I have some pictures that didn't make it onto our Christmas card for you! Enjoy!

Baby Jake's Favorite (Impressed with his fine motor skills.)

Papa Jacob's Favorite (Impressed with his photography skills.)

My Favorite (Impressed with my baby making skills.)

 

Only one question for you on this blessed day: are you wearing your Christmas socks?

All I Want for Christmas

Jake's Christmas List 2011

1) A spoon. A soup spoon. That I can hold in my hand all day long and no one will ever take away from me.

2) Longer baths.

3) An iPhone.

And that should do it.

Happy Last Sunday of Advent!

I asked Jacob how he liked my Christmas decor. He said if we lived in the bayou we could keep it up year round.

Why grade when you can...?

Life right now is a box of ungraded student portfolios. It stares at me all day long and makes me do things like

go to the beach

 play with boxes

sing along

wash diapers

and stare into this face all day long.

Yes. Lots of semi-productive procrastination in the Rhodes house these days.

Who is 6 months old today?

Jake is.

Baby in Texas

Jake and I had the fortune to make a quick trip home to my parents' house the weekend before Thanksgiving. Jake spent the majority of the weekend enjoying being the only child at home, chilling with the g-parents,

chatting it up with Nana,

and generally having entirely too much fun.

I had a pretty good time too. I was drunk on the bliss of being back. It was so familiar. Bristly dry landscapes and orange sunsets behind rusty fences and minor home surgeries...

Going back to Texas and spending time with my parents on the heels of a week with Jacob's family in Hawaii has made me think a lot about "families of origin" so maybe you can look forward to a SUPER stimulating post on that topic sometime in the near future...ESPECIALLY since I'm done with fall semester in a week and a half!! 

Yep, Baby Jake, you heard right.  

Also worthy of note: my family started a little running blog (which you should go check out) to chronicle our marathon training progress. 

Happy Wed nes day!!

Maui 2011

Here are some photos of our trip with Jacob's family to Maui, the homeland, 

 

courtesy of Auntie Miranda

for Mama Joanie’s 

60th birthday. 

The trip was was amazing.

It was full of beaches

 

and ukuleles

 

and food.

 

some of which we paid for

a lot of which we didn't.

 Jacob told me that half his childhood was spent walking gingerly over lava rocks barefoot....Based on the experience of the last week, I’d guess the other half was spent insisting that we pull the car over every other mile to pilfer fruit from obliging yards.

There were flowers

and colors

 and clouds

 

and sunshine

and a baby

waiting patiently for his new cousin...

It was generally stunning.

 

 

And we can't wait to go back! Right, Jake?

Guest Posting (let the days of legit blogging begin!)

If you're feeling click-ish, go visit MY GUEST POST (eeek!) at the tried and true Camp Patton. I met Grace via the blogosphere, and now she makes laugh everyday!

Visiting Uncle Football Player

Papa Jacob isn't home tonight. He is on Maui celebrating his mother's 60th. Now. Before you go feeling all sorry for me, let me divulge that Jake and I join him tomorrow. After flying over the Pacific all by our little lonesomes. 

So then again, maybe we do deserve some sympathy courtesy of:

Five Hours in the Air with a Five Month Old. 

Yes. I'm nervous about it. Even if Jake is a pretty good little flier. This time he's got sniffles, and I've got butterflies, and we just can't wait to be back with Papa.

We tried out our intracontinental wings over the weekend, when we went to visit this guy:

 and watch him do these sorts of things:

with all of these people:

I could shower you with all the awesome pictures that the hubs took, but I've garnered only a handful for this evening.

He captured Jake's new favoritist thing. Hair pulling.

He also captured a reunion of these two old friends:

 a classic of the Ramsay Matriarch (plus one bearded silhouette):

a little nursing-a-la-football (which my parents found particularly amusing) 

The Jonathan Ramsay nose swipe

and Jake being Jake...you know...waxing eloquent about something.

Jake insisted on wearing his sports hat and found the football game riveting

  

Well...mostly riveting...

 

All that's to say: I'm so proud of you, little brother.
We loved getting to watch you play. The good ole 33 has done right by this family over the years.

And even though she's not paying attention because she's, I don't know, in Hawaii with Jake's father and other aunts and uncles. We must not forget: