Penguin Bananas

A little free time in the evenings can always be filled with fun things to make.  We found this picture of penguin bananas and had all of the items already.  (Yes, we usually have edible eyes in the pantry for decorating cookies/cupcakes.) 

We melted the chocolate and got started.  Lincoln was so eager to dip into the chocolate and get it exactly like the picture.   

Beau was more interested in eating the m&ms but did have fun making his penguin too.  (Crazy spiked hair!) 

Our finished product . . . looked pretty good and tasted good too!!! 

Beginning January 2016

New Year's Day . . . sleep late, play, lunch, play, nap, play, dinner!  Someone didn't get the sleep late memo, and he was crashed out at dinner at the club.  It's hard out there for a 4.75 year old!!

In his much more advanced age, the 6.75 year old had taken more advantage of the rest times and was happy and ready for dinner! 

In his much much more advanced age, the 37.5 year old had made such good use of his rest time and was able to stop at the newly opened Dairy Queen in the neighborhood for a dipped cone on the way home.  Age is wisdom, folks!! 

A couple of days later, we took advantage of the warmer temps and hit up the playground.  Rock climbing wall was the choice for Lincoln! 

Beau and his big Razorback hoodie played on the swings forever! 

We spent a while updating our reading list.  Lincoln needed to log the books he has been reading over the break, so we took some time to write them down.   

We have been enjoying the relaxed schedule and just hanging around.  Back to school and back to work is a reality, but we have really lived it up over the break!

New Year's Eve 2015

The boys were happy to celebrate Leo's birthday in the morning at Adventure Landing.  So many fun video games!!   

Everyone took a break for cake.  Beau's favorite part about tagging along to birthday parties with his big brother is the cake! 

We were lucky to have a mild winter day, and the kids got to play putt putt.  There was so much cheering for each other!  They all need some serious putting practice though!

These three . . . best buddies . . . and perhaps future golf superstars!! 

The boys went to Nana and Pop Pop's house for dinner and a sleepover.  They dined on chicken strips, tater tots and broccoli with milk in fancy glasses! 

Putting together the Lego chess set was a great project for the night.  Lincoln and Pop Pop love to play chess, and building their own Lego chess board and chess pieces were a huge hit! 

Dinner for the parents was spectacular  . . . we celebrated the evening with the Katsoulis's and the Moddy's at III Forks!  We forgot to take any pictures until we were all sharing dessert!!  It was delicious, and we had a blast! 

We met up with the Hamilton's and the Denby's at the Greeson's after dinner and played several hot rounds of dice with lots of cheering!  We rang in the new year with lots of hugs and kisses, then finished the night back at our house for a drink.  It was nice to be with just grown-ups!  We all have a great time together with our families, but some parent-only time was great!  Here's to 2016!!!

Fun with Friends

We took a couple of days to get rested up after our fun trip and got back to hanging out with friends.  We met the Moody's at the playground to check out a cool new helicopter that William got.  It actually would fly pretty high!  They loved running wild and chasing it, and the weather was great.  There were a few crashes into the trees, and Mr. Andy had to get creative to get it down.  Fun afternoon!

We went to the Hamilton's after an early dinner to watch basketball (Texas A&M-boo!), but everyone had a great time.  The kids were wild in the backyard, and they really rocked that swing!   

Ms. Cheryl busted out some poppers for the kids to throw, and that was definitely a hit!  We had to rep the Razorbacks since we were around so many Aggies! 

New Year's Eve is up next, and we were ready to celebrate!

