This is for Davey!

8 Years

2 Young Innocents

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1 Apartment

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1 House

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Lots of Vacations to Exotic and Non-exotic locales

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Several Jobs

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1 Layoff

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2 Offspring

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1000s of Diapers

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Countless Sleepless Nights

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Millions of laughs

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8 Years of Wedded Bliss

Easter Pictures

Before church on Saturday evening.

Emily's black shoes grew too tight - ooops! Silver will have to do. :)

Sunday was over at the BIL/SIL house.

(Again, I'd show pictures of the cousins, but hesitate to without permission)

On the hunt...

Ta Da!

Happy Easter! Jesus is Risen Indeed!

"Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here!... He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned... After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Mark 16 : 6,15-16,19-20

Big Red Furry Friends

Emily loves Elmo and Chris loves music.

So, we HAD to go see an Elmo Makes Music show!

Grandma, Brandie and little Bobby went with us, but I don't want to post pictures without permission. I may need to go to a private blog, so that I don't have to worry about stuff like this.

(We missed you Capps girls!)

Emily's Belated Birthday

Well, late again.... since Emily's birthday was almost a week ago!

I really can't believe that I live with an offical 2 year old. Emily amazes me with all of the things she's learning and doing. And it's not like I'm a new Mom -- I've been through this all before. I guess that it's just that Emily acts so advanced for her age that I've thought of her as "two" for quite some time. But, even so, the fact that there are no babies in our house anymore is hitting me hard.

She is such a big girl!

I love Chris' look of amazement in this picture! I can't even remember what she opened that got this reaction, either!

Waiting patiently for her Blue's Clues cake.

Yummy.

Boo!

Emily's into hiding these days. She is great at it too. She sits as still as a statue for minutes at a time. Pretty incredible for a little one who's not quite 2!

The other day, we were leaving the bathroom and she said to me,

"Mom, I hide."

I just did my usual, "Oh, yeah? OK," not really paying close attention.

Well, a minute later I realized that she wasn't in the living room with us. So I went back into the bathroom to look for her and this is what I saw.

Here's a closer look.

And then we said "BOO!"

Guitar Love

I am SOOOOO frustrated at Blogger right now. I had 2 more pictures that I'd scanned to show you all, but they won't post to the blog. Just ignore the screaming and continue on. I'll be okay, I didn't need that chunk of hair anyhow.

I've been meaning to post these pictures for a couple of weeks now.

Chris has a long running love of music, with guitars being the primary instrument (pun intended!) of his music making. He got his first guitar from his Grandma when he was only 1 year old. It was an old plastic one, perfect for a baby to abuse. It sounded like some sort of Chinese musical instrument, so great was the "twang" factor! Well, he played that thing to death. He also had amazing technique for a baby - strumming with basically correct form and moving his fingers over the frets to make "chords".

For Christmas 2003 we gave him a brand new "real" guitar. He was 22 months old and I'd say it's been his most precious item that's he's owned. Like any kid, his interests change according to his moods, but the guitar is one thing that has been a constant love in his life.

When we ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, he usually says "A Rockstar". Cute, huh? So after much suggesting and begging and mentioning and asking and reminding and nagging, he convinced us that he needed an electric guitar for Christmas. Remember?

Well, Emily has been inspired. Since we now have enough guitars to go around, she's picking up on the rockstar vibe. She doesn't have the natural talent that Chris has, (she "picks" at the strings rather than strum.) but she's right there picking and singing with the best of them!

So, if you can see in the above picture, the acoustic (brown) guitar is totally beat up. This is the one that Chris got just before he turned 2. He has played the life out of it. See the scratches near Emily's left hand? Those are from Chris' pick and his fingers - he's actually drawn blood from playing so hard. Also, the body has split open along the bottom edge.

We decided that we'd use some of Chris' birthday money and go get ANOTHER guitar. So we trooped off to Walmart. Look what Chris picked out. Oh dear.

It took all the strength I had to let him buy this thing. Oh well, he's the one who has to live with it. Wait a minute..... so do I. : ) Maybe I should save this picture for when he's a ROCKSTAR and use it as blackmail!

