Spring Break In Georgia

Gabbie loved seeing her cousins when we visited them in Georgia. Her cousins probably got tired of Gabbie following her around but they were troopers. Gabbie adores her cousins.

Gabbie's cousin taught her how to climb down from the top bunk...

They snuck into the strawberries together. (I'm sure Gabbie would have done this one all on her own because the second she saw all the cartons of strawberries, she wanted to 'hold' the bag and 'carry' them up the stairs for us)

While at Missie and Justin's, Gabbie got a package from her Grandma Christensen. She has been making quilts for all the grandchildren from youngest to oldest and Gabs' turn came up. She was super excited to have a katty cover (kitty cat). Every night we were there, she had to sleep with it.

This is Noah's opinion on Freakanomics, which Kyle was reading.

The kids got to dye easter eggs together. This was the first time that Gabbie had actually understood what we were doing so it was fun.

A little break for some strawberries...

Grandma Christensen check out her tongue! Doesn't she look like Kyle?

Playing in the backyard together...

And Noah finally got to be held and fed by his big cousin.

Thank you so much for letting us come visit guys. It was a great getaway and Gabbie loved getting to know her cousins!

Spring Break..On the Road

Kyle had Spring Break a few weeks ago. We just needed to get out of Houston and away from our house. We called up Kyle's sister Missie in Atlanta, Georgia and asked if she would mind if we came up to visit for the week. We hadn't seen them since they moved away from Utah two years ago. Missie said it would be okay for us to come so we packed up all our stuff and got ready to leave on Saturday morning.

As many of you know, Kyle has applied for a teaching position with the Department of Defense Education Activity. On Friday morning, we all woke up really early to drive him up to the airport so he could fly to Arlington, Virginia and do a screening interview for the DoD. Then Saturday morning we picked him up again from the airport and took off to go to Georgia. Apparently everyone in Texas had the idea to leave the state because traffic was ridiculous trying to get out. We sat for almost two-three hours in traffic in Louisiana. The driving part of road trips are my favorite parts of vacation. Here are some of the pictures that we always have to take while driving.

Gabbie was so excited to pick Daddy up from the airport. It was very unusual for us to spend a whole day without him. It was the first time in our married life that he was gone and we didn't see him the whole day. That was very different.

One of the driving pictures that we always end up taking...

Noah wanted to chew and munch on something so we handed him a roll that I had made and he started chowing down...

Gabs wasn't so sure about the roll though. She was too excited to eat much of anything.

At one of our numerous stops along the way, Noah decided he wanted to help Daddy drive...

Gabs got his little music player on a book that I got from working at the Scholastic Warehouse and she wouldn't part from it on the road. Whenever she would drop it or couldn't reach it, she would say: "My listener, I need my listener".

My road picture...

On the trip home, we had strawberries in the cooler and the kids wanted to have one. Noah eats them very much like his Daddy and his big sister did when she was his age...

And this is what he looked like after his strawberry. He was so proud of himself.

When we got back to our house and dumped out the ice from the cooler, Gabs went straight over to it, sat down on the grass and started picking up pieces of ice to eat. Crazy girl!

Road trips are so much fun. I know most people prefer to fly but with my dad being a truck driver, we never flew anywhere. It was always driving. Some of my most memorable vacations were the ones where we played games together in the car on the drive.

March

We did a lot of experimenting in March in regards to cooking. Kyle is super talented with making pizza. One night while I was out working at the Scholastic Warehouse (for free books), he decided to make a chicken pesto, stuffed crust pizza. It sure looked pretty, and it didn't taste too bad either!

I love these two kids. They are a handful some days but I wouldn't change my time with them for anything.

Another fun trip to the zoo...

We got to see the new Jaguar exhibit at our zoo on the day we went. It was fun to see the section of the zoo that had been blocked off again.

Noah is very much like his big sister with bananas. They both love them so much and would eat two or three each day if we would let them.

For some reason, Gabbie loves this pose. She also loves to put on socks and pull up one leg of her jammies. (Thanks Missie for the clothes! Gabs loves them!)

March brought the 27th birthday for my hunny. Gabs and I made him a vanilla cake with chocolate icing from scratch and a special dinner of Chicken Kiev and steamed veggies.

"Happy Birthday to you..."

