March Madness

As it turns out, March was filled with much more than basketball!  It started with a dress up week for Hazel, and my favorite was what she chose on career day - an artist.  That, she is.  Her creativity, attention to detail, and focus always impress me!

This is one of her most recent creations - a mermaid hideout.  seashells on the "sand", an ocean, seaweed, pictures on the walls, etc.

Then Mom and Dad came to visit for our Spring Break.  We got lucky that it was the same week the temple was closed.  

We went to the best park twice that week - Kids Kingdom Park in Rowlette.  It has sand, a toddler area, zipline, fun merry go rounds, but most importantly, no wood chips!

Dad helped us pick out some flowers, so we added some color to the front of the house again.  Our garden also started growing pretty well.  The kids have loved checking on it daily.

Then the day after they left, I took the kids to In-Sync Exotics in Wylie.  We didn't know what to expect, but it was SUPER cool.  We got to see all kinds of exotic cats up close, which never happens at the zoo.

Luckily it wasn't while my parents were here, but we inevitably caught the stomach bug.  Poor Jada got the worst of it.  Her snuggles were so sweet though.

Once that passed, we were able to enjoy St. Patrick's Day with all kinds of green!

We got to be with our Palmer family too.  It's so fun to have Dave and Melissa in Texas now!

Then for a brief weekend, we headed to Waco to see Isaac play baseball.  The kids always love a good hotel breakfast, as do I, especially when there are Texas waffles.

We made the most of our time there and fit in a trip to the children's museum by Baylor.  The kids had so much fun with their cousins and didn't want to leave.  I didn't get to make it to Magnolia to try the cupcakes, but I did get to see Chip and Jo because Ike's team was playing their son's team on Saturday!

The Month of Love

Hazel had her 100th day of school on February 1st!  She put 100 glitter fish stickers all over a blue shirt and we wrote, "100 days in the best school!" on the back.  We'll pretend it's not so wrinkly.  Hazel makes anything cute (although never tell her that because she does NOT want to be cute).

Jada found herself an admirer at the library... Adam.  He was actually in our other Wylie ward.  He just loves her, as does everyone else!  

I'm in Primary now, but the Young Women were so sweet to heart attack my van as a thank you for serving with them.  Their notes were so thoughtful.  I still love stopping and chatting with them in the halls at church.

February was also the month of a big labor of love... a garden!  I've been wanting one for a long time (Hazel too), so James got on it and built some boxes.  He even put in our own drip irrigation system around the house.  We're starting with 2 garden boxes for now, and we'll see how it goes!  

Hardworkers and good helpers right there!

At the garden supply store, there were baby chicks, which was a pleasant surprise.  The kids were in heaven because the worker let them hold one.  

 

The kids and I went to Hazel's school for her Valentine's Day Party, and the kids loved it as usual.  They played Bingo and had strawberry shortcake.  

Speaking of labors of love, Mrs. Garcia sewed each of her students a tooth pillow.  I was impressed!

Later Jada went through Hazel's candy and got herself her first sucker.  Tricky little thing.  Of course I let her get away with it because she's so cute. 

On Valentine's Day we had all things heart shaped - pizza, cookies, strawberries, oatmeal bars. 

Lots of love for these little valentines! 

A New Year 2017

It was nice to get home after being gone for so long.  There was plenty of laundry to keep me busy for a week!  Since the Christmas tree was so crowded with all the kids' gifts in Beaumont, Santa dropped a few off at our house so the kids had another one to open when we got home.  Hazel got marble run, Grayson got a helicopter, and Jada got a baby toy set.  I also gave my American Girl doll Kirsten to Hazel.

 We hosted a little New Years Eve get together with the Walkers, Maloufs, Batemans, and Bingham.  Everyone contributed and we had mini sandwiches, shrimp cocktail, veggies, chips, dips, cookies, oreo truffles, and of course, some Mormon bubbly.

We heard about Netflix doing a countdown for kids at anytime, so we found one of the shows and brought the kids in the media room to celebrate the new year.  Little did they know it was 9 pm!  I could've gone to bed then too actually.  My mom left poppers from last year, so I pulled those out and we called it a party.

After the kids went to bed, we played Telestrations, which is hilarious every time and never gets old, and we finished up with Incan Gold.  All the adults made it to midnight!  We actually made it even later.  We missed Zara though since she's still recovering from her surgery.

New Years Day was Sunday, and Grayson had his first real day as a Sunbeam in Primary!  It was so cute to see Hazel grab his hand and proudly walk him in.  He was a little hesitant, but he eventually sat down and got comfortable.  I now serve in the Primary, so I get to be with all of my kids, which is awesome.

Later that day, we went to meet our new puppy cousins.  Tami and Kaye got sister silver labs, Scout and Shadow.  The kids loooved them.  By the end, they were calling the dogs "yours" and "mine."  It's nice we can just go and visit and leave all the hard work to Tami and Kaye!  The only bad thing is poor Grayson is allergic (sorry, my bad), so he had swollen eyes and needed a bath and Benadryl as soon as we left.

A few days later we went to Hazel's school for an award ceremony.  Half the classes got "Best Effort" awards (the other half will in the Spring), which I thought was a little silly, but the kids really did enjoy getting recognized!  Hazel definitely earned her award.  She's always does her best.  

Then a miracle happened on January 6th - it snowed!  (a tiny bit)  It started just as soon as Hazel got off the bus, so she was super excited.

The kids have been wishing for snow because they wanted to throw a snowball at Jada to make her laugh.  It was suuper windy though, so Jada and I didn't stay out long.

Side note - speaking of Miss Jada, look how adorable she is in her tiara!  She's the perfect Anna baby!

Another wish came true this month... my wish to have a garden!  James has worked so hard to put in drip irrigation around the entire house.  Then he assembled two planter boxes, and next up is the dirt!  I'm so excited!

One night our friends Ciara and Brenton came over, and they made us some delicious jalapeno poppers.  To be honest, I was worried when they told me they bought 3 lbs of jalapenos because I was pretty sure my sissy self couldn't handle even one.  I was wrong!  After they were cored and cleaned, filled with cream cheese and roasted in the oven, they weren't hot at all!  Yum.

I also hosted preschool this month, and since we were on the letter K, I taught about Martin Luther King, Jr.  The kids loved having their hands painted.

Jada turned 9 months on the 12th!  I can't believe my baby is getting closer to 1!  She is the BEST baby ever!!  I seriously can't get enough of her.  The latest is she's 20 lbs., in the 80th percentiles for everything, she loves to crawl, pull up on everything, climb the stairs, kiss(bite) her mama, giggle at her siblings, get tickled by Daddy (it starts young), sleep all night (yay!), take 2-3 naps a day, eat her toes, eat real food, do the "Jada pump" (coined by Eva), say "Dada", and smile the cutest little smile with her 2 bottom teeth.

Hazel has really gotten into writing and says it's one of her favorite things at school.  She wrote and illustrated the cutest book about our Christmas vacation.

On MLK day, we had the cousins over and painted birdhouses, did nails, played Pie Face (Hazel's favorite game she got for Christmas), and played outside.  We love having Hazel home on a weekday!  James got home early that day too, so we went to Torchy's and Chuck E Cheese's at night.  Hazel declared it the "best day ever."

This month we started a healthy snack challenge this month for Hazel's school, and she was so excited to make this particular snack out of her little recipe book.  Yay for raw food!  Here's to a healthier, happier year!