And the stockings were hung...

I've loved having an actual fireplace with a mantle this year for Christmas decorating. We wont be in this house next year so I wanted to take a picture of our Christmas corner. It was perfect. And there is something special about everyone forking over the .42 cents for stamps so I can adorn my entryway with pictures of loved ones.

Mallie this year got her own blankey. All of our kids have matching satin/minky blankets. She's been using Ashton's old blue one for the last few months. And David got her that toy all on his own because he wanted her to have something in her stocking.

Anytime someone asked Ashton what he wanted from Santa he would reply with "Cranky". We rarely followed it up with "the crane" because the confused looks that followed were pretty funny. So, here is Cranky the crane. After he opened it he said, "this is my best Christmas!"

Hannah got a kitchen that we had stored in our garage for over a year now. Someone gave it to us basically brand new for free. She put her milk cup in the play fridge and then sat down and played with her $3 Ikea stacking cups for the next hour and every day since.

And since David's in this picture by default... I should point out his sweet new Texas Rangers hat I got him. We both feel the need to start stocking up on Texas gear before we leave.

And here are the kids in their matching jammies on Christmas Eve. I now understand why my Mom had this tradition and made us all 8 of us wear matching clothes as often as possible. It's pretty darn cute to have your kids running around in the same clothes.

David & I got a new sony cam (a knock off flip) so I hardly took any pictures, only videos. But at the Jacobson house on Christmas Eve we had quite the Nativity with all the cousins. Mary was crying, the angel's halo was on backwards and he kept trying to swing the manger, Joseph got bored holding baby Jesus and dropped him and we got it all on tape.

Don't worry, David & I came home and read Luke 2 a little more reverntly and marveled at how grateful we are for this time of year to celebrate our Savior's birth with family. It was a great Christmas.

No need for an explanation.

David & I crack up everytime we look at this picture.

Musical Bedrooms

Naptime at our house is a little tricky. You should see me trying to explain the madness to anyone who is at our house around 1:30pm. Hannah and Ashton are great nighttime roommates but the naptime just doesn't work. Ashton has quiet time during afternoon naps but will only sleep about half of the time so they have to be separated or he'll keep Hannah up too.

So, it goes like this: Mallie's bed (aka her packnplay) is rolled out of her room into our room. Ashton's mattress is taken out of Ashton & Hannah's shared room and put on the floor in Mallie's room. I should mention that all of his blankets and animals make the trip to Mallie's room too. And Hannah, well, Hannah lives the sweet life and gets to stay in her room for naps. Mostly b/c she's in the crib that doesn't travel easily and we don't want to contribute to her emotional unstability.
It's kind of a pain to move beds back and forth everyday but mostly Ashton tearing apart the baby's room is the worst. One day I walked in and found an entire Costco-sized box of diapers all over the room. Since then we've changed the requirements of "quiet time". It now encompasses not tearing apart the room along with keeping the volume level down. If he decides to opt out of the nap he's got very few things to actually "play" with.

When he does fall asleep only 50% of the time is it on the mattress. Which makes me wonder why we bother to move the mattress in there at all. Yesterday, for example, David opened the door and found this...
Maybe he feels a little homeless. At least, he has his "flying backpack" (the bear mirror for the car) and his rope (the old computer cord) under there for company along with his big dog Charlie. Gotta love this age.

Look who

found her toes! And is trying desperately to sit up!

Leaning.. leaning...

I can't believe this little one is 4.5 months. I have a dreaded feeling that she'll be our early crawler.

Christmas Pics 2010

I've mentionted my friend Bree before... and by the end of this post you're going to wish she was your friend too. Actually you can probably just look at her blog and you'd already wish that. She is my personal stylist, interior design consultant and photographer. I kid you not, I call her when I'm trying to put an outfit together (you know, for the 3 days a year I decide to ditch the flipflops), decorate a blank wall or I need our annual Christmas pics. She helped outfit my kids and then decided there was no need to travel to a location. We have this rustic looking backdrop fencing in our entire yard. Genius, it was so nice not to have go somewhere to take pictures.
Eat your heart out Nanas...

