Snow Pics

I realized I never posted pictures of the crazy snow we had here last week! We had over 18 inches (possibly more up here at the house) and it came down really fast. Logan and I decided it was a bad idea to drive our van, so for three days it just sat behind our house...covered in snow. Logan and I walked to work (when we had to go) and just enjoyed being snowed in :-) Tommy really loved it, but because he doesn't have water-resistant gloves we could only let him play for about 10-15 minutes at a time. We'll have to work on that soon, because he did NOT like coming back inside!

Christmas in Ol' BV

Christmas this year was soooo much more fun! Now that Tommy is able to "get into the spirit" of things, it's fun to unwrap the gifts and see his face, and see how he reacts to what he receives. Jack did pretty good, too, and had fun holding on to some of his presents (he also tried to eat them, but without much luck).

Tommy with his alphabet magnets from the Jones'. He likes making noise!

Here's Jack with the Frog stuffed animal that the Jones' sent to him. Very soft!

This is me with my new griddle. The one we've been using for the last 3 years was left in the house by the previous owners, and was...shall we say, well used?

Tommy and his new bowling kit. He's gotten really good at setting the pins up himself and knocking them back down. He also received the Toy Story table pictured here from his mommy and daddy.

Logan and Star Trek. Oh yeah.

With these additions, I now own all 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls. I can watch them any time I want!

Jack and his pewter mug from his Grandma Rae Rae. Tommy has one like it, as well.

Tommy and Jack on Tommy's present from Santa--a "Cars" kids couch! He really likes it, although he always has it out in the "bed" form and won't let us fold it back up into the couch. Ain't they cute?

A big thanks to Uncle JJ, who was the cameraman for Christmas. We have tons more photos, but these are just some of the highlights :-)

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Exciting News!

Logan has a job!

Last night he found out that he is officially being hired by the Lexington City Police Department.  He starts on Dec. 28th with preliminary stuff (getting measured for his uniform, drug tests, yet another psychological exam [there have been several]) and then on January 4th he'll start going in for "ride-alongs" with current police officers for about a week, and then...off to the academy!  As excited as I am for this job, that's the downside--he has to go away Mon-Thursday overnight to the police academy in Salem, about 45 minutes away.  So, for half the week, I'll be a single mommy!  Rough stuff.  However, after 22 weeks(!) he'll graduate, and then he has a 3 year contract with the department.

So, what does that mean for me? (aside from missing my husband terribly all week...)

We're still trying to figure everything out, but I've talked with my supervisors about going part time, or changing jobs to something that can be done from home.  I'm grateful that I work somewhere that appreciates the importance of family, because I feel a lot of support from my colleagues.  They don't want me to leave, but they want me to be able to be with my children and take care of them.  For the month of January, at least, I'll probably still be working full-time, but with the two salaries we'll be able to swing a fabulous babysitter (thanks Cami!).  Psychologically, though, I think it'll be a rough month.

Anywho, I'm VERY excited, and so is Logan.  He did fabulous on the physical tests for the position (he'll be the department record holder) and was the clear leader for the position.  We just didn't want to say anything until it was certain, because we were worried that there might be other factors that would count against him (like age, or the fact that he's from the west coast).  The people he's met so far have been great.  YAY!

In case you can't tell, I'm a little excited :-)

Girls Night Out

Last night I went to see New Moon (yes, the pop culture vampire-human-werewolf-love-triangle New Moon) in Lexington with Cami and Becca, and it was a blast!  I can't say as I'll ever own the movie, or even choose to watch it again, but the experience itself was very fun.  We were probably half of the total audience in the theatre, and when we first sat down we were giggling and whispering like pre-teens. It was fun to see the book come to life, and relive the memories of teenage angst and crying binges over boys. After the movie we told tales of heartbrake, and "lamented" the fact that we were now all married to stable, loving husbands and would never be able to relive those days.  **sigh**

It was great being able to go out and just be a girl.  Not a mommy, but a girl.  I think this should definitely become a regular outing!

