The rest of the Halloween Photo's

Bunco Girls

Recognize anyone in that photo? My neighborhood just goes crazy for Halloween and our bunco group does too. This is our little clan that had to improvise some costumes to be let into the October bunco party. (the host is a little hare core.) We had a blast, if you couldn't tell. Hee hee. Halloween went off without a hitch and more photo's will follow. I just thought you might enjoy this one.

Wow how the time flies!!!

Kung Fu Fighters!

Alex and Emma, she can't decide if she is going to marry Ethan or Alex. Isn't she a cutie.

Ethan won two medals at his mini tournament. One of them for paterns and one for board breaking.

A day at the zoo. Looks like a few wild ones got out of there cages.

It has been a while since I last updated everyone. Life at the Jamail house is busy, but normal. Ethan is doing great in first grade. He is reading like a champ and really looks forward to going to school every day. Alex and Gwynn are both going to preschool three times a week. It gives me a little break. Enough to go grocery shopping in peace and get some embroidery done. They are really having a great time at school as well. Gwynn's teacher tells me that her favorite subject is LUNCH!! Big surprise. And Alex plays on the computer at school as much as his teacher will let him. Everything is smooth sailing right now.

We are getting ready for Halloween. Again we are going with a Star Wars theme. Ethan will be Jango Fet, Alex is Darth Vader and Gwynn will be Princess Leia. Even if I have to duck tape those buns to her head she will be Princess Leia!!! The pastor at our church is starting a betting pool to see who will win this battle. I dare anyone to bet against me. Tee hee.

That is about all for now. Have a great day!!

Destin Vacation

Our Summer is finally coming to a close. We packed the car, strapped a bunch of stuff to the top, and drove 11 hours to the most amazing beach on the Gulf Coast.... Destin Florida. Everyone around here talks about how beautiful the water is and how amazing the white sand beaches are (the sand actually squeaks when you walk on it). Well, now I know why, and I can't stop going on about it either. Why did we wait so long to go???? Why did we only stay a week??? When can we go back??? It was the perfect vacation for our family!!!!

We lazed around the house every morning, ate lunch and finally got out of our pj's and headed to the beach. We buried Ethan neck deep in the sand about one hundred times. Alex only liked it up to his chest, and Gwynn would always throw sand at there heads just as soon and there arms were immobilized (sneaky little thing). Alex and Gwynn were pretty content playing on the shore but Ethan wanted to be out in the water, I mean WAY OUT in the water. Brad had an obsession with finding shells. Every time I turned around he was missing. Swimming out with a net, coming back with some strange sea creature. Ethan just wanted to be by his dads side the whole time. We found sand dollars, dead and alive, tiny little clams, tons of hermit crabs, even a baby horse shoe crab. There were a few things we couldn't identify. The one down side to our trip was all of the jelly fish in the water. You really couldn't see them so we got stung a lot. Which wasn't as bad as one would think, but definitely unpleasant. I offered to pee on Ethan to make it feel better but he decided to tough it out, hee hee. (Mortified about the idea of his mother dropping trow in public, I think) What a brave boy.

We even drove down to Panama City Beach and visited St. Andrews State Park. (My Dad would be so proud). From there you can take a ferry across to Shell Island. This island is just a little undeveloped Sand Bar that gets tons of amazing and big shells on it. It is less protected than the beaches of Destin, so more shells. Unfortunately nobody tells you that these shells only appear after a summer storm and there hadn't been a storm for over a month. Ethan kept calling it Sand Island and I would have to agree. They did have a great time riding the bus over to the docks and getting on a boat. Good family day.

We cooked at home for almost every meal and did visit a few tourist traps, but all in all it was the perfect beach vacation. The most challenging part was the drive home. Gwynn was a total pill and pretty lucky we didn't leave her at a rest stop in Alabama!!! We were afraid people would think we kidnapped her because she was screaming so loud at the gas stations. We have also discovered that Gwynn has great eye sight. On the way out she didn't miss one McDonalds sign. Every time we would pass one she would yell "YEAH, Donalds". They obviously need to give there marketing director a raise!!!

One of the highlights of the trip was lunch in Slydell LA. I called up a friend that I had met on the Internet. Margie, who lives in Mississippi drove down to meet us for lunch. Margie and I became friends on a waiting families web group and had never met in person but have know each other for about two years. Her Daughter Lilli is from a bordering province in China. Lilli is something else. Total adorable and full of laughs. We really enjoyed meeting them both and look forward to them coming to our part of Texas.

The shear ecstasy of eating some'mores. Don't we all feel that way!!!

