Family In Town

With Grandma and Grandpa already in town, the part got even bigger when Jason, Tiffany Eli and Kyah came up from Houston.  We spent a couple hours at the Tubes.  Think Chick-fil-a playplace times 10, plus way less crowded and more clean.  They are inside a huge church but open to the public and free.  The kids loved it and the adults got to relax and chat.

After the tubes we enjoyed some true southern food at Babes.  Chicken, biscuits, green beans, creamed corn, and mashed potatoes with gravy.  Delicious.  The places was packed so we had a bit of a wait. Grandma took the kids down the street to a coin operated horse for a little fun. The kids also took turns playing on the ipad.

Kevin the Barber

Ryan needed a haircut and since the kids love the monsters haircut books so much, we figured Kevin would have a blast being a barber like the monster.  I just stuck a 7 on and let him go to town knowing it would be impossible for him to mess it up :).

Valentine Day - Some ups and downs

Kevin's Joy school had a little Valentines day party.  He took some valentines that Kherington helped make.  We re-used the 'you light up my life' idea from last year and attached a finger light an I wrapped up a box to hold his Valentines.  Pretty cute and easy.

I was really tired the night before and didn't ever finish decorating for Valentines day (I had put out the table cloth a week or so ago).  Kherington was a little disappointed when she woke up that there wasn't any heart attacked room.

We rolled out and cut sugar cookies while Jonathan screamed in the background.  Then I waited until Jonathan was asleep to have them frost.  Just as we sat down to frost, he woke up and started to scream.  So we had more background noise.  Kherington and Kevin both still had a blast.  Kherington is quite the artist.

Kevin really like making piles of sprinkles on top of each of his cookies.

We also made heart-shaped pizza with the same background noise.  I couldn't find my normal dough recipe so I used a different one that I wasn't a huge fan of.  After the pizza was cooked, I cut the hearts up into slices.  The kids liked taking the heart pizza puzzle apart and putting it back together.

Ryan left super early for work and stayed at the office until he left to pick-up his parents at the airport at 10pm (hoping that would make it so he could actually enjoy a work-free while family was in town).  I did my best to make it a fun Valentines day, but it was definitely the lamest one we've had since having kids. By the end of the day, our house was a disaster.  I asked the kids to pick-up their toys while I fed Jonathan (the picture below is just the toy room, but every room in the house was at least that bad plus the kitchen was a disaster from our food fun during the day).  Well, I came our from feeding Jonathan to the house still a disaster, about an inch of water in the bathroom and down the hallway plus a soaked playroom floor.  They found some plastic containers in the playroom closet and had been filling them up and dumping them out in the playroom. I can't think of the last time I was so angry.  I put every single item left out into a couple boxes and put them up in the closet, moved some toys to find some dry carpet to roll their sleeping bags out on in the playroom and left them there.  So much for a fun end to a fun day.  At least reinforcement were on their way into town.

See how he grows: 1 month

Jonathan spends a lot more time awake, sadly he isn't always the happiest of babies during that time. He is sometimes hard to burp but if you don't get a burp out he just whines and whines. Also a new development, he actually cares if his diapers is wet or poopy and expects to be changed.

Breakfast with Daddy

Moving back to the US and going through busy season has definitely been hard on the kids (not to mention adding a baby to rock their world).  Ryan leaves around 5:30 and gets home between 9 and midnight so sometimes comes home earlier and works from home, plus has been working every Saturday.  Bottom line, the kids don't get to see him much.  Ryan is so good with making the time he is around fun.  Sunday morning he woke up with them and decided to dress them up in their cooking outfits and let them help make German pancakes.  The both love being helpers in the kitchen and it is a definite bonus if that helping includes cracking eggs.  They're lucky he's their daddy.

Texas is not making me fall in love

I was really looking forward to a mild winter but just my luck the entire country has been cold.  It snowed yet again here. The kids begged to go outside so  dug out the snow gear and bundled them up. After 30 plus minutes the kids were ready to go.  We spent all over 5 minutes outside. This is exactly why I don't want to live in a snowy/wet place with little kids. Once they are old enough to get themselves ready in clothes appropriate for the weather, I think I'd enjoy snowy days a whole lot more. Well, we were outside long enough to skate around and make a snow angel.  Jonathan was in the wrap and zipped into my jacket so he was pretty warm.

Grandma and Grandpa Dixon's Visit

Grandma Dixon came in town a little over a week after Jonathan was born.  Kherington made a list of what she wanted to do with here including coloring, games, toys, etc.  Kevin made one too, but his list just had one thing: take him to Chick-fil-a. Grandpa came for the last weekend since he was going to have a meeting in Dallas anyways. While he was here Kherington didn't want to do anything except play with him.  Ryan got ticket to the Dallas Stars Hockey game...I had to drag her out the door to it. She has ballet on Friday's and she didn't want to go to that either because she would miss those grandpa hours. Instead grandpa came to watch her during the ballet class (pretty funny to watch). 

While they were here I had the luxury of coming and going. I went to a couple church activities, shopping, running, doctors appointments and more without toting all the kids along with me.