San Antonio Bucket List

I can’t believe we are counting down the months until we move from San Antonio.  We have absolutely loved it here and are very sad to be leaving such a great city and such wonderful friends.  It has made us think about all the things around San Antonio that we haven’t had a chance to do yet.  Hopefully in the next several months we can cross a few more things off our San Antonio bucket list.

My mom came into town in January and we had a chance to ride the train near the zoo.  The bigger kids had a nice time but Brooklyn cried every time the horn went off or when they lowered the gate and the bells went off.  She might be like Taylor would refuses to use automatic flush toilets and automatic hand dryers because they are too noisy. 

Abe did get to take the kids to their first San Antonio Spurs basketball game.  They were so excited to go but the late night and bad seats might have made it a little less exciting once they were there.  

We went to the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo this year.  Taylor was ready to throw in the towel after smelling the hog area but she warmed up to the smell of livestock eventually.  We had so much fun enjoying the beautiful weather, eating hot dogs, riding rides, and petting animals.  I wish I would have had my camera in the petting zoo.  They had the cutest baby goats ever.  I sort of wanted to take one home for a pet.

I can't say enough great things about all the fun things to do in San Antonio.  I hope we can knock a few more things off our list before we move.  But time is going by so fast.  I can't believe it is already March and we will probably move in July.  So much to do in 4 months.  We have already started working on our Yuma bucket list :)

Christmas

We had a very low key Christmas this year with no plans to travel.  It was very nice, though I do miss seeing some family during the holidays.  We always get the joy of kicking Christmas off with a celebration of our best Christmas present ever, Ethan.  After his earlier party with friends it was a very small celebration at home with some cake and presents.  I can't believe my baby is 7!

We felt very lucky to have Abe around for the holidays.  We usually have to share him with the ER, at least for a little while. But this year he had time off around the holidays and it was great.

 Even Brooklyn had a few presents for her first Christmas.

 We decided to try something new for Christmas dinner and we made homemade pasta and sauce for Christmas dinner.  It was delicious and fun to make together.

But the best part of the meal would have to be the Turtle Cheesecake.  With the allergies that the kids have (and that I have to stick to while nursing Brooklyn) it is hard to find desserts that are amazing but this one is impressive.  Homemade caramel just made this cheesecake phenomenal.  It was so good that I had to make another one a few weeks later to share with my mom.  Well worth the effort.

But probably the person with the best Christmas was Abe because he got a fancy new truck right after Christmas.  We are all pretty sure that he loves this thing more than anything in the world (but he promises that he does love us more).  Anyone who knows Abe knows that he has wanted a truck for many years (since he sold the last truck he had to buy a family vehicle).  I really thought he was the only man truly obsessed with trucks but I have come to find out that he is not alone.  I can honestly say that no one has ever come up to me and asked me the engine size of my mini-van or how much the towing capacity is.  But random strangers will eye Abe's truck and ask him all sorts of questions.  Good thing he sits in there for hours probably memorizing the owners manual for just such occasions.  I even watched a group of construction workers all stop working and just watch the truck as we drove by.  It is a strange phenomenon that I will never understand.  But it makes Abe happy so I will just go with it.

Halloween Round Two

I didn't get around to downloading pictures from our smaller camera until today but there are a few pictures I wanted to post so they make it into our blog book for the year. Taylor took a trip to the pumpkin patch on Halloween and had a wonderful time with her class. Her little friend rode with us and was very sweet.

 Here is Taylor's whole class.  It is amazing that even a majority of them are looking at the camera.

 Taylor's friend wanted me to make sure and get a picture of her.

 We went trick or treating with some friends again this year and the kids had a blast.  Even Brooklyn got into her batsuit for some fun.  The kids really wanted her to dress up like "Bat Baby" so we finally found the time to paint a bat symbol on a shirt for her.  Unfortunately I couldn't find anything in black that was the least bit feminine so everyone kept calling her a cute boy as we walked around the neighborhood.  I knew I should have put the time in to find a black hairbow but I didn't.

 I love that Ethan is here saying "awww" in the background. He sure does love his sister, even if he doesn't always show it as much as Taylor does.

Ethan's Marathon

It looks like I need to play catch up on a few things that happened at the end of the year that I didn't get a chance to blog about before I wrap up 2013.