I'm glad she made us take a few of just the two of us because I really love this guy. I still get excited when he calls to tell me he's on his way home from school. Life is good.

Thanksgiving Week

We made it home from Utah and we think that next time this is how we'll handle the plane flight.
I spent most of the day unpacking and doing laundry and these two played in the suitcases. I only had to zip and unzip them a couple of times and a few rides around the house made for an easy morning. Someone remind me why we even buy toys....?

And this little guy turned 3 last Tuesday!

Check out the weather outside the window.
He waited all day so patiently to eat his cake and wear the party hat. Kimball made it up there for his birthday which as you can imagine really was the icing on the cake.

Since it snowed and snowed the kids had plenty of snow time. Attatching the sled to the back of Daisy (my mom's ranger) was the best idea ever. No climbing up and down hills.

Hannah even braved the storm. In this little puffy suit she totally had an "I can't put my arms down!" moment. If you don't know that line please go watch A Christmas Story. Yes, go right this minute.

And Mallie stayed true to character and was the angel child the entire week and on both flights. And she turned 4 months old today! She really was the best suprise ever.

What a perfect week. Thanks Mom and Dad! Now on to finish out the year. We're looking forward to David being done studying for the Boards and Christmas. Dare I say it outloud... we only have 6 months left of school!

We'd like to interrupt

your regular programming. Or candy eating. So these 3 could wish you a...

Happy Halloween!!

Slowly but surely...

See Dad my projects are coming along just fine.
The bean bags are done. They took longer than expected because I read that it is wise to actually put a liner inside the bag. So essentially i made two sets of bean bags. They are a big hit. I let Ashton stay up late to play with them. The other 2 projects may have to wait a little. We've been busy. For example, we found out that we can not only fit 3 but 4 kids on my Bob Stroller. Ashton normally straddles the whole front foot rest but he was willing to scooch over so Atticus could have a ride on our sweet diggs to the Richardson HS Homecoming Parade. Who needs a triple stroller or even a quad stroller for that matter!

So really, I've decided the fish game can wait - I'm going to buy wood THIS weekend to build our entryway bench.

A year ago.

Last fall at the arboretum.
Today at the arboretum.

Happy Fall!

One project down

This is my 1st article of clothing ever. Things learned: A pattern instead of google images of the real dress probably would have been helpful. Sewing is for patient people. I am not. Seam ripping is a waste of my life but a necessary evil. Sewing my own costume sure beats paying $20 for a cheap looking thing.

Not bad for a Sunday night's work right?
Did you already guess who she was going to be?

Wizard of Oz was the answer to Halloween this year for a number of reasons. 1. We're not sure how long we'll get away with a "theme". 2. Hannah would never wear a real costume. The shoes are the best part of the Dorothy costume and Hannah LOVEs shoes. 3. Ashton gets to be the Lion (we're borrowing that from a friend). So this year for Halloween our only purchases were $3.99 for a yard of fabric and $.99 for some buttons. And I guess we better count our splurge of the ruby red slippers from Target for $12.99. But we're going to get our moneys worth out of them Hannah has worn them every day since we got them and I'll probably let her wear them all through the Christmas season.

This little light of mine...

I'm a self proclaimed non-newborn lover. I think they're really cute and small for the first week but then as soon as the lack of sleep sets in I'm ready for the newborn phase to be over.

I love when they turn into smiley interactive babies. Meet the new and improved Mallie.
She sleeps 7 hour at night, she naps like a champ, she nurses, she talks, she smiles at anyone and she lights up a room. I'm late on this but her 2 month stats are 60% for weight and 95% for height. The pediatrician commented on how interactive she is for a 2 month old. She's definitely more connected at this age than the other two were. I told David she's our baby genius. My parents dashed my hopes when they told me her social skills just means she'll probably be a huge extrovert. I'll take an Einstein, thank you very much.

To prove it, here she is!



Did you catch Hannah in the back standing right in front of the TV?

New Pictures

There is a fabulous photographer on my Dallas Moms Board. Not only is she great with kids she is really cheap. A 15 minute session (I'm pretty sure that was even too long for our munchkins), 10 digital images = steal of a deal. I hate having to order prints through a photographer. We can barely afford a session. But that's another story...

