Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Road Trippin' Part 2

Have I mentioned it's summer yet?  Because it is, your welcome.

The heat's here too which also screams summer in Texas.  Oh my, the heat.  How quickly we went from bearable nice-outdoor-weather heat to crazy-hot-run to the next bit of shade heat.

I'm so off topic here.  Back to my post- summer = traveling!!!

We took our second road trip of the summer to Fort Worth to see Matt's family and celebrate his niece's birthday.  It's a pretty good distance from our house so we always break it up with a visit to College Station.

We stopped at Layne's for some fried chicken (which Emery promised she would eat, but then did not!), then headed over to Aggieland Outfitters for some, well, outfits.  Matt went to school in College Station so he knows his way around (which is nice!) and we all like to support the Aggies!

We finished up our trip, made it to Mimi's, and were at the Splash Park by 5.  It was fabulous and empty and we played and played and played for a couple of hours.  After a yummy dinner Matt decided he was going to help Mimi out with the Barn Swallow problem she was having on her back porch- they were taking over the place and her back porch is so nice in the evenings!


They had laid these beautiful little eggs (the 2nd or 3rd round I believe), so first Matt took the nest down (I know, I know- but someone had to do it!) and then they kept trying to come back.  And that's when The Birdinators made their appearance.


Oh these pictures just kill me!  Matt found a bullwhip in the garage, so he and Emery worked together to keep the birds from coming back.  I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.  What's worse than Matt with a bullwhip?  Emery trying to do the same thing.  Oh my, these 2 are quite a pair!

Saturday was party day!  We spent the morning at the pool, took some naps, then headed over to the big party.  It was at a bounce house place and Emery played so hard!  She ran and jumped for almost 2 hours, then had some ice cream, then had some cake.  A good combination, right?  Beckett wasn't going to have any of the "getting in the bounce houses and jumping" but he still had fun running around.  And then, the cake.  He is my child and he loves him some "happy cake".

 (I just need to clarify- she INSISTED the dress be buttoned all the way up...)





After the party we went to Double Dave's so the adults could eat and the kids could run around like crazy people.  It was A LOT of fun and Emery had such a good time running around with her cousin (and her cousins cousins).  I love when we get the chance to see family and all our kiddos can hang out and have fun.

Aubrey is so precious and these girls had a great time playing together.  I can't wait until her little brother joins in on the fun- and Beckett will love it too!

Sunday, we had a pretty uneventful trip home- no fun stops for chicken and clothes- and made it  back home just in time to get Peppa from her "dog hotel".  We had a fabulous weekend, ate too much yummy food, stayed up wait too late, and enjoyed being with our family!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Paint!

If there's 2 things we love around here its messes and nudity.  Ok, that sounds weird but it's kind of true.  Mama's not a huge fan of messes but when they are creative or productive then I can get on board with that.  And, nudity, well duh- look at those cute booties!!!  And our neighbors LOVE it I'm sure.  We were a little bored one day so we decided to bust out the paint.  I'm convinced washable paints and crayons are the best things that have ever been invented!  They love to paint the back patio, their playhouse, their toys, their bodies.  And then when that fun's all over they love to get hosed off- it's a really fun way to spend these hot summer mornings. 



Even I was not immune to the fun!








It was SO fun and worth every bit of wasted paint! (And if anyone's trying to think of something this soon to be 4 year old might want for her birthday- we are now out of paint.) :)

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Road Trippin' on our Road Trip

-Seize the day!-

This became my motto while we were on our first road trip of the summer.  We planned on staying in Tyler for almost a week and there was one more place I wanted to go while I was up there- PLANO (it's a really popular vacation destination).  Actually it is where my sister's new house is and while I was that close to her I had to go see her and her sweet babies!

My original idea was to come to her house for the day and play her kids so she could unpack, shop, sleep whatever she needed since they had just moved into their new house.  As the day for me to go came closer I knew I couldn't go see Camryn Joy with Emery.  So, it turned into a girls road trip- special Mama and Emery time.

