Merry Christmas!

Twinners

Little Miss Jilley & Family 2009
***
This is the picture that went out on all
our Christmas Cards this year. When Kent's
Aunt Debbie saw the card, she thought
we might like to see this...

Little Miss Debbie 1952
***
The resemblance is uncanny!

While the Cat's away...

*** the ***

***mice***

*** will ***

*** play! ***

This is what happens when I (the cat)
let Kent hold the camera.
Silly boys (mice)...

Fred

A sweet woman in your ward

dropped by one afternoon while the kids
were sleeping with this:
click here to get your own elf

Here's the premise of the book- Santa has enlisted
elfs to help him know who's being naughty or nice.
The elf's job is to sit on your shelf or where ever he likes,
watch you, fly to the North Pole each night to
report to Santa, and then magically in the morning
he's back at your home hiding in a new watching spot.

Your job is to name your elf, never touch him (touching him
makes him lose his magic), and to be NICE.


Jackson named our elf Fred, he's really good about finding
Fred's new hiding spot each morning,
and all I have to do is remind him Fred is watching when
he starts to get a little naughty.

Thanks Fred for making our Christmas a little "Nicer."
You're always welcome at our house.

And thank you Sister Jones for this fun gift.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

...how tedious it is to decorate you.

or

...how beautiful your branches when I'm done with you.

(And just by way of information, this is my Mom's tree,

with mostly her decorations. My little tree is packed away.)

Last night as we set things up

I couldn't help but let each ornament's story spill

out of my mouth like nastalgic regurg.

I echo, as others before me, "You can have your designer/matchy trees,

I like my hodge-podge of memories."

And with that said, here are some of my
favorite decorations.
(this year)
This part of the tree I call the shrine.
Here's my sister Britlynn as a baby, preschooler,
kindergartner, and first grader. Precious.
***

Sweet Jilley's 1st Christmas
***

Jack @ 6 months old & my Dad's favorites- bubble lights
***

A Santa sea star from a family friend,
blue &white china (my Mom's obsessed),
a crochet snow flake made by my Grandma,
a quilted tree ornament from a longtime
neighbor, and a mickey bulb to remind us
of our 2009 season passes.
***
A symbol of the true meaning of Christmas.
***

'Tis the season to wear jammies

1.Don't mind the finger prints on the fireplace glass.

2. I think my mom deserves major props
for finding matching pjs for this brother/sister duo.

their sassy photo
***

Jill's top reads Santa's Best Gift
***

I'm One Tough Cookie
***

And this concludes our jammy presentation!

happy songs

Here's a video showcasing-
Jill's new word
(happy, happy, happy, I happy) &
Jack's first Christmas song.
***
I think it's worth a minute of your life,
but than again I am their mother.

BAD Blogger #1

Its been too long.
I'm sure you've all come to the conclusion that
I'd fallen off the face of the Earth
and in a way I guess you'd be right.

Here are my excuses for not blogging:
1. my computer melted down irreversibly
2. Jill palmed my camera with sandy hand,
then Kent took it apart to "fix" it.

Here is what it looks like today...

3. We moved to Ventura
4. I've had some health issues (I'll expound later)
5. I'm having fun away from the computer.

Here's the rest of the family:

***

***

Sorry we've all been "at large."
More past/catch-up posts to come...
I promise.

And Now a Public Service Announcement - From Jillian

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas...

I've almost got the house completely

decorated for Christmas!
***

Not bad for December 4th!

(I made the count down to Christmas & I'm

totally pleased at how cute it turned out.)

***

My Mom's newest Creche.
***

Have you noticed a theme yet? Well you would if

I'd given you a better picture tour of the house,

we have 13 Nativities out. And the only Santa you'll

find around here is worshiping his newborn King.

We're not anti-Santa per-say, we just try our hardest to

keep our focus on more important things.

Plus, Jack broke my only Santa last year, so you know...

Look Mom we make a T!

***
***
The other day I was in the kitchen when I heard
loud raucous laughter coming from the living room.
That's when I found Jillian squealing with laughter
and Jackson tickling away. He stopped

long enough to say- "Look mom, we make a T!"

Giggling I ran to get my camera,
because I never want to forget this moment
or their sweet faces.

Plus, more often than this, I hear screaming coming from the living room, find Jillian crying, and when I ask what's going on Jackson matter-of-factly replies-"I was just biting her!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Preschool Thanksgiving Feast 2009
***

Jack's class made headdresses and came as
the Indians/Native Americans that helped
the Pilgrims that first Thanksgiving.
***
The 4 year old class came as pilgrims and
the 2 year old class came as turkeys (too cute).
***

After the feast the kids enjoyed some tribal drumming
from some members of the Crow Nation.
***

Cool Stuff!

