every captive thought

The last day of this year was a good one.  I had a wonderful day with my 3 sweet babies.  The best part of it all was to see them loving on each other.  It just does something to this mommy's heart. When one of them hurts the other (intentionally or accidentally) we make them "hug it out".  Jude is a big fan of hugging it out when he is the offender...which he almost always is.  Today Jude accidentally ran into James and James fell on the floor.  He was not hurt at all but Jude went to him to hug it out.  James acted all hurt and upset and very indignantly said,  "I don't want to hug it out!  I want a kiss!"  So Jude puckered up those big sweet lips of his and planted one right on James.  We all three got a big laugh out of it and James wasn't mad anymore.  Judie Bug kisses tend to do that. Katy Jane is not a huge fan of tummy time.  It is one of the few times she ever fusses.  Which is why she rarely has tummy ...

Another very early morning yielded some early morning craftiness.  I did make him wait until the sun came up and I had 2 or 3 pots cups of coffee before I would get out the glue, puffies, markers and construction paper.    My little Sonshines! Since it's so cold outside the boys wanted hot cocoa again. With marshmallows. I learned from yesterday's mistakes and only put a little in their mugs. When Brad is on days the boys don't get to spend as much time with him as they would like.  They practically attacked him as soon as he got home.  I just wanted him to sit down and eat but they couldn't wait any longer.  They love their sweet Daddy. After dinner and spending time with the boys, he gave Katy Jane a bathie for me. Sweet little chubby baby girl.

While I've been getting over the whole surgery thing...the boys have gotten to watch way too much television.  Today I made a concerted effort to limit the time they spent in front of the tv letting their brains turn to mush.  So we hit the ground running this morning at 4:50 am for a day of non-brain-mushing-fun. We played Connect 4, the Matching Game, colored, worked 2 jillion puzzles, played hide and seek, built numerous block towers, did the Elmo chicken dance until we could dance no more, we painted, we made hot cocoa with marshmallows, we mopped the kitchen floor together after the hot cocoa was spilled ALL over it, we played Candy Land, I Spy, read books, and then around 4:00 pm I decided I had played my last game and let Spiderman and His Amazing Friends babysit for awhile. I went grocery shopping after the kids were in bed and stocked my arsenal full of fun for tomorrow.  James' favorite thing in the world to do is make paper puppets and we ran out of paper ...

My cousins Chad and Chelsea came today from Lubbock and Austin with their spouses and children.  It was such a special blessing and I wish they could've stayed longer.  Chad is married to Randi and their children are Brody and Kennedy.  Chelsea is married to Eric.  When my family first moved to Amarillo in 1986, Cheryl, Curtis, Chad and Chelsea lived here.  I got to spend a lot of time with Chad and Chelsea and have so many precious memories from that time.  Later they moved to Lubbock and then on to San Antonio.  It is always a treat to get to spend time with them because it is rare. James calls Randi (Chad's wife) "Rainbow".  He kept talking about Rainbow after they left.  I said, "Are you talking about Kennedy?"  He said, "No.  Rainbow.  The taller one."  "Randi"?  "Yes mom!  Rainbow!" He said, "I'm glad Rainbow is my cousin." I'm glad they all are our cousins. Brody loved Katy Jane.  He was...

We had Christmas with part of my family and with Brad's family on Christmas Eve.  James, Grant, Brock, Madison, Jude, Mom, Christi Christi, Brock, Jude, Will Top Row: Cory, Christi, Carrie, Andy, Brad, Snuzi, Bottom Row: Brock, Madison, Jude, Dad, James, Mom, Morgan, Katy Jane, Grant and Will     Mom, Christi, Katy Jane Jude, Carrie, Morgan, Mom, Katy Jane, Christi, and Grant Aunt Christi loving on Katy Jane Top to bottom: Jude, Brock, James, Grant We also celebrated Christmas with my in-laws on Christmas Eve. Karin, Addison, and Lolo.       Addison, Karin, Lolo, JT, Brad, James, Marva, Katy Jane, Snuzi, Stan, Jude After Christmas Eve with Brad's family we ran back past Mom and Dad's for one last good-bye. On Christmas Day we woke up to a wonderful snow!  This is the second Christmas snow in a row so James thinks that it always snows on Christmas day...or maybe he thinks that when it snows, it's Christma...