Just Ella

Here, again, is Ella the Amazing. She knows a lot of her letters (she mixes up E and F and M and W, but who blames her!), she can sing an ever growing list of songs: Twinkle Twinkle, Wheels on the Bus, Ring Around the Rosies, Jingle Bells, ABCs, Happy Birthday, O Christmas Tree, Hey Hey We're the Monkeys, Old Mc Donald, Totoro, Veggie Tales, etc... She's started using the contraction "don't" this week. The first time she used it she said, "Don't... tickle... my... tummy!" It was cute. (I, of course, continued to tickle...) Kris tried "fixing" the DVD player by hitting it and Ella remarked, "Don't hurt TV, Daddy!" She's been really proud of herself lately and likes to yell out, "I did it!!!" She likes to ride her new tricycle, even if it's freezing outside.








(I will attempt to get pictures of Jacob the Magnificent later. He's just a little too camera conscious these days. And fast. His new thing is that he can spell "no" and "yes" with the new magnet letters he got from his Gram. He's so proud and so are we!)

Snowball, the Christmas Kitty

SATAN CAT IS WATCHING YOU!!!!

or for those lolcats fans...

I CAN HAS MANJER SEENS!!!!

Uncle John!!!

Uncle John was here for a few days. He's moving from
Maryland to DFW so he drove his truck and his cats to Holliday so he could fly from DFW to Florida, spend Christmas with Nikki and her family, then drive with Nikki back to Texas.

They'll stay in Holliday for a couple of days before heading to Dad's house in Fort Worth. Then the house hunt begins!!!

Merry Christmas!

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring except for Kris, Jessica, and Ethel
who were frantically wrapping and assembling gifts for the kids.

During the night, Jacob had come into bed with us, so once he woke up, it was easy to arrange things to our advantage. We kept him in our room while we went to get Ella and get her diaper changed. Then we got the camera ready and let the kids come into the living room at the same time. Both were amazed and unsure of what to do. Jacob went immediately for his new stick horse (which he thinks is a cow since COWboys must use them) and Ella went immediately towards... well... Snowball the cat. We redirected her to the stroller and she was ready to go!

The kids did great opening presents and really liked everything they got.

A short list of Jacob's gifts: clothes, a bike, a stick horse, Mr. Potato Head, a backpack full of trucks, Curious George movies, a Jake blanket, and Superman pajamas.

A short list of Ella's gifts: clothes, Cookies Monster, pajamas, baby stroller, tricycle, and an Ella blanket.

Say hello to my little friend!

Here's Ella "Scarface" Rhodes. She tried to hug our cranky, blind cat. She'll be fine in a few days... Meanwhile, check out her pretty new dress! She wore it to church this morning.

Look What I Made!

Jacob uses our Zen Garden puzzle maker to make designs of his own. He says that this is a castle and that the soldiers live inside. We are amazed at the symmetry and imagination that he puts into each one.

Christmas #1

Saturday the 20th we had a Christmas Party for the whole family. Auntie Lisa was the first to arrive, followed by Grandad and Grandma Linda, then Mommy-O, Daddy-O, Jonas, and Kaemon. Everyone ate chili and white stew for lunch (and a fair share of brownies!) followed by a flurry of gift opening. The kids all got capes, so it was a SUPER opening. Ella is great at opening gifts, by the way. I was really surprised that she figured the whole process out so quickly. Must be because she got such great gifts ; ) The kids played and played all afternoon. There were puzzles and games and clothes and animals... a good time was had by all.



Exploring Dora


Ella with Batty Monster


The Gang's All Here

The Kids

With Grandad and Grandma Linda

The Rhodes Family

And yet, they play with the box...

Here's a conversation I (Kris) had with Jake today.

Jake: What if somebody is watching us?

Dad: Who would be watching us?

Jake: What if we're their movie?

Dad: [Pause] Woa. Jake, that's crazy.*

Jake: [Big grin] Yeah. It's kinda scary, huh?

Dad: [Speechless]

Jake: We are Mickey Mouse's movie.

-Kris

*In our family, it has come to be that crazy connotes positive.

These are A Few of My Favorite Things...

Kids Christmas Party

The church held a kids Christmas party on Sunday. The kids decorated cookies, colored ornaments, listened to stories, and visited with Santa. Jacob told Santa he wanted a firetruck (even though he told his Mommy and Daddy that he wanted to get Ella a firetruck) and ran around yelling "FIIIIIRE TRUUUUCK!" Jacob also asked Santa, "Hey, why does this place have doors?" Santa, unfortunately, did not know.

While the kids were listening to "Clopper," the tale of Mary and Joseph's donkey, Jacob started rolling around on the floor and was grabbing his feet and hitting himself in the forehead with them. I'm thinking, "Okay, so he's three. No big deal. At least he's quiet." And then he lets out a huge toot. Everyone is trying very hard to stay quiet- the two high school boys reading the story, the other kids in the group (mostly 4th and 5th graders), and the parents sitting in the pews. Thankfully the story was almost over and Kris took Jake to the bathroom. Ella, meanwhile, was not sitting with the group (can't let go of Mommy, now can we?) and had figured out that the story was about a donkey. She then starts saying, "Donkey! Hee haw!" over and over. It was very cute.

Another Jacob story happened earlier that day in Sunday School. Jacob asked his buddy, Parker, "For Christmas, would you rather have a vacuum cleaner or a toy?" Parker, of course, picked toy. We're not sure what Jacob was thinking... he hates vacuums. He's spending a lot of brainpower on thinking through Christmas. We're not doing the whole Santa Claus thing, but he's getting conflicting reports from everyone else so we've had to go over and over details about who St. Nicholas was and that Christmas is Jesus's birthday... it's all very confusing for a three year old. It seems like the one thing he knows for certain is that Santa said that he would bring him a firetruck and that he'll be coming down the fireplace to do so. Wonderful.

Our Christmas Tree - Getting Started

We went to the Christmas Tree Farm as usual, but instead of wandering around in a forest of firs, we just had to go inside a barn and pick from about 50. Last year the farm flooded 6 feet deep and they lost 200 trees, so pickins were slim. We found a great tree (the first one we saw) and had it wrapped and loaded onto the top of Mom's SUV. Jacob informed everyone that he was Superman.

We didn't bring the tree in until the next day and then spent a good chunk of time figuring out which ornaments we could leave out. Between the two households, we probably have enough ornaments to fill three trees! I just picked out a few from our pile: "Our First Christmas,"
our new ornaments from Ireland and Arizona, and "My First Christmas" ornaments for Jacob and Ella. Oh yeah, and Tomo's ornament is up there, too. Can't forget that one! Jacob spent a lot of time arguing whether or not the ornaments needed a hook if they already had something to hang them with and Ella spent most of her time pulling the tops off of the glass balls. Both kids were bored after about 15 minutes, so I finished up by myself. I did a great job. ; )


(I made Ella's dress)

To Rami

What Do You Want?

Turns out she was after a dinosaur. You can see her trying to say it at the end.

What we've been doing

Nothing. We've been sick for the last two weeks with everything from a head cold to a stomach virus. Tons of fun, I assure you. Here are some random pictures:

Robert Pattison's Illegitimate Child

The Kate Fan Club