27 Nov
can you feel how hard jasper is concentrating? she wasn’t scared but she didn’t really want anyone bothering her until she got used to it 
and by the way, the horse isn’t fat; it’s pregnant! that big ol’ belly is full of foal which means that we will have a tiny baby horse by march!
now that will blow jasper to the moon and i can’t wait to watch it!
27 Nov
jon is home now but jasper and i are still here at neena’s! and lucky us because jasper lilith rode her first horse today!
now she has sat bareback on several of the horses plenty of times but we finally had a jasper-sized saddle for her and boy, did she take advantage
no need to ask if she had a good time – there wasn’t a moment that she didn’t love.
ok, well, except for the moment when she had to get off serena the horse – that moment could have never come and she would be just peachy!
this is jasper’s, “i AM smiling smile.”
when jasper does something for the first time, she is often very serious and focused and she looks it! jasper puts her entire being into doing whatever it is she is doing and it takes a while for her to lose that “leave me alone, i am concentrating” look – it is pretty darn impressive to me and also, very cute!
you can see this intense look in the pictures – it took several times around for her to relax and start to loosen up…
“good sewena. you a good horse.” jasper says as she pats serena’s neck.
richard and jasper taking a turn around the round pen.
and the stars of the show? neena and jasper lilith!!
with a cowboy hat even! john let jasper borrow his and when she put it on, she exclaims, “it not too big to fit me! i so excited!”
thanks, richard for taking our picture! i think this shot is a keeper
we leave tomorrow and i am sure i will be hearing (from jasper) about how she is going to miss all the animals.
although it if were up to mom, i would be leaving with the kitty in tow! really, jon, you had better thank me!
we had a happy thanksgiving at neena’s house! thanks for the good times!
(and the horseback ride – that went beyond good times for jasper, i think and deserves a special mention.)
27 Nov
richard’s brother-in-law, john, and his daughter, lindsay, were down for thanksgiving this year and lindsay brought william.
every time william would cry, jasper would raise her hands palm up in the universal questioning way and ask, “why he cwying?”
and she really wanted to know – she wasn’t complaining, she wanted to know what she could do about it
john, lindsay and william came over to mom’s house today and jasper asked if she could hold william. so we sat her down and let her get comfortable before handing william off.
you almost can’t see her, can you? they were both pretty happy about the arrangement but after a couple of minutes, jasper started to get this funny, strained look on her face.
when i asked her what was wrong, she whispers, “he too heavy, mama. hez hurting my tummy!”
so we rearranged them and they went back to being pretty happy
the two cousins!
jasper enjoyed holding him for short periods of time but look how sweet they look together!
27 Nov
after eating (way too much) and visiting with richard’s family, we headed over to mom’s place.
if you ask jasper, we went over there specifically for her to love on neena and the kitty (which doesn’t have a name yet, it is just “kitty”). the funny thing is that the kitty didn’t mind at all – he would start purring from the moment jasper picked him up!
and now jasper is in love with yet another animal!
“aw, kitty, you so cute. youh puwing [purring] makes me so happy!”
yah, i think you guys can guess what this face is asking me… you guessed it!
“mama, we need this kitty. this kitty needs us!”
“he so sweet! i just want to hug him. can we take him home to meet doggie and mockuh?”
hard to resist the cute phrases and the adorably pleading face…
but i did!
and i think this face shows how good a job i did at resisting the jasper cuteness
“awww, mommy but i love him.”
i get it, i get it. you love the cute kitty… but we still aren’t taking him home!
jon, please thank me later.
27 Nov
after we finished the turkey trot, we headed straight to our thanksgiving reunion.
richard’s family gets together every year at this time and puts on a huge spread of food – the tables groan!
after everyone is done eating, the kiddos put on an impromptu concert (that most of them did not know the words to) and then it is on to the games outside!
and when i say games, i really just mean kiddo pandemonium. no, really.
they gather into their pack and then they take over the lawn – it is a lot of fun to watch, actually!
as if we needed to be reminded that jasper has been a climber from day one! here she is climbing the tree.
at about a foot or so after this picture was taken, jasper got stuck and started calling, “mommy! mom! i need hulp!”
and since i was the one taking the picture, i was right there – i managed to get there in record time despite my laughing!
thank you very much.
