Brrrrr!

Snow in Austin!! Yes, we got actual snow today. The frigid weather began Sunday night and it has only gotten colder and wetter. This morning we woke up to a sheet of ice over everything. Then it began raining which turned into freezing rain which turned into sleet which became snow and then the cycle reversed itself. Now it is steadily raining outside. Our gutters have frozen and, as I type, Greg is out there trying to... do something... so the water will stop pouring into our deck. The grass, with so much snow and now rain, is a sea of ice- it has to be two inches thick. I have serious cabin fever. I haven't left the house since church Sunday morning. Ahhh! Greg worked from home today which was good and bad. I had to keep the boys from bugging him. Wyatt would stand at the office doors and point and say 'dad' or just make funny faces at him. Noah's friend across the street, Ezra, was home from school today so they ran back and forth playing at each other's houses and outside. They had a ball throwing 'snow' (more like Sonic ice) at each other and knocking icicles off everything they could reach. We pulled down our winter bag and put Noah in his ski pants. Those paired with his bomber jacket and ski cap made him look just like the bully's little sidekick in the movie Christmas Story. Wyatt wanted to go outside but it only lasted about two minutes. Greg was supposed to travel on Monday and has had to move his flight three times because of weather. The ariport completely shut down. Tonight we had artichokes for dinner. Noah, who won't even look at a carrot, loves them. Here he is sharing Greg's artichoke. Crazy kid.

Big boys & Little boys

This weekend was a little crazy. It was our church's Disciple Now weekend. This is where the 7th-12th graders in our youth group are divided up by grade and sent to 'host homes' for a weekend of Bible studies, worship and service projects led by a visiting college student. Well, we were a host home for the tenth grade boys. That meant a whole weekend of living with 8 fifteen to sixteen year old guys and one college student. We packed them in like sardines. We actually had to turn on the air conditioner Friday and Saturday. But really, it was a lot of fun. The guys were great and I think the weekend had a really positive spiritual impact on them. Greg had a blast staying up until 2:30 in the morning Fri and Sat doing boy stuff like pull-up contests on the deck and front yard wrestling matches (our poor neighbors). In this picture they are all taking videos with their cell phones of Greg and Wyatt playing. They thought Wyatt laughing and bouncing around on Greg was hysterical. Noah and Wyatt couldn't get enough of the 'big kids'. The guys couldn't sit on the floor (though they didn't have much choice) without the boys climbing all over them and showing off their favorite toys. And, if the weekend couldn't get much better, the church provided us with donuts and other goodies for the weekend. I don't think we have ever had donuts in our house. Noah could hardly contain his excitement. Speaking of goodies, last week Noah and I made some homemade granola. I had to idea what I was doing- I saw some lady making it in the background of a tv show and decided it looked easy. It was and it turned out pretty good. Noah accidently spilled the vanilla so the flavor was a little over powering. The boys love it so we will try a new mix again soon.

Our Little Family

Family bike ride! This is how we look on our frequent family bike rides. Not the most flattering picture of me, but your looking at the boys, right? Both boys love these outings. The boys can last about an hour and our neighborhood has some very challenging hills. Of course I get the best workout pulling 50 lbs. worth of trailer and kid. Sometimes we just go around our neighborhood and the one next to it and sometimes we go to a nearby jr high where Noah practices riding in the dirt (because he will be a mountain biker someday) and making tight turns. It is a lot of fun. I just wish we had some cool dirt or country roads we could really go for a good ride on. The other pictures our taken in our backyard. Wyatt and I were playing peek-a-boo through the pea fence. He will play peek-a-boo with just about anything and the way he says it is just too cute for words. Noah is actually the one who taught him it one day while we were in the car. Today we made a pop-in visit to Christie and Che's. It was last minute but a lot of fun. We had Chuy's takeout becuase we did not want to endure the craziness of taking three energetic boys out to dinner. Tonight was the first time for Wyatt and Ben to really play together. They started by Ben teaching Wyatt how to climb up the side of his crib. After a little practicing Wyatt then figured out, and taught Ben, how to complete the trick by climbing all the way over and in to the crib. When we got home and put him to bed and the first thing he did was stand up and throw his leg over the side of his crib. Guess that wasn't such a great game even if they did bond. They also played 'peek-a-boo' and 'where's Wyatt?' with Noah in Ben's closet. Due to the impromtu nature of the visit I did not have my camera with me. Christie was shooting a few pictures so check her blog in the next couple of days to see if any pop up. Sorry to pressure you, Christie! Mom informed me she was having trouble viewing the recent pic on the blog. I just converted to a new verson of Blogger, so let me know if any of the rest of you are also having problems.

101st Post!!!

