What we do in Texas

So here's just a few pictures of what we've been up to the last 2 months. In May we went up to Landa Park and rented a paddle boat, which was fun, though hot and sticky. But everything is here. 

 I thought this tree was pretty cool; it's one of the oldest in the hill country, supposedly.  It's an Oak tree.

 Lily played soccer February-April.  We will try again next year; it was not her favorite thing but we stuck it out until the end! 

 We love the San Antonio Temple. This was on our 10th anniversary. I took Lily inside for the first time, which is why she's all dressed up.  She can just go inside the front part but it's really beautiful to look inside; she was impressed!

 At the end of May I went to the Chromosome 18 golf tournament and released a balloon for Emily. They release balloons at the start of the tournament for children and loved ones who have passed away. I'm always amazed at how emotional I get when I go. There was another mom there who lost her daughter close to the same time as I lost Emily and we had a good cry. 

 Last Friday we took the kids bowling. Lily had been asking to go and Robby was supposed to be going to Washington but he got bumped off his flight, so we took advantage of it and did something fun.

 This was my attempt at a picture with the kids on Mother's Day. 

 We got granite put in over Memorial Day weekend. I love it!

 A craft I did from pinterest. I'm not a crafty person, but this was fun. I still haven't figured out where to put it, though. 

 Last Friday while Robby was gone I took Lily to the Magic Theatre for the first time to see Knuffle bunny. These are her good friends who went with us. We really had a great time. 

 Last Saturday we went up to Fredricksburg and picked peaches. They are so yummy; we got 25 lbs and probably gave away around 8 lbs and ate the rest. I didn't even freeze them like I'd planned on. They are one of my favorite things here in Texas. 

 I was trying to get a family picture on my phone. All these pictures are from my phone, actually. I love that iphone; so convinent! 

Peeing, biting, etc. etc.

Warning, these stories contain bodily fluids

So my call to Robby this morning; "do you want to come home and switch places?"  Or maybe that's what I said yesterday and thought today.  The kids have been on quite a roll/terror this week. It actually makes me laugh; they seriously know how to entertain. Or maybe I'm just entertained very easily. On Monday we had some friends over and a little boy, who knows better (he's three) took off his clothes and peed in Lance's crib.  His sister and Lily ran to tell me. So I wasn't super happy about that but what can you do?  So then that evening Lily tells us she's going potty and looks super mischevious, Robby even commented on it, but I didn't think much of it, until she then came into the living room and told us she and her friend had peed in Lance's room. I knew they hadn't in the morning, so I asked her if she had tonight, and she took me in and showed me where she had taken off all her clothes and peed on Lance's floor, 30 seconds previously. I was not a happy mommy and she knew it. So she cried and cried.  I later told her I was glad she'd told me what she'd done, but it was still very naughty.  She said she was sorry that she did it on purpose. You think? 

   Lance thinks he can go to the bathroom, but he never really has success. But the same morning, Monday, he had his diaper off and started peeing on the floor. I told him to stop and got him onto the toilet, and he went so I was super proud.  But then he proceeded to go more on my kitchen floor before I got a diaper back on him. sigh.

This morning I was trying to clean Lance's room, which was a mess, and Lily started screaming.  I ran in to ask her what happened and she told me, "Lance ate my heart."  "what?"  "He ate my heart." me, "Did he bite you?" Lily, "Yes."  and he had, a big bite mark on her chest. So Lance then went to time out for that, which he cried and cried about and did not want to apologize for. When I got him out of time out I told him he needed to go and say he was sorry for biting Lily, and he threw himself on the floor and screamed some more.  So I left him him there. Eventually he calmed down and told her he was sorry without me saying anything else. He likes being able to give kisses when he has to say he's sorry.

Any time he stubs a toe or does anything he wants me to kiss it better. And kiss his cars better if they get bumped. I draw the line there!  He calls Lily "Bubba." Which is quite funny since she calls him "Lancey Bubba."  He'll say things like, "Bubba sleeping." Bubba hit."  It cracks us up. If he wants to get out of doing something he puts his head on his shoulder and says, "Sleeping."  

   This afternoon, about 2 hours after I'd put him down for a nap, I was in the kitchen and saw this little blond boy walking around the corner. He'd gotten out of his crib, and opened his door, by himself!  My life as I know it is over. Luckily he likes to sleep and so hopefully even when we turn his crib into a toddler bed he'll still take naps and go to bed. As it is right now he loves sleeping on the floor. Any time at night when he wakes up we just bring him into our room or Lily's room and put him on the floor and he's just fine.

