My Parents' Visit

My parents came out to visit for a few days before Christmas so we could celebrate Christmas together and so they could check out where we live now. It was a quick visit, but as always it was filled with fun. They were coming in on Thursday which the weather was forecast to have a huge snow storm in the Midwest so a few days before they came out they switched their flights to have a layover in Houston rather than Kansas City. It was a good thing that they did because the flight to Kansas City was cancelled and they would have never made it...well not never, according to my dad they would have had to drive down because my mom would have not been happy at all. We started telling Chloe a few days ahead of time that mama and papa were coming to visit and started counting days until they were here. She doesn't really understand the difference in numbers because she started at 3 days and then the next day she said 4 days, regardless, she knew they were coming. The night before they came we reminded Chloe that she had to share mama and papa with Levi because they were coming to see Levi too. So her rationalization was that Papa could hold and play with Levi and Mama could hold and play with her. No matter how many times we told her that Mama can play and hold Levi too she just kept going back to her original plan. She is kind of a mama's girl and when mama is around no one else can do anything for her.

We took a trip to the Gaylord Texan to catch all the lights, miniature trains and Christmas decorations and we hoped to catch Santa too. We went during the day so the lights didn't really shine, but it was still a great time. Chloe loved all the trains and she partially cared about the life size gingerbread house. She just wanted to go around and around to see all the train sets that were around the hotel. We also missed Santa because he was only there in the evening...which is kind of bogus if you ask me because this is a place that is known for its Christmas decorations and it was just 4 days before Christmas so he should have been there for most of the day. Later that day Zach's parents and uncle came over for some dessert and we were suppose to play dominoes, but everyone ended up just swapping stories, which was perfectly fine. I would have hated to beat everyone at dominoes right before Christmas!

We also celebrated Christmas and opened up presents and had some traditional Allen snack foods, had a lot of time just playing with the kids and talking with my parents, played a lot of hearts and just had a great time with my parents. It was hard to see them go, but they will be back for Levi's birthday in a few months so it is always easier to know the next visit is just around the corner. Below are some of our pictures from the weekend with them.

Chloe fascinated by the trains at the Gaylord Texan. She would have stood there for hours if we let her.

Chloe showing Levi how to ride the frog. She likes to rock him on the frog, but she first makes sure that he is holding onto the handles so the crazy rocking doesn't throw him off.

Chloe loves to watch videos and look at pictures on our phones. This visit she was glued to my mom's phone and the video of her, Sydney and Carter painting pumpkins while we were in Indiana in October.

Chloe being silly with her Cheeseburger Happy Meal. I'm not sure where she gets some of her ideas, but she thinks she is hilarious...and I would have to agree.

Well we all made it into the picture...that is about as good as it gets when Mama is around.

I just had to put this in because of Levi's face...he loves the camera.

Well at least there was one good picture of our kids at the Gaylord.

Chloe loved the cash register that my mom got her. She play with that for what seemed like forever. It was cute to see her scan the items and actually use the cash register for what it is suppose to be used for. It is amazing to see how much she picks up for being only 2 years old.

This was in front of the life size gingerbread house. Chloe was knocking on the door and trying to go in. She also was very curious about the candy on the walls and I caught her trying to pull off a piece.

Levi and Papa on the Carousel. Levi loved the carousel. This was a picture while they were standing still. As soon as it started moving Levi had a huge grin on his face and my dad had to take out his pacifier because it wouldn't stay in his mouth.

This was the first time that Chloe actually enjoyed the Carousel. She did not have as huge of a grin on her face, but she said she liked it and gave her horse a hug and a kiss when they were done. She still asks if we are going to go ride on the horse up and down with mama.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Christmas is my favorite time of year and if it were up to me I would have my Christmas decorations and Christmas music playing all year long. But before we can get to Christmas there are a lot of things that need to happen. First we have to make our lists and turn them in to my sisters and mom by Thanksgiving, then we have to have Thanksgiving, do our Christmas shopping, decorate the tree and the house, make cookies, decorate a gingerbread house, go look at lights, wrap presents, etc. As you can see there is a lot that needs to happen before we can get to Christmas. Below are some of the photos showing what we did to prepare for Christmas this year...our first year in Texas.

