Yea Christmas!!

We finally have our own little Garcia family for Christmas! To think of how much we love our boys and how little it pales in comparison to the love God has for us. Emmanuel...God with us, what better gift than that this Christmas?

We have been incredibly blessed this year with our family, amazing church, health, friends, jobs...the list is endless. Okay...now the real reason I came on here. Wanted to share some photos and video with y'all. Couple of weeks ago we made it out to Marble Falls to check the Christmas lights display there. We met Brian and Jean there and ate at the River City Grille. Good times. Here is the Photo Album.

This past weekend we headed up to Edmond, Oklahoma, just outside of OKC to visit the grandparents and Mari. Just hung out on Saturday, then Sunday it was church and more hanging out. Mari showed us Larissa's picture with Santa at Bass Pro Shop and we decided we needed on of the boys. I was so hoping the boys would be terrified with Santa in the pic and I wasn't disappointed!

On the way home we made a stop in Dallas and stayed with Brad and Kelli for a night. Kelli made an awesome dinner for us. Little Anna is so beautiful...she is getting big. Oh, and then Brian and Jean showed up! It was a Festivus miracle! They were in town visiting with Jean's family. A good ol' fashioned home group reunion in Dallas. It was good to be back in Texas...but now wishing we had stayed in OK for Christmas, they have SNOW! Here are all the photos from OKC and Dallas: OKC/Dallas Photo Album.

That is all for now...have more December JAG pics to post, including some with Mrs.Karen who stayed with us a couple days last week on her way home from M.D. Anderson in Houston. Amen! Another prayer answered this year. God rocks!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

12

It's been 12 years since I trapped my wife in marriage and locked her in with her "I do." No take backs!

Time to get started on lucky 13 with our two JAGerrific boys. I'm living walking proof of how awesome God is...that He can love and forgive me and bless me with such an amazing woman who would help bring me home to Him. A woman who loves God, has brains, beauty, amazing mother, she is hilarious, she also laughs at all my jokes - which is key, she is probably now a bigger die hard Raider fan than I am...I win! I still remember watching a Raider game many many moons ago and she yells out, correctly mind you, "That's HOLDING!!" If there was every any doubt, which there wasn't, it was all laid to rest then.

Happy 12th Beautiful! I lub you!

Christmas Card Past

I think this might be the earliest we've got our Christmas cards mailed. Got 99% of them in the mail today...still need a few more. So keep an eye on out for it. Here is a look back at some of the homemade cards we've sent out this decade. To check out all the photos for the making of some of these cards, CLICK HERE.

Christmas 2008: Holly was 8 months preggers last December. Our whole year was mostly about the boys, obviously. Knew we wanted to use the boys sonogram pics for the card. Somehow came up the idea of taking a picture of our Raider Christmas tree and photoshopping the boys pics in as ornaments. Jordan is on top, the 3-D pic. Jeremy never was in a good position for sono's after about month 5...so his is an older regular sonogram pic.

Christmas 2007: I think I was just going through pics to look for something to use for the card and spark an idea. Came across a sleeping doggy pic and ended up with the idea of the dogs and cat sleeping and dreaming about what they love doing. Jezebel (top) is dreaming of playing in her kiddie pool. T-Bone (middle) is dreaming of going out for a run with me...and carrying his own leash. Tiger II (a.k.a. "dumb cat", bottom) is dreaming about sleeping.

Christmas 2006: Don't remember how we came up with this idea, but it was one of the best times we had. The idea was to try and get a good shot, but include a bunch of "blooper" type shots. Trying to stage bloopers is not as easy as you'd think, but it sure was fun. My 2 favorite bloopers are the one of T-Bone who ended up in the shot alone and the one of Jezebel with her back to the camera and Holly caught in a blink. Good times.

 Christmas 2002: We moved in to our new home in February of 2002...this was our first Christmas at "home." So we used that for the card. I knew once I had my own house I would use the same ceramic bulbs I used to string up on the house growing up to decorate. Still using those lights today! Although now the 2 little trees out front are much bigger.

