a visit from uncle fair!!

this past weekend was spent hanging out with fair – the eldest brother in the hyams clan…  it had been a while since we had seen him, in fact, i think the first and last time he met jasper was when she was 3 months old!

but that didn’t stop jasper from being Very Excited about her uncle fair coming to visit!!

they became fast friends within, oh, about 10 minutes of fair getting here 🙂

we wandered around downtown fort worth on saturday morning and checked out the water gardens...

did i mention it was hot?  (‘cuz it was hot!)…

we had a great visit with fair and jasper has another favorite uncle to her name – and a stuffed unicorn to boot!

thank, uncle fair!

drawing plans with each other…

when jon has to work at home, it can make him grumpy but for jasper?  it’s a chance to “draw plans” like her daddy!

so that is what she is doing 🙂

“mommy, you had better come see this!  i am drawing plans like daddy!  do you want to take our pictures??”

and sure enough, she was “drawing plans” 🙂

now she is checking out jon’s plans…

and then back to her own to make some adjustments…

“oh, mommy, are you still taking pictures?”

you bet i am!

(note:  we know have 5 “plans” taped up on the refrigerator that jasper lilith was super-proud of – a couple she took to her art center and added paint, glitter glue and stamps to!)

future architect?  who knows 🙂

happy father’s day!!!

it is that time of year again – hot, hot, hot and also, father’s day!!!

but that doesn’t mean jon is going to laze around all day (i know because i tried to introduce him to the couch) but jon and jasper are out doing yard work!!

jasper takes a break with her huge pink cup of water…

jasper is doing to jon what she did to me on mother’s day which is randomly saying happy father’s day all day long!  it’s nice 🙂

here is an example a random “happy father’s day, daddy!” hug…

i think jon likes them as much as i do 🙂

and next up?  a homemade, jasper-made daddy day card!

one wasn’t enough so she made more 🙂

here she is telling daddy what it says in the card…  “it says ‘happy father’s day today on this day’ daddy, see it?  and here is where i wrote my name and here is where mommy wrote a lot of writing!”

and here is where she is explaining what she wrote on the pictures she made him… yeah, she likes to explain things 🙂

some cards, some pictures and?  some pennies…  jasper gave jon a stack of pennies…  what a lucky daddy!

happy father’s day to all of you daddies out there!

tap and ballet shoes!

and we have dance class pictures!

jasper lilith in all her dance wear finery 🙂

and does she want to wear her tap shoes all the time?  all across my tile floor?  yes!!

and does her tap shoes leave gray marks on my tile floor?  yes!!!  that too 🙂

ok, she is ready to go!

they have these little dots on the floor and each girl has a different colored dot that they have to stay on…

it’s cute watching the girls try to stay on the dots 🙂

heel, toe, heel, toe…

(or something like that?)

she loves her class and i love that it combines tap and ballet…

happy dancing, jasper!

a tiny tots karate class…

jasper lilith started her summer classes last week – karate and dance!

i have some pictures of her first and second karate class but dance will have to wait until i can get some non-blurry ones 🙂

so this is a 3 to 5 year old class that is karate/self-defense – really, it seems to be basic kicks and punches with stranger awareness lessons thrown in…

at the beginning and end of each class, the instructor calls out a word, i think it’s “pahda” – that’s what it sounds like…  and the kids line up and put their little closed fists in front of them and then they wait for the instructor to start the lesson…  it’s pretty cool to see all these little kids just stand there patiently in this pose 🙂

and then they go through some active poses that are also super cute to watch 🙂

and then they move on to the fun stuff!  kicking and punching the bag 🙂

after they kick or punch the bag, they are supposed to run to their parent while yelling (not screaming – the instructor is very strict about that!  but a deep yell)…

needless to say, they love this part!

some more kicking of the bag!

part of the stranger awareness is what to do if someone you don’t know grabs you – getting out of their grip, yelling and then finding your parent!

it’s kind of scary stuff, isn’t it?  but this is a good age to start impressing the difference between strangers and people you know while NOT couching it in fear – and this instructor is doing a fine job of it!

and jasper lilith is so friendly that i run the fine line of teaching her to be careful without squashing her natural outgoing friendliness.

we are enjoying this class so far – the only problem jasper has is wanting to know why she can’t wear her black velvet leotard!  so next week (if she remembers because i will not remind her), she will be the only kiddo in class wearing a leotard!  but hey, no real reason not to let her wear it…  i guess 🙂

hopefully, dance pictures will be coming soon – picture little girls in leotards, tutus, ballet and tap flats if you can and then rejoice in the cuteness of it all 🙂

a gift from her gram!

we received a surprise package in the mail today – and by we, i mean jasper lilith 🙂

her gram made her a summer top from a beautiful piece of thai cotton that jasper picked out a while back…

notice how pink it is – yes, jasper loves the pink 🙂

she ripped open the package and held up her treasures for me to take a picture of…

“mama, look what gram sent me!  you better take a picture for her!”

and almost before i had set the camera down after taking the picture, jasper was peeling her clothes off to try the new top on!