Happy Birthday, Dear Chriiii -iiiis!

My baby is now 5 years old. WOW.

Happy Birthday dear Chris.

May the Lord bless you this coming year.

May you grow in wisdom and stature.

Love, Mommy

Snow!

So, in case you haven't noticed, I've gotten very blog-lazy. Posts are either comprised of memes or are picture heavy. I still blame the weather. We are solidly in the ugly stages of winter here - it's all brown mud and grass with an occasional patch of gray slush/ice thrown in for good measure.

Anyway, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. We'll see if I'm lying or not come spring.

We got another sprinkling of snow yesterday, so after school we played a little before heading inside. Here's proof:

Do you see the look of intense concentration on his face??

He made the world's tiniest snowball! (Look in his hand.)

Oh, and the girls aren't the only chocoholics in this family..... :)

Family and friends: Go check out Kristie's blog ! She has new pictures up of her girls - beauties! Kristie, I'm stopping by to comment, I promise! I've been thinking about you all week!

Homemaking Meme

Aprons – Y/N? I throw one on when I'm making spaghetti sauce or chili and it's doing that lava thing. I've ruined a couple of shirts -- I learn the hard way.

Baking – Favorite thing to bake: Cookies of course! I make a mean chocolate chip.

Clothesline – Y/N? Nah.

Donuts – Have you ever made them? Nope. Krispy Kreme is not far away and they make the best doughnuts in the world.

Every day – One homemaking thing you do every day: Dishes, laundry, pick up toys and junk at the end of the day.

Freezer – Do you have a separate deep freeze? Yep - out in the garage. I like it for frozen pizza and those huge buckets of ice cream. They don't fit in our fridge freezer. I also keep ground beef and frozen veggies in it.

Garbage Disposal – Y/N? You bet. Ours can chew through cantaloupe rinds like they're nothing. I use it daily.

Handbook – What is your favorite homemaking resource - I check out books from the library a lot. I've probably had the entire section checked out at one point or another (not all at the same time!).

Ironing – Love it or hate it? Hate it. I pretty much only do it for special occassions. I don't actually hate the act of ironing, but I hate having to set up the board and worrying about the kids knocking it over or pulling the iron on themselves, etc. We don't have a convenient spot to just keep it up all the time.

Junk drawer – Y/N? Where is it? In the kitchen, but it is organized. It is more of a catch-all drawer for screws, pins, paper, tape, etc. Plus we have a drawer for manuals and papers.

Kitchen: Design & Decorating? Hand-me-down floral/fruity wallpaper in red, blue and green (my parents lived in this house before us). I've added roosters to the mix.

Love – What is your favorite part of homemaking? Just being able to stay home with the kids. Not having to be gone all day and then come home and try to cram togetherness into 2-3 hours.

Mop – Y/N? No. I don't really care for mops. I vacuum almost daily. I also use the original Swiffer dry cloths to get up dust and crumbs. I do the washing the old-fashioned way -- on my hands and knees.

Nylons – Wash by hand or in the washing machine? I hardly wear hose any more, now that I'm not a Mary Kay lady anymore - ha! Our church is casual too, so I'm always in pants (or jeans!) or I wear tights occassionally.

Oven – Do you use the window or open the oven to check? Hmmm. Both, I guess. I look through the window for glancing in, but if I need a really GOOD look, I'll open it up and pull out the rack.

Pizza – What do you put on yours? Well, my favorites are double mushrooms or supreme. But since I'm a good submissive wife (grinning), we usually get "meat" - either sausage or pepperoni or both.

Quiet – What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment? Hop on the good 'ole computer. (Wish I could say that I open my Bible - but that would be lying.)

Recipe card box – Y/N? I have one that my Mom filled with "her" recipes. I also have a couple of cookbooks and a pile of recipes that I printed off the internet.

Style of house – One story - 3 bedrooms. I don't know what style it would be called.

Tablecloths and napkins – Y/N? No tablecloth unless it's Christmas. Paper napkins or paper towels daily and in large quantities.

Under the kitchen sink – Organized or toxic wasteland? Toxic wasteland. I still have cleaning supplies that my Mom left here - 7 years ago.

