For Ray...

I am so proud of my son. One of his best friends is going through chemotherapy and to show his support he wanted to shave his head. We went through a few stages taking pics along the way...

BEST WISHES RAY!!!!

I LOVE Texas!

Nathan's grandma passed away and we flew down to Tyler, TX for her funeral this weekend. The Tyler airport has a grand total of 4 gates. Talk about an easy airport to find your way around in. From the moment we landed I fell in love with the charming little city of Tyler. It was absolutely beautiful! And also the rose capitol of the nation. It's like they made a whole city just for me. ;)

The funeral was beautiful. The cemetary she was buried in was in a tiny little town and was a tiny little cemetary. (I couldn't even find it on mapquest.) The only downside was the fire ants. I am NOT a fan of fire ants. I apparently got to close to one of the many ant mounds and got swarmed. That was less than fun. However, I survived thanks to some great advice. I was told to use everything from toothpaste to alcohol. Hand sanitizer for the win! I just doused my feet with it and all those little nasty bites cleared right up. Up until that point I had never even SEEN a fire ant. And I will be plenty happy if I never see one again.

While we were there we got to go the Rose Garden. They had every possible kind of rose you could imagine. And ALOT of fire ant mounds which I steered clear of! The garden was beautiful!! A few of the roses were in bloom. Unfortunately I had a sinus infection and couldn't smell a thing. But I imagine when they are all in bloom the sight and smell would be absolutely stunning.

We also were able to get some great food. My favorite was The Jalapeno Tree. Yuuuummmmmy! I think I would move there just for the food alone. So tasty. All in all, it was great trip. I got to meet alot of family and they ALL were so kind. They brought a new meaning to the phrase "Southern Charm". It made me sad I didn't have more time there to get to know them better.

We took our little girl with us and she did really good. Traveling with little ones can be so hard but she was really great. And it was the first time we got to see our little niece who is only 3 wks younger than Mandy. She was too cute!!!

I missed my little boys like crazy though. And I was very glad to come home and see them. I wish we could have brought them with us.

Well here's a few pictures of the Rose Garden and a few of Mandy:

No words necessary... or possible!

This girl LOVES her binkies!! And is possibly a little indecisive. ;)

What is it with Zombies???

We went to IKEA today. Love that store! Dropped the kids at the play center there for the first time- now they love the store too. Nick got a picture to color. When he showed it to me he explained to me in a very matter-of-fact way... "It's a zombie. Some zombies are purple." Of course! Everyone knows about the PURPLE zombies! I'm dreading the next time we go to church and they give him a picture to color. That's going to be an akward conversation with his primary teacher.

Today's Funny

So today Nathan was explaining to Josh what a townhouse is-houses that are attached and don't have grass inbetween them. So if our neighbors on both sides of us were attached to our house it would be a townhouse. This is Josh's reply:
"Ooooh I get it. So if the Hulk lifted up our house the other two would stay attached!"
Guess the new definition of a townhouse is: houses the Hulk can lift up that stay attached. Naturally. That's real right? Good thing our son has such a keen understanding of what is real and how things work. hehe.

Funny Stuff

So in effort to add more humor to everyday life I've decided to keep track of all the silly little things my kids say or do. Hopefully anyone who reads this thinks it's funny too. So to start it off here is a quote from my 4 year old Nicky:
He brought us a DS game he had been playing and said he didn't want to play it anymore that it was too scary. Nathan and I looked at each other with confussion... too scary? When asked what game he had he replied, "Touch the Dead". Oh goody! He apparently found Nathan's games. UGH! So we quickly traded him with a more age appropriate game. As he was leaving the room, he says "Ya, Zombies are NOT your friend". Couldn't agree more. Sorry Nick. We'll spring for therapy later.

Easter etc...

Our fun started Friday night. The whole family came over for a BBQ to celebrate my Dad's birthday. It was lots of fun. We got a little rain but nothing to stop the kids from playing outside. Then Saturday we took the kids to see Monsters vs. Aliens. Fun. Then went to lunch. Not fun. Not sure what got into Mandy but she was not happy. And after the 4th time to the bathroom with Nick we had had enough and called a babysitter. The rest of the afternoon went pretty good. We went and picked out paint for our bedroom. Fun. We had a nice visit from my niece and her husband that night. After they left we frantically put together Easter baskets for the kids before we collapsed from exhaustion. Sunday went pretty smooth. Did the Easter basket thing. Went to church. Did an Easter egg hunt at my brothers house. Took dinner to my parents. Came home and played W.o.W. Fun.

Our major excitement this month though was remodeling the house. We had a laundry room put in upstairs (where all the bedrooms are). SOOOO NICE!!! No more hauling baskets of laundry up and down two flights of stairs. I just wash it all there, fold it, and put it away. Easy! My brother and his wife did an amazing job tiling the room for us. Too bad it has to be covered by a washer and dryer. Next project I guess will be to tile the bathrooms. :)

Well here are some pics of our little ones enjoying Easter: