February

February was quite an eventful month.  It literally flew by!  Reid had his first t-ball practice.  It was very interesting.  Jason got roped into signing up to be an assistant coach and since then, we've realized that aside from Coach Sean and his sweet wife, no other couple really seems to be committed to practices, games, etc.  They don't even bother responding to the automated "don't leave Coach in suspense...will you be there?" emails.  And after this one practice, pretty much two or three games and numerous practices were canceled/postponed due to weather.  First, ice/snow, then rain.  It's been the rainiest spring I can remember up here.  Goodness knows we need it, but it figures it'd be Reid's first year of t-ball. 

My little pumpkin is just too adorable when he sleeps.  I have to check on both boys each night, but there is just something so precious about a sleeping baby...

While Jason was in the Amazon, Murphy's Law would have it that Reid got Frogalicious, the preschool class mascot who comes home with kids over the weekend.  Horrible timing, but I did my best.  Frogalicious had visited us already, so at least there was less pressure this time.  He went with us to the gym...

...played My Singing Monsters on the iPad, and other various things that weren't really worth sharing pics of.  I tried.

Jason came home the day before Valentine's Day, which was great because party days totally wear me out.  The kids get soooo excited that it's virtually impossible to teach.  But one awesome mom made my day with a unique gift this year.  Forget the chocolate...  I like the way this lady thinks!

Reid was thrilled to get a goody box from his little buddy Violet, who moved to New York.  His face just lit up with the goodies and he was in heaven receiving his own package in the mail.

Jason and I escaped for a date night the following week.  We headed down to Plano for an amazing dinner at Sushi Sake.  The place is so delicious that you pretty much have to get there by 5:30 or you'll be waiting for hours.  You share your own sushi chef with a few others, and he prepares your meal right before your eyes if you're at the sushi bar.  Nothing in this place disappoints and everything is beautifully prepared.  But this one took the cake...  The dinner that looks back at you!

You know you're getting old when date night consists of dining followed by a trip to Academy to buy t-ball stuff and new sneakers.  Woo hoo.  But so much easier to do than attempting to shop while juggling two kids.  And bonus?  Who knew Academy was so nice and quiet at 8pm on a Friday night??  We enjoyed our time together and still made it home for an early bedtime.  Yup, that's what old married folks with young kids do.  And I wouldn't change it :)

Amazonia

Yes, I am still alive!  How sad is it that it's 2:30am and I haven't slept since about midnight...  Things have been crazy.  In happy news, we accepted an offer on our house (after an insane half week of showings!) and are praying that everything goes smoothly.  Only drawback?  We're going to have about a six day gap between closing on our old house and new house.  Eek!  And of course, that's the busiest time of the year for school.  Thankful nonetheless, but I can't stop thinking about all those little things...  Will we stay in a hotel?  What are we going to do about movers?  What about the cat?  How much stuff will we need to keep with us?  Blah blah blah.  You get the picture.  Thus the sleeplessness, which led my mind onto other things...like, "Oh--I haven't updated the blog in forever (even though I uploaded a ton of pictures when we had all the snow days)!" 

So let's back it up to the first week in February!  After months of preparation, shots, and malaria pills, Jason had the opportunity to go on a peacock bass fishing trip in the Amazon, beginning in Manaus, a tiny little town in Brazil.  After a commercial flight and a brief stay in the Brazilian town, the group squished onto a private plane.

So private that you could reach up and touch the pilot...eek!

I'm sure I don't have these in the right order, but the pictures were too cool to not share.  Brief synopsis:  They basically pay guides (some of them being about 12 years old!) to assist you with fishing.  The guides are from remote villages right off of the Amazon and often don't speak any English.  Rather than bunking with the tourists, they would actually hang their hammocks up in the edge of the jungle, with all the wildlife.  Here's one of the guides holding the holy grail of fishing...the peacock bass.

They would dock the bunkhouses along the beach each night and make a fire (to keep away jaguars, etc.), cook, then everyone would retire to bed.

One cabin was the mess hall.  

Jason relaxing in a hammock 

Can't remember the name of this, but it's where the river meets another tributary and there is a visible line between the two.  Pretty crazy!

It sounded like he was a bit disappointed that they didn't see nearly the wildlife we were expecting, such as monkeys and rare birds (only saw a few at all), but on the other hand that may be a good thing.  The biggest threat actually ended up being caiman, which apparently get huge, and they did see their fair share of piranha. 

They were hooked up with other groups of guys, but here are the actual men from Jason's group.

