Snow Day!!

What?! Snow day in Austin? You bet!  And good thing it snowed too, because they called school 2ish days before!  It wasn't a ton, but the kids had so much fun playing in what we got.  There was a chance for up to 2-3 inches... maybe next year we can get more.  It's kinda painful to write this, because it's gonna get close to 80 today...

The snow day was Tuesday, and Monday was a holiday.  On Monday I was given a list of projects, so off to Lowes I went.  When I was stopped at a light I saw that the waterfall had frozen!  I wanted to get a better picture on my way home, and I was even at the front of the red light, but I just forgot...

My biggest project was to shiplap this white wall in the laundry room.  Here's the before.

We didn't actually use shiplap board, because it's pretty expensive.  Instead, we bought plywood, then I cut it into a bunch of thin pieces, and then left a nickel of space between the boards as I nailed them to the wall.

Ta da!  Shiplap!  I really like how it looks, and for the first few days it caught my attention every time I walked by.  The plan is to paint it, and then put up some hooks.  I also forgot to get caulk, so I still need to do that too.

The kids found the ukulele again, and we of course all know how to properly play that.  It was the kind of music you just can't not dance to when you hear.

And Tuesday we woke up to snow!  The girls got out first thing, even before Grayson was awake.  There was a LOT of excitement for the snow.

 

Here's a picture of our backyard.  The snow didn't fill in the grass completely, but the roads and sidewalks were completely covered.

We did everything in our power to bring the snow.  The girls heard at school that the things you need to do to get snow is to: flush 3 ice cubes down the toilet at 3, 6, and 9 o'clock.  Sleep with a spoon under your pillow, and wear your pajamas inside out.  When Grayson heard, he actually ran and grabbed a handful of spoons and put them under everyone's pillows!

I had to include this one.  Monica's phone auto "enhanced" this picture of Winry with a snowball!

The kids made some small snowmen while they were outside, and they helped Grayson make a wiggler like from Mario!  They in general just had a good time being in the cold.  We definitely miss getting to play in the snow.  I guess that's not too surprising seeing how much fun we had in Colorado in what was essentially frozen ice blocks.

Grayson's penguin slide broke.  I think this happened when we went out to Colorado right after Christmas, so it's been broken for a while.  I tried gluing it back together, but the pieces have to flex and bend when you put them in, and it broke again pretty quickly, so I designed a new piece to 3d print to bridge the gap!  Good news, it fits!  I have made an update to it so it'll be better if we ever need to print it again.

On Wednesday morning I walked the kids to school, and most of the snow melted Tuesday, but there were still some remnants of snowmen!

Here's Grayson from preschool, working on writing his name.

On Saturday we had Winry's birthday party.  We had it at our neighborhood park, and the kids had so much fun playing on the playground.  We also prepared games and activities, like pin the horn on the narwhal.

We had cupcakes for all the kids and of course sang happy birthday.  Then we opened presents after.

Here is the whole party crew.  I'm so glad for everyone who could make it.  Winry had a wonderful time, and I think everyone else did too.  Thank you everyone who came and made the party so much fun!

When I put Grayson to bed he always wants me to stay in for a little when he first gets in bed and listen to a part of his story with me.  He usually wants me to listen to one chapter of the book he's currently loving, like Zoey and Sassafras.  He was all snuggled and and just looked too cute to not get a picture.

On Sunday evening, the stake did a primary choir-side, and all of the primaries in the stake sang a song.  One kid from each primary also bore a testimony, and Brooke was picked from our ward!

That wraps up our week.  Birthday season is finally behind us, and sadly, there's no more snow in the forecast.  Hopefully you're having a colder week than we do here!

The Music Man

Grayson found the bag of instruments again this week, and made a foray into becoming a musical maestro.  It was pretty fun to watch him, for the first minute or so, but the song just kept going!  He was super happy, but part of me feels like I need to go find that Grinch "noise, noise, noise" video again. 

Monica took Grayson down to the new Cedar Park library.  I don't remember any stories in particular from the trip, but I'm sure they had a great time because they're planning to go again this next week.  If anything interesting happened Monica can drop it in here.  Grayson does really love the park at the library, because it's shaped like a giant bird.

Jelly has been longing to go outside again recently, and we're finally having some harness problems.  The harness we got for her has always been too big, but now the velcro isn't really holding so it opens up wide and, well, she starts slipping through.  I've got a new one ordered, so hopefully she won't escape.

I'm not sure the story here, but I do like those little shells.  Also, this better be from our garden, or else why did I even put it in here...

On Saturday I finally got to my Christmas present from two years ago (2023).  I got a backup camera kit for my car, and I finally tried to install it.  Here's the camera in the back.  I had to pull open a bunch of stuff in the trunk to run wires, etc. and had to cut my brake light to splice in new wires.  It was a bit involved, but everything still works back there, so it was a success.

