one of these photos, but I can't decide! So, which one should it be?? Please leave me a comment and let me know which one is the winner!