Along the way, they got to sample local fauna and food.  Here's a cacao seed they tried, freshly macheted from the tree.

Hanging out during the heat of the day still required long sleeves and pants, thanks to the intense sun and possible mosquitoes.

Dining al fresco...Amazon style.  Watch out for worms in your peacock bass :(

The inside of the cabins were nicer than what I was envisioning (mind you, this is 4-5 star stuff...seriously!).  There was even a toilet, but with Jason's luck, theirs didn't exactly work.

dolphin who swam alongside the boats for awhile

While they fished during the day, the cabins would all be connected like a train and transported to the evening's destination.

Guide with another peacock bass

Back in the little town ready to take off to Manaus and return to civilization!  The village children's favorite pasttime is running behind the plane on the little dirt runway.  I wish I'd have known they were in a village and we could've packed something for the kids...but Jason did have a weight/size limit that was very small, so it may not have worked anyway.

I was so, so grateful that he made it back intact, GI system okay, malaria free.  It was a rough week on the home front without Daddy here to help at night with the boys, but I'm glad he had some "man time".  He's glad he took the opportunity and went on this once-in-a-lifetime trip, but I'm pretty sure he'd never do it again.  And I am just fine with that!  ;)

Happy New Year!

Steven and Aimee threw a little New Year's Even shindig and Reid was waaaay more than excited to go to "Harrison's house" again, twice in the same week!  I think he probably bugged us all afternoon asking if it was time to go.  There were lots of kids there and they all had tons of fun, as did we adults.  Our little Maverick (my phone was too slow to ever get a decent pic, but you get the idea).

The kids enjoyed Chick-fil-A nuggets, hot cocoa with candy canes, and all kinds of goodies.

Reid loved the noisemakers.

Taunt (Aimee) had thought of all sorts of fun things for the kids to do each hour as we counted down to 2015.  There was a bag labeled for each hour, each with a fun activity (hot cocoa, blowers, silly string, balloons, etc.).

We had a great time and enjoyed ourselves.  Reid begged to go back for at least the next week :)  On New Year's Day, we had to get the traditional pics of a baby new year once we were back at home.  He wasn't big on the pictures, but had fun with the blower and the balloons.

 

Of course, big bro had to be a photo bomber...

Looking forward to big things this year in 2015!  We're thankful for our family, friends, and making many more exciting memories this year.

Christmas Day...Cont.

I know...  I know...  It's March, and I'm still stuck in December on this darn blog.  Don't hate.  I'll get current someday, lol!!  This whole moving thing has put us into a tailspin.  And then I decided to consign at a consignment sale (lots of work, but it was worth it PLUS I kept my promise to Jason that I'd get all the big baby stuff out of the house before it goes on the market!).  And then we had unexpected snow days.  And then I've juggled kids/packing the entire spring break.  And.  And. And. 

Anyhow, back up a few months and we continue with Christmas Day!  After a quiet, fun morning at home, Steve and Aimee invited us over for a fun, family-filled, delicious Christmas.  And may I just say that I am so disappointed I didn't get a picture of the actual decadent dinner.  Five stars!!  Steven and Aimee went all out and made a gloriously mouth-watering spread.  I will forever talk about the roasted brussel sprouts.  Oh. My. Yumminess!!  Let's just say I had four (five?) servings.  They were small servings.  I didn't want to dominate them until I was sure everyone had plenty. 

But now I will wipe the drool off of the keyboard and continue...  We even got to see Grandma Will!  She got to meet Carter in person for the first time and we all enjoyed visiting with her.  Just wish she lived closer so we could see her more.

Getting some Aunt Kristen lovin'

The kids all opened presents.  Reid and Carter pretty much love anything Planes, so they were two peas in a pod and inseperable.

The kids were all really cute with Carter.  They big boys loved getting him to smile or laugh at them, and even Harrison took a turn feeding him a bottle for a few minutes.

Carter was all smiles and on his best behavior.  Big belly laughs for Papa!

One even got me this super cute grin!

Double Trouble?  They were actually really good, not too wild, and had so much fun, even though we were there way past bedtime. 

Henry with Mamare

The boys all love their Aunt Kristen.  I could never really get everyone smiling and looking in the right direction, but you can see what fun they had trying.  Carter was already asleep, so he missed out on the dogpile.

So thankful for fun family time, delicious food and wine, but best of all, for the memories we made with loved ones.  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve & Day

Well, gee...  Can't think of a better way to waste precious nap/quiet time on a Saturday than to redo the same exact blog entry because it wouldn't save the first time around.  Probably won't be as witty and charming this go 'round. Wahoo...trying round two!

