Boys will be boys.

Jake is different when he gets together with his brother, Garrett. Not different in a bad way but different in a it's-1994-and-we're-12-again way. The word "dude" is thrown around a lot and there's a lot of talk about cars, electronics and bathroom humor. Last week, Garrett and his wife Vanessa were over and while the girls carried on a lovely conversation, the boys busted out their RC cars. Vanessa and I always get a kick out of the guys and their cars and don't quite understand the hobby but we let it be and the guys tolerate our teasing. Well, this night was no different and we were thoroughly entertained by the intense conversation about fuel tanks and throttle bodies.

Working on the HPIMT2 (I am not making that up!)

Spaghetti Dinner

This was after dinner when we were cleaning up and we noticed she had climbed back up to the table and was stuffing her face with the remaining spaghetti from the pot. Note the bracelet, "circle dress" and hood? All things she requested to wear.

Princess mania.

As expected, Jenna now loves anything and everything princess. She repeatedly requests "Pincess moh-nies" (princess movies), "Belle Baby" (the doll from Aunt Missy) and three other princess figurines passed down from her cousins are new bedtime must-haves and Cinderella appears to have been adopted as the fourth member of our family. The other morning for breakfast Jenna had "Cin-a-weh-wuh" and "Pink Pincess" at the table, facing each other and the three were carrying on some kind of conversation. I asked Jenna if she wanted special oatmeal (malt-o-meal) for breakfast and she said, "Yeah peese. Cin-a-weh-wuh? A besho ohmeal?" Apparently the princess wanted some, too. She loves to give them drinks of milk and bites of food. One day we went out to run some errands and Jenna wanted to bring along her purse. I handed it to her and she put Belle inside and the "wewoh pincess" accompanied us to the post office and grocery store.

Reading "Cheeka Cheeka" to the three of them at naptime.

I suppose it's a normal obsession and I figure every little girl goes through a princess/ballerina phase (the ballerina thing is almost as bad) but it sure is a pain when pink princess, the smallest of the three, can't be found at bedtime or Belle was left in the car and Jenna has to have all three to function properly. Slightly annoying. And I do draw the line at princess shoes. On the other hand, it works as great ammunition. "Jenna, it's time to get in your princess bed." "Jenna all princesses get their hair done everyday." "Jenna, Cinderella is waiting for you to get dressed!" etc., etc. And it makes planning her second birthday party easy - tiaras for everyone! (Just kidding. I draw the line there, too).

A for effort.

Monday was a difficult day with Jenna. It's like she's almost two or something. According to her, everything called for a major meltdown, even if she just spilled two drops of her milk on her jammies. At the end of the day, dinner was not something I wanted to think about. So Jake, being the great guy that he is, offered to make something and when he asked me what I felt like I said white enchiladas. He found a recipe online, made a special trip to the store and with help from Jenna, began cooking while I spent a few minutes by myself. I came out to the kitchen shortly before dinner was ready and when I saw the huge (empty) jar of nacho cheese, I had a bad feeling. Then Jake says, "This was supposed to make 6, but I've only got 4 and the filling is gone." This is what came out of the oven:

We both kind of stared at it then he says, "It got a really good rating." He also mixed up a little bit of this:Notice the empty jar to the right of the pitcher? The entire contents is on top of those enchiladas. We both just started cracking up. We took a few bites and then stopped.

Jill: The filling is really good, but there's kind of a lot in each one. It's kind of overwhelming....

Jake: ....ly good?

But we both knew the truth. I think it would have been okay with less filling in each one and with a lot less nacho cheese. I had to laugh because it was so Jake to come up with something that involved nacho cheese and green kool-aid. We both felt a little sick later on that night. I felt so bad that his special dinner didn't turn out as special as he had hoped but he definitely scored the points for trying.

The Treats.

I really felt like the holiday treats my sister baked deserved their own post. She started days (weeks?) in advance baking enough cookies and fudge for Christmas and my niece's baptism. Our entire family was visiting for the festivities and so was her husband's side of the family so there were a lot of people ready to stuff their faces and she was ready for us!

An ordinary Rubbermade tote?

The motherlode.

Let's take a closer look at that goodness.

My personal favorite? I had two: The chocolate peppermint cookies and the doctored up cookies with craisins and cardamom. Oh, man. I ate about 20 pounds in cookies alone. Another 10 in fudge. Between the treats in the tote, and more treats, including a pumpkin cheese cake, at my other sister's house, I felt the decision to buy a treadmill was well-founded. But, that's another post.... Thank you for a sweet Christmas!

The airplane ride may have been long, but we'll endure anything to be in Ohio and our visit rocked! Jenna and I flew out a week before Jake, who flew on Christmas Eve. I guess a person always takes a risk when they book a flight on Christmas Eve and sure enough, he got stuck in Houston but I think the flat screen TV, granite counters and king-size bed made it okay. He arrived at about 10:30 Christmas morning and he didn't miss too much - there were a lot of presents to open! Here are some highlights from our visit:

Christmas Sunday,

Gingerbread houses,

watching movies,

lots of cousin time ,
and Polly Pockets!

special jammies made by Aunt Missy,

not necessarily just for Christmas - she wore them a few nights ago!

FOOD

Our traditional Christmas Eve spread -thanks Amy!

opening presents,

working on puzzles,



chasing, tickling, and "wrastlin'" (as my grandpa called it).

It always feels like home when we visit my sisters and their families and we did not want to come back to California. We hated going from a house full of family back to our usual, boring, quiet days. Well, actually, it was only quiet for two days then we had a house full of people for New Year's Day. Some of Jake's family came over to celebrate the annual Pittson Family New Year's Party. We enjoyed an Italian-theme dinner, "chipping," making music with some of Uncle Eddie's instruments and just having good conversation. New Year's Eve was less of a party; Jake and I fell asleep on the couch around 9:45pm. Our excuse is that it still felt like Ohio time which would have made it 12:45am.

Sporting her 2009 party hat

Plane trip survival tips

From Jenna:

-Make sure you have plenty of Strawberry Shortcake stickers to decorate your body with.-Those little buttons above your head are fun to push. They turn the light on.... and call the flight attendant.-To pass the time, show your new Belle doll the sceneryand teach her songs like "Once There Was a Snowman" and "Open & Shut Them."

The words to this little song we learned at the library are: Open and shut them, open and shut them, give a little clap, clap, clap. Open and shut them, open and shut them, lay them in your lap, lap, lap. Creep them, creep them, creep them, creep them right up to your chin, chin, chin. Open wide, and look inside but do not let them in!

From Jill:

-Milk in a "sport" sippy cup will leak when straw is closed, explode from the pressure when straw is released and completely soak the sleeve of the jacket that you could not cram into your suitcase. Use alternative drinking cup.

-Putting your child in a white shirt will show everything she attempted to eat while on a bumpy plane ride, for example applesauce and princess fruit snacks. Choose alternative color. -Do your child's hair. It makes her more likeable.

From Jake:

-Just sleep.