Random Pictures

I love when the kids will be patient for a few minutes and let me take some pictures. I sometimes wish I had those kids that will pose for pictures and enjoy it but mine do not. But every now and then we still get some cute ones. Taylor is a little more willing but Ethan usually wants all of his pictures to be action shots and those never turn out for me.

Ethan's Date Knight

Ethan saw a flier in Chick-fila with a Knight on it and wanted to know what it was about and I explained to him that they were having a Mother-Son Date Knight with a play on the word Knight. He thought that was the coolest idea ever since it somehow had to do with knights. So Ethan and I decided we would have a date night and we had a blast. Chick-fila really went all out on this one. You had to register in advance and when we got there we got our picture taken. Then we were seated at our table by a “waitress” who promptly took our drink order. They had decorated the whole back area of the restaurant with some paper that looked like stone walls and each table had a shield/family crest to decorate and some questions you could ask each other for conversation. There were even carnations for our dates to give to us. It was so cute but the most fun was seeing Ethan taking the whole “date” very seriously. I told him he had to dress up since it was a date (since Abe rarely dresses up for dates I thought I needed to start training him early). When he saw one of his friends from school wearing a spiderman t-shirt he was quick to point out that I had made him dress up. Even though he complained he was quite a gentleman on the date. He insisted on opening the car door for me when I got in and out and holding my hand while we walked. He can be so sweet. His sweetness factor might have gone down once he was given the balloon sword and continued to swordfight with his friend from school in the booth behind us but there was no stopping those two. What a fun time we had being together and hanging out. I love those moments and I love that not so little boy.

Why Some People Shouldn't Rent

As anyone who has ever visited us will remember we have the leaning wall of death in the backyard of the house we are renting. Okay so maybe that is an exaggeration but the wall is ugly and always seems like it could fall at any moment even with the "sturdy" board they stuck a foot into the ground to keep the wall in place. It is such an eye sore and has left Abe to ponder for months what he could do to it or what he would do if it was our house. But it is quite a wall and quite a project so he has just pondered it. Well flash forward until this month when Abe has had a great schedule at work and has had many afternoons off to sit outside in the backyard with the kids and contemplate the wall. Obviously we do not do well with too much free time so he recently came up with a plan that (in his mind) seemed feasible. The plan involved a means of straightening the wall all at once. I didn't think it was a good idea but one day I got done working to find Abe outside digging out all of the dirt behind the wall to put his plan into action. Needless to say Plan A didn't work like he had anticipated so this "simple" project turned into 4 days of really hard work as Abe took down all the middle section of the wall and then had to rebuild it and secure it. I will have to say that Abe is pretty amazing. Those railroad ties are incredibly heavy and they are so strong that it took him hours to cut through a single row of ties to level them off. I was already envisioning the conversation we would inevitably have with the homeowner about how we were going to fix the wall that we destroyed but we never quite got it done. But after 4 days of sweat, a new chainsaw, the use of every tool Abe owns, Abe conquered the wall. And we are so proud of him! Here is a picture of the wall before we moved into the house. It doesn't truly depict how bad that wall was leaning. And I would just have you note again how impressive Abe's grass is compared to this picture. Abe using the metal tube he found abandoned in the yard to pry the ties apart.

What the kids did for the 4 days that they playset became too close to dad's "project" to play on and the sound and smell of the chainsaw made us all want to stay inside.

And the finished project. Abe did tell me that next time he gets a great idea to "fix up" someone else's house that I should just say "Remember the wall, honey". But I truly doubt that will stop him, so maybe this is why we just shouldn't rent.

Great Wolf Lodge

We have been planning a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in Dallas with our family for months now and we have been so excited. Thankfully it worked out that Abe was able to go and we had a blast visiting with family and playing.

Michelle surprised the rest of the family by coming down from Utah to play with us. We really enjoyed having her to ourselves in San Antonio before our trip to Dallas.

Ethan couldn't get enough of the water and the slides. He went on every ride that he was tall enough for and is planning a trip when he is big enough for the Howling Tornado.

