ALWAYS UP TO SOMETHING

Scott has been home from work with Kate and me for the holidays and we have had such a good time sleeping in and not having anywhere we had to go everyday. On Friday, Kate and I picked up our friends Dawn, Sara Kennedy and Cooper and went to our friend Sharea's house to play with Jett and Stone. Our good friends Emily and Maddox were here for the holidays and we were so glad to get to see them too. Emily, Dawn, Sharea and I taught together about 7 years ago at Madison Station and have stayed friends. They are all stay home moms and Emily lives in Augusta, Georgia. I am so thankful for all of them and their friendship. I wish I could post pictures of the kids, but I dropped my lens to my camera when we got ready for the big picture and a button moved and I didn't realize it until after I had taken the few pictures the kids would sit still for. My lens had switched from auto to manual focus so all of the pictures were blurry. Maybe one of my sweet friends will email me a copy of their pictures and I can post them later!!

Today, Kate and Scott and I went to Keifer's for lunch (YUM!) and then I spent the afternoon until the State game came on (GO DAWGS!!!!!) painting our bedroom. It was the most hideous shade of green! While I was painting, Kate decided she would watch TV and keep an eye on me from the ladder. She LOVES to climb and would climb to the top of the ladder if I'd let her. I took some pictures of her and she was quite happy to pose. When she got tired of climbing, she took her usual "break" on our bed.

CHRISTMAS IS FOR KIDS

I have to say that this was my best Christmas to date. It wasn't Kate's first Christmas, but it was the first time she really enjoyed her presents. Scott and I praise God for the most special gift that we were blessed with on Feb. 21, 2006. We look forward to a lifetime of Merry Christmases with her!

We spent Christmas Eve night with some of the best friends we could ever be blessed with -- Terry, Lee and Perry Powell. We got to watch 2 little girls open their Hanna Montana concert tickets which was a scream (literally!) and the Powells gave Kate the cutest cleaning set that you can see in the slide show. She has barely put the broom down since then!!

On Christmas Day, we spent the whole morning at home, just the 3 of us, opening presents and playing. It was so wonderful not to have anywhere to dash off to. Kate was tickled with her new 4 wheeler, Blue's Clues and WonderPets DVDs, food for her play kitchen, a toy drum, and best of all her very own "space jump". She is not the best jumper in the world but you can find her piled up in the middle of it with as many toys as she can.

On Christmas afternoon, we headed to Crystal Springs to eat and exchange gifts with Kate's Granna and Papa D. They gave her a table and chair set and a pink baby grand piano. She was tickled pink for sure!!! Needless to say with a slide, a kitchen, tooooo many toys and now a jumping thing, table and chairs and a piano, our bonus rooms is PACKED!!! No more toys for Kate for a while. With a birthday coming up in February, we can't imagine what else to get her!!

We hope you and your families all had a blessed and joyful Christmas.

FUN TIMES

Kate has 3 new obsessions these days: sitting on our bed watching "Shape Detectives", feeding her piggy bank and playing with her piano (or any other toy) on top of the garbage can in our pantry!!! Her piggy bank plays "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" as she puts coins into it. The only problem is that she doesn't understand why she can get the money out! At the rate she's going at feeding that thing, she will be able to buy a car soon! Don't ask about the garbage can obsession. Scott and I are just as grossed out and confused, but she seems to think it is a fantastic table for sitting things on!

STAY BACK SANTA!

As I said in an earlier post, Kate is quite frightened by Santa. We had tried having her picture made with him once over Thanksgiving, but she wanted no part of it. So one Saturday, I decided to take the risk with a different Santa. Before getting Kate out of the car, I asked Santa if he would mind if Kate sat in his chair and he could just peek over at her. After all, all I wanted was a picture of HER with him in it ~ preferrably without any crying!! She thought that she was big stuff sitting in his chair. The pictures I got with my camera weren't great because I was standing off to the side and trying to snap a picture and make sure she didn't see him out of the corner of her eye and jump down.

CHRISTMAS FUN

We are looking forward to a very special Christmas with Kate. She has just -- after 2 and a half weeks -- "discovered" that the ornaments will come off the tree if you pull them hard enough! We took her last Saturday and stood in line to have her picture made with Santa. I don't think that we will have one to put on the blog this year. She wants NO part of the jolly old man!! I don't think that she has figured out that he is the one that brings the presents. Attached is a picture she let me take of her in front of the tree. I just got a new camera and am so obsessed with it and Kate just wants to run instead of sit still for a picture!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Thanksgiving Blessings:

