Bluebonnets 2012

As per our new tradition, we headed south to Ennis for the annual Bluebonnet Festival, and as usual, I want to live there now:

Can you imagine driving past that everyday on your way to work?

Until next year, Ennis!

Pictures on a Sunday Afternoon

I love having 9:00 church. I love having the whole rest of the day to spend with my family, baking, or visiting people, or just spending time with McKay and the babies.

Making tortillas from an awesome Pinterest recipe HERE

Taking a break from playing to play with her favorite Christmas toy (thanks Grandma Eatough!)

And playing again. This toy is the envy of all when we have Tyler and Jamie's friends over.

Here's Tyler's little tortilla he made and devoured himself.

The most exciting part of the day! Tyler was picked for spotlight today in Primary, and it was a BIG DEAL. He ran up to the podium, and he just grinned and grinned the whole time. Every time the Primary counselor would read off something, like "Tyler loves to play with dominoes," Tyler would gasp and yell "I like to play with dominoes!" He got a red dog named Spot for being the spotlight that day, and it has not left his side. Or head.

Blow Flowers

With all this crazy rain we've been getting, our backyard has bloomed into a magnificent field of dandelions, or as Tyler calls them, Blow Flowers. It seems like ten new ones open every day, so instead of just mowing the lawn or spreading weed killer like a normal person, I send the troops out to thin the dandelion population.

I've heard various reports of Daddy trying to coax ants onto the fluff to send them flying, like Flik on A Bug's Life, but no confirmations :)

Dallas, Oh Dallas

First Tuesdays at the Dallas Museum of Art have a three hour block of time for kids, and it is a blast. They have tons of activities and shows and face painting and projects, and each month has a different theme. Last week's theme was Shapes and Colors:

The place was packed, like it always is, but both Jamie and Tyler had separate but equal meltdowns at the end, indicative of a real good time.

See you next month, MOA!

High End Bribery

Tyler is pretty clear about one thing: getting his hair cut is the worst thing in the history of ever. And because he thinks this, it MAKES it the worst thing in the history of ever to be the one cutting his hair. And because of this, months go between his haircuts, until he starts to teeter on the edge of having Hanson hair, only wavy, because he inherited my hair, lucky boy.

The regular bribes (M&Ms, trips to the science center, walking to the park) do not hold water in this situation. And the tough love approach, as I discovered to my horror last time, results in big bald spots on the side of his head.

Anyway, I found the perfect bribery today.

Browsing, browsing...

Jamie, tolerating us moving her from her sick bed again. Poor girl!

The Loot! Chocolate Cream Dessert from Eatzi's! Seriously guys, go there.

Happy boy. Good looking hair. Happy Mommy.

Knock Off Pottery Barn Shelves

I saw this really cute idea on this blog: Anna White's Ten Dollar Ledges

I thought, I can do that, easy peasy.

And you know what? It actually was.

I love how it looks! And I REALLY love how easily Jamie can get to all her books on the bottom ledge. She is way more into books than Tyler ever was. Several times a day, she'll wander in here, grab a few books, and bring them out for me to read them to her. She loves the mommy and Jamie time, I love the not-screaming time :)

Quiet-ish mornings

Every morning, after McKay kisses us goodbye and leave for work, Tyler, Jamie, and I carry bowls of steaming oatmeal topped with brown sugar and frozen blueberries to the dining room table. Jamie reigns over us from her high chair smearing oatmeal on everything in reach; Tyler picks out all his berries, puts them on the table, and carefully spoons out the top layer of dissolved brown sugar on top ("DON'T STIR IT MOM!!!"), eats it, and leaves the actual oatmeal more or less untouched. I sit back in my chair and look out our dining room window, which I would show you if I knew where our old camera's cord was.

Our backyard is magic in the morning. The sun at 7:30 just starts to filter over the trees into our yard through all the leaves.

This is not our backyard, but this reminds me of it. I love sitting there for the ten minutes that Jamie will let me, just soaking in the goodness of green and light and life, thinking about big life decisions that have to be made and diving into some good news:

A friend from BYU whose blog I stalk regularly shared her wonderful idea/goal for this year, and I am doing my best to keep up:

http://alicianstephen.blogspot.com/2011/08/goals.html

I am almost through with Acts now. I'm amazed at how much more sense the scriptures make when you read them more than a chapter at a time. Also at the gems I never noticed before like Acts 17:27-28.

Que soul resonation.

Practicing our snooty faces

With the much needed weather cool down these last few weeks (hello, 80s!!), the babies and I have started running again! We've had our double jogging stroller for a year now, but it was always such a hassle dragging it up and down three flights of stairs in our apartment, and as soon as we moved into a house it soared into Satan weather. But now we can use it!

Our route takes us one street north of our neighborhood into a community called Highland Park. This is the Big Deal, the Beverly Hills of Dallas. This is where the rich people live, like President Bush (when they aren't at their ranches or whatever).

For 2.7 miles, these are the lovelies that greet us:

I love it! Even more than looking at the architectural goodies, I love pretending that I live there, waving nonchalantly when we pass people. Of course, we run at 10AM, so most of the people we pass are Guatemalan nannies and landscape day laborers, but hey, it's a good time.

Tyler and Jamie get so excited for our run every morning. Tyler likes to walk the first block of the route, and he likes to wave at the elderly people walking their poodles. We keep a sharp eye out for tractors and trucks along the way. Jamie squeals when she sees the stroller, and runs to grab a handful of shoes out of her room.

Speaking of shoes, this girl is seriously crazy about them. We keep them in the bottom drawer of her dresser, and she muscles it open, rummages around, grabs a few, puts them on, takes them off, walks around with them, and discards them around the house.

We probably won't ever live in a neighborhood like this, but we can dream.

And plan on trick-or-treating there. Can you imagine the size of candy bars they must give out!?

Horatio Thelonious Ignacious Crustaceous Sebastian

No, not that one.

This one.

This is Sebastian. His dad does construction work on the house next door everyday between drinking a beer and yakking on his cell phone, and for some reason, he brings his five year old son with him. So we invite his bored little boy over to play. Tyler calls him "my best friend Dastin."

They get into all sorts of mischief together.

Mainly tearing the house apart in record time.

And when I snap, I banish them to the living room to watch Wall-e.

And Jamie seizes the opportunity to sneak into Tyler's room to play with all the abandoned toys.

The only problem is that I don't know how to kick him out at dinnertime. The few times he has stayed, he told me he doesn't like the dinners I make and suggested we order pizza instead. So he's banned from dinnertime at our house.

Anyway, some days we have to walk him to the door, put him on our porch, and close the door behind him. Sad, but also sadly necessary.

Anyway, how do you kick your kids' clingy friends out the door at the end of the day?