My Napoleon (not Dynamite)

This afternoon I got a taste of what I like to now call "Napoleon Behavior". Gilly threw a royal tantrum because his lunch was not made to his liking (it didn't have enough tomato juice in it or something silly like that). Well as he was going about in his rage (we won't go into detail about his rage) he picked up his cap gun and pointed it at me AND (this is the part that got me into a rage) pulled the trigger! What? So I marched over and snapped the gun in two pieces and threw it away. WARNING: This is what happens when you point your gun at your mom:

(okay, was this to harsh? I'm feeling like the Bully Mom. Especially because after 15minutes in his room he came out and said...."Mom, I still loof you". He then walked over to the garbage can to see his broken gun and quietly returned to his room. Yup, I'm feeling the Bully)

I couldn't find Gilly the other morning, I looked outside and there he was..in his jammies

with a dirt shovel.

Hopefully this continues throughout his teenage years.

on to the next level

You all remember the post about the Reflections contest? Well I just got a notice in the mail and she has won for the next level of competition! She will go on to the regional level and if she wins that she could go to State. Yay Em!

My favorite book....so far

So my mom passed on this book to me and let me tell you, I am deeply moved. First (and the best selling point) is it takes place in Holland, in a town that I have been to and loved. It is where Jeff scrimped and saved every last penny and bought a suit that he is rather quite dashing in (update: the suit part actually takes place in Hilversum). It is where I found a plethora of shoes on my first visit that just made my heart soar. So upon the first few pages I was in love. Second, it is about the Holocaust. Since I was a child I have been moved by this tragic event in history. I have been to a concentration camp that still haunts me daily (on a lighter note...Jeff was doing a vocal imitation of a German officer which made me laugh or else I would have been to sick to my stomach to continue through the camp).
This is the house in Haarlem where they hid the Jews.

I am only on the third chapter but I felt the need to encourage everyone who hasn't read this to do so.

Guess whose idea this was....

This is what I came home to this evening.... Take a cool motorcycle toy....
Gilly with lots of empty boxes.....
and a dad like Jeff. This is what you'll get.......

Oh the fun we have!

I got spurs that jingle jangle jingle

As some of you may know, I went to Clearfield High where the cowboy boots were aplenty and the most popular bumper sticker was "Wrangler butts drive me nuts". Yes, I was made fun of because I kind of stood out like a sore thumb, I was not even close to being a little bit country. So I guess you could say that I have come full circle seeing that I relented in the purchase of three pairs of boots.Jeff however never told me he owned a pair....

until Em picked out her boots that happened to be the exact same as Jeffs. I do however put my foot down on Country music.

Our Partay....

What is New Years Eve without fondue and games? For as long as Jeff and I have been married this has been a part of our yearly tradition. Well I decided to put my big girl pants on and throw the party myself and we sure had a ball!This is Gilly playing with the squash before everyone showed up
Bryan, Pam, and Tiff. These people I love. I love how she is pregnant but you can't even tell and I love that Bryan is the greatest artist and draws people during a game and I LOVE their kids because Milli is her mother and Liam is his father and I love that they are environmentally friendly and I love Bryans dry humor and I love their taste in movies and I love how Pam thinks she is a mean mom but I really couldn't name a sweeter more loving mom and I just love these guys. Almost as much as I love the homeless. (okay there is a joke there but I think you get it)
The Millers, ah what can I say about the couple that just keeps on giving? I pulled this off largely because Tiff is a whip in the kitchen. And then we played Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader? Well, thanks to hours of helping Addie with endless homework, Tiff answered the toughest questions and pulled her team to a victory. I actually think it was because she read the cards before we played but I guess thats okay. I mean its only a game.
Jack was pulling faces at Lisa because she was trying to get him to eat a brownie. I can't believe these kids made it as long as they did, maybe it was because Abby and Addie kept sneaking Pepsi when they thought nobody was looking......

size 4T

As we all know, Gilly turned 4 on December 20th. For Christmas he got some new super cool Guess jeans size 4T. Here is how they fit......we call this the uni-pocket (due to idiotic photography its not as funny as it was in person)
no, he's not sucking in
Thankfully the kid has inherited his fathers "lean" gene

umm..no comment here....

Christmas Nebulizer

Oh what would the holidays be without the nebulizer!
This is actually the first time he's fallen asleep with it which was good because its also the first time he's had a full treatment without bugging his sisters or the dog with the smoke.

Christmas morn

ahh, the morning my children wait for all year has arrived. Surprise of all surprises was Gilly waking up first at 7:30 (not bad) with his eyes as big as saucers. He went for his sock first, unusual since they are generally an afterthought
Abby posing in front of her stable
Em reading her letter that Santa wrote to her about how good she is
This is where the kids spent most of the morning (notice that Jeff is included as one of the "kids", he was just as excited to set up this train set as Gilly was).

Christmas Jammies

Oh the joy of new Christmas Eve jammies! We spent our evening bouncing around the house and eyeing presents under the tree. This year was different from Christmas past as we were missing Jeff's sisters and their families. For as many years as Jeff and I have been married (13) we have always opened our Christmas jammies on the 24th with Jill and Jen but this year Jen is in Australia, Jill in Washington. We missed them dearly but the tradition continues in our home thanks to Jan scouting out and getting the greatest Christmas jammies. Now, if I can just get these kids to bed.........

Happy almost Birthday Mr. Gilly!

As I am gearing up for Gillys big day tomorrow I have come across some of the great pictures that turn Garrett Benjamin Jones into Gilly and Chooch.Letting us dress him up like the Taliban
Letting us dress him up like Vincent Price (I know I've posted this before but it still makes me laugh)
Eating the Eucerin cream with a toothbrush (thankfully not mine)
Wanting to fit in with the girls (see Pam you have nothing to worry about)
And wearing this silly grin and constantly saying "Dad (sometimes mom if I'm lucky) I loff you.

the equestrian Jones

As we all know, Em is somewhat obsessed with horses. I mean, spend five minutes with the kid and you get the picture (she is even communicating with me in grunts and neighs as she gallops down the hall causing all the knees in her pants to wear out). So we often try to fill her days with trips to the stable......this is Nito in his hoodie (she thinks this is the funniest)
trips to AA Callisters (ugh, a cowboy store that she loves but I loath)

and anyplace that may have something that might resemble a horse. Sometimes I just feel so tired.......

Christmas snowmen

This year we are making snowmen for the kids to give their friends. To do this you buy tube socks, fill them with rice and decorate (I don't have one finished yet so you'll have to use your imagination). I started this project late last night while all the little ones were pretending to sleep. As the story always goes...I ran out of rice and the project is waiting for my trip to Wal-Mart so I just kind of left everything where it was last night (which is where my procrastination comes into play). This is how I found Gill this morning after his bath and I just had to snap a picture because it is so reminiscent of my leg warmer days!

Reflections (the contest)

This year the theme for Reflections was "I can make a difference". Well we all know that Em is big on fishing so we decided to participate. She said she could make a difference by keeping rivers and lakes clean. She make the fish out of Sculpy clay and we helped her hang them in her bucket. She won for her age group! Yeah Em! (I still need to take a picture of her with her trophy and post it).