New Address

I have been having a lot of trouble with Blogger lately.  I finally had enough and created a new blog.  Keeping Up with the Joneses has moved to http://peanutandco.wordpress.com/.  

Top 12 of 2012

Below are my 12 favorite photos of 2012, one from each month.  While I think some of these are pretty decent pictures, some are technically not good at all.  One is hideously overexposed but I still love it.  These are the ones that put the biggest smile on my face. 

 

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

 August

 

September

October

November

December

And there you have them.  I wonder what 2013 has in store for this family.

Christmas 2012

I feel like I should have a lot more photos of our Christmas.  I guess instead of staying behind the camera I was enjoying family time.

 

We headed to Pump It Up on Christmas Eve to see Santa, do some playing, and decorate cookies.

 

Once the kids realized there were cookies available for decorating (and consuming), they dropped Santa like a bad habit.

 

Brendan likes a little bit of cookie with his sprinkles.

 

 Looks delicious, right?

 

 

 

After the candlelight service at church (he did remarkably well) and dinner out, we got on our PJs and put out some snacks for Santa and the reindeer.

 

And we had to say goodbye to Garland the Elf, whose final spot this year was in our Christmas tree.

He woke up around 6 and got in bed with us.  We snuggled for another hour before he realized it was Christmas.  His first thought was not about the toys Santa was supposed to leave but about whether or not he ate his food.  We went down to investigate and found out that yes, Santa and the reindeer did eat their food.  A few wayward chocolate chips were left behind, and Brendan proclaimed, "I need to eat these." 

 

And then on to the toys!

 

This picture is really the essence of what our day was like.  Needless to say, we have choo choos everywhere.

 

 Happy New Year! 

 

 



Let It Snow!

I can't remember the last time I posted.  Two weeks ago?  Maybe three?  We have some catching up to do.

 

Brendan got his first at home haircut.

 

 

I hated it.  However, that was a couple weeks ago and after a few days I got used to it.  We had to straighten it up a few times, but overall Dad did ok.  I am excited to try out those new clippers on Tom's hair.  *Wink*

 

I think everyone knows that he had tubes put in his ears again.  Thank goodness I trusted my instincts.  Tom comes to a lot of his doctor's appointments, but when we went on our first ENT referral I took him by myself.  She is an Air Force doctor and I didn't like what she had to say.  Mainly, I didn't like the fact that she thought he needed to suffer through THREE more ear infections before putting tubes in again.  That called for a second opinion, who said the fluid in his ears was affecting his hearing and he needed the tubes as soon as we were ready to put them in.  Surgery was scheduled for the next week.  It was more traumatic for me than it was for him.

 

 



I read an article recently about remembering the "lasts" instead of the "firsts." Here's an example: He bowls a ball and then exclaims, "I got a stripe!" Today he began saying "strike" properly. And while I'm proud for every single tiny little thing he learns, it makes my heart ache to watch him grow so quickly.

Probably my absolute favorite thing to do with him is read stories before bed. Every once in a while he will get in trouble and lose story time. That is punishment for me just as much as for him. I asked Tom to sometimes come snap a picture of us, because I'm already dreading the day he no longer wants to read with me.

 

So, we got our first snow. The weather forecast used words like "white out" and "blizzard." Tom and I just KNEW we would be off of work Thursday. No such luck. All we got was a 2-hour delay. This boy had never seen snow before and I was determined to let him play in it. So I ended up with a 3-hour delay and we headed out to play.

 

 

 

 

 Merry Christmas!