Nov 30, 2011

More Fun inTexas

Our trip seemed too short this time. Since Monday and Friday were pretty much travel days we really only had three days to do stuff, and Thursday, obviously, was Thanksgiving. 

First of all, Leah did SO WELL on both flights! I guess she loves traveling just like her parents! :-)  And it did help that my M-I-L got us a portable DVD player for the trip. So with that and her Elmo and Little People videos we were set! She also slept for a bit and ate lots of snacks.  On the way there one of the seats in our row was empty so that was great too!  She looked so cute in her little pink headphones :-)


Our flight was a little delayed and also re-routed due to severe thunderstorms in the Dallas area. It was actually really cool to see the lightening from up in the plane.
Since we got in a lot later than expected, we only had time to visit for a little bit before heading to bed.

Tuesday we had some time so we took Leah and Hudson to the Fort Worth Children's Museum. It was a huge place! Of course I took a million pictures but here are a few -

Dr. Leah!

Vroooom


Huge lite bright!

Leah was unsure about this big dinosaur at first but was fine once she realized it didn't move like the one at our museum in Seattle.
After the museum we went to Dustin's grandmother's house and she had a huge lunch spread prepared for us. Including one of my Texas favorites - fried okra! And the sweet tea! Mmm, we don't have either of those in Seattle!
Tuesday night we had a girls night!  Dustin's mom, aunts, cousins, and a few friends all went out to dinner.  The daddies stayed home and gave the kids dinner and baths, awwww! 
That night Leah decided she didn't want to sleep. She came down with a little cold and also was affected by the time change, plus being in a new unfamiliar place. Poor thing. She wanted to sleep in bed with us (which she never has before). She is a squiggler so none of us got much sleep.  We all slept in late the next morning!
On Wednesday me, Leah and Dustin drove around by ourselves for awhile. Then we went to meet Lori and Grandmother for lunch. We went to Chick-Fil-A, which we don't have in Seattle. So many of you southern/midwest bloggers always talk about going there with your kids so I had to check it out! I thought the food was just ok, but Leah really liked the playground.  Also the weather that day was amazing, mid-70s and sunny. It felt so nice!
Despite the nice weather, we were the only people sitting outside!!

Then on Friday we had to head to the airport around 10am so the kids played outside for awhile in the morning before we said our goodbyes.

Popsicles in November?! Woohoo!
I was glad we got to fly one more time with Leah before she is two and we have to pay for a plane ticket for her. :-) 
Thanks again to Josh and Heather (and Hudson) for being wonderful hosts. We can't wait to see them when they come visit US this spring!  :-)

Nov 29, 2011

Thanksgiving in the Sun

This was the first year that we have ever gone out of town for Thanksgiving!  As I said in my previous post, it was sunny and warm most of our trip. It was great! The kids had fun playing outside. It did NOT feel like November!  I have a lot of pictures from our trip, but the following are from Thanksgiving Day.  We stayed with Dustin's cousin Josh and his wife Heather, and their 3 year old Hudson.  They hosted dinner at their house with some of Dustin's aunts, cousins, and his grandmother.

Heather and I prepping some food the night before.
The kids loved the Sesame Street float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.  Leah kept saying "More Elmo!"

Leah and Daddy swinging on Thanksgiving!

Our family!

Pretty girl in her holiday dress.

Leah waiting patiently to eat.

So much food!


The kids had fun playing outside in the sun!

Swinging with my girl.

Picking dandelions :)


With Dustin's grandmother and a few cousins with their spouses.
 This year I am thankful for so much!  Especially my family! :-)

Nov 27, 2011

We're home and now it's Christmas season! Yay!

We are back from a week in Texas! It was a mellow trip, mostly hanging out with family. I will have a post with pics coming soon.  Here is one from my phone. It was in the 70s a few days and we were in shortsleeves and drinking iced coffee! In Seattle that is unheard of for late November! The sun felt great.
We tried to get Leah in this pic but she kept running off :)
Leah got a little cold while we were there but it only lasted a few days and wasn't too bad.  But the last day of our trip Dustin and I both started feeling yucky and now have had colds all weekend. Ugh! So even though I had a lot to do this weekend, we spent most of it lounging around the house. 
Today during Leah's nap I drove the 40 minutes to my favorite store, Trader Joe's, to stock up my empty kitchen. I WISH they would put one closer to us!

And Dustin put up our Christmas lights outside.

We were hoping to get all our decorations up this weekend and go get a tree, but I guess that will have to wait until next week.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Nov 20, 2011

See ya next week!

Hey everyone! I will be spending the next week here -

Photo from Google

So excited to see our family and go visit for a holiday, which is a first!  Wish us luck flying 4 1/2 hours with our energized 21 month old!!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, laughter, and great FOOD! :-)

Nov 17, 2011

Mommy Swap

My friend Allison and I started a new routine about a month ago. We switch off every week taking eachother's little girl for a few hours one morning. This has been such a great thing as every mother knows how important it is to take breaks from your little ones every now and then. And also get them comfortable being away from you in a new environment! As I have mentioned before, it is hard getting any serious shopping done with Leah these days. So I usually spend my "free" time running errands. Getting a coffee and grocery shopping alone feels like a vacation, ha!  Hopefully one of these days I can go do something entirely for me (like use the pedicure gift certificate that I got for my birthday in July!!!). But anyway this arrangement has been awesome and I encourage all stay at home moms to try something like this with someone you trust!

Today was my day to have Madeline over and here are some pics of these two cuties -
Boo!

Leah was giving Maddie loves :)

They play so well together

Having friends over is so much fun!

Making silly faces through the french doors :)

Snack time

Let's go for a walk. Come on Leah let me help you down the steps :)

I swear people driving by probably thought I had twins, ha!

Walking in the rocks is much more fun than on the sidewalk
Woohoo the playground!

Race you to the top :)

Yay!

Looks like it might snow here in Seattle in the next few days! Bring it on I love the snow! 

Nov 16, 2011

Bouncy Bounce

This has been a pretty mellow week so far which is nice. We have been catching up on chores and running errands.

I finally got an iPhone! Last person on planet Earth I bet!  Well it is Dustin's old one since he got a new one from work. I seriously could care less about having a iPhone and think they are pretty distracting for everyday life. I don't know how many times I have been hanging out with a friend and they are on that stupid thing constantly! So rude! I am putting it in writing now that I will not be one of those people. I annoy myself as it is now by how much I get on my laptop to check Facebook or whatever! Ok anyway, don't want to get into too long of a rant about my annoyance with too much technology so I will leave it at that. :-) But it will be nice like if I forget my camera or need to look up directions, etc.

This morning we met our friends Corinne and Norah at a bouncy house place. It is a huge warehouse with a bunch of different sized bouncy houses! They also have lots of balls and toys. And the best part, the parents are encouraged to go in them with their kids! I am pretty sure I had just as much fun as Leah!!
This only shows half of the houses!  Can you spot Leah sprinting over to the slide? :)
Leah and Norah

Haha there is Leah going down by herself on her tummy!

She loved to lay down and be bounced
Haha look at her ponytail! You can tell she is mid-bounce!

Tunnel!



She saw another kid get a drink and went to go check it out. Don't worry I didn't let her put her mouth on it, yuck!
I will definitely be taking Leah here again. I wish they had places like this when I was a kid! But that is one of the best thing about being a parent, you get to re-live your childhood!! :-)

After that we went to Target, which always gives me anxiety now when I am with Leah. She squirms and fusses and just wants to run around. But today I got smart and found a solution -
POPCORN! :-)