Christmas morning and then some

Christmas morning included smiles, giggles, tears and one good time out all with in the first 30 mins....toddlers!!!

JT was so excited when he first came out to see what was under the tree. He played with the santa gift right away, because it was large and un-wrapped. We then started tearing paper to get to the rest of it and that is when the fits started. He liked the new bike he got from Meme and Bappo, then he opened his lawn mower from Papa and Grandma Sandy and that is when the first fit went down. This thing was hooked to the bottom of the box with rivets and screws....ridiculous! So of course Travis had to go out to the garage to get some tools to set the mower free. Well JT was ticked that he had to wait for his mower and started to throw the biggest fit, which included a little toss of his recorder he got from santa. So while our 1-yr-old-who-thinks-he's-2 spent a little session in time out, Travis freed the mower and when JT came back to the living room with an attitude adjustment he discovered that his new favorite toy was ready to be pushed around the house till the cows come home.

Grandma Teresa and Grandpa Rob got him Elmo Live...and let me tell ya this thing is captivating! Mommy sometimes has to turn it off because I will sit and listen to the animated stories he tells forever! JT likes him, but I don't think he's old enough to see Elmo for what he can really do. Travis and I were saying that it's kind of creepy how it's so animated and chit chatty, well I say it is, Travis says that it reminds him of me! WHAT?! ;-)

Here's some great pictures from Christmas day and a few afterward....

Just waking up....apparently he had his remote in bed with him

Seeing what santa left


He loves this little tykes play garden. He likes opening and shutting the door the best. I got it for $10 off Craigslist....I think I'm addicted to Craigslist


Daddy helping me figure out my new recorder santa put in my stocking. I was piping on that thing all day long!

Trying to open presents while still holding my new ball I got to throw for the dog

I like this new vest, it's soft, puffy and cuddly like a pillow

Watching elmo tell a story

The last gift he opened, because after this one he didn't care about the rest....I loves the lawn mower

Taking a quick shot....he wouldn't let go of the lawn mower for even a second

We went to Ben & Brooke's for a fondue dinner and the boys wanted to take a bath. This is a shot of the daddies supervising. Abram is only a year older but he looks like he's 2 years older, I call him "tank."


A mouth stuffed full of apple...sometimes I think he's going to choke as much food as he shoves in there

Playing with daddy's matchbox cars that he had when he was little....sure glad Grandma Sandy kept those...JT loves them

The little guy LOVES LOVES LOVES to draw. He's scribbling on a sticky note, and he's very meticulous about it too. Never goes off the paper and puts a lot of effort into it.

Clapping at his latest masterpiece

He has been doing this for a few weeks now....he feeds himself with a fork!! He'll stab the food and then eat it off the fork, giving mommy a chance to eat a hot meal again.

Twas the Morning Before Christmas, in Texas that is

Pictures from our Preparatory Music Class - Family Music Night. The Music class that JT and I having been taking at TCU on Friday mornings had a grand final in the school's new ballroom with a final class that included live music and all the children enrolled in the weekly classes as well as a instrumental petting zoo, which JT LOVED!! 

Eating his cheddar bunnies out of his snack-trap (my mom got that for him and it is THE BEST thing ever!!), doing his sort of bounce-dance and staring at some other kids. He was doing his 3 favorite things all at once. People watching, dancing and eating.

At the instrumental petting zoo. These were by far his favorite instrument all year long, the castanets. It just amazed me and awed his teacher that he had the dexterity to actually play them correctly. She also said that he has great rhythm...well he should, both of his parents have good rhythm and can dance well. I don't know if I could live with myself if I had a kid that couldn't dance...hee hee

Our 2nd favorite-the drums. You'll see in the next picture that he was double-timing it.

Bang with the hand a few times, then switch to the mallet.

