Blue and Gold Banquet

We had a fun time at the Blue and Gold banquet for Cub Scouts on Feb. 24.  The committee chair and scout leader are really on the ball and do an excellent job in their callings.  They decorated well and even had the Marines come to post the colors - it was very cool.

Damon received his Bear as well as a gold and silver arrow point.  We are proud of him and glad that he is enjoying his scouting experience.  Sorry for the poor picture, Doug needs a new phone on multiple levels.

Last week of February

A few random things from the week:

Kaylee said she was a 'bad guy'

 Doug finished installing the garage door opener!  I am grateful everyday for it.

 Chris is becoming quite the Lego builder.  He creates something new almost every morning.

 On our trip to Michaels we found some bird houses - they had fun painting them.

 Just woke up and off to pick up Damon and Tyler from school.  "Don't take my picture mom."

 "You can take my picture, cheese!"

 On Saturday we took a family outing to the Woodlands mall.  The boys were very happy to learn that there was a Lego store.  We spent most of our time there.  We went over to the food court area and let the kids ride the carosel.  We finally figured out what to order and got the kids some hamburgers, I got a grilled sub sandwich, and Doug got something from Chick-Fil-A.  The girls shared a drink :)

We played at the indoor play area for a bit after dinner then went home and put the kids to bed a little bit late, but they had a fun time.  

Birthday

With my birthday being on a Sunday, there's not a whole lot you can do differently.  But I made myself some cinnamon sticks in the morning and had some yogurt and strawberries.  Doug helped with the kids in the morning so that was nice. I was busy doing food most of the day.  We invited the Fishburns over for dinner so that we had someone to celebrate with.  I made Cafe Rio pulled pork salads/tacos.  I also made a cheesecake the day before and I was so mad at it. I had the cream cheese sitting out all morning so it would be nice and soft - but when I mixed it in the batter it was still lumpy.  I even put the bowl in a hot water bath to try and melt the cream cheese to make it smooth.  That helped a bit but not much.  It ended up tasting good regardless - but it just made me so frustrated.  This recipe is probably my favorite one but it takes a lot of time and is a pain because you bake it in a water bath so I don't make it very often so you want it to turn out when you take the time to make it.  Ok...rant over.  :)

 But it was a good Sunday, I conducted in Primary so I got to announce my own birthday and got sung to twice. :)  We had a nice evening and we played Telestrations with the Fishburns.

Doug got me a great present, this Bose speaker that syncs with my iPhone and iPad.  It is awesome.  I use it almost everyday and we all love listening to Pandora or our favorite playlists.  Thanks Doug!

Doug did take me out to dinner the day before my birthday.  The YW actually put together a babysitting night where they invited the whole ward to bring their kids to the church and they tended them for $10 from 6-9:00. It was a fundraiser for some project they were doing.  It was great.  We went to Texas Roadhouse to use up a gift card.  I asked another couple in the ward to join us and it was great to visit with them and get to know them more.

By the way I am 34 now - crazy.

February 16-21

On President's Day I took the kids to the Woodlands Children's Museum.  We almost didn't go.  They were being such stinkers in the morning that I made them clean the house instead.  But they got done quickly enough that we still had time to go.  It really bugs me when I tell them that we are going someplace fun and they make a big fit about not wanting to go, jeez.  

Damon had a lot of fun with this Lego station that was a special event for that day.  He built an airplane with a motor, then he was able to attach it to the computer and enter in a program that made the propeller go up and make a whirring sound when the airplane was pointed up.  Then when he pointed the airplane down the propeller would slow down and it would make a sputtering sound like it was stalling.  Pretty cool.  Of course he wants one now. :) 

After the museum we went to the park that we had been to before so Damon and Tyler could feed the ducks.  It was pretty cold, windy, and a bit rainy so we didn't stay long.  Everyone was hungry and the girls started to have meltdowns.  But once we got in the van and gave everyone their lunch to eat on the way home things got better.  Food solves all problems as I always say. 

Doug started to assemble the trampoline after dinner on Tuesday.  Of course the weather was still cold, so I felt bad for him freezing out there.  The kids have fun helping.  They got most of the bottom set up before bedtime - then Doug stayed up late and worked with a latern and headlamp to finish.  Silly boy- we could have waited another day.  

 The kids were excited though Tuesday morning when they could go try it out.

 Just a couple of shots of my cute girls.  They are growing up and their hair is getting so long.

 We have started piano lesson here at home.  I think we started the beginning of February sometime.  The boys are doing ok with me as a teacher, we'll see how long that will last.  Damon still fights the whole idea, but he is still progressing so I hope that he will stick with it.

