Christmas: Post 1

I love our decorated house. These pictures are mainly for you Mom as you never have seen our house here decorated for Christmas. Yes, I took the pictures you requested.

Christmastide come and gone

We had a wonderful Christmas season this year with family and other loved ones. I have two lovely boys that I fall deeper in love with each day and a wonderful husband who cares for us with a true servant's heart. We enjoyed parades, lights, baking, gingerbread house making with friends, festive story times at the library, sugar cookies, candy canes, the first snow (yes, we saw snowflakes fall for the better part of one day in early December all the way down here), fires every night, our Christmas tree, talking about baby Jesus, naming our Elf on the Shelf and seeing his new place each morning in the house. We bundled up each night and with our flashlights in hand we started our winter ritual of night walking through town. I am typically NOT a winter person, but I am starting to "warm-up" to this season as I am learning (through the eyes of my children) that with each new season there are new and wondrous things I had missed before. I love the awe on Alder's face as he gathers kinlin for the fires on every walk we take and his love of collecting other such things in nature like red berries and the droppings from the popcorn trees. I love watching Kingston explore the Christmas tree, its needles, and the barren outdoors. I feel extremely full as this year came to a close. I love my job, role as mother to these 3 I nurture daily, excited at the arrival of the 3rd little one in March, our families we spent time with over the holidays, a stable job for Jared, our good health, and mountains of other blessings that I resolve to focus more on in this New Year. 

Yes, my heart aches for other "things" like a bigger community, being closer to our families, an ease of finances, and so on but I feel overwhelmed with the joys in my life and I thank my God for those. 

I had collected lots of pictures over the last month and could not fit all of them into one post. I thought I would just post a series of 3 posts and let the pictures speak for themselves. I remind myself that one of the main reasons I keep this blog going (since sometimes I feel like not posting at all) is to have it serve as a scrapbook for my children and our family. I hope my boys will treasure these pictures one day as much I do. 

Enjoy! We hope your holidays were Merry and Bright!

Christmas: Post 2

oxford town, a home visit, and the 4th....

***I realize that these pictures are not all aligned and it is DRIVING ME CRAZY! It appears that this is a common problem in blogland according to the forums. Has anyone had this problem themselves and solved it? Please let me know. Thanks!***

A couple of weekends ago I journeyed the back roads of Alabama into the heart of Mississippi to visit with my brother Houston. I traveled alone with only my sweet boys who gorged themselves on gummies and dvd videos for I do not have children that sleep in the car. I could sense their understanding that patience was needed as we drove and drove and I was quite impress with their resilience. The car ride took us into such rural areas that my cell phone hardly worked and I soon comforted myself with the fact that if my car was to break down or worse, I could knock (probably) on any door of any house that I passed and be greeted with a friendly face. I probably would have been helped by the whole family, given newly harvested produce from their garden, and my children would have been loved. Is it silly to think that rural America is still this innocent and charming? My parents and my brother Jes joined us too in Ole Miss. We had arrived to cheer Houston on in the the two plays that he was acting in. He is quite the actor with a lot of natural talent and a real passion for all things theater/entertainment related. I can see him growing up and "making it big" or becoming a producer/screenplay write/director. I feel as though we will soon lose him to world of LA and all the opportunity it offers. Well will see. Houston did a tremendous job in "Hamlet" and the "King and I" and I was wowed with such talent that was displayed by all the actors on the stage. Our family really enjoyed a special time in Oxford. We hung out at Houston's apartment where Alder loved playing his guitar. We toasted to my parents 34 years of marriage, I worried that my sons would contract some sort of disease crawling around the incredibly sketchy floors of Houston's home, played at the pool, ate ridiculously good food, and explored. We explored the wondrous stores of "the Square" and window shopped. The boys, KeeKee, and I lingered forever in a charming children's bookstore and ate some more. Oxford is a very interesting place and I just don't think you can get anymore southern than there.

Doesn't this little boy look just like his uncle???

Alder and Kingston both adore their uncles. As you can tell from the picture from above, Alder was having a thrilling time. Uncle Jes impressed him as well with amazing "skills" and my parents and I stood there watching and saying how blessed we were to have Jes be a so high-functioning. He swims, sleds, skips, runs, and jumps. He laughs at our jokes, carries on conversations with just about anyone, and reads at a 8th grade level. I marvel at him. 

Alder was not convinced that waiting as long as we did at Ajax Restaurant was really worth it, but changed his mind once he tasted the shrimp, green beans, and french fries. 

My sweet Kingston just doesn't care. 

Hallelujah for parents who have loved each other for 34 years. 

Then the best thing happened. My Mom came back with us to visit. It had been 13 months since she had come to visit by herself and we loved it. We had nothing to do, nothing planned, and just laid around enjoying KeeKee. I hate battle trying to find contentment in living so far away from our families. We miss so much time with Grandparents that we adore on both sides, all of our cousins, every birthday celebration, our birthday celebrations (because there is nothing like your Mom/Dad taking you out to lunch on your birthday), and so much more. Not to mention that as I write this I am struggling to find a babysitter so Jared and I can celebrate our anniversary tomorrow. Most likely I will once again be unsuccessful and once again Jared and I will "go without" celebrating ONE more thing. I would love it to have our family lived close by. Oh well, we are here, have never lived close to family since being married, and I try my darnedest to cope with it each day. 

 I love my Mom and I love how my kids love her. One morning I woke up to Alder saying on the monitor, "MOM!" "KEEKEE!" "MOM, WHERE KEEKEE GO?" with a tone that carried with it such panic and distress. We created, picked, read, and celebrated. It was utterly delightful. We miss her dearly, but sent her off with some delicious 4th of July food, boat rides, and fireworks. 

Delicious blueberries have now filled my freezer and we are (I am pretty sure) turning purple.

We kicked off the 4th with an enormous catch and release (or rather escape due to the crickets' freakishly strong legs) of another Chernobyl cricket. I mean what is more American than that? "Hunting," capturing, controlling, and staring at an animal that is unusually large???

We boated all weekend and especially on Sunday. Alder is quite "the Dude" with his sunglasses and both of my boys love being on the boat. We swam on "our beach" as Alder calls it and waved our flags. Speaking of which, my Mom purchased the flag in the before post. I love having a large flag flying in front our house because, damn it, I am proud to be an American. I am one of those that LOVE LOVE LOVE the 4th of July. There are so many reasons why and I will spare you the list. 

We watched fireworks with the Lessmann clan and Alder cannot keep his hands off little Sterrett. Alder may be an intense little boy, but he loves babies. It is a wonderful thing since he is and always will be the big brother.