The Long Bunch

Feast or Famine

2009-04-15T10:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, so our family blog has a "feast or famine" theme. I either don't post anything for a few weeks or I post 5 or 6 updates/events all at once. I posted a bunch last night so you have to keep scrolling down to see all the things that we have been doing.

Quick Easter Photo's

2009-04-15T09:36:00.001-07:00

Since we took so many pictures at the temple the day before Easter I didn't feel hard pressed to get too many the next day. But I did remember to snap a few pictures of the bunny feet and baskets before running out the door for church
Jasper got a little missionary doll in his basket. When I saw the doll in the bookstore I couldn't resist, the doll even has a little name tag that says Elder.
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Easter 2009

2009-04-14T21:48:00.000-07:00

The Easter Bunny hid eggs early so we could head to Houston. Poor Jasper didn't stand a chance...
Jasper's thinking: Oh, what's this? J: Looks edible but so does the grass
Kendra:"Hey, you have MY eggs and CANDY"
Aftermath of big sister

Houston Temple

2009-04-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

After listening, well let me rephrase that... after attempting to listen to conference we decided to take the kids to the temple and let Kendra "touch" the temple. I tried to tell her about the temple and tried to get her to "be sweet." I am going to admit it right now, there were a few moments when I had my doubts... I think it was when Kendra almost fell into the fountain or when Jasper almost fell off the bench. But it turned out to be one of the best days we have all had together. I took my little sister as my car-babysitter (which really worked out). After about an hour walking the temple grounds we went to the bookstore and then of course headed to Pappasito's. It has been a tradition of Donny and myself to eat there after we go to the temple. Historically we are alone but I have to say that everyone was really good (no spilled drinks, no screaming baby, you know the usual stunts that kids pull in public).

Hilton-Reed Birthday Party

2009-04-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

I took Kendra and Jasper to Joseph and William Reed's birthday party and to say the least it was a "Big H." There were so many 4 year olds running around getting their faces painted, riding a go-cart with Irene, and a pinata and and and... I know, Judith did a great job... I won't even go into detail about the 2# goody bags we left with!
Jasper
Kendra
Rui Correa Ella Packard

A pretty day in March

2009-04-14T20:41:00.001-07:00

One day last month it seemed like our entire yard was blooming so we went outside in an attempt to get "pretty pictures." Yea right, the best thing I got was a hilarious video of the kids both crying and Kendra saying "NO MORE MOM." I can wish for that perfect photo, right?

Cinderella Ballet

2009-04-14T20:20:00.001-07:00

We went to see the Beaumont Ballet's Cinderella. Kendra loved it and is still talking about Cinderella. Kendra and her cousin Ella are still going to baby ballet and are LOVING it!

(I stole this picture from AmyLynn, I hope she doesn't mind :). Kendra would not take a picture for me when we were at the ballet.)

We Met David Archuleta!!!!

2009-03-12T09:59:00.000-07:00

Last night was the David Archuleta Show in Beaumont. Donny made shirts for some of the girls that went and they looked so adorable that the Beaumont Enterprise and The Examiner took pictures of them for their papers! You can see them in the Beaumont Enterprise here: http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/local/

I won't put too many pictures up because the girls will do enough of that :). I will say that he is much cuter in person and SHOULD have won Idol!! That boy can sing!

We waited after the show and met the band and... DAVID ARCHULETA. Of course I was freezing and stood on the side to take pictures while my sister and her friends got his autograph and talked to him. It was really neat for my sister. He told her he really liked her name and asked her where it came from and then wrote on the back of her shirt "To Rockell, Sweet Converse David Archuleta." It is pretty safe to say that she will never wear another pair of shoes again. If you know my little sister, you know she is a die hard Jonas Brother Fan, but after last night she told my mom "Forget them, I'm for David he thought my name and my shoes were sweet!"

The only regret I have about the whole night was not having my shirt made that said "I Love My RM... SERVE"... we can always hope he will serve a mission :)

Shangri La Gardens

2009-03-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

We have season passes to Shangri La Gardens in Orange, Texas (thanks to my momma). I took my sister, neices and their good friend there this week. We had a blast!

Pretty as a Princess

2009-03-03T17:18:00.000-08:00

Kendra went to her Friend Ashley's Princess Party. All the little girls showed up in their favorite princess attire. I had never curled Kendra's hair before because lets face it, she barely has any. It turned out to be a lot of fun and she LOVED getting all dressed up. She kept telling me "I love Ashley's Birthday and I love her" before we even got to the party. Now everytime she takes a picture she tilts her head and says "princess".

Donny's New Toy

2009-03-03T13:30:00.000-08:00

Donny going to Lowes unsupervised is just as scary as me going to Hobby Lobby without kids or anyone to be the voice of reason!!! When I drove up to the house the first thing I see is Donny waving at me with a HUGE grin. Then he yells "I got a Deer!"... Great... was my initial thought... then I realized I better have the best looking lawn on the street! :)

Great Weather

2009-03-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

It has been really nice weather. Donny and Jasper had a great time playing in the backyard. Jasper is geting so BIG, I can't stand it!

