Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Braids

We are visiting my family for the holiday and are staying with my sister, Jodi. Jodi has three grown sons (two of which are in the military awaiting deployment), but no daughters - although she does have three granddaughters. So, when my little bitty baby girl shows up, Auntie Jo has lots of fun with her. Every morning so far, Auntie Jo has been braiding Hadyn's hair:

Missy Bit just loves it and will actually sit still long enough for Auntie Jo to braid it. I haven't been in the inner sanctum to see what is going on between Auntie and Baby, but it must be something special for them. This morning, Hadyn kept asking, "An Do? (her way of saying Auntie Jo?) Bebe hair?" So the two of them disappeared and later appeared with another beautiful hairdo.

I hope I will be able to do this when we get back home. We may have to have "An Do" move in with us!!!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Times Have Changed...For Us, Anyway

We went to a Christmas Tree lighting ceremony tonight in a nearby "village" and Santa was making a grand appearance. Everyone in this town had shown up to see the Big Guy and stand in line for pictures and requests. As Santa made his way to the center of attention on a fire truck, I had to laugh a bit. We, among all the others in this crowd, were reacting to Santa's arrival as if waiting for a rock star.

The fire truck pulled up and everyone who could rushed over to see Santa emerge from the vehicle. I could hear a guy on the stage asking for everyone to clear a path so Santa could come through. Then he appeared. Screams and yells for Santa went up. And so did the kids, up on the shoulders of all the parents. All of sudden, I had a flashback to the rock-n-roll concert years of my much younger days and the crowd reactions then. Of course the persons on top of shoulders then weren't 2-6 years old and weren't always completely dressed, either. But the cheers were the same.

You can barely see Santa on the stage in this pic. Yup, I remember this view of a few bands back in the day.


Anyway, it was a great time for my kids. Hunter was in awe of seeing Santa and Hadyn was excited, too, to see "TinTa". Man, times sure have changed for us. But I sure love these times much more!!

This is Hunter in front of the corral where "Donner" and "Blitzen" are hanging out.


We also got to meet "Mrs. Claus" and have a pic with her. Hadyn wasn't too sure about her, though. Maybe next year.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Christmas Shopping

Well, Hadyn has started her Christmas wish list. She was "shopping" the Toys-R-Us catalog (what her brother left for her) for baby dolls and kitchen sets.

This is what I saw when I walked into the living room this morning:


Yup. We're in for it. She's just a little chip off of the Mommy block!!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Perspective

Driving Hunter to class today (we home-school, but he has a weekly class at a museum), I passed by an old gas station that has been closed for some time. When we started driving past it in September, Scott and I would laugh wondering how long that station had been closed since the prices on the banner outside were still marked at $2.65. In September, we would have done just about anything for that price on gas. I mean, wow! That was cheap, wasn't it???

Now, as I pass stations with gas as low as $1.75, I laugh once again at the little closed station thinking, yeah, right buddy, no one wants to pay THAT MUCH for gas.

Just a few months has completely changed my perspective on that subject. Makes me wonder what else changes in such a short period of time??

Monday, November 17, 2008

Yet, Again!

This is not a picture of us, but the message is the same! Keep reading for why!!

A church friend has asked her blog followers to post about something that your husband owns that drives you crazy. Well, as far as I know, and we've been together for 15 years, Scott doesn't own anything that drives me crazy. No, what he brought to our relationship is his inability to carry more than one thing in from the car.

I will load myself down like a pack mule (much like the poor lady in the above pic) and carry my purse, the diaper bag, the baby if she's kicked off her shoes - otherwise, she walks!, whatever else happens to be in the front seat with me, then perhaps a bag of groceries or the toys the kids have run off and left in the car, all the while fishing for the right key to open the house door, then closing the garage door to boot!!

Scott, bless his heart, will park the car, get out, leave anything he came with and "help" me by getting Hadyn out of the car seat, and going to open the house door. Meanwhile, I'm pack-mule-ing up and when I walk in, he says, "I was going to come get all of that." Yeah, babe, I'm sure you were, in about 30 trips or so.

I've blogged about this before and was told via comments, it isn't just my DH who has this syndrome, it is many. He is so good in so many ways - he is shampooing the carpets right now!! But this thing - arrggh! Can make a woman crazy.

