Ode to Joni

My sister left an amazing little message in my comment section (the Merry Christmas post with the beautiful rendering of our Christmas morning). Being a Severe girl means that you NEED validation for everything, so of course she had to call me and wait on the phone while I read her comment so she could make sure she was as funny as she thought she was!



Well, the comment is INDEED hilarious, and I feel it would be unfortunate for anyone to miss out on this. For that reason, I present to you Joni's comments, which I am going to title



"THIS ISN'T JUST A STICK FIGURE DRAWING"

Wow, thank you all for you compliments. I must admit that it's quite a beautiful peace of artwork. the colors compliment each other well, the composition is amazing, and the piece as a whole is, well, uncomparable! It was a risk in my career to take such a bold project on, but I think it will definately improve my portfolio and prove me worthy to be Head Designer anywhere I choose. Thank you all for your support. Mom, Dad, and yes, even you. Thank you. But especially, thank you Tawnya for allowing me, and trusting me in this piece, to be able to portray your family in such a way we all wish to see you. All happy, and cooperative. Such a lovely sight to see. Unfortunately, such a sight only exists in my beautiful artwork. And that, my friends, and family, is why I continue to work in this field I love so much, to show what a happy world could look like, if we didn't have screaming children running around, hitting innocent bystanders, cutting their own hair, eyelashes, drawing on the walls. A world of simplicity. And here, I present it to you. So take a moment, and enjoy serenity, tranquility, beauty, and peace this masterpiece holds.


I had tears streaming down my cheeks when I was reading this! I couldn't even read the screen by the end! Ahhhh..... Joni. Joni, Joni, Joni...........

Well done.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Ha ha ha... Sooooooooooo......... What happened to the time?

I've been putting off doing our Christmas post because I'm the worst mom EVER and got NO PICTURES of the kids opening presents! Or the Christmas tree. Or the stockings, which were actually hung on our mantle (yes.... we have a mantle now!) It was Drew's first Christmas and I don't have a picture of it!

So, I had my art department (ahem... Thanks, Jo) work on a little something to represent our day. It's pretty accurate, though we didn't have Jentry thanks to schedule changes and bad weather. But, she was here in spirit, which is accurately portrayed in the fine art work. So, without further ado, I present The Dillinger Family Christmas!

Wahoo! Aren't we cute? I was a little tired, so I was sitting on the chair. And yes, I've lost some weight, thank you for noticing! Notice how good our family is at pictures? All looking at the camera, smiling perfectly, no hitting or crying, or silly smiles. Awwww..... WE'RE AMAZING!!!!

Seriously, though, we did have a really great Christmas. We went to Mom and Dad's for Christmas Eve festivities. Then we stayed at the new house, and woke up to Christmas Day in our christmas present (the house). We had kind of a sparce Christmas, and the boys got a few toys and some clothes. Jentry got the same, but she didn't get hers until a couple weeks after Christmas when we finally got together. It was so fun (obviously not fun enough to get pictures of... ugh), and I'm so glad we have a great drawing to remember it by!!!

Mason and his S's

First off, does anyone know how to type S's? Is that right? As in "more than one S." "Multiple S-es." No... That's definitely not right. We're sticking with S's!

Mason is talking so much right now, and it's cracking me up. He can repeat most everything I say. Sometimes it sounds exactly right (Me: "Mason, say Daddy." Mason: "DADDY"), and other times.... Not so much (Me: "Mason, say Joni." Mason: "Osh-di").

His absolute favorite words are ones with an S. Lights. Bus. Snake. I've just discovered that the last couple days. With all the Christmas Lights, he's learned how to fluently say "Dights." He says it perfectly, but since it has an "s" he says "dights.... sssss..... sssss..... sssss." So funny! He just repeats the "s" sound over and over and over! "Bussssss.... sssss..... sssss."

I need to get it recorded before he stops doing it!

All about Drew....

I'm dying over my chubby, squishy, snuggly little man! I've been taking so many pictures of him, and am feeling the need to share (we like sharing....).

The top pictures are of Drew earlier today at work with me. He was laughing so hard for at least 10 minutes, and then paid for it with about 15 minutes of hard hiccups! It was the cutest little laugh EVER!


We seriously can't get enough of him. He gets SO many kisses from me, but he gets even more from Mason! Mason is constantly walking over to him and kissing his head. Lately, he's had to make sure he bends over and gets Drew right smack on the lips. He's also decided he needs to kiss the baby with the kissing sound, since mommy does. Today, he was trying SO hard to kiss with the noise. He started open-mouth kissing Drew's head, and SUCKING on it to get the noise! BAH HA HA HA!!! I was laughing so hard!


Awww.... Cute kids!

What is WRONG with this stupid thing!

I love John.


So, he's a big-time hunter. Big time. Big enough that he thinks he needs every gadget and gismo known to mankind (well, known to the HUNTING mankind). He got a game camera this year, which you mount to a tree. The camera has a motion sensor, and snaps pictures every 15 or 30 seconds when it picks up movement. This way, you can see what wildlife is in an area without having to sit in the tree for weeks at a time.