This is how we cooked our turkey this year for Thanksgiving. A little nervous it would catch on fire, but the end result was a very juicy and tender turkey. When Zach was trying to carve it the meat would just literally fall off the bone. He was actually able to pull out one of the leg bones completely clean from the meat. It was pretty yummy, this coming from a girl that doesn't really like turkey.

Our Thanksgiving spread....yeast rolls (the best I've ever made), green beans, dumplings and turkey. We also had some pumpkin pie for dessert.

 

After dinner our wild child decided she wanted to try to climb on the back of the couch and slipped off and hit her chin. I first thought it wasn't anything big until I saw the blood building up in her mouth. Zach looked at it and it was a pretty big cut, but it wasn't deep so we just put on "boo boo bunny" and everything was better. The bunny is just a case for ice that makes it not cold for Chloe to hold. Chloe actually didn't mind the cold on her lip. It soon stopped bleeding and our child went back to being wild. She did a good job at keeping the bunny on her lip the rest of the night and part of the next day. There was only minimal swelling because of that.

The decorated tree and fireplace...what more could you ask for.

Chloe was proud of her gingerbread house. She did pretty well for the first half of the roof. Then she realized it was candy we were decorating with and decided to eat some of the candy and just point to where she wanted me to put things. She had fun so that's all that matters. We set it up on our counter in the kitchen and after a few weeks of it being there she remembered that it was candy on the house and started to climb up and steal pieces off. The candy was nasty, but she still liked it.

Levi enjoys helping his daddy work around the house. He was trying to help Zach hold the tape measure and put up a door on our guest room door before my parents came for Christmas.

We had a lot of leaves to clean up since it was finally getting cold out and they all came off the tree. I forgot what living in the Midwest was like with the big trees...I was quickly reminded. Zach taught Chloe how to play and jump in the leaves. She thought it was the greatest thing. She did through her baby doll in the leaves and then Zach jumped after...we lost baby for about 10 minutes until we spread a big chunk of the leaves out in the yard to find baby. He then had to rake them up again and then once we finally bagged them there were about 8 big black trash bags filled with leaves...the joys of having mature trees.

Chloe finally able to enjoy her birthday present that her daddy built. It was chilly, but she has been able to enjoy her new play set.

Chloe became very interested in the presents and the tree. When Zach caught her checking out the presents she said she was just "watching" them. She was so excited about opening presents this year. She did try to steal a few and run away to open them and we had to partially wrap back up a few that she did "accidentally" poke holes in or tear pieces off before Christmas.

We went out searching for lights and spent about an hour driving around looking at lights. Chloe took Minnie Mouse with us and she had to hold Minnie up to the truck window so Minnie could see them too. Then when we got home she had to show Minnie our lights. She wanted to go light by light one by one and show Minnie every single one...she got about 5 or 10 in before we made her come in side because it was cold.

Chloe had a lot of fun sprinkling and decorating the cookies. There were many cookies that just had a bunch of sprinkles in one place, but she didn't care. I tried to have her help me cut out the cookies, but she would just use one cookie cutter and then when I would try to pull it out she would put another one on top. So I decided against that and sent her back over to the other side of the table to decorate.

We always hear about how every year the Batsche boys (including Steve) would get in front of the fireplace and get a picture taken from the back while their butts were in the air and their faces were towards the fire. So this is only fitting that Levi was drawn to the fire and crawled under his daddy's legs and stood up to help with the fire.

Levi again helping daddy light the first fire of the season.

Who could forget the Christmas cheese balls?!?!?!?

Already TWO!!!

Enjoying some ketchup...I've held her off long enough.

