Orange Beach, December 2008, Part One

The second week in December, we were excited for our trip to Orange Beach!!! Jon's Aunt Brenda and her fiance, Scott, own a timeshare that they needed to use--so they invited some of the family to come on down for a week!!! This was our first family trip and we had SO much fun! The next 3 posts are going to be about this trip--there were just too many pictures that I wanted to put up! Who was there? I'll let you know the "cast" so I can use names...

• Jon's Grandma--Great-Grandma--Mother of Papa, Aunt Brenda and Uncle Mike
• Jon's Parents--Papa and Nana
• Jon's Aunt Brenda and her fiance, Scott
• Jon's Uncle Mike and his wife Aunt Lucy
• Us

The condo was beautiful--3 bedrooms that each had their own bathroom, a kitchen, dining area and living area. Two of the bedrooms and the dining room all came out onto the same balcony that looked out to the water.

We got there late Monday night (btw 12 and 1 am) so the first time the kids really saw anything was Tuesday morning. They LOVED looking off the balcony!

I love this picture of Jordan and Papa laughing and talking with each other!

Jordan and Great-Grandma

Lawson's birthday was December 14, the Sunday we were going to come back from the beach. Nana and Papa brought his gift to give him early so he could play with them in the sand. That first day, Tuesday, was going to be the only really nice day we had, so we got dressed and headed outside!

Lawson's first time to get his feet wet at the beach.
Jordan's first time to get her feet wet at the beach.

The kids just LOVED the sand!!! It was windy, but about 70 degrees and sunny that day. We had so much fun just playing and running around together!

Lawson looking for seashells.

Papa helping Jordan find "sea-shelfs." It was so funny--this is what she called them the whole week. Even when I would correct her, she still said sea-shelf. So cute.

We buried Lawson and he loved it!

Jordan crowding in on Lawson's hole.
Jordan and Daddy playing with Lawson's new construction trucks.

More fun in the sand...Lawson got pretty good at making sand-castles by himself. Sometimes they would crash down, but sometimes he actually patted them firm enough to stand!

Nana may kill me for putting up a picture, but I don't care!! I love this picture of her and J.

I love this picture too:

Jon and his dad

Crab Story

Back in November, Jon's parents came to watch the kids while we went to the Fall Retreat with the youth group. For some crazy reason (obviously not realizing that our kids memorize everything anyone tells them and keep it on record in their brains for all time) Jon's dad told them that when we went to the beach that they would have to watch out for the crabs.

"Crabs live at the beach," he said, " and they come out of the sand. You have to be careful because they have pinchers (insert thumb to fingers motion moving like pinchers here) and they chase you around."

Seriously? Tell a 2 and a 4 year old that? (I guess in the sake of 'fairness' I must insert that he denies telling them this...but they both knew the story word for word and I heard it the first time the day after they left! My typing of the story comes from what I memorized while they told me this story 14 times a day from November 9 til December 8!)

I honestly didn't think we would see any crabs. I thought it was too cold, or out of season, or whatever. In my (ha ha) 'expert' beach opinion, I didn't think we would have anything to worry about. Well, that first day, Jon, Papa and Uncle Mike went for a long walk down the beach, and came back with this little cute sucker:

Doesn't he look like he belongs in the Little Mermaid (the next one, what is it? Little Mermaid 9?) So after the dramatic Story of the Crabs, then me trying to alleviate their concerns...Lo and behold they actually find a (tiny) living crab. They also found a (larger) dead one. And brought them both back to Lawson.

And he actually held it! I couldn't believe my eyes!!!

Anyways...here are only a few of my favorites from our first day on the sand.

There's more stories to come...

Christmas Day 2008

I knew that this year Christmas was going to be very fun! Both kids were very aware that it was almost here and that Santa was coming and they were very excited! It took Lawson forever to fall asleep the night before, and (unusually) he was the first one awake. He talked Jon and me into getting up, and we had to go wake Jordan up so they could go down at the same time. Ignore that her sign is crooked--they jump on the bed all the time and sometimes knock it--it's a futile attempt to keep it straight!

