Happy Birthday Monica!

Happy Birthday Monica!  After a wonderful birthday trip to Colorado, Monica returned to Texas to celebrate with the rest of us.  We had brownies and curries, oh my!  We actually had a second celebratory round Thursday when some visitors came by, so fortunately we didn't eat the whole pan of brownies Wednesday night.

Rewinding a bit before this week, now all of Monica's pictures uploaded in time for when I wrote last week's post.  I believe I mentioned that Brooke and Monica went to Eleanor's baptism on Saturday, and now I've got a picture!  The Cammacks were so excited to see them, and they kept it a secret too, so it was a total surprise when they came in!  Brooke and Monica may or may not have made some people cry.

I think I mentioned that they stayed with the Westbroeks while they were out there.  Super huge shout out to them for being so amazing!  Brooke had a lot of fun playing with their girls, and from the sounds of it, things got a little rowdy at times.

Monica grabbed a screenshot while talking with Grayson.  I personally don't remember what was happening, but you can tell there's a lot of motion.  Kids are both terrible at doing video calls, and absolutely amazing!  I still remember when I was "put" in a baby bouncer during a call with Brooke and Winry, and then they left me behind...

Monday, after dropping Winry off at school, Grayson and I went to the park in the neighborhood.  I'd never been before, and it's pretty nice.  There are lots of big trees around it to keep it in the shade, but I still don't know that I'd want to go in the afternoon right now.  Grayson brought his bird along to have a best friend to play with.

Monica called a last minute, impromptu play group Monday morning, and many people were able to make it.  Yay friends!

Grayson and I went to Home Depot to get a garage door opener pad for outside the garage, and while we were heading in and out to install it we found a little lizard on the porch.  He was very calm... or tired... and just sat there and let us get right up close.  I even touched it's tail before it ran off a few inches.

I'll guess this was Tuesday, but Monica finished up Brooke's room.  She was able to finishing painting the walls and get the flowers up.  It looks really good.

Wednesday was Happy Birthday-day!  The morning was mostly normal with school, but I did work from home, so I was able to change the poopy diapers, and I think I was able to step aside and put Grayson down for his nap too.  Monica took Winry to the eye doctor in the afternoon, and after work Brooke and I made brownies.  We got Thai curry for dinner, and it was really good.  It was pretty liquidy, but the flavor was great.  We just had enough time for presents.  Brooke wanted to make sure her shoes made it in a picture.

Somehow I didn't have a picture of Monica with Winry, but Grayson was snuggly and kissy for his.

On Thursday our visitors arrived.  Oriah came down with her boys, and brought Niki along too.  It was awesome.  Niki had a sleep over with each of the girls.  Thursday night she went in with Brooke... and fell asleep while Brooke was still reading books.  Must have been a long flight.

Oriah pulled on the saddle to Grayson's delight.  Seriously though, look at Grayson's face, he is having the time of his life!  Good job Oriah!

All that ridin' tuckered ol' Grayson out (written with an accent, go read it again the right way).  He asked Monica if he could lay down in the hallway, and Monica said she'd give him a chance.  To his word, he brought out his blankie and giant kitty, laid down, and fell asleep.  He's not even that good in his bed!

Speaking of Grayson and sleeping, Grayson's really been loving "I'm so glad when daddy comes home" lately, and one night this last week he even sang me bedtime songs.

Friday after school everyone headed to the pool.  It looks like they were having a great time jumping in, though Grayson, who loves jumping, decided to lay down and scoot in.

I came after work and found everyone having a good time in the little kid side of the pool.

Winry came out with some cool shades after her eye doctors appointment.  Grayson found them during bedtime and pulled together a pretty sweet outfit.

When Winry's sleepover turn came around, she made sure she was ready for Niki by having pre-selected her blankets.  Niki scored a mermaid tail, and unicorn hood.  Look at that, she looks super ready to sleep.  She wasn't actually yet, so maybe she did a little better than the night before?