Vacuum – How many times per week? Parts of the house are vacuumed daily. My vacuum is out so often, I pretend that it's just part of the decor.

Wash – How many loads of laundry do you do per week? A load or two a day. On the weekends I get off track and don't get it done and by Monday the pile is huge again.... sigh.

X’s – Do you keep a daily list of things to do that you cross off? Usually only when I'm running a lot of errands with a lot of stops. I do like lists - so I have a big master list of every thing that needs to be done in the house.

Yard – Y/N? Who does what? Bobby (and Chris) do the mowing on the riding mower. If any weeds need pulled, it's up to me. You can tell by looking at our yard that we do low maintenance. Neither of us are yard people - Bobby has joked about cementing it all in and painting it green.

Zzz’s – What is your last homemaking task for the day before going to bed? Packing lunches, wiping the countertops, packing the dishwasher.

Join in if you feel inspired. :)

Blogger's Block

I don't know what's going on with me... I feel bored and boring. I have the winter doldrums.

The Christmas toys have already kind of lost their new-ness.

We went to Target again (the day before the kids went back to school/MDO) and I picked up some cheap-o dress up stuff from the dollar section. Chris got a pirate outfit. He was thrilled with it. When his teacher asked him on Tuesday what he got for Christmas or what his favorite present was or whatever, he told her all about the pirate costume, not the super cool electric guitar, or the guns, or the Leapster that I told my parents Chris would just die for. Nope. None of those things are even in his conciousness now. Just a cheap costume that has already ripped completely up the side and been repaired with duct tape.

While we there, Emily spotted these beauties. I'm not a huge fan of these types of shoes, but if you can't wear sparkly mary janes at (almost) 2 years old, when can you wear them?

I finally cashed in the gift certificate for the "spa experience" that Bobby sweetly gave to me last Valentine's Day. That's a whole blog unto itself. It was a nice and semi-relaxing hour and a half. I'll give details soon.

One more item to report.... Our Christmas tree still stands. Shameful.

Fortunately, as Sara showed everyone, we'll have plenty of time indoors to get nice and organized and "de-treed".

Last but not least, this was one of my Christmas presents. A fountain punch bowl. Needless to say, it's been a great source of entertainment and awe for my bored kids this January. I say, we must be living the high life if we've got our own fountain in our home!

Christmas Picture Montage

Here's a glimpse of some of our Christmas holiday this year.

We had a really great Christmas this year. My Mom and Pop were here with us which we all loved. The whole family (both sides - 16 total!) gathered here on Christmas day for the feasting and gift chaos. And now we're still in the post-holiday stupor of laziness and clutter. How's that for short and sweet?

Chris must have been really good this year. Besides the huge can of TinkerToys, he got a Leapster LMax, 5 (we have foam "bullets" all over our house!) guns, and an electric guitar!!

Emily's big hits were her Little People doll house, tea set and plastic food and a baby doll. Strangely, I don't have any pics of her with any of it.

Most of the time I get caught up in the fun and only remember to grab the camera after all of the action has taken place.

Final shot: Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without lots and lots of CHOCOLATE!

Edited to add: You know the whole "Bobby and Jenny are downplaying Santa with our kids" thing that I mentioned below? Well, Emily loves Santa.

"Sa-ta, sa-ta, sa-ta..." Every time we see anyone that even resembles him.

So, Santa is alive and well in the our household. No worries.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

"But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.'"

Luke 2:10-12

I"m Doing Something Right, I Guess

The title of the post is partially said in jest, but, maybe partially not. I'm not sure how other kids are, but mine love to clean. It all started when Chris was younger - around 2-ish. He fell in love with the vacuum. You can ask his grandparents. Every time we'd go to their house, all he wanted to do was vacuum. At home, he wanted to vacuum. All the time. I chalked it up to Chris being a quirky kid.

But now Emily loves to vacuum. And the other day, Chris was playing in the sink, and when I walked into the kitchen, Chris had bubbles covering every inch of the sink. I asked him what he was doing, and he said,

"Scrubbing."

"Oh, okay."

And I turned and walked out of the kitchen. Scrub away, my son, scrub away.