It started off so well- I wanted to take pictures of our day and she wouldn't even look at the camera.  Oh the joys of life with a 3 year old.  I also started to realize this might be a LONG day, but it's ok- we were going to go have fun!

We even made a special stop at the donut store to fuel our excursion- every good road trip starts with some sugar, right?  We made it to Plano around 10 and by approximately 10:01 the girls (and that sweet, sweet Wild Man) looked like this:


They were SO excited to see each other, Camryn was literally jumping up and down over and over again when she caught sight of Emery.  It was so sweet and it's always so fun to see these kids (since we can't say girls anymore now that there are boys in the mix) be such good friends.  We played dress up, went on a walk to explore their new neighborhood, ate lunch, took naps, went swimming and just generally enjoyed being able to spend some time together. 

I love these pictures- the sweet cousins being good friends, watching Wild Man grow up and needing to be in the middle of the action now too.  I hope to bring both the kids for a visit sometime this summer and I can only imagine the chaos that will ensue then- and I can't wait!  It was a busy, fun day and that's just what I had in mind.

But the fun wasn't over yet- we left around 5 to meet Matt's Mom in Grapevine to have some pizza with her.


It was so fun to see Mimi for a little bit and eat some pizza and catch up for a little bit while we waited for traffic to die down.  We headed back to Tyler around 7:30 and (again) stopped for a treat in Terrell.

I was thinking Emery would fall asleep on our way back since we had such a busy day and she slept so little all day, but NO.  She talked the whole way home.  Talked. Talked. Talked.  This girl can talk and sing and ask questions and it goes on and on and on.  We rolled up to Gigi and Ok's around 9:30 and this girl was still ready to go!

We played with Gigi for a few minutes before I made her to go bed and get some  rest.  We were sharing a room for the week and after I tucked her I told her I would be in shortly because Mama was exhausted!  I walked back in our room about 5 minutes later and saw this:

Poor, tired girl passed out on the floor next to her babies. :) This girl plays hard and sleeps hard (when she wants to).  We spent the next couple of days recovering, resting, playing, running Tyler errands and just generally having fun with Gigi and OK.  It was such a fun trip and I'm so glad we went- thanks for letting hang out at your house for a few days Gigi and OK!!! :)

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Road Trippin'

Summer is here!  Actually this is the first year where summer matters to us in a loooong time.  No one's been in school for a good 7 years until Emery started preschool last year so "summer" has just been several (several) hot months in the middle of a couple of cooler months.  So, it's been really fun to look forward to summer- swimming, traveling, sleeping, sweating- I love it all!

I was a little worried about having such a big break from school, but so far it's been fun!  We took advantage of Emery's first week off of school and headed up to Tyler to see Gigi and OK.

This is Nay Nay and he is everyone's favorite! (Gigi even has a rule that she gets a hug before Nay Nay does!)  After Gigi hugs both my kiddos got to work playing with him.  Emery Madison is so stinkin' creative.  Here she is "milking" Nay Nay.  She had him hooked up to the "sucker" with his seat belt on and occasionally gave him cereal treats.  Really- it was as weird as it sounds.  I love her creative play though.

Day 2 we hit up the Discovery Science Place.  It's a  fabulous museum that with a science room and a small town room.  They could just play for hours and hours.  Fair warning though- the rest of this post is pretty much pictures of my two babies! :)

 Mama was pretty nostalgic about this guy being there.  Last time we went he was 2 months old and this time he RAN in and didn't stop for 2 hours.

 They have a big dinosaur exhibit and Emery was not so sure about it. 



Then we headed to the small town room.  It's got a grocery store, courthouse, hospital, oh- and dinosaurs!!! So many cool things, this place really is great!







After we were all played out (we being Gigi and I- the kids could have stayed all day!) we headed to Emery's second favorite place in the world "a restaurant!" for some hamburgers.  She gets SO excited when we go out to eat it's really pretty sad- apparently the girl needs to get out more.  Anyone else have this problem?  She wants to eat out all the time, but then totally acts like a crazy lady when we are there.  Anyway, I digress.