While everyone was out here there was a lot of demand to try out the golf simulator, so I got it all set up on Saturday.  It was actually being really flaky for the first while and kept disconnecting, but we had a good time, and to be honest, for the kids it really didn't matter if things were running, the shots wouldn't have been picked up anyway.

Saturday night we headed over to Josh's house.  We've been friends since back in... well, at least high school.  Probably jr high.  Anyway, we ended up moving a whole 15 minutes away, and when we drove to their house we realized we almost moved right over by them.  Anyway, we had a lot of fun, and the kids had a great time playing.  By the end of the night the first full week of school, and having visitors, and going to a friends house all caught up with Winry, and she may have fallen asleep while we were there.  She also fell asleep on the drive home and I carried her to her bed.

I think that's everything I've got for now.  We had a lot of fun this last week, and we are very grateful for everyone we were able to see, especially for the family that came to visit us.

First day of school! And Happy 10th Anniversary!

Well... this post really should be highlighted by our 10th anniversary, however, when Monica and I were getting ready to go to sleep on Thursday night we realized neither of us had taken a picture of anything all day... Oops...  We did have pictures from our adventure last weekend, and we had some fun on Thursday as well, but no picture to start things off with.  On Wednesday school started back up, and I DO have pictures of school, so here ya go!  We went to a back to school night to find the girls classrooms on Monday night and got to meet their teachers.

Grayson wanted to meet the teachers as a unicorn, so Monica did her best to oblige!

Winry's teacher gave her some confetti and a story for the night before the first day.  Monica read the story, etc. and I don't actually know much about what all went on, but I know Winry sprinkled it under her pillow! It was to help her not be too nervous and to sleep extra well! Bad news, she was still awake for a couple hours during the night.

We got pictures with the chalk board in the morning before walking to school.  Here's Winry, ready to go!  She has been loving school so far, and has so much fun in her class and with her teacher and new friends!  We were worried about her starting full day kindergarten, but she's been taking it like a champ!

And Brooke, ready for her first day.  She too has been loving school and meeting new kids.

We all walked to school on the first day.  School starts early, and we left the house at 7 am, so I was able to join them before work.

Grayson really loves to go in his closet.  I don't really know that there's any rhyme or reason to this, he just does.  We'll find him in there sleeping under his clothes at the end of nap time, or sometimes at night we'll go wake him up and move him back to his bed before we go to sleep.  And that's even before we got new carpet!

Speaking of Grayson, he's living life to the fullest during the school day!  He gets to spend his mornings having mom all to himself, getting into all kinds of trouble, like chasing a yoga ball.

Thursday, as mentioned, was Monica and my 10th anniversary!  The day started pretty typical, I had to go into work and Monica got the girls ready for school.  Instead of coming home, we planned to meet up at a restaurant along the way.  The first place ended up being in a gas station.  It was Indian food I think, and it looked really good, so we'll have to try it another time.  The second place, we stepped in and... well, I'll pass on the atmosphere they were trying to establish.  They had an end table that was supposed to look like a pile of money, etc.  It felt like the kind of place I shouldn't be too surprised to get shot in.  And good ol' third times the charm we made it to a normal restaurant.  It was called Blue Corn Harvest, and it was very tasty.  Dinner went until pretty late, especially with all the places we checked out, so when we got back it was time to get everyone ready for bed, and which point it was just late enough to put ourselves to bed too.  I'm glad we were able to take some time just the two of us over the weekend!  Thanks Oriah and Michael!

Friday afternoon Monica and Brooke took off for the airport.  I told Monica she could go back to Colorado for her birthday (which is this upcoming week), and she took Brooke along because Brooke's friend, Eleanor, was getting baptized Saturday!  Their flight got delayed and they were in the airport a bit longer than planned, but they made it and everything has been good so far.

We got new carpet installed over the last two days.  On Friday they did the master bedroom, and part of upstairs.  You can see the line where they made it to.  It was nice having this spot because I could stand on the old and new at the same time and see just how much better the new carpet is!  The old carpet was really worn out, and the new one feels really nice.

Meanwhile, here's Brooke getting ready for take off!

