There's Always More

this is what christmas was to annie. she opens a present, gets really excited and then realizes there are still more presents under the tree.

Christmas

another christmas come and gone. it was a good one, too. we had a wonderful holiday here in texas with addison's family and though i missed my family very much since - oddly enough - this was my first christmas without them, there was certainly no shortage on love, laughs, competitive games, delicious food and all-around good times. it is so much fun to watch the kids open their presents. it is utter chaos, but so much fun. annie and jasper both raked in some good stuff - more than they will ever need. they are extremely lucky kids, i hope someday they realize that.

you know, you think about the spirit of the season and all of that and you can't help but think of all the kids around the world who have nothing, not even a home, and here we are complaining that we "have no money" when we have a roof over our heads, food on the table and toys exploding out of every empty corner of the house. i am extremely grateful for all we have but as life bestows more upon us, it becomes more and more evident to me that i need to be doing something more to give back. you know, keep the universe balanced. karma and all that. gotta keep things on the up and up. i suppose it's of no great interest to you, but i'm just thinking out loud here. i've been doing a lot of research on different volunteer oppourtunities in the area and i just can't decide what route to go. i also have this weird fear-of-committment thing when it comes to things like this. it's strange and i can't explain it. i think it's just my old grade-school shyness coming in. you'd think spending all that time on stage naked in college would have cured me of my shyness, but it didn't. ha ha! anyway, i feel like now i've put it down on virtual paper and therefore i've sort of pre-committed myself to my volunteer work. stay tuned, i'll keep you posted.

so yes, santa did come to our house in force and annie was so excited when she saw those cookies gone in the morning. she said "he came! he ate the cookies and the deindeer ate the srawberry!" she left a strawberry for dancer, her favorite "deindeer"...i just hope she shared with the other reindeer.

we opened all presents at niki/larry's house on christmas eve (see here, here and here) and then our family/santa presents on christmas morning. annie was so excited that santa left her yogurt raisins in her stocking (and, by the way, check out these awesome stockings that jack's sister-in-law, beverly, made for the kids. LOVE THEM!) and jasper almost lost it when he saw that santa left him a banana. whoa. good job, santa! here's annie dying to know what's in her BIG box (the rest of her kitchen) and here's jasper loving his new giant beanbag. they had fun and that's what it's all about, right?

in the mean time, i have some other exciting (for me) news to share. if you know me, you most likely know that one of my dreams - since i've been about 14 - is to write children's books/young adult fiction. it's also the thing that i spend a lot of time dreaming about and reading about, but not a lot of time actually doing it. sure, i've written a few things here and there, but nothing serious and nothing that i completed enough to turn into something serious. that's all about to change, as one of addison's christmas gifts to me was that he registered me for a creative writing class at the local community college. awesome, right? i know. terrifying, too. i don't think i've ever cried when i opened a christmas present before, but this one got me. because it's the thing in my life i don't do. everyone has that thing. that thing that's too hard, too scary, too daunting...your dream but also your biggest fear. sigh. that was it for me. i can't turn back now. now i really have to apply myself and do it. it reminds me of when i was doing my senior acting thesis at bates. my thesis advisor was this guy - william pope l. - the professor that challenged me the most. i thought i'd never be able to do my thesis with him because he is this kooky, intense dude with a performance art background. anyway, he pushed me so hard - so much harder than anyone ever had - and he made me believe i could do this acting thing. that maybe i actually had some talent in there somewhere...you know, you are your own biggest critic and all that. well, it was maybe harder for me than a lot of actors to really get to the guts of my role. pope l. always told me "open the window, gina" and said i spent a lot of time acting with my window cracked and if i would just throw that baby open, i would surprise myself. well, after our thesis play run was over, he gave me a card that said "bravo! you opened the window. all you have to do is believe in yourself". i still have that card.

so, thank you honey, for what was a much-needed, secretly-wanted gift from the heart. i start class in 2 weeks. oh. my. god.

