March 19-25

Not many pictures this week, guess we didn't do too much. :)

Kaylee was sick Monday and Tuesday so she missed a day of preschool which she was quite upset about.  But she was better by Wednesday and was able to go.  Because I had to stay home with Kaylee I got some mending done and put some scout badges on Damon and Tyler's shirts.  

Tuesday evening was the Relief Society Dinner.  It was a simple meal but good and we had a service exchange as well that was fun.  I won a month's worth of FHE treats.  I offered a service of wheat bread or cinnamon rolls.  

Wednesday I did a bunch of errands since I had a few hours to myself.  I was frustrated at the store trying to decide on materials for an Easter project I wanted to do.  I want to make headbands for the girls to match their Easter skirts, but I was having a hard time finding ribbons that matched well.    

Thursday morning the girls took a bath and I braided their hair.  They wanted their hair wavy for Friday.  It took awhile to do 4 french braids on both of them.  After lunch my visiting teachers came over, they are a great companionship.  

Friday we got our wavy hair and then we went to a birthday party at Pump-it-up.  The girls had a lot of fun.  It was a bit tricky eating our pizza outside in the wind, but the kids still had a great time.  

Saturday was a busy day.  I took Damon and some of his friends to the 11 year old day camp at 7:15.  They were there until 5:00 so they had a full day of hiking, first aid, and other activities.  Damon still complains about scouting, but hopefully he'll appreciate it later. 

I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and then helped finish cleaning the house.  The kids are pretty good about doing their jobs.  I think we need to give Chris a few more now - he won't like that idea.  

After lunch we were going to go to the park, but then our next-door neighbor came over and invited us to swim in their pool, so of course the kids all loved that.  It was great because the girls could go too.  They can only swim if I go, so today was a good day to do that.  I also was able to finish another video slide show from our pictures of 2016 so that was awesome.  

In the evening I went to dinner with a friend and then watched the General Women's Conference at her house.  There were some great messages and it was nice to share the evening with friends.  I was grateful to Doug for taking care of the kids.  He even gave the girls baths - which is asking a lot since he really doesn't like washing their hair.  He is a wonderful husband and father.  

Funny picture: Damon solving the rubix cube with his feet.  

It's been fun visiting with my parents as they have spent their first week on the their mission (on location).  They had a big blizzard and my dad went skiing - yes he packed his skiis.  :)  They also went to a hockey game supporting a member of the ward, so they have been busy doing missionary stuff and maybe some fun stuff too.

Spring Break March 12-18

Spring Break!  I think we did a pretty good job this week of staying happy and not getting on each other's nerves too much.  Monday we just relaxed at home.  We watched Trolls again, we had borrowed it from a neighbor over the weekend.  The kids really like it.  I don't appreciate some of the crude humor, but oh well.  

Tuesday we rode our bikes to the park and played with friends.  The park is pretty close, maybe a mile away, but it seems so much further when you are biking with lots of little kids.  We had a hard time staying together but we made it. :)

The older kids played soccer most of the time while the younger ones played on the playground.  It was a bit cool, but a beautiful day.  

Doug took the boys to go see the Lego Batman Movie, so we had a girl night at home.  I let them have a bubble bath in our big tub and we watched Trolls again.  

Wednesday we went to Main Event for their Spring Break special.  For one price you could bowl and play laser tag as much as can until 5:00.  Well, we only made it until 2:00 but we played 3 rounds of bowling and 3 games of laser tag and even played some billiards.  It was busier than last year so the boys had to wait longer in between laser tag games but we all still had a fun time.  We went with two other families so it was fun for them to be with their friends.  Tyler had a great bowling game with 2 strikes in a row to make it to 141.  I did terrible and didn't even break 100 :(.  

Thursday we packed in the morning and got ready to go camping.  We went to Lake Houston Wilderness Park.  It is only 30 minutes away and so beautiful.  The trees are amazing here and the weather was perfect.  We were afraid it was going to rain on us all week, but it just stayed nice and cloudy and cool.  Two other families camped with us, and one family just came up for s'mores Thursday evening.  

Damon and Tyler helped saw the wood for the fire. 

We drove both vehicles so that we could take our bikes.  We were so glad that we did.  Our campsites all hooked together in this big open area that everyone could bike around. The girls loved it. 

Campfires are great! Sleeping while camping is not so great.  I woke up every hour or so to make sure the kids stayed in their sleeping bags or put their blankets back on.  But the kids slept pretty well.  Doug slept with Damon in the 2 man tent. 

Friday morning we went for a short hike to this pond.  It was the perfect length for little legs.  We stopped by these Blue Bonnets for a photo op. 

The foot bridge was cool. 

It is nice when the kids get old enough to play card games. 

 Friday afternoon we went down to the creek.  This was the perfect place to play.  It was a bit cool and would be even better on a hotter day, but the kids of course had a blast playing in the sand and water.

 Kaylee on the rope swing.

 Tyler got completely buried then of course didn't enjoy washing off in the water afterwards.

 Chris played in the sand and made some great towers and holes and found some new rocks for his collection.

 One friend of ours brought a Corn Hole game that the adults had fun with.  I was doing really well against Doug, but he made an amazing come back and beat me.

 Friday night I slept with Damon in the 2-man tent and Doug took a turn with the others.  I slept a bit better but our neighbors were up until 4:30 partying - that was a little bit crazy.

Saturday morning Doug packed us all up and he and Damon left to go do lawn aeration with the Scouts for their scout camp fundraiser.  The rest of us went on another little walk that ended up at some swings.  The kids were good to take turns.  It was a great weekend to camp.

