Pic-nic

This post is mostly to prove that we are still alive and well here in Houston. The kids broke our little camera, so I just haven't been taking any pictures for a while.
Savannah has been wanting to have a pic-nic for Daddy. She even had planned out what was going to be on the menu. After asking for a few days, we finally found a time and did it. All menu requests were even granted except for the chocolate chips (I wasn't going to pack those). We went to a nice little park with a pond. It is really pretty here in Texas and we love all of the trees! This park was perfect with lots of shade, ducks to feed, and turtles, snakes and other critters to chase.

Dad and Maxwell, trying to spot some turtles to catch.

I was trying like crazy to get a good picture with both kids looking at the camera and smiling! This was funny because I kept putting my hand on my head and saying "look, Max, a bug" to get him to look. He then just copied me and tried to get the bug on his head.

Finally, a baby turtle! Notice Savannah's red face and sweaty hair. It is so HOT and it's only May!

We have been having fun out here. We are finally into the swing of things with Matt's work, so we do get to see him sometimes now, which is nice. The kids and I try to keep busy by spending lots of time at the pool and with other friends. We have taken trips to the zoo, childrens museum, library, and parks. There is still lots more for us to see!

Funnies...

Savannah says the funniest things all of the time. I really need to write them down more often.

Yesterday she was having a pretend conversation on a pretend cell phone, and I hear her say: "Sorry, my kids are driving me crazy." I felt kind of bad about that one because I am pretty sure I know who she got it from.

She will just say surprising things out of the blue all of the time too. Today, while driving, I let them roll down the windows for a while. She says "It sure is a beautiful summer, huh mom?" Then a few minutes later she says: "Mom, I sure give Color, the lizard lots of love don't I?" Our first day here, Matt caught a lizard and let Savannah play with it. She named him Color and begged me to let her keep it in a cage, but I told her, no. I said he could just live outside our apt. and we would see him every day. Luckily there are lots of lizards around, so we do see "Color" a lot. She really is obsessed with him. She is such a funny mix between a tom-boy and a little diva!

Today, she also asked me why I don't talk to all of my mommy friends.
"What do you mean? I talk to them"
"Well, sometimes you don't say Hi to all of them"
"Like who?"
"Like yesterday at the park with Hallee, you didn't say Hi to all of the other mommies" (meaning the strangers there I didn't know)
"Oh, I guess you are right. Maybe I should have talked to the other mommies there."
"Mom, if you don't say Hi then they won't know you and they can't say Hi back."
"That's true, Savannah. I will try to be more friendly."

This is all coming from the girl that assumes any kid around is her best bud for a while. Nothing like getting a scolding on being more friendly from a 3 year old.

Spring

We had a pretty crazy stretch the last month or so having lots of company and getting ready to move to Houston. In March, we watched Matt's sister's kids for a few days. In an attempt to be a cool aunt and uncle, we tried to take them to do some fun stuff. We fed random animals around town some goat treats we had. (post edit: Now that I read that back, I'm not sure what is more funny...going around town feeding random animals or the fact that we had a big bag of goat treats on hand to feed them)

Then we headed to Leamington for go-carts and cave exploring which both were big hits.

We had a lot of fun having them, and it was nice having someone to entertain my own kids for a while.

Later that week, we went to the zoo to meet up with Matt's brother and his family that were in town. The kids loved it, of course.

We tried to get a picture of all of the cousins at the zoo. Max wasn't in it because he was pretty sick and there was no way he was going to stand there.

Poor kid. Look at his face. It is pretty darn hard to get a picture with my kids smiling.

The next weekend Matt's parents came to visit, and we got to spend Conference/Easter with them. We headed up for our cousin's baby blessing and got to see lots of family before we left.

Easter was pretty cold and I'm not crazy about community hunts for little kids, so we had a mini one at our house with some friends. Savannah went crazy and got way too much candy. Maxwell just wanted to sit down and eat the first piece he found and wouldn't pick up any more.

Waiting for the "go" signal.

Other than that, we have spent a lot of time trying to get everything ready to head to Texas. We never finished everything, but we are here anyway. The kids are adjusting well and love sharing a room. It is really cute to listen to them talking to each other at night. We don't have furniture yet, so we have been sleeping on air mattresses and eating on upside-down laundry baskets. Hopefully it will be here tomorrow. We also have a serious ant problem and I have to keep flicking them off the computer as I type. We are excited to be here though! I will try to update more often, but you know how it goes!