***
Us Howes have so very much to be thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Under Neat That

A friend sent this to me and I just had to share:

Okay, so this is how I imagine this conversation went:

Walmart Employee: 'Hello 'dis be Walmarts,

how can I help you?'
Customer: ' I would like to order a cake for a going

away party this week.'
Walmart Employee: 'What you want on da cake?'
Customer: 'Best Wishes Suzanne'

and underneath that 'We will miss you'.

STOP LAUGHING! You can't fix stupid.

Pebbles & Bam Bam

For Halloween I had grand plans of

making the whole family Halloween costumes.
***
Fred, Wilma, Pebbles, & Bam bam
***
I bought all the fabric & got started.
I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but
8 hours into my sewing project 2 things had
become very clear:
1. I desperately could have used a pattern
2. There was no way I was going to finish
all 4 costumes on time.
Bam bam & Pebbles
(Kent and I wore orange shirts for trick-or-treating.
My goal is to finish our costumes for next year.)
***
It was too cold to go trick-or-treating bare
chested, but I thought the costume
looked better without the orange shirt.
***
Here's my favorite part of Jilley's
costume- her bone bow.
This was the first Halloween everyone
was excited to trick or treat.
That's right, until now Jack's been a bit
of a party pooper.
***
But this year Pebbles & Bam bam were
happy to fill their sacks with
other peoples' candy!
***
Does anyone really like Payday anyway?
***
Trick-or-Treat!

edge-a-ma-cation time

It's official Jackson's a preschooler!

Jack's 1st day of school picture

***
He's part of the 3 year old Butterfly class at TLC Preschool

His teachers are Mrs. Kam & Mrs. Lucken.

And despite just moving to Ventura he does

know 2 boys in his class (from church).

***

Jack, Dad & I are so excited to watch you

learn and grow this school year.

Listen to your teachers, smile, don't eat the paste,

but most of all have fun!

Open for Business

Jack's Auto Shop

Motto: You break it; we fix it!

Location: Middle of the hallway

Ventura, Ca.

Fees: We take all major candy bars

Testimonials: "Jack, alligned the wheels on

my walk and go. It's never run better."-Jillian Howe

Eye Spy

***

Our new camera kicks our last camera's trash!

It's easy to use & I don't know when the

kids have looked cuter!

A perk of moving...

Boxes!

Jack was happily busy for hours with this box while all his loud,messy, expensive toys sat abandoned. Go figure.

Poor Jilley, it's really not fair to post this picture, it's not flattering, but I just can't resist!

***

PS-We're 99% unpacked, just one box to go...

Something borrowed

Today I visited one of my favorite sewing/crafty blogs
Little Bit Funky*
and found this beautiful thought.

I find myself praying
a lot
to be a better mother to my children.
I love this visual reminder.

I've added this to my blog with
the hopes that it will be as inspiring to
you as it as been for me.

*Crystal said this image was free to grab,
that's why I took the liberty of adding to my
blog, but not without due credit (of course).
***
If you "grab" this image too, make sure you
hop over to Little Bit Funky and leave
a little comment... I'm just saying.

"That's Not My Name"

Here's a sneak peak at my running tunes...starting Monday.

50/50

We're moving!

And believe us, there's nothing harder
than leaving somewhere you
truly consider home.


We're going to miss all our wonderful friends,
our amazing ward, Ruby's on the pier, all the convenient
shopping, living so close to Disneyland, etc.
***
But we know this is the RIGHT move, at the
RIGHT time, for the RIGHT reasons.
***
And we're excited to be moving to a
familiar place, with family, friends, and fond
memories to make this transition that
much easier.



Ventura California here we come!



Ventura is a hidden jewel along the California Coastline.
It's my roots, beautiful, family oriented, &
a beach town we can actually afford to
buy a home. We'll be staying with my
parents, for a year or so, while we save up enough
dough for a down payment on our dreams.

We know you'll understand, even if you find yourself
on the short end of our stick.

Now leave us a comment. We know it's going to be
a 50/50 toss of love it versus hate this,
but let us know what you think anyway.

And remember, we love you
Huntington Beach, really we do... .


Additional Info-
*Kent will continue on with Secure Net,
just from a different location.
*We're tentatively set to move August 22, 2009.
*We want to enroll Jack in a preschool
for the fall. Does anyone have any suggestions?