Easter Fun

I can't believe I'm just now getting around to blogging about our Easter weekend or that there is only a week of school left.  Time is slipping through my fingers!

We probably had our most fun Easter ever, at least that's what my kids would tell you.  Why, you ask?  We had a giant egg hunt with the other families on our cul-de-sac, which was tons of fun, and then we headed to the Gaylord Hotel for brunch.  To top it off, Grandma Nancy was in town, which always makes things even better!

Brunch at the Gaylord was really neat; it's a beautiful hotel, and it was fun to walk around and explore.  If you've never been to one, I highly recommend checking it out, especially around the holidays (http://www.marriott.com/gaylord-hotels/travel.mi).  We all ate way too much -- I don't think any of us wanted to look at food the rest of the day.  Noah literally had four plates surrounding him at all times . . . he was in heaven!

Amelia finished her first year of preschool.  It was such a wonderful year, and I am so thankful for her teachers and all the staff there.  They made a HUGE scrapbook for each kid that had lots of pictures of them throughout the year and a bunch of their artwork and projects.  I cannot imagine how long it must have taken to put together.  I will truly always treasure it.

Amelia and her "bestie" Clara.

Max is changing faster than seems possible.  He's now running around like a little maniac trying to keep up with Amelia and Noah.  His favorite things are talking on the phone (he thinks the phone is called "Dada"), dancing and singing, playing with the big kids outside, looking through his books, and making people laugh.  The kid is seriously the king of making funny faces and not just nice ones -- he has a pretty mean scowl.  He says "thank you" whenever you hand him something and "there you go" whenever he hands someone else something.

Pool party with are awesome neighbors!

Noah has his last week of the 3rd grade this coming week.  I'm not sure how to process that he will be turning 10 in a few months.  I think I say this in every blog post, but he really is an amazing big brother.  He will play with Max and Amelia for hours on end and help me out whenever I need him.  He's really into making crafts; his favorite things to make currently are duct tape wallets, paper airplanes made out of tooth picks and marshmallows, and cool designs out of perler beads (think melted plastic that, when melted, turns into a design or object).

Max's first time in the see-saw.

Elsa and Hanz.

He had his first guitar recital a few weeks ago, and I was so impressed with how well he played but almost as much by how calm, cool and collected he was.  Playing in front of a big room full of people didn't seem to faze him; I, on the other hand, would have been sick to my stomach!

My personal training has started to take off, which is why I'm blogging less frequently.  However, I have promised myself to try and do better (since I love looking back at my old posts and seeing our kids grow up).

Mike and I did find time to go to a music festival to see some of my favorite bands.

Catching Up

Every week seems to go faster than the one before.  This spring has been by far my busiest ever, with three kids . . . between Noah playing flag football, having guitar lessons and going too Boy Scouts; as well as Amelia participating in soccer, dance and swim lessons.  To add to the busy-ness, I recently started some personal training with clients again; anyone that has a one-year-old know that’s a full-time job in itself. It’s been around two months since my last post and I know there is way too much to try and cover, so I will hit the highlights.

Noah and his friend, Ben, built this awesome theme park out of K'nex.

During spring break I had planned on taking the kids to Florida for the week to visit Mike.  As bad as this sounds, I never got around to booking the flight.  When I looked a week before I planned to leave, the prices were outrageous.  It worked out for the best, since I feel like the kids and I made the best of staying at home and lounging around.  It was so nice to not set the alarm for 6:30am every day.  When school started the next week, Noah and I were both wondering, “Is it summer yet?”

Believe it or not, he was actually happy.

My workout buddy!

Practicing some pretty awesome dance moves.

Our family REALLY loves to dance!

Max is FULLY walking.  In fact, if he’s not down on the ground walking around, he lets you know just how mad he is.  He has also really been expanding his vocabulary -- some of his new phrases include: thank you, welcome, baby, big boy, "Let It Go" (singing a song from Frozen), ball, book, uh-oh, more, no, yes, Max, guitar and dance.  If he’s hungry, he goes to where I keep his food in the pantry, grabs a jar of baby food, brings it to me, and then goes to his chair and waits for me to put him in.

