Celebrate freedom!

The fourth of July is my MOST favorite holiday. I love everything it stands for. I love seeing crowds dressed in red, white, and blue. I love seeing all the waving flags. I love singing our National Anthem, and getting teary eyed every time. I love the food, and the friends, and if the opportunity arises, the family. And I LOVE the fireworks! Here are some pictures from our morning at the parade! It's become a yearly tradition and even the high temps couldn't keep us home!

 Doesn't this smile just melt your heart?

 Let's address this chunkiness. As soon as we unleashed the chub he fell right asleep.

 Love this big boy! And his crazy sunburn on his forehead. You can see where he missed a few spots with the sunscreen, so funny!

The rest of the day we spent at home relaxing and preparing for our trip out to the country to see fireworks with some friends. We were able to do this same thing last year, and we were so excited to be invited for a second time. Great food and great friends, and a spectacular fireworks display right in front of us. So close it was scary a few times! It was a long and fabulous day, and one I want to remember!

Weekend Roundup

So, I didn't take a SINGLE picture this weekend. I know, it's a tragedy! But, I will plop those kids into their costumes (Brady was a Jedi, and Natalie was Cinderella) tomorrow and take some pictures. In 15 years no one will know they weren't taken ON Halloween!

We had a rather mellow holiday weekend. Thursday night was Natalie's school trunk or treat. It was nice to go and support her school and she got to see her friends and teachers, and it was just some good SHORT trick or treating fun. Nothing grand, but not horrible either.

Friday Natalie had her assessment at the new school. Basically we went in, the Kinder teacher came and took her back to the classroom and while Brady and I waited she had Natalie take some of the tests and things they had done that day in her class. Natalie passed them all, only missing a few of the phonics questions which are things she has never even heard of. So, way to go Nat! She is all approved to go there, and we are just finalizing the last details and she will start some time this week. THANK GOODNESS they had some uniform pieces that had been donated by another family and the secretary gave them to me for FREE. Woot! That saved me 100 bucks! So all I need for Nat are a few shirts and one more pair of pants. Not bad, very doable.

Friday night we crashed our old wards Trunk or Treat. A friend from our current ward was there and said she was there with her family, what was my excuse. I realized that since we have no "family" those friends that we made in 1st ward ARE our family. Keith and I are pretty outgoing once you get to know us, but it takes awhile, and four years in the same place can really make you feel like you are home. I do so love that ward!

Saturday started just like every other weekend. Garaging. Haha, I am so addicted I can't miss a week. BUT, this week I made a believer out of Keith. We got a 200 dollar child sized computer desk from Wild Zoo for 5 dollars. FIVE. DOLLARS. I couldn't believe it. SUCH a steal, and the desk is awesome. The kids love it. It is the perfect place for Brady to do playdoh and paints and such while I am sewing. Before he had to work at the kitchen table which meant that I was in the kitchen with him and not accomplishing anything. So it's a win win! Yay for steals. I also got some vintage sheets to add to my growing collection.

The rest of Saturday was spent all together as a family. After lunch we dumped out all of the candy the kids had so far collected on a towel in the living room and we all went to town. They had previously picked out a few favorite pieces and those I saved for later in the week. The kids ate until they were full, we ate SO MUCH, and the rest we threw out. It was actually kind of liberating to throw out all the candy that otherwise I would have been munching on all month long. The kids were kind of sniffly so we decided to nix traditional trick or treating, which I kind of regret now, but it ended up being a nice slow evening. Natalie made us all crowns, Brady played letter tiles and puzzles, Keith had a football game on, and I sewed (shocker, right?). I love evenings like that, where we are all together, but kind of doing our own thing. Very nice.

I am glad the weekend is over. This week will prove to be a crazy one I am sure. Nat starts her new school sometime this week, I think Wednesday. Brady is starting preschool on Tuesday, and just other general errands that I have been putting off. I can't wait to get started!

7 dollar cure.