According to Blogger, this is my 101st post. That is pretty exciting. So on to the New Year! We spent New Year's Eve with some of our closest friends. Matt and Monica hosted a little party at their house. We ate lots and lots of Tamales, chips and dips, and, most importantly, Bunuelos. If you have never had one, go find somewhere to get one. It is a fried tortilla with cinnamon and sugar. Yum. Matt and Monica have two little girls about the same age as Noah and Wyatt and our other friends have two boys also similar in age. So we had six little ones 5 and under, mostly boys. It was rowdy. All the big boys stayed upstairs play some crazy board game about world domination all night. Here is Noah trying, with all his might, to get a noise maker to make noise. It being New Year's Eve we had to have some fireworks. The kids had fun with the sparklers and little poppers.We had fun almost setting the neighborhood on fire with some bigger whizzers. My camera did not take very good pictures that night. This is awful of me, but Monica looks good and it is is very festive.

Christmas - Part Two

Late, late Christmas night we arrive in Dallas. We stuff stockings for the adults (the rest of the family was kind enough to wait and do them when we arrived- thank you, Dori!) and went to bed. The next morning we had a big breakfast and hung out until Dori and Jay arrived. We opened more gifts. Noah's favorite thing from that round was his Cars (the movie) city. It is made up of several stores from the movies and they fit together with streets that he can drive his Cars cars on. We finally retired Greg's tired old Hot Wheel city and set up the new city on Noah's 'train' table. Mom gave Wyatt a 'cleaning caddy' with a little vacum, a mop, a broom and other cleaning supplies. Here Greg is helping him open it. Dacy also received some cleaning equipment. They opened these gifts early on and spent the rest of the day cleaning Mimi's house, taking short pauses to glance at the other gift Dori and I were opening for them. Dad suprised Mom, Dori and I with matching necklaces. They are gorgeous white gold, diamond and saphire necklaces. He is the best dad ever! Once again, I did not take as many pictures as I would have liked. I see Dori and Jay taking them and figure they are getting better ones anyway. Visit Dori and I's Flickr sites to see more pics. That evening we had wonderful dinner. Mom decorated her dining room in a beautiful 'snowy' theme. We stayed in Dallas for a couple more days. Mom, Dori and I escaped for a few hours to go shopping while the babies slept, the boys played and the big boys installed Jay's new speakers. It doesn't seem like much, but I think it is the first time since Dori and I started having babies that we have gone anywhere without them. Greg was able to visit and ride with a buddy of his from Alabama that was visiting his Dallas family. Friday we loaded up and headed for the lakehouse. We had both the Rav and the 4Runner packed from floor to ceiling. It tooks most of the day to make the trip, but the boys behaved even though the weather didn't. On Saturday we had the annual McDanel shindig. At this time of night, I don't have enough brain power left to calculate how many people were there. It was a great time even with our meager, Charlie Brown-like decorations. Take a look at Dori's pics to see what I mean.

Christmas!

First, we will start with our Christmas in Lago Vista. Sunday evening we met Greg's parents at their church for the Christmas Eve service. It is a beautiful church and the service was pretty elaborate- complete with fake snow. Which was really just tiny bubbles that seemed to stick and not pop in the big, oversprayed hair of some of the women. I had to walk around with Wyatt in the foyer through about half. He settled down once we lit the candles. Of course, Noah was an angel. We went back to Mama G's house and ate Christmas cookies and drank hot chocolate- oh, and had a little dinner on the side. Wyatt learned that the best part of a Christmas cookie is the icing. Here he is licking it off the top. I read the Christmas story from Luke before we put the kids to bed. The next morning we opened stockings and presents with the boys. Mama G got Noah a new Herbie. The Herbie we got him last year was his best friend but after a hard year of going everywhere with Noah and taking some pretty hard falls, old Herbie became undriveable. Noah has promised to take better care of this one. Just in case, we are keeping the old Herbie for spare parts (not that there is much left of him). He got all kinds of stuff, mostly car related, and disappeared for the rest of the day content to play with it all. Wyatt had a great Christmas too. Between the rideable zebra, wheel barrow, ball popper and shopping cart he was very busy making the most of the large echoing cavern of Mama G's tiled living area. By lunch his noise was drowned out by all the family that came over. It was a crowd. There were four toddlers- Noah 3, Carlton 2, Trudy almost 2 and Wyatt 15mo. They were all very good and kept us old people entertained. Here is a picture of Carlton. He has the world's cutest dimples. We had a big lunch and a white elephant gift exchange (we got a gift certificate to Chuy's which we have already used!). Late that night we packed up the car- when I say 'packed' I mean to the top, dogs cannot move, kids cannot see out their windows and I have a lap-full and just enough room to squeeze my legs in- and headed to Dallas for Christmas #2.