Still Sittin' Around

My BFF when we were in China, Anita, called me this morning....she was sitting by the pool at Animal Kingdom at Disneyworld. My buddy Shelley is hanging out in Cozumel with her boyfriend (she's probably sitting by the pool too). And my friend since middle school, Allison, just got back from her family's second home in Mexico...no doubt, there was some sitting around the pool going on there. Well, I'm sitting...but no pools nearby for me! My weekly doctors appointment (and weekly trip out of the house) went good. According to the ultrasound it looks like both babies are around 4 pounds, and everything else is as it should be. Jason asked my doctor if she thought I would make it to 37 weeks (last week in January), and she didn't seem to think I would with the babies already so big. So, we're just taking it day by day, week by week. I'm not eating as much as I did with JR (when I found a new buffet to visit everyday) but I'm still gaining weight...4 lbs just this week. Yep, I'm big!

Santa Presents Recap

I really thought that Christmas Day would start about 5 AM, but to our pleasant surprise, JR didn't wake up until his usual 7:30. He ran in our room and told us in the most pitiful voice I have ever heard, "Santa didn't come...." We reassured him that Santa probably did come and he needed to go check again. He was back in a second screaming, "He did come! He did come! Santa actually did come!" We found out later that JR had just assumed Santa didn't come because he hadn't heard him during the night....boy, that Santa sure is sneaky.
JR was pretty impressed that Santa ate all 3 cookies and drank all the milk...more proof that Santa had "actually come"!

Here's JR modeling his Spiderman house shoes that "Santa bought for him at Target!"

I guess Santa knew that JR needed a Spiderman bike to go with his Spiderman house shoes.

And the best present of all....The Smart Cycle. For those of you without preschool kids, it's a video game system, but the kids peddle the bike to play the games. If JR is in the house, he's playing it, and if he's not playing it, he's asking if he can play it. He can work up quite a sweat! Go, JR, Go!

Christmas Eve Recap

So here is our Christmas Eve Recap...Christmas Eve started about 6:45 AM when JR's eyes flew open. Next his mouth flew open and I believe these are the only words he spoke all day long...nonstop...."Can I open my presents? Is it time to open presents? Can I please open one present? Is Santa coming tonight? Is it time to open presents? Can I open my presents? I'm ready to open presents..." Mama and Daddy, I'm so sorry if I ever badgered you to open presents! Be assured that if I did, what went around has come around ten fold!

Jason finally got JR's mind off of presents for about a minute by making cookies for Santa.

Around 2:00 JR got his BIG present from Grandpa Gary and Granny Buffie. He jumped right on his new 4-wheeler, threw it in 2nd gear (because 1st gear is much too slow) and took off. It is so cute! It even has a tool box on the back (which JR uses to carry the mail back home after he checks it). So far he hasn't hit anything and he rides all over the yard. It really is funny to watch him ride.

After dinner JR finally got to open the rest of his presents from Grandpa Gary, Granny Buffie, and us. As you can see, he's still wearing the Santa hat. He gets excited about anything Transformers...even clothes.

Here's JR practicing to go to Africa this spring with his new safari jungle set. Grandpa was pretty upset that animals included in the set don't actually live in Africa...like the squirrels and tigers.

FINALLY, it was time for bed so Santa could come. JR set out the milk and cookies and even wrote Santa a thank you note.

Christmas Decor

I wanted to share our Christmas decorations with everybody. Here are some of my Christmas trees and Christmas decor for this year. There's more upstairs, but I'm not allowed to walk upstairs, so I couldn't take any pictures. JR has two trees in his room, I have a "travel tree" in our Chinese bedroom, and our "Family" tree is in the game room. Thanks to my mom and dad who were a HUGE help in getting everything decorated. Merry Christmas!

