Howdy Grandpa and Grandma!!

Dan and Linda are official Texans!! Yeehaw! I reckon we'll be seein' more of 'em 'round these parts now.

Welcome y'all!

A Journey

I'm fairly certain that when a person starts wearing argyle socks with their tennis shoes, they've officially begun the journey of not caring what other people think.

Hanging Book Display

I just have to tell you all about this awesome little project that I just did. I wanted to figure out a way to organize the books that Clara takes onto her top bunk. They were constantly strewn all over the end of her bed or being thrown off onto the floor; never did they make it back onto the shelf.

I perused Pinterest for a while and came upon this perfect solution. It turned out soooo cute. I just love it. All it takes is a couple of double curtain rod holders, dowels (in whatever length you want), and fabric. I also painted the dowels and added ends to them to give it a more finished look.

It's worked perfectly and Clara loves it. I made hers fairly short because there wasn't a whole lot of room up there, but on the website there were plenty of examples and most of them were a much longer length.

This is Clara's new bedding by the way. It was her gift from us for Christmas. She had picked out the set back in November not long after her sleepover with Leah. The minute she saw the paisley print, she was set on this set. (The shrinky dink jewelry they made at the sleepover was a groovy theme and there was lots of paisley.) It's not what I would have chosen, but it's not my room now is it? I'm learning to let her have a little more say in things like this and I think she chose very well.

Ok, now go make your kids a book display and report back.

Lucky Guy

I don't know how Nate got so lucky at lunch on Sunday. It's like he won the lottery or something, sitting smack dab in the middle of five kids. Ha! I'm normally right next to Robert, but I somehow got pushed to the other end of the table this time. I didn't argue.

Bowling With Friends

We joined some friends for bowling a couple of nights ago. This was Robert's first time. Chris and I took turns being on Robert duty since he was far more interested in the alcove of video games than in the bowling.

Truth be told, the older kids weren't much better that night. I think there was a little pent up energy among the group. Thankfully we were on the last two lanes.

We bought some fruit snacks from the vending machine and they worked wonders getting Robert to sit still for a whole 3 minutes.

It was fun, but I think we'll probably wait a while before Robert's next bowling attempt.

Ringing in the New Year

The day after Christmas, Chris and I decided to take full advantage of grandparents and go see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. I think this was the first time we've gone out without the kids since our trip to Europe in the spring, so it was time. And then we went out again on Friday! We hired a babysitter for the first time in I don't know how long. I know it was a first for Robert. He's only ever stayed with Chris' parents or friends while I went to a doctor's appointment. Not that he knew any better though; we put him to bed right before we left for our party and stayed asleep the whole night.

We had a fun time at our kid-free New Years' Eve eve party and were the first to leave at almost 1:00 am. Clara loved having a babysitter. She got to watch a movie, eat popcorn, play video games and stay up late. They even broke out the slap bracelet kit she got for Christmas and made some totally awesome bracelets.

Then on Saturday, we went back over to Glenn and Becky's for an early New Years celebration. We initially planned to ring in the new year over at their house, but since they were up super late the night before, we decided to just let the kids have fun for a few hours and call it good.

Clara loaded up her arms with bracelets before we left home so Leah and Kate could pick which ones they wanted. My sweet girl even handed them out to 2 or 3 of Leah's neighbor friends. They were so cute and I kept hearing them telling Clara how sweet she was. I love that I could see true joy in her face as she passed them out.

The kids played in the cul-de-sac with all of the neighbor kids (I'm totally jealous of their cul-de-sac, by the way) for a long time. Then we brought out the silly string.



I love this action shot of the silly string.


Robert was enamored with their inflatable nativity. I looked over at one point and he was giving the inflatable baby Jesus a kiss. Too sweet.


We headed back inside for some pizza and then took a quick jaunt to New York to do a little celebrating in Times Square for a few minutes. Love Clara's creepy eyes in this next photo.




Robert dug through cabinets until he found the perfect party hat for himself. The boy knows how to party it up.


The kids had to work for their cheap party favors. These crackers weren't giving up without a fight.


We went back outside so the kids could pop fireworks. I don't know my fireworks, so I have no idea what they were called. I do know this was a sparkler though.


Robert did not like the fireworks. Chris took him and walked a long ways away to watch from a distance and he was ok with that for awhile.



Then he decided to watch from the car. He liked this plan the best.


Clara was jumping on those popper things here.


We got home around 8:30, put Robert to bed and then let Clara stay up until midnight. We played video games and watched something (though I can't recall what). We counted down at midnight, shouted "Happy New Year", gave our kisses and were in bed by 12:05 :)

Official Braider

Clara has been itching to learn how to braid for quite some time now; she's been so frustrated with herself. I kept explaining that it was like snapping your fingers and tying your shoes. It's really hard to learn but just keep trying and you'll figure it out eventually. I figured it would be a long time before she would be able to do it. Well, she showed me. She taught herself and now she can do perfect braids.

A Bicycle Built for Two

My parents got us this attachment for our bike and it's awesome! We haven't ridden bikes together in a long time because Clara is too big for the bike trailer and is still scared to ride her bike. I wasn't sure if she would be scared on this or not. After the initial shock of being on a fast bike wore off, she loved it so we stuck Robert in the trailer and were off. Clara loved racing me and Robert down the street. Neither of them wanted to get off, but Chris and I need to ease into this whole physical activity thing. A couple of days later we went on a second ride, and yeah, my thighs were burnin'.

Christmas Morning Recap

Yay, Santa came! We had to go wake the kids up at 7:00 so that we wouldn't be rushed to get to church on time. Nanny was a good sport and got up really early to join us via skype for opening gifts.


I particularly liked Robert's classic Christmas morning bed head. Santa brought him a train table. It was difficult to tear him away from that table even to open gifts.


Mater!


Santa brought Clara a baby doll and the yo-yo she asked for.


I finally got a picture of them in front of the tree in their Christmas pajamas.


We finally got to open the gifts Clara made for us. I got a snowflake and she made a Christmas tree for Chris.


Robert's bed head made an appearance in this next picture.


I decoupaged this little box for Clara to keep all of her treasures in.





After we finished opening gifts, Grandpa and Clara got busy designing their Spring line.


Clara's ready for the monkey bread!



And here is Chris with his five pound gummy bear. He must've been on Santa's nice list.