The First Half of February

I have been a blog slacker lately, and I don’t see that changing very soon, but I’m trying to keep things posted here as much as I can.  I love looking back on the blog!!  I went through all of my February pics from the camera and iPod and found a few (um, eighty something) that I want to post. Here are the first half or so.  :)

This was one morning after Sunday school.

I love this one!

This boy was looking so handsome in his purple shirt that I had to take a few pictures of him when we got home as well.

Amiright?

This kid and his dress up.

Brother snack time!

Natalie wrote a letter to her buddy Emma.  I just love how her writing has taken off!

One day we stopped at my mom’s house for lunch but didn’t have the baby high chairs with us.  My mom tied them to the chairs.  :)

All the kids had the stomach bug a few weeks ago.  I lovingly refer to that time as PukeFest  2015.  Whenever I snuggle children who are throwing up, I always wear a towel.

I’m really enjoying my Project 365, where I make sure to snap at least one picture every day with my Canon 6D. I try to be thoughtful about the pictures, but sometimes I’m busy/lazy/tired, and I just take one to take one.  On this day I was in the kitchen working on dinner, and the light was fading fast when I remembered I hadn’t take a picture.  So I sent Joanna out to the side yard – I snapped this through the window from my kitchen.  :)

One Saturday Matt took all the kids on a long walk while I cleaned the house.  It was pretty lovely, and the babies had a stroller nap.

Adorable tiny human, yes?

The girls were the last ones to fall victim to the stomach bug.  It was so sad!

I opened up a little notebook by my bedside table and found this note from Joanna.  Love her!

That little thumb-sucker is so adorable.

I love this action shot! Michael does not look happy.

One Monday I decided we needed a walk, but I really wanted a reward (for myself!) in there.  :) So we walked to Sonic for lunch.

Then we went across to Kroger for a few things before walking back home.  Thomas didn’t quite make it.  Thankfully he stayed asleep after we got home, and I put was able to put Michael down for a nap in his bed.  I live for nap time.

I looked over one day and saw this:

I couldn’t believe my tiny Mike had climbed all the way up!  I helped him down but didn’t move the gold bin.  When I looked over later, he was kneeling on top of that!

James… slippers.

As soon as I took this picture, I thought “You shall not pass!” He seemed very Gandalf-y.

Matt and I celebrated our 9th anniversary, and my sweet girls made cards!

Natalie’s says “Dear anniversary girl. I hope you are having…”

Frequently on Wednesday afternoons we find ourselves wanting to leave the house quite early for dinner at the church.  Sometimes we go to the library.  On this day there wasn’t enough time for that (it’s quite an ordeal), so we played for a bit on the playground at the church.  They have one that is pretty toddler oriented.

Sadly I had forgotten shoes for the boys.  Michael is disturbed by the mulch on his feet here.  :)

This picture looks like nothing, but it reminds me of something cute.  Thomas is pretty obsessed with my bluetooth headset that I use to talk on the phone.  Here, he had put a Barbie crown on his ear and was pretending to talk on the phone.

Joanna earns tokens when she completes her Math work each day without THROWING A FIT, and when she gets enough, she can redeem them for Gran time.  On this day she and Gran went to have their nails done.

Then they were going to head back to her house for a little sewing lesson, but Grandpa David suggested going out on the boat.

David and mom were both taking pictures, so there are A LOT.  She was extremely excited to drive the boat!

That same day apparently there was a nap on me by Michael.

Is there anything better than a big sister who will push you around?

We have quite the baby corner at enchilada night these days. I love that.

The Vandenberges left us tickets to Cirque du Soleil on Valentine’s Day. We took the girls and were able to leave the boys with the very fabulous Aunt Gail and Uncle Steve.

It was such a cool show, and we had a great time!

I’ve found a shelf on my bookcase that is a pretty good height for taking a selfie.

Here is some more writing from Natalie.  It says “I hope you are having a good time with God. If you are having a bad time, remember that God is always with you.”

She’s always writing things about God and Jesus, and I just love that.

Next up, the rest of February!

Quick Trip to OKC!

