My kids are cute.

Not necessarily well-behaved, well-dressed, or even tempered, but they are cute ;)
We've spent a lot of time outside this long weekend, enjoying the last of the warm-ish weather before it gets blustery.
Coming soon to a blog near you-- Alex on stage!

I couldn't decide...

...which clip to post, so I'll post them both. The little man is choosing to walk more and more each day, even though his crawling speed is faster.
At the end of the first one he starts complaining because he got a hair in his mouth. I should probably think about vacuming.


Meanwhile Alex is busy practicing her singing for her debut preschool performance next week. She will be singing at least 2 songs, one about a turkey and the other about "poptorn ternels". At least, that's what she tells me.

Wildcatter Ranch

I mentioned in my last post that Scott and Heather kicked us out of their place for a night at Wildcatter Ranch in Graham, Texas. Well the joke was on them, because they were stuck with our kids...including the rooster who woke at 4:30am and demanded Heather snuggle him on her chest so he could finish his night's sleep. I'm thinking that's probably when they began to regret their generosity.


Meanwhile, back at the ranch (never thought I'd have an opportunity to say that), Josh and I were lounging, sleeping in, eating great food, hiking, canoe-ing, hot-tubbing, and doing other things that I'm sure you'd rather not know about. Heehee. Of course, I'm referring to feeding longhorn cattle and shooting some archery (get your minds out of the gutter folks).

Here are some pictures...it was a beautiful time of year to be in the Texas hill country!

What was that? The baby's crying? Oh sorry, I couldn't hear him because of the noise from the hammock swinging in the breeze.

A little friendly archery competition. (Josh won, but not by a lot.)

Feeding the longhorns some treats.
They were very slobbery. Reminded me of Derek, who still hasn't learned how to swallow.

This one tried to eat the camera.

We were the worst canoe-ers ever...we just bounced from one side of the creek to the other. It was probably my fault, but I was just happy that we managed not to tip.

We had a lot of fun-- Thanks Scott & Heather!

Texas Trip

As promised, I need to fill you all in on the fun we had in Texas! We went for a week to Wichita Falls to visit our good friends, Scott & Heather, and their girls Lauren & Katelyn. Here are the highlights of our visit, top-10 style...

10. Halloween Candy-- Lauren had quite a stash and didn't notice that it was rapidly dwindling as she slept ;)

9. Seeing old friends-- The trip had a kind-of "back home" feel to it since we'd lived in WF for 5 years. Here's a picture of what Alex looked like back when she was a Texan...

And can you believe the hospital let that guy take a baby home? He looks like he's ready to go to prom! ;)

8. Chuck-E-Cheese-- We have simple needs people. Someone just keep an eye on those kids so we "grown-ups" can take turns on Deal or No Deal (best game ever at Chuck's!)
Here's a clip of us on the way to play...make sure to laugh at Heather's crazy faces because she thought I was taking a picture and not a video clip. AND she posted a terrible picture of me on her blog so this is payback!


7. Shopping Trips minus children-- Heather and I went out shopping several nights after the kids were in bed. We conducted ourselves just like any junior high girl, and I think they were about to kick us out of Victoria's Secret.

6. The better side of polygamy-- Without the kinky stuff, folks. This is a clean blog, okay? But seriously, 2 mommies and 2 daddies makes everything easier!

5. The Great Wolf Lodge-- Have you heard of this water-park hotel? They have them throughout the country. So fun! Josh had so much fun there that he needed 4 stitches in his chin! We didn't get to take pictures there since we had our hands full with non-swimming kids, but here is a picture of the slide that Josh hurt himself on.

He listened to the 14-year-old lifeguard that told him he could "catch some air" if he raised his hands up on the steep drop. He was right.

4. Wildcatter Ranch-- Scott & Heather surprised us by kicking us out of their house for a night away at this ranch. It was amazing! It will get it's own post soon.

3. Our friends are the best!-- We really just have so much fun hanging out, watching movies, and chatting. And they have a beautiful home that we feel very comfortable taking over ;) They didn't even mind that Alex isn't into wearing pants and Derek is into seeing the sunrise, every day.

2. Let the courtship begin!-- We had to give Derek and Katelyn a chance to get to know each other better, since they're going to be married. Just don't tell anyone that they took baths together!

1. Did I mention that we had a lot of fun?? :)

Trick or Treat

We made it back from Texas and we had a great time! I'll be posting more soon about our trip but first have to play catch-up on Halloween.

Here is our lion getting ready for the big event...

Our monkey was equally cute

Off to get some treats

She had a blast!

We thought for sure that she would be a cowardly lion, but Alex surprised us by leaving us in the dust as she ran to each house. In this clip she is very excited about a pack of nerds, because she remembered that we threw nerds out to the crowd in the Air Force parade this summer.

Showing off the loot. Mommy's waistline is paying the price.