In the re-carpeting process, we actually got vinyl put in the gym room, and it looks quite nice!

Saturday was a semi-rough day.  The kids were pretty good, and we had a pretty good time, but it was exhausting.  You see, the carpet installers were working from around 9:30 until 4:30 pm, during which time we were of course at home, and we couldn't really do or use anything upstairs.  This meant the kids didn't have many toy options to play with, and I had to be the entertainment source.  So while they did great considering, it was very tiring for me to keep them running.  I really wanted to get out and do something, but 1) the carpet people were around, and 2) by the time we were struggling for entertainment, it was like 106 outside, so I didn't really want to play in the backyard.  We could have turned on a sprinkler or something... but that would assume we had access to swimsuits.  Anyway, the carpet is all done, and we survived the day!  At one point we were playing a tickling game, and Grayson turned the tables and started tickling me!

Church was good today, and things have been pretty calm since.  I need to chat with Monica tonight to figure out how things work with school since I haven't really had to make lunches or do pickup yet.  Monica and Brooke will be back tomorrow evening, and hopefully they'll have an amazing time all the way up until the end!
 

Happy Almost-aversary

Whoa!  We are almost at our 10 year anniversary!  It's been a wonderful 10 years.  We were fortunate to get to spend the weekend up at Michael and Oriah's house, and they let us take off for an anniversary retreat.  We headed to the temple and did sealings.  It's been a long time since I've done sealings, and Monica and I don't think we've done them since we've had kids, so it was fun to go back and do something less common.  It was also nice since, you know, we're celebrating our own wedding in a few days!

Rolling back to last Sunday, the kids partied in the ottoman.  This was during my family call.  Grayson loves to go in there, but it became the place to be!  If we pull out all the blankets, all the kids can just fit in together.

Brooke fell out the back of her chair this past week.  Don't worry though, she had shin guards on, so she was safe!

We busted out the daddy saddle for the first time in a long time, and the kids had so much fun!

Monica took the kids to the Thinkery for the first time this past week.  It sounds like there was a lot of fun stuff to do there.  Specifically the kids seemed to enjoy this air blower thing.

There was no eating inside the Thinkery, but there was a park outside, so they went there to eat.  There was this giant dragon statue thing out there that they really liked, and there were also a lot of bees, so in the end they ate in the car.

Monica took the kids for a walk this week (maybe this was a walk to/from the car at the Thinkery) and Grayson was riding in his car, holding Winry's hand.

We headed to the pool again last week.  We still didn't bring the waterproof camera, but enough was enough and I headed into the shallow end with my phone.  I was able to get the kids jumping into the pool and having a good time.

Monica and I switched phone holders because the kids LOVE to push me into the pool.  Grayson thinks it is SO funny.  

Grayson's getting pretty good with his floaties too.  He was really loving laying back and relaxing on this outing, and he can roll back over to this stomach without his face going underwater.  He looks so relaxed just chilling there in the water.

On Thursday we headed out to Dallas to visit Michael and Oriah for the weekend.  On our drive we passed a truck on fire...  I don't know what was in the bed of that truck, but it doesn't appear to like 105 degree weather.

On Friday I worked during the day while overhearing bits and pieces of a master plan.  The plan? To water balloon Michael and I!  I think I survived the ambush well, though I definitely did not stay dry.  After the water balloons were all gone the kids went to the backyard to get hosed down while they jumped on the tramp.  Biscuit really liked to play with the water too.

The boys taught Grayson a fun new game... punching.  In it's current iteration it's pretty tame, so hopefully it stays that way.

I was exercising Friday night, and Biscuit figured that'd be a great time to play.  He kept bringing his ball to me and dropping it somewhere by me the whole time I was exercising, and when I finished and was laying on the ground questioning my life choices he came and laid next to me.

As mentioned at the front, Monica and I took off Saturday morning for some anniversary shenanigans.  We had a wonderful time at the temple, and afterwards went to... this place for brunch.  I'm just realizing that I don't actually know the name of it.  It was the restaurant in a hotel, and it was fancy.  It was a fun brunch, and we ordered the tasting, so it was even 3 course!

