Hello From the J-Man!

Eh-low, guvnuh! Jackson here!! I've hijacked mommy's blog for the night to let you know just what I've been up to. Mom says I'm into everything. She says I'm getting too tall because I reach things if they are hanging over the edge of the counter. She also says that she hates it when she tells me no, because my face crumples up and I start to scream. But, seriously, wouldn't you hate it if that's all anyone ever seems to say to you? She's all "No, you can't play with scissors. No, you can't throw the remote in the cat litter box. No, you can't put a plastic bag over your head." I mean, really, what does a kid need to do to have a little fun?!?

I just love to be ON my toys. Standing on them, sitting on them, whatever! And mom said that I might have fallen over after this picture, and might have smacked my head, but she can't rightly say.
I do like to sit on Dalton's Little People Zoo. It's so pesky to have to put the animals directly on the corresponding letters. If I sit on it, then my booty makes the animals all make their sounds at once, and that's pretty cool!

I also like to sit on Dalton. Man, most of the time, he's just the best big brother ever!! Sometimes he yells at me, mostly when he's trying to play and has set up his whole train set, or some other toy that took hours (whatever that means) to set up, and then I come along and just trash it. And mom hears Dalton yell "Jackson!! Get away from me and out of my room!" And mom says that it's only gonna' get worse from here on out. I don't really know what she means by that.

I really like to tickle Dalton's feet, too. He starts to laugh, and then that makes me laugh, and it's just so much fun. I love Dalton!!

Pretty much, I'll do anything with Dalton. I mean, hey, mom got out the "big boy car seat" (again, whatever...) and washed them and all, so that I don't have to scrunch up my legs to sit in the infant carrier anymore (and let's face it, I'm not a baby! I'm a big boy! I need a big boy seat!) and Dalton and I had a blast with them in the living room. And yes, below I am carrying around a tube of diaper rash cream. Mom was pretty mad at that one too, because I get into my changing table storage area, and drag out all the diaper gear, and trail it all over the house.

And then one day, mom had just fed us lunch, and of course I was carrying on, because if I'm in my high chair and I'm done, dang it, I AM DONE! So she put me down and went to go potty. She says she can't even go to the bathroom anymore, because something like this happens.

Dalton said he was done with his bar-b-que sauce, so doesn't that mean that I can have it? I don't know why mom was so bent out of shape about it, because Dalton was sharing with me. And I was nice and let Dalton finish before I took it. It's sharing, mom, you should try it!!

Well, it sure was fun taking over for mom for the night. I'll try to check in more often with you, but Mom says that maybe Dalton should get a turn next time. Whatever. We shared the bbq sauce, do we really need to share this, too?

Snow Fun!!

Oh, boy did we have fun in the snow today!! The weatherman's forecast all week was up to an inch of ice, and up to 8 inches of snow. We were geared up for a repeat of last January's big ice storm, but luckily we missed out on most of the ice. We only got about 1/4 inch of ice, with 6 inches of snow on top!!

"Man, I wish we could go play in that..."

So today, Lance and Lisa invited us over to play in it! I think Lance was more excited about this than Dalton was...Lance kept saying he had been wanting a snow day on the weekend for the last two years, so that he could pull Dalton on the four-wheeler. :)

Jackson was ready to go!! Notice he's wearing those great fuax suede boots!!

Lance, Dalton, and Chris off for adventures...

Lance is driving, with Chris and Dalton on the sled...

Look at that happy face!!

And of course Jackson and I had to have a turn...don't worry, Lance went really slow....

Have I mentioned I mostly love our camera? Even though I don't fully know how to use it, it's fast and I can get great action shots...such as this one, with Jackson going down!

Uh oh, face plant!

And the best is last...how disgruntled does he look here?!? "Seriously, mom, I don't think I care for this white stuff!"

On the ten minute drive home at 7pm, Dalton was passed out in minutes!! I guess it's really hard to be a kid and get to play in the snow all day!

