Still playing catch-up on posts

Christmas card pictures and Ice storm 2013

 For the last few years I have gotten Christmas cards done at Target. However, last year was an awful experience and I have not been back since. My good friend was going to take some for us, however we had Iceagedon (as it was called) on that weekend. I was going to try and get some pictures in Houston over Thanksgiving but the kids were less than cooperative.

Dan attempted to snap some keepers on a day I was at work and he did a great job!

The above picture is the 1  Iput on our Christmas card.

Below are some of the out-takes to get just 1 good picture!

Trying to get both of them to look at the camera and smile (at the same time..gasp..what a concept), is like herding cats!

 Both are looking, just not smiling...scratch.

 

  Nathan was trying to give sister a hug and they were both smiling, but no lookie!

 

 

 Umm..."daddy, why can't we just play in the leaves instead having our picture taken?

 

 

 ON the 1st weekend in December we had an Ice storm blow through and it shut the city down (I know, us Texans!). IT was actually kinda nuts. I had gone grocery shopping on Thursday (not in preparation fo storm, just normal shopping) and the stores were packed with people. There was literally NO milk,meat and limited bread!! I mean, come on people, it's not like you are going to be trapped for a month.

The storm blew threw on Friday and the roads were pretty dicey. I had to drive into work on Saturday and nothing was sanded which stunk and other drivers were slamming on their brakes and either driving way too slow or fast! My normal 20ish minute commute took 45!

We went to church on Sunday but it had been canceled. They were just going to live-stream the service. It actually was a wonderful experience. There were less than 100 people (as opposes to thousands) and we talked to the pastor for several minutes (hey, big deal in a large church!) The service was very personable as was the music. Oh how I wish we could find something like that for every Sunday. It was the music minster with his guitar and 4 other singers, it was beautiful. Of course there was no Nursery, so the kids sat with us. They both were motionless during the music, then sister got fidgety and had to be removed, but Nathan sat in Dan's lap for the whole service!

We ventured to the grocery store that evening and they stores were wiped out. I am not exaggerating, there was NO meat products, milk, cheese, eggs, produce, veggies or bread. It looked like people were preparing for the end of the world!

Needless to say we enjoyed some fun outdoor time playing in the ice. Nathan loved to "ice-skate" in the backyard while sister fell every other step she took. And of course we had to eat some icicles! Never mind that they were from the dirty gutter!

 Since we don't have more than a day or 2 of ice/snow a year in Texas it is pointless to have a bunch of snow toys, so we made do with a laundry basket!

 Nathan's favorite part of winter is getting to help daddy start a fire in the fireplace. When he wakes up in the morning, and you have told him the night before about helping, the first thing he says is "help daddy build fire in fireplace?"! He gets to carry the wood in like a big boy. Fire, trucks, planes, mickey and helicopters..that's what my boy loves!

 Of course, since brother was carrying a log, sister had to as well! She loves her brother and just wants ot be doing whatever he is doing!

 

Don't worry the ice melted over the next few days and the stores were re-stocked with essentials!

Again, a little behind on blogging!

Thanksgiving 2013

 

I feel like Amber had grown by leaps and bounds! She is so different from at her birthday, what a difference 2 months makes. She has been walking for a while and has cut out crawling all together.

Her hair is so long and pretty but I can't just spit in my hand and pat it down like I can with Nathan's! I hope it stays the red color that it is!

She loves to clap right now and copying her brother!

 

Dan had to work this Thanksgiving so I took the kids and went to my grandparents house. My mom and I drove down after I got off of work at 7:30pm, thinking the kids would sleep the whole way down...ummm..not so much! Amber fell asleep just fine but Nathan was so resistant which really surprised me because he is my little sleeper boy! I mean this kid sleep 11 hours at night every night and then takes a 3 hour nap in the afternoon! The boy LOVES to sleep! Anyways, he finally fell asleep at 11ish but we arrived at their house an hour later. Then he saw my grandparents, who he LOVES, and he was wired for another hour! At least it was a good plan in theory.

Nathan loves his G-gram and G-pop so much. HE talks about them all the time. " We can feed the ducks when we go to G-gram and g-pop's house" " my big mickey is at G-gram's house!"

It was funny, he would get kinda upset if he didn't know where my grandpa was at times. "oh no, G-pop is gone"!