Nope, no "stuff", but plenty of weird baggage!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Sick Baby

I was greeted this morning by a sweet little bitty girl climbing into bed with me and giving me sweet hugs and kisses (her big brother will get her out of bed in the morning and then come to get us up). Oh, how I relished those precious little hands reaching around my neck and those beautiful little bitty lips reaching up to shower Mommy with kisses. Wow.

Then things went sour. Hadyn wanted breakfast and while Daddy was getting some cuddles so I could make her some toast (her request), she barfed on Dad. We were supposed to go for pictures at my neighbors house (we went yesterday, but her sweet little bitty deleted all the pics from her camera...oops!), but with this, I wasn't so sure. However, she seemed to bounce back and I though maybe something just didn't set well on her tummy and now that it was out, she was fine. But about thirty minutes later, we started the whole thing over again.

Bless her baby heart. It always breaks my heart to have a sick baby. They don't always know why they feel this way and don't know when it will ever end. She fell asleep in my arms at 10AM. I knew for sure then that she wasn't feeling well. She napped for an hour, then was up for a little bit but would not leave my lap or arms. We've watched Spongebob, Veggie Tales - multiple episodes, more Spongebob, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, Spongebob again, Hannah Montana, and now Shrek. She's taken a couple of naps and had a high temp of 103 and now is hovering around 98-99.

Hopefully this is a short lived episode of some kind of bug. She seems to be fine right now. She's talking non stop and begging me for my iced tea. The girl loves to sneak my sweet tea. And she's asking me for mackychee (mac-n-cheese).

Yup, she's better. Now, let's pray all the rest of us stay well!!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

From the Mouth of Babes...again...

Anyone who has followed my blog for a while may remember when Hunter asked me "how many Kennedy's do you have in your body?" Well, word slip boy hits again.

At the dinner table tonight, Hunter so wistfully said, "we should have a Passover meal someday." Wow! I was blown away, I mean, Scott and I had talked about trying to do that with our family, but we hadn't moved on it yet. One of our church pastors, Steve Lucas, had said at one time that his family observes Passover and I think maybe other Jewish celebrations. Why? Well, think about it, if you are adopted into a family, you would take on the traditions of that family, right? As Christians, we've been adopted into a Jewish family. Of course, we have our own celebrations, but why wouldn't we celebrate and observe the traditions of our adopted family? So when Hunter suggested this, I was thrilled...until....

Yeah. Hunter wants to have a passover dinner. One where all the food is on the table and we "pass" the plates "over" each other to get our own food out.

Thanksgiving, babe. It's called Thanksgiving.

Sigh.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

A Quiet Place

Most mothers know there is no place you can escape your children...they will hunt you down. This thought occurred to me this morning as I tried to have a quiet moment to myself for, well, you know, a "bathroom moment". Through the closed door I listened to the little voices growing louder, "Mommmmmyyy", "Mommmmmm?", "Mommy?", "Where did Mom go?", "where Mommy?", "Missy? Have you seen Mom?", and on and on. Okay, they both know where I am. They are both standing outside the closed door doing this. If I answer them, they'll try to carry on a conversation with me. If I ignore their calls, they'll continue on. There is no escape.

My mother told me one time of a similar story. My mother has four children with a 15 year age span. At some point in time with all four in the house, she chose to escape. In our house, there was only one bathroom, so that was not a good place to escape to, but we did have a basement in which the pantry held a freezer containing ice cream. Mom said she had to get away one day, so she went to the basement pantry, grabbed a fudgcicle from the freezer and sat on a stool in the pantry enjoying her treat and the show going on upstairs...much like my own this morning, with the constant calls of "where's Mom?" My dad finally found her in her hidey hole and when he told her the kids were looking for her, she answered, "yes, I know."

He was surprised that she would go to such lengths to hide, but then again, Dads usually get to go tinkle by themselves. Maybe one of these days I will once again get that experience.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Where Do They Learn This?

Scott and I ask ourselves and each other this question rather often concerning our children: "where do they learn this?" Of course, the question is answered at some point in our own behaviors, comments, actions, etc.

For example, today after lunch, the kids were sitting at the table having a Popsicle. I put on some music and started dancing around the kitchen being all goofy and everything. I was having fun watching the ice treat eating faces just blankly staring at me until Hadyn ROLLED HER EYES AT ME!! I mean, it was so obvious and it was watching a 2 year old foreshadowing to her teen years and saying, "ohmagosh Maawwwmmmmm! How embarrassing!" Then the 2 year old came back and started cracking up at herself...or at me...I'm still not sure. My jaw was on the ground and then I realized that while I was thinking, "where did she learn THAT?" I rolled MY eyes. Oh. Yeah. That's where she learned it. Oh boy. I told Scott the other day when he was asking about her temper and demanding nature, "I'm sorry, babe, but she is me." I've matured somewhat, she hasn't. Bless his heart. He has two of us.