Quiet Time

Chris is quarantined to the bedroom with a cold, Dalton is cleaning his room, and Jackson is napping, so thought I would take this opportunity to just post some pictures I just got. We went to Lance and Lisa's for dinner and games last night, and I finally remembered to take my thumb drive with me to get a copy of some pictures from when we went camping back in early October.

When I say camping, I mean real camping...just us, tents, and the wilderness. No bathrooms, no showers, no electricity. That's the only way to camp, if you ask me!

We went to White Rock a few hours south of us, which has TONS of trails for four wheeling. We borrowed four wheelers from Heather's parents and took Lance and Lisa's too, and had a lot of fun!

Later that month, Lance and Lisa had an anniversary dinner at Basin Park Hotel in Eureka Springs and that's where this picture was taken of me and Chris.

Aren't we cute?

A Little Break

Well, I took a little break from blogging for a while, well, because I'm just boring. I mean, seriously, no one is more boring than us lately. We sleep. Eat. Feed the animals. Get groceries. Started preparing tax stuff. Starting preparing tax stuff for my rescue. Change diapers. Run a few errands here and there. Wah wah wah wah, wah wah wah. (In case you don't get it, that's my impression of Charlie Brown's teacher.) It's just so boring. I mean, if I am so bored writing it, who wants to read about it? Seriously. I bet you've already fallen asleep. WAKE UP!!!

Dalton did start back with swim classes last week, which is nice, because he's been so bored. Bored to point of acting up and getting into trouble ALL the time, for things that he knows better than doing.

The weather has at least improved. It's been near 60 the last few days, and we've gone on quite a few walks. Monday, we went around the block three times. The first time Dalton rode his bike, and Jackson rode in the stroller. Then again with J in the stroller and D riding his motorcycle. Then the third time both boys rode in the wagon. We repeated that cycle again yesterday. Today we had errands to run, and tonight it started raining and is supposed to rain tomorrow too, so I'm sure we'll be stuck inside for a while. With all the snow gone now, the yard is just a giant muddy pit, so we haven't played out there for a while.

Plus I've been so tired lately, still having trouble sleeping. And I haven't been feeling well the last few weeks, between headaches and stomach pains. And when I get in a funk, the kids get in a funk, and we don't even take any fun pictures! I'll try to be in a better mood tomorrow and get some pictures to post.

We are considering having the windows replaced...they are old. As old as the house, so almost 30 years? They get condensation on the inside, which either freezes (yes, ice on the INSIDE) or just runs down onto the sill, and some of the window sills have started to buckle. And you can stand two feet away from the window and still feel the cold. So I had a guy come give us a quote...told him I wanted double pane vinyl windows...he measured. Turns out that ALL the windows in our house are custom, not a single one is standard size. And it's going to cost us $3,500 to replace them. So we are getting a couple more quotes next week. New windows has been on our list for several years now, and hopefully, in the long run it will save us money on the electric bill, plus we'll get a tax credit next year for doing it.

Anyway, that's all the boring stuff we've been doing lately!! I hope you're reading this post at night so that you are nice and sleepy and can go right to bed!

Ice...and Taxes.

So weather.com says it's 7 degrees but it feels like -11. Huh.

This morning when I took water out for the dogs (I take out warm water in the hopes it won't freeze as fast, but it doesn't work...) Toby jumped on me and it spilled a little water on the patio. It bounced on the concrete, came up, and by the time it hit the concrete again, it was ice pellets! Now THAT'S cold. I've been trying to only let the dogs out for about five-ten minutes at a time.

On another note, we're already working on taxes. Chris informed me that it will be my responsibility to get it done this year, because I wanted to add mileage for the trips to the doctors. All the best doctors are in Fayetteville, and we have a lot of doctors. So last night, I went through the appt calendar and tallied up all our mileage for doctor appointments. And the result? 1,200 miles driven to and from doctor appointments. 1,200. No joke. And I probably didn't even get them all accounted for, and I didn't do mileage for pharmacy visits, either. That's a lot of gasoline.