Fun tidbit - Chris loves red cabbage.  He picks it out of the pre-packaged salads from the store.  So I bought a whole head and his eyes just lit up when he saw it.  He wanted a huge piece.  Such a funny boy.  The girls of course had to have some too.  They eat it, but I don't think they like it as much as Chris does.

 Tyler is quite a character.  This day he covered himself with sidewalk chalk during quiet time.  I brushed him off as best as I could then sent him upstairs to take a bath.  Then later in the afternoon I sent the boys outside to pick up the balls and other toys outside because it was starting to rain.   Well Tyler stayed outside and stood underneath the roof where the rain drips down and got completely soaked.  So he took another quick bath.  Kids definitely keep things interesting.

2 week review

We were invited over to dinner last Sunday, so I didn't have time to blog.  So we get to catch up on the past two weeks - so here goes:

Sun. February 1st - didn't realize it was the Super Bowl.  I don't get into it that much, but I usually make some finger food or chicken wings or something.  We managed with popcorn and caramel popcorn.  That seemed to keep everyone happy.  Doug couldn't get the internet streaming on the TV so we watched on the laptop.  I actually didn't watch much at all this year - but Doug and I watched some of the ads on YouTube later.

Having fun with the Zip Track

We went to the Children's Museum for play group on the 4th.  I ended up getting a membership because I think it will be a good place to go when it is too hot or rainy.  It's a smaller museum, not the big one downtown.  Jenna loved driving the car and playing with the rice.

 Chris liked the fish and the water table

Kaylee roamed a lot- it's hard to keep up with 3 kids at a place like this.  I was glad it was smaller and I knew they weren't too far away if I couldn't see them.  

We also checked out the library for the first time and went to story time.  It was pretty full and the parking was crazy - I was lucky to find someone pulling out so I could get a spot.  I soooo miss our Firestone library.  This one is ok, but nothing compared to that one.  But I will say that it was cool that the guy doing story time would play his guitar and lead us in a song in between each story.  

It was a busy week like all others.  I went to scouts with Damon on Tuesday.  I am over Cub Scouts as the 2nd counselor so I went to check on the dens.  Wednesday was book group.  We talked about The Scarlet Pimpernel.  Great book - I would recommend it to anyone.  Thursday we fed the missionaries and I had a primary presidency meeting.  And Saturday, Doug and I shopped at Lowe's in the morning and got a lamp, rug, shelves, and some other stuff.  (a neighbor had offered to watch our kids and we took them up on it)  Our house is slowly coming together.  

Funny story about our house.  In the kitchen we couldn't get our light over the sink to turn on.  We tried a new light bulb and finally asked the builder.  Turns out that they tiled over the light switch.  So they had an electrician come and chisel out a tile and hook up the light switch, then a week later another guy came to put in a new tile and finished it.  So now we have a light switch to our sink light.  :)  They really build these houses way too fast - we have found so many things that are just not done very well.  Oh well, it's ok - but you think that people could care just a bit more and do a better job.

Our Walmart has a riding bull ;)

Sunday the 8th we ate dinner at the Rands' house.  We had personal pizzas that were very tasty.  I brought some fruit and tried a new cookie recipe.  Similar to homemade Oreos, but made with red velvet cake mix and piped to form a heart - they were a cute pre-Valentine's day treat.  It was fun to visit with their family and get to know them more.

Play group this last week was at a park in the Woodlands - it is by a small lake (probably man-made).  But the kids liked feeding the ducks and the playground was a fun set up.  They also had Blue Kentucky grass!!! This is a big deal out here.  Our yard and most places have this really coarse St. Augustine grass that is pokey with thick blades, but I'm sure it holds up better in the heat.  I'm curious to see how this park does in the summer - they must water a ton if the grass stays green.

So -- Jenna keeps getting up in the night, sometimes twice.  We wondered if it was because Kaylee was bumping her or something since they have been sharing a bed.  So we put their crib mattresses on the floor and put the queen on Craigslist.  We would keep it for later, but we really don't have any place to store it.  The girls like to jump on it now.  I try to keep them on their knees at least.  Jenna has slept through the night twice now, but has gotten up a couple of times too.  We keep hoping she can break through this habit.  She only wants me as well.  I guess Doug was up with her for 40 minutes last night and being the stubborn girl that she is she wouldn't lay down without seeing mom first.  Doug finally gave up and woke me up so I could get her to go to sleep.  Silly girl.

I talked with Damon's teacher this week and got a better feel on things.  Damon is doing better and I think is getting the hang of the new school.  I took Tyler to an orthodontist this week as well.  He needs work done, so we are shopping for a doctor.  I have an appt with another one on Tuesday and then we will probably decide between the two.  Relief Society was on Wednesday.  It was a fun meeting on eating healthy, green smoothies, and some exercise instruction at the end.  There was a good turn out.  I went to Round Table on Thursday evening and had Scout committee meeting on Saturday.  Scouts is good, but I feel that it will be a big time commitment.  Doug and I went shopping again Saturday morning - paid for a baby sitter this time. We just looked at different furniture stores.  We are looking for a small love seat, an end table, some tall lamps, and a kitchen bench.  We found a few things we liked, but didn't buy anything.  We'll keep looking and hopefully find the perfect ones.  

