Esther-isms

The pianist at the reception ended up being a friend of Daron's from BYU. He introduced us and was trying to introduce Esther and Nathan who were running back and forth. Daron was trying to briefly explain Esther's personality to his friend when she came running up to us and said, "Were you guys alright while I was gone?" Case in point.

This afternoon we are driving down to Houston. We'd been on the road for sometime when Esther said, "Mom, we're just like travelers 'cause we've been traveling for a long time!"

And recently, when you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up, she takes a fighting stance holding an imaginary sword and says triumphantly, "A musketeer!"

Near Disaster

We went to a wedding reception last night and the kids were pretty well behaved. Towards the end, the kids wanted another drink of water so we headed to the punch bowl and I got them each a small cupful. Nathan drank a little bit and then lifted his cup up to dump the rest back in the bowl! Quickly considering the angles, I knew I wasn't going to reach it quite in time and, unfortunately, his cup was starting to spill out, I simply knocked it away from the bowl, causing it to spill all over the floor instead. Luckily, it was just water and was easily cleaned up-unlike having to get someone to refill the punch bowl! As we wiped up, Nathan kept looking at me like, "Mom, what'd you do that for?"

Birthday Weekend

It's been a busy few days, so we've been celebrating Daron's birthday all weekend! On Thursday (his actually birthday), we had scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, fresh peaches, and smoothies for breakfast. Then he went off to work and Esther was sick all day. By the time Daron came home she was jumping all over the house and we switched off so I could head to my RS meeting.

Friday evening we dropped the kids off at Roark's house where they had a sleepover. Daron and I headed up to a Marriott hotel out in the boonies of Fort Worth where we enjoyed a quiet evening. We ate dinner at the Twisted Root (check out their webpage at www.twistedrootburgerco.com) in Roanoke, which has a population of 650. Cute little town. The burgers there are huge and yummy. I had a chipotle, guacamole, cheddar burger topped with onion strings. Daron had something similar. Anyway, they make everything homemade including their ketchup, bbq sauce, and mustard. Their homemade root beer is also delicious! (For those Dallas folks, they have one in Dallas, too. It's located in the Deep Ellum district.)

The view from our room overlooked the golf course and Fort Worth in the distance. The evening cooled down to almost 60 degrees and we enjoyed a short walk around the grounds before bed. It was so weird not having kids to put down!

Saturday morning we ate our free buffet breakfast. We didn't eat much as we'd really pigged out the night before on burgers. Then we went to the club house to get our golf clubs, balls, and tees. They hooked us up with a golf cart and off we went! Daron has played a handful of times; I've played mini golf and went to a driving range once on my mission. Other than that, never touched a club in my life. We were rather pathetic most of the time but occasionally we hit some pretty good shots. I made a lot of holes in the grass and between the two of us, we managed to only lose three balls. Not bad. It took us 3 hours to play 9 holes and Daron ended up with 20 over par and I was at 30 over par. Hmm... Neither of us will be going professional anytime soon!

Here's Daron showing off his prowess.
Here's me looking very unprofessional, but I hit it!

Anyway, we had a yummy dinner Saturday night - hot dogs (Daron's fave!) and made a cake but couldn't eat it as we all ran off to a baptism. It wasn't until tonight that we finally got to eat his birthday cake with the missionaries. i made our new favorite - Williams-Sonoma Devil's Food Cake with whipped chocolate frosting. Yum.

Happy Birthday, Daron!

Free Pictures

I love finding pictures online to download and print out for hanging up. I just found this website with some adorable pictures that would be especially fun for a nursery or kid's room. Enjoy!

http://www.ohmyhandmade.com/2010/what-we-love/free-downloads/free-artwork-for-nursery-childs-bedroom-or-playroom/

Cavanaugh Flight Museum

We took the kids to the Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Addison for Nathan's birthday. Granted, it was two weeks after his birthday as our Saturdays have been so busy. But we really enjoyed it. As we walked into the hangar, Nathan took one wide-eyed look around and shouted, "Wow!!!" It was a really neat museum - with airplanes, jets, helicopters, jeeps, and cars from many past eras.

Janis Family Fourth of July

Irving celebrated the 4th on Saturday and we began our day at the town parade. The kids were more interested in waving their flags and grabbing the candy that flew left and right more than anything, but we had fun. Fortunately, it was overcast and we had a few sprinkles of rain off and on, which kept things cooler

Mommy says, "Someone is grumpy..."

"...and his name is Nathan!" finishes Esther gleefully.

After evening family prayer, the kids get their drink of water before they run off to bed. Tonight we were getting them down late as we'd been partying at Daron's brother's house for the holiday. I got a cup and filled it from the fridge dispenser for each of the kids and then handed them out. Nathan cried because he'd wanted to fill it himself. So he stomped to the sink and dumped the water out.

"I do! I do!" he cried.

Fine. So I lifted him up and helped him to fill the cup. He didn't want help and screamed. So I put him down. He stomped and cried and spilled a bunch of water on the floor. Then he raced back to the sink and tossed cup and water into it.

He came running to me with arms outstretched. I picked him up and he just put his head sulkily onto my shoulder, ready for bed.

What a grouch! But it was very hard not to laugh. Needless to say, he went right to sleep.