Our Weekend at Home

We have been out of town the last 3 weekends and will be out of town the next 2, so we (well, at least I) were so, so, so happy to be home!!! 

 We had our friends, the Jensens, over on Friday night.  Cooper and their daughter Kate play so well together and were off on their own.  Our sweet Laney Faith totally did her own thing all night and was so sweet and quiet.  She even dressed herself up!  Her and I have worked on this puzzle together but she hasn't been able to do it so well on her own until Friday night!  

  I had a long list of things to do around the house on Saturday and we worked on it...some of us happier about that than others :).  The kids played all morning in their PJ's and did awesome!  We got a new rug and the kids were having a dance party on the open space.

Adam doesn't exactly like to hang pictures and that is putting it nicely, but I got him to do all these in one morning!  We have lived in our house for over 2 years now and there is still lots of space to fill.  I have no desire or talent to do any of it...I would rather clean toilets than shop for house stuff.  I got connected with this awesome gal that does home styling.  Long story short...she is working on stuff for our kitchen, living room, and bedroom.  She does all the artwork herself and is very budget friendly with all her finds, love that!  This is what we have done with the kitchen so far, I have some fun fabric to reupholster those kitchen chairs...who's coming to do that for me?

 Sunday morning we let the kids (well Cooper, sorry Laney, when you start talking you can pick!) pick what to do...to the park it was!

 As much as he wanted to go to the park, he was rather whiny while we were there so the trip didn't last long.

 The weather was beautiful!

I can't believe it's already Sunday night!  Good news, only 11 weeks and 2 days until Baby #3 arrives!

Smile Fridays - week 48

Uncle Bill!  First day of practice, woot-woot!  A great article here.

My sister-in-law Maggie introduced to this fab cooking blog where I get most of my recipes these days.  They are simple and kid friendly...just what I need.  See the blog here.  I made these muffins tonight and WOWZA!  I like the pumpkin streusel cake I made earlier this week but I love these and they couldn't be more simple to make!!!  

Coop was so excited to show me this toy in his backpack after school yesterday.  He was all smiles telling me that he got it from his teachers from being a really good listener all day.  We are so proud of him!

Fire Truck Visit at Preschool

The kids are adjusting so well to preschool, well I should say Laney is adjusting well...Coop just jumped back in with his friends and the routine.

Today was fire truck visit day!  On the way to school, Cooper (my non-morning child) was saying he didn't care a fire truck was coming to school...grumpy.  Well, when I saw his teacher she was laughing about his reaction.  She said he was by far the most excited of all the kids, very animated in his reaction to seeing the firemen.

 On special school days, all the kids wear their preschool shirts.  Not diggin' the camo but no one asked for my input on t-shirt design ;).  **this was the best, "hold hands and smile" pose I got.  God Bless our photographer next month for family pics :).

 Cooper and his first school project!  We have had this assignment for 2 weeks and of course we were doing it at 8:00 the night before it was due...when will I ever learn??  He was very hands on for all it!  He had to create his face on the paper plate.  He drew his face and I hot glued down the pipe cleaners for hair.  We traced his hands on Super Hero paper :).  The paper says, I have blue eyes, I have brown hair, I am a boy, I like to play golf with my Dad.  The kids have to guess who it is in their class.

 He never stopped smiling!

 The zebras!  4 of his friends he has been in class with since he started 2 years ago :).

 I love how the little ones travel thru school!

 Somehow she sweet talks (probably more like cries/whines) her teachers to let her have Lovey whenever she wants...Mom's going to have lay down the law on this one soon.

 Yeah, getting 8 two year olds that just started preschool to gather for a picture and smile wasn't happening :).

She wouldn't take her eyes off the firefighter standing next to her, not a fan!

For a walk down memory lane, Firetruck Visit 2011 and Firetruck Visit 2012.

Baby Play

When we got home from our 'baby focused' trip to Kansas, the kids were all about playing with Laney's babies.  They had the babies in strollers, shopping carts, Laney's new baby carrier...you name it.  

One night while I was making dinner, they went to my bedroom to play. 

 There they were, taking care of their babies.

 Cooper then said he was in the hospital having babies...wonder where he got that from? ;)  I mean the blanket covered from the waist down and everything!  Apparently he's more observant than I give him credit for!

 His exact words, "Oh, I think my twins are coming out.  Yep, here they are.  

 "Oh, there's one more!"

  "Wanna a picture of us Mom?  Wanna know their names?  Lucy, Trinity and Jenny."  I mean, I was dying of laughter on the inside!

 She was busy with her baby, so sweet!

He asked me if I could baby-sit them while he went to the grocery store.  He took pictures of me holding his babies and then said, "they are getting 2 brothers next week!"

On another note, I made chicken pot pie for dinner tonight, it was super easy and pretty good.  The kids did not approve. Then I made pumpkin streusel cake for dessert and holy cow, it's freakin' fabulous!  Seriously, you need to make it this week!  From my menu you might think it was a chilly fall day here, ha!  My car said 96 this afternoon :) but the house sure smelled like Fall!