A motion shot of the mallet-drum action

It's Christmas Eve!!! I am so excited to get some of the great gifts that our family got JT down from the attic and wrapped today. We'll have to do it during nap time obviously. We haven't put any presents out under our tree because JT loves tearing paper and I didn't want to have to be consistently telling him "don't touch" and then come Christmas morning completely confusing him by telling him it's OK. Just call me lazy ;-)

Travis and I have thought long and hard about the whole Santa deal and we are still working on a way to include the man in the red suit into our celebration of Jesus' birth. JT knows who Santa is, recognizes the jolly old man when he sees him on a dish towel or even at the store by pointing with big eyes and say "tanta, tanta". I see how a child can become fascinated by this white bearded man who seems to show up at every place we go during this time of year. I also know that children have imaginations and it's a good thing to encourage that, what Travis and I are concerned about is that JT knows the real reason behind all these traditions and we prefer to keep the focus on Christ and for it not to be something he is taught AFTER the believing in santa part. When he recognizes "tanta, tanta" we just say "yes that is santa and the reason he comes to visit us at Christmas is because Jesus was born. Jesus is God's son and we are to love him with all our heart." I feel like I have to say Jesus twice for every time I say santa....kinda like the whole takes 2 positives to cancel out 1 negative theory...what can I say, I'm neurotic. ;-) Next year, we'll have to be more diligent about the whole Jesus-santa issue, maybe incorporate a birthday cake into the Christmas morning routine while he's little, so knows it's a birthday party. A friend of mine said that she told her kids that the reason santa gave presents to everyone on Jesus' birthday is because His birthday changed all of creation and while our birthdays are special too, they are not quite as important as Jesus'. I like that.

He does have a book my Aunt Kate got him last year for Christmas that he LOVES. It's called "Jesus is Born" and it is one of his favorites. He'll even point to the baby on the pages when you ask him "where's baby Jesus?" and he'll point and say "dedus!" so I feel like we've already made progress. One bonus is that we'll only talk about santa for about a month around here, were as Jesus will be someone who is talked about year round and I think that will be a huge thing for JT.

And of course I have to leave y'all with a cute santa story. Grandma Sandy got JT this book last year and I think it is so funny....it's by Leon A. Harris

The Night Before Christmas, In Texas That Is

'Twas the night before Christmas

In Texas, you know,

Way out on the prairie

(Without any snow).

Asleep in their cabin

Were Buddy and Sue,

A-dreamin of Christmas,

Like me and like you.

Not stockings, but boots,

At the foot of their bed,

For this was Texas,

What more need be said?

When all of a sudden

From out the still night,

There came such a ruckus

It gave me a fright!

And I saw 'cross the prairie

Like a shot from a gun,

A loaded-up buckboard

Come on at a run.

The driver was "Geein',

And 'hawin', with a will

The hosses (not reindeer)

He drove with such skill.

"Come on there, Buck, Pancho,

And Prince, to the right!

There'll be plenty of travelin'

For y'all tonight."

The driver in Levi's

And shirt that was red,

Had a ten-gallon Stetson

On top of his head.

As he stepped from the buckboard

He was really a sight,

With his beard and moustaches

So curly and white.

As he burst in the cabin

The children awoke,

And both so astonished

That neither one spoke.

And he filled up their boots

With such presents galore

That neither could think

Of a single thing more.

When Buddy recovered

The use of his jaws,

He asked, in a whisper,

"Are you Santa Clause?"

"Am I the REAL Santa?

Well, what do you think?"

And he smiled as he gave

A mysterious wink.

Then he leapt in his buckboard,

And called back, in his drawl,

"To all children of TEXAS,

MERRY CHRISTMAS, y'all!"

Merry CHRISTmas from the Kinley's!

Why can't I upload video? HELP!?

Seriously, I need help! I can't seem to upload video to blogger. Is it because it's too long? I think the shortest video I have is 1:02 minutes and when I try to upload even that one it just sits there and spins and spins, saying it's uploading, but never actually does. What am I doing wrong?

Here are my tools I'm working with:

-video from my camera (it's a Canon Powershot)

-a Macbook using i-photo (this macbook is new, we just got it this summer)

Now, if you have any pointers I would love to get them. Please help! I have some adorable videos, but I can't post them. Augh!

Crazy 8's

Something a little different...we'll start with a picture then you can read my ramblings ;-). I like this one, it shows his true toddler-ness coming thru....he's fighting me to go and I'm smiling with a death grip on him 

Because I like knowing this weird stuff about others, thought I would share....plus I was "tagged" by a friend to do it. I don't have enough to fill all the lists, so I'll just do as much as I can.

8 TV Shows I Watch Regularly:

1. The Office

2. 30 Rock

3. The Soup

4. The Girls Next Door - So embarrassed to admit this one!

4. The Unit - T-rav's favorite

5. The Wiggles - B-rat's favorite (that's the new gang name Travis gave him ;-))

6. Sesame Street

7.