Crusin' for a Brusin'

Okay, no brusin', but it just seemed to go...
Being the spoiled people that we are, we got to join the Platinum cruise to the Bahamas in February. It was a great trip, and the perfect amount of time. I didn't even puke once, which, if you know me, is a big deal! We enjoy the cruise boats because it is fun to be with so many friends, but really what we like about cruises are the stops. That being said, we were disappointed to have one of the ports cancelled for bad whether. I doubt we were quite as disappointed as the two couples that were supposed to get married at that stop, but still, I did want to see the island.
The two stops we did get were a lot of fun though. First we went to Grand Turk. A few of us headed into town to find a scuba store to take us out. It was the most amazing scuba diving ever! I am pretty lucky considering the only two places I have really been scuba diving are The Great Barrier Reef and the Bahamas! We saw a HUGE lobster. I mean HUGE! I thought it was going to eat me! We also saw a small shark and all sorts of cool fish and coral! Like I said, it was just amazing.

This is the only picture I took. Just our little scuba group waiting for our boat.
Next stop, Nassau. It was also beautiful, but a lot bigger of a city there. We rented scooters and just cruised around. The boys did a lot of snorkeling and found this starfish, along with a bunch of sand dollars, but not a whole lot of other critters.

Crusin' on our sweet scooter. You can tell we are going really fast!

When we got off the boat, we had to wait all day in Florida before our flight left, so we got a group and rented a van to take to the Everglades. We were hoping to at least see one or two gators, but they were everywhere!!! My husband figured he had seen enough animal planet that he knew how to wrestle them. Luckily most of them jumped in the water before he could get close enough. He did get to touch one on the tail first, which made him feel awfully manly! That's why I married him!

This is probably the biggest one we saw. They really were all over! My favorite part about being in Florida is when we were driving on a long dirt road forever, and saw some hunters. We decided to pull over and ask them if they knew how long the road went, but when I rolled down my window, He immediately asks: "Y'all headed to the Wild hog jamboree? That's where you're gonna get if you's keep goin' that way." So, of course we kept going that way!

Thanks Platinum for another great trip! And thanks Grandma and Papa choo-choo for hanging out with the kiddies!

Winter time!

Okay, my laptop is finally up and running, so I just might do a few posts this month. Even my husband harrasses me for being a slacker on the blog.
Well, since in my book, winter is over, here are a few things we have done this winter:
Ran around with buckets on our head. Not sure why, but Maxwell loves to put anything on his head and run around, which means he runs into walls all of the time! Crazy kid!

Went to Pirate Treasure Island and had some horrible pizza! But got some sweet pirate hats and amazing arcade prizes out of it.

Savannah loves playing in the hot tub with her cousins! Her dad is nice enough to take her out a lot because her mom is not the biggest fan of it.

Before you judge me for being the worst mom ever, it was her dad that let her roll in the snow in a swim suit. I just figured I might as well take a picture of it. She loved it and kept begging to make more snow angels even after I told her NO WAY! Crazy girl!

Riding Skittles around the neighborhood. Savannah insists she rides out in front where her friends can see her. She thinks she is pretty cool.

Making a snowman...named Frosty of course. Savannah loves Christmas songs and still sings them nonstop, which drives her dad crazy! If we are ever singing in the car or for Family Home Evening, her first pick is always Rudolf! She even sings it in the shower!

We went sledding on the hill at Uncle Joe's. Our kids were not a big fan of sledding, but love playing in the snow. Matt was nice enough to build some princess castles with the kids.

That about covers it. We did get to do one snowmobiling trip at Island Park. The snow was so deep. I only got to ride for about 45 minutes and got stuck 3 times, but it was a fun trip. That about covers our fun in the snow this year. I am glad it is finally warming up and hope it stays!

Stars at night shine big and bright...

(clap clap clap clap) deep in the heart of Texas!!!

We are moving to Houston, Texas this summer. Should be fun! Anyone want 2 horses, a pony and a goat for 4 months?

When I grow up...

Today, while driving in the car, my conversation with Savannah went like this:

Savannah: Mom, when I grow up, do you know what I want to be?
Me: What?
S: a doctor.
Me: Oh, ya. I didn't know that.
S: Well, maybe I can't be a doctor.
Me: Sure you can, you can be whatever you want.
S: Well, maybe I don't want to be a doctor.
Me: Okay, what do you want to be?
S: Maybe a witch instead. Or maybe a Rock 'n' roll star. How about I be a witch, a rock 'n' roll star or maybe the moon.
Me: Those all sound like good ideas too.