 

 

My mom visited for a few days and it worked out perfectly that Jason stopped by to stay the night on his way to and from Oklahoma.  It was really fun and made me realize how much I really miss living by family.  Max was especially smitten with Jason; he constantly wanted to be held by him and would keep leaning over to smile at him.  It was great to play cards with my mom, even if she kicked my butt.

 

My mom was able to go to "Grandparents Day" at Amelia's preschool.

 

My mom watched the kids so we could go on a double date with some good friends.

We are currently working on some house projects, both inside and out and will post some pictures in the next blog.  It’s been a lot of work, but it feels good to invest in our home and make it feel more like “ours”!

Happy 1st Birthday Max!

It’s hard for me to digest that Max turned one . . . it feels like yesterday when we got to hold him for the first time and look into his beautiful blue eyes.  He is such a good-natured little boy and brings so much joy to our family.  He is also very lucky to have Amelia and Noah as siblings; they truly dote on him!

Mike’s mom, Nancy, was able to fly out for his birthday party.  Unfortunately, Max and Amelia were up in the middle of the night throwing up the day before she arrived.  I got the stomach bug the day after she arrived, and she and Mike followed shortly after.  Thankfully, we were all well by the time of his birthday party. 

Being that it was his first birthday and he doesn’t care about picking the theme, I chose a “Mustache Bash” for him. It was incredible to me all the party supplies available for a mustache-themed 1st birthday.  I may have gone a little overboard, but I do enjoy planning and hosting the kids' birthday parties.

He wasn't a huge fan of the icing...

Max is a momma’s boy, big time; thankfully, when Mike is home, he enjoys going to him, too. After a few days with Grandma Nancy, he warmed up to her.  However, at the birthday party he wouldn’t even consider going to anyone else.  Max was in a really good mood and seemed to enjoy having “Happy Birthday” sung to him.

Max at one:
Can say Mama, Dada, dog, cat, light, ball and he just learned "nose"
Loves to clap
Gives high-fives, usually to only Mike or me
Waves hi and bye
Puts the phone up to his ears and jabbers
Takes a few steps on his own every day for the last few weeks but isn’t walking yet
Gives kisses and hugs to the people in our family
Absolutely LOVES Lucy and is always trying to get her to give him kisses
Loves playing peek-a-boo, patty cake and Itsy Bitsy Spider
Loves to turn the pages when we read books together
Is always trying to get my earring and necklaces
Loves to strum the guitar and likes to watch Mike and Noah play guitar

We call this his"Woody Harrelson" face.

Miami Getaway

Mike started traveling to Florida for work right before the holidays, so we thought it would be fun for me to fly out and meet him there to celebrate his birthday weekend.

We spent the majority of our weekend in Miami, and I was happy for the beautiful, warm weather, especially because it seems like we’ve had an extra cold winter in Texas.  It was an odd feeling to be walking in our bathing suits on the beach in the middle of January.  I had no idea Miami Beach would be so beautiful, and I was shocked to see how clean it’s kept.  We stayed at the Conrad in downtown Miami, which had an awesome view of the ocean.  It was amazing to look out and see all the lights from the different Florida Keys and see the giant cruise ships docked in the harbor.  I’ve never been on a cruise or seen a ship close up – they are pretty impressive.

On Sunday we drove to Key Biscayne and spent the day relaxing on the beach.  I can honestly say that walking on the beach is one of my favorite things to do in life. Combine that with being with my favorite person in the world; it was pretty much the best day of my life.  When we were walking, we realized there were giant sand bars about 50 to 100 feet out in the water.  You didn’t have to wade too deep to reach them and once you’re on them, it looks like you’re walking on water.  Mike and I agreed this particular experience was probably our favorite memory from the weekend.

The culinary scene is Miami is also quite impressive; we ate so many wonderful meals.  I made a point of ordering things that I can’t usually get in Dallas.  I love seafood, so Miami is a great place to go for seafood dishes.  My favorite dish was a mushroom-crusted grouper on top of a mushroom (I also LOVE mushrooms)turnip purée. . . I think I’m still dreaming about that meal.

My mom made our getaway weekend possible by flying out to watch the kids.  It worked out that my dad was able to fly out on Saturday and stay until I got back on Monday to help out.  Watching three little kids is not the easiest job in the world, but from the photos she sent me, I could tell they were really enjoying their time with their nana and papa.  I was happy to get back early enough on Monday to spend some time with my dad before his flight back.