We headed back after brunch and collected everyone to head to Buc-ee's!  We were sending Marco Polos to the kids while we were out, and we asked Grayson if he wanted to wear his Buc-ee suit.  Every time Oriah watched it Grayson would respond to it as though it were a video call, even though he could pause it.  He was still watching when we got home, so we got to hear.  It was so cute.

Grayson wanted to take a picture with the statue on our way out, and some guy saw us out there and asked if we could get a picture with Grayson since they both had Buc-ee suits!  Thanks guy, you're pretty awesome!

Today we went to church with the Albrights, and afterwards had lunch together, and then a spot of ice cream before driving back home.

Don't worry, it wasn't just Grayson, all the kids had some.

As we were nearing our house maps seemed to be a little confused.  It seems like it thinks our street is one way, so it was trying to get me to go the long way around the block...

And now we're back at home!  We had a fun week.  It was great to revisit all the fun we had at the pool, and of course we had the best time going to visit Michael and Oriah!  School is starting up this next week, so that will be quite the shock for us as we readjust to life on a schedule.  I think the girls both had a lot of fun though, and it'll be great for them to have a good environment to make some new friends!

Winry's Dance Camp!

Winry got to go dance camp this past week!  I believe this was at a different studio than the one Brooke did a week or so ago.  Gotta try 'em out!  I believe this is the current favorite studio, and Winry had a great time.  On Friday we got to go see the dance they'd been working on all week, but we'll get to that in a few pictures!  Here's her whole class together at the end of the week.

Last Sunday the girls spent some time doing Monica's hair.  She looked so pretty when they were all done!

I even got a makeover.  Turns out, when you have less hair, you get less bows...

And from Sunday let's jump... right back to Friday!  Eek... I'll try to be better with pictures, though I will say, for me during the week it's mostly a lot of work...  Oh, and as I'm typing this I remembered, there actually is a midweek story to fill in here!  Brooke and Grayson got to play with water balloons one morning while Winry was at dance class.  Our neighbor across the street gave us a big pack of them she got for her grandkids but didn't get used when they were over!  Sweet!  Now we have lots.

Anyway, back to Friday, we got to watch Winry's dance.  It was super great.  She was a little bit super excited, so she was really squirmy during the dance, but she still did great and it was a lot of fun to watch.  She hasn't quite figured out the shimmy yet though...

On Friday night Winry and I had a sleepover.  After normal get ready for bed things, we got to eat some ice cream!  After brushing our teeth, we then went to her room where we played some board games she'd picked out.  We had 4 in total, and we had a lot of fun.  We would have played Dragominos (pictured) again, but it was pretty late by the time we got through them all.  I slept on the bottom bunk in her room that night, and that mattress is quite soft.  That's not my favorite, and my back was feeling it all day long Saturday.

Speaking of Saturday, we made more progress on getting our house fixed up.  I installed shoe shelves in Monica's closet.  I also happened upon the lawn mower battery charger, so I finally got to mow the lawn, though it took 3 charges to finish, and we only have 1 good battery, so it may be time for a new lawn mower.  Our's has lasted us about 9 years, so I can't really complain.  It took long enough with charging that my final stint was in 103 degree weather, so I did not weed whack.  Monica had the kids "help" her as she put some shelves together for the play area upstairs, and I also ended up falling asleep on the couch!  What a day!

Jelly found some time to stretch out.  Funny story, despite having this large, and much softer couch, Jelly typically spends the night on the floor right next to the ottoman.  I guess it's a good place to keep watch over everyone?

And lastly, here's Winry ready to head to church this morning.  Not 100% sure why we have this picture, but I did think she looked pretty cute, so I included it! (She wanted  a picture so she could see her lipstick!)

In non-picture stories... I'm not really sure I have much this week.  Nothing is immediately coming to mind at least.  Ah, I also have a video of homemade pizza!  We got new propane tanks and cooked up some yummy pizza this past week, and it was some of the best we've ever made!  And with that, adieu.