The "up" goes REAL high

So, Joe loves all things mechanical. Not only loves but obsesses. He loves the nonner (lawnmower), dotter (helicopter), and most of all he loves the UP (forklift). He awakens in the middle of the night and says... "the up, it goes REAL high!" and falls back to sleep.

So, yesterday morning, Jason was taking Joe to Lufkin with him. Unfortunately, Jason had a memorial service to go to and he decided to take Joe with him so that he could stay for a "camp bebe weekend". When he awakened, he said HI mommy! :) I told him... guess where we're going? His eyes sparkled and a big grin broke out on his little face... the UP?
I said... yes!

I could barely contain him enough to get me dressed and then him dressed. When we walked outside, he pointed to his hat and said... need hat! well of course. One needs a hat when riding on the UP!

He's running back and forth on the driveway in sheer excitement.
Daddy asks Joe... "you ready for a ride on the UP?" This was his face.

A little blurry but you get the idea!

this boy loves ups. He loves nonners and he loves dotters. When Jason got to Lufkin, he had to take joe on three rides around on the nonner. Today is a Big Daddy/Joe Joe day and he's going to take him on the choo choo, the nonner AND take him to a friend's warehouse that has UPS ! I mentioned to Jason that he should probably wait until later in the visit... or he will end up taking him to the UP every single day. Jason said... "I'll let him figure it out." ha!

What a special special week for Joe to spend with his Bebe and Big Daddy. :)

A boating we will go

This past weekend we all drove (six adults and one child) to Clear lake in the Kerr's mini van. And man did I hear it! "you could have had one of these, Jess... we should have one, it has sixteen thousand cup holders... and look, there's a cubby IN the cubby... blah blah blah". Silly boy!
The girls all sat in the back seat, Joe and Jason sat in the middle row and then Trevor drove with Jeff as the copilot.
The weather was a bit sketchy all day but it really cleared right up for our drive. It did get a bit icy on the dock, in fact, Dad fell walking down to the boat. We stopped by randalls to buy some beer rock salt and some snackins and then headed on down. Let the partying begin. :) Wine was opened, beer cans popped, whiskey poured.
At some point in the evening, I went down to put Joe to bed and just never came back up. The pecks and the kerrs went on and had coffee with Baileys, more beer and a whole bottle of champagne. OYE!
And all while I was asleep, mom realized she had left her meds at home and she had to go home and get them. It really defeated the purpose of them coming on down so as to avoid the ice... but she did make it home safe and sound. She later just drove down to Galveston to meet us.

Saturday dawned with a beautiful sky and me with a raging headache... DAMN that wine. Why didn't anyone make me drink some water??? well, oh that's right, I put Joe to bed and never came back up. Oops.

We all headed to breakfast at Skippers and then back to fire up the engines and head out. The boat trip was great... the bay was smooth, Joe was awesome and we just had a great time.

The Kerrs Saturday morning.
The guys... chillaxin as we headed out of South Shore Harbor
the Davis'
Jeff and Meg
All three girls needed a picture with Santa


sweepy boy(s) takin a nap as we headed through Clear Lake into Kemah
I love close ups... isn't she pretty?
Hook em horns?
our boating comrades, the Blakeslees
soooo serious ... you're waiting to play scrabble, aren't you?
I did mention that I love close up's didn't I?... isn't she pretty?
Meg *driving*
Joe and Mama driving.
And unfortunately... that's the last of the pictures *I* took... but there are many more on Meg and Susan's camera.

When we arrived in Galveston... we hung out for a bit and then headed into dickens. The weather was perfect... and we got a chance to wander the shops and take it all in while Joe slept in his stroller. The guys hung out at an Irish bar and played pool.
Well reconvened to hang out and get ready for dinner later. We ended up with a VERY late dinner at Willie G's but had great time. :)
We ended the night with a good debate and good conversation... and being that the night before had been a bit... well... overlibatious ... ended earlier. HA!

Sunday morning, the Pecks and the Kerr's slept in while Joe didn't get that memo. Pththththththbt on him. wink wink. We did end up getting some breakfast, a very leisurely (read SLOW) breakfast but food none the less. And finally we headed back to Clear Lake around 1:00 pm, I think.

Around 4:00 pm we piled back into the van and pointed northward.... and about thirty minutes into it figured out that Jeff had left his keys on the boat. OOPS! Ha! Dad luckily met us and then we were really pointed North arriving at the Kerr's house around 8:30, I think. Or maybe it was 9:00 pm?

