Christmas 2009

Rolling out the dough to make Christmas cookies

Daddy learning to be very patient with the cookie cutting part. Jackson didn't want any help or instruction....a good experience for both of them if you ask me, that's why mommy stood back and snapped pics. I'm so very thankful of the hands on daddy Travis is :-)
Frosting the cookies

Course Jackson was more interested in frosting and then eating right away

This Christmas will be forever memorable for us because of several reasons, but the biggest one is that we had a White Christmas in Fort Worth, TX!!! The temps were topping out at 75 degrees on Wed afternoon, enticing Jackson to strip down to his shorts and no shirt while playing in the backyard so he could be a "nudey boy". Then later that night the cold front moved in with rain first, followed by sleet and then snow by noon on Christmas Eve. At first it was just pretty flakes falling and melting but by 4 pm it was becoming quite the hazard for drivers on the roads because it was starting to stick. Before all you yankees up north start laughing, let me break it down for you..... see there's no need for the city to waste money on snow and ice removal equipment here because these rare wintery events happen twice a year, at most. So while it does almost paralyze an entire metroplex and give T-rav one extra bonus vacation day, it would just be a huge financial waste to buy the fleet of equipment needed to keep the entire Dallas/Ft Worth area moving in these 24 hour storms. And trust me, the City of Ft Worth has proven themselves capable of wasting this money on plenty of other things....I digress.

So our plans for Christmas changed moment by moment and we were blessed to be able to just roll with it. We had some good friends, the Harbour's, over for Christmas Eve dinner. Travis and I really liked doing the dinner the night before and decided that we are starting the tradition of having a Christmas Eve dinner and then eating the leftovers on Christmas day, that way mommy gets to enjoy the day too! After the fun of having company, we did our 1-gift-before-bed tradition, which is usually pj's for each of us but since I couldn't/didn't want to find maternity pj's I decided we'd skip that one this year (Booooo, on mommy) and he opened his Cars Movie Book Pillow...What?! It's a book, it's a pillow, it's a book pillow and he loved it!

Patiently waiting for daddy to take him out in the snow on Christmas Eve.....he had his gloves on and was ready to go

Outside on Christmas Eve with daddy playing in the snow....it was FA-REEZING out there!

The regulator.....shooting stuff with is Marshmellow Gun that Grammie got him....He loves that thing

Opening his BookPillow on Christmas Eve

Fast forward 6 hours to 1 am I woke up feeling very nasueas. I tossed and turned most of the night and then finally just got up at 6 am because laying there was making me feel yucky. The snow had stopped sometime during the night and the clouds had cleared out for the most beautiful sunrise I could think of for such a wonderful morning. We had a White Christmas in Texas, y'all!

Our beautiful REAL Christmas Tree on Christmas morn

Our White Christmas outside

Well of course this was the ONE morning that Jackson slept till 8 am (he's usually up at 7) and while I was trying to patiently wait with the camera in hand I was feeling more and more sick to my stomach. When the sleeping angel finally emerged from his chamber daddy met him at the hall way, told him good morning and that today was Jesus' Birthday.....well he been told several times the past few weeks that he had to wait till Christmas morning, which was Jesus' Birthday, before he could open the presents. So when daddy told him what day it was the words rang loud and clear in his adorable little head and he made a quick bee dash for the tree. Sitting in front of that tree was a Shake-n-Go Racetrack with Lighting McQueen and Mr The King sitting at the starting line....He LOVED it, so much that we had to constantly redirect him back to opening presents. Being an only child of course he made out like a fat cat, but the part I like is that with another boy on the way, these toys will be twice as nice in a few years :-).

His favorite toy for sure! the Shake-n-Go race track

Dragging his new train blanket MeMe made him into his new doggy tent. He said he was "tampin"

Another home run present, the fishing game....he loves this thing

Course more trucks from Gigi and Granpa Tony are always a hit with Jackson

After presents mommy couldn't control her composure anymore and thus began the non-stop every 2 hour pit stop in the bathroom with the stomach virus. I drank lots of broth all day and tried not to get dehydrated despite the violent vomiting. What a miserable day! I missed out on playing with all the cool new toys, going outside and building Jackson's first snowman and just enjoying our little family on Christmas.

