Cowboys New Stadium

Jill and I recently got the opportunity to tour the new Cowboys Stadium. We were quite excited, as this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

We first went to the Stadium Preview Center. There, they had snacks, Cowboys Cheerleaders, a real-life sample of a suite, and a much, much smaller model of the stadium itself. We also got to see Jerry Jones's bus while we waited to be picked up and taken for the tour.

The faux-luxury suite in the preview center was really cool. One of the walls was even covered in a wallpaper that gave you a feel for the view from the suite. However, on the wallpaper, I noticed something was totally off about the Ring of Honor. The had "Emmit Smith" in the Ring of Honor. I included this picture in the slideshow. It's not like they'll have his name misspelled in the actual stadium, but I thought it was kind of funny considering he's one of the all-time greats for the team as well as the league. Shortly after my discovery, it was off to the job site (aka. JerryWorld or Jonestown).

When we got to the stadium site, the van dropped us off on the North side across from Wal-Mart. On gamedays, this will be the side of the visiting team. We entered the stadium on the main concourse, which brought us in around the 2nd or 3rd level of seating. We had a chance to see lots of tubing, quality copper wiring, drywall, metal, and concrete. Kidding of course. Sure, it's still about six months from completion, but you can see things really taking shape. One thing that stands out is how enormous it is on the inside. The still have the hole in the roof, but the can close the roof if needed. Considering this stadium is to host many events besides football, it's a good idea to have the open or closed option. What will be a major difference from Texas Stadium is that the entire seating area will be cooled or heated if necessary. That makes concerts in July or August MUCH more bearable.

What stood out most for me is the video board that will soon be installed. In the slide show, you'll see what appears to be a bunch of scaffolding in the middle of the field. Instead, that is the frame for the four-sided video board. It stretches about 50-60 yards in length and in height, makes it about halfway up the stadium. It looks so much larger than what I've seen online.

Enjoy the slideshow!

Halloween

We had trouble deciding what Jason should be for Halloween this year. He has a set of Superman PJ's that were super cute with a cape, that he absolutely loved wearing, especially since the cape "flew" behind him as he was running around the house. We can't help but wonder if they were not special enough for Halloween, and if we somehow cheated Jason out of a sort of right of passage. Honestly though, we did not think there was a good selection of costumes at the stores and we were not all that pleased with what we saw for 2-year-olds.

We ended up being pretty pleased with our decision Halloween night. Jason was comfortable and excited. We made it to about 5 or 6 houses before he got tired. Jason was keen on rigning the doorbell, but a little too shy to say "trick or treat" or even to grab candy from the bowl/basket/container at each house. Here is our little man of steel.


We also had Mimi and Papaw over for a Halloween Feast. Or meal consisted of brains, eyes of newt, slime, potato and mushroom soup, and bat cakes. It was scary and delicious!

We also have to show off our pumpkins! Last weekend we had some pumpkin painting fun with Uncle Vinny, Aunt Becky and little Jake. We think they turned out great. Can you guess who painted each pumpkin?

Singing songs and more new words

So Jason's favorite activity might not be reading anymore. Right now he really loves to sing songs. On his current favorites playlist we have the classic "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." This is only rivaled in popularity by the much beloved standard "If You're Happy and You Know It..." or "Happy" as Jason calls it for short. Other tunes we sing often are:

• The Alphabet Song "A B C D..."



• Three Blind Mice



• Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star



• Theme songs from SpongeBob, Backyardigans, Diego, Blue's Clues



• Rubber Duckie



• Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone



• How Much is that Doggie In the Window



• The Itsy Bitsy Spider



• The Potty Song (you can ask Aunt Sarah about this one)
  

He likes the songs with hand motions the best, so sometimes Mommy just makes them up (you know how silly Mommy can be). In fact sometimes Mommy just makes up songs altogether. It is a lot of fun when we are over at Mimi and Papaw's house and get the whole family singing "Happy." Mommy loves that Jason enjoys singing all these songs. Are there any song's you can think of that we've left off our repertoire that Jason should learn? What were some of your favorite songs from childhood?

On another note, a new phrase has entered Jason's vocabulary, and although we have no definitive proof, Mom is pretty sure that Jason picked it up from her. It is almost worse than his go-to word "No", because we know he is mimicking. And while imitation is often the highest form of flattery, we do not believe this to be the case in this instance. Jason now says "Stop it!". Now in Mom's defense, the phrase was most often used to communicate to Jason, for example, that maybe he was being a little silly and that a big boy should not cry when it is time to turn off the TV. You know like "Oh, stop it. You're fine Jason. Let's go take a bath!" Anyway, Mom feels responsible. We are really going to have to start watching what we say. He picks up everything!