Snow!

Today we had the first snow of the season! (That Logan and I were around for anyway...I think it might have snowed over Thanksgiving, but we didn't see it, so it doesn't count).  This was the first snow that Tommy played in, too.  In the past we've taken pictures of him in snow, but he's never really played before.  He went outside with Logan and Diego and had fun poking sticks into the snow. 

Diego enjoyed the "snowman" Logan made...

I was glad the snow came on a weekend!

Meeting Santa

Last night was the Buena Vista Christmas Parade, so we bundled the boys up and took them down to Magnolia Street to watch.  Tommy enjoyed it a lot more this year (he had fun pointing out the trucks and balloons) and Jack was a doll and went to sleep. After the parade we went up the school for the Open House, and had cookies and hot chocolate (yum!)

Santa was also there, so, being the dutiful parents that we are, we had our kids sit on his lap for pictures...
See for yourself.

I doubt any of these will make the cover of the Christmas card this year.

We also got a funny picture of Josh Cooper, Tommy's friend, with Santa:

Little kids are funny :-)

I wish I had a recording device

Typically, the last thing that Logan and I do at night when we put Tommy to sleep is to sing him songs. As he's gotten older, he's begun to request songs, so we sing everything from "As I Have Loved You" to "Lala song" (that's how Tommy describes "Nala's Song", or "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from The Lion King). Tonight, Tommy requested "Kipper the Dog", which we took to mean the theme from the show by that name (Tommy looooooves it!). So, Logan and I sang

They call him Kipper,
Kipper the dog
The dog with the slipper
(That's Kipper)
Kipper the dog
(by the way that's a toad, not a frog)
Now he can do this
Do you think that you could?
And he can do that
(which is more than any old cat could!)
Would you like a dog, like a dog, like a dog
Like a dog like Kipper...
That's Kipper the dog
(Now THAT's a frog!)

(and yes, I'm aware that the lyrics make no sense without the illustrations to go with it, but there they are!)

Logan then asked Tommy, "Can you sing it for us? Sing Kipper the Dog!" And Tommy said,

Kipper.  Kipper the Dog. 
Slipper. Kipper.  Kipper the dog!
Not frog!
Cat!
Kipper! Kipper!!
That's a frog!
Kipper the dog!  Kipper the DOG!! KIPPER THE DOG!!!!!

By this point, Logan was on the floor, he was laughing so hard.  You have to imagine the last few "Kippers" getting louder with each saying, with an attempt at a change in pitch.  It was very funny, and very adorable! 

I'll try to get it on film sometime, but just know...it was hilarious!

Milestone #107

Jack turned over today! He's been turning on his side a lot lately, but he finally tipped all the way on to his stomach.  Yay Jack!

Sweet Moment

So, last night Logan and I decided to watch a movie...but didn't start until after 10pm.  I only lasted about a half hour, and then I was fast asleep, nice 'n comfy on the couch...

When I woke up, I found that Logan had cleaned the entire kitchen, and even started the diswasher! It all looked so beautiful!  It was nice to just crawl into bed and not have to worry about putting away the green bean casserole.

I love my husband.  He's a keeper :-)

Thanksgiving!

Happy post-Thanksgiving, everyone!

Ours was pretty fun.  We spent Wed-Saturday in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, in my Aunt Kathy's beach house.  It's a good sized house, and luckily there was already a room decked out with a crib, twin bed AND queen-sized bed, so our cute little family was able to bunk together.