The kids and I had an absolutely lovely morning at our church doing all sorts of wonderful crafty things. I like to call it the Mormon Mecca of Craftiness, but most LDS people know it by the name Super Saturday, and it was super. The kids were watched by some of the young women of our ward, and I got to spend 3 hours making some lovely things for our home, and learning some fun tricks I can put to use this upcoming holiday season.

Only problem was when we got home to an empty house it was such a let down! We had a major case of the "I'm boreds". So we lazed around a bit, Brady watched Star Wars (A New Hope), Natalie danced and played, and I got to work on some craftiness. After the movie was over I was honestly dreading the next few hours before I could put the kids to bed. I didn't want to cook, didn't want to clean, didn't want to do anything.

After a quick Internet search I found my saving grace for the evening. Boston Market does 2 kids meals FREE, as in FREE, if you buy an adult meal. That totally works with our budget! So we packed up, spent a total of $7.01 and came home with an absolute feast of food (thanks to the Taylors for introducing me to Boston Market and their sinful sweet potatoes). It was a very lovely night so we dragged out the folding table and some chairs, and voila! A make do picnic. I am so very glad we did it, the weather was lovely, and it really ended the day on a positive note.

I can't believe I ate the whole thing...
Afterwards some bike riding, fairy house building, book reading, sun chasing, bug swatting, happy shouting fun.
So very, very lovely.

Day One

Yesterday was quite a day! I woke up knowing I wanted to do something fun, and decided that since the kids ask at least once a week, that we would finally head up to the Wiggly Play Center in Frisco. We haven't been there in awhile and they do love when we get to make the trip. This time was so nice because they are both old enough to use all the stuff there, and to really go and play on their own. So it was nice because I got some much needed reading time!

After tiring them out there, we had to stop by IKEA for lunch and a bit of shopping, you can't drive all the way to Frisco and not go to IKEA. It helps that I keep a wish list of IKEA things at all times, just in case we ever make it up there. It was our lucky day because kids lunches just happened to be free! Gotta love free lunch! The kids also decided that they finally wanted to try out Smaland (the in store children's play area), so we browsed around the upstairs (the kids love to look at the "houses") and then when I went downstairs to pick up my stuff I put them in Smaland for an hour! It's so nice to actually shop at IKEA without having to keep track of the kids. I could look at whatever I wanted, as long as I was back to get them in under an hour. It was nice to finally get a few things I had been saving for. Including some curtains for Brady, and some picture frames for an art project I have in mind. Of course the material (the white/green/black combo) I have been coveting was sold out. And now I am wondering what project I could make with a little of this material, I just love those colors together! I guess that means we will have to go back up there again sometime soon.

After IKEA we headed home to rest until Daddy came home. I was sure our day was done, but I had forgotten family home evening! And I got a wild hair and decided it was a perfect night to make some quick sugar cookies. Whew! I am glad we did, because the kids love getting to use the sprinkles, but dang! What a day. It is a lot of fun to run run run sometimes, but you can bet that we are just hanging around the house today, hanging some curtains, and making some art!

And we're off!

(Mostly) packed and ready to go! I am surprised I got any sleep last night. I am just so excited (possibly, I mentioned that already??). I haven't been back since we moved to Texas, and it has been far too long. I highly doubt I will post much when we are gone, but stay tuned for lots of pictures!

All of our bags, complete with the travel pillows I made for the kids, found here, too cute of an idea to pass up!

Low key birthday

Today was Keith's big 3-1 birthday. He got his present a few weeks ago, so today was just a very low key day. He is up and out the door before the kids and I even wake up, so there was no birthday breakfast. The kids had some time to play on their own this morning while I was cleaning up and getting ready for the day, and they put together the cutest little birthday "display" for Keith to see when he got home. They drew him a picture of a football on their magna doodle, they each made him a little story book, they each built him a trophy out of Lego's and Natalie made one final card for him with a pretty little picture. It was just too sweet, and it made me happy that they put all that together for him, on their own.