I was so impressed with Taylor and her willingness to go down the slide for her age. She is my child and hates getting her face wet. So I was pretty surprised when she braved the dumping water just to make it up to the top of the tower to get on the slide. She went up and down that thing until she was blue in the lips. For most of the time she wanted a "cousin" to take her hand and walk her up. What wonderful cousins she has that would do it over and over again with her. She is pretty cute when she asks so sweetly.

The kids loved trying to go across these lilly pads. Unfortunately the pictures were too dark. The adults gave it a try and I'm sure we are all happy that there were no cameras around for that one.

After two days of playing in the water park we went back to Zeb and Leah's house and had a great time visiting. The kids played SO well together. I think Taylor and Emmett must have sat on this horse for hours. They are all such good kids. We are so lucky to have such wonderful family so close.

So the adults decided to drop the kids off at a open gymnastics evening so we could go out to dinner. Leah managed to come up with lots of matching outfits. Taylor and Julia looked so cute. They had so much fun playing together. When we went to get them Taylor said "Why did you have to come back?" Obviously we were not missed. The instructors at the gymnastics place talked about how cute they all were and how protective they are of each other.

As Ethan was getting ready for bed on our last night in Dallas and he found one of the girls sleeping mask. I didn't think he would really sleep with it on but this is how I found him when I went to bed. The mask says "Girls Rock" and Ethan was quite happy with it since he is a BIG fan of girls. Ethan was hoping the other day that more girls would move into the neighborhood so he could play with them. Taylor quickly reminded him that she was a girl and he could play with her. He just rolled his eyes.

You know it has been a successful trip when my kids take an afternoon nap. They were so exhausted from playing hard and late nights. With all the rain and traffic we hit on the way back it was good that they slept through some of it.

Rodeo Day

Ethan and Taylor's preschool puts on a Rodeo Day each year and the kids have been looking forward to it for a month. We had to buy some fabric for the school to make stick horses for each of the children. We spent a long time picking out just the right fabric for the two of them. Taylor went with a pink and brown kitty pattern and Ethan went with Batman fabric. They couldn't wait to see their horses! The kids were asked to name their horses so they came up with Chocolate Chip for Taylor's horse and Bat Thrower for Ethan's. Some of those kids had some even stranger names. Taylor is always so happy when her brother will give her a hug.
The kids had a good time playing games, learning some dances and have stick horse races. Poor Ethan does not have the genes nor the inclination to be the fastest at anything so stick horse races were not fun. He was pretty upset when he didn't win any of his races. Not that it motivated him to try harder.

Taylor's Birthday - She's 3!

So I have to back up a little and post something about Taylor's birthday. I was so excited about Valentine's Day that I skipped right over it. Taylor's birthday was pretty low key but Ethan kept trying to stir the pot by suggesting lots of ideas for parties and fun things to do after plans had been made. We had a playdate at the house on the Friday before her birthday where some friends came over to play and eat cupcakes. Then on Sunday we had some more friends come over to celebrate on her actual birthday. She was so excited that she had to tell everyone we ran into that it was her birthday. Now that she is 3 she is hoping that 4 will come quickly. She has already started telling people that she is 4. I will have to admit that the party was a selfish excuse to get together with some of our good friends and eat good food. I love making Cafe Rio salads with sweet pork. Oh it was so good! Taylor and Ethan had fun playing with their friends and eating cake.

Taylor was so funny about eating her cake. She can be a slow eater but she was not going to give up. All the kids were done but she sat at the table working on her cake while resting.

It was fun to see how excited her friends were to give her their present. Ethan's enthusiasm for each of the presents was over the top. It was so cute. She was thrilled with her lip gloss, strawberry shortcake house, my little pony, and scooter.

I was thinking about the things I just love about this little girl right now. She is full of phrases she has picked up from books and TV shows and she loves to tell them to Ethan at really annoying times. For example the other day Ethan was frustrated with trying to tie his shoe in the car and Taylor sweetly says "Ethan, you know practice makes perfect". Not what he wanted to hear at the time. Her other favorite is "When things go wrong, teamwork is the answer." She also told Abe today while wrestling with him that "winning one battle doesn't win the war".

