Getting Closer

As we are getting closer to baby #3's arrival, the kids spent the weekend with Pawpaw and Gigi so Justin and I could get some stuff done around the house to get ready. We took a bunch of stuff to storage and brought a bunch of baby stuff back. We also had a date night and saw a movie, The Revenant, Friday night. I was able to go through and organize toys and clothes, wrap Mattie's birthday gifts, and just get a bunch of little things done WITHOUT interruption. It was a busy but relaxed weekend. Justin offered to take me to dinner in Brenham Saturday night but I opted for a cheeseburger from the gas station down the road :) (Hruska's, it's delicious!).

Belly shot, just a few weeks to go!

Mattie, My Monkey

Mattie knows no fear when climbing and playing around. At the Children's Museum, she had a blast trying out the rock wall, and climbing this huge 3 story suspended structure. At one point, she started at the bottom level and before I knew it (and Gigi could get up the stairs) she was at the top and exited onto the third floor! Levi had fun on the rock wall but he wasn't a big fan of the suspended structure. They also loved playing in the ambulance, police car, and delivery truck in the kid city part of the museum. It was a fun Friday morning!

Doing some strength exercises with Gigi:

At the very top!

Lucky the Ladybug

Levi's "class pet" is a stuffed ladybug named Lucky and this past Wednesday he brought it home for the weekend. We had to document Lucky's adventures during his (her?) time with us.

So, on Thursday we took Lucky for a ride on the Gator:

Climbed trees:

Threw rocks in the pond:

On Friday, we went to the Children's Museum in Houston and danced around:

And climbed on this thing:

From there, Lucky and the kids spent the weekend with Pawpaw and Gigi at their Houston apartment. We kept Lucky busy!

Winter Play

The last couple of days have been cold but sunny and beautiful. After so much dreary, rainy weather recently, it was a nice change! The kids have definitely been going stir crazy with cabin fever, so we spent several hours each day playing outside in lieu of nap time. I figured their teachers will appreciate it today as it is once again raining. We went down to the pond, walked around the property, played on the playground, dug in the dirt, played chase and tug of war with the dog, were pirates, did chalk drawings and concluded yesterday with painting before we came inside for some hot chocolate. I won't lie, I wasn't outside the whole time with them - I was in and out intermittently getting laundry and dishes and other chores done. But this pregnant mama did her best to play with them while also allowing lots of independent play.

Having fun screaming as loud as they can

Levi's rainbow

And the tree he was painting. He added more to it but I didn't take a picture of the final masterpiece.

Santa Visited!

We came back home Saturday, the day after Christmas from visiting family and discovered Santa must have stopped by while we were gone! Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Clause must be a little crazy for getting such a large toy for Levi, but the look on his face and his excitement and joy for his new Hot Wheels Garage was worth it! Mattie received an assortment of Minnie Mouse things from Santa which she loved of course.

Walking in after we woke him up from the long car ride

In shock

Later that evening after Mom and Dad put it together

First Movie with the Force

I took Levi to see his first movie in a movie theater...Star Wars: the Force Awakens. He did fine for the first hour while he chowed down and ate a whole bag of small popcorn. But after that, he told me he was ready to go. I made him stay and watch the rest while constantly hushing him as he moved from the seat to my right, to my lap, and to the seat to the left. Yep, still not ready to sit and watch a whole movie. Luckily, we saw it at the small Nacogdoches movie theater at the first showing of the day, so the theater wasn't very full and we didn't bother anybody. Not sure I caught everything in the movie, but overall it was pretty good. I'm no Star Wars fanatic but I liked the original ones so I'll probably watch this one again if it comes on TV or before the next one comes out.

Messy Cleaning

After playing with Play-Doh, I let the kids "clean" the table with shaving cream. It quickly devolved into full body painting and cars making tracks. The table did get super clean afterwards, as did the floor from the table to the bathroom and a few things in between. But they sure had a blast.