Go Team

We missed Brett's basketball team's photo day due to an early Christmas celebration, so I rounded them up after last weekend's game. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to crop the lady walking by out right now :)

They are so cute and he is having a great time.

Replaced in a second

I think I'm getting old.

One of my favorite magazines is Reader's Digest and one of my favorite TV shows is Sunday Morning (and Parenthood of course!). I was reading the Feb. issue of RD and this piece struck a chord with me. It's so true. People from different walks of life had written short essays finishing the thought, "All I Really Need to Know I Learned. . . " Here's a shortened version of the one I really liked -

----- on November 22, 1963. I'm a kid, right, and one of the things that happened in the ensuing days is that television as I knew it ceased. Every station, every hour of every day, was talking about the assassination. And there's only so much a kid can deal with that. But I was still watching because that's the nature of television: obsession. At one point, I see this really tall guy standing next to Jackie Kennedy. I turned to my father and said, "Dad, who's that?" And he said, "That's the president." And I said, "No, Dad. John F. Kennedy was the president." He said, "Yeah, and the moment he died, this man became president." And I just looked at him and said, "That fast?" And he snapped his fingers: "Like that."

And I realized that's how important the most important man in the world was. He could be replaced in an instant. It was a lesson I never forgot. In fact, I was talking to a friend the other day. He was telling me, "I'm leaving my job, but I gotta stay because I have to help them blah blah." And I said, "You don't have to do anything. You leave, and they'll take care of their own business; they don't need you. You may want to stay. You may want to help them. But never make the mistake of thinking that you're so important that the world can't live without you, because no one is that important, ever.
-- by Walter Mosley

At first, this thought can be kind of disturbing. But when I'm feeling really stressed, it is strangely comforting for me to step back and realize that the world isn't going to fall apart because I didn't get blah, blah, blah done.

This has been "Deep thoughts" from Sharla Stockwell :)

25 Rules

25 Rules for Mother's of Sons - thought this was a good one

A New Year

This is why I read Karen religiously -

Time is inevitably going to pass and one year from today, you can find yourself in the exact same spot you're in now, you can find yourself further away from your goal or you can find yourself closer to your goal - so where do you want to be a year from now?

Night Tree

Aunt Becky had mentioned the "Night Tree" book over Christmas and we didn't get to make one then, so we were really glad it worked out to go visit them on New Year's Eve and decorate a night tree. I want to do this every year with the kids now - very cool.



Thanks Rowley's for letting us share the experience with you!



Brady drilled holes in the apples to hang - yikes! :)



Stringing popcorn and cranberries -



Decorating our "night tree" -

Christmas

Christmas Day was warm!

We were so grateful for the chance to spend the day outside at Grandma & Grandpa Jones' farm.

Grandma had received a new horse for XMAS and "Pal" was so gentle. Brady got to ride her - all over the farm. I couldn't believe it. He loved every minute of it - until she started loping towards the end of the day and he fell off. He quickly recovered though - and I hope feels comfortable and can enjoy riding her again. We think she just got excited because there was another horse out. Brady's story has changed many times since the incident - he becomes more of a superhero through each telling :)





Yep, he's a natural :)





We also got to see Shorty, their miniature horse and play football/Apples to Apples (while Scooter the goat looked on :).





And last, but not least, we had a bonfire and they took a ride on Grandpa's train.

(We were timing to see how quickly the cat would decide this place got too hot!)





It was a fun day! I'm sure it's going to get cold now. Blah.

Christmas Eve

It is tradition to celebrate Christmas Eve with Ed's dad's side of the family and this year we were able to have it at our house. I think a good time was had by all!

The boys always end up on Grandpa's back for rides - pretty soon (if not ALREADY), they will be too big.


Brett was excited to trick Grandma Jacki and give her pickled pigs feet for a gift. They had given him a doll last year (mistakenly) so he thought this was very funny.


Brady was given Apples to Apples Jr. and we had to try it out. Brett loves to play now (even though he has to partner up with someone because he can't read - he doesn't seem to mind AT ALL :)

We ended the night with an egg nog toast - Aunt Debi had brought a cute wreath made out of shot glasses.