Poppa's visit

My dad, Poppa, had to go to Dallas for a few days for work so he extended his trip and came down to see us after his time in Dallas.  He arrived late Thursday night after the kids were asleep and stayed through Sunday night so it was great having him here for the long weekend!  

Both kids were so excited to see him in the morning!  As I mentioned in the previous post it was a special treat to have him here for Valentine's Day...made the day a little bit more special!  

On Friday he actually helped me with my car-my trunk has been broken for quite some time but with Rich traveling during the week and our weekends being pretty busy we haven't found the time to drop it off at the dealership so thankfully my dad was able to help me out and we took my car in early that morning and left it there for the day so they could fix it.  We just took it easy that day since we weren't sure when the car was going to be ready so spent a lot of time in the backyard playing and just hanging out.

Lots of football, baseball, soccer and wrestling all weekend long!

 Joseph asked Poppa if he could jump to him...I don't think that Poppa realized that when he said "yes" that it would mean continuously for at least 20 times!  

 Love this one!

 On Saturday, Joseph had his first soccer game!  I'll do another post on soccer but here is a picture that my dad took before the game.  I had a brunch for a good friend's baby shower so I am thankful that my dad was there to go with Rich to the game since I couldn't be there.  They said the game was hilarious and frustrating to watch as a parent but that Joseph at least stayed on the field for the entire game where many of the kids were off playing in the woods :)

And here is a picture of the girls and I at the brunch!  Fun morning!

 Once we all got back, had lunch and took naps, Rich headed out for a long bike ride so my dad and I took the kids on a walk and to the park.  Here are Joseph and Poppa racing at the end of the walk.

 On Sunday we hung around in the morning and relaxed.  

 Rich had another long bike ride and we decided to skip church so my dad and I took the kids on another long walk and went to check out another park in our development.  

 Best buddies!

 Ella trying to catch up

 Looking for turtles and fish

 After we got home from the park and Rich got home from his bike ride we headed to Waterway Square to go to lunch at Bake Street Pub and Grill.  My dad's business is "Baker Street" so we had to lunch there while he was here, and of course get a picture of him in front of the sign!  We sat on the patio and had a nice lunch-the kids were great and the food was really good, too.

 We roamed around Waterway Square for a little bit after lunch checking out the fountains and the waterway-lots of people out enjoying the beautiful Sunday.  

Headed back home for a quick nap for the kids and then a little bit more time to play before Poppa headed out.

 I just love how Ella is rolling around in the is picture-she wanted to get in on the action!

 Thanks so much for making the visit work Poppa!  We had such a great time with you and can't wait to see you again!!  

Happy Valentine's Day 2014!

This year Valentine's Day fell on a Friday but Joseph had a Valentine's day party in his preschool on Thursday.  We (or I) decided to make Valentine's cards for his classmates and I think they turned out pretty cute!  He helped me glue the balls on them, put the stickers on them and he decorated the ones for family members so it wasn't all me :)  

 I was AMAZED at the amount of treats junk that came home with him from school!!  We only sent cards...didn't get the memo that Valentine's Day cards include treats with every card these days, too! As my mom said the holiday is basically like Halloween now.  Crazy!  He received the Valentine below which I thought was pretty cute (Joseph wasn't too excited since he hasn't seen the movie and has never had a twinkie) so it made it pretty easy to throw away.  I'm becoming more and more like my mom these days...all natural, non-gmo, organic...twinkies don't really fit into those categories!  Sorry Joseph, maybe when you get into elementary school one of your buddies will trade you a twinkie for your all -natural fruit leather like I used to have to do!

 Daddy was traveling on Valentine's Day and didn't get home until late that night but we received a beautiful dozen roses delivered to the house that day which was an extra special touch especially since he was gone.  

And another special gift was that my dad arrived late the night before so between him, Joseph and Ella, I had plenty of Valentines!  We ordered pizza from Grimaldis that night and I ate Joseph's chocolates from school the day before so it was a great day!

 While Joseph was napping Ella and I had a quick Valentine's Day photo shoot!  

Blowing Valentine's kisses

 "Muah!!"

 Holding the Valentine raccoon cub

 And more kisses!

Silly girl!

 Thankful to be surrounded by the ones that I love on Valentine's Day and Daddy made it home by midnight so am happy to be able to say that he made it in time, too!