But don't feel entirely sorry for Scott. Hunter is every bit his Daddy. Things that are said from that boy's mouth originated from his Daddy's. Hunter gets a swat on the tuckus and sent to his room...maybe I should call Scott's mom and see if she can swat him, too. He has Daddy's good qualities, too, like telling mom at just the right time how much he loves me and how I'm the best mom in the world. Yeah, he's his Daddy's boy all right.

I love my babies. Life is certainly an adventure with them.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Growin' Old Together

I made a mistake this morning. I took my mirror, went to my glass back door with all the bright morning sunlight coming in and sat down to look at my face (and pluck eyebrows in natural light). Ewwww. Not a really pleasant sight for my eyes. You see, my mind tells me that I am still a very young woman. I mean, I have two young children so I must be young, right? Either that or my children are aging me very quickly.

Anyway, I noticed how age has crept up on me. Oh, not that I think I look old, I still think I look young enough, but the harsh brightness of sunlight lets me know different. Then I started to think about women my age and older who lose their husbands to divorce or death and have to start over. I would not want to start over for anything. I pray that God does not have that in his plan for me. Where would you start? And do you want to find someone who looks as old as you? Do you have "work" done so you look as old as your mind tells you that you are? Yuk.

I went and hugged Scott extra tight after all that ran through my mind. When I told him what was going on, he remarked on how he was looking older, too. Yeah, but that's okay with me. Because we are growing older together. I don't want to do it by myself.

Of course, I think my children may be aging me at a tremendous speed right now. But that's a tale for another time. HA!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

New President

Well, the election is over (finally) and we have a new President. It may not be the choice of around 49% of Americans, but Barack Obama is now the President Elect of the United States of America. So, what do we do? We support our new President as EVERY American should. He was not my choice, but that is irrelevant now. Hunter saw the results coming in last night before he went to bed and was very concerned with all the blue he saw on the map. I told him that the election wasn't over, but even if Obama won, we should always respect the office of the President, that he would be THE President of OUR United States of America. God is in control, not us, so let's support our new president and let God lead us in our coming future.

God Bless America!!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Racin' Weekend





Hunter had a terrific weekend! It was race weekend here in Texas so we started it off on Thursday by taking Hunter to Grapevine to meet the NASCAR driver of the #6 car, David Ragan, and then meet Fox Sports commentator (and former crew chief), Jeff Hammond. David is a young guy with a great future ahead of him, but for right now, his public persona needs a little polishing. This young sweetie was signing autographs without looking up much, if at all. I had told Hunter before we got in line to be sure to introduce yourself and tell him it is nice to meet him. So when Hunter got to the front of the line, David was head down and engaged in conversation with the gentleman beside him. I was so bummed that he wasn't even going to look at Hunter. Then my little race car driver said, "Hi! I'm Hunter and it is very nice to meet you." At this, young David stops his conversation, looks up at my little bitty and says, "Well, hi, Hunter, it's nice to meet you, too. I'm going to sign this 'to: Hunter'." Wow! All it took was a little boy saying, "hi." Then I asked if we could have a picture and he pulled up a chair for Hunter to sit down beside him. Wow! Again!

A little bit later, Jeff Hammond came in for autographs and we got in line again. Jeff is much more experienced and polished, but Hunter did his same greeting and he again received a personalized autograph and another picture.

When we left Grapevine on Thursday, I nearly had to tie Hunter to the car to keep him from floating away. This kid was in the clouds! So was I, for him. How cool! But it didn't end there.
On Friday, we went to Texas Motor Speedway for NASCAR Sprint Cup practice and qualifying. Casey Mears, the driver of the #5, was on hand for autographs as well. So, we jumped in line and again, another picture and personalized autograph. Then the man himself, Jeff Gordon, came out on the stage for a short Q&A and Hunter again was in the clouds! But to top off Friday, Jeff Gordon got the pole for Sunday's race and we were there to watch it! Whoo!

Sunday was race day and we had purchased tickets in June for this race for Hunter's birthday. It was a awesome day and he is still buzzing around the house talking about how cool the race was. Yeah, I think he's hooked.

But we are, too!!