You can take the girl out of Texas...

But you can't take Texas out of the girl. :)

Anyone who sees us while we're in TX for two weeks should try to get Gracie to say the word 'mix'. She's got quite a twang despite being up here away from it for over a year. :)

We're leaving for the airport in about 51 hours! (Yes, I'm counting hours now.)

Friday night 'campout'

With Doug out of town all week, I suggested to the kids early this week that we could have a 'campout' in the living room Friday night if they were good. I held it over their heads all week and they were on their best behavior (for the most part anyway).

We had pizza for dinner (except Bradley who doesn't like pizza) which is our usual Friday night routine. After dinner, we roasted marshmallows over the burner on the stove. Totally ghetto, I know. But the kids liked it and it worked, so leave me alone. :)

After roasted marshmallows, we played cards for a while.

Then at usual bedtime, I made a 'bed' for us on the floor and the kids picked a movie to watch. They picked March of the Penguins. I left them there to do a quick workout and shower while they watched.

After the movie, we turned off all the lights to go to sleep. Bradley would not settle for the longest time and I thought I was going to have to put him in his bed, but as soon as he stopped moving for two seconds, he was out. Gracie took even longer to fall asleep than he did. So, they were up very late and both woke up before 6:30 this morning. So, tonight will be back to normal because they need to get a good night's sleep. I was asleep shortly after 10, which is highly unusual for me. Too bad I woke up several times during the night. Maybe 31 is too old to sleep on the floor??

We leave Tuesday evening for Houston and I can't wait! The weather here today, tomorrow and Monday will be below 0 at all times. So gross. We got a lot of snow yesterday and I had to shovel twice yesterday and once today. I can't wait to get away from all this snow and cold and spend some time outside again.

Tooth trauma, round 2

You guessed it, Gracie lost her second tooth, but once again it was traumatic.

Bradley butted his hard head right into it and she started bleeding everywhere. The tooth didn't actually come out, but it was so loose that I barely pulled on it and it came right out. She was freaked out more by the blood than anything, I think. And after 10 minutes with it still bleeding, I was starting to freak out a little. I had to remind myself how long the other one bled when it came out and I checked online to see how long it needed to bleed before I needed to be concerned. After putting direct pressure on it for about 8 min, it finally stopped bleeding. Whew! This all happened right before we were going to eat dinner, so dinner was delayed a bit so she had time to heal. And I let her eat a lot of mashed potatoes tonight. ;)

Once again she got a medicinal popsicle. This is becoming routine.


I kept trying to get a pick of her new smile, but she was very tight-lipped.


This was the only one I got where you can see the gap.

Sing with her "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth." :D

Oh, and I'm also quite amused at the snow that the Houston area is getting today. Half my facebook friends from Houston commented on it. And I know if I was still living there, I'd be thrilled too. But all I feel today is elated that snow is happening now because that pretty much guarantees there won't be any while I'm down there (since snow only happens in Houston about once every five years). And we've got plenty up here, so I'd like to have a break from snow for a couple weeks. ;)

Yikes!

Yesterday, I weighed and measured both kids. Guess what? They weighed exactly the same! She is three and a half years older and 6 inches taller, but they both weigh 39 lbs. I guess that's why she cries when he sits on her. LOL!

And it's snowing. Bleh. I hate snow. And Doug's not here, so I have to shovel. I hate shoveling. 9 days and counting...

So pathetic...

This week we've had some really cold temps. It didn't get above freezing for several days and one day our high was only 10F. Brutally cold with a wind child below zero. We were taking the car to school instead of walking because it was so cold.

Today, we wake up and it's about 40 out. We walked to school and it didn't even feel cold. Bradley and I stayed to play a while after the bell rang.

How pathetic is it that 40 feels warm to us?

I can only imagine the shock to Doug's system when he got to Houston last night. He's probably sweating at the 60s and 70s he's experiencing while there. ;)

Gingerbread house

For the first time ever, I bought a kit for us to make a gingerbread house this year. The kids were super excited. We decided yesterday was a good day to make it.

I had to keep asking Doug to come help us (since I wanted the whole family to participate) but when he finally came in, he took over. He's already talking about next year and how we should buy several kits and put them together to make a mansion. :)



Gracie was very impatient while we had to wait for it to harden before decorating. She spit on it by accident, so it's good we weren't planning to eat it. :)


The kids were so excited to start decorating, they couldn't even wait for all the icing to be put on.

Here they are with the finished house.

The completed masterpiece:

Sorry for not updating on Bradley sooner. He was much better after the first night and while he still isn't 100%, he's close enough to 'normal' that it's not holding him back. The steroids really did a number on him though. For a couple of days, he was horrible (hyper, aggressive, hitting, etc). Thankfully he seems to be back to his sweet self again.

Croup

Bradley has croup. :(

He went to bed feeling fine and woke up at 11 coughing and struggling to breathe. Doug and I tried a breathing treatment first and when that didn't work, I took him to the Children's Hospital. He was diagnosed with croup by the triage nurse and then we waited three hours before they gave him his first dose of steroid. A half hour later, we finally got in a room and he finally went back to sleep at 4:30. I didn't get to sleep until closer to 5:30 and then woke several times b/c of hospital noises. The doctor came in at 6:15 and we were on our way (after a second dose of steroids) by 6:30. It was a long night, but Bradley is doing much better today, so it was well worth it.

Here he is crashed as soon as we got home this morning. He kept moving around. So, I kept taking pics of his positions. :)

I got a little nap this morning while he was watching PBS kids and I'm hoping for a nap this afternoon with him. If I don't get one, I'll probably have to go to bed when the kids do tonight.

Lazy Saturday

Saturdays tend to be lazy days at our house. Especially the last two weeks when Doug has had to work on Sundays. (Yes, he's working today.)

Here's yesterday in pictures.

Bradley playing on the computer.


The kids made a 'library' at the top of the stairs.


Gracie poses with the 'library' in her room.


Doug and I both played some guitar hero.

The kids coloring in Bradley's new coloring books.

Stringing up lights on the deck.

Doug wearing my shoes while he gets the grill ready.

The lights on.

Bradley decorating sugar cookies with chocolate sprinkles.

Gracie decorating with colored sprinkles.

Bradley wearing Doug's shoes.

Wordless Wednesday

Birthday Pics

As promised, here are pics from yesterday.

Bradley helped me make the cake.
Part 1:Cake. Notice his shirt is blue.


Adding blue food coloring.


His favorite part... licking the beater. :)


Part 2: Icing.
Notice his shirt is green. (We had to change after Part 1.)


Again, licking the beater.

We took him out for dinner at Boston Pizza. His choice. Even though he doesn't eat pizza and wanted chicken and fries. (Notice the shirt is different again. We had to change after part 2 too.)

The cake and the big three year old.

(This went much better than last year. Last year when we sang Happy Birthday to him he cried.)

He blew out the candle all by himself!

Yummy!

This is what happens when you give a 3 year old full reign over the cake. You end up with a layer of blue cake, a layer of green cake and orange icing. Gracie said it was the best cake she'd ever had, but I think it was just the most colorful. :)

Opening gifts...

The biggest hit was the Home Depot tool set. The kids played with it this morning before school and Bradley played with it all day today. Doug said he was jealous that Bradley got new tools and he didn't. ;)