 



We took the kids to the small airport right by Gram and Pop's house. IT is a wonderful airport, you can sit on a little patio and watch the planes taxi, take off and land. Funny story, while we were there 2 guys were driving a large (fits 8 people) golf cart on the tarmac and were smiling and waving at the kids, so they drove over and asked us if we wanted to take a ride and look at the planes!!! So what does my plane loving boy say "No, Thank you". None of us could believe it, he had no idea what he had just said no to! (He is in a phase where everything is No, thank you, and it is hard to get too mad since he is so polite about saying no!)

 



They were both glued to the rail watching each plane take off and land. I don't think sister truly understood what she was looking at but since brother was doing it, so was she!

 



Here is Nathan trying coffee creamer for the 1st ime. When my siblings and I were little our favorite thing at a restaurant was to drink the cream from my grandparents coffee, so Nathan got introduced to it and he was a fan!

 



Such a big girl!

 



I always love going to visit my grandparents and I am so thankful for them! It warms my heart that Nathan takes to them so well! He and papa played a gamed were Nathan would run down the long hallway and Papa would be holding his giant Mickey mouse (literally its the ame size as nathan) and Nathan would crash into it. It was so fun to watch!

A little behind on blogging!

September-Halloween


Some days I think "what am I going to do with the kids today" and then I blink and the week is over! We have been staying busy and sometimes I have to remind myself to just slow down and spend a day at home playing in the playroom with kids and not worry about having something to do or some where to go!

I can not complain though, I enjoy being busy and I feel like I have a good balance of working and staying at home.

Anyways, we have been up to some fun the past 2 months and I wanted to capture some of it before I forget!

The kids, my mom and myself went to Grapevine's street fair! It was in the historic downtown main street and they had a wonderful play area for the kids. They had giant soft Lego's and a huge amount of small normal Lego's (compliments of LEGOLAND) for the kids to play with and to build. Amber loved jumping in the pit with the giant soft legos and Nathan built a "car" (well, it had 4 wheels and rolled) that he rolled down the big ramp they provided (over and over again)

 

 We visited a firehouse museum in a not so great part of Dallas, but the museum was fun! I had been there before but not since I was a teenager. We had the place to ourselves. Amber thoroughly enjoyed playing with the wheels of all the firetrucks and they were not clean firetrucks either! The 2 of them were covered in dust and dirt by the end!

 Nathan had to climb up into every firetruck and pretend to drive it. There was a few trucks that he wasn't supposed ot be in, but of course my mom would sneak him in anyways. I know this is shocking news for those of you who know her! HaHa

 The 1st week of October we made our yearly visit to the State fair of Texas. We went ot the dog show and that was the kids favorite part. I didn't get any good pictures but they were both dancing to the music and smiling as the dogs jumped.

 They also got to pet some goats and other animals. Nathan needed some behavior modification when we were in there so he was placed in timeout in a corner. Well, our heads were turned for a minute and he had managed to unlock and open the gate to the pig pen (which was a part of the corner he was sitting in)! Luckily we were able to close the gate before they got out, but it was kinda funny!

 Now that sister is wanting to walk all the time, we spend a good majority of our time outside letting her walk with her push carts. Nathan always has to push his lawn mower and he loves to have her "push him" with her cart.

 

 We went to a pumpkin patch

I can't believe I have both of them looking at the camera at the same time and smiling!!

 



My new favorite of sister!

 



We went to the zoo and Nathan's favorite thing is to play in the little river they have and feed the fish! He gets such a thrill out of watching the Koi swim over and eat the food.

 



Such a good picture of Gram-E and sister

 



They had a baby cheetah, which apparently is rare to see, on display. We could have touched him if we wanted! He was so cute and he is being raised with a Labrador puppy!



 

We did several activities for Halloween. First we went to a Fall festival the week before Halloween. Nathan and Amber got to hear music and bounce in some bounce houses! He liked getting candy in his bucket but he doesn't like eating any candy unless it is M&M's!



 

 

Directing music agian

 

We also went to another church festival and it was so fun because it reminded me of the type of Fall festivals we had at our church when I was growing up. Each classroom had different games for the kids to play for a piece of candy!



Amber got an apple from bobbing for apples and proceeded to eat the entire apple!

 

Then on Halloween night we went trick-or-treating just in our 10 house culd-a-sac and then went to a friends house for a cook-out.