Jordan headed straight for the dishes that Santa left her. At our house Santa usually only leaves one thing, but their 'big' thing was scooters and I wasn't sure they'd be able to do them right away. Santa added a couple smaller things for more instant gratification! Lawson's 'equivalent' to these dishes was a Play-doh tools barrel-which of course we played with about 4 separate times that day!

I didn't think they would pick right up on the scooters, but Lawson did! He's a little slow, but I'm sure by summer he'll be zipping around everywhere! Jordan is a little more unsure of herself, but she thinks it's fun!

Lawson barging in and 'showing' Jordan her new computer from Grandad. Jordan loves this toy!

I love that Daddies always get to put together the complicated things!!! Nana and Papa sent Lawson this flying remote control airplane!

Looking for squirrels with his new binoculars! Lawson also got camo pants and bullets for his gun. Jon's planning on taking him squirrel hunting one day soon!!!

Lawson is very into dinosaurs right now. He got some for his birthday, and kept telling people that Santa was bringing him more! He got a couple more from Nana and Papa, and as soon as he got them out of his gift box, he ran upstairs and got all his other ones and started playing.

Opening her gift box from Nana and Papa.

Walkie Talkies from Grandad

Working on a dinosaur floor puzzle

I think Christmas EXPLODED in my living room!!!!

Christmas Day was acutally one of the warmest, prettiest days we have had in a couple months here, so we got dressed and went outside for a while before naptime. Jon helped Lawson learn how to coordinate himself on the scooter, then of course we went out back to jump!! I got a couple good action shots of the kids in the air!

Anytime Jordan can get someone to push her in a swing, she'd sit there all day without ever getting up! She LOVES to swing!

Better late than never, right? I hope your family enjoyed Christmas as much as ours did!

We interrupt this December update to bring you this special message...

OH MY GOODNESS!! If you want to know what I started doing this weekend, then BOY oh Boy, am I gonna tell you!!!

I discovered how to make Frappuccinos AT Home for less than 50cents a cup--as opposed to that plus $4 at a particular shop whose logo is roundish and adorned with green and a funny looking woman.

I searched a couple websites and found some that were interesting....This one is pretty close to the one I chose to make--mostly because this is where I learned that to make it taste like Starbucks you have to TRIPLE the strength of your coffee!!!

I didn't quite triple the strength, but almost! I started by putting 12 scoops of coffee in the filter for 32 ounces of water. (I was a little worried about wasting it, but learned that if you run 32 ounces through that much coffee once you get VERY strong coffee; then if you run it through again you get 'exactly right' coffee! Jon drank that.)

Next I mixed an equal amount of milk for my coffee (32 in my case) and put it in a pitcher in the fridge. After it was cold I measured out in my Magic Bullet cup 1 cup of coffee mixture, 2 cups of ice, 3 Tablespoons (I didn't measure, just did 3 squirts) of caramel (or chocolate) syrup and 3 Tbls of sugar. Let the Bullet (or your blender) do it's magic til there aren't any big pieces of ice left, put some whipped cream on top, and get a straw.

Yummo!!!! My kids love this as much as I do--Jon's afraid that they're gonna grow up Frapp addicts before they even have a chance to know better!!!

Keeping it in the pitcher means it's cold and ready, and I only have to make the mixture every few days! And if you haven't switched over to the Magic Bullet, ask me about it because it is AWESOME! I use it (even before these Frapps) almost every day in the kitchen.

Anyways...enjoy, if you enjoy this kind of thing!!! Happy blending!

Boomer Sooner!!!

Christmas Eve 2008

On Christmas Eve, we went out to eat Chinese, and then went to drive through the Galaxy of Lights. We hadn't gone yet this year, and the kids would scream in excitement when we'd drive by a house that was even poorly decorated with one little strand of lights. We really had a lot of fun eating a yummy (and low-work) meal then driving through the not-crowded Galaxy. The kids loved it.

When we got home, my mom, Babo, helped the kids make cookies for Santa.

I know, I know, salmonella or E coli or whatever...but isn't licking the beater part of cooking???

While my mom was helping the kids bake, I walked up and gave Jordan a hug. She's gotten into patting her hands on your back while hugging, and Jon took this picture to show me that J had 'left her mark'!!

