a horsey morning…

here are shots of an early morning horse session…  we don’t even put street clothes on – we just pull boots and jackets over our pajamas and head down to the barn!!

she has her feed bucket and all is well…  finally!

tromping through the enclosure just as happy as can be!

and now we are home and she is back to watching the horses from the window…

mom keeps a pair of binoculars around and jasper figured out that she can see the horses better with binoculars – it’s like magic!

so she walked around most of the weekend with these binoculars around her neck 🙂

unfortunately, there was a not so happy ending horsey-wise for jasper lilith this weekend – right before she was going to take her first official ride in the saddle, we were giving satin some carrot treats and satin accidentally mistook jaspers thumb for a carrot…  i mean the horse chomped down on it!

there was screaming and tears and guilt and self-recrimination and, needless to say, no riding after all of that…

once she got herself together, we didn’t worry about getting her up on satin, we just wanted her to not be afraid of satin…  which she wasn’t, whew!  we are standing there watching mom ride satin and show off some tricks for jasper and jasper says, “sateeen bite han’.  ‘aspah cry.  sateeen cry?”

yeah, satin cryed too but on the inside…  right?  right?

i teased her the rest of the day about tasting sweet like a carrot which must have just confused satin and later that evening when we were at home, jasper held her hand out and said, “carriiit hut!” and she was joking with me and just wanted some kisses!!!  how funny is that!!  might be our two year olds first joke ever…  well, at least the first one that i understood (she must tell herself jokes all the time cuz she will be talking to herself and then just laugh or giggle like she just said something funny – it is pretty cute)!

her hand is fine although the thumb is a bit bruised but i think we survived her first horse bite…

after too much food…

after the thanksgiving feast, we typically follow john and donna (richards sister) back to their country place in wells point for digesting and coffee…

john and donna live in nova scotia most of the year but come over to texas several times a year – they are fascinating people and i always enjoy getting together with them when we are down there!

jasper loves the rubber horse swing!

except when compared to the real thing!  here she is feeding the horse…  something – hopefully, it was a carrot or some oats 🙂

jasper lilith, chloe and lexie hanging out in the rockers on the porch…  the girls played so well together and lexie was very responsible and attentive to jasper – she was a minature babysitter, that one!

and on the porch swing…  i dont know what the three of them talked about but it seemed like they were always talking!  or giggling…

happy turkey day!

we spent our thanksgiving over at mom and richards and we miss them already 🙂

we had a full house this year with my cousin joseph and richard’s daughter, amy and her two girls, lexie and chloe, along with the three of us all piled into the house!  it was filled to the roof with little girl laughter and much giggling!

thanksgiving day was at richards family reunion and, well, there was a lot of food…  and that is an understatement…

and i ate too much of it!

we all did – and enjoyed every bite 🙂

here are “neena” and jasper lilith enjoyed a cookie – or five…

ah, this must be the infamous fifth cookie but she looks pretty determined to finish it, doesn’t she?

one of the nice things about going to the reunion to eat (beside the quantity of food) is that there are plenty of kids for jasper to run around and play with…

there is jasper, of course, and then chloe is wearing the pink and navy striped shirt and lexie is wearing the turquoise and navy striped shirt…  they are 4 and 6, respectively…

i don’t remember who the other two children are but that little boy was adorable!  jasper kept patting him on the head and saying, “baby…  hi, baby…”

i think she liked being older and taller than somebody for once – she is usually the youngest and smallest by far!

jasper lilith and chloe playing, running, jumping, squealing and generally just having a grand old time!

“hi, jasper!  i see you looking at me!”

we had a wonderful time as always and jasper really loved having the two girls to play with!

oh, and mom, jasper is all over the wand that you got her when we were at canton (that was so much fun, wasn’t it?)  but still won’t entertain even the idea of putting the tutu skirt on 🙂

she might just have to get used to seeing it around or on her toys before wanting to put it on herself…

i will snag a picture as soon as i see her in it 🙂

happy thanksgiving everybody!

the little girl can already wrap men around her finger…

it must be a genetic thing since jon can wrap women around his finger 🙂

who is having more fun here?  the little girl being tickled or the daddy tickling her?

pop, you will love this:  jasper lilith came skipping into the office when i was looking at these pictures and first she said, “pop!  pop!”  “whey’s pop?” and then she climbed on to my lap and proceeded to kiss the picture of you on the monitor – a big, sloppy, noisy kiss!!  (jon, yes, there was lip to monitor contact and yes, i already cleaned it off…)

now really, how sweet is that?

aww, about as sweet as this picture, i imagine…

there are the two of them – happy as clams to be hanging out with each other…

we miss you guys already!  and jasper lilith sends her hugs and kisses (mainly the kisses!)…

lollipop, lollipop, oh, lolli-lollipop!

we stopped by georgia’s gift shop to see rita and friends…  and jasper lilith walked out of there with her pockets filled with lollipops!

so, rita, here is a close-up of jasper enjoying (and making a mess out of) her natchitoches lollipop 🙂

“mmmm!!!  ‘pop good!” she says through her crunching…

run, run, run!

i think we have already established that jasper lilith likes to run!

luckily, gram and pop’s house is a great place to do that 🙂

look at those blurry legs that just don’t stop!

“daddeee!  daddeee!  come heya!”