Lily loves playing on this Friend website that I have bookmarked for her, from the church magazine The Friend, which is for kids. She loves playing matching games, singing the songs, and coloring the pictures.  She also loves these videos about the temple. One has a girl who's 11 singing I love to See the Temple and talking about being excited to turn 12 to do baptisms for the dead there. On Monday I asked Lily why she liked the video and she said, "To be reverent."  I'm not sure what that meant but I'll take it. And then yesterday she turned around to me and said, "Mom, our body is a temple!"  And then today she said, "Jesus wants us to go to the temple. Can we go right now? I can go inside with you."  I took her inside the temple a few weeks ago, just right inside the doors. She thought it was pretty special, though she did say in her loudest voice, "Mom, Look!" Before I could stop her. The water that's flowing inside has lights on it that makes it look like it's on fire which she was fasinated with.

It just kills me how she takes everything so literally.  On Sunday we were coming home from a friend's house and she said, "I'm going to give you a talk.  There was a boy, David Michael, and he took his grandma's money, and flushed it down the toilet!"  Of course to her the money was literally flushed down the toilet. I talked to my friend later who said there was a talk from a Bishopric member about stealing money so I'm guessing that he must have said that in some kind of context in his talk.

I think that's all of there little moments so far this week. I'm trying to write them down so I don't forget.  They are just so much fun; I really am a lucky mom with a terrible memory, so hopefully these will help me. If you made it to the end of this you must be a relative or really, really good friend!

Funny sayings and pictures

My kids make me laugh. They're always saying funny things. Today Lily told us she was going to give us a talk about a kid names David Michael who threw his grandma's money down the toilet.  I'm sure she heard it in Primary; but she literally thought he threw the money in the toilet. She likes playing princess and having you kiss her to wake you up like my little sister did.  Lance threw my necklace in the toilet this week, giving it a swirly. He also put a toothpick thing in the toilet and then in his mouth, and while taking these pictures took some chewed gum off the side of a garbage can while I was looking at Lily and stuck it in his mouth. He's not sick yet, so fingers crossed. So gross!

 My friend and I went downtown to the missions this week and she took these pictures of the kids. I haven't edited them yet; I have photoshop but have the dickens of a time trying to figure it out. Like simple things like how to whiten teeth. Drives me crazy. But I thought they turned out pretty cute. The red wall was at a closed down gas station; we were on the South Side of town, so lots of colorful things. :-)    I know I"ve been terrible about blogging, but nothing exciting is going on here. Which I guess is a good thing. We're managing the heat pretty well so far. It's nothing compared to last summer, which I am very grateful for! 

Thank you, Emily!

Thank you, Emily, for teaching me how to stick up for myself and say what I think.  I had a guy come and tune my piano Thursday, and he broke a string, which I can understand can happen, but then he wanted me to pay $36 for the string, $45 for him to come back and replace it, and $20 for FIVE additional tunings of the string. What the??? So I told him I needed to think about it and went into the room and called another guy who would do everything (buy the string, replace it, and come back twice and tune it) for $60.   So when I told my piano tuner I was going to have to wait and talk to my husband about things (I didn't tell him I'd called someone else) he said, "Oh, well I can find the string for $17 and I'll put it in for free, and then it's $20 every time I come back. Too bad he didn't say that first, and I might have said okay. I didn't say anything until he was done tuning my piano (though he didn't tune the last octave for fear of breaking another string), and then told him I was still going to wait because I felt like he tried to rip me off. Which he wasn't too happy about, but what am I supposed to think when you tell me one price and then drop it by $50 when you don't think the person is responding well to being ripped off!  So I'm glad I have learned from Emily how to tell someone (in a nice way; I was as nice as possible under the circumstances) to take a hike. The guy who came the next day was much better. Anyway, kind of a silly story but it made me realize that I've come a long ways since being a 23 year old new mom!

10 Years!

Tomorrow is Robby's and my 10 year anniversary. He had a business trip at Disney World, so Mom stayed with the kids and I went with him in the middle of April. We stayed at the Contemporary resort, which is the closest resort to Magic Kingdom. This was our view at night. Pretty awesome! 

I got there on a Tuesday and we headed straight for Magic Kingdom. We really enjoyed it, and definitely want to take our kids sometime in the next few years. Though maybe to Disneyland instead. At Disney World the rides are spread out between all the different parks (Epcot, Hollywood STudios, Magic Kingdom).  We really like those Disney Express passes, I don't think I'd go on rides that didn't have one. Once it was dark we went to Fantasyland and Robby indulged me on going on some kiddie rides while all the kids were watching the Electrical Parade. We watched the fireworks from behind the castle, in front of the carousal. They were going off all around us, which was pretty awesome to see. And we were glad we didn't have our kids with us, because they would have hated it. On our way out we got an amazing brownie and cinnamon roll on Main Street. 

