Speaking in Church

Ryan spoke in church today and did an awesome job. I had multiple people tell me they loved his talk and one sister told me she did something she has never done.  She took notes.  It was really good.  He talked about making moment that matter as opposed to setting specific goals for 2014.  This is slightly funny because the moments that matter thing came from something that Deloitte is encouraging their employees to do with their clients.  Anyways, it is true.  Thinking back on all the awesome things we've been able to do as a family in the last couple years, it is interesting to hear that the things that the kids remember aren't usually anything huge.  For example, from our UK trip, the kids remember driving an ATV by themselves as opposed to touring Edinburgh castle.

After church we had quite movie time which mean naps from Kevin, Ryan and myself and movie for Kherington. Then we headed out to Denton to visit with the Passey's.  They lived in Belgium at the same time as us.  We had a great time catching up with them, sharing what has been going on in Belgium for the last 2 years and learning about Texas.

Houston Cousin Time

Since we didn't have enough going on already, we decide to do a short trip down to Houston to visit Jason, Tiffany, Eli and Kyah.  We decided it was really the only time we'd be able to go in the near future between having a baby and Ryan starting busy season.  We had a great time with them and did some pretty awesome stuff.  Plus we were able to fit all of us into our van which was even more fun.

The first evening we went to the Children's Museum in Houston.  They had a free entry (and only $3 parking) so it was a pretty sweet deal.  The only downer was that it was packed.  It was the coolest museum I've been in.  They had a pod tower spanning 3 stories that the kids climbed up and down, a grocery store, pet store, obstacle course, parachute and rocket building, Lego derby car building, and more. 

The next morning we headed to the theater to watch Over the Hedge which was playing for free.  After the movie the kids got some wiggles out at the park before nap time.  

The last morning we went to the bagel shop they go to each Saturday.  It has been a long time since we've had bagel and they were delicious.  We had a great time playing.  The kids are very cute together.  Hopefully they'll be able to see each other often now that we live fairly close.

Christmas Day

The kids woke up around 6:30 Christmas morning and were super excited to see if Santa came.  And he did!  He left each of us an unwrapped present.  When Kherington saw that Santa didn't wrap the present she wanted to know if we could tell him to wrap them up next year.

Santa brought Kherington a kitchen and Kevin a basketball hoop (which he calls a soccer hoop) plus a tin full of popcorn for each of them, Mickey and Minnie candy fans, pistachios, m&ms and a couple other treats/presents in their stockings.

We kids played for awhile before deciding they wanted to open presents.  The funniest present opening happened when Ryan handed Kherington a robot to unwrap and Kevin a bus (even though we got the me each a robot).  Kevin wanted nothing to do with the bus and wanted Kherington to hand over her robot.  Haha.  It was even hard to get him to unwrap the next present (his robot).


As soon as we finished unwrapping presents, Ryan and I got to work unpacking.  Ryan definitely made tracks while I had a nap and took some breaks. I was really just trying to avoid unpacking the kitchen.  I have a lot of kitchen stuff and our apartment kitchen is pretty small.  Even with the help of our two large white storage cabinets I knew trying to find a home for everything was going to be quite a challenge.  As I unpacked the kitchen boxes the kids would take all the wrapping paper and jump in the box to smash it all down.

We headed out to the Parente's for some fun family time and delicious Christmas chimichangas.  The kids all ran around together, chased dogs, dance and just had a good time together.  I really need to work on finding Kevin and Kherington some more playmates.  We didn't stay too late since we had a little more unpacking to do and still need to get ready to head to Houston in the morning.  Hopefully we'll be able to get some games in another time.

Christmas Eve & Shipment has Arrived!

It's Christmas Eve and our shipment has arrived!  The truck pulled up around 9:30 and was all unloaded by 12:30 by just 3 movers.  The kids did awesome keeping themselves entertained and out of the way of the movers.  Then the second the movers were gone, they started breaking out the toys. 

Here's what all the boxes look like in out place.

Ryan and I immediately started unpacking boxes.  Then around 3:30pm we headed for a quick bit at Chick-fil-a (kid requested) then to a see Frozen at the movie theater (can't beat a free ticket with each 2 cans of food).  The kids did great for the movie.  As we were walking into the theater they immediately requested popcorn.  Kevin stayed entertained for all but the last 20 minutes or so when he decided going to the bathroom or just wandering around was more fun.  There were only 4 other people in the theater room so not a huge deal.

When we got home we Ryan and I scrambled to unpack the living room and make it feel a little more livable.  Then we had ham and cheese sliders for dinner, read the nativity out of the Bible Picture Stories book and the kids unwrapped some PJ's (Kherington's were too small so she opted to hold off and choose different ones later).  I felt kind of like a speed version of Christmas Eve, but we did what we could.  Oh yes, and Bastian our Christmas Elf finally found it's way to our place.  Just in time to report back to Santa.  That was close!

Table upgrade

We found a table on craigslist and within 8 hours of it getting posted it was sitting in our apartment.  I'm pretty excited.  We haven't had a real kitchen table since July when we sold our old kitchen table in Belgium.  Here's the kids enjoying some sonic shakes the night before and breakfast the next morning.

Mom's Visit

Mom came in town to help with getting situated.  It would have been perfect....if we had actually gotten our shipment.  That didn't happen.  The kids did love their grandma time though and loved using her blow-up mattress as a boat.  She spent hours at the park with them.  I ran errands by myself.  Ryan and I went and picked up bunk bed set one night and a washer/dryer another night while mom stayed home with the kiddos.  That was especially great since there was no way we could have fit everything into the car with the kids car seats.  Ryan and I also got to do a session at the temple together which hasn't happened in awhile AND while we were gone mom took the kids to pick out a present for us....so we really don't have any idea what the kids got for us.  That's kind of fun and they were super excited about it.  Kherington even wrote our names on the boxes after wrapping them up (and made sure to tell me I had to shake and guess before opening...and that I couldn't open it until Christmas).