Doin' what he loves ...

Man, he loves it.  Every bit as much as his dad.  Maybe even more - if that's even possible.

What a pleasure and joy he is to watch ... he works so hard.

He's so disciplined.  He practices daily.  Even when he doesn't leave the house.

He lives, eats, breathes it.

And he asked me to take my good camera to the games this particular day to snap some good pics.

So here Jarrett is ... doing what he's loved from day 1.

**No more Dacula uniform - for this year at least.  He's now playing with Team Elite,

a baseball organization that has teams all over Atlanta.  His particular team is out of Winder.

The reason for the switch?  Its time for him to play for 'real' coaches ... not that Bowdie and 

his other coaches weren't great - they were.  But now his coaches are paid to do this.  So that

steps the game up a bit.  We feel like this has been great for him and is prepping him

for high school ball next year in a way that a rec travel team wouldn't have.**

No - he doesn't play outfield - he was just warming up before the game.

It's a Jones trait - tongue out when concentrating.  Always.

 This pic says it all ... look at that huge smile!

He had just scored ... love this pic - even with the jacked up helmet. 

Looking forward to many more games!

(and many more pics, I'm sure!)

Christmas Eve & Brother Gifts

I'm not really sure when this tradition started.  But I love it!  On Christmas eve the boys give gifts to each other.  They shop, they buy, they wrap them.  They usually come from Five Below or the Dollar Tree ... but the sentiment is there!

Jacob gave his gifts first - he got Blaine a mini skateboard and Jarrett a 'merica neck pillow. (that neck pillow has been used A LOT!)

Next up Jarrett gave his gifts - he got Jacob and Blaine both some nice BIG headphones.  They loved them!

And last but not least, Blaine gave his gifts.  Jacob got a nerf gun and Jarrett some 'flow' bands ... 

Love these boys!  Merry almost-Christmas!

Disney!!

One of the many things I've learned as an adult - peer pressure never goes away.  I thought once I got out of the teenage years and the college years, peer pressure would just fade away.  Nope.  It doesn't.  As an adult and a parent, I sometimes feel like peer pressure is even more rampant.  Case in point:  Disney World.  Seriously.  I mean, nearly all the families we know have gone.  Usually multiple times.  Everyone raves about it.  Talks about how magical it is.  Makes it seem like it HAS to be a bucket list item for every family.  Or at least that's the way my brain heard it! (and that's not a bust on all our friends that love disney!! I promise!)

Well, if you know us, you know we love our beach vacations.  And by vacation, we mean heading out to the ocean at about 10 a.m. with lunch and all snacks in tow and not returning inside until 7 or so.  Vacation = vegging out completely.  So walking miles and miles around a theme park with thousands of other families just wasn't an even trade for vacation time.  But still I felt the pressure to take the boys and go as a family before we hit the high school years.

So last year on my New Year's goals, I listed Disney as a place I wanted to visit.  I talked to Bowdie about it.  We decided we needed to pull the trigger.  Our friends Chris and Kelly go every other year, so we talked to them about tagging along.  They were all for it.  And I was all for going with a family that knew their way around what was probably one of the most intimidating locations I've ever been to!

So we kept it a surprise from the boys.  We booked our lodging, ordered our magic bands, made our restaurant reservations and reserved our fast passes.  We decided to let them boys know on Christmas eve when they do their brother gifts.  I got each of them a $20 disney gift card and wrapped it up.  I printed out 'Are you ready to go somewhere magical?' on a piece of cardstock and cut it apart like a puzzle.  They opened the box, put the puzzle together, and then opened their gift cards.  They were happy enough ... but when they realized we were going with the Stricklands AND they got to miss 3 days of school to boot - well that's when the magic really happened!!!  The video reaction is completely priceless.  (but because we print out our blog into a book, i'm not adding it here)

So Mickey ... here we come! :)

          

Blaine's Christmas Recital

Oh my goodness.  I love the Christmas recital the best.  All the students did so well ... and Blaine, although he tries to say he doesn't like it, continues to progress.  He definitely has a gift and aptitude for music.  Mrs. Pam is so wonderful as his teacher.  She gets his playful side and understands that he also plays sports.  She knows just how to challenge him without frustrating him.  It's pretty magical!

So happy that so many in the fam came out to see him play ... :)