Daddy was nice enough to take pics for me so I could vicariously enjoy the snowman

I love this picture

Creating his latest masterpiece on the art easel Grandma got him

Course, the next morning I felt completely normal again and was ready to do something to make up for my lost time. Travis and Jackson wanted to get out of the house so we all went to the new Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. Jackson I have gone a few times already but Jackson wanted "take daddy too, take daddy to museum". So cute! He showed daddy all his favorite parts of the museum (which is specifically for children and might I say AWESOME!). Lots of hands on learning and playing, which not only wears him out physically but mentally and I get the best naps out of him when we've been to the museum....so glad we have a membership!

On Sunday we were back at church, which I know that God doesn't dwell within those walls but it sure is nice to go to a building that may be filled with other sinners like me, but we're all in this together, and we come together to worship, praise and learn about our creator as a body of believers. Encouraging one another to be Christ -centered people through God's word......I love encouragement and am so blessed to have the friends that I've made there.

In house news, we've found another one we like.....to make a long story short, it's everything we need but never thought we'd ever want together. It's an older home (built in the early 1950's) which I (Crissy) absolutely LOVE, these houses and neighborhoods have so much character and history with a HUGE park like backyard. Travis found it and fell in love the moment he pulled into the driveway, which completely shocked me, because it's not at all what I THOUGHT would be his taste...go figure! We are putting in an offer tomorrow and if all goes well, we'll be rennovating the kitchen (and maybe the master bed and bath) during January and moved in by February sometime. We're kind of in the perfect place to do this sort of thing right now, what with the rental house and pre-baby, it can't really get much better, so we'll just have to wait and see how things go.....smoothly is what I'm praying for ;-). Oh, it's in Ridglea Hills in case you were wondering.

A few Jacksonese, for my memory sake:

I was talking to Travis in front of Jackson about how I don't want us to just give into him when he's grumpy in the mornings just to keep him from screaming. That he needed to learn that he can be grumpy but the bad behavior was going to be un-acceptable. Jackson listening to this looks at me with a glare on his face, finger pointed and says:

"No, mommy...don't talk about it!"

He likes to tease with his daddy by calling him what mommy call him instead of daddy. Well the other day at the grocery store we had this conversation:

Jackson: "daddy be home at dinner time"

Me: "yep, daddy always comes home"

J with a huge smile on his face: "and daddy tome home I doe 'hey, honey" and daddy doe "no, I'm daddy'"

So funny, he was practicing how he was going to tease daddy that evening.

He's starting to get a concept of time. We made Christmas cookies one night last week together and the next morning Jackson told daddy:

Jackson: "member, daddy? we make tookies wast night?"

If you ask him what his baby brother's name is he'll tell you proudly "baby Jimmy!"

If you ask him what his full name is he'll tell you "Jackson Tinley"

Speaking of baby Jimmy, this child is quite the little kicker, which could only mean he's really healthy and for that I'm so grateful.

My little song bird

Jackson takes THE LONGEST time in history to fall asleep, even our babysitter, Sara Beth thinks so and she's babysat a whole slew of kids. Anyway, I usually hear him in there singing a song while trying to fall asleep and last night I finally caught his singing with the camera on our snazzy video monitor....Here he is singing Frosty the Snowman.

Pop Goes a Belly.....Because enquiring minds up in Wyoming want to know.... so here you go! Crissy barefoot and pregnant at 6 months in front of the stove where I belong, ha! ha! Since I naturally have a rounder booty to begin with the belly seems to only accentuate it, in my opinion, but what pregnant girl actually likes the way they look pregnant? None, that I know of!

Christmas Program

Tonight was Jackson's Christmas Program for his little pre-school he goes to. It was so cute to see him up there dancing and shaking his bells. This school is by and far one of the best in the area and we are so blessed to be able to attend it. Here's an adorable video of his class performance. Jackson is the little blondie in the center with the white stripped shirt on, you can tell it's him cause he's the dancing :-).