Arkansas Road Trip

A couple of days after Christmas, we loaded up to take a road trip to Arkansas.  The night before there were lots of severe storms and damaging tornadoes in the Dallas area, and we passed lots of damage and debris as we headed out.  Pretty soon after, we hit wave after wave of heavy storms.  There was a tire issue (low air) that made us turn around once to have that looked at and fixed, then we got back on our way.  Technology note:  (Apparently, we didn't take any iPads!!)  We had two tv screens that hang over the seats for the boys to watch on road trips, and only one was working on this day.  Also, we had never used headphones before.  Mom just listened to the movie as she drove.  Luckily, they had put in a 2 hour movie of 10 stories of the Bible.  Beau did lots of sleeping on and off, Lincoln was absorbed in the Bible stories, and Mom was doing lots of praying that we would stay safely on the road (that she couldn't even see during the storms).  We stayed behind a big truck for almost 3 hours because he had enough back lights to give us a path to stay in our lane.  With about an hour left, sirens started going off in the distance, the phone was yelling alarms to take cover, and the radio was discussing a tornado in the vicinity.  After lots of talks with Bubbles, who was monitoring the storm on tv and radar in Malvern, we plowed through as fast as we could go to drive east just before the tornado could intersect us.  It was the scariest drive ever!!!!!  (FYI: we voted to keep driving away instead of pull over and assume that the roof of a gas station would provide any cover in the event the tornado touched down.)   

Longest trip ever, but we made it to Minnie and Bubbles house!!!!  Lincoln wrote Dad a letter when we got there.  It is the best letter and perfectly describes what he was thinking. 

"Dear Dad, We got thar (there) at 5:33.  It rained a lot.  I hope you are not lonely.  Love Lincoln"  The pictures are of us driving in the rain, us pulling up to Minnie and Bubbles house, and Dad sad and alone.  Hilarious!! 

All calmed down and safe, they boys did some playing before dinner.  It was delicious and our favorite: pork loin, broccoli, and roasted potatoes! 

After dinner, we hit up Wal-Mart to update our travel essentials.  Two sets of headphones and one portable DVD player were first on the list followed by a few extras (I think a hair dryer and brush??).  We inflated the boys beds when it was time for bed and popped in a new movie, Inside Out.  They were enjoying it on the newly purchased mini DVD player.  They totally love the idea of sleeping on the blow up beds.  They settled down with the movie and slept really well. 

The next morning we headed to Dumas to visit lots of relatives.  It was a pretty peaceful drive with our extra technology!  We stopped at Auntie's first.  Of course, she had made everything that anyone could want for lunch.  The boys loved hanging all over Bubbles! 

Auntie scored with individual ice cream cups, and the bonus was that they each had little wooden spoons.  It's the little things in life, right?  Best picture of Beau and Minnie ever! 

Auntie always has more tricks up her sleeve, and she surprised the boys with a sewing lesson.  They were in awe!  They finally got a taste of how she's been making them cute pjs for years! 

Over-stimulation, maybe?  Beau was not ok with a group picture.  Lincoln did his best to make up for it! 

Picture stolen from Allyson's FaceBook page.  Love Auntie!  (We are short but look like giants!!!!) 

We stopped by to visit with Patsy and Julia Ann, and the boys were getting a bit rowdy.  They calmed down a bit and took a turn in the rocking chair.  It was great to have a quick visit with some really cool aunts. 

Truth: no more pictures are available of our Dumas visit.  So sorry!  We went to Memama and Poppa's house next.  Aunt Sarah was there, and she had the amazing sense to take the boys outside to check out the property.  They were getting a little stir crazyafter being shuffled around.  (No wonder she's a great Kindergarten teacher!!)  We definitely took pictures, but they are missing from the record.  (If they are recovered, that would be great!!!)

We made the drive back to Malvern to crash in our beds.  It is weird sleeping in the same room with the boys.  The sounds they make, their sleep styles, the closeness . . . they crashed!!!

We headed back to Dallas the next day and enjoyed a sunny and silent (thanks to headphones and the extra DVD player) drive. 

Christmas Day 2015

Christmas Morning!!!  Well, it looks like the paper barrier really deterred the kiddos . . . not so much!!  They came downstairs while we were still asleep and tore through their stockings and began playing with their Santa gifts.  Stinkers!!!  All taped back up and watching a Christmas cartoon when we went to get them. 

We all got dressed and decided to open presents we got for each other.  They really are good at this! 

Superman had to put his costume on right away!  He loves costumes and somehow had never had Superman in his collection.   

Big brother found a cape and they set off to protect our home.  Perhaps their first job should have been to clean up all of that paper! 

We got busy cooking Christmas Day lunch, and everything turned out really well.  The usuals: ham, green bean casserole, mashed potato casserole, and chicken dressing.  It was delicious!  (For some reason the tree looks really crooked - I don't remember that being the case.  Maybe when we moved it to add in the table leaf something got a little off.) 