 

Once I finished in the trunk, I had to run a wire all the way up to the front.  I pulled out a bunch of wire to run it along with other wires, like the trunk release cable.  Eventually I got it up to the front and pulled out the old stereo.  The camera kit also came with a new radio that is a little android tablet that runs android auto, so not only did I get a camera, but I also got a technological upgrade!  This picture is in the middle of all the swip-swappery, and you can see the baby monitor on the passenger seat.  Monica ran some errands with Brooke while I was working on it, and Winry and Grayson were playing in Grayson's room so Monica brought the monitor to me so I could watch them while I kept working on things.  I think if I did it again it would go a lot faster, but it took around 4-5 hours to fumble through figuring it all out for my first time.  It all works now though, and it doesn't seem like I broke anything on my car!

Speaking of those errands, one of them was taking Brooke to Walmart to get this stingray stuffed animal.  They had these out when we went to get Winry's bike, and Brooke really wanted to get one with her own money, and Monica told her she should wait a seek and see if she was still really wanting it and make sure it wasn't just a quick impulse thing.  She still really wanted it.

That's everything for now.  We've got a holiday weekend, and potential of snow on Tuesday, so we're looking forward to an excellent next week.

Happy Birthday Winry!!!

Happy Birthday Winry!  What a 7 year old!  Winry is amazing.  She's always full of good energy, loves to be silly, and loves to make noise!  Sometimes Grinch irking levels of noise...  but we love her!  For her birthday she wanted to go to Jeramiah's for a treat instead of cake, and I'd have to say it was a pretty good choice.  The only issue is that we forgot to bring a candle!!!  Happy birthday cutie!

I don't remember if I mentioned it, but my phone broke... The inner, folding screen to be specific.  I didn't do anything crazy, I just opened it up and the middle went black.  It wasn't this bad at first, but I kept using the phone and opening and closing it made it worse.  I was really just using the external display, but I'd open it sometimes to take a picture or something, or out of habit, and eventually it got this bad.  I think I probably got sand in it when we went to the beach in Rhode Island back in June-ish, and I'm guessing that's why it broke in under a year of having the phone.  I replaced it with a non-folding phone as I need to make sure the next one lasts a little longer...

I took a picture of this picture on the wall that I pass every day on my way into work.  I really like it, and finally decided to get one.

Here's Grayson at preschool.  Looks like they're working on some nice penguins.  I really appreciate his hat.

While I was at work I went out on the roof for a little break, and saw some people taking a picture of their "cool" car.  don't know if they're selling it, or just think it's really cool.

On Friday, we went to have lunch with Winry for her birthday.  She was very happy to see us, and we had a great time together.

My double vision has been doing really well, as in I haven't been having much lately.  However, sometimes my eyes still get really tired and hurt, and it'll give me headaches.  I tried taking 15 or 20 minutes with my eyes closed to see if it would help, and it did!  Did I look funny?  Who cares!

Saturday was Winry's birthday.  We opened presents in the morning and she was very excited.  She really loved this paint your own animals craft kit she got from Brooke.  We also took her to Walmart to pick out a new bike since she's outgrowing her old one.  Turns out we didn't take any pictures of her on her new bike, so I gotta fix that this next week.

It was getting to time that everyone could use a haircut.  I think Brooke is the only one who didn't get her hair cut.  Just to be clear, this is Grayson's hair mid haircut.  The top was snipped down shortly after this picture was taken.

Saturday night, Monica and I were talking and Jelly came and laid on my back, and had no interest in getting up.  I eventually tried to crawl to bed, and that was too much for her and she hopped down.

Sunday afternoon the kids and I went out back to play some kickball.  It's been a while, but we all had so much fun.  We played all afternoon, or, you know, from the end of my church meetings to my family call.  Anyway, lots of kickball, and everyone was having fun the whole time.

That's it for now.  Have a great week ahead.  Also, happy birthday Winry!!
 

New Year in CO

Hello from chillier Colorado!  We made sure to bring our snow clothes with us so we could have some fun outside.  Here's a picture of us out playing in the best snow we could find.  There was a full hillside of it, but it was pretty hard from melting and refreezing.  Nonetheless we all still had a great time!

On Monday we went to the zoo.  Kids were even free for the month of December, so that was pretty awesome!  We met Katie, Nolan and Connor there too.  I'm really glad they could come and join us.  It was pretty windy on Monday, but we were able to stay warm.  Here's me, Grayson and Winry posing with our new wings!  Oh, zoo lights were set up while we were there, though being daytime, we couldn't really see them lit up.  Still fun to see all the decorations.

