Early Christmas Present

Look what the hubs decided to upgrade me to.

It's been exciting and fun...... and of course, the little boy has had a camera in his face since the first minutes he was born, so I thought he would naturally make a wonderful model for me to practise with.  Plus, he's super cute :)

Anyway, this was one of those rare times that he decided he didn't want any photos taken, and was turning away from the camera in protest and scrunching his face up.

Several Angry Birds levels later though, we had a smiley cooperative subject again. Heh.

Happy Thanksgiving Part 1

I know, I know.. another 2-parter :) What can I say, I have different stories to tell on the same subject :)

Everyone has their part to play in bringing the Thanksgiving goodies each year, and we usually bring some dessert, cranberry relish and rolls/croissants.

Usually, we grind the cranberries with some a couple of navel oranges, and soften the tartness with Splenda.

The desserts that we brought were miniature bite-sized cheesecake squares and a pumpkin pie, both from Sam's Club.

This year, however, by the hubs' request, I made a mincemeat pie to bring along too, which surprisingly, was well received!

Bag Ladies at Starbucks

We have established that Fridays are when we got to HEB for our weekly grocery shopping.

One thing that we do a lot of the time, is drop by the Starbucks that is just right on the corner for some coffee and a cake pop for Jaxon.

We usually don't unload our full cart just as yet, but blissfully push it into the coffee shop with us.

I know.

Them baristas and regulars probably go, "Here come the Bag Ladies again" each time we go in there. :P

We always have to squeeze ourselves and our cart at one of the little tables they have, so imagine our excitement when the SOFA NOOK was empty! Woohoo! We were there in a flash :)

T'is the season to be jolly, and so we treated ourselves to ONE ( shared ) cranberry bliss bar.

Yes, we are ALL on a perpetual diet here, bleh.

Except the little boy, of course, who runs around and burns off any excess calories and THEN some.  So, he got a super special surprise treat.

A Snowman Cookie.

 

SURPRISE!!!!!!

:)

Overheard in Our Home

Mummy : "Okay, Jaxon. Time to go to Mama's room ( i.e. mummy's study/Jaxon's play room ) so we can do some of our 'school work'"

 

Jaxon : "You mean MY room".

Mummy : "No, I mean MY room."

Jaxon : "No, Mummy. The KITCHEN is YOUR room. 

The LIVING ROOM is Daddy's room.  And,

 

MY room is MY room."

Adoi.

* images from corbis images*

The Literarian

After all this time of wanting so badly to get a library card especially for the little boy, we finally did it a couple of weeks ago.

He just craves books and stories, always asking for "Another one! Another one!" and there is just that much space in our tiny house - not to mention how expensive books can be - that getting a public library card/membership was truly a no-brainer.

Especially when you can borrow as many books as you are able to carry out with you!

We have been back a few times, and each time, I borrow enough books so that he will have at least 3 "surprise and new" bedtime stories every night. I also got myself a library card so that we could borrow DVDs too :)

Because we live in a different county than the one the library is located in ( and hence pay pay taxes to a different county ), there WAS a $10 fee for each of us, but it has been money so well spent.

A Glimpse into Letti

Just watched Ruby Sparks.

Love the soundtrack...

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McMurry Homecoming 2012

I told you I had a backlog.

The McMurry ( I keep wanting to type McMurrAy ) University homecoming was over 3 weeks ago, and I'm getting around to posting about it only now.

Anyway, after Bible Class on Fridays, Cindy, the hubs, the bubs and I will go run a few errands ( mailing monthly photos back to Malaysia, dropping off stuff at the Christian Service Center, stopping by the Filipino Store etc, and recently, stopping by the library to get books and videos for Jaxon ), and then go on to HEB for our weekly grocery shopping stint.

THAT Friday, we couldn't help but stop by McMurry, which was down the street from HEB to bring the boy to go see the "Indians" and teepees. ( side note : I grew up thinking that wigwams and teepees were the same and called all of them wigwams )

I still remember the first time Cindy and I stopped at the teepees, and I knew the little boy would be very excited - besides getting to run around a little bit before being confined to a shopping cart :P

Well, he sure did have fun checking out all the different teepees, and having the "Indian" girls showing him the insides of the teepees and what not.

We even crashed a class excursion and plonked the little boy right in the middle of the school children who were listening to a presentation by one of the Uni students. :P

I've been talking to the little boy about Thanksgiving themes and words, and so it was cool for him to have had some "visual aids".

Till next time, teepees.. "Ayyy"

I almost forgot to post this...

Halloween Through The Years

*melts...*

Halloween 2012 Part II

Trunk or Treat (s )

We went to a couple this year, first one being the one over at Southern Hills.  It was dark by the time we got over there, but we had a lot of fun, and everyone was very nice to the little boy.  There was even one 'trunk' that was decked out with a ghost prop dressed almost just like Jaxon! :)

The second trunk or treat that we went to was at Hillcrest, and I was glad he got to wear his costume a third time for Halloween - just had to get some "equity" out of all that sewing :)

The little boy was undeterred by all the different be-costumed people walking around, and just about at each trunk, he would take his hoodie off a little, and say "It's me, Jaxon", implying that he wasn't really a ghost after all :)

We also bumped into Stephanie & Mike, and Max & Jet dressed up as Ninja Turtles ( one of Max's current faves ) while we trying to get on the hayride around the church building.

This year, we took some time to go around and play just about every game they had, and decorated a little pumpkin with markers.

After leaving the church, we drove over to a few neighborhoods to go trick or treating - a first for the boy and ME! People were generally really nice, and the ghoulies, princesses and superheroes were out in droves.

I wonder what the little boy will want to be NEXT year :)

Halloween 2012 Part 1

Boo at Abilene Zoo

So, the little boy had asked for a GHOST costume this year, and there weren't any of the "Mummy, I want a white cloth over my head with holes cut out for eyes" variety of costumes at Wally World, so Momma had to put her amateur sewing skills to the test.

There was no way I was going to put a sheet with eye holes over the boy, and so I looked around for ideas online and came up with a home made friendly ghost costume, even if I DID end up using an old sheet :)

Not wanting to have to wait in line for tickets on the day itself, we went by the day before and got them.  The little boy didn't know what he was getting into when he let me paint his face with white face paint :)

He then proceeded to practise his "ghostly" moves.....

It turned out that it didn't help that we had bought tickets the day before. The huge line was for the people queuing up to get in, with tickets in hand! *sigh*

In the previous years, we were able to just wander around leisurely, but this time, there was a regimented line with ARROWS and "guards" at stationed strategically at intervals to try to ensure adherence to the "no wandering off" rule. Bleh. That was a real bummer, and is actually making us NOT want to come back next year.

The little boy was getting very restless ( along with just about every other little kid there that day ) waiting and inching along the painfully slow line, so we allowed him to wander a few feet away to "explore" and check out the animals.

There was even some photo op moment with some fellow ghosties!

He did have fun yelling out "trick or treat!" and getting to meet all the different characters that were out that day.

I let him have one or two different pieces of candy as we were going along, which he promptly went to show daddy :)

Of course, there were some photo op moments for Momma too :)

The line got more and more sparse towards the end, and it got to be a little bit more enjoyable, but as we were walking out, we saw that the line to enter the zoo had grown several-fold and was snaking all the way to the main road.  It was quite crazy.

I don't know if we'll be going again next year if it'll be this way, but I know that as long as he still has this amazing sense of wonderment and sees the world with such fresh and inquisitive eyes, that I will continue to have the vicarious thrill of experiencing all this through him :)