Church Dance

On February 8th, the mom's group that I am involved with at our church put on their annual family dance so we decided to support the group and attend.  Rich was impressed with how large it was  (neither of us really knew what to expect since I wasn't on the committee and we hadn't been before) so he had to take a picture to document it!

We had a fun night!  They had dinner catered from a local Italian restaurant, had a silent auction, a kids' raffle and lots of dancing.  Joseph and Ella had a great time on the dance floor!  

We didn't take any pictures since we were busy dancing but Rich did get this video of Joseph doing the chicken dance which is pretty cute!

I am still getting to know most of the moms in the group since it is so large and since I just joined this year but I really like it since they offer such a large variety of activities from bible studies to service/volunteer opportunities to playdates, etc.  Definitely looking forward to becoming more involved in the group and church as the time goes on.

Daddy traveling

Rich accepted a new job in the middle of December which we are very excited about; however, it has meant that for January and February he has basically been gone Monday-Friday for different trainings for the new company.  Thankfully his last week of training is the week of February 17th so we are almost done and then he will be working out of our home which will be a whole new transition.  Although I have to say that during the last two weeks in December, once he started the new job, he was working from home and we loved it so hoping that it continues to be just as great!  He will still travel a bit but probably just for a few nights once or twice a month (basically what he was doing with his previous job.)  

We have made it work with him being gone and are making the best of it.  We send him lots of pictures and have been face timing as much as we can (thank goodness for technology.)  Here are a few of the pictures from the beginning of the month that we have sent to him.

Lots of time on our bikes and playing outside to keep them busy and burn energy.  This picture just makes me laugh!

Joseph wanted to send him this picture because he cleaned up all by himself without being asked to!  However, when I went to look more closely all of the toys were just thrown into a huge pile behind our  toy bin between the couches!  I even found sippy cups and bowls there so although it looks pretty good, he still has some work to do!

Sent this one to Daddy of Joseph bowling...notice the "pins" which are the wine glasses (plastic, don't worry!) turned upside down and his baseball for the bowling ball.  The life vest just makes the picture extra special!

One week Ella threw up in the car after giving her a toddler formula that I had received as a sample that I didn't read carefully and contained milk (ugh!) and then the following day she had pooped in the bathtub, with Joseph in it!!  Of course, those things never happen when Daddy is home!!  Other than that it has been pretty uneventful just busy and typical days!  

Except for the following picture which could have turned out much worse...Joseph and Ella enjoy throwing things off of our balcony into our foyer.  Normally they throw clothes or stuffed animals and they just think it is hilarious so we let them do it.  Well, every once in awhile Joseph will throw something and it will get stuck in our chandelier...his batman underwear got stuck one day and all day I meant to get on the ladder and get them down but kept forgetting until I was giving the kids a bath and started smelling burnt rubber in the house.  I was getting a little nervous wondering what it could be until I looked over the balcony and saw his underwear on the chandelier and then it came together!  I quickly turned off the light (after I got the kids out of the bath!) and ran downstairs and got the ladder to get the underwear.  You can see that they have a burnt mark on them as well as on the lightbulb!  Sent the picture to Daddy that night!  At least the fire alarm didn't go off so I didn't have to deal with that, too.

We are definitely looking forward to the trainings to be done and having him back home again!  

Back in Town!

For the first weekend in February my good friend, Carrie, came back in town.  Carrie moved back to Ohio this past summer but she and her family are such a special part of our lives here in Texas.  Her husband, Mike, is the one who trained with Rich for the Ironman and their daughters, Claire and Norah, have been Joseph's best buddies since they met in the summer of 2011.  We miss them dearly but were so thankful that Carrie was able to sneak away from the cold and come stay with us for the weekend.

On Friday night some of the girls in our group got together for a late dinner and drinks at BJs.  It was like no time had passed and we had such a fun night!  Carrie and I were up past 1:00 a.m. that night just catching up.  

On Saturday morning, Carrie and I took the kids to boot camp and then we had lunch at Salata (our favorite) and let the kids play at Market Street.  

Olivia has always been so great with Ella and Ella loved playing with her stroller after boot camp!

Too cute!

On Saturday night almost all of us made it out to celebrate Carrie being into town and we had a great dinner at the Grotto at Market Street.  Carrie and I were up again past 1 that night just standing in my kitchen talking-so nice to have some quality girl time this weekend!

