California Visitors

This weekend Uncle Matt and Aunt Lindsay came into town.  They arrived from Houston Saturday afternoon and we packed up and went to the Black Star Coop.  A beer coop with some good food.  I had a delicious chicken sandwich and Logan had some yummy Mac and cheese. I brought Izzy's food and she was totally fine with that.  I'm much more comfortable bringing her food to places we've never eaten at before.  The kids were very pleasant and it was a low key dinner.  

Saturday we got up and went to the Architects of Air Exhibit downtown.  We tried going for the past 3 years with no luck.  Either the lines are too long or it was sold out.  This year we did it!  Only about an 80 minute wait.  Luckily the weather was beautiful so the kids ran around while we waited in line.  Not really sure I would go again.  It was cool, but no way I would wait the 4-5 hours people waited last year.  Logan did ok but it was clear he was on sensory overload.  We weren't in there too long when he said he wanted to leave and started covering his ears.  He was having a hard time.

Can you believe I was all set with the new camera to take pictures and my battery died?!  So annoying!  These are fromy phone. Sure wish I had the nice camera!

Waiting to go in.

All of the light inside is natural light.  There aren't any lightbulbs or anything.  Pretty cool!

After that we headed over to Jester King Brewery.  Such a gorgeous day!  Once again I packed food for Izzy (and Logan). Just easier than dealing with calling ahead, etc.  This place is sort of in the middle of nowhere so I wanted to be extra careful with the food.  Luckily Izzy couldn't care less about food at this point.  It sure was family day at the brewery.  Almost everyone had kids and the place was packed!  Such a change from 2 years ago when I went last.

Special treat-Izze's!

My thumb photo bombed the pictue!

When we got home Logan was on total exhaustion overload.  He was totally wired.  It was crazy.  Matt and Lindsay took off (I'm sure they were more than reasy to say bye to the kids!) and I immediately got the kids bathed and ready for bed.  Put Logan down at 6:30pm and izzy followed shortly after.  Izzy woke up a few times during the night  (just wouldn't be normal of we did t get women up at least 3xs with someone needing something) bit Logan slept until 7:00am!!!!  He must have been totally exhausted!

Tomorrow school is on a 2 hour delay.  I have a feeling it might be cancelled again. (It was cancelled last Friday).  We just can't handle sleet and snow in Texas!  And I mean that not in a 'oh you guys are pansies' way but in a 'we had almost 300 wrecks on Friday because of ice' way.  Our cars, roads, and emergency crew just can't handle winter weather.  We don't know how to drive on it either!  No shame there!

A Wonderful Christmas!

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What a great Christmas we had!  We were so fortunate to have my brother and his family from China, my sister from Florida and my Grandma from Montana all fly in and be together.  My nephews are too cute and it's fun to see them playing with Isabel and Logan.  Lots of little boys = lots of noise!  The good kind.  ;-)  I love how Ethan isn't even two yet and runs around and wrestles with the older ones.  He only took a few knocks and gave some good ones!

Brian has started a new job and unfortunately was unable to really take any time off for the holidays.  He drove back and forth from Austin to Houston four times to be with us on Christmas, the weekends and New Years.

Christmas day we went over to visit with Grammy, Papaw and the Hawkes'.  Isabel and Logan had fun racing with Lila on the driveway in her new tricycle.  They have so much energy!  I don't know how they get by on such little sleep and play SO hard.

Five of the of the twelve people staying at Gramma and Grampa's house came down with a lovely tummy bug.  Pretty sure we can thank Logan for that one.  Luckily it only lasted about a day.

We hit up lots of parks and even took Isabel on her first ice skating adventure.  We made the decision to rent a helmet for her.  She was one of two kids with one on, but boy am I glad she did.  She was using the little walker thing to skate around and was going really fast.  She decided that she could skate without it so we skated while I held her hand.  Then she decided she could skate by herself.  She was doing awesome and then got a little too confident and her legs flew out from under her and she really smacked her head hard.  Tear and ice and 20 minutes later she was ready to get back out there for a couple more laps.  I have a feeling the movie 'Frozen' has something to do with her love of ice and ice skating.

