Our Little Bird

Jezzie just loves to sit on my shoulders, whether I'm sitting down or walking around the house.  In this view, she is facing the garage door and that is her back end you can see.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

The Grandmas came over early afternoon and joined us for a candle light service at church.

I think the kids' favorite part of the service is holding their candles up while singing Christmas carols.

We drove home and had a few moments to relax before making a lasagna for dinner.  So we got a few photos on the stairs while there was still some good light coming in from over the front door.

Loved that the kids were sweet and cooperative!

Until they had to irritate each other.  :)  Because that's always fun to hear your sibling squeal!

We had the typical stragglers at the dinner table.

Although, both kids were excited to be allowed to open one Christmas present after dinner.  

Even if it was one that Mommy picked out.

Can you tell by the look on his face he thought the one present he would be opening was expected to be more exciting than new pajamas?

The Beanarina was slightly more excited.

Although her pajamas were a bit long and wide.  Skinny kids have such problems fitting into normal clothes for their ages!

Once the kids were in their new pajamas, we took off for an hour drive looking at Christmas lights with the Grandmas.  When we got home, it was late and the kids didn't get into bed until close to 9pm.  Two parents stayed up late to wrap all the kids' presents before relaxing on the sofa for awhile.

Little Moozie stopped in to clean Little Horse's face.

And then he was left in peace and quiet to enjoy the Christmas spirit and flashing lights.

Then we had a trouble maker in the house (it wasn't Chloe, she was already fast asleep!) shaking the tree.  Can you see her?

Jezzie climbed up the inside of the tree almost to the top.  She was eye level with me when I snapped this photo.

And before we knew it, Norad said Santa had arrived in Atlanta a few minutes prior.  We didn't want to chance Santa not coming because we were still awake, so we closed our laptops and hurried upstairs.  It wasn't long before we were under the covers, closing our eyes and we heard prancing on the roof.

Jezzie Loves Her Daddy

She likes to curl up on his lap at night.  It doesn't bother her at all that he has a computer on his lap.  She lets him keep his hands on the keyboard.  Sometimes.

Bunnies and Planes

This morning, Jezzie caught a bunny.  It was so soft.  She was not at all happy about me taking it away from her, even though it was already dead.  :(

I buried it next to this little patch of heart-shaped clover.

I caught a 6pm flight to Philadelphia that turned into a 9pm departure due to storms in the Northeast. This is my third annual trip up for Bead Fest and a weekend with girlfriends.  It was a really late night as the flight didn't land until after 11pm and we didn't get back to the hotel until midnight.  God bless good friends who offered to drive out to get me and sat in hours of traffic due to a hazmat spill just to get to the airport.  Lori is the best!

Jezziebelle

She likes to sleep on top of Chloe's playhouse during the afternoons.

Jezzie Thinks She's a Bird

Today, Jezzie learned how to climb the willow tree.

For quite awhile, she has thought she was a bird.

Jez routinely perches on my shoulders as I walk around the house.

Now that she has learned how to climb the tree, she doesn't stay out of the tree for long.

Jezzie likes being about 15 feet up in the tree and then drops to the ground from around 8 feet as it seems more difficult for her to get down than getting up.

Pets

Jezzie is routinely on my lap when I'm working during the day.  And Dylan comes in regularly to check on me for possible ear scratches and in the hopes that he may get a special treat (which are hoarded on top of my desk).

Jezzie is his mother hen and will lick his face clean.  She likes to focus on his eyes, so he is respectable.  It is in the evenings when he is lying down in the family room that she will lick his paws clean.  I love that these two are such good friends.

Jezzie Loves Her Daddy

This is where Jez hangs out every night.  She just can't be close enough to Todd.  It doesn't bother her at all that a computer is taking up most of his lap.

Goodbye January

Left knife hand strike.

This karate kids just loves Tae Kwon Do.

Karate Ball (dodgeball renamed) is his favorite game that gets played at the end of class.

Left inter-forearm block.

A foggy warm night, just a little too damp for taking the camera out on my nightly walk with Dylan.

Jezzie likes to supervise Todd's computer activity.  Plus, she loves her Daddy, so she's always sticking close to him.

And Even More Snow

By morning, we had six inches of snow on the ground.

Even though school was canceled, we were up early and walking around the neighborhood calling for Jez.

The snow was so beautiful.  Everything was white and clean.

It must have been a crazy snowstorm while we were sleeping.  Snow blew everywhere, even inside our back porch and onto the feet of our owl.

The snow clung to our hanging lanterns.

And it covered and blew into the cat carrier we left outside the front door in case Jezzie wandered back.

The snow even stuck to the tops of the bricks that form our retaining wall in the backyard.

We received a call from our neighbor six houses down around 9:30am that he thought Jezzie had been hiding under his car in the driveway.  We tracked her down and she was hiding in someone else's fenced in backyard.  She spent most of the day curled up in warm spots around the house.

We were so thankful we found Jezzie and hope that this made a lasting impression...if she tries to escape again, she'll be stuck out in the cold overnight and a big blizzard will blow through ;)

Jez stuck inside the house without any interest of venturing out to the backyard for the next two days.

We Have a Tree Climber

But it's not one of the kids this time.  See anyone you know?

Jezzie will hang out in the Butterfly bush/tree three feet off the ground for 15-20 minutes at a time.  She LOVES it!

Of course as soon as I walked outside, she had to come down out of her perch to see what I wanted.  Silly girl!

Our Huntress is Earning Her Keep

Jezzie is quite the huntress!

Even with just one eye, she managed to catch this baby lizard (which I was able to rescue)...

and this baby snake close to two feet long, which was already dead.  I was okay with that, since I didn't recognize his markings and they made me a little nervous.

Did I tell you these animals were found/rescued INSIDE the house?  Jezzie likes to bring them inside to play.  Sigh.

Critters

The pest control guy came by this afternoon.  Before he could come into the backyard, I had to clear out a big pile of branches I had cut off the willow and butterfly bush earlier in the week before our gate could swing open.  When I removed all the branches, I noticed this guy.

While the backyard was being sprayed, I stayed inside to make sure no one tried to escape.  Henry was too tired to move from his spot on the sofa.

Maggie followed me around like a lost soul, but she refused to make eye contact with me or my camera.

Dylan pretended to sleep.  He would open his eyes and quickly shut them again after seeing I was watching him.

Look at how bumpy his skin is!  And the bright golden orange specks in his eyes!  I think some beads may be inspired by this bright coloring in his eyes.

After the kids got home from school and saw this frog, they wanted to name him.  Chloe first suggested we name the frog --> Dora.  Owen yelled NOOOOOOOOOOO and thought for awhile, before offering up Cliff. 

Cliff the Frog is bigger than my two fists combined.  I tried picking him up with one hand while taking pics with the other, but he was too big and wiggly to hold onto.  Subsequent two handed attempts were not any more successful.  Cliff ended up hopping across the backyard in his escape and hid under our cypress trees.  By morning, he was gone.