T-Ball

Daddy and Mason getting in some early morning batting practice before work & school!

Monday Life

Just me and my boy, livin' the good life.

Pool's Open

We heated it and kiddos remember what summer is like :)  They played in the pool from 10am until 5pm when we told them to get out!  There were a couple 10 minute snack breaks, but other than that, the fishes swam!

It helped that in the morning we had some friends come over.

And then in the afternoon, GM and GP came over :)

Hands that Swim...allllll day

Soccer Saturday

Mason is having a good season.  We encourage him not to fall on the ground and when he tries and stays on his feet he does well.  He is aggressive (to a point where we've had to tell him to keep his arms down) and will go after the ball.  But then if things don't go his way, he gets discouraged really easily.  He loves to keep score and focuses on how many he scored.  

And then, when he gets the ball and others try to take it from him, he does this crafty position and just stands there :) 

Olivia is having another great season.  She goes after the ball, has multiple break-aways, constantly improving her ball control, and just loves the game.  It helps that she plays with a great group of girls that all have so much fun together :)

Foto Friday

T.G.I.F!

TBT

You know you take a lot of pictures when you can go back 6 years and find a picture for the same date every year.

Example:  Today, March 26

Just Me & The Duplos

One of my favorite things about being a mom is stumbling across gems like this, when everyone is at school/work.

Creation By: Olivia

Our Feet

When Mason sits on my lap, this is where his feet go.

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Loving these moments -- when sticking out your tongue causes belly laughs.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Back just in time for my mom's birthday celebration!

Happy Birthday Mom/Grandma

These four kiddos know how to have a good time :)

The Drive Home

We managed to drive for 7 hours until just past midnight and made it to Lubbock, TX.  The kids did awesome and fell asleep around 1030pm.  These 90 minutes would end up being the ONLY time they slept through the whole 32 hour round-trip journey.   

The next morning we had about 8 hours left.  We were out of the hotel by 930 and made it home by 540pm!  WOW...that's a lot of time being in the car.  Tim did ALL the driving!??!  And our kids were angels (yes, I just said that).  They barely even talked.  Olivia watched a lot of movies.  She played some with a binder of "road trip" materials that I prepared for both kiddos.  Both kiddos played on the iphone/ipad, but I don't believe it left Mason's hand during the trip.  Needless to say, he is currently going through a little withdrawal from electronics.  Impressively, they never complained?!?!!!  Mason would randomly ask if we were near our Texas House, we would give him a time report and he went back to his game.  I never imagined it going this well!  I packed over $50 in "crap toys" to give to the kids throughout the trip to help entertain them....and I'll be returning them this week.  We didn't use any of them.    Tim and I passed time by listening to the podcast Serial. Oh it's good and was the perfect thing to entertain us on this trip.  Sad that our first family spring break vacation is coming to an end.  This was an awesome trip that will always be remembered. 

Last Day in Taos

Remember me saying it rained yesterday??  Well, rain in town means snow in mountains.  8.5 inches of new snow fell last night and it was a beautiful site in the morning.  

 The kids did about 90 minutes of snowboarding and then got distracted by how fun the new snow was.  It felt softer and was sticky.  Also, the 8+ inches of snow did feel different to snowboard in and it was more difficult to get up after sinking into it.  We did not have an instructor with us today and it was missed.  It was difficult to each have a kid and make it down the hill, especially for me in my very beginner status.  In the short video I had from today, you can see how often the kids would sometimes fall down.  Mason almost always needed help getting up and Olivia's energy was definitely low today.  Mason ended up snowboarding with Justin (which was a HUGE help).  But what was awesome were all the comments the kids would get from other people/instructors.  They really picked up this sport a lot faster than we thought they would.  Most people encouraged us to have them ski, so we were a little anxious how things would go with snowboarding.

So the kids and I built snowmen and snow angels and pretended we were snow leopards while Daddy did a couple of the bigger runs alone. At first I was a little disappointed they didn't want to snowboard, but even I had to admit, playing in this new snow was fun.  

After playing in the snow for 2.5 hours!!! We called it quits (I was cooooold).  And said good-bye to the snow.

Tim and I decided that we were going to leave tonight.  It's a long 15 hour drive back and we knew that it would be a struggle for our kiddos me to do it in one stretch.   So we had lunch with our dear friends and played at a toy store and did a little more shopping.  It was just after 5pm when we left Taos (probably not for the last time)!

A huge thank you to the Johnson family for inviting us on this vacay (and to their friends for letting us stay in their perfect Taos House).  For 8 years this family has been one of our closest friends.  My children adore them and we are all so comfortable around each other.  It makes hanging out EASY and FUN.  Looking forward to many more adventures!!

Day 3 in Taos

PHEW- a much needed recovery day!  We slept in, ate a long breakfast out, played at a park, girls went shopping, while boys went 4-wheeling, and played some games.  It rained off and on for portions of the day/night, but it was perfect for our day off.

