Career Day

Today was career day at Jackson's school, so they had to dress as their future career. 2 years ago, Jackson chose to be an animal expert. This year, he wants to be a lawyer like Daddy. But the reason might surprise you...

Here's something he brought home from school last week explaining just WHY he wants to be a "loyer."


So it's not so much about justice or the law...it's more about big, tall buildings. (Anthony's building is the tallest in downtown Dallas. You know that one that's outlined in green at night that you always see during breaks in Mavs or Cowboys games? That's it.) But please do note that in addition to Daddy's tall building, Jacks also drew the Supreme Court. How cool is that?

Here is Jackson's class. I think we can see another lawyer, a skateboarder, a karate master, a figure skater, an artist, a UT Longhorns coach (?), several mommies and a couple of teachers. Pretty interesting mix!


Jacks sure did look handsome!


College week has been really fun so far! :)

The Future's So Bright

This is college week for PISD, and each day has a different theme. Today was "Our future is so bright" and the kids were allowed to wear sunglasses to school. So here's Jackson's class (or at least, the kids who participated) rockin' the shades. :)


And Lukey had to get in on the action after school, of course! The future's bright for him, too, don'tcha know!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2010! We rang in the new year in style, with candlelight, blowers, poppers, and fizzy drinks!

Ok, we cheated a little. But it was pretty tasty anyway. :)


Luke just LOVED doing "cheers" with everyone and tapping his glass (er, cup) with all of us. No, we didn't trust him with the Waterford crystal just yet.


But Jacks and Cody got a big kick out of actually using those fancy glasses and the Wedgwood wedding china that seem to permanently reside on a very high shelf.


Who doesn't love silly blowers that make sounds like an elephant trumpeting? If you blow into them just as hard as you can, that is. And preferably, right in Daddy's ear.


Here's our delicious "Happy 2010" cake, complete with an M&M topping designed by the boys. (The 2 was tricky but they handled the 1 and 0's by themselves.)


But we had the most fun with those crazy glasses. I think it's the last year for a while we'll be able to wear on our faces (and still be able to see out, that is)! Of course, I'm not entirely sure Luke could see out, even with these....

Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas!

Well, Santa was very busy on Christmas Eve! He set up the boys' stockings, Jackson's Hot Wheels set and Luke's dump truck, then moved on to the drums Cody has been talking about for the last couple of months.

However, Santa experienced a few technical difficulties this year. First of all, Cody wanted blue drums. Well, where Santa shops, they don't make blue drums in Cody's size, so Santa went with red instead. He explained it (in a note he left Cody) as an intentional choice because Santa's favorite color is red (and that's why his suit is red).

Thinking he had the color issue well covered, Santa went to set up the drums only to find that the cymbals were missing. Oops!! So Santa added to his little note and explained that there must have been a hole in his sleigh because when he got to our house, he just couldn't find those cymbals anywhere. But Santa was very generous and left some cash for Cody to take his daddy to Guitar Center and pick up some cymbals of his choosing.

Santa did the best he could! Here are the drums (mostly) set up by the tree.


Despite Santa's temptation to tear his beard out after his frustrations on Christmas Eve, he needn't have worried. Cody was so happy to see his drums that he didn't mind about a few little things being different than he expected. :)

Here's our Drummer Boy!


He immediately set about the business of rocking.


Daddy helped a bit, and then they jammed together for a while.


Luke just had to give it a try, too.


Cody gave Luke a little drum lesson.


Jacks was busy with his Hot Wheels most of the morning, but he took a break to pose with the Drummer Boy, too.


Santa also brought us Lego Rock Band (a video game), and Jackson had fun testing out the guitar although we have since discovered that he's more of lead singer. So far, his favorite song is Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name." ;)


So our Christmas was filled with music of all sorts, and now with the addition of Cody's drums to the regular daily cacophony, we expect to become accustomed to marching to his beat in 2010. :)

White Christmas!

We had actual real snow in Plano on Christmas Eve! The day before, it was sunny and in the 70's, but on Thursday the temperature plummeted and the snow started falling around lunchtime. It actually stuck to the ground and we were able to throw snowballs and even make a snow angel!

The boys were surprised at how cold it actually was, but they had so much fun playing outside in the fluffy white stuff. Jackson even tried a lick but was disappointed to report that it only tasted like ice. (I'm not sure what he was expecting, but it definitely wasn't that!)

Here's Luke looking shocked that I actually bundled him up in all those layers for a reason!


But boy, did he love watching Jacks and Cody pelt each other with snowballs!


Cody refused to wear his gloves so his little hands ended up red and chapped, but he still crafted some impressive ammo!


Biggest brother and littlest brother, with matching hats!


Anthony has lived in Texas for 32 years and never had a white Christmas. I might have seen one when I was little when we visited my Aunt Polly in Wisconsin for Christmas, but it was really so special seeing it through the eyes of the boys.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Holiday Houses Part II

Since last week's gingerbread house was already assembled and all we had to do was decorate it, we wanted to give actual construction a try with some graham crackers and frosting. We took all the supplies over to Gramma and Grandad's so we could get their help, too.


The boys came up with some amazing structures and impressed us all with their clever use of marshmallows as, among other things, chimneys and snowmen.


Jacks and Grandad came up with a different use for their marshmallows.


Luke was pretty much doing this the entire time. The decorations just kept disappearing into his mouth!


Cody didn't eat ANY of the candy at all. Right? Wink, wink!


The guys were very proud of their creations.


These last pictures were taken 0.3 seconds before the houses were demolished in a feeding frenzy. It wasn't pretty. But it sure was fun! :)

Best Laid Plans

Jackson, Cody and I have been looking forward to today for weeks. We had tickets to see the musical "101 Dalmatians," and we were going to have a special lunch at Cheesecake Factory beforehand.

Unfortunately, midway through lunch, Jacks started feeling pretty ill and it seemed pretty clear he wouldn't be able to make it to the show. Luckily, Gramma and Grandad had joined us for lunch, so Grandad took Jacks home while Cody, Gramma and I headed down to the Music Hall.

The show was great and I think Cody enjoyed it, though we did all miss Jackson. But the Dallas Children's Theater is doing a production of one of the boys' favorite books, "How I Became a Pirate" next month, and I think we're going to get tickets and attempt a "do-over" of today.

Gramma did take a nice picture of the 3 of us all dressed up for their first trip to the theater. Aren't they handsome? :)