This Afternoon

Justin spent the night at Grandmommy's house last night and it sounds like they had a great time. When I arrived they were reading a book. Then Justin brought me a different book, this book is a photo of a frog and every time you flip the pages the frog changes. In the first one the frog is dressed as a cowboy (seriously don't ask) and it says he "rounds up rustlers"...

Justin: Mommy do you know what rounds up rustlers means?
Me: What does it mean?
Justin: There are bad guys stealing other people's cows and then he shoots their legs off and takes their legs to jail.

Mom and I are laughing so hard. I can only imagine what Mom actually told him but I think I like his version the best. Mom tried to explain but seriously a jail full of legs? too funny.

On our way home Justin said he wanted to play Chest when we got home (Chess). He really enjoys playing. He loves taking other people's pieces and figuring out how the pieces move and he loves putting someone else is check. But here is the thing. If you take a piece of his that he really likes, say his castles, he will burst into tears. So on the way home he says that he wants to play Chest but that I can't take his castles because that will husherate (frustrate) him and make him cry. Definitely puts me in a quandry. We played, and I only made him cry once, not bad. I asked if we could play in the family room because it was nice and sunny there so he assumed that meant I wanted to play right in the sun. Oh yes, and he won.


And two of Bonk, trying to get us to let him outside during our entire game.


Off to give Bonk his antibiotic pill- fun fun.

A few from bathtime

Justin had a bubble bath tonight. He wanted to be Santa Claus.

My First Baby

Bonk is 13 years old and with that comes some new issues. Yesterday he had a tumor removed from his right hip. When I went to pick him up the receptionist warned me that the incision is much larger than I might have expected. I was glad for the warning because I almost burst into tears when I saw him. The thing about Bonk is that this is not his first surgery, the other two were for some scrapes he got into outside. What amuses me about him is that he is go groggy and barely able to walk around the house but still he drags himself to the door and asks to be let out- as if! He has to stay inside until the stitches/staples come out. When I was trying to clean up the incision area yesterday Justin panicked and said, "Watch Out! He has spikes!" So here he is, so hungry from his fast that he gobbled down his food when he got home and then promptly threw it all up.

Happy Easter

We dyed our eggs on Saturday. My pics of them in the Easter best is not very good and since I never got around to buying them special Easter clothes this year no loss. The hunting egg pictures are on the other camera, so they will come later. Here is Jessica focusing hard on her masterpiece.

Justin was pretty serious about his eggs this year. Gone are the years when he would dye 10 eggs in 2 minutes and be elbow deep in egg colors. He took the longest and enjoyed singing different songs to have the time pass while the egg was in the cup.
Jessica showing off some of our completed eggs.

An impromtu shoot

I had a shoot scheduled for Saturday morning so I was setting up my "studio" and needed to check some settings. Marc agreed to sit and then roped in the kids. These are better in B&W due to the horribly clashing colors of jammies and half dressed people, but I like them anyway.

After all the craziness died down I got Jessica to brush her hair and sit for nice portrait. So here she is my little 7 year old.

For Kelly and Neil

Last night I was teasing Jessica and I told her that I was going to invite the boy she doesn't like from her class over for a playdate. She told me she would run away from me if I did. Now curious I said, "where would you run to?". Without skipping a beat she says, "Devin and Julia's house with all of my stuff". Marc then looked up and said, "I am with you Jess we always have a great time there, can I come too?".

Justin at Gymnastics

Tried to take a few pics of Justin at gymnastics this week before I mailed back a lens I had rented. But it was not his best listening day and my being in there didn't help. Anyway here are a few. He is the one doing the bridge, he can do it by himself.

I moved to the upstairs observation area and took a few more. Here is Justin explaining that he wasn't interested in doing what the teacher and everyone else was doing.
And here he is following through on that plan.

And the trampoline....

2 from Dance class

I find this amusing. Here is Miss M with a classic hip move with a point. Check out that style!

Um, and yeah, here is Jessica's version of the same move.

Justin's quirks

So here is Jessica working very diligently on her thank you notes from her birthday parties. Oh if you are waiting for one it will be awhile longer.
I told Justin to go into the living room and leave Jessica alone so that she could work. I even told him he could play his gamegirl- a true treat. But here is the thing about Justin, he just CAN'T be in a room by himself (unless a TV or computer is on and even then he sometimes he demands company). He understood the rule that he wasn't allowed to be in the dining room with Jess but he had to be as close as he possibly could. So this is Justin, not in the room, playing the gamegirl.

Here is his other quirk, setting up his toys in high traffic areas.

