Technology: Jamesnia Style

I'm not trying to brag, but we have a new gadget over here.

not an iPad, iPhone, or Mac laptop

not a new flat screen or Blu Ray player

not a Nook or Kindle

try to not be jealous

it is a....

musical, battery-operated nasal aspirator

and both Genevieve and I like it!

Valentines Day 2011

All things pink, red, heart, cherry and chocolate made for a great heart day in Jamesnia.

Lucy wanted to take my picture since I had pink on. This may be the first pic I have of me holding a carrier, which has been a pretty common sight over the last 9 years.

More photos by Lucy. I am getting good at holding two sweethearts at once.

heart leotard for gymnastics

home "heart attack" idea I found on this blog

Each family member writes what they love about the other family members on a heart and they are displayed on the walls.

Some favorites:

Camille - I love Lucy becus rockstar

Kilian - I love mom because she copies some good recipes (meaning I don't ever make up any original recipes. He wanted "to be honest" he said.)

Lucy - I love Camille becus she is yong.

Brad - I love Genevieve because she saves all her poopy diapers for when only mom is around.

Everyone loved hearing nice things about themselves. We will be certainly be making this a tradition. Can you tell what is different between the picture above and the picture below?

Cannot ever have enough hand print art!

Kilian cut out the heart shape

He sure values originality (see comment about my cooking above). He also didn't want to buy valentines for friends. He cut out hearts and folded and stapled them to make little pouches for Hershey's kisses instead.

Now I know that food always looks gross in pictures unless you have proper lighting (and a better camera). Well Lucy invented chocolate stew and by the time Kilian talked her into some finishing touches...believe me. This picture does do it justice.

I never tried it, but Brad did. I was thrown by the hot spice tea mix and banana chunks. Lucky for me, Lucy wrote out her recipe so she could recreate it any time I'm ready to try it.

Genevieve's Baptism

Our sweet baby girl was baptized on February 5, 2011.

We were supposed to have a Saturday morning ceremony with 5 other babies. 4 of them cancelled, probably due to the very cold and icy weather we had been having. So instead, we had a very small private ceremony with just two babies.

Our photographers were two first graders.

Lucy and Mac did a great job

but we have lots from this angle!

us with the deacon

Genevieve and her wonderful godparents

The older kids were happy we chose Lubbock rather than London, so they could see it this time.

the peanut gallery - 9 kids between the C family and us

In all past baptisms, I changed the baby out of the gown before leaving. I had her buckled up before I realized what I had done.

This gown was a baby gift at our shower in Houston before Kilian was born. There are tons of tiny pleats and Brad's mom's friend, Olga, ironed it for us (perfectly) before Lucy wore it in 2004, and I've been very careful to not wrinkle it too much since then...until now.

At home afterwards

a cake* to celebrate

*This will be my "go to" sweet for all events now. I threw together a similar one for Lucy's birthday, and then copied it for the baptism. Lazy much? I guess. It sure was good though.

For Grammy

...who recently found a shirt handmade by her mom when she was a tiny baby. Knowing how fast Miss G is growing, Grammy sent it in the mail so that we could try it on.

It fits! She seems to like it.

* * * * *
Grammy and Pawpaw live in the much hotter and more humid Houston area. Grammy enjoys visiting us and our cooler, more dry weather. Pawpaw would prefer the warm weather to follow him up here when they visit.

So speaking of contrasting weather...this February we enjoyed record-breaking heat - 84 degrees -exactly one week after record-breaking cold - wind chill of negative 20ish. No wonder these girls are confused. Ever seen such crazy kids wearing swimsuits with not a bit of green in the grass (minus a couple of weeds) and no leaves on the trees?

Not even two whole months late

Alternately titled: Christmas 2010. Better late than never!

I may have mentioned this here before, but one of my very favorite things is rocking a new baby at night, in total silence, beside the light of a Christmas tree. I got to do plenty of that with Genevieve over the holidays and although I was exhausted, I loved it.

I also got to do the same with Oliver, who woke up multiple times each night for the first three weeks Genevieve was home. I have always wanted twins, and those really busy nights will likely be as close as I'll ever get.

We took our Christmas card picture at my parents house in early December. I just realized that this wasn't the one we wound up using, but it is close.

Brad discovered what a fun set up a nearby neighborhood had. While trying to capture the kids playing near the snow machine I caught an invisible guy's glove! The lights on the trees were set to music. My pictures of the horse drawn carriage were terrible, but the kids loved it each of the three times Brad brought them here during December.
Lucy sang in the choir at the children's Christmas Eve Mass
and Kilian got picked to be Joseph in the pageant.

We missed our chance to get a decent family picture before mass. That's ok since I was still getting over pink eye and Camille was just starting to get it. Also, Oliver threw up some of the 94 goldfish he ate on his special Christmas shirt as we left the church.

This is as close as we got.

Since my parents were leaving town Christmas morning, we opened presents from them that night. Oliver and Genevieve will get tons of use out of our family's first wagon! Yay!

Our tiny little reindeer slept through almost all the excitement.

but not all of it. Here she is with her Noni.

* * * * *

Joy to the World!!

Our relaxing Christmas morning was spent at home with no plans, no packing, and no driving!

Santa left some musical gifts

some gifts that wobble, but don't fall down (as well as some practical gifts, see the diapers?)

and some science gifts.

This was our tenth Christmas as parents, yet our first to have to put a gate around the tree. Oliver pulled the tree down on top of him once, and almost did a second time so up the gate went.

Camille refused to wear her snowman gown to match Lucy. No harm done. I am all about choosing battles these days.

Little Chef got some cookware from Grammy and PawPaw.

Finally, Lucy got a magic wand from Santa, but not the kind she hoped for. This purple one, which resembles a hand-painted dowel rod, came with a note that explains there is no such thing as a "real" magic wand. Remember this post HERE? She had been planning to turn herself into a flying mermaid on Christmas morning for months. Now we know!

Little Big Brother

Some friends of ours had a baby boy (also their fifth) one month before Genevieve was born. That mom and I agree that it is not the fifth baby that makes our lives...um...challenging. In both cases, it is the fifth baby's toddler brother that makes things...um...challenging.

Oliver is 20 months now. I wanted to document was he is up to and in to these days.

He loves his cars and choo choo's.

And getting stuck going after them, too.

He loves talking on his plastic banana phone.

And sharing plastic grapes with "Baby"
"Gigi" is what he is calling her more and more.

He also shares plastic broccoli

and what else did he get at the plastic food store??

Ah yes, plastic red pepper!

When I remove her from the situation, he rests from all that shopping and sharing in her cradle.

When he sees me holding Genevieve, he'll often drop to the floor on his back and pat his chest, saying "howd baby"

He loves his Daddy.

He still loves to "cook", so he can be found waiting at the front door for his Noni while carrying around a skillet.

At first I discouraged him from climbing into the baby swing, but once he pops the tray down into place, he is stuck. Now I let him, and enjoy those few moments that I know he is not making a mess.

Becaue he is getting pretty good
at making messes.

He likes to play "down, set, hut"

and kiss his "Baby Gigi"
until he is plain worn out.