Dec. 25th 2010

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Boy oh boy did we have a fantastic Christmas.

Family. Friends. FOOD. And we were all so spoiled, myself included...I am so blessed to have such a loving and thoughtful husband. Love you hun!

We wish you all a new year full of excitement and love from our family to yours.

Polar Express Night

Our traditional Polar Express night this year was highly anticipated. Some fun new things this year were.....
new kiddos boarded the train.....
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newer shinier tickets....

all new treats in the candy store and GiGi brought real napkins for the kids to use from a real train that she rode to Klamath on....
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and our conductor was looking mighty conductory with his brand new hat.
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Magical!!!

Pre-Christmas Fun

When Scott was little his family had a tradition of making candy trains instead of just gingerbread houses.

This is the first year we tried it with our own kids and it is for sure a fun activity that will be around every year from here on out.

Also, the kids had their Christmas programs at school and they were adorable.

Ellie was a caroler and Connor had to dress up in his pajamas like it was Christmas Eve.

And lastly, this year my friend rented out a movie theater for her family and they invited us and a bunch of our best friends to see the movie Tangled! We LOVED it! I think I may have a new favorite kids movie. We had a blast.

polar express money

I may or may not be cashing in on the -"The more chores you do the more Polar Express Dollars you'll have!" -bit.

(last year)

I don't think I have seen them do this many extra chores....Ever.

One happy mommy over here I tell ya!

a list of maybe's

I am a list maker! My husband will forever tease me about it but I will never change.
"Hey Jaime, we are leaving in 3 weeks is your list done yet?"
"Hey Jaime, I'm headed to the park with the kids do I need a list of what they can play on?"
"Oh,what's wrong.. you look sad...........do you need to make a list?"

I've heard them all. There is just something to be said about the writing down of things that need to get done and then having the satisfaction of checking them off when I complete them. Just today I made a list out of scatterbrained frustration and because of it I have crossed off 5 things this evening alone and I am much less stressed out.

Anywhoo, the reason for my rambling is that yesterday while I was cleaning under my bed I found a box that I have kept since I was in high school that has clippings of wedding dresses and beautiful cake ideas I had collected. Some craft ideas and color schemes that I would love in my house when I got married, then as time went on I added Parenting advice I had clipped out of books and pregnancy things. But what made me stop and take a second look was the list of names I had written down for our first baby. (when I still didn't know if she was a girl or a boy)
It made me think how weird it would be if we had gone with another name. Just for fun here is the list:

Baby Girl=
-Brylee (this was the name that we actually had picked out and then switched it on month 8)
-McKaylee
-Reesa (sonrisa is smile in Spanish, and we liked the way the last part sounded)
-Morgan
-Tessa

Baby Boy=
-Quinn
-Trenton
-Ethan
-Ian
-Oliver
-Evan

to you

Merry Christmas!

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( I have lost my address book so if anyone reading this wants a Christmas card from our little fam. leave your addy in a comment or email me- JloMamaJama @ aol (dot) com

Plus I would love to just have it for my new address book!

p.s. this won't be the actual card that I'm sending)

snowflake festival

This year it was the "little" grand kids turn to be in the parade on the Dive Rescue boat with Grandma Lynnie. Macie was on cloud nine.

Sadly, I opted to stay home this year because I didn't want to bundle Sawyer up to stand in the cold for hours so I don't have any pictures of them during the parade.

Oh, and it rained. A lot.

The rain didn't bother the kids much I guess because they waved and blew kisses to people on the sidewalks and then they were both asleep before the parade ended.

The pictures above are of Macie and Kelson getting ready.

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We finally got some fun Updated family pictures!

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Click here to see more that my friend took.

new tricks

Overnight it seems....we have a crawler!!!

And his new favorite trick is to go from his tummy to sitting up all by himself, I can not lay him down anymore. He sits right up.

Such a big boy.

Six months

A half a year already. wow.

Sawyer is so dang fun. I just can not get enough. Right now he is the slobber king. We think he might be getting a tooth or two.

He is eating all sorts of mushy things and begs for more as soon as the spoon leaves his face. His favorite thing to do is jump in his Johnny Jump up and to take a bath. He outgrew the baby tub 2 months ago and is in the blue bath chair.

He also outgrew his infant car seat 2 months ago and is in a whole new world in his big boy car seat.

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Some funny things about this boy right now are:

-if I can't seem to make him stop fussing all I have to do is sweep. Yep sweep, we have a brightly colored polka dot broom that instantly makes him smile when we get it out.

- he has a birthmark in a rather unmentionable spot...so I won't.

-he went from being the only one I thought might look like his mama to a full fledged Olsen overnight.

-the smallest part of his ankle's are as big around as my wrists (ps I do not have dainty girly wrists)

-roll, roll, roll. He roll's from one side of our living room to the dining room.

-he's not as heavy of a sleeper as my other kids are.

-he's the only one I have had that gets a super cute pouty lip before he cries.

-he does not like binkies and won't take one when he falls asleep.

-he falls asleep in .2 seconds when he is in his Daddy's arms

-crawling is not far away, he rocks back and forth on all fours ALL day long.

-Big snorer!! Just like his mama.

-Loves to give kisses while winding every piece of hair in your head into his chubby little death grip.

Get in my BELLY!!!

We had a tea party!

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Macie made the meal..........topless of course.

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Sawyer had a twinkie and a cup....

and a hamburger patty and some milk....

and some more cups.

And when it was time to take it away...

First the lip, then....

wait for it....

and were done.

seasonal festivities

I LOVE being able to go into my kids classrooms and help out. I get to see them interact with their school friends and be taught by (and have to listen too) someone other than me.

Ellie was in a play last week about the Pilgrims and the Indians. She sure has a personality on her and I love her for it. She memorized all her parts and was so excited, but she let me know that their was a part in the play where everyone had to do a "turkey trot" dance and she did NOT want me to video her during that part. In fact she was so embarrassed about this little dance that when the time came she hid behind the boy in front of her the whole time...even when he did the shimmy she sunk down when he did. Silly girl.

Connor had a Thanksgiving Feast in his classroom. It would be an understatement to say that those kids loved it.

They had a full on homemade turkey dinner. They made their own place mats, had fun table decorations and were even grown up enough to have sparkling cider!

We really tried to work with our kids on being Thankful for everything they have and to realize that others in other places and even in our own town don't have the things that we use everyday. I had them make a list of some of the things they do every day like: get out of bed, brush teeth, eat breakfast, get in the car, ect. Then I explained to them how lucky they were to be able to sleep in a bed with warm blankets, have water and a toothbrush, have food in our belly's. It was neat to see that the wheels were turning in their heads as they thought about it all.

I truly am thankful for all that I have, and for how I was raised and especially for who I get to spend every day with.