One Funeral That Almost Became Two

A little background is in order for this story. First of all, Jason's grandmother Alice (paternal) passed away this last week so we drove up to Boise over the weekend for her funeral. Secondly, Jefferson has become a daredevil. He will climb anything and he is honestly the fastest kid that I have ever met. He runs on his toes, which is how sprinters train. He will bypass me in speed probably in the next year. It's rediciulous.

Lovely Alice

So, we were at the funeral on Friday afternoon and it was lovely, except for the fact that Jefferson had not gotten his nap. When he is tired he resembles a drunk. He becomes so clumsy. After the funeral some of Aunt Kim's friends put together the most beautiful dinner in the gym for family. Seriously, the center pieces were fabulous. They consisted of huge decorative vases filled with silver and purple glittery balls and the vase had a purple ribbon tied around it and it was sitting on top of a square piece of glass with little fake diamonds sprinkled around. And next to the vase was a picture of Alice in a beautiful frame all on top of a white table cloth. Soooooo pretty and the food was great. I let Jason eat and watched Jefferson and then we switched places, or so I thought. Here I am eating a sandwich and here comes Aunt Kim with a muddy and soaking wet Jefferson. Jason's 11 year cousin found Jefferson outside in the parking lot playing in the puddles all by himself. Fabulous. Sighing, I continue to watch Jefferson for a while before asking Jason if he could watch him so I could finish eating. Great, he took him and walked around. Weeeeellllll, I was walking over to get some dessert (there were like 10 kinds!!) and I hear this massively loud crash followed by about 75 collective gasps. I turn around and see my kid on the floor laying on top of a huge amount of broken glass. Jason had let him onto the stage with the other kids and then started talking to someone else. Jefferson thought it would be fun to run through the curtains not realizing that on the other side there was nothing to stop him. So through he ran, and ran into the biggest center piece that had been placed on the center of the stage. There was so much glass!! He took that with him as he did a swan dive off the stage. Miraculously, he landed completely flat on his back so there was no one point of impact and he only got 3 tiny cuts on his lower back. I was so freaked out. It was horrible. Five seconds after it happened Jason stuck his head out of the curtain and asked, "What happened?", if there hadn't been so many people concerned and worried that man would have gotten an hearful, let me tell you. I was just waiting for him to start swaying and vomiting (signs of concussion) but that didn't happen. Actually, he barely cried.

Anyway, after going back to Kim and Steve's he fell half way down their hard wood stairs. Seriously, I think this kid has a death wish. Is it possible for a mother to have 5 heart attacks in a day. Every one kept joking that since flying off the stage didn't work he tried to do it off the stairs. Tender mercies. It was one stressful day for this lady. I think I need to buy a leash or a padded helmet. What do you think?

Jefferson's New Trick

My kid is so dang funny. He cracks me up, but occasionally I wish he was a little more quiet. Usually if he wakes up and it is still dark outside he will go back to sleep or lay in bed looking at books being QUIET. This week, however, he learned a new thing. At 5:45 on Wednesday morning I started hearing some noises. I was awake because Jason gets up at 5:30 and I usually lay awake for a while to make sure he actually gets up. I then go back to sleep until 7. Not that day, nor any day since. You see, Jefferson has learned that he can now reach his light switch, which is a little high, so I didn't see that coming. So he now proceeds to get up whenever he wants, turns on his light, and continues to play until he decides it is time for him to have breakfast (which is usually mentioned within two seconds of him seeing me). So Wednesday I got to lay in bed listening to the sounds of cars crashing, trains choo chooing, books being read, the bed being jumped on, drums being banged, tambourines being shaken, and a little boy yelling, "Ouch ouch, my finger, my finger, fiiiinnnnnngggggeeeerrrr." And that is how the last three mornings have gone. Hopefully the novelty wears off soon or I am going to have to start going to bed at 9:00.

The Great Bathroom Redo

When my parents first moved into their house a little over two years ago this bathroom was terrible. It was the worst thing to look at. It physically hurt me to go in there. The counter was a hunter green laminant. The walls were and awful mint green, and the wall shelf was this wierd mottled pea green color. Plus the shower curtain hooks were tropical fish. Why the previous owners thought that looked good, no one can say. Maybe they were color blind, or just design impaired. Anyway, since my parents haven't had the time or resources to fix it, we (the kids), decided that would be part of Christmas. It turned out really well if I do say so myself. We did, however, forget to take a before shot so just imagine.

The counter is granite and we changed out the sink hardware.

We painted the walls and spray painted the wall shelf.

We took mom to Target and helped her pick out new towels, rugs, and shower hooks.

And....tada!!

Soooooooooo much better. I can now go the bathroom without closing my eyes. J/K. Kelli did most of the work since she is the super women with the know how, but we all helped and Jason was very excited to be able to use his new drill.

Christmas Recap

It's about time, I know. We had a really great Christmas this year. We spent it at my parents house with my oldest sister and my youngest sister. It was a blast. Christmas morning was great due to the fact that Jefferson was the only small child there. We were able to get up and eat breakfast first and take our time with the presents. We had these really great pumpkin cinnamon pancakes and clementines. So delicious. This year we kinda switched things up. Instead of the parents doing Christmas for the kids, the kids did Christmas for the parents. It was awesome to see their astonished faces when things just kept coming to them.

Of course, we didn't leave out the J-man. The first thing he went to was Jason's present. He opened the box and pulled out the drill and was saying, "tool, tool." He is such a boy.

Then he got to the Choo Choo trains. He is obsessed. I should have given them to him last because once he opened them he ignored all the other presents. He still had a pile to open by the time everyone else finished.

Ignoring presents

This is stinky getting the much wanted quesadilla maker. Jefferson lovingly refers to it as "dinner".

This is mom and dad's reaction to reading the card that let them know we would be redoing the hideous guest bath upstairs. Will post more on that later.

And lastly, Aunt Kelli got Jefferson a Toy Story basket ball hoop. I do think she kind of regretted it by the end of her stay because every five seconds he was asking her of Aunt Jessi to play "B-ball" and he was not very good at taking no for an answer.



So much fun and such a good time. I sure do love that family of mine!!!