Hannah had a melt down as soon as we tried to get her to sit next to Ashton and Mallie on the ground so she spent the rest of the time climbing up and down stairs in front of an apartment building. The photographer kept her camera ready every minute so the 3 times Hannah smiled were captured.

Ashton hamming it up. He called this his picture shirt and would do anything we asked.

Mallie wondering why she's floating in midair. Babies are hard before they're sitting up.

Love this one.

She was yelling to hear her echo and then would dance around to it.

I think Mallie looks most like her daddy. She's got those Jacobson eyes.

Hannah was in this picture for .2 seconds.

First "official" family of 5 picture.

My favorite picture of Hannah to date. This captures her toddlerhood perfectly. She has started to chew on her fingers all.the.time in exactly this position. Her eyes are still full of tears and this is just sooo her. I love it.

And this is what they did for 10 minutes of the 15 minute session. I'm officially over trying to get them to look and smile at the camera when we take real pictures. I love that someone captured who they are at this point of time. This is what I want to remember... and maybe a part of me wants this documented so when Hannah has her own emotional toddler I have proof that she was no angel.

Meet Blue Man

Blue Man joined our family about 5 months ago. We got him at a random stop to McDonalds to let the kids play and Ashton LOVES this little guy. Oh sure he loves all of his trains, balls, hot wheels etc but Blue Man who is a cheap piece of plastic roughly the size of my thumb has stolen the Bug's heart.

Today while I was telling Ashton to put his shoes on so we could go to the grocery store we went through our normal routine. He comes up to me holding 5 or 6 toys and I tell him he can take 1. Then he says something like "how about these 3?" we compromise and I usually let him take 2 small toys in the car.

Today when I was unbuckling him he tried to take Blue Man and a truck into the store. I told him just one. Naturally, he chose Blue Man. I mean who wouldn't love this strange looking half shark man with paint chipping off of it? We shop for 20 minutes. Super easy with only 1 kid in tow.

So as I'm buckling Ashton back into the carseat it dawns on me that Blue Man is nowhere to be seen. I check the car. I go to the cart return and check our cart. I look in the parking lot. Nothing. I decided it would be far too devestating to lose him. I unbuckle Ashton and we go back in the store and spend 15 minutes walking up and down every aisle looking for Blue Man. Ashton thought it was a game where he got to run up and down the aisles until on our way out I stopped and asked customer service if anyone had turned it in. Let's not even talk about the look on the ladies face when I tried to describe what went missing. But it didn't matter nothing had been turned in. In the car I told Ashton about what happened to Blue Man. He was gone. Forever. Lost. Never coming back. And then the crying started. He cried the whole drive home meanwhile I'm trying to think of ways to track down an old McDonald's toy. Maybe someone on my local Moms Board had that toy around. Maybe a friend on facebook. Ebay... something.

We get home David asks why Ashton is crying so I told him we lost the beloved Blue Man. Ashton starts searching my diaper bag desperate to find Blue Man's car b/c surely if his car is in there Blue Man will be close by. David immediately looks at Ashton looks at me and says, "Did you check his pockets?" While I was in the middle of my sentence saying "Those pants don't have..." Ashton grabbed the front of his leg and got a huge grin on his face. "I've got him!" I could have sworn those pants didn't have pockets.

It's no wonder Ashton and I both didn't think to check his cool windbreaker pants because well... I don't check pockets when things are lost. Anyone remember this post (click here) about the airplane tickets that went missing?

Oh what a day. Glad to have you back Blue Man.

A Story in Pictures

(Okay, maybe with a little commentary... by yours truly)

Mallie was just as happy as can be. Rarely does she get to play on the floor.

This is why. Undoubtedly someone comes over and wants to play.

One more joins the fun. And Mallie does look like she's enjoying herself.

From the look on her face I think she knows something doesn't feel quite right.

And Hannah usually has that sly grin on her face before someone gets whacked.

I got the picture and managed to rescue Mallie from the hit. And Hannah has the place to herself.

Until big brother decided she could use a lesson on sharing.

Somedays my biggest accomplishment is saving Mallie from the wrath of her sister. Sad but true.