Photobucket Album

JR's Christmas Par-tay

Today was JR's Christmas Party at school. I'm the homeroom mom, so obviously I was supposed to be there, but since I couldn't go I sent 2 grandmothers and dad in my place. Jason, Maw-Maw, and Granny Buffie all helped out at the party today, and from what I hear it was very nice, but a lot of work. The kids had stations where they got to play bingo, decorate a cookie, and make a Christmas tree ornament. JR also came home with a sack full of Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanzaa crafts (thank goodness they were mostly Christmas… Hanukah and Kwanzaa crafts don’t really go with all my Christmas trees). They also had one tiny page on Ramadan, which I told JR we could "just skip over that one." JR spent some time tonight explaining to Jason what you do with a dradle, especially since Jason thought you used a dradle to celebrate Kwanzaa. Jason was nice enough to take a few pictures and videos for me so here they are...
Here's the class singing. Yes, that is MY child wearing the Santa hat. He picked it out last night to wear today, and the teacher said he had worn it all day. It was a big decision as to whether he was going to wear the reindeer ears or the Santa hat.

This is Logan, JR, and Mateo making their Christmas tree ornaments. The school gave them all the Christmas head bands, and as you can see, Logan and Mateo have taken theirs off, JR on the other hand, is wearing his...on top of the Santa hat...I just can't imagine where he gets it from? ;-)

Here's Maw-Maw helping JR with his ornament. My poor mom just thought she was finished giving Christmas parties when she retired!

Big Thank Yous

I had a visitor today!! Allison came over and spent the afternoon with me, which was awesome. AND she brought me the best present EVER....She came with a bag full of magazines! And when I say "a bag full of magazines" I mean a bag full of about 15 of the newest magazines out there! Woo-Hoo! I can't wait to dive into them. My next thank you goes to my faithful companion, Hunter. He has done such a good job of being on bed rest with me. I even took a picture of him hard at work. Yes, that is my leg under the blanket that he is resting his head on.






I also need to thank Granny Sherry and Granny Buffie for driving me to the doctor, taking JR to his activities, and cooking me REALLY good food and bringing it over. I also really appreciate all the emails, phone calls, and messages on my blog, it really helps to break up the day. And of course, Thanks to my mom who has been beyond fabulous taking care of JR and me. We are going to let her out of prison (as my mom and I refer to it) on Thursday afternoon as Jason will be on vacation until New Year's. If I get put back in the hospital under Jason's care he's going to have a lot of mad grandparents...so I think he'll do an okay job. Thanks everybody! Hugs and Kisses!

More Hunting Pictures, and Video

Hunting Trip

The hunting trip to Uvalde was a big success. I thought I would let JR tell you all about it, so I played secretary while JR dictated. "I shot a deer and a black pig and I shot all the targets. And I had a big house and a little house that you had to climb a ladder to. And I was pretty good. And I shot lots of targets and I got a silver bullet and a light bullet, they were big. And I folded napkins, and I helped cook, and I ate 2 hot dogs.

For breakfast I had a big french fry, scrambled eggs, and bacon with ketchup. I put a stick on the pig's back and 2 rocks on it. And we used a stick to show his teeth and we put a rock under him so he could stand up. And I want to show everyone all the pages in my new Scooby Doo pop up book, Folks, you need to look inside this book."

Jason's side of the story is just a little bit different. It was actually Jason and Grandpa that shot the animals (a buck, doe, and the pig for Jason and a doe for Grandpa), but JR did get to target shoot, although I think he did have a little trouble getting the hang of looking through the scope. Jason said everybody got a big kick out of JR. The cooks let JR help them in the kitchen, and JR came home showing us his new napkin folding skills. My favorite story from the trip was when they first got to the lodge JR walked in and saw a musk ox and elk on the wall. He quickly pointed and told everybody, "I have one of those in MY office; I have one of THOSE in MY office too." Thankfully, a good time was had by all....can you imagine if JR hadn't like hunting? Oooh, I don't even want to go there!