8.

8 Favorite Restaurants: You'll notice a pattern here...

1. Mi Cocina

2. Uncle Julio's

3. El Rancho Grande

4. Rio Grande

5. Eddohana Sushi

6. Jason's Deli

7.

8.

8 Things that happened Today: Keep in mind it's only 8 am on Sunday morning

1. Jackson woke up at 5:30 in pain from his molars cutting, so I gave him some tylenol, some milk, a little pumpkin muffin and then rocked him back to sleep

2. loaded the dishwasher

3. finished my BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) lesson for Jan 7...

4. synced irene with the laptop (Irene is the iphone)

5. checked the freezing temps outside

6. started this list

7.

8.

8 Things I look Forward to:

1. Going to church this morning - Chris Freeland is preaching...he's been equipped with the gift to teach, that is for sure

2. Our 1st Christmas at home as a family - just the 3 of us!!

3. getting christmas picture cards in the mail

4. coffee

5. BSF starting again on Jan 7

6. selling our house 

7. finding the next house on some acreage

8. the next little addition to our family

8 Things I Wish/Pray For:

1. for JT to know the Lord at a young age and not follow the patterns of this world

2. a good immune system for JT as he grows up

3. healthy development for Jackson as he grows up

4. for Jackson's wife to be a believer

5. Travis to have success and satisfaction with his work

6. for Jackson's teeth to hurry up and get here (he's crying again)

7. for me to be a compassionate person (I struggle with that horribly)

8. for all my family and friends to know Christ as their personal saviour

8 People I Tag:

1. How about just anyone who feels like sharing

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

I'm completely stealing this...

This is totally ripped off from a newspaper column. It was written by Carolyn Hax of The Washington Post and is called "Tell Me About It", so I cited my so, don't call the plagiarism police on me.

by the way it has taken me three different 10 min occasions to get this typed up, because I was being distracted by my helper ;-)

WHY DON'T FRIENDS WITH KIDS HAVE TIME?

Dear Carolyn: Best friend has child. Her: exhausted, busy not time for self, not time for me, etc. Me (no kids): What'd you do today? Her: Park, play group... OK, I've talked to parents. I don't get it. What do stay-at-home moms do all day? Please no list of library, grocery store, dry cleaners...I do all those things, too. I guess what I'm asking is: What is a typical day and why don't moms have time for a call or e-mail? I work and am away from home nine hours a day (plus a few late work events). I manage to get all it done. I'm feeling like the kid is an excuse to relax and enjoy, but if so, why won't my friend tell me the truth? Is this a contest ("my life is so much harder than yours")? What's the deal? I've got friends with and without kids and all us child free folks have the same questions.
-Tacoma, Washington

Dear Tacoma: Relax and enjoy. You're funny.
Or, you're lying about having friends with kids.

Or you're taking them at their word that they actually have kids, because you haven't personally been in the same room with them.

I keep wavering between giving you a straight answer and giving my forehead some keyboard. To claim you want to understand, while in the same breath implying that they only logical conclusions are that your mom-friends are either lying or competing with you, is disingenuous indeed.

So, because it's validation you seem to want, the real answer is what you get. When you have young kids, your typical day is: constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, cleaned, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering their coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one (or more) kid, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest of trips, including the latest-to-be-declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; to keeping them from un-shelving books at the library; to enforcing rest time, to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired or bored, any of which produces checkout-line screaming

It's needing 45 mins to do what takes others 15.

It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to the second tier.

It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from family and friends. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief at everyone's long-term expense.

It's doing this while con-currently teaching virtually everything-language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiosity, creativity. Empathy. Everything.

It's also a choice (to stay-at-home), yes. And a joy. But if you spent all day, everyday, with this brand of joy, and then, when you got your first 10 mins to yourself, wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling a good friend, a good friend wouldn't judge you, complain about you or marvel how much more productively she uses her time. Either make a sincere effort to understand, or keep your snit to yourself.

Hmm?

Do I steal someones writing style because I find it way more interesting than mine? Is it wrong? She doesn't know me and I only know of her by stumbling onto her blog....that justifies it right?! ;-) It's not plagiarism if I don't actually steal her words! Or maybe I've already stolen it a little and am just slowly going to itch my blogs to look more like hers....hmmm....good idea!