i just went on a tangent there, i guess i needed to rant a bit. but you still don't know what addison got for christmas! it's so exciting! check it out:

you see, a long, long time ago addison and i were talking and i don't really remember what led to all this craziness but he said something about how he always wanted a unicycle and i said something like "if you propose to me i'll buy you a unicycle" and then, not long after that, he proposed. so, 6 years later i finally came through on my word. you should have seen the look on addison's face when he opened that box. i actually surprised him! he was speechless. it was fantastic. and so begins the phase of life where addison learns to ride a unicycle. he's actually already getting pretty good but i'm forcing him to take it outside now because there are marks on my walls that will soon be holes if we don't move it on out. soon enough he'll be trolling the neighborhood on a unicycle - getting the mail, waving to the kids on their bikes who will start to think "hey, that looks fun" and pretty soon the whole 'hood will be on unicycles! hee hee. we're totally going to be those people in the neighborhood and i love it!

ok, my goodness, i've been rambling enough for one day. i'm going to put some new videos up on my youtube site, so be sure to check in to http://www.youtube.com/ginabelles later on and look at some christmas vids. also, i just added some oldies-but-goodies for you to check out as well and marvel with me at how much the kids have changed in the 9 months (!) we've been here.

peace.

Monthly Archives - Jasper Month 15

dear jasper,

it is the day after christmas and you are 15 months old. 15? yep, i double-checked my math and that is right. wow. you big boy, you.

your uncle aaron thinks you look like alan jackson with your curly-q hair. at first i didn't get it, but i think maybe i can see it now. i love those curls, baby, though i fear a haircut is in your future, as it is starting to look less and less just curly and fun and more and more like a mullet...and i can't let that happen to you.

i'm sure you are wondering how much you loved christmas this year. i think it's safe to say you loved it, even though you still aren't quite old enough to get it or understand the whole opening presents thing. still, you loved playing with allllllllll the "stuff" that was on the floor, from the toys to the paper. you got a tmx elmo that you think is really funny and you're right. it IS funny. you also got a remote control car that is pretty awesome. it's made for little tots like you and it's so cool. you can actually make it go! i'm not sure if you know that you're making it go or if you just like pushing the button on the remote, but it's cute to watch nonetheless. check it out:

we spent christmas in texas this year. we had an awful lot of fun and it was also nice to get to spend christmas morning at our new house. mama lola and papa jack came down and you also got to see your cousin henry this christmas. it was fun to watch you two interact, since you really haven't seen eachother since you were 6 months old and he 9 months old. henry is now 18 months old - which in infant years is like 5 years older than you. he seems so much older than you, it's just amazing how things change in just a few months. 3 months from now you'll probably be walking and talking like a little boy, too. anyway, you guys had fun.

you're testing the limits of walking, balancing and barely holding on these days. you giggle whenever we walk around but as soon as we try to get you to come to us you just sit down and crawl over. i have a feeling though, that our keeping-you-contained days are nearly over.

speaking of that, you are into everything. and i mean e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. you are the cupboard opener, the toilet explorer, the poison eater (though you haven't done it yet). you are much different from annie in that way. she was never into anything and you, you my son, are into all of it. i always thought those toilet-locks were the most ridiculous things i'd ever seen but now i'm not so sure...we definitely have to keep our eyes on you, see:

trouble.

presently you are laying in your crib not sleeping during what is supposed to be your morning nap. if you think you are ready to drop this nap you are sorely mistaken, my son. ha. so there. i think some days you just like to talk to yourself. nap or not, i just like it that you can hang out in your crib for a couple of hours and be perfectly content to do so.

keep on truckin' sugar. i love you.

love, mommy

I'm Sorry if Your Cookie has Spit on it...

and now, the continuation of "Santa's Little Helper"...

and so, the mcmahon-family tradition of "the frosting of the christmas cookies" is passed on to yet another generation. it's one of those tasks that you say you hate and you don't want to do it, but then you love it because you do it every year and you slave over these damn cookies while your mom turns into a crazy-frosting-making-maniac and dad frosts his ONE cookie and then hovers around the table for another 5 minutes before he leaves with a couple of cookies - one of which is already hanging out of his mouth...the memories are so vivid. and now i find myself becoming the crazy-frosting-making-maniac - trying to assert my power over my only helper - a 3 year old who listens to nothing i have to say...

