Between Here and There

Nothing like a good chicken bone to chew on!

We are so thankful for this girl.  She is so sweet.   Since first holding her in our arms to now when she wakes up in the middle of the night just to come out to say I love you and Goodnight again.  I can't believe I'm already looking back and wondering how it is that she grew up so fast.  6 years old.  Wow. We started off the morning with breakfast and the first round of presents.  Included were some Lalaloopsy tatoos.  Kyle told her that these last a whole year.  I heard her later explaining this fact to Aunt Julianna on the phone.  The tatoo is Rosy Bumps n' Bruises who she received as a present and opened after dinner.  We went for a short walk and out to a neighborhood park before lunch.  The raced and chased with Kyle and slid down the slide and practiced her racing against the stopwatch.   We met some friends at Cameron Park for cake and playing after naps.  It was super windy.  The cakes on the plates weren't staying put, the cups were blowing over, it

The kids were in the Christmas narrative play at church.  Lillian was an angel again (sorry no pic) and Wesley was a sheep.  Jack refused.  The boys sat with us until it was time for the sheep to 'appear'.  It is a narrative from Adam and Eve thru the birth of Christ with lots of hymns sung in the middle.  When it was Wes' turn there were about 7 (6-7 year old) shepherd boys and one sheep, Wesley.  Wes was pretty clueless as to his role but this photo captures his look throughout: mouth open, blank stare, ears crooked.  At one point the shepherds continued forward and Wesley had to be grabbed and carried up the stairs to his spot.  He was now in a prime viewing spot.  We saw him and he watched us.  Overall very cute and squeezable of course. (I'm just now posting since it was on my phone, hence the poor quality.  We were told no pictures, just enjoying watching your kids.  Just one please.)

Last week we went over to the Legend Crossing's park after school.  I took the kid's scooters and a snack. Kyle met us there.  Somehow it was a lot windier in that part of town but it was still really nice to be out.  Jack fell and scraped his knee within minutes of being there and then did it again 20 minutes later.  We ended up cutting it short anyway because Lillian had to use the bathroom at the no-bathroom park. Yesterday we went down to Cameron Park.  It was a beautiful day and I knew it was going to get cold for the next couple days.  Wes loved playing on the huge playground.  At one point he peered down the slide but then another kid came along so he took a step back to get out of the way.  Well, wrong move Wes.  There is a nice hole behind you in this spot with a ladder for kids to climb up and into.  So he fell right through and landed hard on the ground.  I saw this in slow motion and was only close enough to pick him up at the end of the all the bad stuff

This boy is such a handful these days.  Almost 2 year olds are trouble!  This is what his hair looked like when he woke up the other day.  Yesterday he got a comment from a man saying he loved Wes' bed-head look.  He's perfected that look.

The kids got to try some sparkling apple cider in celebration on the New Year.  And of course they love saying "cheers." And here's our Christmas slideshow for those of you who are aching for extra photos.

That was fun guys.  Let's do again next year!

We have had some great warm temperatures with sunshine recently although it seems to be going up and down a lot.  I don't mind the freezing temps at night so long as I don't have to bundle my kids up for playing in the snow the next day.  Just now the kids ran out to jump on the trampoline and decided to have Wes lay in the middle and the other two jump over him.  Great game kids! We had a lot of fun (and highly recommend to all Wacoans) going to the top of the parking garage on campus to ride bikes and scooters and run around.  Nobody was around, the sky was blue, and you could see for miles.