Meantime, I was cooking dinner last night and my laptop was open on the counter. The screensaver came on and there were the cutest pictures of the cutest baby in the world....8 months ago. I had forgotten just how chunky his little thighs were, which he since has walked most all of it off. It was nice to have that sweet little moment, despite that fact that it was brought on by the trusty silver laptop.

An apology and some pictures

I need to make an apology to all the working moms that I know and may read this blog. When I mentioned before that you couldn't make any excuses about not having time to cook, well I was wrong. I tend criticize most things that I truly don't understand, which is the time constraints at home for a working mom. I'm truly sorry for that comment, I hope ya'll can look past it and forgive me.

Here's some recent pictures....

I wish he would smile on command...he's starting to show his toddler side

He'll smile for the camera every time if he has his checks stuffed with food!
A glimpse of the future....making deals and working for a livin! It was so cute, he thought the mouse was a phone
Trying to hang up the phone
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Just in case you can't make it by the Kinley's for a Christmas tree light tour, here's a shot of it....

JT's little friend Benjamin giggling at Copper...his mommy and daddy need to get him a doggy too!
Baby Austin sits up now!!! This is JT's future hunting buddy

A new found love...

That's right I have a new love in my life and I think some of you will be in total shock when you find out....I love to cook! WHAT!? To be truthful, it's been coming on for a while, maybe 6 or 7 months, but it's a full blown love at this point.

Those who have known me for a long time, know that me and the kitchen didn't used to get along. I think my biggest hang up was that I hated the kitchen getting messy. I ate salads a lot or cereal for dinner so it just was hassle that my husband preferred a bigger dinner than what my palate craved. Well, the Lord works in mysterious ways, and my love for cooking being the weirdest of em all. I also found that if you surround yourself with ladies that make great things, you get to copy their recipes and then when you know what you are about to make is going to turn out super good and most of the time super healthy to boot....well who can't get excited about that?

My greatest recent find...well actually I can't take full credit, my friend Brooke told me about the cookbook and then my awesome sister-in-law got it for me for Christmas (hey, hey don't even say it, I knew what it was and when it arrived I just decided that my baby needed to start eating some new varieties of healthy food ASAP and I called to tell her that I opened so it doesn't count against me ;-)) OK so what is this great find you ask? It's an awesome cookbook called Deceptively Delicious and let me tell ya these are GREAT recipes. It's by Jessica Seinfield (yes, Jerry's wife) and she figured out how to secretly get her kiddos to eat their veggies in most of the foods they were already eating. For example, I just finished baking my first batch of muffins from this book. They are called Peanut Butter & Banana muffins...seems pretty harmless right? Well in the ingredients it calls for 1/2 cup of pureed cauliflower!! I just tasted one and let me tell ya, these suckers are pretty darn good. I do have to say that Yes it is extra work to steam and puree the veggies, but I am telling you...in my new found love of cooking, I am LOVING every step. Plus I steamed a whole head of cauliflower, a couple red bell peppers and some broccolli, then pureed them and stored them and it took maybe 45 mins at most from start to finish. Plus I didn't use all the puree so I can freeze it and use some more for later in another recipe. Even Travis likes the food that I've made from the cookbook. I've only had it since Friday and I've already made about 4 things from it, all of which Travis thought was pretty good. He was really shocked to find out that there were some "added ingredients". The best part is our worst critic aka JT loves it too. He's scarfed down so many veggies the past 3 days and has no idea, he just keeps putting those little fingers together to make the sign for "more".

This book would make a fabulous Christmas present to a ton of moms this year. And if you're a working mom, don't think "I don't have time for that" she has some great time saving tips. Nowadays, it's cheaper and so much healthier to just eat at home, so if you're going to be cooking anyway, why not make em something that is so super good and so super healthy. That way when you do have to make a pit stop at the fast food joint (come on this is real life, we all do it from time to time. Our fav is Chick-fil-A), you won't feel quite as bad. ;-)

Oh and I'm making Travis his favorite tomorrow.....Brownies, but he doesn't know that it will be laced with spinach and carrots.....ooooo....ha, ha, ha! Here's a link to the Brownie recipe that is on Oprah.com (Brownies, mm,mm, good!) I'm not a fan of Oprah, but she does have some great things on her show. So I remind myself to not dislike the message just because I don't care for the messanger ;-)

Oh and one more thing, I use butter instead of margarine as she suggests...it's a personal thing, I don't think margarine is good for you, just because their is nothing natural about it and it has a shelf life of forever.....clearly strange!