We were going to try and squeeze in a tour of the new stadium, but since we forgot to check the times, we were unaware of the fact that the last tour goes out at 4:30, well Keith wasn't home in time for that one, so we skipped the tour and headed to On the Border for a birthday dinner (sans loud obnoxious singing) and then headed home for homemade birthday cake and some Ben & Jerry's ice cream on the side.

Now we are just hanging out, the kids are finally asleep, and the day is done. It was very quiet, but I think Keith know he is loved, and that is the most important part.

Garage Sale

Firstly I want to say, yes, I know I have been a major blog slacker. And I apologize to all my family. I know this is a good way for us to keep in touch, and I do want to be more regular in posting, but I just don't have the drive lately. I may force myself soon to post once a day, but for right now I just can't do it. But know that I think about all of you every day, miss you all, and can't wait till you can learn about our life by being a part of it, instead of reading about it on the Internet!

Anywho.

We had our very first garage sale this weekend. I have been putting it off and off and off for at least a month, and finally a week ago I decided that today was the day. We had a pretty good spread, lots of kids toys, 2 strollers, books, picture frames, and all other manner of junk treasures.

We opened up at 7:30, and the only advertising we did were a few signs on the main street leading to our house, and an add on Craigslist. We actually sold all of the big stuff, except the complete set of Classic Pooh crib bedding (why won't somebody buy that from me??!), and most of the little stuff. We had one trunk load of stuff to take directly to Goodwill afterwards (no need to keep it laying around, or it will work it's way back into circulation!), so I was really happy with that! The only real downside of the day was that it is June. In Texas. So that means it was pretty much a billion degrees out. Not fun.

The goal for the day was to get enough money for the kids to get real bikes, they have been sharing a plastic Dora big wheel since we moved in, and honestly I am sick of hearing them take turns aka fight over whose turn it is. Luckily we surpassed our goal! So after cooling baths/showers, lunch, and naps we headed out to Target to get some new bikes! We then continued on to Chili's to celebrate (plus the kids had free meal coupons from their summer reading program at the library), and then on to Pure Bliss from some seriously good frozen yogurt. Seriously, you need to try it out. Keith and I aren't even fans of frozen yogurt and we loved it. They have SO. MANY. TOPPINGS. It's a serve yourself yogurt bar, you get your own flavor of yogurt, and then load on the toppings, and the prices were totally reasonable. It was 7 bucks for all of us to get a perfectly sized sundae with whatever we wanted on it. I highly recommend it.

Um, I digress. The bikes. Long story short (since I am tired of typing and I am sure you are tired of reading), the kids love them. Natalie was just over the moon. And tonight getting ready for bed she couldn't stop saying "I can't believe I was riding a BIG. GIRL. BIKE!" I love how proud she was! Now we just have to convince Brady that "yes he can!" ride his little bike (which we worry is a bit too small, he is just so dang tall!) if he puts his mind to it!

Plum Tuckered Out!

The last 2 and a half days have been so full of activity that I am ready to crawl back under my covers and stay there for the next week! In all honesty I am most happy when I am spending my days lazing about at home, there are always plenty of things to do, and I never seem to get bored. My cabin fever was getting bad though, because after a few weeks of being a hermit, sometimes you just need to get out!

I thought I would cure it with a much needed picnic, so Monday morning on our weekly grocery trip the kids and I picked out some fun foods to have a picnic that night. I am so glad we did, because I am not kidding, the weather was perfect! It was slightly overcast, breezy, and just down right beautiful! The kids had fun running around, and I had fun sitting and relaxing. It's so nice to take them to the park as a family because Keith can be the parent that chases them around while I get to sit!



Apparently that didn't cure my fever though, because Wednesday became the most booked day I have ever had. Fun, but exhausting. The day started with a trip to the local library for the reopening of story time for the summer. We really love the librarian that does story time (Mr. Bob) and the kids missed him so much during May when the librarians do school visits, so story time gets put on hold. Anywho, we got some great books to start our summer reading logs. The kids are excited to get prizes for reading. I guess there is nothing wrong with a little bribery every now and again, as long as they are enjoying the books!