We spent the afternoon at Nana and Pops house opening more gifts and playing.  Still shorts weather!!  We were all treated to some really great gifts, and they never tire of opening them!  Luckily we brought a few to share.   

Beau was a great gift passer-outer.  (Lincoln too.)  He also enjoyed posing with his new Lego set. 

We went to have dinner at with the Katsoulis family (as if we hadn't eaten enough) in the evening.  They made pork tenderloins, and it was everyone's favorite.  The kids had a blast playing, and we did lots of planning for our New Year's Eve night out.  What a wonderful holiday that gave us so many sweet memories and laughs!  The break is still going and more fun is waiting.  A trip east is up next!

Christmas Eve 2015

After a 6 month break from the blog, let's try to get caught up and return to normal posting.  Life is so busy, and there is so much to document.  So it's Christmas Eve . . . and it's super warm.  Like warm enough that the boys decided a dip in the pool would be a good idea!  We let them go for it, but it turned out that the water was actually pretty chilly!  They didn't get any lower than the second step and then bolted!  It was fun anyway!

Minnie, Bubbles and Ally arrived from Arkansas, and they did lots of playing.  When it was time to get ready for church, a little chaos occurred.  They had matching shirts for the service, but we couldn't find Beau's shirt.  (Really long story short - it was in the car from Beau's school Christmas program in case he wanted to change into a fancy shirt.)  Minnie was in charge of dressing them and found a suitable replacement.  Mom ok-ed the shorts, and off to church we went for the 6:00 Christmas Eve service.  Two cuties hanging out on the stairs (with long legs!!).  We all met up with Nana and Pops there.

They were pretty busy with books and drawing during most of the service.  Lincoln made the most amazing book of pictures of the story of the birth of Jesus all the way to his burial and resurrection and even ending with drawing us celebrating in church.  The hard copy is stored away, and 4 copies were made for posterity.  It made each of us tear up, and we were all so proud of Lincoln.  Beau wrote out a grocery list of his favorite snacks with illustrations!! Their favorite part was the candle lighting, and they were super careful. 

We all sang Silent Night, and Lincoln was feeling especially touched.  He blew a kiss to Jesus in Heaven before he blew out his candle.  Be still, my heart!!! 

It was a beautiful service, and we all enjoyed hearing the real meaning of the season.  How pretty to see the entire congregation with candles.  (And it was a packed house!) 

We went back to our house for our annual (two years now?) tradition of soups for dinner on Christmas Eve.  We had the usual Taco Soup simmering, and this year we added Chicken Enchilada Soup.  It was delicious!!  For dessert, we had mini apple pies and brownies.   

It was time for Arkansas presents, and the boys were so excited!  We exchanged gifts with Minnie, Bubbles and Ally, and they had even brought extra gifts from other Aunts.  Big smiles all around!  Remote control cars, Ninja Turtle sets, and a Hot Wheels race track were the favorites.   

The grown ups had fun too.  We loved our gifts, but we might not have been able to reach the enthusiasm of a 6- and 4-year old! 

Our company left, and the boys got settled in bed after leaving Santa some milk and cookies.  Santa arrived just after midnight and left them EXACTLY what they had asked for.  It's pretty great that they didn't have the "gimmies" and didn't go overboard asking for extravagant gifts.  They each picked out a Lego set they wanted, a Star Wars Mr. Potato Head (Luke Fry-Walker and Darth Tater), and a toy lawn toy (random).  They got to share a metal detector truck to drive around the yard.  Santa ate a cookie, set up the gifts and was on his way.  Thanks Santa! 

Just in case any curious boys woke up early upstairs and decide to wander down to check out what Santa might have left, a large piece of easel paper was taped to the top of the stairs as a barrier!  Genius parents, right???? 

Side note: the night before Christmas Eve, Kevin and Corey decided they should install our new faucet in the kitchen at 10:30 at night.  Somehow that idea got shot down, and Bubbles took care of it before church.  Thank goodness!!! 

So, bets on how well the paper barrier worked on Christmas morning??? Anyone . . . anyone???