January Grandparent Visit! Part 1

The sun may shine most of the time here, but January is still January. It brings its fair share of grey cold. So, having Jake's parents come to stay with us was a huge bright spot in what could have been a post holiday blah. Hooray to them! Grandma and Grandpa M finished their church mission at the beginning of December, so we hadn't any "in person" time with them in the last year and a half beyond our Nauvoo trip. We're so thankful they could come and play.

Tessa still had some days off of school when they came, and we really took it easy. It's hard not to take it easy when you still have kids who nap (one twice) --it slows the day down quite a bit.

One evening before dinner, the kids just needed to get out and move, so everyone took a walk while I worked on dinner --which was awesome. I never take a quiet dinner preparation for granted. It's amazing how much faster I can move.

So, on the walk:

 Maybe Cole's lips look like that because he's cold? I dunno. That kid has a million faces.

 Oooooh, Yo Gabba Gabba. When it was on, I thought, "Oh, no. This is such an obnoxious show." But then, they started singing a song about giving a baby some space and getting out of its face, and I realized it's brilliant. We sing "Try it, and you'll like it," from that show to Cole sometimes, and it works magic, so I am giving Yo Gabba Gabba some serious credit.

 We drove to McKinney one day for lunch. It's not like there aren't a ton of places closer by, but we decided we'd head to The Pantry because we felt like it.

 The new Science and Nature Museum in Dallas is called the Perot Museum. It's amazing. Because a year membership cost just a tad more than we were paying to get in that day, we got a membership. Hooray! We didn't even get to two floors before we had to leave, so we were very glad that we've got the year to really explore the place.
The Lobby (waiting to get the membership sorted out)...

 Those are water molecules on the ceiling that rise when you walk underneath them. Dancing water, they call it.

 Space exhibit:

 Dinosaur exhibit:

 These are only a few pictures of the exhibit, and they don't come close to doing it justice. It's gorgeous. The kids had watched Night at the Museum for family pizza night the week before, so they were super pumped to see the dinosaur bones, and they were not disappointed. When they turned the corner and saw the huge T-Rex and the Brontosaurus type o' dinosaur (I'm so scientific), eyes bulged, and mouths dropped open.

 A massive sea turtle hanging from the ceiling. Very cool.

 Mammoth:

My little dinos (watch out!): 

 Grandpa trying to get Paige to do more than stare at him:

 This was on the robotics level. The kids had a blast with all the stuff they had to do there. There
was simply not enough time, which was okay, because we've got a year, eh?!

After church one Sunday

Jake must have been messing around with the camera again. Here, though, you can see just how much length I took off Tessa's hair. Good thing she liked it that way. I don't profess to have any idea what I'm doing when it comes to cutting hair. It took me two more times in two more days of going back to fix it before I was okay with the end product.

She looks so grown up here:

 My charming stinker. He gets away with more than he should simply because he's so dang cute.

 Beauty in its finest form:

Paige must have been napping --or hiding.

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas morning!

Before going out to see what Santa brought, the kids were gathered for pictures:

 I love this picture. The one eye staring at the camera makes me laugh.

 Paige enjoying her teething butterfly:

 Jake gave me an iPad (Jake!), so Cole was checking it out with me while Tessa took pictures and videos of it with her new camera. (Santa could have not done any better than that camera. Tessa LOVES that thing. The difficulty is that Cole loves it too.)

 Grandma Lori (there she is via Skype!) gave Cole an Iron Man costume. I tried on the mask.

 He looked studly with his rippling muscles and wrist repulsor:

 It snowed. It snowed on Christmas in Texas. How crazy is that?! The kids were thrilled and went out to play in it with their dad. I stayed inside because snow is cold.

 We got a new camera, so we spent some time playing with it.

We had a lovely and laid back Christmas. What?! It's three and we're still in PJ's?!?
We were able to web cam chat with all three sets of grandparents and the Talbots in England as well.
We are so blessed and grateful to have awesome family and friends. It was a very Merry Christmas at our house.

Jake's Work Party

A photo booth! What a great idea!

The props don't hurt either.

This yearly Christmas date always provides great food and a fun night out with my best friend. 

Tessa's 6th Birthday

Tessa gets the choice of having a birthday party in the even years, and this year she most definitely wanted a party. A "My Little Pony rainbow baking party"... We all know my minimalist efforts, but, hey, we pulled it off for her. 

We had ten little girls show up for the party --a mixture of school friends and church friends. What a beautiful and sweet group:

Paige, Tessa, Elli, Aniyah, Eva, Anna, Ella, Evy, Izzy, Saneen, and Emberly (Emily came later.)

 They started out coloring on the paper tablecloth as they arrived. Then, we had a fashion relay game, spent time out jumping on the trampoline with balloons, played Pass the Pony, had lunch, decorated and ate cupcakes, opened presents, passed out party favors, and sent them on their way.
The school friend moms or grandmoms stayed. It was nice to get to know them a little.
Here's Tessa blowing out her candle:

 Seriously, how cute are they?!?!

Tessa received quite the load and was buzzing with happiness over her party for days after.
Here she is on her actual birthday a couple of days later, eating breakfast before school:

Six blessed years with my Tessa so far. What a generous, sweet, silly, creative, precocious, fun, clever, and kind little girl she is.

Most Mornings

Most mornings Cole makes it in to see Paige before I do.

 Most mornings she is done with him after thirty seconds...

San Antonio Thanksgiving 2012

Last year Jake's cousin and his family joined us in our neck of the woods for Thanksgiving, so this year we headed their direction. It took much too long to get to San Antonio, but we were so happy that we could make the trip. What a fantastic and relaxing weekend we had with the Hansens.

Here are Tessa and Lizzy right before eating our truly delicious meal:

 Cole and Zach got to have their own fancy dining area. Two peas in a pod, I tell you.

 Paige was happy that she got to munch on some grown up food.

The next day we went to Sea World! We love Sea World. It was decorated for Christmas, and the shows took on more Christmasy themes. Very fun. Cole was so excited to go on his first real rides. (And Jake and I were thrilled that we were able to go on the grown up roller coasters.)

 On the carousel:

 It's a Sesame Street style carousel, which is cute, but I snapped pictures and had to look away for the rest of the time. The spinning makes me sick to my stomach, but hey, if the kids like it, more power to them.

 This is what Paige and I did while they rode the horsies:

 She did get to go on one ride, kind of a swirling rocking boat one. I'm not sure what thought...
Here is Amanda and Zach:

 The next day we headed into downtown San Antonio. Here are all the kids, minus baby Colin, on the ever lovely Riverwalk:

 Paige, Zach, Too Cool Cole, Lizzy, Tyler, and Tessa. What a good looking group.
We ate at a restaurant on the Riverwalk:

 Snapped some more pictures...

And then we had to be on our way. We love spending time with those San Antonio cousins. I'm not sure there are nicer people to be found. It was a great break from our usual routine and gave us even more for which to be thankful!