Snowboarding Day 2

Day 2 started the same.  We made it to the rental area by 8am and met up with our same instructor at 9.  The kids did soooo much better the second day, A LOT easier on Tim and I :)  Olivia could strap on and off her board and Mason could unstrap it.  He still had some difficulty getting to a standing position if he fell, but once up, had great control of his board.

 We rode the chair lift a lot more today and it frequently had to come to a complete stop because either one of the kids or me fell.  Really wish that transition was easier.

We stopped for lunch and then ended our afternoon a little earlier as we promised the kids they could go snow tubing.  

Long video for those interested :)

Snowboarding Day 1

It's about a 30 minute drive from where we were staying in the town of Taos, to Taos Ski Valley.  We arrived at 8am to get all of our rental gear and meet up with a ski instructor.  Instead of putting the kids into ski school, we got a ski instructor to work with us (it had been 15 years since Tim last snowboarded and that was the first and last time I've been).  

Our snowboarding instructor, Paris, was the perfect fit for our family.  He was very patient and positive.  The kids did AWESOME.  They tried everything Paris asked us to and listened so well.  We worked from 9-1130 and took a lunch break.  

After lunch, we met up with Paris again for another two hours.  Needless to say, at the end of the day WE WERE EXHAUSTED.  Not only was I trying to learn how to stay upright on my board, but I was also helping the kids.  And it was fairly warm out.  At one point, I only had on my blue workout jacket.  Our kiddos were some of the only little snowboarders (most littles ski as it's said to be easier to learn).  

Every free moment, the kids played in the snow.  It was very obvious that it was our kiddos first time seeing snow.  We even managed to make a little snowman community.  

Finally at 4pm, we headed back to our "Taos House".  Five minutes after getting in the car, turned around to look at kiddos...

Our first day snowboarding video:

TAOS!

Good Morning Amarillo.  

Today we would see some of the most beautiful land I've ever seen.  

We saw lots of one light towns, some wildlife just hanging out on the side of the road, massive amounts of land, and beautiful snow capped mountains. 

This was our first glimpse at "snowy mountains".  Mason immediately said, "Oh Mommy, can you take a picture of that and text it to my teacher?"

Then we started driving by patches of snow.  The kids were so excited we decided to stop.

Their first time touching snow.  

We get back in the car and Olivia said, 

"And now we know that snow is cold."

I will always remember that moment.  

Top Pics: Frozen Eagle Nest Lake

Middle Pic: The house I want!!!

Bottom Pics: Driving through the mountain

Finally we arrived.  

The pueblo style house we stayed in was in downtown Taos.  We could walk to everything.  It had 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and was one of the most charming homes I've ever stayed in.   

 

 We arrived to 60+ degree weather! The kids found a patch of snow that was barely surviving and played in it for two hours.  They threw snowballs and then warmed up their hands on the side of the house.  I stayed perched on that ledge for the rest of the evening.  Life is good!

The evening ended early (we were exhausted).  We ordered some pizza, played in the fire, and took showers ;)

And our drive continues...

Our snow plans started a couple of months ago when our good friends Justin and Tiffini asked us if we would like to go to Taos, NM for spring break.  They had close friends who were offering their house for us to stay in for the week.  

Uuumm...YES!!!  We've wanted to take a snow vacation for awhile.  Our kiddos have never seen snow.  

We split up our drive to Taos in nice short segments.  It's just under 4 hours from our house to the Sanners (where we stayed two nights to celebrate Hannah), and then 5 hours to Amarillo from Dallas.  We decided to stay in Amarillo because it's the last city with hotels before you reach Taos.   The kiddos did great in the car (granted it was only five hours).  We stopped at Redbox and let them pick out movies.  

We also took long lunch breaks and let the kiddos jump/run/play around for a bit.

(flamingos)

On this drive, the kids and I saw our first wind farms.  Tim has been in this industry for NINE years and we've never been out to a wind farm.  We were all excited to point out the various turbines along the horizon.

In Amarillo we met up with the Johnsons!  We had a dinner and went to bed nice and early for our last leg of our drive (which would only end up being 5 hours to Taos). 

Happy 1st Birthday Hannah!

First we did a little party prep

While the boys finished up their gaming session 

 Then the birthday girl arrived (aka: woke up from her nap)

 The guests arrived and we celebrated the little lady

And finally, CAKE TIME!

We are so grateful to celebrate your first birthday with you Hannah!  Just think, in a few weeks, you will have been in Texas for ONE YEAR!

Foto Friday

And we're off!!
Spring Break 2015

First stop Dallas, for two nights.

Onward to Amarillo for a one night layover.

And finally, Taos, NM ~ our kiddos will see snow for the FIRST time :)