We had a sad experience with our Valentine's this year.  I bought some sticky hands from Oriental Trading and thought it would be fun for the kids to give those out instead of candy.  Well, of course they wanted to play with them.  So I let them have some and I was busy helping with homework and writing names on the Valentines and so I wasn't watching them play with them.  Well, let me tell you to never have your walls painted with flat paint.  We now have sticky hand marks on our walls in multiple places and it will not come off.  And if you try to clean it too hard it just rubs the paint off.  We already had a small experience with this with some spilled milk.  It stained the wall and then Doug tried to clean it and just rubbed the paint off.  I am so mad and the builders for not using a gloss paint - who wants to have every little mark on their walls be permanent?  You have to be able to wash your walls!  Anyway, I think Doug is going to ask for the color of paint and just try to touch up the stains.  We would have to repaint the huge 2 1/2 story living room to totally fix it.  Sigh - lesson learned - never use flat paint.   I feel bad since I bought the sticky hands, but they have slapped them on our walls in previous homes and never had a problem - so how was I to know.  

Saw this online somewhere and tried it out.  I thought it was cute.  

I made heart pancakes and a nice dinner for Valentine's Day.  Our shopping trip in the morning was kind of our date.  We'll have to do dinner another time.  Doug let the boys play with his old electric race train set in the evening and they always love that.

Wow we are already halfway through February - crazy.  I feel like I am busy and doing things, but sometimes I just want to stay home.  Grocery shopping and going to Walmart are never fun.  Ashley - I miss our babysitting trading.  I'm going to really ask around and see if anyone else would be willing to do that with me here.

We ordered a tramp two nights ago, so it should be here this week, that will be fun.  I hope we can share nicely and that nobody gets hurt.  :)  Doug and I have started watching "24" on Netflix.  We don't watch often since we are always busy - but when we have some time it has been fun to watch together.

New Park and other stuff

This week at play group we went to a new park, it was really neat.  They had a lot of picnic areas and two playgrounds.  There also were some nature trails to explore.  I had brought lunch so my three were good to go check it out after we ate - everyone else went home to eat.  

 Lots of TALL trees, very different climate and vegetation here.  Pretty cool.  We haven't seen much wildlife.  We saw a lizard at the aquarium last week and I actually saw two vultures picking at some road kill a couple of days ago, that was pretty cool (kind of gross too I guess).

 I've been going through my saved treasures - mementos - and souvenirs.  I've taken lots of pictures of stuff and then thrown it out or I have decided to use them.  My mom gave me two embroidered dish towels a long time ago, so it's time to use them.

 I had delivered dinner to a friend and had used my bread pan.  I really wanted to make a full batch of bread so I made a round loaf, it was kind of cute.

 I also got to watch a 3 month old this week.  It was fun at first, she was happy and smiling at me.  Then she got tired and fussy.  She didn't sleep long then woke up hungry and grumpy.  I am glad that I am done with the baby phase.  Babies are a lot of fun and very cute, but a lot of work.  The girls loved her though.  Chris too was huddled around the car-seat making faces and getting the baby to smile.  It was cute.

First time doing two full french braids.  They almost lasted two days.  

I had my first meeting for being 2nd counselor in the Primary.  It was a bit overwhelming especially with all the scout info.  I've been 2nd counselor before, but it's been awhile and I didn't have to do much with scouting in that ward.  I conducted today and that was fine.  I tried to memorize kids' names as I sat up front.  

Not much else going on.  Just normal school and house stuff.  (a word about school- A lot of moms here are frustrated with Texas schooling.  They test way too much and too advanced.  Our kids are stressed about tests and their self esteem is dropping when they don't do well.  Damon is having a hard time.  His confidence is way down.  He is a great student and it is so hard to see him struggle with some topics.  I hope will be ok.)

First big outing in Texas

So a friend invited us to go to the Aquarium on Monday.  I had originally thought that it would just be me, Chris and the girls.  Then I remembered that is was Martin Luther King day so Damon and Tyler could come too.  We went as part of a 'preschool' group.  It was how we got such a great deal on tickets.  I guess a mom in another ward teaches and she got us and a bunch of other families tickets.

The drive wasn't bad, I-45 is a big and busy freeway, but at that time of day we didn't really have any bad traffic.  It took us about 30 minutes to get there.  I followed my friend Kasi so I wouldn't get lost.  We got there early so we waited a bit for it to open.