What a weekend. I am so so so so blessed to have the friends that I have up here. It's a rare and beautiful thing to be able to have a family circle away from your blood family. It makes everything more interesting. It makes everything worth it.

So excited

This weekend, my fort worth besties are coming with me to Houston to go out on my parents boat. We have been planning this for about three months and they have found babysitters for their kids. We are bringing Joe because Jason's parents are luckily sailing around Austria right now. :)

Anyway... we are all packing up in the Kerr's mini van (all seven of us... nine if you count the wine bottles)... and heading south. And to add to it, we're going to be driving into SNOW! Yea you read that right... Houston, tX is getting snow right now. CRAZY I tell you! :)

And the high tomorrow in Galveston is supposed to be like 48 degrees... which is very Dickens like. Which is also good because we are going for Dickens on the Strand. :)

I'm excited to be going with my friends and we always have such fun together... there might be a bit of wine involved and I'm sure some loudness. Ha!

Hope y'all have a great weekend. :)

Mamaw and Papaw and the ABC's

some Papaw/Joey snuggle time. :)

Now I sing my ABC's... you just don't know it.

Mamaw promised Joe a trip on the choo choo!

A choo choo says ding dong ding dong

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! :)

A camping we will go

what do YOU do while camping?

ride in cars with boys

sleep

eat

play scrabble (on the iphone) of course!

jump in jump houses

and eat some more

gaze at the lake

hang out with your bestie friends.

skip stones

fetch bumpers

laugh... a lot!

dance a bit

ride bikes

and in general... just have a great time

pack em up, mov em out...

Jason needed wanted a new pair of waders. I do believe the man owns like 6000 sets of waders but I hear that they're just like potato chips.. you can just have one. OYE!
So we ordered them rush rush and then they came in the day AFTER he got home from Rockport for fishing. HAAAAAAA ha ha ha ha ha. Anyway.. here he is in all his glory.

Then friday we headed out for Lufkin for our nephews birthday. But before we did, I baked a rum cake and this is Joe's first ever beater that he could lick. He liked it!

NO P... this is MY jeep!

Weeeeeeee

The birthday cake... isn't it pretty? It tasted just as good.

"Big Daddy and a NONNER!" we heard this ALL weekend long.

the two older boys yelling.

then of course P had to try it out.

We had a great relaxing weekend and bebe got her christmas card of her boys. :)

Halloween and Ashlyn's fourth birthday

Joe's school has a trunk or treat every year. This year I got to get in on the fun... in case you don't know what a trunk or treat is.. (us yankees don't do this).. you decorate your trunk and kids go trick or treating to each of the trunks. I decided on a "cars" theme at the last minute and had all of these signs courtesy of my friend Brandi. :)

As many of you know, I fought with Joe to figure out what he was going to be. We had a grand total of three costumes and I found the skunk from last year in his closet. It was a bit short on him but worked better because it was pants and a "jacket" that just happened to have a tail on it. HA! You should have seen me shoving him into his car seat.
I worked hard at not letting him see me, hoping that he would go with his class. No dice. He saw me and started crying. Ah well. :)

Halloween afternoon, I wanted to take him to a trunk or treat at McKinney Bible church but as you can see from the below picture.... he was having NO part of his costume. I finally bagged it and decided this was supposed to be fun for him. Poor little guy.

That afternoon, Meg, Jeff and kids came over for a sleepover. Cole and Joe kind of fought the whole costume idea and as you can see, again... the skunk won. :) They were so cute. They would go up and ring the doorbell and the door would open and Joe and Cole would, either one, walk right into their houses. It was hysterical.
The other funny story, was when we walked up to a house that had music... Joe put his bag down and started dancing. Too funny, my little musical guy.

"are you done yet?"

Jeff was nice enough to paint his face and hand out candy to all of our trick or treaters. What a champ!

Joe and Cole took a bath after trick or treating. They are just too cute for words.


Sunday dawned and we had Ashlyn's birthday party. Susan's baby was turning four. Where does the time go.
Shelby came in her princess attire.

Joe had no royal attire, but he did get a spider painted on his face.

The cake was yumm-o! Joe definitely thought so. He couldn't wait!

Awhhh how cute!

mmmmm cake!

and bounce houses

cutey patootie ryan

and meg, Cole and Joe playing around. A great weekend of fun to be had by all! :) Thanks Peck family for coming over and Kerr family for having us for the birthday party. :)