Gabbie attended our ward's Easter activity. She was able to stuff an egg crate full of plastic eggs with symbols for the crucifixion and atonement of Jesus Christ. Then the kids all tried to do the bunny hop and dance. She didn't really want any part in that though.

Noah woke up early one morning and came into the bed with us. He fell asleep in my arms and I couldn't resist letting him stay there and snuggling with him. These are the times that I miss with Gabs and Noah because they are getting so big and don't really want to lay/sit still long enough to snuggle with me.

Noah is such a handsome little guy. We catch ourselves going into his room some nights just to look at him while he's sleeping. There is such a look of pure peace on his face when he sleeps.

More posts to come about Spring Break, Easter, and a visit from the Campbell Family.

Silly Guys

We sure love to be silly in our family. Here are some of the pictures of us in action:

Gabbie loves to sit down in the clothes baskets and ask us to push her. It's something she has done since she was a little baby about the size of Noah. Now we can't just let her have all the fun so we sit Bubby in there too and let him ride. The problem is, the two of them combined is just too heavy for Mom to push. By the time we get through the living room into the kitchen, my legs are about ready to fall off.

The theme of my classroom the last year I taught was Harry Potter so I bought this totally cool version of the sorting hat, which is a puppet too, not just a hat. Kyle brought it out for Gabs and she got to pretend to be a wizard.

One night for Family Home Evening we were talking about our bodies and used the glove in the picture for an object lesson. Kyle then proceeded to blow it up and create this little person we lovingly refer to as "Chip".

Gabbie loves him!

Ahh nuts! Caught!

Whenever it is yucky and rainy outside, Gabs and I create a fort. We pull out our blankets and pillows and just hang out underneath the chairs and blankets we used to make the fort. This time we got the camera and took some silly face pictures.

Kids definitely change you. Before Gabbie, (well before I met and married Kyle too) I would never do things that were silly because I was too shy and embarrassed. That is no longer the case, most of the time anyways.

Anniversary (a month late)

Our anniversary this year was pretty low key. We went out on Valentines Day to this Stake Adult Couples Dance. It was interesting. The band was very old and so was there music choice. We dance a few slow songs but that was about it. It was actually more fun to sit and watch all the married couples, from the ones who had been married for 50 years to the one who had only been married for 3 months.

Here are some of the few pictures we took while there... us dancing and then some random pictures of a few of our friends in the ward.

After the dance, which we left early from because Kyle hated it, we went to the movies to see 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief'. I have read the entire series so I wasn't too impressed with the movie. There's almost always some huge things left out in movies that were so good in the books, which is why I prefer reading over watching movies. But, if you haven't read the books, then the movie would probably seem really good. I guess my advice would be to go see the movie before you read the books then go back and read the book! It's so much better and would make things a lot clearer.

It's been three challenging, life changing years together with Kyle. We have made some huge decisions, some good and some not as good. I am very grateful that we have been able to make those choices through careful consideration and prayer. We have gotten closer as we have dealt with our trials and learned a lot about each other. I love Kyle and know that no matter what the future holds, we will be blessed. Thanks for all the wonderful memories and experiences so far hun.

So Much for Texas Never Getting Cold

When we first moved to Houston last summer we had a number of people tell us that it never gets really cold. The weather was supposed to be cool and breezy but not terribly cold. Man were they wrong this year. We have had a few days where it was ridiculously cold. In fact, the temperature was so unexpected that we were not able to find a winter coat for Noah or Gabbie (she's still wearing one that is too little). We looked around all the stores but the heaviest coat we could find was a thin fleece jacket. So, whenever we needed to go outside, the kids were dressed up like this....

(We don't normally go outside at night but this time we walked to the nearby high school to watch my little sister's boyfriend play baseball.)

Ode to Gabs

So, since I made that other video for my class, I decided that I would create a more family related video... actually, it's all about Gabs.  Stay tuned for another video for Noah.

(Christy is telling me right now that she may do one related to Gabs and Noah together and one for the parents as well... can you tell we really like this new program?)

(Christy also just mentioned that I should tell you all that Animoto is only free for us because I am a teacher and I have an educator's account.  It costs $30 a year for people who aren't using it for education.) - technically, I shouldn't use it for my own purposes, but I'm doing it anyway... just cause I want to.

Tribute to MLK jr.

I made this for my classes today, thought you might be interested.

(It's called "Tribute to MLK jr")