I was not going to let this post be late. I can't believe that Chloe is already two years old. She has been such a blessing to our lives and I can't imagine life without her. She brings so much joy to us and it makes us see things in a completely different way. I often find myself just watching her in amazement for a few reason. The first is that I can't believe how big she is and second I can't believe what a miracle life is. I often find myself starting off conversations to Zach with..."Do you know what I love most about Chloe." Then I go on and tell him whatever I think is so great about her at that time. Today I did just that. I gave her a twizzler (her favorite candy) and it was an individually wrapped twizzler. So I asked  her if she wanted to take it out of the wrapper. Her face lit up and she smiled after she pulled it out. She was so proud of herself after she pulled it out and that is when I turned to Zach and said..."Do you know what I love most about Chloe." he then said "everything". My response was well of course, but then I said that I love her joy for life and how she appreciates the small things. I just hope that she can continue to hold on to the small things as she continues to grow. She is such a sweet, silly, smart, imaginative, playful and caring two year ol
d. She gets excited when she does something on her own and she gets excited for things like flushing the toilet. I love her and her mischievous looks and facial expressions. I can always see what she is thinking by the expression on her face. She is an observer and a problem solver. I love that I see so much of myself in her and I see the fearlessness of her father. I can't believe that two years ago we were in the hospital not really knowing what to expect. I can say that I never imagined the kind of love we would have for her and I would have never planned out things how they have happened. I wouldn't change anything.
We celebrated Chloe's birthday with a trip to the zoo with her Grumpy and Grammie, a good nap and then her great grandparents, Zach's parents and Jeff and Karlie coming over for some dinner and ice cream cake. It was a great day. My heart was full. Then today we took Chloe to Build A Bear so she could make her own stuffed animal. A great weekend filled with birthday celebration!

Hooked up to the truck in new wagon & ready for the Zoo.

Off to See The Wizard...

I love Christmas, but Zach loves Halloween. I've never really understood why he likes it so much, but he always has. When we first were married and living in Illinois he wanted to put out black and orange rope lights and other decorations. He also had to dress up in his Scream costume and wanted to scare the trick or treaters, luckily we had like 3 kids come to the door and they were all young so he couldn't scare them. Then when we moved to Arizona we would go around with our nephews and it wasn't that big of a deal, but last year for Chloe's first Halloween he was all excited and didn't know what the two of them could be so they were Mickey and Minnie Mouse. This year was no different. We tried to come up with a few different ideas and finally landed on The Wizard of Oz. Zach was the Scarecrow, Chloe was Dorothy and Levi was the Cowardly Lion. We started out while the day was still pretty bright out and we were the first trick or treaters of a lot of the houses. We started at our house and gave Chloe a piece of candy and then started going down our street. The first few houses Chloe didn't quite understand and she would try to take a piece from her basket and give to the person at the door. It was cute. Then she started to get the hang of it and was excited to look for the porch lights to find the next house. She did really good the entire night. Zach's parents came along with us and I think we were out for a little over two hours. Chloe walked about all of it and did really well. Levi did good too. He just smiled and was cute. All our neighbors thought they were adorable and even tried to give Levi candy too. I think they gave Chloe extra candy since Levi didn't have a basket. When we made it back to our house Chloe's basket was filled to the brim.

 

Chloe after her first piece of Halloween candy...a blue raspberry sucker

We had a fun night, but I had to remind Zach that he needs to be prepared for in a few years the kids not to want to dress up like/with him. So he is soaking everything up now and already thinking about things for next year

Indy Trip

 

I've been looking forward to this trip to Indiana for a long time. I was even more excited starting about a month before the trip because I found out Sabrina and Allie were going to be there too. We had concocted up this surprise for my parents to have Sabrina and Allie come in for a few days while we were all there. I was nervous because Sabrina has diarrhea of the mouth (she can't keep a secret) and Christina is not a good liar. We pulled it off though. My mom and dad had no idea! We never get to surprise them so we were all very excited to be able to do this.

The week was filled with stuffing our faces with good food, enjoying a lot of family time and catching up with some good friends. I think we had Pizza King (the best pizza in the world, sorry Dave) about three times. We were only there from Saturday to Thursday. And I even brought home some left over pizza. I didn't share it either. I ate it all in a few days. We also had some great Strawberry Pie from Gray Brothers and a great dinner of course from there too. Oh and how could I forget I got some white Queso from the little Mexican restaruarnt. I still haven't figured out what kind of cheese it is, but it is only in the Midwest (not including Texas). Like I said we had some great food.