Baby Update

I went to the doctor on Thursday (it was so exciting to get out of the house) and everything is still good. My doctor told me that she really wants me to carry these little guys for 37 weeks, so that would be until the last week in January! My stomach is already 40 inches (it grew 3 inches from last week) so I'm as big as a woman who is due to give birth any day. So, I'll continue to be on bed rest and we'll see how long they want to stay in. Jason, JR , and Grandpa Gary are on their deer hunt this weekend. I've talked to them a couple of times and JR is having fun and thinks he is a real hunter. They will be back tomorrow so I'm excited to hear all their stories....which I'll be sure to pass along....

Kickboxing....It's the Sport of the Future

Jason got home from Singapore and Thailand today. We're all happy to have him back on this side of the world. I think he brought back the best present for JR that he could have ever come up with...an official Thai Kickboxing outfit, complete with boxing gloves. JR put it on immediately and started punching and kicking. He even asked if he could go visit Santa in it! The yellow writing on his shorts is Thai and basically says "Thai Kickboxing" which Jason says is different than regular kickboxing.

Good thing JR has been taking karate lessons. As you can see, I'm pretty sure his new sport of karate punches combined with moves he's seen on The Power Rangers Movie will soon be sweeping the nation. How long do you think it will be before something in my house is broken from kicking or punching? I'm betting not long!

I thought I was on bed rest!

And here I was thinking that I was the one that was supposed to be in bed. Last night MawMaw and PawPaw took JR to the mall to eat Chinese food. He could pick any restaurant he wanted to go to and he picked mall Chinese food...I think the mall trip also included a couple of rides on the carousel and some "mall games" (that's what he calls video games at the mall). When they got home it was time for JR to go to bed. I was watching Jamie and Bobby Dean travel around Georgia making and eating candy on the Food Network. JR got really excited about the food (especially when they started making gingerbread houses and red velvet cupcakes) so I let him climb in bed and watch with me. JR loved the show and was pretending to eat all the yummy goodies. Later, they started showing how to make a turducken, which was completely uninteresting to JR and he fell asleep. Unfortunately, I think JR is a more restless sleeper than I am (if that's possible). I took this picture of JR, Buzz Lightyear, and, Hunter on my way to go sleep on the couch. They are all completely sideways in the bed; that's why none of them are laying on a pillow...the pillows are all at the top of the bed. So it was couch city for me last night; I hope they enjoyed it...there's no way Jason would ever let them get away with that one!

Out of the House Adventure!

I got to leave the house yesterday, woo-hoo! It was a big exciting trip to the doctor. We decided that it would be best for Jason's mom (Sherry) to take me to the doctor since my mom hasn't driven in Houston in years. We were also worried that if I got admitted back into the hospital my mom wouldn't know how to find my house (she doesn't really have any sense of direction). But my mom is taking wonderful care of JR and me!! I had an ultrasound and the babies are good. Sherry had never seen an ultrasound so she was excited to get to see the babies on the "big screen". I'm still on the medicine to stop my contractions, but I'm getting used to it; I'm not near as shaky, which is really nice. I'm at the point where I see the doctor every week now, so when Sherry brought me home I said, "Well, I guess I'll get to get out of the house again this time next week". I'm feeling good, just really bored. So, if you need a recap of any of your favorite TV shows or need something researched on the Internet don't hesitate to let me know, I've got it covered!

THE performance

This weekend was the big performance of Away in the Manger at church. The big performance that I've been working on with the kids since September. The big performance that I have whined about in this blog so many times. And, yes, due to this really fun bed rest, I missed both performances. Jason said they did good...I was really most concerned about JR keeping his fingers out of his mouth (he has a real nail biting problem) and he did. All the grandparents were there to see him sing, so at least he had a fan club in the audience. Here's a picture of them singing, JR is on the 2nd row from the top on the right hand side.

