SURPRISE!!!

October had been a rough month. A great month, but still a little hard on the family with me being out of work. So what better way for a little pick me up than a road trip! We decided since we had the time we would take a road trip up to Indiana for a nice week long "getaway". My mom had surgery on her foot so she was at home and we had the time so it seemed perfect. Also, it was Chloe's birthday so who wouldn't want to spend it at Mama's house. Like I said my mom had surgery on her foot so she was suppose to take it easy, but if she knew we were coming then do you really think she would  have taken it easy? No, she would have been cleaning and prepping and scheduling and filling our time with things to do. So a surprise was in order!

We had just told my sister so at least someone knew, but no one else. I thought about telling my dad, but he can't keep a secret at all he gets too excited so I knew that wouldn't be a good idea. It would be nice because we could just relax with my family and spend some good quality time with them since our normal Indiana trips are go go go and short. We packed up the truck and headed out for our 15 hour drive. The kids did great on the way there. We like to drive through the night so it is dark and they normally sleep a bit better. They would doze on and off for a few hours at a time and then the other time they would watch movies on the iPad. We had to make a few extra bathroom breaks for Chloe, but no accidents and no big complaints. We got into town about 7:30 in the morning and that was a bit too early for a surprise so we went over to my sister's house and let the kids run around and play before we knocked down the doors of my parents' house. 

Now, my sister lives right across the street from my grandma, who didn't know we were in town. There is always a risk of something happening or an unexpected drop by. We were lucky for the most part, but then when we were getting ready to leave to go to my parents' house I noticed my dad's car parked at my grandma's house. Oh great. Surprise ruined. So we figured we would just trot over there and surprise him there before he spilled the beans to my mom. When we were getting ready to walk out the door he was in his car. And we were busted! He drove really slow by my sister's house because he thought he recognized the truck. Yep, we were busted. So we packed up and went to my parents' house about 5 minutes behind my dad. My sister walked in first as always and then my mom was confused because she heard extra pitter patters down the hall. Now remember, mom had surgery so she couldn't get up. The look on her face when she saw us. It was funny. It was like she was trying to jump out of her seat, but she couldn't because she was stuck in a mud puddle or something. It was funny. My dad did say he saw the truck, but he was able to keep the secret for the 5 minutes or so. A great surprise!

It was so relaxing and we were able to have Chloe's birthday party with my parents, grandparents and sister and her family. This is a rare occasion since we live so far away. And Chloe had strict instructions on her party. She had to have purple balloons, purple cake, a purple cup and pretty much anything and everything purple. She also picked out the theme of My Little Pony...yes, that is my daughter. We got an ice cream cake from the local DQ and told them to make it as purple as possible. They did a good job using the gel icing (my favorite) and putting purple all over it. Chloe was so excited at her party and she was ripping through her gifts (all in bags and tissue paper) like a crazy lady. She was having more fun just opening the bags than actually seeing what she got, but after the presents were gone she then decided to see what she got and was so excited with everything. She talked on and on about her birthday. I would say it was a success.

While we were in Indiana is also snowed a little bit. The kind where it falls overnight, but by 10am it is all gone. Chloe went out to have lunch with Sydney at school and Chole asked my sister "Why is daddy's truck hiding?" It had snow on it and she thought it was hiding. Silly girl. 

The whole trip was a success and after a week as hard as it was to leave, it was time to make the trip back down to Texas to go home and try to get some kind of normalcy back in our routine. I'm so glad we were able to make the trip just another unexpected blessing that we were able to do while I was off work. 

A Princess, A Prince and A Monster?

I'll be honest I dread Halloween. I don't really know why, but I always dread it. I'm sure I loved it as a kid, but now I worry about if our pumpkins will get smashed or our house egged or some super creepy person trying to rob you while trick-or-treating. I have unrealistic ideas on what will happen on Halloween, but I don't like it. It is hard because Zach for some reason loves it. When we were first married he wanted to put out the orange and black lights like you would for Christmas and he had to dress up to give out candy or he was the one scaring the older trick-or-treaters. Then when we had Chloe it was a little better because rather than being scary he wanted to dress up with her so that was a nice change. The first year they were Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse the second year they were Dorothy and the Scarecrow. After last year I told him that one of these days she isn't going to want to dress up in a matching costume with him, but of course until then he is dressing up and then I'm sure he will still dress up to take her around the neighborhood.