Mom went down on Sunday with my brother Seth and his girls (they flew in from Oregon), but since Logan was working some extra shifts for security we couldn't leave until after 11pm on Tuesday.  Since we have little kids, we thought, "Hey! Let's travel at NIGHT, so the kids will be asleep!  That way we won't have screaming babies!"  Good idea, except for one flaw: Logan and I both prefer to sleep at night, and driving in the dark doesn't really motivate us to stay awake.  It was a struggle, believe me.  And the kids both woke up for the last hour of the trip, so we got the "screaming baby" thing anyway (Tommy was actually mad for the first 15 minutes of the car ride, because he wanted us to put him back in his bed. He kept screaming "Nap! Nap!")  Ironically, the trip home on Saturday (during the day) was pretty peaceful.

The trip was really fun.  We went to the wild horse museum, climbed a light house (at least Tommy, Logan, Abrianna, Mercedes, and Papa did), went to the ocean, walked around the cutsy shops in the area, ate locally made fudge, toured the Wright Brothers monument in Kill Devil Hills, and stopped at Virginia Beach and Williamsburg (briefly) on the way home.  Lots of stuff to see and do!

While at the beach I bought a new swimsuit, which was an experience.  Finding a non-bikini swimsuit is nigh unto impossible these days.  But, I didn't budge on my standards, and after tons of stores I finally found one! (as you can probably imagine, most of the swimsuits were on sale due to the lateness of the season, so I got a pretty good deal).

Going on vacation with Tommy was interesting, because I didn't realize how "toddler-proof" our house was until we went someplace that wasn't.  For the first day I was constantly moving objects up to higher shelves, and trying to dissuade him from going places I didn't want him to go. Next time I go on vacation, I'm taking my toddler-proof door handles with me!  Overall he did pretty well, though, and he loved spending time with his cousins!

Tommy at the top of the light house we visited. He "climbed" with Daddy, Papa, Abrianna and Mercedes.

Mercedes on the staircase of the light house.

Tommy's first trip to the Atlantic Ocean! (Not the most flattering picture, but we only got a few)

Sadly, the only picture we have the proves Jack was at the beach...

Tommy adored Mercedes, and followed her around a lot.  He liked saying "Cedes!"

Abrianna and Mercedes painting a horse at the wild horse museum.

WooHOO!!

I'm going on vacation! I'm going on vacation!

(I'm very excited that we'll be at the Outer Banks this weekend.  It's a real vacation--no one has work that has to be done, and we'll just get to sit, relax, and have fun...at least as much as our kids allow us to...)

Logan and I are historically very bad at vacations.  The July before Tommy was born we decided to take a few days off to have an early anniversary before I got uncomfortably large.  Logan was then offered some extra hours at work, and since I usually encouraged him to take the extra shifts he jumped at the chance...shortening our "vacation" by several days.  So, I decided to pick up extra shifts at Franks, too, so we spent our "days off" working.  But this time--no sir! We're taking Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, AND Saturday, and we're just chillin'.  And driving (down side).  But mostly chillin'.

WooHOO!!!!!

Photos

We've been much more remiss in taking pictures of Jack than we were with Tommy, but we took some lately that I thought I'd share (and a picture of Tommy, too).  Enjoy!

Such a cute smile!

A good sleeper

We took a picture in July of all three of us "expecting". This picture was when we were saying goodbye to Carolina and Jon (they moved to Wichita this week....very sad...)

Rub a dub, dub, two boys in a tub...

Precious Memories

Today Tommy "helped" me make cookies, and it was so cute! We put a little apron on him, and he helped count the eggs, and poured them in (I did the cracking), and he dumped the chocolate chips in after he "helped" me mix the batter.  As a reward, he got to lick the beater, so he was happy as a clam!  It took twice as long to make them, but I think they'll taste even better for the effort :-)

Jack is growing up so fast!  He had his 2 month check-up yesterday, and when they weighed and measured him he was in the 95th percentile for height and weight (90th for head circumference).  He's a big boy, all right! He's getting pretty good at holding his head up, too.  Such strength!

Jack sure looks like his brother! I took some picures of him the other day using the same chair with the same blankie that I took pictures of Tommy with, and when I showed them to Logan he originally thought they were of Tommy!  I have some examples below.  Which are Tommy, and which are Jack?  Take a guess! Hint:  There are 3 pictures of each.  Good luck!

