What a Fun Daddy!

Jason is such a fun Daddy! He and the kids have a tickling/wrestling match about every night! They love it!! I've always said that Jason is just a big kid and here are some pictures to prove it! On this particular night, the kids decided they wanted to wear caps like daddy, too.

She loves her daddy!!

Jason has gotten into playing like he's a bear. He gets Caden's bear rug and makes "bear noises" as he stalks into the living room. When the kids hear him coming, they jump on the couch and laugh! They act like they are scared and get super excited that they will get to ride the bear! It's so much fun to watch them play.

As you can tell, these are pre-haircut pictures. See what I meant by the "curly wings" on the sides of Caden's head? :)

Bye Bye Baby Curls

No, we did not cut Gracie's curls off! But, we did cut Caden's. Jason has been saying that he looks too girly with all those curls on top of his head. I agreed but, I was more concerned about his "curly wings" on the sides of his head. So we decided it was time to take a little off. I cut Jason's hair all the time, and so I thought I had a pretty good idea what I was doing. A No. 4 would be plenty long, right? I'm not so sure now! He looks soooo different to me without his curly locks!

Getting ready for his first hair cut!

He thought it was funny at first, but then he wasn't so sure about it. Jason held him most of the time.

Do they look more alike now?

No more curls :(

They're all on the floor.

Girl's Weekend!!

Me, Christy and Mom went to visit Wendy in the big city of Ft. Worth this past weekend. It was so nice to get away for a couple of days! I love my kiddos, but being able to just be responsible for me for 2 whole days is a welcome break! I guess this was my last "get away" before Brenna gets here. A HUGE thank you to Jason who selflessly volunteered to be a single dad for the weekend. And not only that, he had the house as clean as its been since Bunco night!

We had so much fun eating and talking and shopping a little bit, too. You can't get 4 women together and expect them NOT to shop a little bit, right? I found Gracie a bed spread, and a TP holder for my bathroom. I didn't spend too much :) We ate out alot and that is a very welcome change from cooking every night! (well, most nights) I think that's the best part of our girl's weekends!! We got to catch a movie, too. I don't remember the last movie I watched in the theatre. We never take very many pictures because we forget to, but I did get a few.

If you have close friends or sisters, I highly reccomend a girl's weekend!! It will do you good!

Christy, Wendy and Mom...three of my best friends.

In the Frisco mall. We had to eat at the Cheesecake Factory!!

Garden Rigde fun with Wendy's roomate, Larinda.

Wendy finally found her knight in shining armor!! He was the strong, tall, silent type.

Christy wanted in on the action. Apparently Lon does not have any shiny armor. :)

But Wendy told her "no" very politely. :)

Shockingly CUTE!

Jason put up this little tent that his dad gave us. The kids loved playing in it and it was just the right height for them to rub their heads on the top of it. That's when the static started getting crazy!

Who's that cute young guy with my kids? Oh, it's Jason! :)

I think he's just as cute w/o his goatee! I'll take him either way!

Babyface

I know Jason is going to HATE that title, but you'll understand when you see this picture!!!

This was taken Sunday morning before church. He shaved off his facial hair the night before. Why, you might ask. Because we have the best Sunday school class ever!

I'll explain. Our Sunday school class has helped out a family in need at Christmas time for the past several years, and Jason has been the one to head up the process. He helps our class make sure everyone in the family we are helping gets taken care of. Well, this year, we had a family of 6 people and he had the idea that we have enough class members to have 4 families take care of each person in the family we're helping. So, when Christmas was just a couple weeks away and we still needed several Sunday school families to sign up to help, he decided to add a little incentive. The email was sent that he would shave his goatee if all the spots for the family were filled. He hasn't shaved his goatee since he was 18! (ok, he says that there was one time, but it was an accident. Apparently you need to make sure you have the guard on the trimmers before you go to trim your goatee)

Since I've been trying to get him to shave it for a while - I've never seen him without it - I started asking everyone to help. And, they did! We had more than enough people to help!

So Jason made good on his incentive and shaved ALL of his face baby smooth! I think he looks at least 5 years younger! I have been staring at him alot lately. I think I could get used to it, but he doesn't seem to like it at all. He says his chin is cold all the time! I really think he looks great either way!