Guns A Blazin'

Jason took JR for his first trip to the gun range on Saturday. Jason, Grandpa Gary, and JR are going hunting in South Texas in a few weekends and Jason said he needed to go fire his gun before they went. I wasn't sure how the trip to the gun range would go, and as soon as they were finished I had a phone call from a very mad JR. Of course he's not big enough to shoot Jason's gun, but to make matters worse, he wasn't allowed to stand near his daddy while he shot. He had to stand back with Grandpa Gary and just watch. JR reported that "everybody was mean to him because he didn't get to shoot". According to JR, the best thing that came out of the experience was that he got chicken nuggets on the way home! I think Grandpa Gary has a little gun for JR to shoot on their hunt...Let's hope so, or they're going to need lots of chicken nuggets!

Bed Rest

So here I am sitting in bed, yep, I'm on bed rest. Unbeknown to me, I kinda brought this on myself. We had a Christmas Open House here last night (Sunday) and on Thursday I was trying to get things ready for that. After I got JR on the bus I ran to the grocery store, then Costco, and when I got home I started making teacake cookies. I forgot how much work teacakes can be and I was in a rush to get them made before JR got home. So, instead of eating lunch I ate a couple of cookies and had 2 diet cokes. By the time I got the kitchen cleaned up, JR was home and we had to leave immediately because he had both gymnastics and karate that day to make up for missing karate on Thanksgiving. While JR was in his classes I decided I would get our Christmas cards addressed. I was sitting at a kids sized table in an adult chair, and when I started to get uncomfortable, I decided that it was just because of the size of the table and chair. As I was driving JR home that night I finally realized that something might be wrong. I walked in and told Jason, "I think I may be having contractions". I didn't know if I was or not because I never went into labor with JR. I was supposed to be walking out the door to go to KD dinner, but Jason told me I better call my doctor, who told me to go to the hospital. When we arrived at the hospital my contractions were 2 minutes apart! The nurses told me that dehydration, not enough to eat, and too much movement can start contractions...Well, I'd pretty much done all 3 to myself that day! They got the contractions down to a minimum later on Friday and let me go home on Saturday afternoon. We still had our Christmas Open House on Sunday; I just had to sit and let Jason and all the grandparents take care of everything....which I'm VERY grateful for! It's hard for me to talk on the phone because the medicine I'm on to stop the contractions makes me shake, short of breath, and makes my heart race, but everybody's more that welcome to email me, I need lots of entertainment! Jason has to go to Singapore and Thailand for work this week, but my mom is here to take care of JR and me. I think JR is a little scared of me right now...when he got home from school today he told me, "Mommy, you're stomach is REALLY big!" Hopefully it will get bigger, we need these babies to cook a little longer!

We're Elves!

My BFF from China, Anita, sent me an email of her family as elves, and I have never laughed so hard! I had so much fun making this of us....If you "elf" your family, please send it to me, I get such a kick out of silly stuff like this! Just click on the link http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9618431069 Enjoy!

Turkey Day Recap

There were 46 of us for Thanksgiving this year (not including dogs). There was SO much good food and lots of laughs.



Jason was in charge of the fried foods for Thanksgiving. He fried a turkey (which everybody loved) and here he is frying Twinkies...which as you can imagine were also a big hit!





For some reason JR felt it necessary to offer after dinner check-ups to our family for Thanksgiving. Here he is giving Cousin Sarah a shot. You can see Cole (Sarah's nephew) trying to make his escape from her lap. I'm guessing that's because JR had just told him, "Now, Cole, this shot is going to hurt- A LOT!"

JR and his favorite cousin, Caleb, were more into playing than eating this Thanksgiving. Although Caleb made reindeer cookies that JR just loved. This tree house they're playing with was mine when I was little, nice to see that it's still a big hit.

This Week in Birthdays!

Today, November 25th- Happy Birthday Jason! JR says his daddy is 20 today....that sounds about right.