On this day when we are reminded of our many blessings, I am amazed at how long my list could be if I shared the whole thing. I am most thankful for a husband who loves me (flaws and all!) and a beautiful and healthy daughter who is the light of our lives. I am so thankful for our good friends and church family who enrich our lives as well. Our day started off at 1:30 a.m. when Kate decided that the day had begun. She had a late afternoon nap yesterday and I think it threw her off. She finally went back to sleep around 3 a.m. and rested up for a day full of family and of course turkey! Kate joined me as I got ready this morning (see pictures attached). She loves to help me get ready in the mornings. Dr. Will and Dr. Stephen will be tickled to know that Kate is OBSESSED with brushing her teeth!! She is also pretty in love with my eyelash curler! Everytime she sees it she says, "Eyewass!" and gives it a try for herself. Her day was made today when her Papa D brought her her very own miniature picnic table that he made for her. Of course, she didn't want to sit at the table because every 21 month old knows that tables are made for crawling on! It was so cold this morning that she didn't get to stay outside too long to enjoy it. Well, I must run, because Kate is pulling on my sleeve to let me know that it is her turn at the computer!! Boy she has us wrapped around her finger! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Halloween Fun

Kate was the cutest black cat for Halloween. She had the cutest little ear headband that she absolutely refused to wear. I had to literally hold her down to get the nose and whiskers drawn on her face! I can only imagine what my life with her as a teenager will be like because that girl has a mind of her own these days, but she is a total doll! We went to two Halloween get-togethers this year. One with our friends the Youngs and the other at Ross and Lauren Hailey's. At both parties, there was a space jump which is Kate's favorite thing these days. She had so much fun sitting in the space jump while the other kids bounced her around. She made a new "big girl" friend in Mason Joyner who is going to be the best babysitter in town someday! Kate also went on a hayride around CrossCreek which she thought was fun until she ran out of steam. Scott and I had to jump off with her and walk back to the party!

KATE GOES TO THE FAIR

Two posts in one day-I am going for a record!! Last Sunday, Scott and I took Kate to the State Fair and boy did she have a ball. It was so hot, but she was a trooper. Unfortunately, I only took this one picture of Scott and her on the carousel. She was totally unimpressed with the carousel, but she thought that the giant slide was the bomb. Scott rode it with her 2 times and she could have done it a million more if we would let her. I would attach the video I took of them riding the slide if I had a clue how to cut out the 10 minutes I filmed of them just climbing all those steps!

It's been a LONG time.....

When I looked at the date of my last post, I was extremely embarrassed!! So much has happened in the Jasper family since July. We have sold one house, bought another and moved in, and of course school started back. We are finally settled in the new house (new to us, not new construction). You should all be receiving our moving card with our new address in the next couple of days. I was slow getting to those too! I don't want to miss a single Christmas card of anyone's beautiful babies!

It is hard to believe that Kate will soon be 20 months old. Time sure flies. It seems like just yesterday that Scott and I were bringing her home from the hospital. She is a busy girl these days and into EVERYTHING! She talks nonstop and I have NO idea where she gets that from! She is obsessed with Dora the Explorer and Blue's Clues. I had no intention of ever letting her watch TV before the age of 3, but oh well, that's just another of those things I have eaten my words on.

I came home from school yesterday with the stomach virus and thought I was literally going to die! I spent the entire evening quarantined from Scott and Kate. Poor Scott probably felt like a single daddy, but I'm sure he loved spending a little one-on-one time with Kate. She is in that stage of clinging to her mommy like glue and Scott doesn't get a lot of her attention these days.

Please keep me in your prayers this week. I am going to the doctor on Monday for some blood tests. I have basically felt rundown since the beginning of August. I had just been attributing it to the move and school starting and chasing Kate, but I can't seem to find an inkling of energy to do much of anything. I'm hoping it is as simple as a B12 deficiency or something. He'll probably just tell me what I already know -- get busy loosing that baby weight and you'll feel a 100% better.

More posts soon.....

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Well, this was a weekend of celebrations. Scott and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary on Friday. It's hard to believe that 11 years have slipped by! Kate celebrated her 17th month birthday on Saturday (thus the donning of the "birthday dress"!). She is growing like a weed and really starting to have a mind of her own. She loves to tell us "no, no". Her favorite thing to do these days is stalking our neighbors' cats!

On Saturday, Scott and I left Kate for the night for the first time EVER and headed to the Neshoba County Fair to spend the evening with Terry, Lee and Perry Powell. You should have been there for the "hermit crab races"!! My in-laws reported that Kate was no problem and Scott and I certainly enjoyed a little one-night break! Can't wait to go again next year!!

Here goes the Jaspers first attempt at BLOGGING! All my old teacher friends have the bug, so I guess I have to keep up with the times. Thanks to our friend Emily Greer for showing this "old-timer" what a blog even is! I hope to update as much as I can. I think this will be a great way to keep in touch with out of town friends like the Poiriers, the Kennedys, the Millers, and the Jeters. I hope you all will begin blogging as well, but let me warn you....it is not the easiest process to figure out in the beginning!!!!