After story time we headed home to gather up supplies for a trip to the strawberry farm with my friend Betsy and her adorable kids. We all packed lunches and the kids all had a "car picnic" on the way there. Brady was sitting near Betsy's new (2 month old?) baby and at one point told me, "Mama, I love baby Kate", can you say sweet? He couldn't get enough of her, and to be honest neither can I! She is teensy and precious.


The strawberry picking was a success! The weather was perfectly overcast, so we didn't sweat to death, and the kids were all excited about what we were going to be doing. We doled out buckets, set a few ground rules (only pick the red ones and don't eat any), and they were off. All of them did so well, and with a few minor setbacks; ginormous patches of mud, a few falls with dropped buckets of berries (Brady), and one incident of shoes literally stuck in the mud (Brady), we were able to get a good 10 lbs of berries between the lot of us. I am so glad we went, it was a good time and we came home with some fabulous loot!

After picking berries and then cleaning off our feet, we headed over to some friends of ours who so graciously let us use their pool! I couldn't think of a better way to cool (and clean) off from a sweaty, muddy excursion. It was a great way to top off a busy afternoon. Thanks again Betsy for coming with!


After a good nights sleep (the kids slept in till after 8, they were so tired!) I was ready to just stay home and get the laundry done, and make my first ever batches of strawberry freezer jam. My Mom always made this stuff growing up, so I was excited to try my hand at it. I have to say it turned out yummy! And we shouldn't have to buy jam for at least a year! I found some sweet little plastic freezer "jars" (with cute purple lids!)and used some liquid pectin by Ball for my batches and it worked just fine. I was a little nervous because I know my Mom always used the powdered pectin (which makes jam solid), but the liquid was very simple and seems to have done the trick.



Anywho, I digress. The morning was uneventful, well if you can count washing AND putting away ALL of the laundry (woot!) and making the jam (can you tell I am excited about that dang jam??). I was just getting logged on to work, and getting the kids settled down for a movie for the time before Daddy gets home when I got a phone call. It was Keith and he had been rear ended. Through multiple phone calls and texts we decided that since Keith's head broke out the rear window of his truck, that a trip to the ER to get checked out was necessary.

Everything kind of fell into place and our friends were able to pick up the kids, and treat them to McDonalds, and watch them for the next 5 hours (Thank you Taylors!!), and I was also able to leave work and take Keith in. After 2 unsuccessful attempts at getting the catheter needle in his arm (apparently he has tough skin, because the first one literally BENT, and the second on PINCHED CLOSED), he was all C collared up and we waited for the CTs. Thankfully all scans were negative and now all we can do is keep any pain under control and make sure no strange symptoms manifest. It may seem that I am being overly cautious, but in cases like this better safe than sorry! I told Keith that if I ever wake up and he is dead in bed beside me, I would kill him! So we are just trying to make sure that doesn't happen any time soon! Next comes the waiting, and the checking out of the vehicle, and all that jazz. I hate car accidents! This is our first between the two of us, and I hope that we don't have another for a long, long time!

All I can say is after all that excitement, I am ready for a lazy weekend!

Another First

And then it started to pour!

2 Minutes in Crazy Town

The kids and I have just been at each other all day, probably just coming down off the weekend full of activity. Anywho, after dinner, the noise was reaching an all time high and I just couldn't take it anymore. So I said, let's turn on the timer for 2 minutes. I want you all to just make as much noise as you can, scream it out baby! And afterwards we are done with noise. No more for the evening. So we did! Scream and scream, and I checked the timer and it had only been 40 seconds! After about a minute I was sitting on the floor trying not to die of laughter and Keith and the kids were running up and down the hall like Kevin in Home Alone (waving their arms above their heads). It was hilarious. Totally worth it. It broke up all the tension, and so far they have been nice and quiet since then. I may have to do this more often.

