After Christmas, Gina came to visit for a few days.  And, although we missed seeing all her kids, it was fun having her all to ourselves for a little while.  We spent most of our time just hanging out, doing puzzles, cooking.   It was very low-key.  We did spend one night going through the Bellagio and seeing their Christmas display.  They change the room every season, and it is always magnificent.  This year was no exception.

The flower glass sculpture at the Bellagio is always my favorite. :)

Here we are at dinner one night.  Gina thought it was funny how hard we all tried to get Jason's attention.  As you can see, Jason was so impressed.

Both my sisters love reading to the kids as much as I do.  The kids don't really care who is doing the reading, as long as they can snuggle up to someone with a book.  In this picture Austin is just being silly...but there have been enough times where he has really fallen asleep in the middle of a book.

Here I am with my handsome boys.

And our very favorite time of the day.  Bath time.  So sweet.

Now that we've been spoiled, we are fully expecting our next visit to be sooner than later.  Although, maybe next time we'll jump in the car and make the drive so that we can see Gina with her whole crew.  (And Mom and Dad Jones too...if they aren't sick of us yet. :)

Ethan's in love.  I know this because today he said.  "I'm in love with Jaylynn."  And since I've always been known for my ability to powers of perception, I knew instantly that Ethan was in love. 

Today wasn't the first time we've heard about this girl.   About a week ago, at dinner, he smiled up at us all and declared, "I have a crush on a girl."  When pushed as to why he like her he mused, "Well, she is kind and nice.  And she's hot!"  I was a little amused and a little disturbed at the same time.  I'm convinced, however, that 'hot' translates directly to 'pretty' for my little love and not 'sexy.'  I'm hoping and choosing to believe that he is too young for those kind of feelings.

Alaina is having the opposite problem.  Gabriel is a boy in her class who tells Alaina every day that he has a crush on her.  He is bold enough to ask her if she has a crush on him to which she shrugs and says, 'No."  I'm sure she's very polite about it.  She says that the other day he leaned his head on her shoulder and before she could move, he quickly kissed her on the arm.  She was not amused.

That was last week.  This week we've had a new conversation.  Kind of.

Alaina tells me that that boy Gabriel has continued to profess his love all week.  Today he asked her if she would like him if he saved her life from something.  She was fairly nonchalant when she answered.  "Sure.  I guess."  This awarded her yet another unwanted, sneaky, arm kiss.  She immediately told Austin who immediately asked Gabriel, "Hey.  Why did you kiss my sister?"  He answered, "Uh.  I didn't.  I was just reaching over to get something."  Yeah, right.  So the big question at the dinner table was how to let someone know that you aren't ever going to have a crush on them.  And, oh yeah, how to get them to stop kissing your arm.

Looks like I'll be calling the teacher about moving Gabriel across the room.

On the other side of the table, Ethan was equally chatty.  It seems as all his devious plans were proving successful.  He restated his previous claim, "I have a crush on Jaylynn," this time followed with, "and she has a crush on me, too!"  Well.  At least he thinks she does.  They haven't really talked about it.  He has, however, spent every recess strategically playing two-square with his friend, right in the same spot that Jaylynn and her girlfriend spend their recess.  Ethan says that he always beats his friend and that is very impressive to Jaylynn.  So, I asked him if he was going to talk to her.  "No." he said, suddenly subdued. "I'm to shy around her."  "Well, what would you say if you did say something to her?" I asked.  Ethan must have been mulling this one over for a while because he excitedly blurted out, "Only that she is the most beautiful girl that I've ever seen in MY WHOLE LIFE!"  Aw.  Well.  What girl wouldn't like to hear that?

You may ask yourself where Austin was during this very exciting dinner talk.  I guess he felt he didn't have to play the game, since he's already found himself a little girl friend in Washington.  One who likes him just as much as he likes her.  As far as he's concerned, he's out of the rat race.

I think I'm going to like Austin's little long distance relationship the very most.