We went through the exhibit first.  It was nice, but the Denver one is much bigger.  They do have a cool white tiger at the end that the kids liked.  We also got to touch the Sting Rays.

The fun thing about this aquarium is that it has rides.  We went on the train ride twice; (you get to go through a tunnel to see shark swimming overhead); the carousel twice; the Ferris wheel (Damon was nervous to go); and Tyler, Chris, and I went on a falling type ride.  They also had a mini 'Frog Hopper' version that even the girls went on.  They were startled, then Kaylee liked it, but Jenna remained concerned.  It was a bit jerky.  By then is was about lunch time so we loaded up in the van and I had them eat lunch on the way home.  I do this in hopes that it will keep the girls awake - not this time.  But they did transfer when we got home and they took a really good nap.  I guess we wore them out.  It was a fun outing to do with the kids.

 Yes, Tyler is giving bunny ears to Damon - typical brother.

 It was very bright on the Ferris wheel.  The aquarium in right off of I-45.

 The view on the other side, the Houston skyline.

 Chris and the girls really liked the carousel - I don't think they had been on one before.

Tyler and Chris loved this ride.  Chris was just tall enough.  They wanted to go again, but we ran out of time, and Damon was feeling left out.  He was good to watch the girls along with my friend Kasi.  

Tuesday I went to kickboxing - it was a good workout.
Wednesday I went to the Zumba class and then to play group.  I went to the wrong park originally but we finally found it.  Thank goodness for cell phones and Google Maps.
Thursday I had thought I was going to go to story time in the morning, but then I realized I had the wrong day - it had been Tuesday.  So I did a big grocery shopping trip with the kids instead.  They were being pretty bad at the beginning, but thankfully they calmed down for the second half.  I spent over $200.  There were a lot of things on sale that I usually stock up on and my pantry/food storage is pretty low - so it was time to fill it up.  It took almost 2 hours to go, shop, pay, and unload everything.  And of course it was raining pretty hard.  I brought out my laundry basket to put the bags in so I didn't have to make as many trips.   My visiting teachers came over afterwards and actually helped me unload the last of my groceries and then we visited for quite awhile.

Naps are getting harder, the girls don't want to go down as easily and if they nap too long they don't want to sleep at night.  But if they don't nap they are so grumpy at night.  Such a hard time.

Friday I made sugar cookies and I delivered them in the evening to my visiting sisters and my companion.  I actually took all the kids since Doug had come home not feeling well.  Then we all went to McDonald's to


play in the Play-place.

Saturday was clean out the garage day.  I wish I would have taken a before and after shot.  It was so full of boxes, mostly empty ones, plus all of our basement things.  We took everything out and then Doug hung up our bikes, put up shelves, hung the tools, and hooked up the pulley system for our Sky Box.  It looks a lot better now and we can almost park the van - we just have a few more things to get rid of.

I also cleaned the house with the kids in the morning.  They are pretty good helpers.  Damon is good to just get his jobs done because he wants to play quickly when he is done.  Tyler gets distracted and plays too much and is therefore much slower getting his jobs done.  It was too bad this week because we told Tyler that if he got his jobs done by 9 he could go with Damon and Doug to do scouting for food.  Well, he didn't quite make it.  He was close but we knew this would hopefully be a good learning opportunity - so he stayed home.  He was so mad and upset for a long time.  When he finally calmed down I talked to him.  I hope he learned something :).

Face-book has been helpful here.  I am part of a local mom's group and the info I have found has been very useful.  I located someone who needed boxes and she came and took all of our boxes and packaging paper - so that was great.  I also posted a few things that we didn't need anymore and got some them off of our hands quickly.  Hopefully the others will go soon.

Today I got called as the 2nd counselor in the Primary and Doug is going to be team teaching Christopher's class.  I think Doug has only taught once in primary back in Logan, and that was with me teaching Sunbeams.  So this will be a change for him, but he will do great.  I was in a primary presidency in our apartment ward in Logan, but that was 5/6 years ago.  The primary is huge, I have a lot of name learning to do.  We had a linger longer after church today.  We didn't visit too much - too hard when you helping kids and keeping track of them.

I think that's all that has been going on this week.  As a side note, Jenna is pretty much potty trained.  She has been in underwear 24/7 all week and has only had a few times where she just didn't get to the bathroom in time.  Kaylee however has regressed and is back in diapers.  She doesn't even try to tell me anymore when she needs to go.  She did manage to take off a messy diaper and then told us she had gone poo.  Luckily it wasn't too big of a mess.  (sorry TMI)  So hopefully Kaylee can get back on track here shortly.  I guess I'll just have to start over with her again, she probably just wasn't ready or something.  Sigh, we are almost done with diapers. :)