Quackers anyone?

So, what do you do when you have been cooped up in the house for a week with temperatures below freezing and one day where the entire city shut down due to ice cover with snow?  You get out while you have the chance.  Today was 74* !!  i kid you not.  We pulled out the shorts and t-shirts and headed to the duck pond and fed the ducks stale bread.  The bread i made on Tuesday and could have eaten in on day but was good and didn't.  They have added a play ground so we just went to town and got a weeks worth of wiggles out of us.  better now since another cold front is headed our way Tuesday night.



I think this is my favorite



The Big Move

So, what better way to start the new year than with a move?In order to get Mom's house ready to sell, the boys and i moved out.  It's a good thing.  We ended back into San Antonio into a 932 sqft appartment.  Big change from 2300 sqft.  1/2 my stuff was already in storage, so it was a matter of moving a select few things i had at mom's plus some furniture. I have to keep telling myself that 9 months will go by fast.  The pattio is big enough for their outdoor toys and for them to play.  Grandma Jan greatfuly came in to help with the kids and move the little stuff for two days.  zWe let the Kids have a play date at Aunt Mandy's so we could go get the U-Haul for the BIG stuff.  As I watched the news all week I saw RAIN, RAIN, RAIN in the forcast, good thing Heavenly Father answers prayers and the rain held off until the evening when we had everything done except for a few boxes left to unpack.  I have come to realize two inportant things.  1.  I HATE MOVING , when i am responible for packing my own boxes and lifting heavy stuff.  2.  I am NOT an appartment person.  It has been years since I have lived in an appartment and i quickly remember why.  I think my upstairs neighbors are not light on their feet.  I know when my other neighbors go to the potty.  Did i mention that for two Saturdays nights in a row, starting at about 10p, they like to have friends over and they are not that quiet.  Last night it sounded like they were doing construction work and then it sounded like they were bowling in the bedroom above mine.  It is only 9 months.  I am an adult.  I CAN do this.  Where is my diet coke?@!

So, this is Christmas

(Christmas Eve, before Santa's arrival)

As you can see, I can always get the boys sitting still for 3 seconds with a sippy or bottle or something to eat.  With all that has happened this past year, we decided to keep Christmas simple.  We stayed home and made some salt dough ornaments, made cookies for Santa and noodles for dinner.  And played in the rain, yes we had rain and mild temps.  Since both boys decided that there were to be NO naps that day, early to bed it was.  That ment Santa came early.  But, first things first,  We needed to get online with Daddy and read the Christmas story from the bible, the real reason that we were celebrating, and we had to open up our gifts containing our new PJs.  Christmas morning was different.  The boys both slept in til 7a,  Blayne was to 1st to get up, so i decided to get Ethan up (much to his dismay) so we could get back on the computer and dad could see us open up their presents.  Once Ethan saw the loot that Santa left, his cranky attitude quickly went way.  Then they noticed that dad was on the computer and attentions were soon turned again.  We ended our day (again with out naps) with dinner and Aunt Mandy's house with all the cousins.

Seouly Yours

So you are half way around the world from everyone you one at christmas, what do you do?  Well here is a little of what Kevin did over his holiday!

Happy Birthday to me! and Happy new year to everyone else

From the far side of the world!

So Kevin just sent me some pictures of a dinner he went to for Thanksgiving.  He went to Seoul for a dinner and here are some pictures of that.

All I want for Christmas

need I say more?

Christmas Cheer.

Today we went over to Aunt Mandy's house to make some ginger bread houses and play in their way fun back yard.  One quick project for the little kids since the big cousins were still in school.  I'm not sure if it was more fun "tasting" the candy or putting it on our houses.

Chloe and her creation

Ethan's house

Heath

Ethan

Heath and Ethan at the sandbox

Blayne making his great escape to the back deck

I guess we know what to add to the Christmas list next year



Chloe playing ih her house



Deck the Halls

So It is that time of year, and we dug the tree out of the storage shed.  it is pre-lit so it was a major time (and aggravation) saver.  We pulled the ornaments out and let the kids have at them to explore while i decorate.



yes, i know there is a section of lights out, but i can't find the dead bulb to replace it, so i left it



say CHEESE!

Since we were home so close to family this year I thought we would celebrate in style (for a 2 year old)  So we met up with cousins and grandparents and went to Chuck E Cheese.  We had balloons and cake and pizza galore.  We played games and ran around and wore out grandpa and grandma.



Ethan, Hermine, Chloe, and Travis





more cake please.

 The older cousins were busy playing as many games as they could possible fit in before they ran out of coins they showed up to grab some cake then off again

Party Time!

So we have a couple of parties back to back. we celebrated cousin Travis' birthday early since Uncle Jared was going to be out of town on a job. The kiddos had a blast. Between the Jump house and pinata, how much more can you ask for. But my children found the food table the best



FOOD!!




guess what he's looking at..




Ethan and Cousin Heath

The boy's had a blast.  I couldn't keep up with Travis long enough when i had my camera to get a picture of the birthday bou :(