Valentine's Day 2014

Our Valentine's Day was pretty laid back this year.  The kids all enjoyed their parties at school.  I don't know what it is about store bought valentines that make them so excited but they all three love them!  And they also consumed enough sugar that day to last the rest of the year!

After a fun Valentine dinner at home, we treated the kids to dessert at Sweet Frog- a new yogurt place in town.  We will definitely be going back there again soon!

Overall, we had a fun day!  I hope the kids know how much we love them, not only on Valentine's Day but every day of the year.

AWANAs Derby Race

Last Wednesday night was our annual AWANAs derby race at church.  Parker, Eden and Lily were all excited about racing their cars.  Eden and Lily aren't old enough to race real derby cars yet but got to choose a Matchbox car to race.  They both chose Holly Shiftwell (a character from the Cars 2 movie) and got to "race" their cars several times with the other Cubbies. 

Last year, Parker's car looked good but didn't perform well during the race.  Parker was crushed when he lost his first three races and was out.  This year, we enlisted the help of one of the dads in our small group who has a passion for creating fast derby cars.  He helped Cory with the design and weights and gave him lots of tips on making a fast car.   

Thankfully, our friend's advice worked and Parker's car placed in the top 10 this year!  He was so excited every time his car won a race and we were even more excited that there were no tears this year!

Eden's Pajama Picnic

Eden was learning about the letter 'P' last week at preschool and couldn't wait for her pajama picnic on Wednesday.  She was even more excited when I told her that Lily and Aubrey were going to get to come to the picnic too! 

It's sad to think that Eden's preschool days are coming to an end soon.  I'm thankful that my job is flexible and allows me to enjoy these special days with her. 

Aunt MerMer's Bridal Shower

At the end of January, we hosted a bridal shower at my house for Aunt MerMer. 

The girls were so excited when they found out they were going to get to come to it! 

We got to meet Craig's mom, sister and niece for the first time at the shower.  They were very nice and our girls really enjoyed playing with his niece, Tatum, who is the same age as Addison.

Meredith got so many wonderful things from our generous family and friends. 

It was great to visit with friends that I haven't seen in a long time.

It was great to celebrate Meredith during this special time in her life.  We can't wait for the wedding that is now less than three weeks away!!

The Ski-less Ski Trip of 2014

Last weekend we went on our annual ski trip with the Ranelles to Beaver Creek.  I'm not sure where to even start sharing about this trip other than to say that we probably should have just stayed home and never even boarded the plane on Wednesday!  It seemed like everything that could have gone wrong on the trip did go wrong.   

 

It all started when we realized that Cory's luggage (with all of his ski clothes, regular clothes, and MS medical supplies) never made it onto the plane in DFW.  We tried to make the best of it, especially after they assured us that they would deliver it to us the next day.  The airlines gave us $200 for our troubles, so our first stops after we ate dinner were Walgreens for a few toiletries/medical supplies and Sports Authority for some gloves. 

 

We also learned shortly after landing that the earlier flight coming into Eagle/Vail that Lynn (Dr. Ranelle's wife) was on had been delayed two hours because the flight attendant had a heart attack during boarding.  Just one more reason why we should have turned right back around and headed home! 

It started snowing in the middle of the night on Wednesday and didn't stop until Saturday night before we left.  In all, Beaver Creek got over 30 inches of snow while we were there.  Because of all the snow, the airport in Eagle/Vail completely shut down, cancelling all flights including the one that was supposed to bring Cory's luggage and the one that Dr. Ranelle was coming in on.  Luckily, he got a last minute flight into Denver on Friday morning and was able to join us for the rest of the trip.  The airport not only shut down on Thursday but Friday as well.  We knew at that point that there was little to no chance that Cory's bag was going to ever show up on this trip so we headed to Wal-Mart to get him some clothing staples like socks, underwear and pajama pants.  And just to prove that everything really did go wrong on this trip... when we got back to condo, I realized that someone had wrongly placed boys underwear in the men's section and, you guessed it... I accidentally bought Cory boy's underwear.  So much for him looking forward to putting on a clean pair!  

Thank goodness all the snow was so beautiful!  It momentarily took our minds off of the fact that things were not going our way on this trip!

Since we spent most of Thursday getting Cory settled, we decided to try and have fun on Friday.  Skiing was out due to the fact that he had no ski clothes so we decided to try snowmobiling.  It is something we have always wanted to try and we were both very excited about experiencing something new.

The first 15 minutes of the 3 hour tour were great!  And then the extreme snow conditions came into play and our fun level started dropping.  There were no trails due to all the new snowfall so our guide was making the trails and we had to follow exactly in his trail or our snowmobile would fall over.  Needless to say, we turned our machine over three times in the first 30 minutes.  One of these times, my leg got pinned under the snowmobile and I couldn't move until Cory and a couple other girls lifted it off of me.  I know that we had some of the most extreme conditions that they only see a few days during the entire winter, but that plus several other things that happened during the tour made me never want to get on another snowmobile again. Our tour was full of adventure but it was definitely not what either one of us expected for our fun day out!

Even though it seemed like everything went wrong on this trip, the one thing that was consistently good every night was the food.  The Ranelles appreciate good food and always make sure we get to enjoy a lot of it!  The last night of our trip, we took a sleigh ride up the mountain and enjoyed a five course meal at Beano's.  It was a fun way to end a trip full of unexpected adventures!

And for those of you who are wondering if Cory ever got his luggage... this is what was waiting on us when we got back from dinner on the last night:

It took the entire trip, but it finally came!  On a positive note, at least I didn't have a lot of laundry to do when we got home! 

Our trip was not what we had planned, but as always, we are so grateful to the Ranelles for hosting us at their beautiful home in Beaver Creek.  Their hospitality is greatly appreciated!  Even though it was nice to get away for a few days, I don't think I have ever been more thankful to get back home to my sweet kiddos.  There was definitely a lot of snuggling on the couch after we got home on Sunday!

Goodbye January, Hello February!

I realized recently that the last time I posted was on New Year's Day.  January completely got away from me and we are now almost done with the first week of February.  How on earth did that happen? 

 

I am so thankful that our January was low key and that we were able to enjoy a few weeks of quiet after the hustle and bustle of the holidays.  We spent a lot of time playing with cousins and just hanging out at home.  We had a few really nice days where the kids were able to go outside and play (one of the best parts about living in Texas in January).

We got Parker fitted for his tuxedo for Aunt MerMer's wedding (which is now only three weeks away...eek!!)  The girls loved playing with the three way mirrors in the store!

We got new barstools (or "monkey bars" as Lily calls them!).  The kids love them and request to sit at them for every meal. 

Eden and Lily enjoy playing together while Parker is at school but always look forward to him getting home. 

Eden got invited to her friend Grace's birthday party and was so excited to go.  She did pretty good when just her few preschool friends were there but became a little overwhelmed when all of the other guests started arriving.  She still said she had a fun time (even though she spent most of the party sitting in my lap)!

The girls and I ran several errands one day after speech.  We were literally two minutes from home when I realized they had both fallen asleep.  It was too cold to leave them in the car with the windows open so I did what any normal mom would do... I leaned my seat back and took a 20 minute nap myself!! 

February is going to be much busier than January.  I enjoyed the quiet while it lasted but I'm ready for the fun month that lies ahead of us.