*******************************************************************************

annie was doing a great job of helping me frost the cookies yesterday, but i have to say, the task is a bit daunting and - yes, annoying - when your only helper is 3 years old. because frankly, i'm just trying to bang these out and get it done, but annie has other plans. she is all "i need this yellow" and "i need those" "i need the buttons, he NEEDS BUTTONS!" and "that one doesn't look finished yet"...i mean, how does she know if something looks finished?! but sure enough, she finds a space that isn't completely covered in redhots and she puts one on. "there. he has his ice skates" okaaaaaaaay...

anyway, she took her job as cookie decorator VERY seriously.

that is, until she got some frosting on her finger and discovered there's more to these cookies than just good looks.

mmmm, oh yeah.

so, here are a few of the finished product...it's too bad only some of you lucky readers will get to try them. oh, i'm sure you've had frosted cut-out cookies before, but have you had the McMahon-family version of frosted cut-out cookies? WITH spit? i didn't think so.

two more things before i sign off:

1.) yes, i gave jasper a cookie and yes, he threw it on the ground.

2.) note to self: hold off on mopping the floor until AFTER you decorate the cookies. duh.

Santa's Little Helper

annie and i made the christmas cut-out cookies today and boy, was she a good helper. she wore my old apron (can you believe i still have this, sandy?!) and she really hit the ground running: cracking and mixing the eggs, helping me roll the dough and of course, doing the actual cut outs. here are some pics - stay tuned for "Santa's Little Helper II: Frosting".

Whoosh!

jasper is learnging how to play by watching. as i've mentioned before, one of annie's favorite things to do is "play princesses", which entails all of us picking what princess figurines we want and then playing with them. heh heh. anyway, jasper has definitely picked up on how to make the various fairies, dragons or princesses fly and he even makes the sound effects. listen closely because there's a lot of background noise, too.

Do You Hear That? It's The Ovaries Talking.

They're saying "you want more babies. you know you do. look how cute these are. don't you want more?"

because i'm sorry, i know it's weird to talk about your own kids like this, but honestly, it just doesn't get much cuter than this:

or this:

right? oooo i just love them.

oh, and remember yesterday's post where i mentioned annie's OCD regarding the arrangement of the presents under the tree? well, i took some photographic evidence so you can see that i'm not making this up. have a great sunday everyone!

Monthly Archives - Annie Month 37

dear anniepants,

two things stick out for me this month:

1. you're going through a serious no-listening phase

2. you can't WAIT for christmas

i say it's a phase because it makes me feel better...but i'm well aware that this so-called phase may not actually end until you are in your 20s. it's amazing how you can so breezily blow off anything i say or ask of you. you will sometimes pretend not to hear, you will sometimes close your eyes and face me like that makes you invisible and therefore you can't hear me, or you will sometimes just yell "no!" or "i don't WANT TO!" sometimes there are complete days that i spend counting to 10, or 100, over and over to keep me from having to call social services on myself. sometimes when you are in the no-listening zone, i will just go somewhere else when your dad gets home just so i can be in a room where i don't have to listen to you not listen to me. it's crazy, i know. someday, you'll be reading this and you will take comfort in it, because you will have just gotten off the phone with me - as i have so many times with my own mom - and you will have been on the verge of losing it over your own little non-listening offspring. and i will chuckle - just as my mom does - at the beauty of how it all goes around and comes around. funny, isn't it?

as for this whole christmas thing, you are so on board this christmas train we could darn near call you the conductor. other than that one little problem of santa claus, the rest of this christmas stuff is just aces to you. yep, aces. you see the presents under the tree and you are like "this is mine, and this one and this one is new! and this one..." and you arrange all the presents by the wrapping paper style. ahhh my little OCD girl. i love it. i had - god forbid - one present in blue snowflake wrapping paper sitting next to a present with green candy canes and immediately upon spotting this i could actually SEE the little wheels in your brain stop, rewind, and then begin to pop apart so fast that you just stopped dead and took said blue-snowflake-present and moved over to where the other blue-snowflake-present was and then moved the snowmen ones together and...voila! crisis averted. i have a lot of these OCD qualities myself and i think that is why i take such pleasure in messing with you and yours. for instance, i can't wait to see what happens when you realize that all the blue-snowflake presents don't actually belong to ONE person...this could really throw you when we sit down to open them.

it's so funny. your playroom is a giant disaster zone of toy-chaos and yet, you never leave a room without shutting the door, you always turn the tv off when you leave the room and you never leave a puzzle half-done.

