Christmas Morning

 

 

 

 

Jack's School Christmas Show

Sloan's School Christmas Show

Santa

 

 

Breakfast with Santa

We all had breakfast at the clubhouse this morning and the kids got to make a list to give to Santa when he arrived. Jack refused to talk to Santa until Sloan came back unscathed and with a present.

 

 

 

 

Weekend Update

The kids had a great weekend. We went to the downtown Baton Rouge Christmas parade with friends Saturday night and the kids had a great time. It was their first parade ever, but they caught on pretty fast and were quickly putting their arms up to catch lots a stuff. They pretty much ate candy for dinner, but no one threw up, so it was a good time. Sunday morning was a friend's birthday party at one of those jumping places and Santa even paid a visit. Sloan got very excited when she saw him and immediately ran across the room to give him a hug and to ask for a pink bicycle. Jack told him "hi" but was more interested in eating his birthday cake. I guess everybody has their priorities :)

The Christmas Tree Forest

We brought the kids to the farm yesterday to pick out the tree and watch Jason chop it down. Sloan would walk up to each one, put her hand on her hip and point to it with the other one and say, "how about this one, daddy?" Jack was happy to jump the stumps of the trees already cut down. We finally found a great one and managed to get it home and up. Now we just have to decorate the monster.

 

 

 

Our New Kitchen

We finally got the work done on the kitchen and we're very happy with how it came out. Well, I'm happy. Jason likes it but is not too happy about the extra work it has made for him, like changing out electrical plates and a little staining and painting. Hopefully he won't wait until he has to do it when we are putting the house up for sale :) There are also a couple of before pics with the black counters and backsplash that we replaced.

Kitchen Redo

Lollipop Girl

 

Down You Go!

The kids had a great time at their school's Fall Festival this weekend. Their favorite thing, though, was definitely the bouncy slide. They did it over and over and over....

 

 

 

Birthday Pics

The kids had a great time at their birthday party this weekend. Jackson was officially 4 in Oct. and Sloan will be officially 3 in Dec., but we decided to celebrate in November. The weather was wonderful, the kids loved having their whole family with them, and LSU beat Alabama. What more can a kid ask for?! Oh, yeah - presents! Lots and lots of presents!

Birthday Party 07

Boo at the Zoo

We all had a great time at the Merry, Not Scary Boo at the Zoo this morning. The weather was fabulous and the kids were really good about saying Trick or Treat and thank you when they received some candy. I'm also happy to report that at no time did I lose either child - always a plus. And then we came home and all had a lovely, long nap. If only I hadn't woken up to hear that Kentucky lost to MS State, it would have been a great day. You can view the slideshow here:

Boo at the Zoo '07

Sloan's New Haircut

Sloan had the rest of her baby hair chopped off yesterday. She is now sporting a shoulder length bob and, as her daddy puts it, "is totally sassy."

 

 

Tantrum of the Week

Well, apparently I am a terrible mother who seriously traumatized her daughter last night. The weather has been so bad the past couple of days that I lazily decided not to stop at the store even though I knew Sloan was almost out of nightime pullups. Well, we used the last one on Monday and so last night when she got out of the tub I had to put her in one of Jack's. If I had any idea of the ramifications of this, I would have gotten it on film for you, but I never dreamed a two year old would even notice, much less care. Boy was I wrong. She immediately started backing away when she saw me holding them and preceded to inform me that those were Jack's pullups. I told her I knew that, but she was out and so would have to wear these. That's when the stuff hit the fan - total meltdown. She started wailing that they were blue and for a boy and she NEEDED pink ones with Cinderella on them. I cannot emphasize enough how emphatic she was about this. I literally had to wrestle them on to her while she was kicking and screaming. Even telling her it was just for one night did nothing to appease her. You can imagine my face - I just could not believe such a little thing could produce such a huge reaction. She usually likes to use Jack's things. It just occured to me that I should have told her it was a secret and not to tell Jack she was wearing his pullups. She wouldn't have been able to get them on fast enough so she could go taunt him with it. I guess I was just in such a shock that I wasn't thinking straight. Anyway, you can bet I stopped at the store first thing this morning and bought three packs of pink pullups with Cinderella on them.

Gladiators

Jason has taught our children the useful skill of wrestling. They like to play gladiators with him and now with each other when he's not around. Mommy has been invited to play, but has declined so far. If you listen closely, you can hear Jack reminding Sloan of one of the rules, "no biting," before declaring himself the winner.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Pumpkin Patch this morning and the kids had a blast. They picked out two great pumpkins (which mommy returned to the pile when they weren't looking and picked out two other great ones) and did lots of running, jumping, swinging, milking, etc. You can check out all the action if you click on the pic and view the web album.

Pumpkin Patch '07

The Spanish Clean Up Song

Zoo Day

We brought the kids to the BR Zoo on Sunday and despite a little drizzle, we all had a good time. The kids actually seemed more excited to see the animals this time instead of jumping cracks in the sidewalk, so that was great :)

 

 

 

 

New Pics

Ok, I've been catching a lot of grief about not updating the blog lately, so here are some pics of the kids. They were both in a really good mood this morning before school and with daddy home to help get them ready, we actually had some extra time to take pictures. Usually I'm running around like a crazy person to get myself and them ready and out the door for 8 o'clock. Anyway, they are still both loving their new school. Jackson has three new friends, Adian, Caroline, and Jacob that he talks about everyday. He's been a little concerned about Caroline because she hasn't been at school the past two days. I told him that she was probably just sick and would be back soon. The next time he saw his daddy he told him he needed to go see Caroline and take care of her so she could go back to school. We're always telling him that his daddy's job is to take care of sick people. He is also picking up on the new languages really quickly, even Chinese, although his chinese teacher fusses that he likes to play too much in class. She says when he focuses he learns really quickly, but that he and Jacob spend too much time goofing off :) But Jack loves her and still calls her his o-ban teacher because o-ban is the first chinese word he learned. It means good or good job. And little Sloanie is just going with the flow, her usual happy self. I don't think she's picking it up like a sponge like Jack, but every now and then I catch her whispering the words to Frere Jacques or Sur le Pont D'Avignon. I suspect she's soaking it all in, but is a little shy about repeating it out loud. Which is probably for the best because Jason and I still have a hard time understanding her sometimes when she speaks English, or as we like to call it, Sloanese :)

 

 

 

 

The Monarch

 

 

 

 

Bend It Like Jackson

Jack's first soccer practice went pretty well. He didn't want to leave Jason's side for the first few minutes, but then he started to get into it. He did peter out half way through, though, so we're going to work on conditioning over the next week :) His favorite part was the huddle when they all put their hands together and yelled "go tigers!" His coach was very patient and he is going to need it! There are two Jacks and two Jacksons on the team. Everytime he would call out "Jack" (which was a lot) he had four kids running up to him.

Mommy thought David Beckham was a good looking soccer player, but only until she saw this boy in his shorts and cleats :)

 
 

First Goal

The Coolest Cinderella Ever