Some recent pictures

Here's Jordan standing next to the tower of presents Santa left on Christmas morning.














Here's Jordan surveying his gifts at Grammie D's and Grampy's on Saturday, Dec. 23.













Jordan got his first haircut Dec. 16. You can read about the haircut, and you'll understand this is the "before" shot. :-)


















Here is Jordan and Aunt Cristina watching one of the gorillas at the Fort Worth Zoo.













Our friends, John and Christine Engler, found a fun tradition to photograph your kid in one of dad's favorite T-shirts each year on the kid's birthday. The idea is that you'll see how big the little one grows between 1 and 18, relative to dad's T-shirt. Though John and Christine probably won't appreciate the shirt I chose (hook 'em horns!), thanks for the idea. :-)

Merry Christmas!

We're recovering from a very busy Christmas weekend, and impromptu trip to Oklahoma. More on that in a moment, but first, these messages (pictures will come later in the week, hopefully).

* Friday, Dec. 22 was the Jordan-Kimsey Christmas get-together at Grammie's and Grampy's. There, the adults had a "Scrooge exchange" with DVDs. We ended up withThe Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Jordan got several new toys, including a camouflage hunting cap with the University of Texas Longhorns logo on the front.

* Saturday, we went back to Grammie D's and Grampy's to do Christmas with them, and Aunt Deona and Monica. It was a ton of fun, and Jordan picked up a lot of new toys. Jordan never got the hang of opening the gifts, but he had fun. Saturday night, he stayed with Grammie D and Grampy while Dondi and I went to the Christmas Eve service at Fellowship Church in Grapevine. Let's just say, it wasn't your typical Christmas Eve eve service, but we enjoyed it. While we were driving there, we decided to go to Oklahoma and surprise Dondi's grandmother in Perkins for Christmas. Saturday night, we made hotel reservations and made plans to leave Monday around lunch time.

* Sunday morning we got up and went to our church's 10:50 a.m. candlelight service with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Cristina. Then, we went to the new Chicken Red's restaurant in Mansfield for dinner, then to their house to open gifts with them. We had a great time with them.

* Monday morning, Santa came! He left Jordan a bunch of good gifts (thanks again Grampy and Grandpa for putting together the one we didn't think needed any assembly), and everyone came by to wish us a Merry Christmas. Dondi fixed a delicious breakfast, and we all had a great time.

Monday afternoon, we packed up and headed north to Oklahoma. The weather was great (if you didn't mind a 40 mph headwind most of the way north), but traveling on Christmas can be a bit of a problem. We decided north of town we wanted lunch. Dondi and I had eaten at a Denny's in Gainesville several years ago that was pretty good, so we decided that would work. Except Denny's in Gainesville is no longer in business (at least not along I-35). So, we continued north into Oklahoma and stopped at a Denny's in Ardmore. Which closed 30 minutes before we got there. We finally ate lunch about 3 p.m. at an IHOP in Ardmore (note to self: pack a lunch when traveling on Christmas Day). We arrived at Grandma's around 6:30, and she seemed happy to see us.

Jordan spent the night out at the farm with Grandma Cross, Grammie and Grampy, and Dondi and I made our way into Stillwater to our hotel, where we slept uninterrupted for 9 hours. It was great!

Tuesday, we got to see about 25 of Dondi's family members (a small gathering) and had a great lunch. Jordan started getting sleepy about 3 p.m., so we packed up and headed back to Texas. We ate dinner at the Denim's restaurant in Marietta, Oklahoma, then made the rest of the trip home.

A good time was had by all, and we really enjoyed seeing everybody this Christmas!

Jordan's Weekends of Firsts

Sorry for the long delay between posts, but this has been a hectic month!

This weekend marked a couple of firsts for Jordan:

* Jordan got his first haircut Saturday morning. We went to a local kiddie salon for the haircut, and he seemed happy when we first went in. He got to sit in a chair that was shaped like a race car. We buckled him in, and he happily played with the steering wheel. The stylist went to put his cape on, and he took the first two snips of his hair pretty calmly. Then, the frustration came out and he fought, screamed, kicked and cried for the remainder of the haircut. It looks pretty good, despite his antics! He slept really well Saturday mid-day while we ran the last few errands!

* Sunday after church, the three of us went to the Fort Worth Zoo with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Cristina. It was a lot of fun (and a great day to go -- I mean, really, 78 degrees in December?!). We first went through the World of Primates, and Jordan watched gorillas, chimpanzees and other animals. Then, we meandered through the Asian Falls exhibit, watching elephants, rhinos and more. We ate lunch there, and then continued through the big cats, which Jordan slept through, and then made our way to the Texas Wild! section, and let Jordan run around for a while. We were all to exhausted to take in the exhibit there, so that'll be the first place we head when we head back to the zoo next year.

Christmas weekend is next weekend (hope everyone has finished their Christmas shopping -- and is ready for Santa Claus!). We'll post pictures from Jordan's second Christmas next week!