I, ahem I mean *Santa,* has never waited this long to shop, wrap, and prepare.  There were really a lot more traditions I wanted to start this year, but due to time constraints (that flu, bronchitis, pneumonia really cut into things...and that's on top of report cards, Christmas parties, and a billion other things at that busy time of year), space constraints (yes, we have SO outgrown this house--I had no secret place to wrap presents this year!), and just darn exhaustion, we didn't get to many of them.  Reid was really into the holiday spirit this year and it was fun to watch him get excited about everything.  Christmas Eve came rather quickly and we hadn't even gotten to bake Santa's cookies.  Thankfully, he had decided that his special ones from Ellison's cookie party were just for Santa (and boy, were they delicious!).  We did start the reindeer food tradition this year.  Reid was so excited to sprinkle it in the backyard.

Reid typically eats dinner as s-l-o-w-l-y as he can and is the world's worst at making bath time and bed time linger on and on, but once we mentioned Santa can't come until he's asleep, things moved at a much more rapid pace.  We didn't even have to come in and threaten him or turn off his Christmas lights!  He even agreed to read a (gasp!) different story from his Bible...the Christmas story rather than Pharoah's Dream.  After making sure he was really asleep, it was on to preparing.  Even though I'd tried to do what I could ahead of time, it took until midnight to get things set up.  I was quite grateful a couple of fellow moms had mentioned Santa doesn't wrap things at their house, which also solves the problem of keeping Santa wrapping versus Mom wrapping separate, etc. 

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there...

The children were nestled, all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-somethings danced in this one's head...  Or maybe it was just the peppermint lights Buddy, our elf, brought Reid this year!

I heard Reid get up sometime before dawn and go to the restroom, but thankfully he climbed back into bed and eventually went back to sleep.  I managed to get up just before he did and turn on all the lights downstairs.  He came bursting out of his room and exclaimed, "It's Christmas!!!  Did Santa come??"  I somehow convinced him to wait upstairs a few minutes while I changed Carter and let Daddy have time to wash his face.  Then, he flew downstairs.  I'd wanted to be at the bottom to see his reaction, but he beat me!

Reid dove into the presents.  Carter, on the other hand, would've been perfectly content to play with the wrapping and boxes.  It's the little things in life.

Dixie agreed with Carter and enjoyed the wrapping and boxes, until she discovered that Santa brought her catnip.  Don't tell Reid it was several years old.  He'd asked specifically if Santa was bringing Dixie a present and why we didn't have a stocking for her (actually, I think I have an old cat stocking in a box somewhere, but Jason had already put all the boxes back up in the attic at that point).  No matter...Dixie definitely enjoyed her kitty crack.

Reid was very, very specific about what he wanted from Santa.  Items from his list included 12 chocolate candy canes (not so easy to find!), new toys for Carter, Pez and a Frozen dispenser (also not easy to find--thanks, Amazon!), and a new Flat Stanley book.  No one had ordered from my December Scholastic book order, so I was afraid I might be out of luck, but thankfully a co-worker had a practically new Flat Stanley...meaning we no longer had to read the Halloween one!!  Hallelujah.  I think I had that one memorized. 

Carter's favorite thing ended up being travel wipes and the dancing Pluto.  Pluto, we expected.  Travel wipes?  Go figure.

Reid also wanted spy gear after he'd seen the spy watch we'd gotten for cousin Henry.  This little headband with spy light was a hit.  He also wanted Cabbie, from Planes 2 after seeing what we'd gotten cousin Harrison.  Maybe next year, I should just order duplicates of whatever the cousins want.

Happy boy with more Planes 2 goodies!

And a super rock crawler remote car.  We had fun with it indoors for several cold weeks, then it got to go outdoors, which made it like new again.  He's going to have a blast with it in our new, huge backyard at the next house!

Carter seriously would've been fine with the wrapping paper and boxes, but with Reid specifically asking for new toys for him (and I was already imagining the "was Carter naughty?" questions if he didn't have several toys), how could we resist?

He plays with this cute chair every day now when we get home.  Didn't have much of a draw until Jason got the batteries installed, then viola!

 Until he noticed the cat was headed for the stairs...and the gate was open!  We've had to really keep an eye on that, and make sure the gate is closed ALL the way.  Little sneaker.

The boys had so much fun on Christmas Day.  The biggest present for me was watching how excited they got over their presents.  We're so thankful for our newest gift this year, Carter, but most importantly for His gift of His Son.