Our Little Reader

Jessica is a great reader. But more importantly she has a great love of reading. It is not a chore at all for her. Another nice side effect is that she has begun to read to Justin. Here she is reading one of her books that she brought home from school. It is called "Jessica in the dark". It is a story of a 7 year old girl that goes out in the dark in the rain to get her 4 year old brother's stuffed animal he left in their treehouse so he can go to sleep. The story was very sweet but I love that she is reading it to her 4 year old brother.

This morning when she woke me up I told her not to bother Justin. She said, "oh Mommy he is already awake. He came into my room and I sung him a song and read him a book." Totally sweet right?

My Little Goofball

He is a big ball of personality. It seems everyday he says or does something that cracks me up. Here he is scootering around, I think he is smiling gleefully because he thought he was going so fast I wouldn't be able to take his picture- ha ha. Please notice the shoes. He has recently taken to wearing two different crocs from different pairs- he gets looks everywhere he goes and he couldn't care less.

Funny things he has said this week:

Marc was working in the bathroom and told Justin he had to go to the garage to get something. Justin: Daddy I will go with you in case bad guys are there.
Marc: What should we use to protect us? (assuming Justin would run to get a lightsaber)
Justin: My cooool moves! (much hopping and "karate" moves followed)

A few weeks ago I let J&J play on the computer when I had a headache. So yesterday Justin says: Mommy do you have a headache?
Me: no
Justin: blah blah booble booble blah blah blah. Now do you have a headache?
Me: no
Justin: (repeat of above and still not successful)
Justin: Mommy how do you get a headache?
Me: Why do you want Mommy to have a headache?
Justin: So Jessica and I can play on the computer!

This morning he woke up both of us with an invitation to his birthday party- very nice.

St. Patrick's Day!

I love St. Patrick's Day at Justin's school. On Friday before St.Pats, the kids all create "traps" to catch Leprachauns. They hide them throughout the school with a grand plan of demanding to know where the gold is hidden from the little green guy. But sadly none of their traps were successful, although much evidence is left behind, such as little leprachaun clothing and a big mess. Here is Justin modeling his hat. He brought home rainbow Jello to share with the whole family. I told him he couldn't have any until he smiled at me for a picture, there is nothing wrong with that right? The funny thing is Justin doesn't really like Jello, but he kept really wanting to like it. Luckily Jessica happily scarfed it down.

A couple of Justin and one of me

Not much news this week. I have some photoshoots coming up, so don't forget to check over there too the next few days.

Doggone Party Day

Jessica decided to have a Dog Party. All of her friends were asked to bring a stuffed dog (or other animal) with them. It was a lot of fun. We had Dog Cake...

Decorated our own dog bowls...

Decorated and ate dog bone shaped cookies...

Ate "Dog Food"....

Some of us even ate like dogs... (oh yeah so keeping this picture for blackmail later- sorry Julia)

and played with our friends a lot...

And of course opened lots of presents! Jessica opened up 3 more Webkinz and couldn't believe her luck. See, she was pretty convinced that she had the hardest life ever because she only had 3, can you imagine?? Now she has 8 and feels she can hold her up now- phew.

On an amusing note... during present opening Jessica was being so meticulous on some of the presents, we know Grandma would be so proud. But, Marc started a chant that the kids quickly picked up on of "Rip It! Rip It!", she would not give in to peer pressure and pressed on to be able to get the paper off in one piece. Grandma would not be very proud of me, I threw the paper in the trash and did not save it for next year.

Jessica is 7!

Jessica turned 7 on Saturday and she was more excited than she has been for any birthday yet. I put out her presents the night before. These are from Marc and I, Justin, Grandma and Grandpa, and Grandma Judy and Grandpa Dave. She was so excited. We agreed she could open 2 when she woke up and the rest we would open after we had breakfast at Friendlys. What I didn't plan on was her waking up at 5:30am and waking up Justin too, they wanted to see if she got anymore presents. So Saturday was an extra long day for both of them.


Jessica has been very into the Power Rangers lately. One of her presents from us was a pink Power Ranger Costume. She put it on as soon as she opened it and wore it all day. Here are our little rangers (Justin is always quick to tell us that he isn't really a Power Ranger).
Most of the day was spent playing with all of the new toys. More arrived with the mail and then Grandmommy and Dee arrived for dinner and wouldn't you know they brought presents too!

We ended with an ice cream cake- yum. Grandmommy got Jessica not one but 2 Webkinz and she was over the moon.

I also have to give a big shout out to Justin for being a great sport all weekend. It is hard when someone else is getting all the presents and all the attention, but he did really well. He was very excited for her to open his presents and took joy in everything she opened. Only when Aunt Kathy's presents arrived did he get a little bummed. But Jessica let him open one of her presents and all was well.