Tropical Paradise

 

Ok maybe just the Arboretum and not a tropical paradise but the weather is quite tropical.  I really don't know how anyone can complain.  I love it so much!  I don't think this turkey let me get one picture of her face.  She was far too busy!

 

 

We hit the Arboretum with friends last week.  It was a perfect day to run and play.  Here is Bailey and Kai having a race.

 

 

Sweet Sisters running along. :)

 

Sister and Cahse trying to climb into the fountain. :)

 

 

Trying to get these monkeys to both look at the camera smiling is a challenge.

 

 

There they are.  THey had playing in the coach.

 

 

It was lead by horses!

 

 

There favorite part though is to play in all of the little houses.  Actually sister just played in the dirt outside the houses.

 

 

I guess either Bailey remembers taking pictures in these houses or remembers seeing the pictures because she asked me to take her picture several times. :)

 

 

Love her sweet little face.

 

 

It was a fun day Sugie bear! 

 

 

Update on this sweet thing and her naps.  I had posted on FB not long ago that she was all over the place with naps but mostly still needed to take one but when she did she would sometimes be up until midnight and then tired the next day and then this vicious cycle would continue.  She seems to have settled into a pattern of mostly not napping now and it seems to be working out much better.  She still occasionally will crash out in the afternoon but it seems to be only happening about once a week now.  She has even stayed awake in the car on the way home from the ARboretum and Zoo in the late afternoon.  I can sure use a nap on those days.  Perhaps she could drive us home! HA! :)  Glad that that transition phase seems to be passing!

LLLuckily I am finished!

 

I am going to toot my own horn for a bit. Ha!  As some of you know I have been working on becoming a La Leche League Leader for some time now.  It has invovled a lot of reading and meetings with other leaders but I am finally finished and now accredited!  So, now I will begin to take phone calls and lead meetings and help moms who want to breastfeed!

 

 

Daysh, Jen, Amy, Me, and Barrie!

 

LLLucky for me I get to have wonderful co-leaders to work with.  Barrie has been our fearless leader through it all.  When I first started coming to meetings we were all pregnant with our first babies.  I have learned so much through her and through other mothers.  Jen joined us from another group, Amy became a leader last year and Daysha just became a leader with me.  We are the best if I do say so myself. 

 

Anyway, I am very excited.  If you haven't noticed I have a great passion for seeing other mothers succeed at breastfeeding.  A friend asked me if I would be hunting moms down and making them breastfeed! I just laughed.  This is not a witch hunt.  La Leche believes in helping moms who WANT to breastfeed and are seeking help. 

I alwasy tell moms to attend meetings while they are PREGNANT!  It really does make a difference to have a good support group.  Breastfeeding is not a walk in the park.  I often have people say to me, "You are so lucky that breastfeeding comes so easy for you.  It was not easy for me."  Yes, I feel blessed to have been able to nurse my children but I don't think that "easy" is the term that I would put on it.  In fact there have been times that it really sucked! HA!  What I was lucky to have was a wonderful group of women to support me and push me through the tough times so that I could give the very best to my babies.  So, find a group near you! http://www.lllusa.org/groups.php  If you live near me then come visit us! We have a fun great group of women!  http://texaslll.org/group/lake-ray-hubbard  When I typed this the website is under construction and the link isn't working but hopefully it will be up soon!

 

 

Drawings, museum, pj day and malt shop

We have sort of been here and there and everywhere this week.

 

 

On Tuesday we woke up to it snowing.  It was sort of a shocker because I don't think anyone expected.  I was annoyed by it and didn't take one picture! HA!  Bailey's little friend, Braden that I take to school came over and played instead of them going to school.  After he left Bailey drew him and her on the Magna Doodle.  Her drawings are still cracking me up!

 

 

On Wednesday we went to the Children's museum.  It is so fun that mckenzie can just play and not just be getting into everything.  We did a little shopping,

 

 

a little boating,

 

 

and road in the rocketship

 

 

Thursday was PJ day at school.  Bailey and Braden looked too cute before they left for school!  They also had a little puppet show.

 

 

Today we went to a cute litte malt shop with my MOMS group.  They loved sitting on the spinning bar stools.

 

 

This monkey ate her whole entire hot dog!

 

 

Guess what this monkey ate?  The candy! HA! 

 

It's been a fun week!

Strike!

 

So one day it was sunny and 70 and then the weekend comes and it is cold and rainy! BLAH!  WE decided to take the kids bowling to get out a little extra energy.

 

 

Sugie acted like an old pro even though it had been over a year since she had bowled

 

 

It was sisters first time to bowl.  The last time we went bowling she was asleep in the sling I think!

 

 

She was pretty proud of herself.

 

 

Silly sister!

 



 

I think they had more fun dancing to the music

 

 

than they did bowling.  I should have gotten some video of their skills! HA!

Zoo Time

It has finally turned cold (cold for Texas) and been rainy here but on Friday the forecast was sunny and 70 so we decided to hit the zoo!  WE hadn't been in a little while and we went with some friends from MOMS club.

 

 

First we took in the carousel. It is so hard to believe that not that long ago sister was too small the ride the carousel.

 

 

Sugie chose the Zebra this year.