you are really into playing with your disney princess action figures right now. for some reason, you love to drag your daddy into the princess world with you...so much so that he had to go buy some star wars action figures to feel better about himself. every day when daddy gets home from work you gather up all the princess in the basket and as soon as he comes inside you say "daddy, you want to play princess with me?! daddy! you want to play princesses!" it's so sweet. and he will. every time. your daddy will never not play princess with you. yes, that's a double-negative. i'm aware. thank you smartypants.

you are smart, too. so smart. you still think every letter is "B", unless it is "A for Annie Johnston", but you are way smart in other ways. you're awesome at counting. you have an amazing gift for puzzles, you are turning into a great colorer. colorer? colorist? however you say that...i'm sure you will have this brilliant gift for grammar like your mommy has...

but seriously, your little brain is hard at work these days, i can tell.

i can really tell when, at the end of every day when we are putting you to bed, you remain very hyper and bouncy and as soon as we say prayers you rub your eyes and say - with eyes half-closed - "mommy, i'm not tired" and when i check on you 10 minutes later you are in the exact same position - out cold.

i love you my little boo-boo. you amaze me every day. even when you don't listen to me.

love, mommy

Monthly Archives - Gina Month, Ummmm...

dear self,

yesterday you turned 33 years old. it's better than you thought, because you had been saying that you were going to be 34 so, heck, it's like a big ol' daylight savings time! good job!

you had a good day. other than battling the annoying sore throat that's been plaguing you this week, you had fun with the kids, you hung out, you did not clean or cook, it was good. you got flowers from your kids and dog, flowers from your sister-in-law (thank you, nicki, aaron and henry!) and you talked to just about everyone. good day. then, addison came home with presents and cake and we had fun giving the kids some sugar right before bed.

so addison - in addition to my new jeans (yay) - gave me some new yummy jammies, a book to inspire my children's book writing and - wait for it - the Dancing With the Stars Playstation 2 game that comes with the dance pad. stop it. i know you're jealous. so, we broke that baby out last night and discovered just how little rhythm we have. i almost wet my pants about every time watching addison do this thing. it's so FUN. and a work out. it's hard. really hard. harder than you even think possible. give us a couple of weeks and we'll kick all ya'll's asses. woot! but here's the best thing: today i was going to show annie how cool my new game is and this is what it is to annie.

as is every place in this house, it's just another location for her "princesses" and "bad guys" (those are the star wars action figures addison had to get to make him feel better about "playing princesses"). anyway, the funny thing is, she turned this "dance floor" into a dance floor. i love it!

so, that's about it. you had a good day. the beginning of another year of life. i love you, i think you're very special, funny and cute.

love, self

ps. jay was saying how he keeps getting all sorts of pictures of his nieces and nephews eating cake in their highchairs and was hoping to see the same of me. this one's for you, jay.

Get that Man Away From Me!

Hagiophobia: fear of saints or holy things. Also a fear of Santa Claus, which may occur in babies or young children.

there it is. the definition of what is wrong with my children.

we all know i traumatized annie at age 1 when i took her to visit santa at marshall fields. she's now 3 and still has no time, whatsoever, for the evil man in the red suit. the other day at her school she had "santa's workshop", where the kids don elf hats and aprons and work on cute little art projects...and santa and mrs. claus are there. riiiiiight.

i tried. i did. i said "annie, would you like to go tell satan - i mean, santa - what you want for christmas?" and she just shook her head. vehemently. i said "i'll go with you, we can just say hi you don't even have to sit on his lap." again, shaking her head, she went to hide in the stroller. just having him in the same room with her seemed to ruin her entire day.

well, i thought, let's try to get jasper on satan's (dang, i keep doing that!) SANTA's lap. so, i walk over to santa with jasper and jasper immediately smiles. he thinks santa is SO funny. hahahahahaha! then, santa produces a candy cane. mmmmmm, candy! jasper is confused, yet impressed. then, santa reaches out to young jasper so i - excited to have one child that will appreciate the magic of christmas - hand him over...

...and we're done. jasper took one swipe at the beard then squirmed his way out of town. not impressed. not even enough to want the candy cane. wow.

and so, another year passes by in the johnston house when, if you ask annie if she wants santa claus to bring her presents she just shakes her head and says "no thank you".