“i love it!  can i wear it to school?”

i had to put a hold on her wearing it until i could wash it but she’s patient…  most of the time…

arnetta, it fit well – a little big but that just means growing room!  and the shorts were the same plus they go perfectly with the top!

thank you, gram!!!

(did i tell you that she loved the bicycle card that you wrote on almost as much?  she has been carrying it around all day, silly girl!)

jasper and Her Favorite Dog in the World…

although if you ask me, she forgot how much she loves the other dogs in her life:   heidi and tigger and winchester, too!!

i would imagine she is fickle in the way that 3 year olds tend to be – whatever dog is in her arms is, of course, her absolute favorite 🙂

i hear from across the room, “mama, look at us!  you have to take a picture of this!”

well, i obliged the little one and quickly snapped some shots of the two lovebirds…

“here, get her pretty face!”

and then she proceeds to choke poor  mocker in an attempt to raise mocker’s head up 🙂

“mama, she is so sweet!  we have to keep her forever.”

pool time, pool time, pool time, pool time!!!

it has been in the upper 90’s and low 100’s already here so the pools couldn’t have opened at a better time!

well, honestly, they could have opened sooner and i would have been happier but still.

i can’t complain too much – we have been getting pool time at our play dates since karen has a pool but now we get to go whenever we want and that is a wonderful thing!

and we are in!!!

it was in the mid-90’s that day and jon had just finished mowing the lawn so you know it felt good!

jon, jasper and heather enjoy the cool water…

and the floaties lasted all about 10 minutes on jasper before she wanted them off…  we are going to have to teach her to swim this summer, for sure…  if she doesn’t figure it out first by herself, that is!

this year, she is tall enough to touch the bottom in the shallow end and let me tell you, she was super stoked about that!

“i can touch the floor!  i am so tall now!”

hmmm, i can almost feel the water right now…

jasper rediscovered the whole jumping in the pool thing – she loves to go up the ladder and cannonball into the pool!

if her head doesn’t go fully underwater, she has to do it again 🙂

and here is the tail end of one of the many jumps!  head underwater?  check!  daddy splashed in the face?  check!

and then the face wiping commences until she climbs out to jump again!

and again…  and again…  and again…

first day of family and friend pool time is over!

until today that is; tuesday is pool day again and after my workout, it will feel really, really good!

happy summer everyone!

where’s arnetta?

natchitoches was a comfort and a place of respite this long weekend and the only thing this picture is missing is gram!

next time, arnetta, next time!

jasper and pop say their good-byes…  with a little bit of silliness and tickling thrown in there for good measure…

thanks, gram and pop,  for being there for us and giving us a place to recover and feel loved.

keeping jasper entertained…

jasper lilith came prepared…  or maybe it is more accurate to say that her neena and her mom came prepared.

i packed her panda pack with goodies and mom brought some goodies of her own for jasper!

‘course mom’s goodies won out because they were shiny and new!

the fancy nancy book garnered a happy, “fancy nancy!” exclamation but what took the cake was the little pet shop puppy!

it’s this tiny bobble-headed toy that is strangely cute 🙂

now this toy saved the day and kept her occupied and playing for the entire lunch!

“mommy, take a picture of my new tiny baby puppy!”

here she is crooning, “awww, isn’t she cute?   look into her eyes, mommy!  aren’t they soooooo precious?”

i don’t know about precious but those eyes certainly are big!  now jasper, on the other hand, is precious!

“she likes to be petted right here, mommy!  just like mocker!”

jasper had to show her new puppy off and joseph was quite the captive audience 🙂

lest we forget our old friends, jasper lilith said, “mommy, now take a picture of her too!  we don’t want to leave her out!”

no, we wouldn’t want to do that!

the visitation, the graveside service and the lunch afterward were wonderful examples of that old saying It Takes A Village…  she was very in the moment and solemn but she was also well looked after by every single person there and everyone took turns loving on her and playing with her – she is a lucky girl and i thank you all.