New Year's Eve day we went to the children's museum and they had a noon countdown and some fun activities.  We've gone the past 2 or 3 years and it's packed, but fun.  Logan got lost right out of the gate.  That was not so fun.  I knew he couldn't leave without me, but it was still scary.  I found him at the complete opposite side of where he was supposed to be (in the play house with his sister and cousins) with a nice lady sobbing.  Poor little guy.  He rallied and was ok after that.  It was really difficult to keep tabs on the kids-even with 4 adults.  I actually made it to midnight on New Year's this year but we missed the ball drop.  We were still on a high from watching the awesome A&M football game!

We're back in Austin and Isabel has her first day back at school Thursday.  Logan doesn't go back until Tuesday.  I've enjoyed having my buddies around for a couple of weeks.  I'm sure the time will be even more special next year when they are both going to school for almost 7 hours 5 days a week!

Today we were supposed to take down Christmas decorations (like everyone else in the entire country) and clean, but we decided to go to the mall and do some exchanges instead.  And then we went to Chuys for lunch.  I'm starting my diet (again, with the rest of the country) and had a chicken salad while Brian went for it with a steak burrito, 2 cokes and some creamy jalapeno.  He's participating in a weight loss challenge at work and the first initial weigh in is on Monday.  He wants to win, so he's 'bulking.'  ;-)  Wine has been switched out for tea at night (boo) and I've been drinking a gallon of water a day.  I have to stop with the water around 3pm or I'm up, no joke, 5 times a night.  Sometimes more.  It's ridiculous.

So tomorrow we have all of the decorations and cleaning to do.  Always fun with 2 little ones around.  At some point in the near future we also need to get Logan a big boy bed.  Yep, he's still in his crib!

*just now posting this---3 days later.

Now I'll just photo dump pictures from my phone!

Christmas part 1

We kicked off the holidays with Matt and Lindsay arriving from San Diego on Friday, December 21st. We had dinner at home and then in usual style I passed out on the couch around 9:30pm. Saturday Matt and Brian took the kids to the park and then Matt, Lindsay and Brian headed to jester king brewery while I stayed with the kids trying to get things packed up for the trip to Houston.

We headed to Houston around 5pm and made a quick stop for dinner. We got to Houston and got to love on Lucas an Ethan from afar. It took them a little while to warm up to the white folk. Ethan is ridiculously cute and Lucas looks like such a big boy! So good seeing Richard, Joanne, Lucas and Ethan after almost a year! GGB was in Houston and ready to party too!!!

Sunday we went to Montgomery and the kids played on the playground for a bit. We hit up market street for some lunch. Rich, Brian and I saw 'This is 40.' Funny! After watching 'Christmas Vacation' for the 948482949 time we called it a night.

Monday we met Jennifer, Greg, Matt and Lindsay at Saint Arnold's brewery for the 2nd year in a row. After the brewery we went to the Flying Saucer for drinks and food. While we were gone the kids made cookies for Santa. We arrived home to find both Isabel and Logan in aprons. So cute! Lucas and Isabel were icing cookies. We ate chili (of course) read 'The Night Before Christmas' and then put the kids to bed anxiously awaiting Santa. Meanwhile the elves started to put together a train table and finish wrapping presents.

Christmas morning we woke up (Logan had to be coaxed out of bed) and saw the fun presents Santa brought! After the Santa presents we had some yummy christmas morning casserole and then opened the rest of the presents. After naps and a lovely christmas dinner we headed over to the mangum's house for more christmas.

We had a nice meal with the mangum's and opened more presents. Wednesday we went over to the elementary school and played for a bit and then after lunch the kids had naps and we headed back to the woodlands.

Thursday (today) the kids went to the children's museum and Grammy and papaw met us their and then came over for lunch. We raced the RC cars in the street and then the neighbor lady came out with rage in her eyes and very rudely told us not to race the cars on HER yard. Im talking serious crazy walk and crazy face. It was very odd. She must have some issues going on to be a giant 'B' to 12 people having fun. Four of whom were little kids. What a weirdo.

Rich, Brian and I saw 'Django' this afternoon. It was really good, but long. I started to get really anxious towards the end. We got home and the kids were fed, bathed, and happy. A+ grandparents and GGB!

I'll post more later on. I just have my iPhone pictures for now.