 The next day after Robby's meetings we went to Epcot. They were having a flower festival going on and had topperaries of the different Disney characters, which was really fun to see.  We liked Epcot, but it wasn't our favorite.

 This picture is a bit out of order; we went to Universal STudios on Thursday, and went to Harry Potter World. So this is in Hog's Head drinking Butterbeer, which I really enjoyed.  We stayed at a different hotel near the Studios and spent all day at both parks Thursday and Friday. We had no lines on any line except Harry Potty, so we were pretty spoiled.

 And of course the castle. The new Harry Potter ride was great, and we only had to wait 20 minutes both days we went, but the first day it made me sick. I took motion sickness pills every day, but that ride still didn't like me. It really does feel like you're flying behind Harry, which is very cool, but not for the faint of stomach. We ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks, and it was probably the best theme park place we ate at on our trip; we were impressed. 

 This is back at Epcot. We loved the flowers! 

 We went to the World Pavillion at Epcot, which was lots of fun, though it was more fun when I was younger. Robby isn't much of a shopper, and I enjoy going into all the shops to look at the things from different countries. Still fun, and great fireworks. 

 Eating our French pastries in the France Pavillion. 

 Now this is at Universal Studios on the Jurassic Park ride, which may have been my favorite. It was so real, and just very well done. We did it 3 times, the 2nd time in the front row to get pictures. Robby was supposed to put the camera away before it goes down and you get wet; he didn't and got the camera soaked. It seems to be okay, but I wasn't super happy about it! 

My other favorite rides were the Hulk Roller coaster and the Mummy ride. 

 On Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom

 This is the Contemporary. I went jogging and then swimming while Robby was in his meetings. It was amazing to be able to do that without worrying about kids! The only other trip we've been on since we've had kids was when we went to Turkey and Emily ended up in the hospital in California while we were gone, this was much more relaxing! 

 The Hulk was our favorite roller coaster; Robby went on it 6 times in the 2 days we were there. I also loved the one where you could choose your music and listen to it as you went on the roller coaster. The rides were all just so well done, and almost every place you waited in line was air conditioned. 

 I got a little wet on the Popeye ride. Robby wouldn't go on it with me. 

Monday was Lance's 2nd birthday. He started out the day with Mickey Mouse pancakes, which he tried to feed to Pluto. 

 I don't know if you can tell, but we made little cars out of milky ways and m&m's with a teddy graham put in. The kids got a kick out of it.

 We went swimming, which was a bit of a bust; the kiddie pool was closed outside, the outdoor pool was freezing, the indoor pool was fine, but after 15 minutes we had to get out for swim lessons. We did go to Chucky Cheese for dinner. The kids had never been before and had a great time. Lance loved driving all the cars.

 Lance's favorite present was his Tonka truck. Every boy needs one!

 He knew how to blow out his candles, but got a bit close to them! The Thomas tent in the background was also a present. He and Lily cracked us up by getting in it and carrying it around like it was a real train.

 Here you can see they were Cars cupcakes. He also got the Cars movie.

 And the best part of his birthday was that we had family here to help us celebrate! It was so fun to have Mom here, and we're very sad to see her go on Friday.

Let's Rodeo San Antonio

About a month ago I took the kids to the San Antonio Rodeo. It reminds me a bit of the Lynden fair as far as the 4-H kids are all there, etc, but it is way more TEXAS! I've gone almost every year since Emily was three, and I love it. Here we are ready to go. I have since cut my hair to my shoulders, I think I like it better long but haven't decided for sure. It has easily the best petting zoo I've ever seen. This goat laying across this goat (is that what it is?) was making me laugh.

Lance loved the little chickens.

Lily was brave enough to pet the deer. Last year it "bit her back" in her words. I think she had food in her pocket or something and a deer bit her shirt trying to get it.

The cotton candy was a dollar, How could I be the good mom that I am and pass that up?

This was one of my favorites, watching the horses and riders trying to corral the cattle. I love Lily's face on the side.
It was just me with the kids all day, and I loved it. I enjoy being with my friends, but it was just really nice that day to focus on the kids and be able to go at our own pace and really enjoy each other. I'm always amazed at the things Lily says, and what Lance picks up on. The first time I went to the rodeo was when Emily was three. We had a good time at the petting zoo, but this was a bit of a different experience. I'm so glad Emily has helped give me the perspective to really appreciate what Lily and Lance can do. I told Lily the name Mom is really the best name in the world.