As most of you may have heard the company that Travis works for, XTO Energy, has been sold to one of the major oil companies, ExxonMobil. When we 1st found out we were in shock and dismay thinking and wanting more details before we said anything. Well the details unfolded at work on Monday as the news was reporting of the exciting sale. It is going to be a good thing for the employees of XTO as far as we can see and Travis has plans to stick around now and not jump ship like his 1st reaction to the news. Some of the perks of a smaller business will be gone after May but the incentives to stay put out weigh a lot of that which feels is being jerked out from underneath us. God is still in control, we are all healthy and that is what matters the most to us right now.....Travis still having a great job helps a little too, I will admit.

On another note Jackson is saying some of the cutest things lately now that we can actually have conversations with each other. I want to share some of them so that I don't forget as I usually do.

Jackson: Ta mon, mommy, let's doe to stool

Me: You want to go to school today?

Jackson: Yah, it be fun!

Me: Jackson do you want to go pee pee in the potty like a big boy?

Jackson: No, I don't

Me: you don't want to be a big boy like daddy?

Jackson: No, I like a diapie

OK so I guess we won't be potty training like I thought, he's made his choice for now!

Jackson seeing Christmas lights on houses: Oh, it's a Tristmas lights...see dem mommy?

Jackson shopping with us for some new work clothes for daddy. Daddy picks up a shirt and asks me if I like it, I respond by saying yes and Jackson says: Oh, daddy dat's tute! (In his defense he hears his mommy say things are cute all day long, naturally he's going to talk like the parent he hears all day long)

In baby Jimmy news, he's perfectly healthy and right on schedule, which makes me 23 weeks now. He's been kicking a whole lot more and harder lately. His most feisty times are when I'm laying still, like 2 am, but I think it's because nothing is going on and I can finally focus on the tap show going on in my belly. I'm really tired a lot, get winded easily and feel like a cow but this is all normal, for which I am grateful for because it is a blessing to have all this. The nausea seems to be coming back again as the 2nd trimester rolls to an end. I've heard that happens, but didn't experience it with Jackson so it's new territory for me. There are a lot of things that are the same when I was pregnant with Jackson, like the way I "carry" the baby by not popping out there till around the last of the 2nd trimester. With Jackson I craved meat meat and more meat, especially BBQ. With Jimmy, I have a tinge of a sweet tooth which is not helping with the weigh ins at the Dr. I fight the cravings most of the day, but usually need something sweet once a day. I also want salads more, which you think would be balancing out all the sweet things, but unfortunately isn't. Go figure, by which I mean mine!

In a Holding a Pattern

We are currently in a holding pattern with our housing situation. We closed on our 1st house last week and STILL haven't found "the one" yet. A shout out to our good friends the Herther's for letting us rent one of their houses here in Ft Worth, which by the way is on the market just in case you are looking to buy at 3/2/2 in the Wedgwood area, it's pretty nice and very roomy. So while we continue to scour the internet for new listings and reduced prices on houses we are patiently waiting for our house to be found....Lord please bring it to us before baby Jimmy gets here!

So we spent November packing, giving things away and getting ready for our family to come for a visit from Wyoming for Thanksgiving. Gramie and Papa came to see us along with Travis's sister Tammy, her husband Terry and our niece Sarah. It was a great time and we are so thankful that they love us enough to travel 18+ hours to see us. While they were here we did our annual Sunday-after-Thanksgiving-trip-to-the-Great-Wolf-Lodge. Jackson had even more fun than last year and is still talking about the huge water bucket.....we will definetely be making that a yearly Kinley tradition, especially with 2 boys!

Here's a bunch of pics, because those are so much more fun to look at than read my ramblings...

Helping daddy carve my 1st pumpkin!