I'm telling ya, ya'll need to run out and get this book, it's great!!!!!!

C

What's new?

We've had a very busy few weeks. First all Crissy's grandparents came from Wyoming to visit us for Thanksgiving. It was AWESOME having them here. I (Crissy) was able to run errands, get my hair done and even go to a movie on Thanksgiving with Travis....all with out having to arrange for or better yet, pay for a babysitter. If you are one of the many parents of young kids that has family in the same town as you, count your blessings and call and thank your family for their help. A girl sure could get used to having that convenience. On the other hand I'm very very very grateful for all the great friends that I have here that I know would watch JT in a second if I called them. The only problem is they have small babies too, so I have to take JT to them....not complaining, it's just convenient to have the babysitter at my house, ya know.

Jackson wanted to take grandma & grandpa (or as JT calls them "MeMe & Babo") to the zoo and show them some of his favorite animals. My grandpa loves zoos and my grandma loves being with her grandkids, so they were up for any fun I planned. Here's some great pictures...

Feeding time at the zoo....this was a goat at the petting zoo in the Texas Wild portion of the zoo. The Ft Worth Zoo is huge and this is just a small section of it. Jackson loved being able to get that close to the animals
I'm so cute and adorable I can get the ol folks to climb in and out of an old coach wagon with me
This way MeMe and Babo....follow me I know where we're going
Me and mommy
On the other side of this fence is the horses....my new favorite animal. I know how to make the sign and when someone asks me what a horse says, I say..."eeeeeee"
Instead of the stroller we borrowed this car from my friend Jenny.....he LOVES this thing and will ride in it forever
Riding the Yellow Rose train back to the front of the zoo. It was a long day and I had wore the ol folks out, so we rode the train back
Waiting for Babo to finish putting on his walking shoes so we could go for a drive in my car down the street. My que to the ol folks that I want to drive my car is sit in it and whine and they come a runnin.....a kid could get used to this
Um....it ain't gonna push it's self ya'll

The day after Thanksgiving the grandparents headed back to Wyoming and we started getting the Christmas decorations out. We got the inside decked out on Friday and then Saturday Travis and Jackson put up the outside lights. When Sunday rolled around we were ready for our fun filled one night family vacation to the Great Wolf Lodge! If you have never heard of the Great Wolf Lodge then you need to go the website and check it out. It is a kid focused resort with a GINORMOUS indoor waterpark. The baby pool is the size of our house and it's got 3 slides just in it alone with a beach entry, plus a huge wave pool, lazy river, splash fun house for bigger kids, agility course and 5 HUGE water slides for the biggest kids...aka the parents. Let's just say that the mommy and daddy had just as much fun as Jackson
Jackson pointing to the HUGE Christmas tree in the lobby of the hotel. That thing had to be about 60 feet tall and beautiful
This picture doesn't even do it justice. You can see the water fun house and little of one of the slides to the left, but this was only about a 1/4 of it. These windows over look the water park from the lobby where you check in....great tactic to get the kids all excited and ready to go
Splashin in the wave pool before the waves came. Right before the waves start rolling out you'll hear a wolf howl out....Jackson thought that was awesome.
Jumpin a wave with daddy. The beach entry made it feel like you were really at the beach and the water was so warm as well as the air temperature
This was on Sunday night, because of all the windows in there it was a little darker than during the day, which made the pictures dark. 
After swimming for a few hours we went and changed and then headed back to the lobby to meet Santa. Jackson was very interested in looking at him but not actually touching him. He also wouldn't take his eyes off of him....it's a trust thing, I struggle with the same thing :-)

Our friends Brooke, Ben and their son Abram went with us. It was great having some other adults there to watch Jackson so Travis and I could go down the big slides, which by the way were so cool. Ben is our friend that just returned from serving in Iraq. It was fun to get to hang out with him and Brooke. Abram is 2 even though he looks like he's 3 or 4....I call him "tank"
Playing on the stairs...so much fun!
Every night they have an interactive story time at the clock in the huge lobby. Here's JT and daddy watching the show
There was some songs involved so of course JT had to jump up and dance....that kid loves music
Back home again. I went to go check on him and he was sitting in his room reading a book. I love that he has a love for books so early. He will run to his room and bring a book out to you for you to read to him....it's so cute