JustJessie

Does it really have to be Monday?

We had such a great weekend, I hate to see it end.  We spent Saturday morning working in the yard together, and then playing football when we finished.  I guess it would be more accurate to say Jeff was trying to teach Grayson and me the basics of football enough to play.  It was fun though.  I'm not a sporty girl, but Grayson wants to play flag football this year, and I want to be able to follow the game! 

Anyway, then we decided it would be fun to all go out together as a family.  We went to Surin, a Thai restaurant with the best sushi around, and to see Nim's Island.  As a non-violent way to get good manners out of our boys, we told them this was Mommy and Daddy's favorite date restaurant, and we were taking them there on a family date.  It was awesome.  I could tell Grayson felt so mature going to a place we usually don't take him.  Both of the boys tried "Squooshee" (that's Grantinese for sushi) and ate with chopsticks. I was very proud of my picky eater (Grayson) for trying something so unusual. 

*Excuse the look on my face... I think the empty martini glass may have something to do with it.

The movie was good, too.  It's always a gamble taking Grant to a movie.  The theater we went to doesn't charge for him to go, so at least if I had to take him out of the movie it wouldn't feel like such a waste!  He did great, though.  There was enough action to keep him interested, and I stocked my purse with enough Easter candy to keep him occupied when he got bored.  So, anyway, I guess now it's back to the real world...

A Pirate Surprise

Between starting school and my dad's knee surgery, Grayson's sixth birthday sort of fell through the cracks.  I have been trying and trying to plan a party, but it never seemed to work out.  So finally I decided we would have him a surprise party last night.  We invited all his cousins and grandparents and had my dad occupy him for the afternoon while I decorated the house. 

Rather than jump out and scream surprise, my mom suggested that we all stand around the cake and sing to him when he walked in.  It was great.  He was so surprised he just sort of stood there in a daze for a minute, until Jeff started explaining what was going on and showing him his cake and stuff.  Once everything sunk in, he was ECSTATIC!  It was a great party... we dressed like pirates and hunted treasure. The boys ate octopus hotdogs dipped in shark's blood (ketchup), goldfish crackers, driftwood (chips), and drank fish gut punch.  He had a great time playing pirates with his brother and cousins. 

His cake was a hit as well, and a lot of fun to decorate.  Everything went even better than I imagined, and Grayson said it was his best birthday party ever.

Midnight! (8:00 real time)

Happy New Year, guys!  Please refrain from commenting on our very Southern accents.  They're accentuated when you're fake yelling for a bogus countdown.  (In case you're wondering, we watched last year's ball on youtube!)

11:00 (7:00 real time)

making kazoos and shakers

icing sugar cookies

10:00 (6:00 real time)

(pretzels and butter. mmmm.)

9:00 (5:00 real time)

9:00 New Year

For the last few years, Jeff and I have packed the kids up to spend the night with our folks and spent our New Year's Eve with friends, acting too crazy for our age.  This year, we want to start it off differently.  The kids are much too young to stay up until midnight, but we're going to move midnight up a few hours at our house.   I'm going off to the dollar store to pick up cheap toys to fill goody bags.  Then beginning at five o'clock, we're going to start counting down the New Year.  The boys will open a gift bag each hour until midnight to count down, only the five o'clock one will be labeled eight o'clock, so that their "midnight" will occur at nine p.m.  It will still be past their bedtime, and will feel like they got to stay up way late, because we'll put them in their jammies early, too.

We're going to spend some time making homemade kazoos with paper towel rolls, wax paper, and rubber bands; also we'll make shakers and things to make lots of noise at "midnight".  I have sparklers left over from the fourth of July,  and we'll play board games and have fun snacks.  I'm trying to come up with a New Year themed snack I can make on the fly.  Still working on that one!

After the boys are in bed, Jeff and I plan to watch a movie (we've got a couple of good ones from Netflix right now) and maybe watch the ball drop on tv.  Depends if we can stay awake late enough!  I'm looking forward to not being groggy and funky feeling on New Year's Day for a change, and starting the year off quietly with my family. 

I leave you with a picture of Copper taken and edited by Grayson with his new digital camera.  Our demon dog:

Y'all have a good night and BE SAFE!!

Beach bums part 2

You know it's hard to post about a long weekend without it sounding like a "What I Did Over Thanksgiving Holiday" essay for school.  That's what my first post about the beach sorta sounded like.  So, I thought I'd try again, only this time I'll just share some of the moments that made the weekend special.

Three naked hineys and lots of laughter in the bu-bu-bubbly tub.

Grayson hunting for seashells with Nana surreptitiously planting store-bought shells for him to find.

A date night out with my sweetie, financed by my in-laws (yeah, they're great like that!).

Grant's delight as he stomped, then body-slammed every sand castle Grayson made.

Swimming in the indoor pool with Grayson, and the laughing, squealing dash for the outdoor elevator that followed.  Not to forget the I'm so freezing dance as the elevator made it's way to our floor.

Lots of special little moments that made up a great weekend.  Thanks Nana and Poppy for taking us along!

Beach bums

Sorry I've been gone awhile!  We just spent the Thanksgiving weekend at the beach with Jeff's family.  Since our laptop totally quit on us, we were away from the computer the whole time. 

It was nice to be away from home (and puppy) for a few days!  We only got to go out on the beach a couple of times because it was really cold most of the time we were there.  Cold or no, the boys would have stayed out there the whole time if we had let them!

Thankfully there was an indoor pool they got to swim in a good bit.  I got to spend a rare day shopping alone with my sis-in-law, and got most of Grayson's shopping done for Christmas (outlet mall + black friday sales = bargain shopper's dream!).  Now all I have to do is look to make sure none of the toys I bought are toxic (ugh.  is anyone else as tired of this lead paint business as I am?).

It was great spending time with Jeff's family.  It was also nice to be away from the responsibilities that are usually niggling at the back of my brain when I sit down to relax.  I had lots of niggle-free hours, and the result was a wonderfully soft new scarf, knitted by me, for me!

*Sorry if this post is a bit scatter-brained.  It would seem my brain is still on vacation!*

We're Expecting!!

We're proud to announce that we're expecting a new baby boy...  A baby boy Brittany Spaniel, that is!  We've been mulling over the decision to get a dog for some time now.  Grayson is the perfect age to get his first four-legged companion, and Grant loves anything with fur!  We have researched breeds and all that jazz until we know more about it than anyone should, and we finally decided on a Brittany.  They're great family dogs, excellent bird hunters (something Jeff plans to start doing with Grayson), light shedders, and a nice size for indoor dogs.  Finding a breeder with pups available in the area was interesting, too, because as soon as they are listed in the paper, those pups are SOLD!

Find one we did, however, and he had the sweetest little furballs for us to choose from.  We don't get to pick him up until Saturday, but here he is...

We seem to have a bit of a predicament that we need your help with.  We can't agree on a name!  So here's the deal, I'm going to put a poll on the sidebar and YOU GUYS have to vote for your favorite!  Please participate, cause we need your help!