Chloe & Ella

While Sabrina and Allie were there we went to the park for the kids to play, let the kids run around at my parents house and play, went to the zoo and had our extended family out for a visit as well. They were only there from Saturday to Monday so we packed as much time for play in as we could. Chloe also got her first haircut while Sabrina was there. We had noticed her mullet style hairdo and there were a few people who have confused her with a boy because of her "mullet". So Sabrina looked up what to do to fix her hair and all sources pointed to cutting her hair into a bob. So with a little bribery from sour gummy worms she sat there and got her hair cut for the first time. It was fun while they were there and it was hard to see them go back to Arizona. Chloe kept asking for Allie after she left and everytime we would tell her that she is in Arizona.

Zach and I were also able to catch up with some of friends, which as always was awesome. Then Chloe and my friend's daughter Ella had a play date. We were suppose to go to the park for the kids to run around, but it rained all day so we just stayed at my parents house and let the girls play. It was fun to get the girls together and to catch up ourselves.

One night when it was just my parents and the four of us we went out to this BBQ place, because I love BBQ so much, and my parents saw a side of Chloe they hadn't seen the trip. Chloe can be shy and when there are a lot of people around she just minds her own business and plays by herself as quiet as a mouse. But there weren't a lot of people because it was just the six of us and boy did she think she was funny. She was hyper and silly and just funny. She was her normal self to us, but a side my parents hadn't seen. While we were walking out of the restaurant I said well meet Chloe and then my mom quickly said, "I think I have met her before, but her name was Jenna." Yep, she's my daughter.
We met my grandparents at Gray Brothers for dinner with my parents and Christina, Phil, Sydney and Carter for some wonderful dinner. Then on the way home we stopped by a pumpkin patch for the kids to get pumpkins to paint. It was fun. It had been raining that day so it was a little muddy, but it wasn't bad. The kids all picked out pumpkins even Levi. Chloe really likes pumpkins. Later that evening once all the kids went to bed Christina came back over and we played some Hearts. It was fun, I haven't played hearts in years. I'm pretty sure I won the champion of champions game, but I don't remember so I'm going to take that as I definitely won!
On our last full day we had it jam packed. We first went down to my grandparents house and spent some time visiting with them and the kids were playing. Chloe wasn't much of a talker, but she did give out hugs and kisses so I look at it as it was a success. Then we headed to Pizza King to eat. If you have never been there it is set up with a train theme and there is a little train that delivers your drinks to you. I knew Chloe would love it because she loves the trains at the church we were going to in Texas. When we got there the manager ran the trains a few extra times just so the kids could see it. She got so excited and gasp when she saw the train. It was cute. She even ate their pizza. She hasn't ever actually eaten pizza before. She will want to try it but never actually eats it, but she actually ate a piece.I was plesantly surprised, but I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised since it is the best pizza in the world! After pizza we went down to the square and walked around looking at the scarecrow displays that people had put up and walked to the DQ to get some ice cream. And wouldn't you know it they painted it and added in a drive through...how dare they...hahaha. Then we went home and put the kids down for a nap. After nap we ran over to my grandma's house for a quick visit and came back to my parents for some dinner, painting pumpkins and roasting marshmellows. Chloe wasn't too interested in the roasting marshmellows she was too busy pushing her stroller and babies around the backyard while Carter and Sydney chased her and each other with their strollers. Like I said our last day was jam packed!

Levi trying to make a jump for it!

We came back definitely with more than what we went with. My mom saved everything from when us girls were little. I didn't realize what all she saved. Before we came out I asked if she would pull out some of my Barbie cars and my Barbie dollhouse if she still had it. We were thinking of getting Chloe a car for her "dolls" for her birthday and also possibly a dollhouse for Christmas so I wanted to try it out. I don't want to brag, but Chloe had quite the choice of vehicles to choose from. She had a convertible, jeep, hot rod, van and who could forget the motor home. Chloe loved the motor home for her "dolls" to ride in. She didn't care too much about the house so case solved...she is ready for a car and not a dollhouse. And lucky for us my mom said we could take anything back so we brought the motor home back with us. My mom also brought out some of my old cabbage patch dolls and strollers. She had cleaned them up and washed their clothes and brought them out for Chloe to play with. Of course Chloe fell in love with them so we brought three of those home as well. So our suitcase was a little full and we had to bring another bag back as well to get everything in.