Brad is taking a break from his shelling expeditions

This is called time out at the beach.

Lunch date with Margie and Lilli, Oh yea, Brad, Ethan, Alex and Margie's other daughter Savanah were there too. By the way, Savanah is just as adorable as Lilli, but older so you can't make as big a deal out of it, hee hee.

A few pictures from Crystal

A few weekends ago one of my oldest friends came out for the weekend with her family and her camera. She got some great photo's of Gwynn, but because of a nasty stomach bug that struck the boys on Friday night, we only got a few good ones of Ethan and Alex. I stole these off Crystal's blog (hope you don't mind). Crystal just started a photography buisness in the Atlanta area and she does amazing work . Here is a link to her web site if anyone is interested...
http://ccjamesphotography.com/ tell her Andrea sent you!!!

South Padre Island

Fun at the beach!!!
The weekend of father’s day we packed up and headed south, I mean way south.

Our first stop was in Rockport to spend the weekend with Brad’s folks and there new travel trailer at Goose Island State Park. We played in the kiddy pool and shot water guns at each other and played lots of card games. We ended up taking the kids down to the docks with fishing polls and crab nets. Alex was the lucky fisherman; he caught a stripped Red Fish carcass by the tail and was really mad when we threw it back in. After one night of camping we must have looked really pathetic and hungry. While we were fishing at the docks two different boats pulled up and gave us a big bucket of crab and two big beautiful red fish. Boy did we have a feast that night.

From there we hopped back into the car and drove to South Padre Island. One of Brad’s customers offered up a wonderful condo for a few days. We took Gwynn to the beach for the first time and let me tell you… she hated it!!! For the first hour and a half she cried and tried to keep her feet out of the sand as much as she could. Brad and I tried to ignore her as much as we could and eventually she came around. She had a ball digging in the sand and getting her feet buried. Brad got the boys boogie boards and took them out to the big waves. Alex was most interested in hunting for sea shells. It is a perfect vacation with kids. For us it was just a warm up for our week in Destin Florida.

See what I am learning this summer

No Flash Cards, no workbooks. We are working on all of the essential stuff around here this summer. Like how to cross your eyes and roll your tong into a taco. You know, the really really important stuff. Next week we are starting our unit on how to toot with your armpit. Gosh, don't you just love summer!!!!

O M G !!!!!!

Who are those girls???

I found this laying around my computer desk and thought I would let you all in on a little laugh. No, we weren't getting ready for the Ms. Long Beach pageant, but almost. This was a masquerade ball for our Sorority. Now that was one seriously fun night!!! Love ya MJ and Roz!!!!!!!!!!!

New Photo's

I just had to post some new pictures that our babysitter Mattie took of the kids while Brad and I had a date night. Don't they look adorable!!! They spent the afternoon on the slip and slide in the back yard and topped off the evening with a bubble bath. What a night!!!

Poor Ethan took one look at his Easter basket and promptly ran into the bathroom to throw up. Not the best Easter for him. We did end up at my Mother in Law's house and Ethan was such a trooper. He mustered up enough strength to dye eggs and go on the Easter Egg hunt. All with a smile and a green tint to his face. Last year Alex and Gwynn were sick for Easter, so I guess it was just Ethan's turn.
Wow, now that is a big sucker. It didn't last long before it was found stuck to the carpet, but it was fun while it lasted.
Alex was having a rough morning. He kept getting in trouble for steeling eggs and candy out of his siblings baskets. He has settled into the roll of middle child PERFECTLY!!!!!

Happy Birthday Alex

Here we are celebrating Alex's 4th birthday at "The House of Mouse" that is code for Chuck e Cheese. One of my friends couldn't come to the party, since moving to Texas from California she told her kids they didn't have a Chucki e Cheese in Texas. We couldn't spoil it for her, hee hee. Alex had a great time and it was supper low stress for me. Well that is untill I had to pay the bill, OUCH!!! All in all it was a great party and just what Alex wanted. I think next year is his turn for the blow out Pirate party!!

Yes, if you were wondering, I made that hideous orange dinosaur cake. It was red velvet inside and had enough food colloring in it to kill a small child. Alex loved it and that's what is important.

Don't we look thrilled to be there? Brad spent most of his time beating the other dads at Pin Ball. I thought he was going to loose it when his ball got stuck durring a record breaking game and he had to unplug the machine to reset it. I think he has been stopping off after work to practice.