A post for the day when I have nothing to post....

All about the Holidays

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Both! But holy cow, the calories in eggnog is outrageous!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? When I was little, the gifts from Santa were in and around the stocking - unwrapped. Bobby and I are really downplaying Santa with our kids, so we haven't ever done gifts specifically from him. They just have some small trinkets in the stocking.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Multicolored on the tree. None on the house ....yet. I'm working on him.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Yep - a fake bunch of it. Right in our entrance. Most people don't even notice it though.

5. When do you put your decorations up? A couple of weeks before Christmas (this weekend), but we leave them up a long time! har har.6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Gosh, I love almost all of it. Probably the green bean casserole and stuffing are my faves.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: When I was 7 or 8, I was starting to have doubts about Santa, so my parents staged a Santa "break-in". They woke me up to spy on Santa coming in our back door and leaving presents. I remember peeking around the corner of the hallway at him and counting all the grown up relatives that were "hiding" from him and realizing that all of them were accounted for.... so, Santa really did exist! That lasted for about 2 more years.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Oh, a couple of years later, I just kind of knew. Parents kind of confirmed - I guess they gave up trying to convince me. They said something about the "spirit" of Santa and giving to others.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? I used to be able to open one present on Christmas Eve.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Tons of colored lights and then ornaments.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I love it for looking at and playing in and skiing on. Driving... not so much.

12. Can you ice skate? I could when I was 13. Haven't since.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I've gotten some really great ones. But, there isn't any ONE that stands out. Maybe the trips from my parents - those are hard to beat. Of course, now, it's all about my kids.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ with my family.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Christmas cookies!!!!!! I LOVE them.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Going to church on Christmas Eve and doing the whole candle thing while singing Silent Night.

17. What tops your tree? A star.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Well, I'll NEVER turn down a gift. But, I do like finding the perfect thing for someone and then watching them open it up. : )

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Joy to the World, Carol of the Bells, Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire,

20. Candy Canes? Eh, my kids don't care for them so much... I do hang some on the tree.

Join in the fun and let me know what your Christmas is like.

Snow Day

Crazy Oklahoma weather -- Tuesday was in the 70's and today was in the teens... yikes. I bundled the kids up like the little boy in Christmas Story, heehee! Emily wasn't real thrilled because it was windy, but Chris had a ball and then came in for hot chocolate. He didn't last too much longer than Emily did. :)

All my names

1. Your real name: Jenny

2. Your Gangsta name (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) : Cookie Dough Ladylock

3. Your "Fly Guy/Girl" name (first initial of first name, first 3 letters of last): J Ket

4. Your Detective name (favorite color, favorite animal): Green Cat

5. Your Soap Opera name (middle name, town where born): Louise Plattsburgh

6. Your Star Wars name (first 3 letters of last name, first 2 letters of first name, first 3 letters of mom's maiden name): Ketjeand

7. Superhero name (favorite color, favorite drink): Green Dew

8. Iraqi name (second letter of first name, third letter of last name, any letter of middle name, second letter of mom's maiden name, third letter of dad's middle name, first letter of a sibling's first name, last letter of mom's middle name): Etsnu-e

9. Stripper name (name of favorite perfume/cologne/body spray): Breathless

10. Witness protection name (mother and father's middle names): Louise Bruce

Thanksgiving Feast

Well, today was the Thanksgiving Feast at "school". It was really nice - cute kids and great food. Each class put on a little presentation -- a song or poem or whatever. Neither of my kids uttered a word when their class was up. Oh, well.

The pastor if the church said a few words before we prayed over the food. He said that he was watching the parents during the presentations and that we were all grinning like idiots (my word, not his!) and waving our arms, trying to get the kids to look at us, and taking pictures with multiple cameras. He mentioned that it was great how proud we are of our kids and how much we love them.

Then he said that that is exactly how God feel about us, His children. He loves us even more than that. Wow. What a neat illustration. There are times that I forget that. God loves me. And you. I know that in my head, but sometimes I don't feel it so clearly. When the pastor said what he did, I felt it to the tips of my toes. How awesome. And how much we have to be thankful for!

Happy Thanksgiving!