Cheese

jasper's latest trick is this super-squinty-smile/blinking thing - see above. it sometimes looks like this, or this. it's so goofy. i managed to get a little video of him doing it, and he does it ALL the time now. check it out:

There Are No Words

except:

the deal was done at 1:30 today. thank you to all of you who sent good vibes over the past year. now, excuse me while i crack open a bottle - or box - of wine...what kids?

Fishergirl

(this post was written about a month ago, but i've been waiting for the pics, so i'm just posting now)

for weeks now annie has been talking about fishing. i think at our last trip to the farm, my dad may have said something to annie about going fishing together, and, even though she'd never done it before, it became the single most exciting and important thing for her to do. she would just be talking and out of nowhere she'd say "i going fishing with papa. we catching some biiiiig fish!" and i'd say "oh, do you want to go fishing sometime?" and she'd say "yes, i going fishing with papa". ok, ok we get it. addison and i kept thinking we needed to get this girl fishing. we managed to sneak in a little practice for her at the sacred heart oktoberfest, but that just wasn't quite good enough.

so, when mama and papa came up last week, we decided it was time. addison brought home a brand new - DORA! - fishing pole for annie...AND her very own tackle box. she was so excited she could hardly stand it. she was meticulously going through all her bobbers and lures and everything, just so excited to have some gear and the prospect of really going fishing. we took annie out to the back yard to practice casting and reeling in and she was all for it. her daddy cast right onto a tree branch and said "now, that may happen sometimes..." like he meant to do it. but we all know better. annie just kept on reeling as if her life depended on it. she knew this was an important part of the process and wanted to be sure she nailed it.

all was going just swimmingly until addison showed her the worms. oops. hit our first snag. i only wish i had the meltdown on video. addison opened the lid to the box the worms were in and annie just completely lost it. we couldn't figure out if she was worried about the wormies being kept in a closed container in the refrigerator, if she was creeped out by the squirminess, or if it had something to do with the gummy variety she had eaten earlier in the day. we may never know. what we do know is - annie doesn't do worms. i think addison and papa dealt with the worm part of the venture, but other than that, annie was all about it.

so, on saturday morning we got annie all ready and the men took her out for her first fishing trip. she loved it. she was pretty patient and, of course, she caught the only fish of the day. that a girl. here is a picture of the fruits of her labor, and what is sure to be the first of many pictures of annie fishing.

Paralyzed

so japper has this cute little vest that i put on him for the first time the other day. i had to snap this picture because this is all he could do in the vest. as soon as i put it on him, he just laid back on the floor on his back and froze. i think it freaked him out to have that much poof around him or something, but it was like he lost all ability to sit up by himself while wearing this vest. the magical-lay-down-vest.

It's On

we're officially on the countdown to walking.

Oh, and annie wanted to send a special birthday wish to her buddy patrick, but then she got a little camera shy...happy birthday buddy! we miss you and love you so much!

Dancing Elves

thank you to nicki for sending this to us, because it is one of the most entertaining things i've seen in a while.

happy holidays!

Smart

sometimes it's cold in texas. and by cold i mean 30's. frost on the ground. you know, darn chilly.

so being of brilliant mind, i decided to pick today of all days to load the kids up to go for a walk. my reasons were twofold:

1.) it was too late for me to get the kids on the yoga babysitting list, so i needed an alternate exercise and

2.) our power was scheduled to be out from 9am-11am because of some construction something-or-other

so i'm thinking "perfect! i'll just go for a walk and we'll come back and do some errands and by then the power will be back on and we'll be all set".

not so fast.

instead what happened was i left the house sans phone (couldn't find it, that's another story), sans keys (don't need 'em, have garage door opener), sans water (don't need it, will be back in half hour), sans common sense...you see, when they turn the power off, that means your garage door opener won't work. did you know this? honest to pete, i just plum forgot that part when i came up with my brilliant and perfect plan.