April 2007 a long awaited update

Here is our little yellow belt. Last week Ethan completed his test to become a yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do. We are just so proud of him. He only has a few weeks of Kindergarten left and he is already looking ahead to his Seventh birthday (Jan 2008) . He is just growing up so fast.
Say Cheese!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't resist putting this Chinese dress on to show my mom how incredible cute Gwynn is. My mom came out to visit last week. It is getting so hard to take Gwynn's picture. She won't sit still long enough to snap a picture and she already wants to look at the screen on the back.
This is our Soccer star. His is playing on a team of 4 year olds and they call themselves "The Incredibles". Alex seems to really like playing but his favorite part is the snack afterwards. Big surprise huh?

Here is our motley Crew on Valentines day. Completely sugared out and ready for bed. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get three kids to even look at the camera at the same time. Now with the invention of digital cameras everyone MUST look at how the picture turned out before we try to take another one. Even Gwynn gets in on the action, grunting and pointing until I show her the back of the camera. Absolutely forget about getting another smile out of them until they have all see it. Well, I guess you can tell who is in charge around here.

We have had another Co Co sighting, actually we have seen her a lot lately. Terrible two's here we come!!!

This picture is what happens when we put Gwynn in time out. The boys have to check out what she is doing. She starts pouting and either jumps around or lays down and soon we have this going on. I am not sure if anyone is being punished at this point, with the exception of me.

Forever Family Day!!!

Forever Family Day!!!!!!!!!

Today is the first anniversary of our Gottcha day. One year ago Gwynn was placed in my arms with a tiny sticker on her sholder that had her name on it so she wouldn't get confused with the other girs. She just looked at us and back at her nannie, but never cried. It was one of the most amazing days of my life. I just can't believe that it has already been a year. Somedays is seems like we have had her for her whole life and some days it seems like we were in China yesterday. Wow, what a ride!!

We love you Gwynnie!!!

This is all it takes to completely shut down the entire city of Houston and get a day off of school.

Can you see them? Tiny little icicles and a super thin coat of ice on our deck. Last Wednesday we actually had what the rest of the country calls a snow day. It was great, but to wet to get outside. We went to McDonald's for lunch expecting the place to be loaded to the gills with all the kids out of school. We couldn't believe it when we found the parking lot empty and the play land quiet. Come on Texans, you can do better than that!!!

Meet CoCo, this is Gwynn's alter ego. She has finally hit her terrible Two's, with a vengeance!!!! She is stomping around here demanding things and trying to boss her brothers and me around. It is hard not to laugh at her when she is doing it because she is just so darn cute!!! Can you see that look on her face, that girl knows how to cut her eyes at you!!! By the way, Brad did her hair in the crazy ponytails and she loved it!! That night when it was time to get ready for bed she cried, I mean really cried when I took them out. Oh, one more thing, she said two new words yesterday....Bow and Shoes. God I love her!!!!

Doesn't he look cute? Well only when he is standing still! For Christmas Gwynn got both a shopping cart and a stroller, unfortunately she never gets to play with either of them. Alex always has them loaded up with his Dino's and runs up and down our extremely long hallway with them. I was surprised when he stood still long enough to snap a shot of his baby doll. The other great thing about his new favorite pass time is the noise hard plastic wheel es make on hard stone tile. My Motrin is running out, help!!!

Last but not least.....Happy Birthday Ethan.........

Ethan turned 6 this weekend and we partied all weekend. It started on Thursday with cupcakes at school. Friday we took him out to his favorite hibachi restaurant. Saturday we had 6 of his friends at the movie theater and Sunday was our family dinner. Boy that was a crazy weekend. Ethan go roller blades and was scooting up and down the hallway as well. He also got a really cool ride on toy called the flying turtle. He just can't stop telling people that he is now six and is totally looking forward to being seven. He wonders how tall he will be in a year and how many teeth he will have lost. It is just too darn cute. He has the sweetest smile.

Merry Christmas!!!

Wow, what a stash of toys. Don't be alarmed, Ethan was taking all the kids toys and piling them up. Still was a great Christmas for all.
And I was worried about getting a tom-boy. NO WAY!!! she has the necklace, ring, bracelet and Cell phone. Gosh I just love her!!!
All Alex wanted for Christmas was a T-rex. Even after pushing the envalope on what is naught and nice, Santa did bring him the T-Rex he asked for. He hasn't let go of it since.

Brad got an X-Box 360 and we haven't seen him since, hee hee. And I got a navagation system for my car. All in all, it was the best Christmas yet. We really had a sence that our family was complete. Really Complete!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We hope you all have a blessed New Year!!!

Our Love,

The Jamails