27 Nov
jon, jasper lilith and i did the turkey trot in dallas this year!
the plan was to push jasper in the stroller while jon and i walked the 5K.
and that is how it went… at first…
so we started out early in the morning with jasper in the stroller and all bundled up.
but that didn’t last for very long!
it wasn’t far into the 5K that jasper started going, “let me out! i want to wun [run] to!”
“mom, wheuh’s my numbuh?”
so she then moved to jon’s shoulders – we are still trying to make good time here so we didn’t want to put her down and then have to slowwww way down
but then it warmed up and jon got tired of carrying around a little girl who really, really wanted to run. so down she came!
and run they did!
(and that’s the last i saw of them until we found each other past the finish line.)
there were over 40,000 people walking on thanksgiving morning and it made for a great experience! plus walking in downtown dallas is always nice when they shut the streets down.
we finally found each other!!!
and someone was nice enough to take our picture
happy thanksgiving everyone – we love you all!
24 Nov
jasper lilith’s school had a thanksgiving feast for the kiddos and their parents yesterday…
then they surprised the parents with a little thanksgiving concert – ok, maybe they didn’t surprise all the parents but it surprised me!
they were adorable. i mean, my face hurt from smiling at how cute jasper was while she was singing… i couldn’t stop smiling!
then we went to all tables decorated with cornucopias and handmade place mats, sat down with all of our kids, ate the food and talked about how cute they were
jasper didn’t want to take her little pilgrim hat off… and in fact, has it on at this very moment while i write this posting!
just another day that makes me so very glad that i put her in school!
24 Nov
we went down to natchitoches this weekend and despite the rain, we had a great time hanging out with gram and pop!
arnetta, i wish we hadn’t missed the fleur de lis show!
jasper found a big box of pecans and jon quickly put her to work
after snapping a couple of pictures of them, i couldn’t take it anymore and had to put my camera down to join them!
turns out that arnetta still had her camera
we went out to the back to dig around the old barn and jasper entertained herself while we worked…
she doesn’t look very entertained here, does she?
but she spent the entire time jumping around in the back of pop’s truck, singing made-up songs and dancing to those songs!
it was hilarious and i kept getting distracted from what i was doing to watch what she was doing!
look at that silly face!
gram and pop, we had a great time and already miss you both!
24 Nov
jasper lilith had my hat on again while she was playing with her barn…
i don’t know what it is but the combination of that big hat on her head really hits me in the right spot… i love it!
this is where jasper starts to complain, “momma, no mouh pichtures, ok? i busy.”
and this is where i get The Hand after i didn’t stop taking pictures
super star!!
15 Nov
jon was off in the hill country guiding his first hunt this weekend so jasper had me all to herself
and she made the most of it!
we had our first classmate birthday party bash yesterday!
and all i have to say about it was that she had a lot of fun with her classmates while i was very glad that the mom kept the party short and sweet…
ok, well, i have more to say than that (who am i kidding?) but that really is the gist of it
pizza first!
jasper and sutton (they seem to be fast friends these two – sutton is one of the kids that always gets really excited when she sees jasper come into the classroom) having a great time with each other…
it was really interesting to see how different the boys played vs. the girls – the boys were throwing things and getting mad at things and the girls? well, they were just playing – they would play together for a bit and then move off to play on their own and then come back together again after a while… and when one of the boys would have a Loud Moment, all the girls would turn and look at him…. clearly, it is at a young age that we girls start to watch boys and wonder, “what is wrong with them?”
what?? i’m just saying…
kenny (the bday boy) had an animatronic dinosaur that was quite the hit with the kiddos and with jasper in particular!
(arnetta, we might have to readdress the pony issue that we talked about before – she loved this thing!)
jasper and sutton waiting for their cupcakes…
and now that everybody had their cupcakes, all the moms start to make the necessary motions to head out the door as soon as their kids are done…
really, lots of kids? keep. it. short.
and all of us moms had the same idea
(i like our relaxed style of hanging out and bday partying much better but i couldn’t help but appreciate this style as well!)
and then we were home for a bit so i could change out of my mom attire, put daune attire back on and then head on over to leigh’s for a night of jasper entertaining the crowd with her dancing and adult hanging out once the kids went to sleep!!
jon, we missed you!