Some friends of ours told us about a kids "marathon" associated with the Rock 'n Roll marathon here in San Antonio where the kids pledge to run 25 miles in the weeks before the race and finish the last mile together as a 1 mile fun run.  Ethan thought it sounded like fun and started training.  He was such a trooper about walking/running at least a mile a day leading up to the race.  He was usually the one reminding us that he needed to do it that day.

 Here he is right before the race started.  Unfortunately he had done most of his training on either the treadmill or doing multiple laps around the neighborhood so he was a little overwhelmed by how long the race looked when he saw the mile stretched out in front of him.  Abe wasn't able to come so Brooklyn and I ran the race with him.  Brooklyn was not happy about the jogging stroller but luckily she calmed down once we got moving.  She was the youngest "racer" by far.

 Here we are at the end of our race, medal in hand.  I was super proud of my little runner.  He has come a long way from the boy he was a year or two ago that would have much rather ridden in a stroller than ran a mile.

Christmas Programs

This December has been so busy with fun Christmas activities.  We had lots of school parties and programs, Ward Christmas parties, parties with friends and Ethan's birthday.  It felt like a lot of baking and running around but it was loads of fun.

  Pictures from the Hawaiian themed ward Christmas party.

My favorite is watching the kids perform in their Christmas programs and sing in sacrament.  And again they didn't disappoint.  Ethan had three performances where they did a Charlie Brown Christmas program and sang some songs in English and Spanish.  As much as he doesn't like to sing he was belting it out with the best of them.

 Taylor's class had a performance based on the Christmas story and she was one of the angels.  She was giving it her best and, as usual, giving the evil eye to anyone that got out of line.  She looked just beautiful in her costume.

Ethan also had his first piano recital after starting piano in the Fall.  He had been practicing Jolly Ole Saint Nicholas since he started piano so he was beyond confident in his ability to play it.  I always love how confident he is.  He had been playing the song for so long that after awhile he started playing it with his eyes closed and then crossing his hands over each other to make it more challenging.  He told his teacher that he was going to play it that way for the recital.  He cracks me up.  When we went to get in the car to go to the recital he didn't have his book with him.  I suggested he bring it but he was sure he didn't need it.  I brought it anyway, just in case, since that is how I am.  It was funny to see Taylor, my "mini me" so concerned about him not having the book.  She held it on her lap and kept saying "Don't you think he should have it just in case?"  She is my child.  Even without the book he did a good job and we were so proud of him.  But he will never be my perfectionist.  He doesn't have any desire to play a song until he gets it perfect and is just always ready to move on to the next song.  They often remind me that no matter what they are their own person and I can't change that.

Ethan has been begging for a birthday party with his friends from school so we finally gave in this year. As we were deciding who to invite I started to realize that we were going to have to invite 44 kids since he wanted to invite kids from both of the two classes he interacts with and if you invite one kid you have to invite them all.  I made sure to ask for an RSVP by a certain date and I was thrilled when only about 6 kids could come by the RSVP deadline.  So we started planning what we would do and decided on a food theme where we would make homemade individual pizzas and decorate cookies and play games all involving food.  Ethan was so excited about it.  I started to get nervous as a few additional people called to RSVP after the deadline but I didn't start to panic until I was at his school and some other parents made some vague comments about how they were "probably" going to come.  Maybe I'm missing something these days but I thought asking for an RSVP would force people to decide if they were coming or not.  So I was really worried that all 44 kids could possible show up and I wouldn't have enough food for everyone.  And in my family that is a crime.  By the time it was all said and done with had 14 kids at the house and it was crazy!  They had fun but I was running around so much that I didn't have a chance to snap one picture of the kids having fun.  I was so appreciative of great friends who were willing to help me out and a great husband to help things run smoothly.  I am definitely ready to wait another 7 years before we try that again but Taylor is already making requests for her party in February.  We will see.

Conversations from the Backseat

I haven't been good about trying to keep up with all the amusing things the kids say.  But they do keep us entertained, especially when talking to each other in the backseat of the car.  They both have big career aspirations that they talk about often.  Ethan, always the logical one, plans on being an engineer and owning his own engineering firm.  He is looking forward to having regular hours (unlike his dad) and plans to hire people to do most of the work so he can have lots of time off.  He has offered Taylor a job at his company but he was very clear that it won't be a job where she would just sit around because she is his sister but that she would really have to work.

