Jacob's Fall Portrait

I thought I would share Jacob's fall school portrait. There's just something about this picture that makes me want to giggle every time I look at it. :o) I think it is very sweet, but there is something about his expression that seriously makes a smile come to my face every time I glance it's way! I asked him why he smiled like he did, and his answer was that he had seen one of his buddies smile like that for a picture one time, so he thought he would try it. Truth be known, I have seen a picture of the very buddy Jacob spoke of, and sure enough, he was smiling like that!

All these pictures are the same, some are just closer up or farther away, and I included a black and white version and a sepia tone one.
This is the actual picture I ordered.

I hope they made you smile too! :o)

We've not been up to much since Halloween...I guess we've been trying to recuperate :) We celebrated Mom's birthday with dinner at my brother's house on Sunday night...homemade taco salads and a carrot cake from scratch...yummy!!

One proud achievement of mine is that the boys have made it to school earlier the first three days of the week than they have any day so far this year!! When I set our clock back on Sunday morning, I actually set it a few minutes fast and it worked...except for this morning! It could have something to do with my mother calling a little after seven and asking where I was...she thought it was a little after eight! I thought for sure my clock had stopped working and the boys would be tardy until we realized what she had done. That should have been my indicator for how the rest of the day would go :) Mom and I planned to make fried apple pies and a double batch of fudge for Kyrock's fall festival. Let's just say, the fudge making turned out okay...after I had to make a quick trip to the dollar store for pans because Mom had left hers at Mamaw's. The pie making...not so good. I'll just say, after dropping one...right onto another one (that was not fried), and laughing a bit too hard when Mom about fell and killed herself, I was banned from the kitchen :o) Seriously, it was one of those times where so much happens at one time that it's best just to laugh about it! I laughed so hard I thought I had busted a gut!! ;) So...I just made my way to the living room, put in a movie and worked on some of my crafts for the Christmas Bazaar....which by the way, I hope turn out as cute as I have imagined! If so, I may post some pictures here. If they turn out well and there seems to be enough interest, this might be a little venture that I pursue a little further. I have always dreamed of being able to sell some of my crafts and I may just work on making that happen...but, we'll just have to see.

While I'm thinking about it, Matthew went to the doctor on Monday for a recheck since starting the new medication. Dosages were changed again, and so far, no significant improvements in the sleeping department. His teachers and I are watching a few little oddities and hope they turn out to be insignificant. He has been loaned a GoTalk to use at home, at school and at KAP! We're excited to see how this works out. They told me today at KAP that the last few days he's been there, at about 4:00 he will go and get his backpack and then the picture of me that's on his schedule and go to the door. I thought that was sweet...he loves his momma...or else he knows I'm his only ride home...such a smart boy either way!!!!!!!! :o)

I may do a post in the next few days about how Jacob told me he would go about cooking a Thanksgiving turkey :) Needless to say, we are looking forward to Thanksgiving! It has always been one of my most favorite holidays! Since there is no gift giving like at Christmas, it gives more time to just visit with family. You just eat, sit around and talk....that's my kind of holiday! Jacob is looking forward to having turkey and a "feast" as he calls it...don't sound too bad to me either! I asked him this morning when he would like to put up his Christmas tree and he said, "Maybe November 16th." I don't know where he pulled that date from. I think we might put his tree up (it's just a little one) this weekend, and then I may work on putting a few things up a little at a time. I must say, I have got to the point where I get a bit overwhelmed if I try to do it all after Thanksgiving, so I've been putting stuff up earlier the last year or two. I thought if I did it bit by bit, it wouldn't be too stressful and I could get it all up and ready to enjoy by Thanksgiving evening. That too will remain to be seen! I have gotten some shopping done, so that is super-nice! My Mom and Dad are treating my family and my brother's family to a Christmas weekend in the Smokies, and mine and Mom's goal is to have as much of our shopping done by then as possible! I am so excited to go the mountains at Christmas!!!! I've always wanted to go to see all the lights and decorations. We have a cabin reserved and will be staying from Friday night to Sunday evening. The only 'bad' thing is that we will have to miss church. Since our churches have service on opposite weekends, someone would have to miss no matter which weekend we went :(

Oh yeah...to make this post a little more lengthy...WE HAVE OUR TICKETS FOR NEW MOON!!! Yep, I'm going to be one of those starry-eyed idiots sitting in a theater with a bunch of starry-eyed, loud teenagers, but it's gonna be fun!!!! No, we are not going to the midnight showing...we may be crazy, but we ain't STUPID!! We are going on opening night though :o)