A Day in the Life

These last two weeks we have had lots of fun being home together as a family.  We have been going places like the mall playground, the museum, Grandma and Grandpa’s, the bowling ally, and the park.  However, the best part was just spending time together as a family.

Trampoline Family

P.S. Doesn’t my new fence in the background look great…

We went to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History this week, and took advantage of the HUGE children’s section, filled with all sorts of things to explore and play with. Addie loved the grocery store section. She probably spent 30 minutes just filling her cart with food, checking out, putting all the food back, and filling her cart again. She also enjoyed the hospital section, where you could drive an ambulance, check some x-rays, and care for the babies in the nursery. She was excited to wear the white doctor’s coat, and I must say, this girl is a natural at this stuff. It wouldn’t surprise me if she ended up as a nurse or doctor someday. Or at least wanting to be one. Who knows if our genes combine to make a smart enough person to be a doctor.

 

Dr. Addie Inspecting Her Patients

A Proud Doctor

Nolan and mom

Nolan was a champ! He was so good the entire time, and even fell asleep in his stroller for about 40 minutes (which was good because we were bad parents and kept him there WAY past nap time, we just wanted to see everything!)

Playing at the water station

There is an outdoor water station, where you could make awesome water fountains from PVC pipes, make boats float, spray water guns, etc. It would be really fun in the summer. The Dino Dig was closed, so we didn’t get to dig in the sand for fossils, which is okay since you tend to get a little messy there.

Other exhibits we liked were the George Washington exhibit and Energy Blast, which is an exhibit all about alternative energy resources. Sounds boring, but it was seriously cool. It has a ride, movie, experiments, and tons of information which is meant to get you thinking about alternative energy sources. Addie was impatient during this part, so I didn’t get to spend a ton of time in there, but I would like to go back sometime. In fact, we ended up buying annual passes so we COULD go back a few times this year. We went out to lunch on our way home, and Addie asked, “Can we go back to the museum now?” after we ate. Haha! I guess that annual pass was a good idea.

How many boxes did you throw out this week? We had a huge tower of boxes that probably could have cleared 30 feet. So we decided to make a fort. As soon as I mentioned this to Zac, I could see the wheels turning in his mind. He is a hands on kind of learner, so I knew he would take this and run with it. He got to work and made this awesome fort/castle that Addie loved playing in.

Flower box window

Putting the flowers in order for the flower box

Shutting the drawbridge

Out the round window

Showing her kitchen table

It might not look like much, but it included a few windows with shutters, a drawbridge door that actually works, a look out telescope, a flower box with flowers, a flag pole, some furniture inside (table and couches), a chimney, and a milk jug bugle (you know, for announcing visitors). Zac did the whole thing, and I’m seriously impressed it has stayed together so well!  Maybe he should have been an engineer…

Since I have been so lame at posting this last month, here are some other things we have done, some Christmasy and some not. The first was Addie’s dance recital. She looked precious in her costume, I love it! It was really more of a normal dance class with a few run-throughs of their big dance at the end. They got to hold teddy bears and dance with them. It was seriously cute! Although it was good they did it a few times, because the girls got a little distracted by all the parents taking pictures and videos of them. It was awesome.

Ballerina Pose

She just can't hide that personality:)

Addie and Savannah

Addie and her cousins Austin and Caleb attended Grandma Taylor’s First Annual Grandma’s Christmas party too. They made a craft, decorated cookies, watched a Christmas movie, and open a couple of presents. They had a blast, and when I came to pick up Addie, she hid in the bathroom and yelled, “NO, I want to stay and play with my cousins more!” Man she loves those boys.

Addie, Austin and Caleb

We made a few of our own crafts at home too. Thanks to Pillsbury, we made a few successful batches of gingerbread men, decorated them with frosting and M&Ms (mint, mmmm), took pictures of them, and then promptly ate them. Yumm. We also made some snowmen out of toilet paper tubes. It was something we found on a blog and Addie though they were worth trying. I think they turned out cute, but then again, I had to make most of them because her attention span for crafts is about 4.2 seconds.

Christmas cookies and snowmen

We saw the Coppell santa again this year. Addie did much better, although the conversation went sort of like this:

Santa: What do you want for Christmas this year?

Addie: I want a Belle phone (she has been asking for this phone for weeks. It is just something she saw in the Target checkout line, and really really wanted it. Enough so that it was the only thing she wanted to ask Santa for)

Santa: ooh a Belle phone. I’ll see if my elves can get one of those for you. What else would you like?

Addie: (silence…..she had only rehearsed one thing to ask for, Mom and Dad didn’t tell her she could ask for more than one thing…)

Santa: Do you like princesses?

Addie: (continues to stare at Santa in silence)

Santa: Would you like a candy cane?

Addie: Yes! (Addie is loving all the treats I am letting her have this month. This will cease soon, after I eat it all up)

So, we got a picture and left. I think it was a successful visit, even if she totally clammed up.

Addie and Santa

Our Christmas was busy and fun, but also fraught with runny noses, sore throats, coughing, sneezing, headaches and sleepless nights. All four of us got the gunk, and it has been merciless. We all got sick right around Christmas day, and are still feeling kind of yucky. Even antibiotics hasn’t taken it away completely. But other than that, we have had a great break. Zac is off work for two weeks (yay!), so we’ve spent lots of time together. My siblings all came home for Christmas, so we had a big Brassfield celebration and spent almost all day every day hanging with them. A little too much family time is how we like it

Christmas day started at our house, and my parents and siblings all came over at 7:30 am to watch the little ones open their presents. It was so fun to watch Addie open presents this year. Last year was fun, but this year she picked out all the presents, handed them out to each person, asked me or Zac whether it was okay if they opened it, and helped rip open the wrapping paper. It was heaven for her, and so cute to watch. The funniest thing was watching her climb under the Christmas tree (which was dying rapidly and shedding pine needles like crazy in her hair and clothes) to find the last presents. She got a few princesses, an awesome new backpack, a Belle phone from Santa, some books and clothes, and a HUGE trampoline. Addie was SO excited about this one. She has so much energy and loves to jump, so this was a perfect gift for her. It’s too bad she has had a bad cough since Christmas, so we only let her jump for a few minutes at a time, since it aggravates her cough more.

Christmas morning

Nolan's toys all had to pass the "chew" test

New princesses and backpack

Are there any more presents back there?

Loving it!

Zac

Nolan got some chewy trucks

Cami and Mom

We eventually went to my parents house and rest of the day there, with their presents and some yummy food. (my family doesn’t do ham for Christmas dinner because my parents don’t like it, so we did prime rib). Addie LOVES to be there, and gets lots of love and attention as she is the first grandchild. We were also treated to a reenactment of the nativity, with Addie as Mary. It’s too bad there are no more grandchildren to round out the story, but we did our best with just her. I can’t remember what my mom was dressed as. A shepherd? Joseph? the angel?

Riding the donkey to Bethlehem

Cradling "baby Jesus"

After church, since we were all dressed (well, we’re 3 for 4) and looking like normal people again, we took some family pictures.

Family pic

The whole gang

Hope your Christmas was full of fun and good memories too!