Spring Break Adventure

For Spring Break this year Jamie wanted to take a short trip.  I like staying in hotels as much as the next person, but I much prefer them sans children. But once the kids overheard the tentative plans, it was all over.  

We headed to Waco on Sunday evening.  It's only an hour and a half away.  Just far enough to make it seem like a "trip" but not so far that the car ride with the kids was unbearable. Plus we stopped for dinner half way through.  I do not know how or why people would willingly take road trips with children!

Once we got there, we were all excited! Our main entertainment for the evening was riding the luggage cart through the halls, then we went for an evening swim.

The next morning the Nydeggers joined us at the hotel.  We had breakfast together and went swimming again. 

After a long swim (and racing the clock to get everyone dressed and packed up and checked out by 11!) we went to Rudy's for lunch.  Our party of 11, including 8 kids under 8 attracted a lot of attention!

Boston lost his second tooth this month. It was so loose it was bothering him when he ate, so Jamie offered him $1 to place a straw over it and then yank the straw down.  Jamie did most of the yanking, but it came right out!

After lunch we headed to the Cameron Park Zoo.  We have been several times over the last few years.  It's a great zoo!

The kids were not as miserable as some of them look in this picture=) They love being together with their cousins!

These boys love any chance to spend together.  They are best buds.

After the zoo we did a kid swap! Cade and Boston headed to Austin, and we brought Kaycee and Harper home with us.  It was funny for Erin and I to get a taste of what the other has on a daily basis--3 girls and a boy vs. 3 boys and a girl.

We have definitely never played kitchen, dolls, and puppies so much as when the girls were here! They were both so sweet to Avery, and Hudson loved having some different play mates around.

I only had them for one day and one night before they went to Mom's house, but it was a blast! It was a late night, though.  Harper kept telling me she would be able to tell when she was getting sleepy because her eyes would be burning and heavy, but they were most definitely not up until about 10:00!

Thanks for coming girlies!

Easter Weekend

You can usually tell when we've had a busy/full weekend by looking around my house.  

Right now there are piles of clean clothes in my room that will possibly just get thrown in the washer again because they're starting to mix with the dirty.  And tonight I told the boys to use the lid to a storage bin as a plow to clear a path in the rubble from the door to their bed.  

There's always tomorrow for catching up on chores, right?

We had a full Easter weekend.  Thursday I volunteered in Boston's class for a spring scavenger hunt.  They went all over the school gathering eggs that had pieces to decorate their felt bunnies.  I brought Cade and Avery with me (Hudson was in Plano) and Cade had a great time tagging along with Boston and his classmates.  

Right after school we headed to Plano for Mike and Melinda's announcement of the gender of their baby...it's a boy! Hooray for more cousins!

We spent the night since Boston didn't have school Friday.  Friday morning we colored Easter eggs.  Growing up we always made "name eggs" (for lack of a better term). Easter morning we'd search for our baskets and the name eggs would mark who the baskets belonged to.  With our kids, we don't hide the real eggs, but I still wanted to make them each a name egg!

Friday afternoon it was beautiful and sunny so we went to the park for several hours.  Boston and Hudson got some sun on their faces, and Avery got her first tan lines...from her headband of course!

Easter Sunday was wonderful.  Last week one of Jamie's cousins had a still-born baby.  My heart is broken for Ashley and Kevin.  Baby Lily was on my mind all week, especially on Easter.  What a day of hope and peace, celebrating the resurrection of the Savior.

Of course I had to get Avery all dolled up for church.  Cade kept telling me she looked like a princess.  I tend to agree!

My favorite picture of the day...my four babes.  I am so blessed to be their mom!

Monday was back to the grind for Boston and Jamie, but the rest of us went to the zoo with Cade's pre-school class. Hudson was too interested in a mother duck and her ducklings to notice the animal in this exhibit!

Little miss charmed everybody from her stroller and then took a snooze.

Hudson walked through most of the zoo, except for the times when I wrestled him into the stroller so we could go faster. He was worn out by the end for sure!

Having an outing go perfectly smoothly would be too much to ask for with multiple children, and this was no exception.  On the way to the car, all three were crying: Avery because she was tired of sitting in the stroller and ready for a nap, Hudson because he insisted on resting his foot on the wheel and I kept telling him no (toddlers don't like being told no!) and Cade because I wouldn't stop and let him get a smashed penny, what with the two younger ones wailing.  After a quick drive home and a good solid nap, all the turmoil was forgotten and we are still talking about our fun zoo trip!

It was a fun-filled weekend, but I'm a home-body at heart, so I am glad to be back to my little house with just my little family...even if it does mean there's a mountain of laundry and I'll need a shovel to dig my way through the boys' room.

When Birds Attack

It's nice to spend some one-on-one time with each of the boys every once in a while, although they definitely love doing things together. I don't think Boston remembers what it was like being an only child, and of course Cade has had big brother around since day one. Still, when a group of moms and little ones from church were getting together to go to the zoo, I decided to send Boston off to pre-school and just take Cade. It was so easy just having one (although I don't remember things feeling "easy" when Boston was my only one; my perspective has just changed). It didn't matter that he didn't want to ride in the stroller or hold my hand, because I just had one child to keep track of! We had a great time together; the zoo is such a magical place for kids.