********update********

All these conversations were a few months ago.  I got busy and didn't ever get around to posting them.  In the meantime, things with Ethan have remained intense (as all things concerning Ethan tend to be.)  At one point Ethan had decided that he absolutely MUST tell Jaylynn that 'she is the most beautiful girl in the entire world.'  The only problem was that he was too shy to say it.  So, for a whole evening he practiced.  He had an intro worked out.  "Hey, Jaylynn.  Can we talk for a minute?"  He had the main conversation worked out.  "I just wanted to tell you that I think you are really nice and..." wait for it..."the most beautiful girl in the world."  This was a family affair.  He tried it out on me.  On Rob.  On Alaina.  (Austin was interested.)  We all had to role-play.  it was, like I said, Intense. 

The big day came and he was so nervous.  When he came home, I was so curious to know how it went.  Well.  It didn't.  He was too shy.  He couldn't do it.  Plus, he realized, she liked a different boy.  Oh, the heartbreak.  Ethan is optimistic though.  He said the boy she likes is transferring back to the school he was suspended from (nice, right?) and so Ethan will have another chance in a couple of months.  Way to keep the glass half-full, kid.

I did inquire why she liked a boy like that and Ethan thoughtfully said, "Well.  She likes bad boys.  Because he's a bad boy.  But she likes good boys too.  Because she likes me and I'm a good boy."

I tend to agree. 

I just realized how blog-lazy I have been since Christmas.  Tsk tsk.   Ah well.  I'll try to make up with it by over-posting.  You know.  Posting too many pictures.  Writing too many boring details.  (at 7 o'clock I woke up.  At 7:15 I ate a yummy breakfast of cheerios.)  Over sharing.  Isn't that what people call the whole Facebook movement?  Well.  I'm planning on being the best of the best when it comes to 'Too much information!"

Let's start with Jason.  Man.  I'm in love with this child.  He is so easy.  So sweet.  So beautiful.  If I could, I'd have 5 more just like him.  Well, maybe not 5...maybe just two.  But still.  Seriously.  He's got me wrapped around those chubby fingers.

This last month he has gone from, what I like to call, his Hallelujah walk (hands straight up) to his zombie walk (self-explanatory, isn't?) to his speedy, caution to the wind charge mixed with a healthy dose of 180 heel turns holding numerous objects.   It's impressive.  Here is a video of one of his earlier works.

Jason has been slowly learning new signs and consisting using others. His best one to date is 'done.' He will even use it in response to me asking him verbally if he has finished. He is starting to mimic some signs like Mama or Dada by pointing to his head. He will use 'book' and 'more.' It is a slow road to communication but definitely one worth taking. He seems to be able to hear well enough to understand speech with his hearing aids and so I'm hoping that he'll be able to eventually use speech as his main manner of communication. Until then, we'll keep supplementing him with sign.

Jason's personality has certainly blossomed this last month as well. He is a focused, determined child who is hard to distract when he has something on his mind. He is still very quiet and seems to enjoy watching (or studying) other people and kids before he interacts with them. When we walk by adults, he will stop and stare at them until he has satisfied his curiosity and then he moves on. His single-mindedness and observation skills remind me of a little Lainy. However, where Alaina was fearless, Jason has started to become quite the Mama's boy. The only real downside of that is shyness. The upside is a whole lot of hugs and kisses. (Those are still the open mouth with spit and teeth, but I'll take them any day of the week.)

 The other day I came around the corner and saw this. Just what do you think he's doing?

 Eating an apple, naturally.

And here is our little love getting into stuff.  But how could you ever be mad at a face like that?

And, because I have three other children, I've decided to share a little silly conversation between myself and one of them.

Alaina and I were getting ready for church and both looking in the mirror.  Alaina was eyeing herself rather closely, arching her eyebrows and scrunching down her forehead over and over.  The effect seemed to please her and she happily exclaimed, "Yeah!  My Daddy-lines are finally coming in!"  I assumed she meant the squiggly lines on her forehead, but before I could respond she sighed and said, "Oh no.  Those are just my happy-lines."  (That's what I told her wrinkles are called.)

So sad.  Just happy lines.

I don't know if I've ever documented this, but another word that she has somehow mixed up is nipples.  She calls them 'nibbles' which leads to some very interesting and funny conversations.  I've told her the correct way to say it, but it is like the word pasgetti instead of spaghetti.  Once you learn it one way, it is awfully hard to change back.