She will also "read" books that she memorizes and will help Ethan when he is actually trying to read the book. She has a great memory and is usually right. I love the way she pretends to sound the words out as she reads she will drag out the words just like she is reading. She loves her brother more than anything and would be happiest if he would give her hugs and kisses all day long (but she will settle for lots of snuggles from mom and dad). Of course with Ethan's personality she will just have to settle for hugs on Valentine's day. She also loves trying to slow dance with Ethan. She has watched enough princess movies to know how it should be done and let's Ethan know when he isn't doing it right. They are so cute!

So last night we were going to have Family Home Evening and Ethan wanted to be in charge. I told him that he would have to come up with a lesson (and not just play a game and eat treats) and he was very willing. He started going around the house and figuring out what his lesson would be about. He asked me to help him find some church music and then he asked for a book with some pictures he could use. I pulled out the gospel art book and gave it to him. Within a few minutes he was calling us to the table for his lesson. He was quite formal with asking me to play the opening song and having dad say a prayer and then he started in on his lesson. The picture he had chosen had a picture of a girl laying in a bed and Jesus was leaning over her. So Ethan says "This lesson is about this girl that was really sick." Then he pulls out this piece of metal and a rubber band and shows it to us. He says "you see this girl got hit with a sling shot." Then his eyes get really big and he leans in and says "The lesson is... you don't give a kid a sling shot. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." I loved it. Taylor could not be out done so she took the book and started telling us about some other "lessons" from some of the pictures. After about 3 pages of this Abe says thanks and tried to move the book away from her. She put her hand on the book and gave Abe a look of death and said "I am NOT done yet." And then sweetly proceeded to tell us that Jesus doesn't want us to be naked (which related to the fact that the child loves to run naked and I mentioned that it wasn't very modest). It was the lighthearted lesson that we needed on a stressful day.

Happy Valentine's Day

I can't say I have been that excited about Valentine's Day for the last several years. But the kids are at such a fun age with holidays that I'm enjoying today so much.

This morning I made the kids some pink, heart shapped pancakes with a little note. The kids were so fun. Ethan says "Mom, that is so sweet" just like I would say to him. All the effort to make them seems worthwhile when they are appreciative.

The other day I told Ethan that I loved him and, as usual, he didn't say anything. I asked him why he never told me that he loved me and he says "It's just not my personality." He is so matter of fact. But I do know that he loves me :)

When I picked Ethan up from school yesterday his teacher says to me "Ethan is so kind. Tell your mom what you did today?" So Ethan says "oh I was supposed to be doing something about things I love but instead I wrote a note to Kyleen (see early posts about the girl Ethan is crazy about) that says I Like You with some hearts on it." The teacher found it very amusing. At dinner last night I mentioned it and Ethan said "Yeah I was going to put I Love You but I know Miss Stephani doesn't like it when I say that so I just wrote I Like You." He has really put some thought into this. I asked him today what Kyleen had said about the note (since he had put it in her box and she hadn't seen it yet). He was quite happy to report that she said she loved it. Ethan tried to convince me to buy her a large teddy bear in the Valentine's day section of the store to give to her. I really didn't think we would start these conversations so young.

Ethan brought home a little poem from school talking about little fingerprints and how quickly he was going to grow up and it did make me a little emotional to think about. When I got done reading it to him he sort of wiped his eyes and said "that's gonna make me cry". I can't decide if he was mocking me or trying to be sympathetic.

The kids came home with an amazing amount of stuff/junk from school today and they enjoyed going through their loot. At the end Ethan got his fake sad face on and said "But I didn't get a valentine's from Taylor." (which I interpret as I want more candy). Taylor walked over to him and put her arm around him and said "But Ethan I still love you". Ethan actually willingly hugged her back. It seems that the Valentine's day spirit is doing wonders at our home today.

So I have to tell you about Abe's other love. He has worked very hard for the last month in an effort to grow grass in our yard. He started by tilling the whole yard and planting seeds. We have been very lucky to have lots of light rain and the grass is now growing beautifully. For a long time we were avoiding walking on it while the grass was still small. Abe and the kids have been known to sit outside and watch the grass grow. I'm hoping it survives the summer heat.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day with the people they love.