Pre Thanksgiving

We are getting ready to spend Thanksgiving at MawMaw and PawPaw's house. JR is very excited about going. He starts screaming, "I see MawMaw and PawPaw's house!" when we get to about Conroe, so hopefully we can keep that to a minimum this trip. The last time we came through New York from China our flight to Houston was delayed for hours. We were landing in Houston at about 4 in the morning and as we were descending JR looked out the window and screamed at the top of the lungs, "I see MawMaw and PawPaw's hooouuusseee!" Of course when I told my parents this story my mom said, "Oh, I bet everybody on the plane thought that was so cute, did everybody laugh?" Ummmm....let's see: flight was delayed for hours, it's 4 A.M., and a 3 year has just woken the whole plane up.....yeah, pretty safe to say nobody was laughing. We did get exciting news about MawMaw and PawPaw's house today. They just got a letter saying that their land is getting its 100 year plaque. 2007 marks 100 years that the land has been in the family, so we get to go to a ceremony in Austin at The Capital in April. Here's wishing everybody a great Thanksgiving!

Soccer Season

Soccer season is over! Can you tell I'm excited? JR played with our church's Team Kid program, and since they had green uniforms, their team name was "The Bullfrogs". They actually made it as easy on us as possible. Our games were on Saturdays, and the kids practiced for 30 minutes and then played for 30 minutes, which was plenty for JR. As aggressive of a kid as JR is, he was never aggressive playing soccer. He preferred to run behind the pack of kids and practice his karate moves. (Which was pretty funny.) I think he did score a goal this season (it was just for the other team). His favorite part of soccer was getting donuts before the game and a snack and a drink after the game...just like me!

Train Party

It was a very fun day at Megan Urban's 2nd birthday. (Megan's dad, Mike, and Jason have been friends since junior high.) JR LOVES Mr. Mike because he's a policeman and JR saw him in his uniform once. So it was a pretty exciting day all around. We started the party at Zube Park with a train ride. I didn't go on the train, but it was a really long ride and Jason said it was great, "much better than the train at the zoo". JR loved it and couldn't wait to tell me about all the things he got to see on the ride.












After the ride, we went back over to the Urban house and it was decorated so cute I had to take a picture. This is JR doing his excited dance about the railroad tracks outside the house.

The cake was just too cute and JR had a blast being the conductor of the train around the cake. And, yes, that's a train moon walk you see outside the window!

Here's JR with all his party favors...What a fun day!

Thanksgiving Feast

It was Thanksgiving Feast Day at JR's school today. He has been upset all week about having a name that is only 2 letters long. I finally figured out today what that has been about. The kid's feathers in their headdresses spelled out their names...JR just wanted more feathers in his headdress! He was pretty proud of his macaroni necklace too. Speaking of macaroni, Jason and his dad are still talking about the mom who brought 10 macaroni shells to the party. Not a serving for 10, but 10 cooked shells. We were supposed to bring enough food to serve 12. I guess she figured only 10 people would be interested in eating one shell of macaroni. She really needs to hook up with the lady who showed up at one of our church parties for 50 with 11 deviled eggs!



Yum! JR ate cheese, jello, crackers and cookies

I was so proud when I started reading that JR was thankful for his church, and then I got to the "because" part! Too funny! They really do have a transformer car in his Sunday School room...he even calls it "the transformer car room".

The party is over; JR and Timothy ready to go home.

Candy House

All of the Sunday School classes (I know they are called "Bible Study" classes now, but I just can't break the habit of calling it "Sunday School") at our church are having to make Candy Houses to display on campus. It's a really big undertaking, as the church only supplied a set of blue prints. We went to help out the other night, and actually had a lot of fun working on it. We took JR with us, and between playing with the other kids and sneaking candy to eat, he had an absolute blast. He keeps asking when we get to go work on the candy house some more. If you need something to do with your kids this Christmas season, they are going to have candy house tours at all 3 campuses (Woodway, Kingwood, and Katy) from November 26-December 30th (with no tours on the 24th or 25th) http://www.second.org/

I guess I'm really into making these porch steps, I look like I'm concentrating pretty hard!

Here's Jason hard at work caulking the chocolate bar roof.

It's almost finished....