Jenna's Photoshoot

Destruction...times two

This is why I cannot get anything done around my house...or at least it is a very slow process of getting things put away or clean....LOL...

Thanksgiving - Part Deux

So, I totally forgot to add Joshua's cookie pictures and our family portraits!!!

Joshie made (well, cut out) gingerbread cookies and he actually did a good job! Here's a few pictures of him:

And my sister, Jessica, was so sweet and took all our family portraits for Christmas. We haven't had a family picture since last year, so it was nice to have one with Jenna being a little older. It was funny though to see Hana with all the kids....and to see Sherrie try and get a "grandkids" picture....You try getting 5 kids all 3 and under to sit down!!!

Thankful

Thanksgiving is not just a time for eating delicious food, but also for being with family and remembering to be thankful for all the wonderful things and people that are in our lives each year. Thanksgiving is always a "difficult" holiday for me. I don't mean difficult because some horrible tragedy happened, or some awful anniversary is remembered. I mean difficult in the sense that since we moved out here to Texas its made me so much more thankful for my family that I ever was before.

I have a large family and every year for Thanksgiving we would all gather together and be thankful for each other and the past year. We're not talking about a "small" gathering...or even a "large" one in the sense that a lot of people think of large. When my family gets together for thanksgiving, there's between 60 and 90 people there...all family and related and closely knot together. That's in California.....We're now in Texas....that's why its "difficult".

This year was different though. This year my family back in Cali didn't get together. So many people are spread out all over the country now and with my grandparents and their brothers/sisters getting up in age its harder for all of them to get together. This made me so sad to think that the gatherings had come to an end. How could anyone not want to drive a million miles to spend time with the family?! But then came a sense of thankfulness. I was thankful that I got to spend about 23 thanksgivings with my family together and that I could always remember that and bring that legacy here to Texas for my kids to see.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my sister Jessica's house. There adds on more and more people every year, and before long we'll have our own group and lots of people to celebrate with. We're off to a good start too - we've been here 3 years and we've got about 20 family members so far: dad and his wife, Sherrie; Jason, myself, Joshua and Jenna; my sister, Jessica, her husband, Shon, and their little boy, Elisha; Shon's sister, Mary; my sister, Vanessa, her husband, CJ, and their daughter, Caitlyn; Sherrie's brother, Monty, his wife, Letty, and their kids: Jessica, Joey, Jacob and Megan. This year we were even blessed with Hana, a foreign exchange student from South Korea that has been staying with my parents for the year. There's a lot to be thankful for, that's for sure!!!

Here are some pictures of our fun time together:

Jenna's first Thanksgiving meal! She loved it!!

Joshua playing with baby Megan (7 mo)

Monty with baby Caitly (5 mo)

Joshua playing underneath the table

Shon's sister Mary, Elisha, Jessica, Shon, Jessica, Sherrie, Hana


Vanessa, Caitlyn, and C.J.
Jason and Joshua during the prayer

Jenna chillin' on a chair

Thankful Tree

So this is the first year that Joshua is "aware" and can conciously remember things and traditions, so Jason and I are working on starting cool little traditions with our own little family for holidays and stuff. Since Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I grew up with such a strong family tradition of being thankful for my family, I thought it would be nice if Joshua made a "thankful tree" that he can have as our centerpiece during the dinner.

I wrote our immediate family's names on each leaf and put some glue on the back and let him stick the leaves wherever he wanted to to make the tree. As we put glue on each leaf I read it to him and we said a little prayer for each person whose name we came across. We thanked God for putting them in our lives and for them being special to us. When it was all put together I told him - "See, all together we make this tree - we are all a part of a family and we all fit together and support each other. Each one of these people love you very much"

We haven't figured out what we're going to do for Christmas yet, but we have some time still for that one.

Boy or Girl??

December 1st is Jenna's birthday....the following day we will be finding out whether the kids will be having a baby brother or a baby sister join the family in April. My "gut" feeling was right on with the other two kids, but with this one I am just not sure. Part of me wants a boy for the simple fact that there would be no "middle child syndrome" since Jenna would be the only girl and be special, and Joshie could then bond with the newest baby. But on the other hand, I am really enjoying how snuggly Jenna has been lately. (Totally different story than when she was a newborn!) When I ask Joshie, he says he wants a sister, but that's all he knows is having a sister.....we will find out though on the 2nd!!

Make sure to vote in the poll up above. :) We'll see who's right, and who's wrong!

Is it nap time yet?

The reason for the title of this post is because we have been so busy around here, that I find myself waiting...yearning...pining for......NAP TIME! Yep, seems like there's always something we're doing or working on every second of the day, that the only "down time" is nap time. LOL....

So what have we been up to since the last blog?? Well, Jason and Jenna were sick with the stomach flu two weeks ago and now Joshua is sick with it, so that's taken some time. I guess it's "that time of the year"...Gotta love it. Anyways, thankfully I haven't been sick with it yet.

Other than that, we've been just going through the daily routine and getting ready for Thanksgiving, then Jenna's birthday, then Christmas. Wow - there went 2008....

One of the neat things about having Jessica as my sister is that she is also into photography and trying to start her own business out here. Makes it nice having someone to take the kids' pictures :) Here are a few of Jenna's "One Year Old" shots - these are the unedited versions, so be sure to check back after Thanksgiving for the edited ones....And NO, she was not cooperative!

"2 Minutes"

Many of you know that I watch a lot of Supernanny. It helps give me a variety of different avenues for discipline and see what works and doesn't work with each kid. Well, spankings work with Joshie - if daddy gives them to him. If I do it, he just laughs. So for me the only thing that works is "time out"....

In fact the above picture has become quite a recurrent scene lately. Not that he's being horrible, but he's "two" - he's testing his limit and trying to learn how to be independent. Sometimes he tests a little too far, sometimes he purposefully does things he's not supposed to (like push his sister) to see if he'll get away with it.

Thankfully, most of the time he's a sweet boy and a really good kid. But when he gets in trouble, he knows it! He says to me "2 minutes" and goes in his "naughty chair" and pouts for his 2 minutes. He gets one minute per year old he is, so next year he'll be sitting for 3 minutes. I didn't think this apporach would work, but he hates missing play time to have to sit by himself. Especially when people are over, or he's playing with Jenna. Its like torture for him! It usually only takes one or two times a day in the naughty chair, so I am thankful for that!

On another note, his sister is following right behind him with being mischeivious and getting into things she's not supposed to. This morning I thought it would be a good idea to do the dishes before Joshie got up. I put something away, and turn aound to find her inside the dishwasher!!

SILLY KIDS!! What the heck am I going to do with three of them??? Guess God knows that I hate to have a boring life! :)

Keep walking....

Jenna is officially walking on her own.....everywhere!!! Here's a little clip of her walking :)

Oh, and she can climb the stairs too!!

Happy Halloween

This year for halloween we decided to take the kids to the nearby church since their entire parking lot was being turned into a carnival. This was the first year we actually did something, and it was kinda fun! The kids had a hard time staying awake, but they did enjoy all the people and things to see. The only draw-back was that most of the events were for older kids, so we played a few games and Jason took Joshie on the horses (which he loved!)

As you can tell from the title picture, Jason went as a mechanic, I was a doctor, Joshie a puppy, and Jenna was a pumpkin. Joshie LOVED his puppy costume and was walking around with Ginger before we left pretending to be a puppy...It was funny. Here's some pictures of our night out and of course a video of Joshie bowling for a toy....

We didn't get much candy (mommy was sad since that's the whole point of halloween!). but maybe next year, we'll go trick-or-treating, or something else like that. :) Who knows - we'll have three little monsters then!