After the cookies were done and cooling, we decided to let the (very anxious and excited) kids open one present from each grandparent that night. They had so much fun tearing the paper off and playing with the bows!!!

Lawson got a fishing pole last year from Nana and Papa...this year was Jordan's turn.

Opening their Spiderman and Tinkerbell dresses from Babo.

Lawson's bulldozer from Grandad.

After a long day, it was finally time to get ready for Santa. They kids both chose cookies for Santa and Lawson poured the milk. Jon tried to convince the kids that Santa would rather have Krytals and Coke instead, but they didn't believe him!!!

Ooh! What's that? Was that the sound of hooves on the roof? Or bells? Or a Ho Ho Ho??? Don't worry, Santa--We're ready for you!!!
It was very funny when we set the 'goods' down on the table, Jordan grabbed one and stuffed it in her mouth and ran!!! Maybe she thought we had left just a little too much for St. Nick to finish on his own!!!

So of course Lawson thought, "If she's getting one, then I am too!!" So he grabbed one!

That's a wrap on Christmas Eve...Coming soon to a blog near you--Belated Christmas!!

Twas the Sunday before Christmas...

In an effort to post some our holiday events before the appropriate time is up (hey, it's not December anymore, but it's getting cold again!) I am going to document the month out of order. Here are some of the pics we took the Sunday before Christmas. We did take a family picture but unfortunately it's stuck on my mom's camera, and knowing the past fortune of technology stuck on my mom's equipment it may never get to come out!!!

"If we make it through December...

Everything's gonna be alright, I know..."

This is an old country song that I love hearing, and I thought it was appropriate because this December was especially crazy and busy for us! I really can't believe that the month has come and gone...there are so many things that we did, AND so many things that I did NOT get done.

I cannot believe that I did not blog the month--there were so many things to post. It seems that I hardly spent any time even checking my email, so the blog and Facebook got the shaft. I am still hoping to post some of the highlights--our beach trip, Lawson's birthday and party, and of course Christmas.

This last week I have been so busy--while Jon was taking advantage of our extra warm weather to make progress on the swingset, I raked our whole back yard. This took me 2 whole days. We dragged 3 HUGE, heavy tarp-fuls to the street to dump, then I decided it was easier to use bags. After I had finished raking and bagging, Lawson woke up from his nap and walked to the back door to go outside and he said, "Oooohhhh, Mommy, it looks SO clean!!!" It was cute!

I got all our Christmas decor down and packed up a couple days ago. For some reason, it won't fit in the same amount of boxes it came out of....I didn't feel like messing up what I had already packed so I ran out and got one more tote to put the extra in. I'll figure it out next year, I guess!

I am such a loser. I printed Christmas cards, addressed almost all of them, started stamping them, then ran out of stamps. I didn't want to mail them in 2 shifts (for some dumb reason), so I STILL have them ready to go, but too embarrassed to send them. I will close out this post with a small poll...

Should I send them out? Or just suck it up and toss em? Jon doesn't think I should send them--because it's January 2nd and he's embarrassed, I think. I am too, but I don't want to waste the work...

I just can't decide. What do you think?

Merry Christmas!

Checking In...

Hey everyone...Late Tuesday night here, and I'm just checking in! We arrived at the beach around midnight last night, excited and exhausted all at once! This morning we officially started our vacation, and we had an AWESOME day!

The kids LOVED the beach...we played in the sand and got our feet wet in the cold water. It was pretty warm, but also pretty windy. We played and ran and dug...Jon and his dad found a couple crabs...there'll be a story about that later...stay tuned!

After lunch, the kids watched a movie, then we went out to fly kites. After dinner, we had a family birthday party for Lawson. (His birthday is Sunday.) He LOVED it!!!

After his party w/cake and icecream and his new RollerBlades, Jon took him swimming in the heated pool!

Baths, snacks, kisses and last drinks...and I think they are finally asleep...Exhausted from such a FUN family day!

I warn you...when I get home (maybe before if I have time) there WILL be pictures!!!!

I hope you all have a great week... :)

Does it get any cuter than this?