Smile Fridays - week 47

Guess what???  We are on the road again...3rd weekend in a row!  This time we are traveling by air, phew, not sure I could do another car trip.  It's back to Adam's stomping grounds for a long weekend.  The plan was for Adam to meet us at DFW airport on his flight from Chicago and then we would all fly together and he would be there to help me get bags/kids from the car, thru security, etc.  Well, his flight got cancelled and they put him on a direct flight to STL.  The kids were awesome, like above and beyond awesome and made the trip so, so easy.  I still can't believe it!  They had me smiling all day!

This is totally inappropriate but I love it.

This girl is something else.  Adam and I say almost daily that we could just sit and watch her for hours! She is always in someone's shoes and rarely the same ones.  She doesn't go many places without those Minnie Mouse sunglasses and she loves herself a tiara :).

Fun Weekend in San Antonio!

Back here I mentioned we were going away for the weekend to somewhere super fun!  

Texas is such a great place to live and we truly love it here.  My list of must-do-Texas-things is a mile long and I have this fear Adam is going to come home from work someday and say those words, "guess what, I think we are moving!"  And the first thing I am going to say is, "but we didn't do this, this, and this and that!"  Combine wanting to cross 1 thing off my list, traveling with 2 kids and me being cheap...here's what you get!  

We wanted to do a little getaway as a family of 4 one last time before Baby #3 comes and we (or baby & I) are back on a nursing schedule.  We wanted to keep it pretty simple, just not ready for Sea World yet, and a relatively short drive.  We had heard great things about the JW Marriott in San Antonio and Adam had the points to allow us to stay for free!  You see, all his traveling does have benefits ;).  The draw of this place is it's very kid friendly, only a 4 hour drive, has everything you need on site, and we could basically spend all day poolside...sign us up!

As you will see, it didn't disappoint.  We had an incredible time!  The kids are at such fun ages (ok-a teeny tiny part of us was jealous of those parents that sent their older kids off while they drank margaritas and cruised the lazy river ;)) and travel so easily.  It's always so refreshing to get away from home, (for the most part) technology, and just have f-u-n!  And that we did...

**seriously, so many pics!**

Friday

 It was very traumatic dropping Lola off to be boarded for the weekend, she was distraught!

 We stopped just before San Antonio to do a little outlet shopping.

Laney and I ditched the boys at Nike and hit up GapKids.  This girl loves shoes and she was stoked when I picked out these sassy boots!

 We arrived late afternoon and hit up the pool until dinnertime when we ate poolside.  Doodles happily shared her fries with Dad.

These kids are lucky to have a fun Dad who does things like order them virgin daquiris on vacation!  They were eyeing his drink and obviously couldn't have even a sip...believe me I tried it!  They were in heaven with those drinks and drank them dry.

 Each night right outside the pool area, they had s'mores...how fun is that!?  And yes, Laney's shoes are on the wrong feet...she insists.

 The kids liked the process but not so much the end result.  This pregnant momma happily helped them finish off their sweets :).  

 The resort sits on a beautiful golf course that my golf loving hubby didn't even mention setting up a tee time for!  He must really love us ;).

 When we were in the room, Laney was usually in this corner.  She loved to sit in the stroller to read books and play with her princesses.

My two gamers :).

 How did we sleep in this cozy hotel room you ask?  Surprisingly awesome!  We were all in bed by 10 both nights and kids weren't up until after 8...woo-hoo!  We brought Coop's sleeping bag and he loved his spot on the pull out couch right next to us.

And she slept in her pack'n'play in the closet :).  Doesn't she look thrilled about it?  We were a bit nervous about what we were going to do with her and how she was going to handle it.  Doodles was a rockstar!  Both nights and nap on Saturday she went to sleep with just a bit of fussing...very unlike her, clearly she was exhausted.  Adam tried to get her to sleep in our bed on Saturday night but she was a mess so to the pack'n'play she went.

Saturday

 She's ready to hit the pool!

 The property was so open and pretty!  We felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.

 Besides the lazy river (which we adored but I have no pics for obvious reasons) this is where we spent our time.  The kids loved it!

 Laney played with her princesses and 2 plastic cups almost the whole time.

 Believe it or not, he loved the slides!  I have a video somewhere that I will upload.

 He was playing Superheros with the fountains.

I did get a pic of the lazy river, it was awesome!

 And this is as good as it got trying to get Laney to cooperate for one stinking picture with her mom!

S'mores, night #2 and yes, I ate both of theirs again...yum!

 Again their fun Dad bought them the gigantic glow sticks the resort was selling so they could play with all the kids in the courtyard.

Such a kid friendly place, there was something going on everytime we turned around!

These glowsticks are still glowing 5 days later!

I realized on Saturday night that we didn't get one picture of the 4 of us!  So...a selfie in bed it was!

Sunday

 This was the view out of our hotel window, glorious!

 Sunday morning the boys went to the driving range.  Cooper was insistent that they play some golf!

 Laney and I went to rubber duck decorating poolside and she was in heaven.  The girl loves her ducks!

 I know what you are thinking...Laney and a Sharpie??  She did surprisingly well.

She was so happy to scribble on this silly duck!  

 We spent the rest of the morning cruising around the resort waiting on the boys.

 She has taken quite the liking to these Princesses...she has no idea who any of them are since we haven't watched the movies.  

That's it folks!  Cooper has asked 3 times when we get to go back :).