Then of course the clean-up begins when you get home.  Everyone was a bit grumpy and hungry upon arrival, but after we found some food the kids were pretty good to help out and even did their Saturday jobs without too much complaint.  It took Doug and I the whole rest of the day to finish everything.  Since Doug was still with the scouts I aired out the sleeping bags and Tyler helped me set up the tents in the back yard.  It had sprinkled in the night just enough to get everything wet so we had to let them dry out.  I did 4 batches of laundry and dealt with all of the food and other stuff.  Camping is a lot of fun but a lot of work too.  Doug and I both went to bed early. :)

Pre-Spring Break fun March 5-11

A couple of random shots before I get into the week.  

Chris loves his vegetables.  One evening he was moaning with pleasure after each bite.  This kid cracks me up sometimes.

 Kaylee was being a really good helper and had her hands FULL of things to carry upstairs.

 Jenna and Kaylee have had a lot of fun making bracelets and necklaces lately.  We have had a set of beads for about two years now and we are finally using them all up.

 Damon has been busy working on merit badges.  This is a project fore Environmental Science.  It's hard that Damon doesn't like scouts very much. I hate forcing him to do it, but I know it's a good program and it stretches him outside of his comfort zone.

 So this week: Monday and Tuesday Damon stayed home sick.  He just rested most of the day and the girls and I just stayed home with him.

By Wednesday Damon went to school and the girls and I needed to get out of the house.  Preschool was canceled this week because their teacher was out of town.  I was going to take the girls to the Woodlands Children Museum, but then we found out that our friends were going to the zoo.  So we decided on a spontaneous trip to the zoo.  I don't know if it was the best decision (we were kind of late leaving and we didn't have a pass so I had to pay for us) but I'm still glad we went.  I figured once the girls are in school I won't be able to go with them much and it was such a beautiful day.

We caught three animal shows too, which was just perfect.  We saw them do a few tricks with the cheetah, feed the chimpanzees, and play with the sea lions.

 We caught up with our friends for a bit, but then did our own thing since they had already visited some of the animals we wanted to see.

 Jenna really wanted to see the rhinos.

 It was a beautiful spring day.

 Damon wants to get a zoo game on the Xbox, but we haven't downloaded yet.  But he made his own zoo at home.  He made a desert animal exhibit, an elephant area, a giraffe pen, a playground, an entrance arch, and a cool tree in the middle.  He is so creative.

 So we went to the Children's Museum on Thursday instead of Wednesday.  We have a membership and I need to use it more.  The girls have fun playing house, grocery shopping, digging in the rubber bits, and driving the pretend car.

 This is HEB, Jenna turned around too fast, it was so cute to follow them with their little carts.

 Chris still likes his Magna-Tiles.

 Friday was dance and playgroup.  I guess Jenna played hard and she took a nap during quiet time.  Naps are rare, so it was good for her to get a little extra rest.

 This was a project that I was glad to finish this week.  I wanted a new necklace holder, so I decided to make one.  I stained the wood and Doug helped me staple the ribbon on and drill the holes for the hooks.

 I cut out some paper and modge podged in onto the 'smile.'   I learned how to make the flower on YouTube.

 I think it turned out well.  And now most of my necklaces have their own hook and I don't have to untangle them every time I want to wear one.

Normal week, Feb 26- March 4

This week started pretty normal, cleaning and projects.  I was feeling less stressed since I didn't have sharing time to worry about and the Blue and Gold Banquet was over.  

On Wednesday I went with my good friend Kari to get a pedicure.  Our birthdays are just about a week apart so we went to celebrate together.  I had never had a real pedicure before and I have to say that it was really nice, and now my toes look so cute. :)

We went to lunch at a cute little place called The Tea Kettle Cafe.  The lady there was British and of course asked if we wanted tea.  The decor was quaint and the chandelier had a tea pot and tea cups on it.  We had a great chicken salad sandwich with a tomato basil soup.  It was nice to just visit and take a break from being a mom.  We had a little bit of time before I had to go pick up the girls from preschool so we looked at some of the nearby shops.  This is in an area called Old Town Spring and it has a touristy feel to it.  We bought some fudge from a little Dutch store.  It was ok, some of the flavors had dried out.  We tried some Penuchi (which I'm sure is their name for Penuche) and Kari really like it.  So I made a batch for her on her real birthday (Friday).  

Lots of people say we look like sisters, I say we are soul sisters. :)

 Normal life of grocery store trips, errands, homework, and other household tasks filled the rest of the week.

Saturday was busy yet again.  This time it was Damon that was at the stake center from 8:00-12:00, he had a merit badge clinic.  He didn't want to go.  He really doesn't like scouts very much - it's a constant battle.  I picked Damon up at 12:00 then went up for our last football games.  We got there in time to watch the end of Tyler's game.  They lost 14-0, it was the first time they didn't score.  So they got 2nd in the play-offs.  Tyler was bummed, but stayed in a good attitude.

We all just hung around during Damon's practice, and then it started to rain right when the game was about to begin.  I packed two jackets for everyone, but I forgot to get my rain jacket, whoops.  Gratefully we brought our shade, which worked well for a rain shelter.  Damon lost as well 8-0, but his team wasn't that well organized and the coach wasn't very experienced, so they hadn't done well all season. 

We all got a bit damp but we made it home and had some hot chocolate.  The kids played while I finished cleaning and we ordered pizza for dinner.  

I had a GNO after dinner.  We went to Pinot's Palette to paint.  I had been once before and I was excited to go again.  We had a good time and I think all of our paintings turned out well.  At the time it was frustrating  when I couldn't get my painting to look like the instructors, but in the end it all worked out.  There are little things in my painting I wish I would have done differently, but I still think it turned out pretty good.  It's called "A Walk Through Color." 

It was a fun night and a nice ending to the week.  Now to get ready for Spring Break in two weeks.  We are going camping for the weekend, but I need to find things to do to keep us busy during the first few days.