 

It was a good day for animal viewing.  If you live in the area then it is only $5 at the Dallas zoo in January in February.  Come March it will cost $15. http://www.dallaszoo.com/event/penguin-days/

 

 

The girafees were not very cooperative for lettuce snacking but they did eventually come up

 

 

Sugie drove the Cheetah Jeep

 

 

Sister climbed some rocks

 

 

Sugie posed on benches

 

 

and on chimps

 

 

We hit the playground.

 

 

They looked super cute!

 

 

It was a nice fun day.  Hopefully we stocked up on sundshine for a while.

 

Just a little flash back.  Here we are almost 2 years ago at Mckenzie's first zoo trip.  Do you see her?

 

 

She was nestled in my sling.  HArd to believe she was ever so small and quiet! HA!

 

 

Here is Sugie.  It is so hard for me to believe that she was about the age that Mckenzie is now.  :)  

Sweet Granny

 

Since we flew in and out of Amarillo we were able to stop and see Granny, Trev's grandma.  WE hadn't been to see her since last year at peeps funeral.  She was doing well. She did get a few things confused but seem pretty sharp most of the time.

 

 

The girls put on a real show for her, especially Sugie.  She was singing her all of her songs and such.  She was pretty impressed that Granny knew some of them too. HA!  Sister kept her distance but was singing along too.

 

 

I wished we lived closer so that we could visit her more!  

Angel Fire Fun

 

After Christmas we packed up, caught a plane to Amarillo, rented a car, drove to ANgel Fire, NM, spent a few days with family and then repeated in the reverse order.  It was a little crazy but fun.  To get 2 young kids and all their stuff through the airport can be tricky but after borrowing a few things we found a system that worked.  Sister got to ride in her car seat attached to the luggage.  She thought it was pretty fun and people thought it was pretty funny. Here she is loaded up and ready to go!

 

 

Sister thought the plane ride was pretty fun both ways.

 



 

So, did Sugie! :)

 

 \

THe first day we arrived to Angel Fire there was quite a bit of snow already on the ground! 

 

 

We saw some good wildlife.

 

 

Hey buddy!

 

 

Sugie loved playing in the snow and eating it!

 

 

Sister liked it too!

 

 

Actually right after this picture she was screaming in pain becuase her hands were frozen.  HA!  THe next day we got her better gloves and she was much happier.

 

 

We did a little sledding near the house but decided to try out the offical snow hill at the ski resort.  It was a really fun hill BUT

 

 

the climb back up was killer.  The picture really doesn't do it justice of how steep it was.

 

 

Poor Daddy just about killed himself.  I thought he might have a heart attack lugging these two back up to the top! HA!  Good daddy!

 

 

Bailey and MCkenzie LOVED it though.  I could hear them screaming in delight all the way to the bottom!

 

 

Away they go!

 

 

Jude and Mckenzie playing in the snow by the cabin.

 

 

Of course one can only take in so much cold so there was plenty of cabin time.  Lane and Sister checking out a book together.

 

 

Sisters playing paper dolls

 

 

The boys built a cabin!

 

 

 

 

These 2 monkeys liked climbing into our warm and cozy bed...:)

 

 

The second day we were there it pretty much snowed all day so it put some good snow on the roads around the cabin.  A lot of these pictures are so blurry because of all the snow but it will give you the general idea of our sledding adventures.

 

 

We had metal sleds that you could steer with so Bailey and Mckenzie would ride on our backs.  It was a lot of fun.  We actually did lazy man sledding and would drive to the top of the hill, unload a few people and then have someone drive to the bottom whie people rode down. HA!

 

 

This is my sister in law, Laura.  Isn't she sexy? 

 

 

We both thought were were rather sexy in our camo coveralls! HA!  I think the moutain air may have been getting to me.

 

 

Sugie loved the sledding! 

 

 

One of my favorite pictures from the trip.

 

 

It was so beautiful all around!

 

 

Chad and Jude and I think that is Cade on the right but it might be Lane?

 

 

Here comes the Williams Family down the hill!

 

 

Woo hoo! Family sledding!  Sister cracked us up becuase she seemed to like the snow ok but was mostly expressionless.  HA!  It was pretty funny.  I know she must have been having fun because anyone that knows sister, knows that if she was miserable she would be letting you know about it!

 

 

Daddy and Sister

 

Uncle Chad

 

Daddy and Sugie

 

 

Laura and Jude

 

 

Bailey and Cade

 

 

We rung in the new year but the kids were rather grumpy and I was asleep before it happened! HA!

 

 

Making snow angels

It was a short but fun trip.  I think the girls are like me and are home bodies.  So, after a few days they are ready to go home.  Although, Bailey said she didn't want to leave even though her behavior said she needed a big nap

 

Luckily we survived the trip home.  I had booked a 8:55 flight which I already knew was way past their bedtimes but it was cheap and late enough for us to drive back to Amarillo.  Then it got delayed an hour.  I was scared to death.  I knew Bailey would be fine becuase she had slept for well over an hour in the car but little miss sister only took like a 45 minute nap and is usually in bed at 8.  I was really expecting disaster!  Here they are watching some Dora at a docking station in the airport!  Lucky for us I think that Mckenzie was on the delirous side in the plane and really happy.  Now, the shuttle ride in the bus to where we parked our car in Dallas, not so much! HA! By that point it was 11:15 and she was DONE!  Luckily the screaming stopped once we got done the road a couple of miles and she zonked right out.  POor baby!  It was a fun trip with family!