Apparently the tahi isn't everyone else's most favorite animal at the Denver zoo, but I still stopped by to say hi.  These are the only wild horse in the world, and they only live in Mongolia!  When my parents came to pick me up from my mission we went to a preserve for them and got to see a bunch in the wild.  I've always really liked them since.

Here are all the kids being driven around the zoo by... GRAYSON!?!  Everybody get out of the way, this kid doesn't know how to drive!

When we were coming by the hospital I ran in to check, and something was actually happening!  I don't know that I've ever see anything before.  There was a Guinea pig in there.  They were drawing some blood and taking a CT scan to looking into some issues they'd observed.  If you look at it's face you can see it's got the amnesia/air hose hooked up and everything.  Pretty cool to watch for a while, and nice that it wasn't anything gruesome. 

After the zoo we headed to Tyson and Tina's house for dinner.  We got to check out their new addition and had lots of fun playing with cousins.  Seriously, the kids had such a good time, and we probably stayed longer than we should have and kept the kids up way too late, but they were just having so much fun it was hard to leave!

Our original plan for Tuesday was to drive up to Breckenridge and spend a night with our old next door neighbors who moved up there.  However, it snowed Monday evening/Tuesday morning, with more predicted for Wednesday and we decided not to brave the roads.  Hannah had a performance that she and Joe were going to, and so we stuck around and watched their kids so their parents didn't have to watch them.  Alice and I had a great time playing.

Since we didn't make it to the mountains, we went to find snow.  As I mentioned, it was pretty hard, but we all tried to make snow angels.  There was also a little cement channel meant to guide water through, and it had filled as the snow melted and then frozen to ice.  It was fun to play on the ice as well, and some places stayed strong, and others crunched when I stepped on them.

We forgot to bring a sled, but no worries, we brought our bellies!  It worked alright.  When Eleanor tried it her zipper kept catching on the snow and she'd slide for a little and then her coat would suddenly pop open!

After all that snowy weather it was time to warm up and watch a movie!  The kids picked to watch Encanto while staying up for the new year.  We let them stay up till around 9, and then even let them have a sleepover.

To bring in the new year, we went to play in the snow again.  On our way, we drove through our old neighborhood to see our old house, and even the S that we used to go on walks around.  We also stopped at the wolves to give a howl, and captured it all on the vlog!  At the park we followed the ice trail down to a bridge, and there was ice frozen over the rocks under the bridge and it was pretty fun to go down and check it out.

That afternoon we went ice skating at the library.  Grayson didn't want to go out on the ice, but everyone else got a chance and had a fun time.  Eleanor fell once and said her arm hurt in the middle of her elbow and wrist, so there was a little broken bone concern, but I haven't heard of a cast since, so it seems like it ended alright.  Grayson enjoyed watching everyone for a while, but eventually was ready to go to dinner!  We headed to Casa Mariachi, which was delicious as always.

Wednesday evening we switch swapped around and headed over to the Smiths house and stayed with them for the rest of the week.  The kids were very excited to see his booming PEZ collection, and he even let them pick some out to play with and make a movie!  Grayson and Winry were loving it, especially because most of them had some PEZ in them that they could sneak from time to time.

The Smiths got a pizza oven for Christmas, so we just had to make pizza.  I believe from what they said they've had pizza more nights than not since Christmas.  The pizza was so good, and even Grayson loved it.  He absolutely refused to eat his pizza at first, but later that evening he was hungry and I got him to try a bit and he devoured it!

Friday morning, Nathan and I headed to the rec center for a workout class.  Great news, our membership renewed (...oops), so I just scanned my card and headed in!  Oh boy do I miss the rec center and going to classes in the morning.  There's just nothing like this anywhere near the price around us here in Texas... sigh.  Anyway, I had a great time at the class, and have been really sore since.  Thursday and Friday I worked, and Monica and the kids took off for adventures during the day.  I don't know exactly what they did, but in the evening we headed to a park to meet with our old neighbors who were coming down from Breckenridge for something!  I'm really glad we were still able to see them.  Unfortunately, they had some delays, so we didn't get to spend too long together at the park, but I'm so glad they could make it!

We headed from the park to the Wilkes for dinner.  When we lived here, Jordan was still in med school, and they've been in Greeley for the last few years I believe, but he finished and now they're living in Castle Rock.  Dinner was great and after, the kids all had so much fun playing together, which was nice because that left us adults free to play a game!  After dinner I ran back to the Cammacks for a game night with Joe.  Good news, I was in peak form, and swept the games!

Saturday morning we got in the car to head back to Texas, and that's where we spent Saturday and Sunday.  We went to church in Lubbock, as we stayed there to split the drive again.  The drive was definitely easier/more enjoyable on the way out when everyone was well rested and excited for the trip ahead, as opposed to very tired.  But we made it back!  Yay!  Happy New Year!