Christmas 2000: This is a recycled card. The original pic was taken in '98 and did not include Jezebel. We only had Spyncer (cat), Kukoc (parakeet, named after a player on the Chicago Bulls back when the NBA was still fun) and T-Bone. The original "photo shoot" was hilarious. Trying to get the cat, bird and dog to all sit still for the pic was a lot of fun. Not sure if we ever sent the original out or not...but eventually in 2000 when we got Jezebel, I photoshopped her in and used that for our card.

EDIT - no idea what happened to the missing years in between. I know one year we sent out Scooby-Doo Christmas cards that were store bought. Haven't the foggiest about the rest of the years. Maybe we didn't send cards...maybe they were store bought? You're guess is as good as mine.

JAG Boys Love Taylor Swift

The boys loved dancing to Taylor Swift last week. We were watching SNL and Holly's bestest friend Taylor Swift was the host and musical guest. When Swift performed, the boys had fun getting jiggy widit. That is not saying much though, since the boys can get down with half the commercials on TV that have a good beat. Still though, they had fun...Jordan just need to work on his head banging at the end of the video!

Gobble Gobble

Wait so long for Thanksgiving and time with family and then poof...its all gone except for some stale honey wheat rolls and a couple last shreds of white meat and ham. Our house was jam packed with Garcias this holiday, it was awesome. The kids out numbered the adults, so it was a bit scary. Luckily enough they never joined forces to overthrow the powers that be. Isaiah arrived last Wednesday night followed by my Pop and the whole family about 1:30am Thursday morning. Finally Mari and the girls all got here Thanksgiving day. We played football out front, then watched the Raiders give away another game, but we were too high on tryptophan to really care much about it. Turkey, ham, mashed-taters, green bean casserole, stuffing, fruit salad and honey wheat rolls...YUM!

Friday we just veg'd and recovered from eating on Thursday. Went to the store and Zaiah bought ingridients for menudo and then he and Dad cooked it for dinner. It...was...TASTY! Saturday it was off to Town Lake and the park to hang out and fly some kites. It was a beautiful day...there were parrots hanging out at the park. We saw one, figured it just escaped from someone's home. Then we saw another. Then another. Three green parrots just chillin' in the park. After the park it was off to Chuy's for dinner and then downtown to Amy's for ice cream.

While Larissa was here, Mari was hoping she might catch on to crawling and getting around like the boys, but instead, Larissa taught Jeremy how to lazily boot scoot across the floor. Basically, she stays in a sitting position and scoots her butt forward (much like a dog does on carpet) then stretches out her legs and does it again to move forward. Good times...good times...

Thanksgiving Photo Album

Meanwhile, Thanksgiving marked another milestone for the JAG Twins...it was their 10 month mark! Back at the beginning of November the boys went for their 9 month check up. Jeremy measured in at 21 lbs 4 oz - 30" - and a head circumference of 48 cm. Jordan measured in at 19 lbs 6 oz - 29" - and a head circumference of 46 ½ cm. The boys got some big ol' teeth now...2 front middle top and bottom and then a few extra. We are starting to brush their teeth during bath time (just the brush) to get them used to the brush. The boys can crawl up the stairs on their own...and they have! Jeremy sneaked up on us twice and got half way up the stairs...yikes! They are having fun playing together. It is great to watch one boy chase the other while the other crawls away cracking up.

This month their art project was to create a painting for Poppi (Mrs.Karen) while she is at M.D. Anderson. Holly used their butt prints and feet prints to make a landscape picture. Their butts were the sun and clouds and their feet were tree tops. It had the writing, "Soon the worst will be BEHIND you and...you will be on your FEET in no time!"

Not too many photos this month, but here they are.

JAG November Photo Album

T-Bone's Thanksgiving Picks (Week 12)

T-Bone finally picked the RRRAIDERS to win a game. First time in 38 years the Raiders play on Thanksgiving day! Woohoo! Enjoy the turkey and football games tomorrow.

T-Bone's NFL Picks: Week 10

My dog didn't pick my Raiders to win this week. Bad dog? Probably not...probably a good pick. Argh. We tried a new method for the way T-Bone makes his picks. This week he just TOLD me his picks.

Outlet Covers

Guess it is time we invest in better electrical outlet covers.