A little while ago, we got our memory cards mixed up somehow (totally not my fault, by the way, no matter what he says!). I didn't realize it, and just kept snapping pictures. John told me one day that I got his hunting memory card, but I haven't really thought much of it.

Today, I started looking through the pictures, and LOOK AT THESE GEMS! Oh my.... John is working so hard to fix the camera that he THINKS isn't working! John's at work, and I'm dying over these, so I thought I'd hurry and post them before he comes home and catches me making fun of him (he he..... Love you, hon!).

(This last one is my favorite.... Scratching his chin, looking perplexed.... "Why isn't this stupid thing working?!?!")

TWILIGHT!!!

I'm doing a Twilight post. Yes, I'm cool, and I'm in love with a fictional vampire, but HAVE YOU READ IT?!?!?!?! Oh my....
:: swoon ::

I read the books a while back, and then again before Breaking Dawn came out in August. I'm not sure what it is, but they give me this psycho-crazed-obsessed feeling, and I can't put them down! (Ha ha.... Yes, psycho-crazed-obsessed is a good thing in this case!) So good, so easy to read, and such an interesting story line.

I watched the movie, which I was not thrilled with it the first time. It jumped around too much, the acting was overdone, the story line just didn't make sense, etc. I watched it a second time, and LOVED IT! Ha ha.... I think I was too busy analyzing it the first time around, and I was more relaxed the second and just enjoyed the show. Rob Pattinson is HOT (I was a hater, sorry Rob), and Kristen Stewart did a great job. The movie isn't perfect, but it was low-budget, and had a lot of ground to cover. The best thing is, JOHN LIKED IT! Wahoo!!! He definitely didn't like it the same way I did, but he thought it was cool and he liked the vampire/werewolf aspect of it (you know, the manly parts, because he's UBER-manly). I'll definitely be buying it and watching it obsessively!!!

And now, I just finished reading Midnight Sun on Stephenie Meyer's website. OH MY GOSH! I love it even more than Twilight! I was so mad when it was over, and I'm dying for her to finish the book (hopefully she will!). I think I'll read it again, and then read Breaking Dawn again.

Awww...... Okay, I feel much better getting this all out of my system and into the open. I, Tawnya, am a Twilight Fan! And to cap it all off, here's the result of my Twilight Quiz Rachelle told me to take.




Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

You are thoughtful and care very deeply for your family. A loving home is of great importance to you and you always try to make people feel welcome. Although you have a great capacity to love, you also have a great capacity to hurt, so at times you can be sensitive. You're firm when you need to be, but people trust your judgment and appreciate the kind way you always handle things.


Rachelle guessed I would be Esme. Good guess!!!

Can I still do Halloween?

I have a feeling all of my posts will start with "I'm a little late on this, but....." Halloween was only 2 weeks ago, which, in Tawnya-land, is like yesterday. So, we'll go ahead and do our Halloween post!





Halloween was so fun this year. Rachelle and her girls were up here, and we got to play dress-up with my boys. We also got to go to the Pumpkin Walk and take the kids there. They had a lot of cute scenes this year, but seriously.... COLD!!! Rachelle was so excited to break out the heavy-duty winter wardrobe! Coats, gloves, scarves, etc. It was the middle of October, for crying out loud, and she's bundled up like she's at the North Pole! I'm excited to see her in the middle of January!

Mason was a Pumpkin. He absolutely HATED the costume. Well, he hated it until Kaitlyn wanted wear it, and then suddenly it was HIS and he HAD to have it! No sharing! Ha ha... Thanks, Kaity!

Drew was a black cat, but for John's sake.... He was a panther. A manly panther, not some girly little kitty cat. And he looked manly. And terrifying. He was a very tough little kitty. Umm... I mean a very tough and scary and manly panther. See the rage in those eyes? And the scariness of that mouth?

Yeah. Me neither. Cute little thing!

Grandma Dot's party was great again, as usual, and the kids had lots of fun. Mason got loaded up on candy and got to join the tea party for the first time! He did a great job, other than that dreaded costume.

Jentry was out having fun in Arkansas, so we missed having her with the family. Grandma Dot was nice enough to send her home with lots of goodies the next time we saw her, though, so hopefully that helped make up for her missing the shindig!

We were lucky enough to have one more day of Halloween, and go party with Toni's family. Those people are PARTIERS! Ha ha... They do dinner, and games, and then have a little train ride through the Haunted Corn Field. Jentry loved it last year, and has not stopped talking about it, so we thought we'd better take up Toni's offer and crash the family fun again!

Yes, people, the big tall creepy guy is Toni's husband. The Doctor.... Seeing him in this get-up reassured me that he would be well trusted to look after me in the case of emergency. And he's going into pediatrics. I don't know about you, but I know my children would feel so comfortable with him!!! Ha ha.... (Disclaimer: He really is normal and I'm sure he's a very amazing Dr.!)