Sandbox

Tony had been working on a big ol' sandbox for the boys and was almost finished. I left to go to a baby blessings and my kids looked something like this:

just a little mud for Kai. I have no idea where his pants went but he was obviously having fun!

Holy cow! Blakers had only been outside for 10 minutes and was this dirty. I laughed and grabbed some pictures (secretly happy I was leaving so I wouldnt have to clean up this mess)!

All the kids loved squishing in the mud that would eventually house their sandbox!

Well, Kai did to some extent. Guess he likes mud on his own terms!

They had a ton of fun 'painting' the fence with mud.


 I was gone just over an hour and returned to find this:

Mud everywhere! In the was totally CAKED in mud. His skin looked like an elephants. It took forever to get off him!

Crazy kid liked it though!

Can you guess who 'helped' him get mud everywhere?

Bouncin' Bears!

 While Matt was in town we decided to go to the new bouncy house place. The kids loved it. I have never been to one as clean as this place. Usually I leave all covered in cooties (at least it feels that way to me) but this place was great!

 Kai loved it! Too often we go to places where he is stuck sitting on my lap or watching the fun from the sidelines. Not this place! He ran, crawled, climbed and jumped with the rest. Obviously with that smile he was having fun!

Oh Aliya. Its sad how happy this picture makes me. I love that she has no clue what she's doing (except showing me her 'owie'), I love the look on her face and I love that I was able to get a picture of it (I'm also sad to admit that this is my Facebook picture)!

 We had some cousins in town from St. Louis so we were able to play with Mason and Evan at Bouncing Bears. I was afraid they'd run crazy and leave my kids in the dust but luckily my kids kept up!

 Nuncle Matt and Kai -- Kai was pretty spoiled by his Uncle this trip.

 Ev loved going down face first -- not the best idea but he loved it!

 It was HOT inside this place. Their website said to wear long sleeved shirts and long pants. We did and we all died. I should have realized the placed would be packed with hot, sweaty kids!

 We loved getting to spend time with our cousins. We only wish it could have been longer, and with all our cousins!

 Bunch of deadbeats! You've gotta love that they both had the 'day-off' yet had to do work at least twice this day. Guess that is why I love all the hardworking men in my life.

Aliya and Tae loved to take Kai for a ride down the slide. Sure he could do it alone but the girls had so much fun schlepping him up and down the slide I figured why not. He obviously didn't mind!

Childrens Museum

 Just another reason why we love Uncle Matt. I swear the decibel levels in my house shoot up a million extra points when he's around but it is always so much fun!

 We figured we'd use Uncle Matt's visit as an opportunity to hit the Houston Children's Museum. We've been wanting to go but frankly, I just haven't been up for the drive. I don't mind driving anywhere near us but when I am forced to go through downtown Houston I am grumpy. The roads suck, the drivers are horrible, there are both and left exits from the same lane ... its chaos!

 Luckily Daddy had taken a couple days off so HE got to make the drive ... I got to hold on tight while fearing for my life (seriously, I swear I am turning into an old Idaho driver. I can make that judgemental statement ... I've lived there and I think Idaho drivers are the worst).

 It is HUGE! We have a Children's Museum right near us in The Woodlands but its small. This sucker we didn't even come close to exploring. We ended up buying a years membership and I've already been back (yep, drove through down all by myself to get there)!

 They have a big outdoor exhibit that Blakers loved (can you tell from the smile)!

 Aliya loved that she could paint her face herself (she got a make up kit for Christmas so she'd been doing a ton of face painting but these paints were 'cool')!

I don't know if it is because she is a lefty or just cuz she's 5 but she can write her name perfectly backwards. She can write sentences perfectly from right to left and the letters are perfectly backwards. Tony worries she may be dyslexic ... I worry that she is too smart!

Live Nativity

Last year while Aliya was at ELP (the preschool my kids attend) Blake was okay with the whole "wild" animal thing. As long as he wasn't forced to ride it, he was fine. He'd even touch them. But when forced onto a camels back, he lost it! See below:

This year was MUCH easier!

 Dude rode a donkey (I think it helped that he'd ridden a horse in the summer w/ Gma/Gpa and had been taking riding lessons) and loved it!

 He was the first one on the donkey this year! No tears, just a huge, massive smile!

He got to ride with some of his BFF's: at the back is Cole and Corbin. Immediately behind Blake is Jack. His best BFF. I don't know why but Blake makes boys named Jack his BFF's. There is this Jack at ELP. He loves a boy named Jackson that is at TEDS (his other preschool) then his ultimate BFF ever is Jacky ... his buddy from last year school. I guess it makes it convenient for him!

Christmas 2010

We had an awesome holiday season this last year. We got the best gift ever on Christmas Eve day: Nuncle  Matt came to celebrate Christmas with us! It was so neat to have him there. He of course spoiled us all rotten and was so fun to have in our home! Please, please, please come again Nuncle Matt!

Christmas Eve we had some awesome friends, and family over for dinner. The Moes family with their 4 kids joined us as well as Colby, Steph and newborn baby Keller. The food was killer (Prime rib etc), ambiance was great (the power went out after dinner which was a ton of fun) and conversation was terrific. We are so lucky to have so many people we love nearby! Thanks for making our Christmas Eve fun and memorable (even if we didnt get any pictures)!

Each Christmas Eve Santa's elves deliver us Christmas jammies. We were surprised to see that Matt even got jammies. Where on earth Santa found a onesie big enough to fit a 6'4" man I'll never know! 

Another tradition we have is opening one present on Christmas Eve. Tae picked out her gift to Uncle Matt and was so excited to give it to him. She picked none other than a pair of bright red "Flash" underwear. She wanted to get him a small but I convinced her that Matt's bum was big like Daddy's so a small wouldn't fit!

 Luckily Matt was a good sport and immediately tried them on (although he later learned that the lightning bolt was a great target for Blake)!

 Christmas morning was met with excitement and joy ... as well as tears and temper tantrums. Kai wasn't too sure about the is whole present thing! I swear all morning long I saw him carrying around a homemade roll. I'm not sure if he ate the darn thing or kept swiping a new one but almost every picture of the kid he's got a roll in hand!

 Bruce sent the boys each a CAT hat. They love them. It was cute to see them trade hats (even though it was the same hat)!

 Tae got a video camera that can take still shots as well. Luckily she is old enough to realize that her 'big' gift cost a lot so she didn't get as many gifts as the little kids!

Check out Aliya with her loot! I got wise this year and brought the kids laundry baskets down to hold all their presents. It kept things somewhat tidy (well, until a little brother or two started tearing through the piles)!

 Daddy got the shaft yet again! Mommy thought she'd ordered some good gifts but luckily Santa leaves receipts ... most things got returned! Mommy however scored with a bunch of cooking classes. Wahoo!

Poor Nuncle Matt had been up most of the night before throwing up. No fun being sick, on Christmas, away from home etc. However I think Tae's pink snuggie made him feel a bit better!