JAG Halloween

We had so much fun getting the boys dressed up and out for Halloween. We walked around collecting candy, but the best part was meeting all our neighbors. We usually don't spend time out in our hood like we should. Lots of people were just outside hanging out giving candy or watching the Longhorns game in their garage. It was a great time. The boys were dressed up as an Angel and a Devil! Good times. CLICK HERE for all our Halloween pictures. They include a more adult party, with a "children's characters gone wrong" theme. I was Scooby Doo...if he was adopted by Michael Vick. So I had some battle scars. Holly was M.Vick and wore an orange (prison) shirt with M.Vick's prison info on it. Our garage band played at the party again this year, we had a blast.

The rest of October flew by. We had plenty of family visit us last month which was awesome. Isaiah stopped by for a nice long weekend visit. Mrs.Karen and Mr.Greg stopped by for a short visit too and will hopefully be back again soon. And before we knew it...it was November. Here are a bunch of photos of the boys and our visitors from last month. Enjoy! CLICK HERE

T-Bone's NFL Picks: Week 8

3rd solid week for T-Bone...week 7 was spectacular like his week 5 and week 6 picks, but still...solid. T went 8-5 and his season results are 61-42. This could possibly the week of T-Bone's downfall. Out of the 13 games this week, he picked the underDOG in 10 of those games! T-Bone has both the Browns and Rams claiming victory this week. His pick of the week...
The Falcons over the undefeated Saints! Dum Da Duuuummmmmmm

T-Bone's NFL Picks: Week 7

T-Bone has had 2 fantastic weeks in row going 11-3 in week 5 and 10-3 in week 6. His overall record is now 53-37 (.589). This week I think some might be expecting him to fall back down in the standings. Hes got his usual "what are you thinking??" upset picks...for instance, the Browns over the Packers!

Raiders Key To Victory

How do you pull out an upset win over the Eagles? Pigeons > Eagles.

Isaiah, Punkins and Crawling

Isaiah is visiting this weekend and we took him to a punkin patch so he could crawl through it. It was soo cute. Actually, we took Jeremy and Jordan, but Isaiah is here visiting and went with us. It was a pretty fun Saturday afternoon at the Evergreen Farms Christmas Tree. They had pumpkins for sale (no real pumpkin patch) and lots of activities for real kids. We just hung out and got pictures. Here is the PHOTO ALBUM. No charge unless you do some of the activities like hay rides or "train" rides. The hot chocolate was nice in the cool fall weather. On our way to Elgin down Old 290 we also passed a "ghost town." We went back to check it out, but it was reserved for a private party, so we will have to go back another day. We get Isaiah here until Tuesday when he drives back to Pensacola and back to the Navy.

As for crawling...Jordan has been working on actually crawling on all 4's. Up until yesterday, he had only managed to string together about 2-3 "steps." Last night though, he took off. We got it on video too! By the way, about a minute into the video when Jordan is crawling down the hallway and starts smiling at the camera, it is because I turned view screen towards him and he was able to see himself on screen and smile at the gorgeous boy on video.

T-Bone's NFL Picks: Week 5

That time of week again. T-Bone had an excellent week 4 and went 10-4. This week T-Bone decided to go with his FlingShot Flying Monkey to decide on his picks. This week he likes the Bengals over the Ravens...but, he also likes the Titans over the Colts. Not too sure about that one. Peep it out...

A Real Post

Ok, no silly T-Bone vid here, just trying to catch up on sharing some photo albums. Lots of stuff has gone on this past couple months with the boys and family. Another post will come some time soon to share photos and vids of the boys. For now, here are some non-JAG photo albums. Enjoy!

Larissa's 1st Birthday [ photo album ]
My birthday is so wicked awesome that peeps are stealing my day. First my little sister Amanda stole my birthday (born 20 years after me to the day), then my mom got married on my birthday and then Larissa's decided to take the sacred day for her 1st birthday party celebration. We drove up to Oklahoma to share this fantabulous day with our niece. The night ended with Larissa demolishing her bit-sized cakes and rubbing it in her hair.


Mom's Baptizim [ photo album ]
Barely one month later and headed back up to Oklahoma. Mom felt moved to make her own decision in being baptized and accepting Christ as her Saviour! Woohoo!! It was a short weekend, left Saturday morning and drove back Sunday after lunch, but it was worth it.