Picture A

Picture B

Picture C

Picture D

Picture E

 Picture F

Almost Professional

Last February I was enrolled in an online class for digital design, and one of our assignments was to contact a real graphics design company to find out about pricing.  It just so happens that Buena Vista has a graphics design firm (go figure), so I contacted them to find out how they come up with their price.  I ended up having a great conversation with the head guy, and he told me that any time I wanted to show him my portfolio he'd be happy to take a look.

Well, at that point I was just gearing up to have Jack and was trying to keep my head above water.  I thought a lot about the offer, but didn't feel the timing was right. After Jack was born I started to think that maybe I should act...so I did.

I took my portfolio by his office about two weeks ago, and was very pleased with the result.  He's offered to pay me on a project basis, and has already given me my first project!  I turned in five rough designs for him today, and he thinks one of them is right for the job! He's even passed it on to the client for feedback.  I'm still reeling a bit about it.  Logan was laughing at me yesterday because I was stressing so much about my designs, but I want to make sure I'm putting my best foot forward in this kind of situation. He said "They're good designs," and my answer was "But I don't want good! I need amazing, creative designs!"  He just shrugged it off. He had to hold back the "I told you so" when I got the feedback from the client.

I'm so excited!  I'm almost a professional!

Family Photos

It's been a while, and I have several things I need to write about, but while time is short I'll first post our new family photos! These were taken by Brinn Willis, the same photographer that took our family photos when Tommy was 6 months old.  We took them on Tuesday morning, when it was very pretty but very cold outside.  I'm glad we have some good pictures of the kids!

And many, many more!

Tag: Ten Honest Things

Here are ten honest things about me.  Theoretically, I'm supposed to "tag" ten more people to write their own lists, but I don't know if there are ten people that read my blog, so if you'd like to post your own list please do so :-)

1. I eat salad with my fingers whenever possible.  I always put the dressing on the side, and dip the leaves in it, instead of pouring it on the salad and getting the leaves soggy.  That is, when I actually eat salad.

2. After midnight I am easily provoked and often threaten violence against my cats. Generally I decree that I will shoot them. (This "truth" was submitted by Logan.  I am easily angered by the cats running around or creating noise late at night. I love my cats, but late at night I often wish they'd run away and leave me alone).

3. I don't like to sweep. I'm okay with vacuuming, but sweeping seems pointless to me. Too much dust and dirt always seems to escape!

4. I'm really bad at grammar. I don't really know what an "adverb" is (if you gave me an example I could rattle off others like it, but if you said "name an adverb" I'd be lost). In middle school my teachers always thought my writing was "advanced", so they tended to excuse me from grammar exercises, assuming that I already knew the material. Consequently, I never learned the ins and outs of English. I didn't know the proper use of "than" until Professor Cluff's freshman English class.

5. I didn't think I was very smart for most of my elementary school years.

6. I easily get "addicted" to TV shows. In middle school, I "had" to see "The Scarecrow and Mrs. King", "Remington Steele", and "Moonlighting" every day until I'd seen each show all the way through (they were 80s shows, so they were in syndication), and I was pretty obsessive about watching "The West Wing" every Wednesday night during high school. Now that shows are on DVD, my obsessions go a lot quicker, since I can wipe a show out in a few days. I realized I needed to take a heavier course load in college when I watched seasons 1-3 of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in a two week period shortly before finals my freshman year and still did fine in my classes.  I avoid watching "24" because I don't want to get addicted to it. I avoided "Lost" for a long time, too, but Logan recently started watching it. So far I'm not addicted, but I don't want to push my luck.

7. I don't like to be barefoot. I'm always afraid I'll stub my toe (and I usually do).

8. I love fireplaces, especially if I have hot chocolate and a blanket!

9. I love looking at the stars at night. Love, love, love it. My favorite "hang out" in high school was on my roof so I could look at the sky.

