Polar Express

Again, these are from late December. We took the boys to ride the Grapevine Railroad which was decorated for Christmas and re-christened as the Polar Express. Jacks was enthralled with the steam engine (his favorite kind of train) and enjoyed wrinkling his nose at the smell of the smoke. But the big black engine was also very loud and menacing up close, so both boys stayed very close to Daddy. The fun of the ride was slightly lessened for the adults by the blasting of carols over the train's sound system, but both boys had a great time. Jackson spent the entire trip staring out the window, and Cody enjoyed flirting with the lady behind us. The Polar Express becomes Thomas the Tank Engine in the spring, so we may be riding again, before too long.

Christmas Morning

Oops this is very out of order, but I never got around to posting it! Here are the boys in their matching train PJs which Santa had delivered on Christmas Eve (Anthony decorated a special mailing envelope and then ran it around the back of the house to the front door, rang the doorbell, and then dashed back in to help the boys answer the door!) with a special note saying, "Put these on and go to bed quickly so I can do my work!" You can see they both enjoyed Cody's TMX Elmo. :)

Say Cheese!

Milkshake Man Strikes Again

Think Cody enjoyed the milkshake Daddy made for him last weekend? :)

Jackson's Rockin' New Ride

The boys and I went out to check the mail one afternoon, and the kids down the street were out riding their bikes. Jackson was entranced. So Anthony took him to the bike store and let him pick out his own...of course, he picked red! His favorite part, I think, other than the bell, is his blue helmet which inexplicably depicts pigs riding red 4-wheelers. Oh, and it's one of those bikes where you apply the brakes by backpedaling, so he also really enjoys "burning rubber" when he stops.

We're not sure what to do for Cody yet, as his legs aren't quite long enough for a bike the size of Jackson's and he's not sure how to pedal yet, but he's too big for his little red car (although he still loves it). We might investigate some Big Wheels when the weather warms up a bit.

Jacks Art!!!

Jacks is VERY into coloring and drawing lately. He prefers to do that over almost everything else. He's such a perfectionist about it. His favorite thing to draw is, of course his favorite thing: trains. And so he holds up a train in front of him and tries to copy it exactly. When it's not just right, he gets very frustrated, and when we draw one at the same time as him, he's very vocal with his critiques.

Here's his most recent train drawing...note the diggers on the flatcar in the back (sorry about the tape....Anthony put it up already LOL):



Well I've been asking Jacks if he'll draw people for me...Grandma, Kate, etc and he never will because he says he's can't do it well enough. Not sure where he gets these perfectionist ideas from LOL. Anyway, tonight he was in the doghouse bigtime and to make amends, he came up to me and gave me this:



That's Cody on the left, Long Tall Jacks there in the middle, and there I am with my rockin' hairdo and snazzy eyebrows. (Think it's a hint I need to get them waxed again? LOL) That's our car on the right, and the line at the top is the sky.

I'm so proud of him. He works so hard at it and I love what his little mind comes up with.
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