I’ve really been wanting to make a trip to Oklahoma to introduce the babies to my dad and step-mom, and we managed it! I decided the most realistic, actually possible way to do it was to try and fly there with just the babies, leaving Matt and the big three behind.  To do this, I needed my mom’s help.  :) She decided the best time would be the weekend after Labor day (planes tend to be a little emptier right after a holiday), so we planned to leave on Thursday.

If you’ve ever traveled anywhere with me ever, you know I’m an over-packer.  If I think I might possibly need it in any version of the future, I pack it.  :) I decided that traveling with two babies meant I needed to rethink that strategy.  Since we were going to be staying at my sister’s house, I knew I could scale way back on things and just borrow from her as well as wash clothes if needed.  So I managed to bring everything the boys and I needed in a big backpack and a tote. 

Here’s what I looked like in action. Mom brought a suitcase to check so she’d have hands free to help me.  I had Michael on my front, a backpack on my back, a tote on my arm, and I still had hands free to push Thomas or carry a car seat.

We made it in great time for our 7:23am flight on Thursday and got confirmed seats (four!), but there was a delay.  We ended up leaving about 8:30.  Michael needed a little nap before we boarded.

You can see Thomas chilling with Gran in the background:

He grabbed her pen, and we thought it looked like he was waving a magic wand. “Accio Cheerios!!”

On the plane Mom worked her magic and put Thomas right to sleep!

Michael and I hung out and ate snacks.

Kathryn and Tawna picked us up at the airport and took up back to their adorable house. I had to capture Kathryn vacuuming up for us.

I looooooved their floor plan – I wanted to steal it for myself.  I couldn’t figure out how to make that work though.

Mom took us all out to lunch at one of our favorites, Red Lobster.

Terrible back-lit group selfie!

For dinner, Dad and Renee came over as well as some of Tawna’s family.  It was lovely!

Here’s Popo with Michael:

The next day Thomas was up for the morning first, so he came out on the back porch with me.  I got to drink my tea in one of Kathryn’s pig mugs.  :)

Kathryn and Tawna had to work Friday night, so they stayed at their house to sleep most of the day.  Mom took me over to Dad’s while she ran around with Kathryn’s car.

Popo and Michael again.

It looks a little like Thomas is beating Nana with a wooden spoon, but I don’t recall that actually being the case.

Sadly, this is the only shot I got of my dad holding Thomas.  They were playing a cute tickling/laughing game.

The girls bought the babies these adorable OSU outfits to wear.  Dad graduated from there and is a fan.  It was pretty cute.  :)

We mostly hung out and tried to keep the babies from getting into tooooo much.  Dad made a super delicious seafood soup for dinner.  It was so so so good.

Then it was time to go before the babies really turned on us. 

The boys sure loved meeting their Nana and Popo!!

The drive back to Kathryn’s was just beautiful.  The land just goes and goes, and the sky was filled with gorgeous clouds and rays of light.

And then we saw a double rainbow! The second one is to the left of the bright one.  It’s very faint in the picture.

When we got back to the house Kathryn and Tawna were at work (They’re NICU nurses.), so we made ourselves at home, put the babies to bed, and did some laundry.  It was nice.

Our flight on Saturday wasn’t until early afternoon, so we were able to have a leisurely morning and get to visit with the girls one more time.

We left about 11 and enjoyed a little Braum’s on the way.  That is something I miss very much when I come back to Texas.  :) My favorite thing is a chocolate heath mix.  I may have had two while we were there.

We breezed right through to the gate and waited to board the flight.  Well, I made three trips to the bathroom to change diapers.  The babies had some snacks.

Again, my mother worked her magic and put Thomas to sleep on the flight.

And again, Michael and I hung out… awake.  :)

He was pretty cheerful until the very end, but didn’t cry if I kept up a steady stream of Cheerios going for him.

Then it was just a matter of getting home and hugging all my big loves.  I missed them sooooooooo much!!

It was a great trip.  I looked forward to getting there on the way, and I looked forward to being at home on the way back.  I’m pretty sure that means it was the perfect amount of time.

Thanks for the hospitality Okies!!