January in Texas

The weather here is funny. One day it will be freezing and the next it is in the 70's. You really don't have to pack away your shorts, because chances are you will wear them in January here. This was a few days before our ice storm, last Friday. Natalie and her little friend, Natalie, went to the park to play. I love swings and thankfully so does she and she likes to go really high. She would stay in it for hours, only my arm gets so sore from pushing after the first hour!

She has also discovered the joy of taking "friends" down the slide. What an amazing world kids live in. Where everyone and everything is your friend. I love the weather when it is warm and then it goes really cold where you just want to stay home by the fire. You never get tired of one thing!

What to do when school is cancelled?

School was cancelled here for 2 days this week due to an ice storm. The ice storms can produce some pretty thick ice. Our ice scrapper broke while my husband was scrapping our cars off! Even today the top of our driveway is still pretty slick and my poor flower bed is still a bed of ice. So, while school was out we played. The boys got creative with our hill and their little sisters toys. I have realized that even if you don't have toddlers, kids will still play with the toys.

This is what we woke up to Wednesday morning. This is our grass changed into little blades of ice. The kids thought it was great how the grass was crunchy.

Zach was amazed at how the ice froze coming out of the drain. A few hours later as it was just pouring water out he was still captured. His poor hands were not dry after this.

The kids were all excited when they saw this and starting planning how they were going to build a snowman! I just chuckled inside and smiled. I wish I could have captured their faces when they went to make a ball with the ice. Utter disappointment and surprise.

But they did enjoy knocking the ice off of everything in sight. Natalie thought that one of our crayons were left outside. She said, "Mommy look. My crayon got cold" After I explained to her what it was I had to keep my eye on her. She wanted to lick all the ice! (she loves ice) That would have been fun to try and fix.

My tulips started to come up just before our storm and now they are part of an ice lake. I hope they survived.

This was their favorite thing. They used Natalie's toys and slid down our hill out back. It was perfect! The fence's shadow kept the ice from melting up there. They had a lot of fun and now they are back in school and I miss them already. Hopefully we can get another storm before winter is over.

Dog sitting

For the last week we have been dog sitting for some friends while they're out of town. Most people know that I am not a dog person, if it is in the house. I grew up where all animals lived outside and never came in the house. This has been quite an adjustment. Luckily the dog is a small one and trained very well. We have only had 1 accident and she sleeps all night, as far as I know. The kids have absolutely loved having her here. They are constantly asking to take her on a walk, maybe that is why she is sleeping so well at night, we wear her out. The kids love holding her leash and being in charge. Gabe and I never hold the leash, unless there is another dog. Here are a few pics of us walking the dog.

The Things We Do For Those We Love

A couple of years ago I made a gingerbread airplane for my husband's work. This year I wanted to do something similar, but wanted it a little different. I love a challenge! So my neighbor and I came up with a way to do an airplane cake. I even place it in front of a sheet cake that was set up to be the runway. I found battery operated lights to place on the border of the runway, and they even blinked! It was a ton of work and my fingers were black, blue, red, orange for day afterward. But it was so exciting to see it done. Then I had to transport to his work with 3 kids in tow! That was a challenge, it is about a 45 min drive and on a tollway. I have never been so tense. They all loved it and Gabriel was very happy with the outcome. We do crazy things for the ones we love!

This is unfinished, but I was afraid something would happen before it was done and I wanted proof that I had gotten this far!

My kids love getting in any picture and they loved helping me take it to dad's work. Can you see the lights lining the runway?

Little blury, but the only close up I have of the finished product. No, I did not free hand the tail words, it is stenciled. I only wish I was that good.

Zach's baptism

I can't believe that I have a child old enough to get baptized, but it is true. Zach was baptized on Dec. 6th. We were very blessed to have Gabriel's parents and his grandmother from Virginia and my parents from Idaho come for his baptism. It was such a wonderful weekend. And we really enjoyed having so much of our family present. Zach had a really special day!

Disney pics

Well, I finally got pictures up. We broke down and got a new camera. My other one was pretty shot, but now it is a new toy for my kids. But it sure beats buying one of those digital ones they make just for kids!!!



At the beginning of December we took a very short trip to see my father-in-law at Disney. It was amazing to see all of the lights at Christmas time, it was simply beautiful. They actually even had fake snow fall one of the nights we were there, it was absolutely magical. The kids had a great time and Natalie loved seeing the characters, the boys just wanted the rides. I think their favorites were going to an Indiana Jones show and a Star Wars ride!! All in all we were very blessed to be able to go and we had a wonderful time.

Kid Photos

A friend of mine is so talented and offered to take pictures of my kids. My kids only lasted a few minutes before they were done with the photo shoot. She had to really work to get them all looking at the camera and giving a somewhat smile. Here are a few of the shots that she took. They are getting so big and changing so fast.