Suburban Saturday

Today was absolutely jam packed. It's amazing how many activities you can do when you never stop. It was a first for this family. No errands to run, no work, no nothing. Just doing whatever we wanted, all day long. I am actually pretty proud of myself for staying up as long as I did, I can tell you after I write this I am crashing into my bed to settle down with a nice episode of Lost.

Today included playing chalk, riding bikes, digging in the dirt, fixing the lawnmower, mowing the lawn, edging the lawn (all three of which Keith graciously did), taking baths (washing out the dirt from every nook and cranny), playing inside, making cookies, eating lunch, napping, playing fort, hiding from storms, painting caterpillar egg cartons, running around the house like lunatics, making a new recipe for dinner, reading, resting, watching ESPN coverage of this, playing Mario kart, playing wii bowling, and finally brushing teeth and scooting off to bed. Remind me never to have a day like that again.

Though Natalie saying that today was a really, really, REALLY fun day kinda made up for it. Plus, I think she is already asleep. Nice.

Outside

The weather has been fantastic the last week or so. (The last two days have been WAY too hot, but that may have been magnified by the fact that our AC is broken. The repair man was busy yesterday, and should hopefully make an appearance today.) Anywho, it has taken me some time to get used to the fact that we can actually go outside during the day. When you are so used to spending your days inside, unless you are going out to run errands (and by errands I mean shop), it gets hard to change your ways. I am a homebody, and there are always lots of things to do in the house, especially now with all the finishing touches on unpacking that I keep putting off.
In an effort to embrace the outdoors, the kids and I headed to the Zoo on Monday. It was the absolute perfect day to go. Not hot, not cold, not a million and a half school kids there to push us around. Wonderous! The only downside was that the zoo train was closed for repairs, and seeing as that is one of the main attractions at the zoo for my kiddos, there was a fair amount of crying. Nothing a good picnic lunch couldn't cure. I think the day was made even better by the fact that I didn't pay a single dime. I love having that membership, it's nice to have something exciting to do, even when we don't have any money!

Mean Mama made them carry their own food around! This didn't make the no train situation any easier. We made it to the car right as Brady decided his legs were done for the day.

It is a struggle to get a picture of these kids for me! They just hate it.One of my favorite parts of the zoo is the main entrance after the ticket booths. There is a bridge and it has flowerbeds that are PACKED with the most beautifully colored flowers. It has gotten me very excited to start a flower bed at our house. That is the next project on our to do list. Let's hope I don't regret it.Other outside things we have been doing are digging in the few bare flower beds we have, watching Daddy mow the lawn, riding our bike (we need to get another one) on the front drive, breaking out the little hibachi grill, and playing chalk. I think the chalk is the most exciting. One of those things you really can't play unless you have cement of your own. I love to let them play chalk!

Since it has been so hot (and since he was running by the store anyways for a much needed Diet Dr. Pepper for me) Keith picked up a hose and a fun sprinkler a few nights ago, and last night they were able to bust it out and have some fun. I was working so the pictures had to be quick and through the glass, but the sounds of laughter from the backyard were wonderful.

Brady was a little less than thrilled. I think the small spurts of water scared him a bit. He was so cute and pathetic standing there though.
Natalie jumped right in. She got soaked and was cracking up the whole time. Oh, the simple joys of childhood. I love her new bathing suit by the way, there are ruffles on her bum! Brady had a bit more fun once Daddy ran him through, but he still wasn't having it. He ended up inside watching Kung Fu Panda (the favorite movie this week) while Daddy and Natalie kept whooping it up outside. There are just not enough words to explain how happy I am that my kids can finally experience some of the normal outside things that kids get to do.

Easter Egg Hunt

Saturday morning we had the Taylors and the Saunders over for a brunch potluck and an Easter Egg hunt. We were excited to actually have more than one family over for food and visiting, and not all be crowded into a teensy living room! The food was good, the company was good, and I think the kids had a great time!