My Boys

These two guys melt my heart.  Jason loves his daddy so much and Kelvin loves his baby so much.  Every Sunday when I take Lydia to Nursery, he say's come on son, let's go to Priesthood.  Too cute!! 

This Is How We Play

I am looking forward to the day when these two will be able to entertain themselves without me having to be right there all the time.  They literally won't let me out of their sight for more than 30 seconds before they come looking for me and start playing where ever I am at the moment including the bathroom.  It will be nice to be able to do the laundry or the dishes or even read for a min or two.  But until that moment arrives, I'm enjoying spending time with my little ones and this is a typical day of how we play......

 

My little spider monkey!!

 

Dallas to East Texas

The drive to get home from Dallas is beautiful!!  There are large trees on both sides of us for the last hour and a half of the drive.  I love to watch the scenery as we come in.  This particular drive back was special because it was the first time I have seen the leaves change color.  Fall is my favorite time of year because of the crispness in the air and the beautiful trees.  I would take multiple drives up the mountains in Utah just to wonder at the sight.  Here is Texas, the season is not quite the same.  It's almost the middle of December and most days you could venture out in shorts and be just fine.  The trees also do not change the same time.  It's normal in Utah for the trees to change in September but here, it was about Thanksgiving time.  I'm trying to get used to it but I think I might always miss that little bit of Utah.

This is the first half of the trip...

And this is the last.

Red is my favorite!!!

I love the stark contrast between the colors.

Isn't it gorgeous!!!



 

Monsters

We played a game over Thanksgiving weekend called Monsters.  When you see a monster you have to run away from it or chase it and shoot it with a squirt gun.  It's a typical kid game that's lots of fun for them.  I twisted my ankle running from the monster and stepping into a hole in the ground.  We played this for a few hours and then the next morning, Lydia roped Krystal into playing with her again.  That girl could play outside all day eveyday.  Unfortunatly the awesome video we took won't load because of our super slow internet.  But we did get some good pictures. 

Love, love, love, this picture!!!!  Even though there is a glare, it captures her excitement perfectly!

 

Thanksgiving

We traveled to Dallas for the Thanksgiving weekend to be with Kelvin's family.  It was a small dinner with just his parents, sister Krystal and us but it was very nice.  Dinner was fantastic and the black Friday shopping was awesome!! 

Our big purchase for black Friday was a new camera.  Our camera takes very blurry pictures and not great video.  So after some research and lots of questions to the sales guy we bought a Nikon Coolpix S9300 at Costco!!  I was very nervous about buying it because we are trying to save for a house, but we really did need a new camera to capture our kids lives now since we will never get these moments back again. We didn't spend a lot in the way camera go, but it was the perfect choice for us.  After a few pictures and trying out some features I knew we made the right decision.  I was against a fancy camera, just needed something to point and shoot and that is exactly what we got.  We LOVE it!!!  Take a look at the quality of these pictures.

Lydia was our test subject since Jason was sleeping at the time.  Maybe you can't tell that much difference, but my goodness, we sure can!

Babysitting Friends

A while back some friends of ours asked us to watch their little girl while they went to the temple.  We gladly obliged.  She is a very easy going girl and what's one more right?  Lydia was so excited to get to play with "batty jene" (Betty Jane).  Even though Betty Jane is only a few months older than Jason, Lydia had fun with her.  Lydia likes playing with everybody though.  She's such a social bug.  They did have a good time though and she wasn't a problem at all.

I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home

These pictures say it all.  It's a mad dash to get to him when he walks in the door and it's all about him for at least the next hour.  The kids LOVE their daddy!!!

November--the Month of the Sickies!!!

I swear it's been hard to keep my kids well this month.  It started the last week in Oct and has been on and off throughout the month.  It's frustrating to have a few good days and then back to being sick.  The kids are sick of being in the house and frankly I am too.  I did not get much sleep that entire month and we didn't do much that entire month. 

Moving to a new place you are going to get sick.  The germs are new and the body has to adjust.  I know this because we move every single year!!!!!!!  But this month has been bad all around for everyone.  I've been good about putting my doTerra oils on them and that has definitly relieved their symptoms, but they are still getting the bugs.  All I can say is they better have great immune systems later on with all the bugs they have caught!

Lydia was so sick that she fell asleep on the couch.  That is unheard of for her.  I felt so bad for both of them.

We LOVE the Lufkin Zoo

My kids are outside kids.  They love to be outside and running around.  Since we have only ever lived in apartments that makes it a little difficult.  When we lived in Carollton it was easier since there was a GREAT park close by and I could put the kids in the stroller and walk to it.  Lydia would play for hours and then we would go home.  It was a great set up.  Here in Lufkin the parks are iffy and not very close.  So we have a new favorite place to go.....the zoo!!  The town here is small enough that there are very few people frequenting the zoo during the school year and even less in the afternoon.  In fact there have been quite a few times where we have been the only ones there.  It's great and the kids love it.  We go about 3-4 times in a good week.  (The library is also an every Wed event.) 

 

Going in the afternoon is the best because the animals are hungry.  So you get to see some up close and personal.  We are about 3 1/2 feet away from the tiger.  The Jaguar and Lions get this way too.  It's super fun to see the animals so close.  I don't know where else we would get that experience.

 

Trunk or Treat

We went to our first Trunk or Treat this year with our ward.  It was a lot of fun.  Our ward goes all out with this holiday and it showed.  We had a chili and dessert cook off!  I would have entered one of my cakes or desserts but with 2 little kids I really don't have the time to make something fancy.  After dinner there were games for the kids both big and little.  The little kids went from room to room at our church and played while the big kids stayed in the gym.  They rented a Sumo set and a big bouncy tug of war basketball thingy.  The teenagers and adults had a great time with it and so did Lydia.  She cheered them on like they were her very own personal team.  It was funny.