so, we get back from our nice walk, i've worked up a nice sweat and the kids' hands are blue and we walk up the driveway and i push the button on the garage door opener and it is at that precise moment that i realize what i've done. now i have no car, no keys, no phone, 2 kids, 1 dog, 1 ipod and 1 useless garage door opener. first we go into the backyard on the offchance that maybe i left the back door open, but of course i didn't. i sit in one of the porch chairs and sulk for a minute as my sweat begins to turn to ice and i am seriously freezing cold. i was at least sensible enough to put coats/hats on the kids but their hands are icicles. ferris is looking at me like "way to go, stupid" and so, with a heavy heart i realize our only option is to walk over to niki and larry's house. thank goodness it's only a mile or so. uphill. on a busy street with no sidewalks.

it didn't take as long as i thought it would and the kids were really good the whole time. ferris had some issues but he pulled through. thankfully niki and larry were home and we were able to take shelter for a couple of hours. i had yummy coffee and annie got some hot chocolate with marshmallows and we warmed up in no time.

ok, so then we come home and all is well except i still can't find my cell phone. i keep calling it and i can't hear it. then i go into the garage and call it and i hear the faintest sound of my ringtone (regina spektor's fidelity) but i can't find it. i call again and i open the garbage bin...nothing. i open the garage door and call it again and i hear it. wait...i hear it...where is that coming from? i head down the driveway and it gets louder and...there it is. sitting on the curb across the street from the house looking a little worse for the wear, but otherwise working just fine.

and the joke's on me...because the whole time i'm locked out of the house wishing i had my phone, i was but INCHES from it the whole time.

Monthly Archives - Jasper Month 14

dear jasper,

another month, come and gone. as usual i am amazed at how quickly you are growing up. i'm also amazed at how different you are than your sister. to be expected, i suppose, but i only knew ONE kind of kid and now suddenly you come into the picture and you are a whole different kind of kid and i'm just at a loss. you don't want to eat real food, you hate sippy cups, you don't want to walk, you like to throw, you have a poop face (see below), etc. all of these things about you are different from how your sister was...and i love them all. yes, i get frustrated when you throw your toast on the ground - because who doesn't want toast??? - but i also love it about you. and nothing is funnier to me than watching you have your daily constitution. i'm sorry to have to publish that, sweetie, but it's too good. and that doesn't do anything to capture the redness of your face, the way you stretch your legs way out and grunt, the way your toes curl...ok i'll stop.

you are a big boy sitting in a big car seat now. you seem to dig this forward-facing thing and you've grown fond of making endless raspberries while we're in the car. you can't seem to understand why i wouldn't constantly be looking at you, so you make raspberries and giggle in an effort to get me to turn around. then you giggle louder. it's too funny. stay tuned for a video, i'm going to try to capture it on film, er, memory card.

you are becoming more vocal by the second. i think you've expanded your vocabulary to include: cracker, papa, and the silent-but-effective nodding of your head when asked if you'd like another graham cracker, banana or bath.

still no interest in walking, though you are doing much more cruising around the furniture. you love doing circles around mama and papa's coffee table, throwing things off the table as you go. you tried to turn around once and grab the sofa but you stumbled and got a fat lip from meeting up with the table. oops. blood and everything, but you rallied through it. no big whoop. i think in another month or two we'll be seeing those first steps.

for some reason, i have had a number of people come up to me and ask "how old is she?" or say "oh, she's so cute"...i don't know why people think you look like a girl. i mean, you ARE pretty, but come on. i hope it doesn't hurt your feelings. it just annoys me, but only a little. it must be your lovely blonde locks that have people confused.

who cares. i think you are the most handsome, perfect, boyish looking boy i've ever seen and i love you so much. and at the end of a long day, you get all snuggled up in your jammies and you drift off to sleep with the silk part of your blankey stuffed in your mouth and it's just the most precious think i've ever seen.

love, mommy

Thanksgiving Rewind

i'm behind. i know this. i'm sorry. it's hard for me to remember/take the time to update the blog when i'm out of town and therefore out of my routine.

in any event, thanksgiving was a delicious, yummy, family-filled and fun day. as is the tradition, my mom and dad hosted the meal. we got up, turned on the macy's thanksgiving day parade just like we always do, and sat around in our jammies drinking coffee and pointing out all the cool floats to annie. can you believe she actually missed the dora balloon? oh my goodness, i can't even believe it. she didn't seem to mind though, since she got to see Blue, Snoopy, Scooby, Big Bird and all the other awesome ones.

folks started arriving at around 11am, i think i was on my 2nd blood-o by then. mmmmm. we ate lunch at about 1pm and believe it or not, it was a smaller group this year at 23. we're usually teetering around the 30+ mark. as i said earlier, neither cory or jay could make it, so there is 7 peeps right there. we did have one brave new soul enter the fray this year - my cousin ashley's friend cesario (how badly did i butcher your name?)...anyway, he was awesome and fun he nestled right in to our family. thanks for coming, cesario, you are welcome any time! annie once again, kidnapped my cousin kirk and they were kindred spirits all day. they just wandered the house together, annie on his shoulders, and would stop to chat with folks for a bit before annie made kirk go back downstairs and play in the playroom again. it was so cute to watch. poor kirk, i think he got to talk to a few adults, but i'm not sure.

the feast was, well, a feast. it amazes me every year how much food there is, how much of that food is white, and how much of it i can fit into my stomach. and the wine. mulled wine, regular wine, boxed wine, not to mention the beer, blood-o's and booze. good lord, someone call the prohibitioners and tell them they could hit a jackpot at the mcmahon farm.

some things never change - year after year - and i take comfort in this. since i've been annie's age, i can count on two things after thanksgiving dinner: this and this. god bless uncle craiger and uncle steve. it's hard work eating all that food.

i don't even know what we did on friday, we were all still in recovery-mode from thanksgiving day. oh, wait, that's right, we went down to riverview christmas tree farm (love that place) to get mom and dad's christmas tree. annie still wasn't fond of seeing santa there, but she loved the petting zoo, loved the free hot cider, and was a great help picking, cutting and carrying the tree. here is japper looking very lumberjack-y and perfect for cutting down a tree:

and then here he is wondering what the heck we are doing in the ffffreezing cold:

even addison and i got in on the fun:

on saturday, we took a trip up to brandon to have dinner-christmas with the rogens. shally made us a pork tenderloin and those ridiculously yummy potatoes with cornflakes on top, peggy brought her world-famous buns and we stuffed ourselves silly...again. it was good to see the nelsons and rogens and boy did annie have a good time giving grandma hell. or maybe grandma was giving her hell, i'm not sure. there sure were a lot of giggles, though.

good times, all around.

Another 1,500-odd Miles Logged

well, we made it. with the dog. 2 kids, 1 dog and one crazy mommy. after a one-hour delay at the doctor's office on monday, we finally made it out of town at 10:30am. at 12:30 jasper had a melt-down. at 1:00 we stopped for lunch and i was sure we'd never make it to topeka before the next day. but, we forged on and made our goal by about 8:45-9pm on monday night. i was never so glad to get to the hotel and we got all checked in, loaded in our stuff with jasper in the stroller, annie sleep-walking and ferris pulling at his leash only to find out we were on the 2nd floor of a hotel with no elevator. what?! don't ask. i don't know. we ended up downsizing to a one-bed room on the first floor but it was fine. ferris only woke me up twice to go outside and still he didn't actually pee until the real morning. sigh.

we hit the road again at 8am yesterday morning and made it to the farm by 1:30 so we made great time. jasper didn't even have diaper rash when we got here. heee heee.

we survived the 50 degree temperature change and donned all our new winter gear today for the first time. 27 degrees on the midwestern prairie today. yowser! that sure does feel cold when you don't get to ease into it. course, it was in the 60s here til we arrived, so sounds like no one got to ease into anything. annie keeps talking about the snow, so we're hoping to see a little of the white stuff while we're here. i'm fine with it as long as it's good and clear by the time we have to hit the road again.

we're off to pick addison up at the airport in an hour or so. if i don't get to post again before tomorrow (and i probably won't) i hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving. so much to be thankful for. shout out to my brothers and their families - neither of which are getting to make the trip home this thanksgiving. i guess i'll see you guys next year at christmas?! love you so much, hug yourselves for us.

French Fries...Not Bad

now included on the list of acceptable foods jasper will feed himself: french fries.

added to graham crackers, bananas, peaches, puffy cereals and - oh wait, that's it - you've got 5 edible foods on your menu now. wow. and so many nutrients. now wonder your poo is the color of, well, all the above mushed together.

slow and steady.

speaking of slow and steady, jasper is also finally starting to cruise the furniture. no more standing still at the table. now we circle it. he may walk yet, folks. stay tuned.