Raiders vs. Texan [ photo album ]
Very few know this, but we are helpless Raider Nation citizens. We like pain. Like serious self-inflicting misery. Life was good for the Raider Nation up until 2002. Despite the jokes that end with a Raider punch-line, we will always support our team. We don't have to love every player, or coach, or owner...but we will always proudly support the Raiders. As evidence by our trip to Houston last week. Could have enjoyed the 3 day music festival in Austin know as ACL. It was capped off by my favorite band of all time, Pearl Jam...but no...instead I went to Houston to witness in person the horrible accident that has become the Raiders. And still, had a lot of fun with Holly, the boys, James and Morgan. Also got to me Edward...a chef at the cafeteria in James' building at work.


T-Bone's picks will be back though...think the next one will try to use a new method of making his NFL picks. Maybe use the SlingShot Flying Monkey next...

T-Bone's NFL Picks: Week 3

T-Bone showed some improvement last week and got 9 out of 16. His overall record is 17-15 and is batting .531 on the season. This week again he likes more underDOGs than favorites. Some notables: RRRAIDERS over the Donkeys, Bengals over the Steelers, Browns over the Ravens and the Rams over the Packers!

T-Bone's NFL Picks: Week 2

Well, T-Bone went 8-8 last week and is in 20th place out of 25 people (and 1 dog). He went with 8 underDOG picks this week. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't have it.

T-Bone's NFL Picks: Week 1

It is that time of the year again. Here are T-Bone's prediction for the kick off weekend of the 2009 NFL season! And yet again, my own dog picked against the Raiders. Jerk. Smart, but still....jerk.

8 and Half Hours...

Until kickoff!! Here is my custom desktop wallpaper to get y'all ready. If it doesn't size right for you, let me know what size you need. The pic of the players is from the game in Miami we went to a couple years ago. The skull graphic was designed by Robert Ortiz and used by permission.

Wood Floors Part III

Uncle Mike showed up this morning after church to help for the 3rd day. Today he put the trim molding all around the edges. We took a little longer than we thought we would. After the hard part was done we got Mike's truck packed up and he headed back home to try and beat the rain (it was already raining when he left).

Got to touch up the molding along the base boards with some painters caulk, but them hard part is done. Mike and his miter saw worked wonders. Oh, we also need to put the trim along the fireplace, but that is going to require some sand grout and we also want to tile the bathroom, so we are going to wait and do those at the same time.

Mike, Mike Senior and lil' Mike...thanks so much for all the help, achy knees, bad backs and all the sweat the last 3 days! Can't thank y'all enough!

Wood Floors Part II

Almost done! Went by a lot quicker today. All the flooring is laid down. T-molding between the kitchen tile and the living room floor is done. Need to work on the quarter mold around the edges tomorrow and that should do it!

Wood Floors

We've been talking about for a long long time, and now Holly's dream has finally come true. We got wood laminate for all of down stairs. Stayed up until 1:30AM last night moving stuff into the garage and upstairs to clear out the bottom floor. Was up cleaning around 8AM and Uncle Mike and his dad came over to help. So glad to have their expertise here to help. Was tough getting things started with the floating floor, but we finally got it down and it started coming together.

Day 2 coming up tomorrow...

Milestone Month

The boys turned 7 months old last Wednesday!

What a month this has been. At the beginning of six months we still had babies. Now we have little people. It started with Jeremy deciding to sit up. Soon after he said his first word which of course was "Da" his favorite person. Then Jordan (not to be topped) decided to sit up then he start to scoot on one knee and elbow. Now he gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and fourth. As soon as you grab his hands, he takes off running! Then this week he said "Ma". They both got 2 teeth each, 3 days apart. Along with a whole lot of new tricks and noises.

Last week was their first night in their room and in their own cribs. It went well. They only woke up once. I think they were too crowded and waking each other up in the one crib before. They had a little trouble taking a nap since they like to play together before they fall asleep. I may let them take naps together. The month is almost over...they may be potty training next at this rate :)

6 months is so much fun...can't wait to see whats in store for us at 7 months. Gotta lock the cabinets and plug the plugs.


And now...PHOTO ALBUM time!! August photos are uploaded...remember, you can save the photo album and get to it anytime if you have a Kodak Gallery account.




Moving right along...JAG video time!! Jeremy's video shows his last trick...a snort, crinkly nose trick.



In Jordan's video, he was being fussy...Jump Frogz came to the rescue!