Enough Already

If you were to go to weather.com and type in our zip code, and then click on "Winter Weather Advisory", this is what you would see (I have edited out a bit of info):

Issued by The National Weather Service Tulsa, OK 3:17 pm CST, Wed., Jan. 6, 2010
... WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS EVENING TO 10 AM CST THURSDAY... ... WIND CHILL ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 6 PM CST FRIDAY...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TULSA HAS ADJUSTED THE TIMING OF THE WIND CHILL ADVISORY AND IT IS NOW IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 6 PM CST FRIDAY AND A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IS ALSO IN EFFECT...
FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES... * IN ARKANSAS... WASHINGTON... MADISON... CRAWFORD... BENTON (this is us)... CARROLL AND FRANKLIN.
HAZARDOUS WEATHER... * AN ARCTIC COLD FRONT WILL MOVE INTO NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA BY MID EVENING... AND PUSH THROUGH THE REST OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS TONIGHT. TEMPERATURES WILL DROP RAPIDLY... AND NORTH TO NORTHWEST WINDS WILL INCREASE TO SPEEDS OF 20 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS ABOVE 30 MPH... FOLLOWING THE FRONTAL PASSAGE. THIS WILL PRODUCE DANGEROUS WIND CHILLS. IN ADDITION... LIGHT PRECIPITATION WILL DEVELOP AND SPREAD INTO THE AREA BOTH AHEAD AND BEHIND THE FRONT. SNOW IS EXPECTED ACROSS MOST OF NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS... WITH RAIN OR DRIZZLE TRANSITIONING TO SNOW OR FREEZING DRIZZLE OVER SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS AFTER MIDNIGHT. THE PRECIPITATION WILL END BY THURSDAY MORNING... ALTHOUGH BLOWING SNOW POTENTIAL WILL EXTEND INTO THURSDAY AFTERNOON IN NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS.
* DANGEROUS WIND CHILLS AS LOW AS 20 DEGREES BELOW ZERO WILL BE POSSIBLE.
* FROM 1 TO 3 INCHES OF SNOW ACCUMULATION WILL BE POSSIBLE ACROSS NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS... WITH LESSER AMOUNTS FURTHER SOUTH. A LIGHT GLAZE OF ICE FROM FREEZING DRIZZLE... LESS THAN A TENTH OF AN INCH... IS EXPECTED ACROSS MAINLY SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS. ALTHOUGH PRECIPITATION WILL END BY THURSDAY MORNING... BLOWING SNOW WILL CONTINUE INTO THURSDAY OVER FAR NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS... DUE TO NORTHERLY WINDS GUSTING ABOVE 30 MPH.
IMPACTS... * FROST BITE AND HYPOTHERMIA ARE POSSIBLE IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN.
* ROADS IN THE ADVISORY AREA MAY BECOME SLICK AND HAZARDOUS... ESPECIALLY ON BRIDGES AND OVERPASSES AND NON-TREATED SURFACES.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... * PREPARE FOR THE COLD BY WEARING MULTIPLE LAYERS OF WARM CLOTHES AND LIMIT OUTDOOR ACTIVITY.

Now I know that 3 inches of snow doesn't seem like a lot (especially if you are my brother- and sister-in-law that live in Wyoming), but that's enough to cripple this area. We never get snow. Usually we get ice. And this will be the 5th time, I think, that it has snowed in the last two weeks. The last time it snowed was Saturday, and it's still here. The road is still a solid sheet of ice. I was supposed to take my foster kitten this morning to be neutered, but I about gave myself an anxiety attack thinking about having to drive on this crap with the kids in the car. (I'm sure part of the anxiety is left from my wreck a year ago). I am a good driver on ice/snow, my momma taught me well. I've never gone in the ditch or slid or anything, but it's the other yahoo's out there that you can't trust.

So we've been house bound for going on two weeks now. The kids are going stir crazy, Dalton is starting to act up (BADLY, I won't go into the details though...), and I am going to lose my mind! Now we're in for another round of snow tonight. *Sigh*. It's gonna' be a loooooong winter.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!

(First off, any previous post which said it had the most pictures ever? Well, forget that...I'm pretty sure this one will beat them all, hands down.)