Taylor on the other hand is putting all her hopes into becoming a famous singer.  She is great at memorizing songs on the radio but, as any who has sat by us in church knows, we are all bad singers.  But she will sit back in her seat and hear a song she likes on the radio and say "I'm totally going to sing that at one of my concerts."  She will negotiate with Ethan how many concerts he will come to each week (and with Ethan's great schedule and nights off he is sure to make it to quite a few).  Taylor did mention that she can not guarantee us front row seats every time because it wouldn't be fair.  Ethan plans to make signs that say "That's my sister" to hold up at the concerts.  I just love to hear all the details that go into these plans.  As much as they fight it is also nice that they plan on hanging out together when they get older.

They love to make plans about me coming to visit them at their houses and all the things that they will do as adults on their own.  Taylor can't wait to grow up and thinks that we have way too many rules at our house.  She is 4 going on 16 with all the things she thinks are unfair and how she doesn't like us making all the decisions.  She is going to push me over the edge with her strong opinions about fashion (which is in direct opposition to my strong opinions about little girls fashions).  I think she should look like a little girl and she is pushing for shoes with heels, short skirts, and as many sequins as she can get.  Getting dressed is always fun in the morning.  At least she has finally admitted that the brown cowboy boots she has been wearing for months are too small.

My favorite backseat conversation took place a few weeks ago.  Ethan was asking about having a lemonade stand over the weekend and I was explaining how it wasn't going to happy because we had a busy weekend planned. Here is how the conversation went from there:
E: It doesn't have to be every day, just Saturday would be fine.
M: Nope, sorry.  There just won't be time on Saturday.
T: But Mom we will give you some of the money we make.
E: (in a quieter voice to Taylor) Taylor, no we won't.
T: Yes we can, Mom doesn't have any money.
E: No we can't. Don't you know we have to buy supplies. Lemons aren't free ya know.  And Mom does too have money.
T:  No she doesn't. Don't you remember she quit her job.
E:  Remember, she gets money from Dad.  And what does he give us? Nothing!

Nothing??? Really?? Holy cow that kid has no idea how much we do for him.  I just love Taylor's willingness to give me money.  She is so generous with her money and Ethan takes advantage of that all the time.  He will charge her to play games with him or make some rule that if she loses she has to pay him money.  And she is always more than willing.  Thank goodness she can't reach her piggy bank without help so I usually know when Ethan has weaseled money out of her.  And he just smiles when he gets caught.

For Ethan's birthday he bought a building set that you can use to build forts without having to pull out all the chairs from the kitchen.  I thought he would love it since he loves to build things.  I was kind of surprised to find that Abe was doing most of the building and Ethan was just hanging out waiting for it to be built.  I told Ethan "I thought you wanted to be an engineer.  Why aren't you building something?"  He didn't  miss a beat and said "Uh, Mom, engineers don't do the building.  I designed it and Dad is my builder."  What can I say to that?  He has a good point.  So I just let him go back to directing Abe around.

Today I heard them discussing how Abe wants to get a truck.  Ethan tells Taylor that we should just get one.

Taylor: "Oh no we won't".   

Ethan: "Yes we should." 

Taylor: "Not unless Mom approves it."

Ethan: "Why does Mom need to approve it? Its Dad's truck"

Taylor: "Because Mom is older."

Ethan:  "No, Dad is older."

Taylor: "Then because Mom makes all the rules."

And Ethan couldn't argue with that.

I love those two kids.  I have a feeling it is going to get crazy once Brooklyn starts talking too.  There is already not enough time for everyone to get in their two cents and from the way Brooklyn has started squealing very loudly, she has a lot to say too.  Christmas day Brooklyn decided to roll over for the first time from her front to her back.  She is just getting too big.

Brooklyn is 2 months old!

I can't believe how fast the last two months have gone by.  Brooklyn is growing and changing like crazy.  She has started to turn her head to find us when we talk to her and she loves to smile and laugh at silly sounds people make.  She loves her big brother and sister so much and lights up when she seems them.  She can be a high maintenance little girl who still likes to move around all the time and is happiest when she is snuggled tight and bounced.  She slept through the night for the first time this week and I was SO excited.  Just like all my children she hates tummy time but can already move some as she kicks those little feet while she cries.

For her eight week check up she weighed 12 pounds 10 ounces, which puts her in the 93% in weight, and 85% in height.  So she is a healthy girl who is growing just like she should.  I love the little rolls on her legs and arms and her adorably chubby cheeks.  She is just such a joy and we can't wait to see even more of her little personality come out.

We had such a fun time taking pictures of Brooklyn for her announcement.  She was such a sweetheart and so cooperative.