Seeing it all lit up on the porch.....he was more interested in making sure the cap was on the pumpkin

I think this is the thing he will miss the most about our neighbors on Saldana...their trampoline

Look at that face! So funny

We didn't intend on going trick-or-treating but when our neighbors came by our house 1st to get some loot while we were eating dinner, Jackson wanted to be apart of the fun too. So I took him down the street with them in his regular clothes. It was so cute! Here he is taking full advantage of the offer Mrs Thompson had of letting him "grab what he wants"

After he discovered the pure sweetness and joy that is "candy" he was diving in the bowl we had for the trick-or-treaters. I was hoping to put it off one more year, but what they hey! Getting him to sleep that night was tricky but once the sugar high crashed he rode it right into a good nights sleep, ha! ha!

I realized that I didn't take any pictures between Halloween and when Travis's family came on the 26th....who does that?! Anyway this was him out our back window shoveling up leaves while all the rest of the family was playing on the slide. Such a work-a-holic!

He's so stinkin cute!!

Travis's family downtown at the Christmas parade.

Jackson watching the parade with his Gramie....now you can see exactly where he gets his hair color, no she doesn't dye it, and if I had a picture of them looking at the camera you would see where Jackson gets his sky blue eyes from....it's his Gramie!

Travis with our niece Sarah and Jackson at the parade

Still at the parade....I think that thing was at least an hour long....not good for a gal who's not so much a fan of the parade business....that would be me!

At the zoo with daddy, one of the many attractions we did while the family was visiting.

Jackson showing Sarah the peguins

With his Gramie....little boys have a special place for the women in their life who love them. He always talks about all his grandma's.....4 of them that he knows pretty well, what a blessed little boy!

waiting in line to ride the carousal at the zoo

riding with daddy!

showing Sarah the cool places to play at the zoo

Jackson and Sarah

testing the waters at the Great Wolf Lodge....I couldn't hardly get him to hold still so I could snap a picture

That serious face...he was working on squirting people with the toy jet ski

Trying to get a picture of a little boy in a water park....impossible. I think Travis had a death grip on him here

Sarah coming down the slide backwards

She is a water baby and I'm so proud of her swimming skills at such a young age. She'll be 4 next week, but swims AWESOME already! Too bad she couldn't of come and visited us when we had the pool at our house

FINALLY...I caught a smiley face with the camera before he ran off

Organizing the "boats" in the wave pool

Watching the Huge water bucket in the splash zone while enjoying a buffet of kid loving food

In the lazy river with mommy, although it was more rapid than lazy if you ask me. He was mad because I was stopping to let daddy take our pic

The next morning swimming again till we had to check out. The kids splashing Travis in the toddler play area....this is only 1/2 of it!!!

He found a rack with life jackets on it and wanted one on. I think from having to wear one on the boat all the time he thinks they are cool to have now. Plus in the summer we jump off the boat in the middle of the lake and float around a bit, so he's used to the freedom a life jacket can provide for a little guy

Swimming for a basket ball. He loved not having to be held on to in the big kid water sports area where the water was too deep for him to walk in

Taking on some of the agility course....such a dare devil

Snow, yes snow in Ft Worth. It happens only once or twice a year and this year it came about a month early on December 2. It was so nice to see out our windows. I love it when it snows, it's the cold and wind that I like to live with out

It was even sticking to the grass

At the Christmas tree lot with daddy to get our 1st real tree in 9 years.

Running thru the trees at the lot....he was in heaven, such an outdoor boy. Check out those gloves....yes he has gloves that fit him perfectly but insists on wearing daddy's.

sizing up a tree

No, this isn't even close to the price we paid for our tree, but I couldn't believe the price of these so I had to take a pic. I have to admit they were VERY impressive trees and they felt like silk when you touched them

In the back of the truck waiting for daddy to load up our tree

Helping daddy with the lights

Not too many pics with mommy since I'm usually the one running the camera, so I'll take what I can get.

Stealing a smooch from him

Giving mommy BIG hugs....he'll squeeze your head off if you let him. When he finally gives loves he gives them with all his strength....I love that about him!

His favorite game...jumping off the couch onto his pile of pillows