Missionary in Training

2009-02-04T11:39:00.001-08:00

Jasper's Photo Shoot

2009-02-04T11:28:00.001-08:00

We went to La La's last weekend. I have to go at least once a month so that my kids get updated photos. This is Jaspers 4 month pictures. It's good to be a LONG!!... connections!

"Quick Trip"

2009-01-16T20:20:00.000-08:00

We decided at the last minute to take a "quick" trip to Houston before Donny and I had to go back to work.

First we went to the Aquarium in downtown Houston. Kendra fell in love with the Sea Horses'. I had to take a video so she could watch it later (she wouldn't leave the exhibit until I showed her I got a video of them to watch later).

Then we stayed at a hotel next to the Galleria. Kendra and Jasper had a blast. Kendra jumped on both beds like they were trampolines. Jasper kept wiggling down in between the pillows, like he was hiding.

Finally, the next morning we got up and had a grand breakfast and then headed to the Galleria. The BIG HIT of the day was ice skating! My mom and sister met us there and we all skated and had a great time (of course my mom and Jasper sat out on the sidelines and watched). We had a really good time being together and having lots of food and fun!

2009 Happy New Year! 2009

2009-01-16T20:01:00.000-08:00

Jasper was so relaxed! I think he was glad to see 2008 leave... beng born in the midst of a hurricane can be a little traumatic... what am I saying this fat peice of chunk has been living it up!! :)

Now I see a lot of LONG in her :)

Happy New Year, we love you all

2008 Long Babies

2008-12-26T07:56:00.000-08:00

Here are some Christmas photo's of 3 of the 4 "Long Babies" born this year (in the past 3 months!). Little Annie is not pictured yet, she is only 3 days old in New York!

Here are the stats:
Jasper O'Neal Long 8 lbs 4 oz, 20 in
Emma Vivian Harris 8 lbs 4 oz, 20 in
Adelyn Reese Foust 8 lbs 13 oz, 20 in
Annie Alaina Chowdhury 10 lbs 2 oz, 20 1/2 in (not pictured)

They are so sweet and soft!!!

SNOW in Southeast Texas!!!

2008-12-18T21:13:00.000-08:00

Here are some fun pictures of Kendra playing in the snow! Yes, snow in Southeast Texas. By the time I got the camera it had already melted quite a bit. We began our "snowy adventure" late at night. At midnight we were outside playing with the snow flurries... then my mom called at 2 am and wanted us to take Kendra outside to see "the snow" which we didn't... then at 6:30 am we were up and outside playing in our white yard... the first thing Kendra yelled was "Hooray, I get to play momma!" I didn't dare take Jasper out and risk him getting a cold. Donny went into work late and he and Kendra had a blast.

Kami eat your heart out, our snow has PINE NEEDLES... I wish we could come and play with your New York Snow!!

Twilight Mania

2008-12-07T18:43:00.000-08:00

This weekend Donny and Rob worked on Twilight t-shirts for us girls. They came out awesome!

They have become quite the Edward Haters and made one shirt so the world would know!!!

Wade designed this one... pretty funny stuff :)

Decorating the Tree

2008-12-07T18:16:00.000-08:00

We have a tradition of putting out all our Christmas decorations beginning Thanksgiving night and the day after. Kendra was so excited to have the Christmas tree put up... then the crowning moment of plugging in the pre-lit tree... 2 strands out of the whole flipping tree came on... great. I was so irritated that I refuse to buy a new one this year and we are just keeping our "ricky" tree! Kendra put all the crystals on the tree and did such a good job :) they are all in one pretty spot. Kendra also wrote her Christmas wish list with Donny (we are going to Macy's to mail it to Santa this week). She was so funny to listen to... all she wants is her aunts, cousins, brother and most importantly a BARBIE CAR.

Saturday morning we got up and went to our church party to have "Breakfast with Santa." This is Kendra when she saw him...

Jasper slept right through it. My "Mr. Man" looked so cute dressed up as a little mini me in his Santa suit.

Happy Freaking Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T18:20:00.000-08:00

So last Thanksgiving was Kendra's birthday and she looked like this...

She was admitted to the hospital the next day.

So I thought "This year we are going to have a BIG dinner at our new house"... and this is how Jasper looked for Thanksgiving...

I took Kendra to the doctor for an ear ache and left with a diagnosis of RSV for Jasper... Great

Jasper looks like he is six months old but he is only 10 weeks, yes he is a TANK to say the least!

TWERD (Twilight +Nerd)

2008-11-28T17:30:00.000-08:00

Of course I was at the midnight showing of Twilight (Vesta, Allison, and Kelly). I was dressed appropriately, sporting "Team Jasper." Donny has a new hobby... silk screening shirts. It was suppose to be a little hobby he has always wanted to do but once people have heard you can make shirts, well, then you get pretty busy :).