She really wanted me to take her picture like this- she's getting quite demanding with her poses for pictures these days. 

We ALL took naps and headed to the Karing Kitchen that evening.  It was so fun taking the kiddos to meet everyone down there.  Last time I saw most of these folks I was pregnant with Emery so it was fun to see some familiar faces (but then again- it's Tyler- there are familiar faces everywhere, right Dad?!?!). :)

 Beckett and Lawrence and their plaid shoes.  Emery and Beckett were so excited to see Lawrence.  Emery spotted him across the parking lot and screamed "LAWRENCE!!!!" and ran and gave him a big hug.

Beckett wasn't so sure about everyone wanting to meet him, so we snuggled alot, but I'll take that! 

After we came home we did some more snuggling, TV watching, and resting up for some more Tyler fun. More on that to come soon- it's 2 trash truck Tuesday around here and everyone's up and ready for it (and it's only 7:00, yay!).

Thursday, June 6, 2013

I'm just sayin...

I've had this picture of Matt as a little boy for quite a while now and it's always been on my fridge (his Mom let me keep it because 1- he's adorable and 2- his expression kills me.  I can only imagine what a stinker this guy was as a child).  It hit me the other day that Emery is finally close to the same age he was when it was taken and I had her school picture from the beginning of the year to compare them.  It's always been obvious she looks just like him, but looking at their pictures side by side was pretty incredible.  The cheeks, the eyes, the nose.  Too cute not to share.

(They are both around age 3 in these pics, and I can TOTALLY see her making that expression!)

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Zube Park

Oh my goodness, I still feel like I need to do some serious catch up here!  I guess it would help if I wrote more than once a week, but it's summer in our house and we've already been super busy.  So, that's my excuse.  We've been swimming and road tripping and sick (ing?) and I've had some serious Real Housewives catching up to do.  So, here we go with something I just had to write about.

As you may have noticed, we have a train enthusiast in our house.  Like, a majorly obsessed train loving boy- and fortunately Katy is filled with train museums and parks and what not.  So, a few weeks ago when we went to the Katy Depot the lady who was working there told us about Zube (like zoo-bee) Park.  She said "Oh, have you taken him to ride the trains at Zube Park?" and then we knew we HAD to do it!  The trains run on the 3rd Saturday of every month and last month we went the weekend of May 18th and I was so excited to take them and show them the trains and ride them (I had been anticipating this for a good month!).

If you haven't been to Zube Park it's worth the trip.  It took us about half an hour to get there from our house and we tried to get there early (for so many reasons, but one was because I figured the trains would get pretty popular).  The engines are separate from the actual park and that caught us off guard (you have to drive to the 2nd entrance to the park), but once you see them you can find them pretty easily.  It's run by a group called the Houston Area Live Steamers and they are apparently train enthusiasts who do this as a hobby.  They are actual engines, just miniature sized and they are maintained by this group and the group also runs the running of the trains.  :) They give out tickets, collect the tickets, tell you where to go (and they are hilarious folks with lots of personality!).


 So- go see it just to see them!


See, we got there pretty early and there was already a pretty good line going.  It moves fairly quickly since they have several trains running, but it's still corralling little kids while you wait in line.  Are you wondering how I got this picture since we were all riding the trains together?  Well...


This is what Emery wanted to do the whole time.  Not be anywhere near the trains.  Like, flat out, no way, kicky sreamy fits about not riding the train.

So, Beckett and Matt rode the train once.



And apparently Beckett his in Matt's arms the whole ride.  You can see it coming in his face can't ya.  Matt really enjoyed it though, so at least one of us liked it.  :)  They rode the train and then we spent 2 hours at the park- just like we could've done ALOT closer to our house, but that's ok.


We can say we've done it and we don't like it, ha ha!  We love finding little adventures like this to do around Houston- there's so many fun things going on that are especially geared toward little ones.  I'd say give Zube park a try- maybe your kids are braver than mine! :)