On Christmas Eve, Chris got off work a bit early and we went on a hunt for snow boots. We were supposed to be getting a white Christmas, and both boys were getting snow suits, but we had no boots!! I had called Wal-Mart in Bentonville, and they had Dalton's size, and called Target in Rogers, and they had Jackson's size, but no one had both sizes we needed. Plus, both boys are hard to fit for any shoes, because they have wide feet, and typically we can't find anything to fit them. So we carted both boys out in the cold rain to find some boots.

At the Pleasant Grove Rd Wal-Mart in Rogers, we could not find boots for either boy, but we did find some Croc's style rain boots for Dalton. He wore these, I'm not kidding, for three days straight, even to bed. He loves them!

For Jackson, we ended up buying him some faux suede cowboy boots because it was the only ones we could find to fit his fat little foot. :)

On Christmas Eve, we started a new tradition this year...we let the boys open one gift (one that we picked)...it was a new Christmas movie. So we ate dinner early, bathed early, put on PJ's, and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, which used to be one of my favorites. Dalton loved it.

Then Dalton put out cookies and milk for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer. Notice the milk is in a sippy cup (so that the cats wouldn't drink it before Santa got there!).

And boy howdy, did Santa reward the boys for that!!

He even left a note for the boys.

Notice behind the tree, through the window? We got our white Christmas!!

Jackson was the first one up. We ended up waking Dalton up at 9:00, and he was pretty bleary eyed for a while!!

But got into the swing of things pretty fast. He took at least twenty minutes going through all the stuff in his stocking. He has AMAZING patience for a four year old.

He loved this little reindeer that "pooped" candy. What can I say? He IS a boy!

Before the ripping of presents... The boys must have been good this year. And of course, Grandma and Grandpa Bane and Grammy and Grandpa Wilhelm spoiled the snot out of them.

The pile on the left by the train table are Dalton's, and the pile on the right are Jackson's.

Jackson LOVES this xylophone that our friends Jill and Ron got for him!

And he equally loved the Goldfish from Santa and the Sock Monkey from Grandpa and Grandma Bane.

Of course, I think the present I was most excited about was both Volume 1 & 2 from "Glee"!!!! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Bane!! (Glee is on Wednesday nights on Fox, and if you don't watch it, you totally should. It's so funny!)

I think Chris's favorite was his present from Jackson and Dalton. They got on-line and uploaded tons of photos of themselves and ordered a special travel mug for Daddy. He takes his coffee to work every morning, and he loves it. (I know what you're thinking...that Jackson and Dalton uploaded photos? I know, right? They are SO good with technology...)

Jackson of course had to find out what the xylophone tasted like...

And then Dalton went out to play in the snow while Jackson napped! We decided it was too cold for J to go out...it was about ten degrees, and the wind was gusting up to 30mph. Dalton only got to stay out about ten minutes before his hands were frozen, but he made the most of his time!!

Chris was trying to lob snow balls at me, but he'd throw it and it would disintegrate in the wind...too dry!

And when we came in and laid everything out to dry, the cats had to get in the middle of it.

We were supposed to have Christmas dinner with my family at our house Christmas Day (night) but my sister Julie lives in West Fork and had close to 8 inches of snow, so we postponed to Sunday. Even then she wasn't able to get out still, so she missed it, but I did save her some food and froze it. Chris fried a turkey this year for the first time, and it was pretty good, but he says he'll never again do it when it's that cold outside!!

Here we are after dinner...from left is my sister Catherine, my sister Ann hiding behind her, my nephew Vann, nephew Fletcher, BIL Gene, me, and my mom.

When Dalton saw that train table on Christmas morning, he liked it, but immediately said "But I don't have the train for the table!!" Well, Aunt Annie and Grandma Pat fixed that!!

Dalton, blowing out the candles on Jesus's birthday cake...

Chris licking his plate clean...must have been good food!

My sister Ann...

And then this is days later, but I just had to post it because he is so stinkin' cute!!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and loved ones, and Happy New Year!!