My two kiddo's in line for the costume contest.

Okay this was the coolest costume EVER!!!!  If I was the judge, he would have won.

Cake walk with her friends.

She would get a little too close to the Sumo game.

Lydia and her friend Brooklyn who dressed up as Rapunzel too.

Lydia and her friend Kendall cheering on the boys!

 

The Trunk or Treat ended our Halloween festivities for this year.  Lydia got so much candy that we called it enough.  Lydia didn't need the door to door trick or treating as well.  I think you can over do holidays and I don't want her to expect multiple parties with every holiday that comes around.  Plus she is still young enough that she will never remember that we didn't take her trick or treating anyway.  We had a great Halloween!

Zoo Boo

One thing I LOVE about living in this small town is the activities that the city does.  Lufkin has a great zoo that we go to all the time and every Halloween they get it all decorated and local businesses come in to pass out candy and do games with kids.  It's a big deal and the whole city shows up for it.  We thought it would be awesome to go as well so we got the kids all dressed up in their costumes.  Lydia had 2 choices, a dragon and Rapunzel.  Much to her daddy's dismay, she choose Rapunzel without hesitation.  She may be a tom-boy but she is still a girl and likes to get dressed up!  We put Jason in the Duck costume that Lydia wore last year and he looked adorable!  It was a cold night and so we bundled up and headed to the zoo.  We were told to go early and I'm glad we went early because the line was pretty long and we were there about 30 min early!  Lydia had a hard time waiting that long in a line and ended up finding all sorts of trouble to get into.  Luckily we found some people from our ward not to far behind us in the line so Lydia ran around with their 9 year old for a while.  We saw people we knew the whole time we were there. 

This was Lydia's first experience Trick-or-Treating and she picked it up really quick.  We got lots of candy and even a couple free meals from Chili's.  It was a lot of fun and we were really glad we went.  We skipped a few parts because it takes 45 min to walk round the zoo when we normaly go and lines were long to do some games.  We left after about an hour which was plenty of time for us.  We got the kids home and too bed.  It was a really fun night. 

 

My little duck ready to go!

They did really well for this picture!

What mom?

She got bored waiting in line!

Just happy to see all the kids in their costumes.

We won the cake walk!!!

Halloween Art

Doing crafts and art doesn't happen too often in our home.  Lydia doesn't sit still long enough to really finish and our Library does crafts with every story time.  Hence, I have not done too much with her.  But one morning I decided it would be fun to get a little more into the Halloween spirit so we decided to make a ghost with cotton balls.  This was a great idea and we got all ready until I realized that we didn't have any glue.  So I opted for scotch tape which we were out of as well.  Trying to figure out what to do, I found some packing tape left over from when we moved.  I improvised and and used that!  You gotta do what you gotta do.  We had a lot of fun and it was a great craft for her because it was quick, fun and easy.  I need to find more like that.

Kerry's Wedding

One of Kelvin's friends in the OLDP program was getting married Oct 19th and we were invited to the ceremony and reception.  Since Kelvin has Friday's off it made it possible to drive to Dallas on Friday so we could come home on Sat afternoon.  We have to be home for our Sunday church callings so we can't stay longer than Saturday afternoon.  We really don't like to make such quick trips because the drive costs money and is hard on the kids.  It's a 3 1/2 hour drive and that's hard for 2 young kids to sit that long in a car.  We have been cutting back on the number of times we go because it's getting too expensive and hard for us.  But Kerry is such a sweet girl that we made sure we would be there for her wedding. 

It was a pretty small and intimate affair so we felt pretty honored that we recieved an invitation.  They were married in her mom's backyard and it was gorgeous.  We came in the house and got a drink and then headed outside to take our seats.  We chatted with some other people we knew, Sarah and Rene, who will be getting married in Dec (which we are also invited to)! 

I love weddings!  Almost any wedding I attend, there is a sweet spirit there.  I always seem to cry.  This one was no exception.  But I have to say, there was a moment at this wedding that was incredible.  Kerry has a little 5 year old girl and when Manny said his vows and they kissed as husband and wife, the preacher stopped and said that Manny has another vow to make.  Manny then brought Kerry's little girl in front of him and took her sweet little hand and make a vow to her.  He promised to love and cherish her as her father forever.  He then gave her a necklace as a token of his love.  I lost it!!!  I had never seen such a moment at a wedding before.  In that moment I knew that Kerry had married a good man.  It was so tender!

Twirling Girl

Lydia has been dancing all around the house for a while now.  Anytime music comes on she wants to dance and pulls us away from whatever we hay be doing to dance with her.  It's lots of fun!  Now she is twirling anytime she has a dress on.  Some days she will dance and twirl all day long while singing songs to herself.  I can't tell you how much we love that little girl!  We got some decent footage of one instance on a Sunday morning.

A Work of Art

Who would have thought that a mustache could look so cute?!?  I know I might be kinda, sort of, slightly, a little biased as to who has the cutest mustache, but hey it's my kid so I get to say whatever I want on my blog right? 

Anyway, I was making something that was obviously chocolate (I don't remember what it was) and gave her a spoon to lick.  When I came to get it back to wash, she had this "art" on her face.

She was obviouly amused with herself.  This girl gets more fun and silly with each passing day!

Buckets of Fun

I've talked before about how my kiddos get along really well.  I'm sure that will change from time to time as they get older.  But right now they really enjoy each other and I am really happy with that.  One day I came out of the bedroom to find this....



 

Silly kid had dumped all the toys from the bucket and then crawled inside.  I had to get a picture because he was so happy and proud of himself.  Then I go back to the laundry and came back into the room to find this....

Yep!  She crawled in with him and they were squealing with delight.  This went on for another 10 min.  Those two crack me up!