So this year it was a big debate on what they were going to be. The initial idea was for Chloe to be Tinker Bell, Levi Peter Pan and Zach Captain Hook, but Chloe had an idea of her own. She wanted to be Snow White so we thought Zach and Levi could be two of the dwarfs. Do you know how hard it is to try and find a costume or make something to look like a dwarf? It was hard. Then Chloe wanted all three of them to be princesses. Yea, I don't think so. So we decided to take her to the store to pick out a costume and she wanted to be Sofia from the Disney Jr cartoon. Okay, they could all be Disney Jr. characters. So after going to two stores to find her size she changed her mind and again wanted to be Snow White. At this point I told Zach that she could be Snow White and then Levi could be a Minion from Despicable Me and that Zach could be Gru. I mean how hard would those be to find. So we picked up the Snow White Costume and realized that Levi was in a size that they don't really have great costumes for because he is too small for the toddler but too big for the baby costumes. So we were going to make Levi's Minion costume rather than buy it and surely Zach had everything for Gru. After searching around and trying to figure out how to make Zach and Levi's costumes I decided this was silly and told Zach that maybe this year we just get Levi a costume and Zach not go as anything because it was going to be too expensive. Remember how I said Zach loves Halloween and dressing up, so you can imagine he was a bit depressed by this.

I finally decided just to go to the store myself and try to find a costume that would work for Levi. I found Mike from Monster's inc. It would be perfect on him because he loves the movie and even though it was in a bigger size it didn't look big. So I came home and showed Zach and I could tell he was a little upset still about not being able to dress like the kids. I felt bad because this would be like telling me we couldn't put lights on the house. So I rummaged through the house and the closet  and put together a costume for Zach. I thought for sure he would hate the home made look, but he was so excited. He actually said I did a good job. So he went as Snow White's Prince. All was well for this Halloween.

Waiting for it to be time to go trick-or-treating

Fall Festivities

I love Fall! I love Fall! I love Fall! I enjoy watching football on the weekends and spending more time outside when the weather isn't scorching. I love the vibrant colors of the trees. I love the smell of pumpkin spice and all the normal fall smells. But more importantly I love that Christmas is right around the corner. We had a busy fall. Actually, I don't even think I can say it was busy because our everyday normal is busy with two little munchkins running around. But what I can say is we did a lot.

What I can say about our  time the past few months is that it has been centered all around family. We've spent a ton of time together the four of us and also spent a good amount of time with our extended family...haha. I've been off of work since the end of September and as scary as that has been we have tried to make the most of everything and spend as much time together as it isn't very often that both the mom and dad are home with their two small children every day for almost 2 months. It has definitely been a blessing, maybe not how I would have liked it to be, but I can't deny the fact that I was able to spend so much time with my family.

We had some visitors over the past few months as well. My brother-in-law Phil was in town for work for almost 3 weeks so we were able to spend some time with him and he was able to do his laundry at our house in exchange for back breaking labor of "trimming" some trees in the backyard and chopping up wood. Now it wasn't all work. We fed him and took him to church and he was able to play with Chloe and Levi so it was a fair trade...right?!?!? The kids loved having him around. Chloe warmed right up to him as if he was always around. We were surprised how well she did so quickly since she can sometimes be a bit shy. She talked all about Uncle Phil and how he was going to go to church with her, pick her up from her class, get her out of her car seat and pretty much anything and everything Phil was going to do for her. And then Levi he would ask where Uncle Phil was and waller on him when he was here.

All three kids wanted to be outside cutting down trees.

It was quite the calculated task.

Chloe with her uncle Phil after dinner.

After Phil's visits were over then my mom came in town for a long weekend. We celebrated her belated birthday with a purple cake...I wonder who's idea that was. We played outside and went to Boo Zoo. As always we had a great time and the kids did not like to see her go. Levi calls her Papa or Mapa. He can't quite seem to understand Mama. He will say it after you say it, but when he is talking about or to her it is some variation of Papa or Mama or both. He would wake up the next few days looking for her and whenever Chloe would wonder where she went she would go through the whole story that Mama and Papa are coming for Christmas. It was like she would reassure herself that she would see Mama again. We also painted pumpkins while my mom was in town. I think Levi had more paint on him than his pumpkin, but he had fun and the paint is washable so we were all good.

Getting some ice cream before Mama arrives

Boo at the Zoo

When we weren't having visitors we spent a lot of time playing outside in the backyard. Levi loves to swing. I think he could swing all day and all night. Chloe enjoys swinging too and she always wants to go higher and faster, but Levi he is just content swinging back and forth. Like I said, we had a great Fall and I can't wait for Thanksgiving and then CHRISTMAS!!!

Texas State Fair

Everyone needs some fair food once in awhile. So we took the kids to their first Texas State Fair and my first Texas State Fair. Although, most of the animals (besides the ones in the petting zoo) were gone we still had plenty of fun! We did not however, see the gigantic "Big Tex" statue. For all you non-Texas people he is huge, like 50+ feet and we forgot to go over and look at him. Oh well..maybe next year. Enjoy the photos from the day.

Levi, Chloe, and Daddy all went on the whales that went up and down. Levi wasn't sure about it at first because it was a little jerky, but he ended up really liking the ride.

Levi is actually looking at the camera, but you can't see him because he is so little :)

Chloe looooved this slide. It was so big and fast. She had to ride it once with daddy and then later with mommy. We all got some air on one of the hills.

Levi having his first bites of a funnel cake (elephant ear). He of course loved it!

Chloe and daddy enjoying the funnel cake. Chloe liked the powdered sugar and would lick it off and then give the rest to either Levi or myself.

Chloe and mommy riding the flying elephants.

Daddy and Levi at the petting zoo. They were trying to get a photo with the camel, who later took Chloe's cup of feed and dumped it on a lady's head. Ooops :)

Start of Preschool

All ready for her first day!

Chloe has officially started preschool. I can't believe she is already in school! We didn't really prep her for school we would just tell her that she was going to go to school and she would just say yes. We are lucky enough to attend a church that has preschool so not only were we comfortable with the people and the location, but she was also comfortable since it was in the church.

A week before she started we were going to go meet the teacher. A few days before we would tell her that we were going to go meet the teacher and then the day before she kept saying "Guess what, we going to meet teacher!" She was very excited about it. When we were pulling up to the parking lot she asked us "Teacher no eat me?" I don't really think she understood what "meeting" the teacher was and she was confused with the word eat :) Silly girl, so we said "No, the teacher isn't going to eat you, she is going to meet you." Chloe asked a few more times just to be sure and then when we were walking down the hallway to her class then she asked again "Teacher no bite me?". So again I re-assured her. Not sure why she was convinced the teacher was going to eat or bite her, but she was a little worried about it.

We went into the class and met her teachers and she sat down at her assigned seat and started decorating her school folder and playing. There are about 8 kids in each class and 2 teachers so it was nice and small. While the parents went in to have a meeting the kids stayed in their class and did a little craft and played together. When we came back to pick her up she had done fine and was just playing away, while most of the other kids were crying. We are lucky that she is so independent and okay with going into classrooms. Afterwards they had provided snow cones for the kids, which both of our kids thoroughly enjoyed. While I waited in line Zach was on kid duty and he watched while both of our kids ran up and down the grassy area with all the other kids. She looked so big! She didn't really interact with any of the kids, but she watched and played alongside them. It was a successful meet the teacher night.

The night before Chloe's first day we went through a bunch of stuff to get her ready. We brought out the nap mat and Zach sat down and showed her how to unroll, lay and roll back up the mat. He reminded her that at school there are no "beautiful dresses" to change into. And we told her she could only take 1 animal with her for nap time. She was excited to pack her back pack and then decided she needed to wear it around the house for while for practice. She ran around chasing Levi with it on, then would stop and open and close her bag. I started to prepare her lunch and put it in the fridge so Zach then explained to her that the ice pack in her lunch box was not to eat, but to keep her food cold so he told her not to bite, eat, lick or try to open it up. After changing her mind a few times about which animal she was going to take with her she decided she wasn't going to take any of them, we knew this wasn't really going to happen come the next day, but didn't make her choose. We put her to bed and she was looking for one of her animals after looking throughout the house I asked her if it was in her back pack. She said, "Oh, yea it is." Come to find out there were a few stowaways in her back pack. Sneaky girl.

The next morning Zach was in charge so he got the kids ready and off they went to school. She walked right in, but before she did she gave Levi a hug and a kiss good-bye. The teacher said she did great. Zach said that she was one of two that weren't screaming their heads off when he left. She was ready. When Zach and Levi came back to pick her up she was just happy as a clam. When they were out in the truck she asked Zach where Anna was. Chloe made a friend! Anna is a little girl that sits across from Chloe and I guess she is Chloe's new friend. Later that evening at dinner she was asking about Anna as well. She had a very successful first day of school!

Decorating folder at Meet the Teacher night

Chloe running around with her back pack the night before school

Chloe walking into her class on the first day of school

Ready for day #2!