One of the attractions we always enjoy whenever we go to the zoo is where you can pay $1 to buy a bird seed stick and go in the exhibit to feed them. Sometimes they are already full and don't want much to do with us thrusting seed sticks at them on their perches. But today, they were super hungry and aggressive! As soon as we walked in, two or three birds at a time started landing on Cade's stick. It started out really fun...Cade was yelling, "look I'm holding a bird! cool!"

Then things got a little crazy when some of the larger birds started flying around us. This one tried to land on Cade's arm, and from the sharp birdie nails to the wings flapping in his face...it was just too much. Begin melt-down.

He was crying and yelling, "i don't like these birds anymore!"

After that bird flew off I tried to console him and salvage the experience, but he was definitely done. So we gave our seeds to somebody else and watched our friends do the bird-feeding thing from the safety of outside the exhibit.
Other than the bird attack, we had such a fun time. Cade has been talking about it a lot since then. But if you ask him about it, the first thing he says is, "a bird landed on my finger and I cried."

That about covers it I guess.

(I love that my photographer friend Vipha happened to catch the whole thing so we have the memories and the photos to laugh about!)

Zoo Trip

Erin and Harper were in town this week, so Wednesday we loaded up and headed to the Fort Worth Zoo. My boys LOVE the zoo. It never gets old. We couldn't have asked for better weather, and all the kiddos {and adults!} had a great time.

Odds and Ends

This week has flown by! The highlight for Boston, I'm sure, was going to the zoo on Wednesday. My parents were nice enough to pick him up in the morning and take him for the day so that I could sleep and Jamie could get some things done and then he had class in the afternoon. Side note: Both of our families are so amazing. They do so much for us. We could not have made it through this last year-with all the craziness of me working full time and Jamie working and going to school-without the help of our families. There have been times when Jamie and I have wondered how things would be different if we hadn't moved to Texas. He'd be further along in school and we sure miss our friends and the social life we had in Utah. But we definitely feel like moving to Texas was the right thing for us, and like I said, we could not have made it without the help of our families! So...thank you Mom, Dad, Mike, and Nelwyn! Here are some pictures from the zoo outing.
I am told Boston's favorite animal of the day was the gorilla, so I had to include this one.
After the zoo, Mom and Dad took Boston back to their house so that Jamie and I could go on a date. It was a last minute idea, but turned out to be SO fun. We went to Boston's Pizza (coincidentally Dad took Boston to Boston Market for dinner...I guess it was just a Boston night!) and ate until we were stuffed, then went and walked around Southlake, an outdoor mall. It was a beautiful night and so nice just to be able to be alone together, sans children, even though we did talk about Boston and the new baby a lot...what's new?! We sat and had Jamba Juice (which I crave basically every day) and talked and it was just wonderful. I can't remember the last time we went out on an official date. And with all that we have going on in the next few weeks/months, it may be a while until we get another chance. Thanks again, Mom and Dad, for making it possible.

After having Boston gone all day, it was nice to get back to my parents' and see him and let him tell me all the exciting things he did that day. He told me all the animals he saw and what sounds they made and what actions they did. It was pretty amusing.

Unfortunately I'm ending this post on a negative note...as precious as our little darling is during the day, he is quite the monster at nighttime. He is really struggling lately going to bed and staying in his bed all night. We don't know what to do, except just try to stay consistent and return him to his bed everytime he gets up, but it is a test of patience, let me tell ya! I seriously hope that things are back to normal before the new baby comes because I can't imagine being up all night with the baby plus fighting Boston to stay in his bed, but I don't know if I can necessarily see the end in sight yet. Wish us luck!

It's a zoo around here!

Today we went to the Fort Worth Zoo and had a great time. We decided to take advantage of half-price admission on Wednesdays and go for a few hours this morning before it got too hot. My parents came with us. As we were walking through I mentioned to my mom how much fun simple things are when experiencing them through Boston's eyes. He really loves animals still so I knew he'd enjoy it. The last few days I've been asking him what animals he wanted to see at the zoo and he's been listing off his favorites. Elephants are always at the top of his list. I was just worried about him not cooperating with staying in the wagon and wanting to walk, but he did great. I was a little disappointed that several of the animals I was excited for him to see {like the lions, tigers, and hippos} were not really out, but Boston definitely didn't care. He was just happy to see everything that we pointed out and just take it all in! We saw a lot of gorillas and monkeys and he loved those. Anyway...enough typing...the pictures really tell the story! {they are very random, no particular order}

On the hunt for animals!
Big hugs for the baby elephant!

Watching monkeys with Dad {I love how their mouths look the same}
Watching more animals with Grammy
I guess it's hard to tell how big this giraffe is, but it's just a little baby-so cute!
A huge silverback gorilla close up...a little too close for comfort. He was a little nervous and didn't want to stand there for long.
I love this picture of me and my big boy!
Silly Boss in a silly hat from the gift shop!