10. I find painting very soothing (painting walls, that is. I've never really tried artistic painting).  I often want to repaint my kitchen, but I'm not sure if it's because I really want to change the colors, or if I just want a "project" to work on.

I'm a survivor!

I feel very accomplished today, because I survived a trip to Wal-Mart--alone--with two children!  It was the first of many trips I'm sure, but I feel very proud of myself. I had the big kid in the cart and the little one was in a Baby Bjorn (which I now love).  I managed to get everything on my list, and I only had a few moments where both kids were crying.  Oh, and I love my mini van. It made the transition from car to cart and back again much easier.

Yay for me!

Cabin Fever

Saturday will mark the 2nd week that Jack has been in our lives, and in some ways that's hard to believe! We waited so long for him to show up it seemed to make time stand still, and now everything is moving super speed. Fall seems to be upon us already (that came out of left field!), and my maternity leave is swiftly drying up. Of course, I also have a major case of cabin fever, so I don't imagine that having more leave would have increased my time out of the office.  The hard thing is that right now I don't have much to do--at work or at home. That drives me kinda nuts. Sitting on the couch watching TV is nice and all, but I really want to be productive. I even had a dream last night that someone brought me a knitting kit so I'd have something to do. Oy. Maybe something's wrong with me. But, like I said, even if I was at work I'd be bored right now, because it's the "down time" for my position. I don't have anyone to place in housing, and it's too early to plan for next semester. This time last year I offered assitance to the business office to keep my hands busy.

I guess I just need a hobby.

I've been thinking lately of presenting a portfolio of graphic design work to a company here in town to see what they think. It could possibly lead to some side work...but I'm nervous all the same. I've never had a real critique of my work. Mostly people just tell me if they like it or not, and if they don't I change the design until they do.   But I guess that's what professionals do, too.

Anyway, this post isn't really about anything. I just felt like posting. So....yeah.

Introducing Jack Davis

John Clawson ("Jack") Davis was born on Saturday, August 29th 2009 at 11:14 a.m. He weighed 8lbs, 8oz., was 21 inches long and had a head circumferance of 13.5 inches. He's healthy and strong, and both Mommy and baby are doing great!

Labor started around midnight, with the contractions about 5 minutes apart. They started coming about 3 minutes apart at 3:30, and were pretty darn close together by 7. My midwives were wonderful, and both Mom and Logan did a great job in assisting me throughout the process (I felt bad that they had no sleep that night, though!). And a big thanks to the Caspersons, who took Tommy in the morning so we could focus on the birth!

A photo shortly after birth. Believe me, I felt much better than I looked!

Tommy and Jack. Tommy has been very good and gentle with his brother (although he pretty much ignores him most of the time!)

Jack is a side sleeper

and loves to suck his thumb!

We're glad he decided to come this weekend, and that he's so healthy! I still can't believe I had an 8lb baby, though...

Tommy's Too Tall

Logan and I have decided that Tommy is too tall.

At one point this morning I was making cupcakes, and left the room to talk to Logan. I came back into the kitchen, and found this:

Evidently, I left the batter too close to the edge of the counter, and Tommy was able to get what he wanted with very little effort. Later, after the cupcakes were done, I set them out to cool. Five minutes later, Tommy comes walking into our bedroom saying "cookie?" In his hands was a fresh cupcake.

Later, to liven things up a bit, I heard the sound of silverware being pushed around...and then Tommy ran into the bedroom with a fist full of forks and a fistfull of knives (dull ones) and threw them in the laundry basket. Why, I don't know, but suffice it to say that our silverware has been moved a bit higher while Logan installs child-proofing materials on our cabinets. At least it keeps life interesting!

Just for fun, here are some recent photos of me as I (hopefully) reach the end of my pregnancy.

Let's go, Jack!