Dinner Daddy style

At the end of January, Kai and I took a trip to Utah for my little brothers wedding. Tony was AWESOME and took care of the oldest three heathens so I could enjoy my family for almost a week. I returned home to discover pictures of how Daddy does it when Moms away. Pizza at the bar, on napkins, Blakers naked and watching TV. Truth be told I could care less. They had a ton of fun with Dad and cant wait until I leave again (me too but there is no prospects in the future).

Snow Day

I love Aliya's preschool! Since we never get snow here in Houston, they pump it in. Each January her school hires a huge truck (essential a snow cone maker on crack) to come in and pump snow. They make a ramp and hill so the kids can sled down then they blow a new, fresh patch so the kids can play in snow. Only problem was after living in AZ, we have no snow clothes. No fear, it was 67 degrees and gorgeous outside!

Aliya had been sledding once before (she was two) so this is truly her first time sledding. She had so much fun (as you can tell by her HUGE grin).

Blakers got to try out snow for the first time in his life. Nope, we don't have snow shovels but sand shovels work just fine. He was hesitant to throw a snow ball (since he is constantly being told "Don't throw") but he had a lot of fun in the cold, wet stuff. There was about 2% of me that missed that miserable snow for a moment or two but once I had to touch it, I was reminded again just how much I love the sun, warmth, heat and humidity! Viva summer!

Arbor Day

We live in an area where trees are king. They are everywhere and the community was master planned to have as many trees left undisturbed as possible. I love it (except right now due to all the pollen flying everywhere). There was a huge celebration for Arbor day where you could get new tree saplings and advice for all things tree. There were also fun rides and jumpy houses for the kids (we obviously took advantage of the kid stuff -- the trees can wait for a year or two).
They had a fun petting zoo that Blakers thought was pretty cool. Cute little kiddo!
Poor kid has never gotten to play in a pile of germ encrusted balls before. He had a blast and I had LOTS of sanitizer for when he got out!
First time in a bouncy house as well. I guess the poor kid has been pretty sheltered so far ... nope, not sheltered. Just a lazy, overwhelmed mama!
WHHEEEE! Aliya loved the slide. I think she went down this sucker a good twenty times! Fun times!

Rodeo Artist

As I think I've blogged about before, our Taeya wants to be an artist when she gets older. She loves to color, draw and create. Here in Houston, Rodeo is HUGE. Each fall the school districts are assigned a topic and each grade level is given criteria for their art pieces. Taeya was assigned something you can find on a farm and must include 3 farm animals (hence the barn, horse, chicken and cat). The art teacher from each school picks two projects per grade then forwards them on to the district, state etc eventually ending up displayed at the rodeo. Tae was one of the two second graders who had their work selected to go on to the district level. She didnt make it past there but was thrilled with her red ribbon! She had fun looking at the other art work and when we eventually went to the rodeo, she enjoyed seeing all the AMAZING pictures that made it. There are sure some talented kids!

Bath time!!!

I love bath time ... well, only when its Kai alone in the tub. He is so content and happy. One afternoon Tony was home and enjoyed watching him kick and play. I love the quiet contentment in his face. No one else is vying for our attention, no one is yelling, hitting, screaming or trying to drown him. Its his time and his alone!

I also LOVE Tony's hands. Its one of my favorite parts to him. I am amazed at all those hands know how to do. Be it setting up all his techno-weenie things to ripping apart the toilet or installing new sprinklers, he can do it all. I loved getting to see his big, strong hands next to our big (so I thought until I saw these two together) strong baby. I hope our sons each get their Daddys hands!

Next time you ask me to tend ...

In case you are wondering what I do when asked to tend: here ya go! Just kidding (although a big part of me REALLY would like to do this)! We were playing outside and the girls got into the painting tape. One thing led to another and VIOLA: silence! It was heaven!

The other little girl is a friend from down the street named Genevieve. She is an only child so whenever she comes to play there are a lot of questions like "why is your play room so messy?", "why cant Taeya and I play alone?" and "why does Blake hit?". Guess those things are so common around here, my girls never question it.

Chillin'

I dont know why I found this picture so funny. Maybe its the pose, maybe its the rolls but either way I love it. Its such a grown man position yet such a little boy.

I'm not sure why he was so serious but I think shots like these are fun because this is how Kai looks a lot of the time -- perfectly content and at ease with the world. I only hope he will continue to be such a terrific kid!

Sugar Cookies

One of our annual traditions is to make Sugar Cookies for Santa. Growing up my mom would always make dozens upon dozens of cookies and I loved "helping" her roll and cut them out then decorate them. I do it with my kiddos and although I curse the entire time, I do love the memories. This year Taeya was big enough to help me frost all the cookies so Blake and Aliya could decorate them with sprinkles etc. She did a great job.

Aliya got 'creative' with her decorating. Near the end she thought it would be fun to toss the sprinkles into the air to decorate the cookies. Needless to say mommy was having none of it!

Old Blakers, lets just say ate way more sprinkles than got on the cookies. I tried to hold out any cookie he decorated but I fear a few may have been passed around to neighbors as gifts. Good thing none of my neighbors check this blog (at least I hope none of them do - if you do, I'm sorry)!

Bubbles n bubbles n bubbles

My kiddos, like all all other children, love bubble baths. They have so much fun covering themselves with loads of bubbles. Having just been through Christmas season Blake loves it when one of his sisters pretends to be Santa. When he imitates Santa he does this 'hu hu hu HOOO' noise.

The girl COVERED herself in green stamps. You can just see a few of them from the backs of her hands but they were covered. Why is it she knows not to color on herself yet she thinks stamps are fine?

For some reasons when soap is in bubble form it doesnt bother his eyes. He was covered in bubbles and loved it!

Fire Trucks

I think I've posted before how much Blakers LOVES trucks. Any kind of truck or construction vehicle - dump truck, tow truck, digger, bull dozer, ambulance fire truck etc. I was excited when we were invited to a fund raiser for a local fire company. I knew Blake would be so psyched.

This is a picture of Blake watching the fire trucks drive by. Up till this point he had only seen pictures of fire trucks, never one in real life. This picture makes him look a little timid or scared but really he was just in complete awe over these huge, super cool trucks.

The girls came along. They were more excited about all the free stuff they got.

Not only did he get to sit in a fire truck, he also got to eat a sucker. That in a little boy world is like winning the lottery!

In addition to the fire trucks they also had a life flight helicopter come and land on a nearby field. I though Blakers would love that too but nope, he's checking out the trucks. For me the helicopter brought back so many memories of Tony's life flight ride 11 years ago ... wow, crazy to believe its been that long ago but I am so thankful he's healthy and well! I sure love my little (okay big) family and all the joy and happiness they bring to me!