Gracie said that he looks like someone else's daddy. And she asked why he got a hair cut on his chin! :) Caden seems to be fine with it, but it did take him a minute to recognize him yesterday when we picked him up from his Sunday school class.

Now Jason says he's going to go the total opposite direction. From baby face to a full beard. I'm not looking forward to that. No offense to the beard lovers out there, I'm just not that into them.

2010

This is how we celebrated the begining of a new year.... then we went to sleep. (we had both already fallen asleep in the chair and on the couch before this picture. I guess that means we are getting old. Oh well.)

2009 brought us so many great memories: birthdays and holidays we celebrated with friends and family, places we went, new things the kids learned. It was a great year.

Gracie is getting so big. She's my big girl, NOT my baby girl. She makes sure I don't call her that. She's learning so much every day and she makes me laugh when she says something that is really beyond her. She is so sweet and loving - I don't know what I would do with out my Gracie hugs and kisses. She's the best helper, and I know that I will appreciate that even more when this little one gets here. I just hope that her tendancy to get into things that really get her in trouble will go away :)

Caden is such a cutie! He's really developing fast, too. I forget that he isn't 2 yet because he's talking so much and so well for his age. And he talks so loud, he doesn't have an "inside" voice. Mom jokes that he's going to be a preacher. He is all boy, even if he wants to put make up on when I am or he wants his toes painted like Gracie. His personality is shining out with the arrival of the terrible two's. It's going to be interesting what he'll do when Brenna gets here :)

I'm 27 weeks pregnant and praying for a continued healthy pregnancy. God willing, Brenna will be our 3rd happy, healthy kid. I'm so looking forward to all that God has in store for us in 2010, but especially her healthy arrival!

God is good, and has blessed us richly this past year.

Mom had these hats and the kids wanted to wear them, so I got a picture! Who could resist getting a picture of these cuties?

Happy New Year!

White Christmas!!

This is what we woke up to Christmas Eve!

This is what we got to drive through Christmas Eve... not much fun. We had the Tahoe LOADED down with gifts, our clothes and Maggie. It got worse than this as we drove towards Albany. There were several cars already stranded on the side of the road.

This is Jason's worried look. He was very confident when we were leaving Abilene that we would have no problems, but as we kept going, his confidence went down. We barely made it to Albany and it took us an hour. That big hill right outside of Albany had about 6 cars stuck on it; they couldn't make it up. When we got to Albany I was not wanting to go on b/c I did NOT want to be stranded. (can you imagine Jason, me 6 months pregnant, a 3 1/2 year old, an almost 2 year old and a dog stuck in a packed Tahoe for hours or overnight?) Jason thought that the roads would get better so we kept going. They did get better around Breckenridge, but started to get worse as we drove into Graham. We made it!

After 2 1/2 hours in the car (it's supposed to be a 1 1/2 hour drive) the kids were ready to play in the snow. Gracie loved it, but Caden was not real excited about getting his hands cold and wet.

The snow was not sticking at all, but Jason was determined to make a snowman. He finally got a rake and piled the snow up to make the body. He found a little wet snow to make the head. I had bought this little snowman kit complete with hat, carrot nose, scarf, buttons, eyes, mouth and pipe. It's all made of wood except the scarf and hat.

Gracie and her present from Santa!

Caden and his present from Santa!

Here's Caden opening a gift at Mimi's. We made it to Haskell the next day in pretty good time. The roads were mostly clear by noon.

Gracie with the blanket Aunt Christy made her.

Uncle Herman taking pictures of us building a snowman. He, my grandpa Al, and cousin Isaac came up from the valley Christmas day.

Gracie loves the snow.

Caden liked it most of the time :)

Christy and Isaac "sculpting" our snowman.

Christy, Jason, Caden, Lon, Isaac, Wendy and Gracie with Frosty.

Eating Breakfast at Mimi's.

Jason, Gracie, Grandpa Al, me and Caden.

I'm glad mom thought to get this picture. I'm going to have to remember to be better about getting everyone's picture next year; I missed quite a few this time around.

Merry Christmas!!