“ahhhh!  daddeee comeen!!  mom-mom, daddee comeen!” i imagine that the next door neighbors heard jasper tell me her daddy was coming, too 🙂

animal tracks found!

and a little tired girl who isn’t running anymore…

until about 2 minutes after i took this picture and she got her second wind 🙂

the lighting of the lights…

the first festival of the lights was this weekend!  i love the christmas lights in natchitoches and we always enjoy going downtown to see the lights along front street and the fireworks and this time was no exception!

it’s our own cruella de vil (a minerature and much sweeter version)!!  and yeah, i admit, i called her my little cruella  de vil the rest of the evening…  really, are you surprised?

it was much colder than we all expected (thanks for nothing, weather channel!) and so arnetta and i had to do some last minute shopping for jasper lilith – and we found this!!  a dalmatian coat from the goodwill store!  what a cool find!

this spotted and furry monkey racked in so many “oh, how cute!” compliments that we started wondering if maybe we should take her on the road and make some money out of her cuteness 🙂

a night scene down on the river front…  they had a band playing on stage and had a bunch of women spontaneously line dancing and jasper lilith was fascinated!  both by the music and by the dancing women so we spent some time watching the dancers and doing some wiggling of our own…  much to jon’s dismay 🙂

jasper lilith loved the fireworks!  “fiyawuks!  fiyawuks pwetty!  hmm, fiyawuks all gone?’”

yeah, she liked the fireworks…

gram and pop…

we went over to natchitoches this weekend for several days and had a great time!!  gram and pop were a hit with jasper lilith and jasper lilith was a hit with gram and pop 🙂

or should i say “gam” instead of gram?

arnetta found the board that she kept from her mother’s house – it marks the growth of jon and louis and is quite a neat keepsake!  arnetta is going to start one for her grandgirls and jasper lilith decided to go ahead and get a jump on it 🙂

what a neat tradition to continue!

we were telling jasper lilith to stand up so we could measure her height in comparison to jon’s and she took that as a “hug the board, jasper, and don’t let go!”

the little girl is taking her job seriously, isn’t she?

jon found his old packback in the treasure trove that is his closet and jasper found a new plaything…  “backpack!  backpack on!  come!” she would say when she wanted help putting it on…  our mountaineering girl is ready!

and then jon found his old skateboard (again in the closet that has no bottom) and that trumped the backpack…

or did it?

i mean, why not combine the two?  the skateboard and the packback?  all jasper lilith’s idea but jon was willing to help her out 🙂

the skateboard was not my favorite thing, let me tell you…  as soon as jasper lilith saw her daddy standing and pushing off on the thing, she had to do it too!  sitting down or laying down just wasn’t good enough anymore!

and so my gray hairs continue to flourish and i continue to pretend that they don’t exist 🙂

oh, but one of the times that she fell down and landed on her bottom, she got up and whimpered, “my bum…  my bum needs kiss…” and comes running to me to get her bo-bo kissed…  ha!  she said “bum”!

oh, i am trying out a new size for the photos – if it bogs down your upload too much, tell me and i will go back to the smaller size…

ebay!! i love ebay!!

i love me some ebay…  just in case you weren’t sure 🙂

i have been looking for some kitchen canisters for months now and i just couldn’t find anything i liked – every one i found was just too this or too that…  i finally hit ebay and looked for vintage canisters and i struck gold!!  tons of cool tins to pick from!  i found these neat old things and paid all of $5.25 for them!!  that is including the shipping costs by the way…

had i found them in the antique marts around here, i can guarantee they would have been more expensive than i would be willing to pay!  i need to shine them up a bit but i will admit that i will probably never get around to it 🙂

man, i love ebay…

arnetta, do you recognize the copper tin on top?

and now on to the main attraction 🙂

look, pop!  jasper still uses the bamboo cup you made her!  it is her milk cup – she only likes to drink milk in it…  “mulk cup?” she says and you know she is about to start on the hunt for the bamboo cup 🙂

ah, she is being silly and burbling and giggling in her milk now…  i predict in about 5 seconds after i take this picture, there will be milk on the floor, the coffee table and her jumper…  anybody want to bet me?

i need to show you something…

that is right – you need to see this!  look at her hands for now, we will get to the eyes later…

so i was busy as a bee at the computer while jasper lilith was going to town on some paper with markers – circles, i remember lots of circles…

and then jasper says, “mama!  hands!  tat-toooo!” and i look down to see her hands covered in marker…  i mean dense with layers and layers of marker – so many colors and so many layers that it was pretty much just blackness…  on the backs of her hands…  that she was calling her “tat-tooos!”

i stared a bit (in amazement that she was referring to them as her tattoos and also just at the sheer volume of marker on her little hand) and i could tell she was getting nervous and thinking she might have done something wrong because she jerked her hands out of my face and put them behind her back and watched me very intensely…

and as i zoned out on her hands and watched her reaction to my reaction, i realized that i just didn’t have it in me to get upset at her or explain to a two year old why it is ok for mama and daddy to have tattoos but not her…  so i snapped out of it, applauded her efforts and called them her “art hands” which she then repeated – “awt hands?” (worth it for that alone) and let her keep them all arted up…

which means when jon came home, she ran to proudly show him her hands and point to his tattoos and then to her hands saying, “tat-tooo!” and then wanted him to kiss her “tattoos”…  everybody say “awwww….”

art hands indeed…

and then she rubbed her eyes…  with the back of her hands…  and all of a sudden we had a ziggy stardust impersonator on our hands (ah, those pesky hands)!!

jasper thinks it is funny and so do we!!

this is jasper lilith in mid-tickle 🙂

and this picture?  well, if you look past our “are you done taking pictures of me yet, mama?” little girl, you will see jon...  see him?  now that is an action shot!  i don’t know what he was doing but it sure is funny!

blue “eyeshadow” and candid camera strike again – just when you thought the 80’s were over and you were safe…