i'm in need...

of ideas for christmas season traditions.


what are your traditions? what do you do with your kids? your family? your spouse?

i'm really hoping for some responses on this one, though if we follow history this will be a post to which no one responds...

here's to hopin' you can help me out.

xoxo
j

there are times

in my life when i am unexplainably happy. right now, at this moment: 8:18pm on november 22nd i. am. happy. i'm not sure why, but

maybe it's because my two year old just "read" where the wild things are to me.
maybe it's that my 8 month old went to sleep without a fight.
maybe it's the man in my life who does everything in his power to keep this family fed, clothed, sheltered and loved.
maybe it's the snow falling outside. snow is oh so very appropriate at this time of year.
maybe it's the upcoming holiday and birthday and holiday and anniversary.
maybe it's the perfection of a sunday afternoon nap.
maybe it's the ideas jumbling through my head of things i'd like to accomplish and become.
maybe it's serendipity.

who knows. but whatever it is that is causing this feeling of giddiness it's something i'm enjoying.

xoxo

if you ever

feel like your life just sucks or couldn't get any worse and need a good, well-written, pick-me-up kind of blog to read check out either nienie dialogues or c jane enjoy it. stephanie nielson (nienie dialogues) and her husband were in a plane crash awhile back and she was burned over a good portion of her body. while she was fighting for her life her sister, courtney jane (c jane) took care of her children, documented stephanie's fight, and started a massive fund raising effort via blogging for her sister's health care costs. in fact if you blog surf at all you've at least heard of these ladies. i recommend the read because they both write well and from the heart.

that's all. my two cents. take it for what it's worth, which is about two cents.

love you all (i think).

Family Pics

Recently had the opportunity to take some family photos. Went to the Wheeler Farm and had a fairly decent time, though H. was practicing his "being 2 = being difficult" skills again. Because of this there were no great pics of the kids together and few pics of H. smiling at all. Ah, well. It's about the memories, right?

--and yes, Melanie, I will be sending you some for your family photo collection.

i have friends. shocking perhaps, but true. --i have friends who... well, who are funny. at least they're funny to me because they would never understand the life that i now lead. i look at their blogs which are festooned with martha stewart-esque photos and ideas for projects and perfectly coifed children and comments about the horror that are red-necks. these are the same people who would never understand the above pics of my husband and i who spent a weekend night not too long ago cutting up and grinding the deer he had shot the week before.

true confessions, though? i wouldn't have understood it either until i lived it. and you know what? it ain't that bad.--though sometimes i do wish i were the type to have martha stewart -esque photos and perfectly coifed children.

a rant. *sometimes more isn't better, linus. sometimes it's just more*

i'm a fan of halloween, really i am. i am not a fan of women/girls using halloween to dress like a sexy ___________. you fill in the blank. i'm not editing a cuss word i'm just saying anything can be made into a sexy something. a sexy nurse. a sexy cat. a sexy superhero. a sexy nun. what?!? that's right a sexy nun. a sexy school girl. a sexy fairytale character. a sexy devil. a sexy witch. a sexy ghost. listen. i get it. everybody wants the chance to feel sexy. but for most of us being scantily clad at a party in your neighbor's living room is really not the way to go. truthfully, being scantily clad, for most of us, is not the way to leave the house period. i'm not saying don't dress scantily. i'm just saying don't leave the house. because when you leave the house in that sexy cop outfit i'm forced to look away and feel awkward just as if i were listening to you sing in public and knew you weren't very good. if you must be a scanty dresser then please, for the love, do it behind closed doors. do not force the rest of us, who just want to eat a few witch's finger bread sticks and candy corns while drinking homemade root beer (or whatever it is we're drinking), look at your rolls and cottage cheese and muffin tops. you are an attractive individual just not as the sexy big bad wolf. i'm all for natural beauty. down with and damn the skinny minnies! but this does not mean that squeezing a size 10 body into a size 6 sexy mail carrier costume is something i want to behold. in fact, i'd like to know who it was that decided the more skin you show the sexier and more appealing you are? please, ladies. let's start listening to stacy london and clinton kelly on this matter instead of larry flint and joe francis.

and, lest we forget. what we catch in life all depends on what we use for bait.

end....scene.

xoxo

more halloween

Just a bit more from the pumpkin carving. Neighbor kids, Bailey and Taylor. Brent's proudest pumpkin (the white ghost). Hayden using a drill. You know, basic Halloween stuff. Actually, H. had/has been a bit under the weather with a cold (which he seems to get at least once a month). At this point he was just happy to get outside and into the sunshine to enjoy a little father/son time. He really digs on that stuff.

A Bit o' Halloween.

The pumpkin carving with power tools. Only Brent would carve this way.

Pretty cute kid, eh?

Trick or treating with Dad.

Thanks Megan for making the pig costume! Everybody, and I mean everybody thought it was just fabulous.