Halloween 2008

2008-11-28T17:09:00.000-08:00

SOLD SOLD SOLD

2008-11-28T16:54:00.000-08:00

The week of Ike we sold our house in Port Neches, boarded up the house and fled to La La's to face the EYE of the storm. The house survived...we finalized the sell in Port Neches...bought a house in Vidor... had a tree limb fall through the roof of that house the day before we moved in... hmmm... lived in the kitchen (yes the kitchen) for 3 weeks while Donny made our new "whole" in the ground livable.

(This is the Port Neches house. I am too embarassed to put the Vidor house on here yet because we are currently true Vidorians... we have a washer and dryer on our front porch.)

2008-11-28T16:45:00.001-08:00

We lived at La La's house for 2 1/2 weeks and LOVED IT!!! It was like staying at the Ritz Carlton... with free 24 hr babysitting service... TV all night, Kendra had a bubble bath everynight, room service, professional photography services... eat your hearts out. This was Lauries favorite picture of "Mr. Man" and what I sent out for his announcements (if you didn't get one... I've been stressed :) keep reading).

Long Timeline

2008-11-28T16:30:00.000-08:00

Yes, La La is sitting here making me update our life.

We survived Hurricane Ike and got a suprise baby, JASPER! He was born September 15th in Sugarland, Texas (aka La La's House). Weighing in at 8# 4oz and length 20" (a BIG baby for me, I can't imagine if he came two weeks later on his due date of the 23rd.

Murder Mystery Dinner

2008-09-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

Bunko Night

2008-09-09T17:31:00.000-07:00

Once a month for the past four years a bunch of us girls get together for a girls night out. For the first year or so we faithfully played Bunko so we coined the night out as "Bunko Night." Well, the game got old and we decided whoever was hosting for the month would decide the theme of the night. Of course the month that I decide to host (it was hosted by Vesta and myself) a hurricane evacuation was pending! But it didn't stop us from having our night out. The theme of the night was a Murder Mystery Dinner. We all dressed up to be in character and since Vesta and I knew the plot of the story we just filled in and played the role of the CSI/PI. I've got to admit, when Donny was setting up the crime scene on the porch it was a little freaky. He had Kendra lay down and he taped around her body for our "dead" body outline. It was the shortest judge ever!! The night was alot of fun and was a great way to forget about bad weather, etc. for a few hours!

Brown and Blue

2008-08-26T13:38:00.001-07:00

We had Jasper's baby shower Saturday August 23rd at his Aunt Patrice's home. So, I figured it was time to bite the bullet and actually show myself on this blog and have posted some of the pictures from the shower. I figured if I didn't Laurie would. :)
The shower was alot of fun!! Thank you to family and friends who prepared such a sweet shower for our baby. I had a great time talking with friends and family and playing some games that Laurie had planned for the party. One game we played was the "belly yarn" game. Laurie measured my belly (at its fullest point) with yarn and then went around the room and had everyone cut how much yarn they thought it would take to go arond my belly. It was one of the most commical games I've played in awhile. When I held my friend Jaclyn's up to measure against mine... well lets just say her piece of yarn was as tall as me!!! I did save my peice of yarn for Jasper's baby book and the dietitian in me couldn't help but measure how many inches the string was... 40 inches... WOW and I have how many days left?? At this point I am more into flaunting the belly and eating everything in sight... this is what happens to me at the end... "NO SHAME" sets in and so does the weight.

Jasper's Baby Shower

2008-08-26T13:33:00.001-07:00

Ballet

2008-08-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

Kendra started ballet this week and I figured it was the perfect time to start a blog. She has been begging to go to dance class all summer and dance with her friend Kate. I know nothing about dance (imagine that and I married a Long...) but I like all the tulle and "fru-fru". Donny was not very excited and wanted her in tee ball... uugghh. If you know Donny and Kendra, then you know that they like very "colorful" music. Keep that in mind...
So, we get to dance class and I quickly realized just how tomboy and lively my child was, I knew she would like it but not this much. I couldn't get a decent picture to save my life one because I am too big and pregnant to crawl on that floor and two because Kendra wouldn't get more than two inches from the teacher for fear of missing out on something. They told the little girls it was time to freestyle and wanted them to practice what they had learned... It can all be summed up with one word WOW! All the other girls were attempting to open their "notebooks" and bend their knees and so on... Kendra was shaking her butt and dancing so fast that she fell down twice (but quickly recovered to get back in the beat, which was so slow and sweet). I think she may be spending too much time in the garage with Papa!! The ballet instructors busted out laughing along with everyone else and said "I think this one is ready for Jazz."
I can't wait to see what stunt she pulls during the recital!

Baby Ballet Begins!!!!

2008-08-14T09:13:00.001-07:00

Laurie Helps Me...

2008-08-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

I have finally got up the courage to begin a blog!!! The pressure was getting pretty thick from the Long Girls :) so i figured I better start one!!! Yes, it is true I teach online courses and I could not figure out how to work a BLOG! So as usual I started one and called for back up... Laurie and she got me going... So thanks La La :)