On Sunday after church and a pancake breakfast at home, Carrie and I took the kids to the mall to meet up with a few of the other girls  before she left to head home.  We were supposed to go to a park but it suddenly started to rain that morning so had to find an indoor play area which is hard to find on a Sunday morning in Texas so the mall worked.  The kids had a good time and we grabbed lunch and rode the carousel before saying goodbye.  Here is Joseph and his buddy, Trace, climbing the tree.  Carrie brought the Cleveland Browns jersey that Joseph is wearing here for him and he wore it all weekend long!  

It was such a nice weekend and I'm so thankful for Carrie's friendship.   Their family just booked a cottage with us at Lake Placid over the summer for Rich's Ironman so we can not wait to spend the week with them!!  

The End of January

The rest of January seemed to fly by after our traveling for the first half of the month, really the entire month flew by!  

The weather here has been CRAZY!  We had our first ever "snow" day with schools being closed (including Joseph's preschool) and this is what the "snow" looked like in our neighborhood...can you see it there on our neighbor's roof???  It did end up being icy that day (I guess) and was definitely cold! It hasn't been this cold in Texas since we have been here so that is taking some getting used to but I guess I shouldn't complain since it normally only lasts a few days and then we are back in short sleeves.

But, by the end of the week it was in the 70s again and this is how Joseph went to the park one day.  Construction goggles, Superman cape, firefighter boots and his purple Little Saints shirt.   Gotta love him!  Poor kid is so confused-he wears shorts all of the time inside the house and is always asking, "Can I wear shorts outside today?"  

 

 Ella's new favorite toy is to have Joseph push her on the school bus.  Her squeals and giggles are ADORABLE and sometimes they go a little too fast for my comfort zone but no bus accidents yet!

 Ella is a walking machine, now!  As of January 21st I think we can officially call her a walker.  She was taking up to 10-12 steps for most of January but it seemed like it all came together on the 21st where crawling is now a thing of the past for the most part.  One afternoon we played "zoo" where Joseph lead Ella and I around the house looking at the different animals and it was so cute watching Ella just follow him around toddling behind him.  

Here she is walking over to the shopping cart

 And still loves showing us her nose!

 Now that Joseph has mastered riding his bike (with training wheels) this is how we roll to the park these days.  Ella loves being on the tricycle.  Her feet can't reach the pedals yet but she just hangs out and enjoys the ride.

 Rich was in California for the last week of January so we sent him some bath pictures one night.  Ella loves to stand in the bath-after about the fourth time of asking her to please sit down she normally will.  

 This 13 month old is just so much fun.  She loves giving hugs and kisses and is still such a snuggler.  I caught her recently playing with a car and saying "brrrrm brrrm brrrm"-it is truly amazing the things that they pick up!  She is saying "ma ma" and "da da" but not very often but she has perfected the grunt "uhhhhhhhh" as we call it and grunts all of the time pointing to whatever she wants.  She still emphatically signs "please" though so at least she is grunting politely.  She uses "more" once in a blue moon-usually doing "please" instead of "more" which how can you deny her when she has polite manners.  She is asleep by 7:00 most nights and sleeps until 7:15ish in the morning.  Her naps are still kind of all over the place-sometimes 2, sometimes 1 but she can hang pretty well even when she's tired.  She is still using a pacifier to go to sleep,  at times during the day when she gets tired and in the car pretty regularly.  I am trying to wean her off of it but those car trips can seem a lot longer when she's yelling (she doesn't really fuss or cry, it is more of a yell) in the car so I either find myself passing snacks back to her and tossing the pacifier (or pacifiers) to her!  She has the best laugh but on the flip side also has a pretty good whine especially if she wants to be picked up.  We just love her to pieces and can't believe she is officially 1 now!  

Joseph loves taking the bath during the day-he plays super nicely in it and can entertain himself for a long time which is helpful especially if I am cleaning in there.  One day he was "finger painting" the tub and decided to also paint his face.  Thankfully it is non-toxic and of course washed right off but we did talk about next time not quite so close to his eyes!  I think he got the idea from the picture below the bathtub photo where he had face painting done at Emma's birthday party the last weekend in January!

 Such a cute tiger!  

Can't believe the first month of 2014 is over!!