Grand Finale

Ashley had her Christmas program at preschool today. She stood on the front row looking very cute (if I do say so myself) in her red Christmas dress. This was perhaps our last program at 2nd Presbyterian, and my, have we had some memories.

It might surprise you, but Papa has always been the best at tying bows.

After a few minutes of taking in the crowd and the paparazzi-like camera flashes, Ashley started performing. I couldn't hear her from where I was sitting, so I'm not sure how loud she was actually singing, but her expressive gestures made me think she was really into it!

Peace!

Hey, Santa!

We went to the annual Christmas parade and capitol lighting on Saturday with Mom, Dad, and Abby. It was freezing! I don't remember it ever being that cold.

Dad in his Carhart coveralls. Like I said, it was cold!

I won't even pretend to know what this has to do with Christmas!


One of the highlights of the night was definitely the cookies and hot chocolate.

After the lighting and fireworks, we went inside to see St. Nick.

I get both kids to look at the camera and smile - at the same time - and Santa's looking off somewhere else!

Tis the Season...

...to Elf Yourself. My kids' holidays would not be complete if they didn't see themselves dancing as elves. We made a couple this year:

Where did November go?

Before I start getting nasty comments about my lack of posting, I thought that I would catch up on November. Since I was out of town for the first half of the month, I have been working like a dog to catch up on everything at work for the last two weeks. Also, since I was not on call much at all in November, I'll be spending most of December on the call rotation. (It's been nice knowing everyone...I'll catch up again in 2010!)

As a result of my busyness, I'm dreadfully behind on my Christmas shopping. I have made a dent in my list today and plan to really hit it hard on Monday. I just got home from a quick trip to K-Mart. Yes, I know it's kind of a ghetto store, but they had a certain *undisclosed item* on sale that I'm getting someone for Christmas. I pulled up to the store at about 8pm, and the parking lot was packed! I thought that I would go on inside just to see how bad the lines were at the checkout, and they were surprisingly short. Confused, I wandered back to the *undisclosed department* to see if they had my *undisclosed item*. I found the crowd! Apparently this was the last night to pick up your layaway, so there was a really long line in the back of the store. I overheard a woman say that she was in line for an hour and forty minutes to get her stuff! Luckily, they had what I came for in stock, so I made my purchase and was on my way.

Before I get started wrapping my purchases, I will put a few belated Thanksgiving pictures on here. Unfortunately, neither the Stacys or the Johnsons (the Pennsylvania Johnsons, that is) were home this year, but we had a good time with Mom, Dad, and our almost-family (the Arkansas Johnsons, Krebs, and Stanisors).

And finally, here's a couple of pictures from Nathan's Thanksgiving program. The first one is with his friend Luke. Nathan was really irritated that his class had to be the pilgrims. Indians are way cooler!

Sunday at Fox 16

Apparently, Cub Scouts is not all pitching tents and shooting BB guns. Today's activity was touring a TV station. Since Jeff was out of town, I got to help the other dads try to get a group of 7 year old boys to keep their voices down and their hands to themselves for an hour this afternoon. Impossible! There are just too many computer screens and flashing buttons begging to be touched.

The first 20 minutes of technical jargon was completely lost on the boys (and me), but they loved playing with the green screen and sitting behind the anchor desk. I wish we could have skipped the rest of the tour and just started here.

Learning about weather maps

Coming to you live from Fox 16 Studios

And here's the weather girl

Last Home Game

Yesterday was a great day for football in LR. We didn't tailgate much due to the early kickoff. Jeff missed the game because he has been in New Orleans this week. It is hard to believe that it is the end on November already. One or both of us has been out of the state nearly all month! We are home now, and I hope to get the Christmas decorations out soon.

Jennifer and Ashley

Will and Nate getting dirty before the game

Miss Priss before the game

7 Years Ago

Seven years ago today, Jeremiah was born. I've been thinking about that fall a lot today. It was such a special time for our family, and I'm am so thankful that we all got to go through it together. Just to recap...

In March(ish) of 2002, I called Amanda and told her that she was going to be an aunt. She said, "So are you!" She was a little further along than I was, so we were due about a month apart. Just a month later, Renee found out that she was also pregnant!!! She was due a month after me. People asked if we planned it, but how could you really plan that.

Brandon was obstinate from birth and was induced around 42 weeks on October 15, 2002. He was born in Jonesboro, and we all got to be there for the big day. You should have seen the look on the nurses faces when all three of us (hugely pregnant!) walked up to the nurses' station late that night when Amanda was admitted!

Brandon was born on a Tuesday. I left Jonesboro on Wednesday to come back to LR. I was still 2 weeks from my due date. Dad also left to go back to work in Missouri. Imagine all of our surprise when I went into labor on Friday morning. Dad rushed back to Arkansas (I still don't want to know how fast he was driving!), and Amanda literally checked out of the hospital and headed to LR. I was in labor all day and into the night. Finally, Jeff got to say, "It's a boy!" around 10:30pm. Thanks to everyone who toughed it out with me and stayed to meet Nathan.

Two down, one to go. About a month later, Jeremiah arrived on November 20th and completed the threesome that changed our lives forever.

Jeremiah, Nathan, and Brandon

Happy Birthday, JJ! Hope the next 7 years are as good as the first 7!

There's no place like home...

I have spent 11 of the last 13 nights in hotels! We got home from Disney on Friday, and I left for Houston on Sunday. I have been here with my boss and his son (our marketing rep) for some intensive training sessions (7:30am to 5:30pm every day!) We've all been so tired that we've not done anything fun in Houston except eat some great meals. We leave this afternoon, and I am so ready to be home!

Making Up for Lost Time

Thursday was a really "magical" day for us. Nathan was feeling great, so we tried to make up for lost time. We started our day at Magic Kingdom where it had magically transformed from fall to Christmas overnight...wreaths, Christmas trees, and carols in the air. We hit a few high points then had brunch at Chef Mickey's.

Late that afternoon, we went back to Nathan's favorite park, Animal Kingdom, for another safari, a couple of other attractions, and dinner at Yak and Yeti (which had the best dessert anywhere in the parks!)

We finished up the evening with a trip back to Hollywood Studios. Though we didn't get to see everything on our list or keep all of our reservations, we still had a great time. We are so thankful that Nathan bounced back so quickly from his illness so that we could enjoy our final day together at Disney.

Epcot and the Road to Recovery

Tamiflu is a wonder drug. On Wednesday morning, Nathan's fever finally broke. Hallelujah! I stayed at the hotel with him while Jeff and Ashley explored Epcot. Nathan was feeling well enough late in the afternoon to go out for a short time, too.