Illinois

We were able to work out going to Illinois for family Christmas this year - all four of us! We scheduled with family to get together the weekend before Christmas which was right after school let out for the break.

We had to keep the travel time short so we got plane tickets for everyone. This was the first time we have purchased seats on an airplane for either of the girls since last year Janie was just under the two-year-old mark and could fly for free. Although flying can be stressful, it was much more relaxing having the space to spread ourselves out. Also the girls are a bit older and easier to contain so that always helps. We brought tons of things for them to do: coloring books, stickers, crayons, stamps, and books to read. We set the iPad and our phones up with movies and shows for the girls and brought a set of headphones for each of them.  They mostly just used the technology, but we did venture into a couple of the other items. Snacks were also packed and proved to be essential since we didn't have a full range of options for meals.

Waiting for our flight out.

One busy girl...

...and the other!

We were anticipating very cold temperatures in Illinois as a cold front had come through. The forecast showed highs below zero for part of our stay and under freezing the entire time. There would also be snow!! It was a little challenging to pack for being that we are not used to weather like that but we knew we weren't going to be out and about it in all that much either. I did get some winter coats for the girls. They needed to size up anyways so no better time! We got into Chicago and got into our rental car and got on the road. We made it to my grandfather's house just in time to celebrate with family!

It was good to be able to catch up with my extended family but as many of you who don't live near family know, it's never long enough. We had good food & shared stories & opened gifts. These people are the reason I long to come back! It was wonderful. If only it would last longer...

The view from my Grandpa's front yard. Everything was covered in snow!

After being there a couple of days, it "warmed" up enough {it was above zero degrees} for us to take the girls outside to play in the snow. My aunt was generous enough to bring over sleds and snow gear so that we could all get outside and play for a bit. Janie threw a bit of a fit when we tried to get her into the snowsuit, but eventually it all worked out and everyone got to play.

The girls took turns sledding and even did a couple runs on their own. My grandpa has a heavily treed lot so we had to learn to avoid the tree trunks coming down the hill. Mimi & Pops got in on the fun, of course!

JOY!

The girls taking a run together.

Janie: "I'm steering!"

Nora sledding with Pops.

We had a great time visiting family and experiencing some snow. We hope to get back again this summer when my cousin gets married.

Santa

We have been to see Santa at the Owl's Nest toy shoppe in Southlake Town Square every year since Nora's first Christmas. She was three months old and I knew I wanted to take her to get Santa pictures. I was a new mom and had absolutely no idea what to expect out of that kind of experience. We got all dressed up, loaded up the car, and headed to North Park mall with Auntie K. I figured it would take awhile, but I had no idea how long it would actually take. We had to get a number and wait in a forever-long line. I had given us a little time to spare, but a three month old takes about three naps a day and if you've ever had a three month old you know that they are kind of a necessity.

Nora was not the kind of baby that would sleep well while we were out or even in the car. In fact, she hated the car, especially at a nap time. I really didn't ever understand how people liked to drive their babies around in cars to help them fall asleep until Janie came along. Anyways, we tried really hard to make it to see Santa but it did not work out for us. I left empty handed and a little disappointed but ended up getting a good lead from a friend about Santa at the toy shoppe. So I took her there, waited in basically no line, and walked out with some really sweet pictures of baby Nora with Santa.

The next few years of Santa have not been the easiest of experiences at the Owl's Nest. We had to wait in longer lines {I'm not sure how I worked that out the first time} but we were also in a toy store, so there was plenty to do. One time we went they had a real reindeer which I thought Nora would like to see but as it turns out, she was terrified of it. And then our uneasy toddler was getting her picture taken and the sweet photographer held up a stuffed reindeer to try and make her smile and the screaming began... And then having two of them was not any easier. But, we had good experiences. We got to see our same Santa each year and we didn't have to travel very far to do so.

When I heard that the Owl's Nest was closing its doors, I was so sad that our experience with this Santa would be over. I need to work a little earlier to find where he will be next year because I did miss him this time around and I heard he still had business locally.

I looked into other options and decided on the Main Street Grapevine Santa. I was able to schedule an appointment so that we didn't have to wait in line. We went on a Saturday morning and there wasn't really a line anyways. I still don't know if I even went to the right spot to get our pictures made! I pre-paid for digital copies of all the images. It didn't go great but it went okay. We were given a CD of our images {we got five} which I found to be a little inconvenient being that neither Justin nor I have a disc drive on our computers, but we found a way to get our pictures. I don't know... I just didn't love the experience there. Maybe my expectations were too high or maybe just nothing would do. He didn't really talk to the girls much. I guess Janie was being a little bit apprehensive... anyways, moving on!

We also got to venture around downtown Grapevine before it started raining. As it turned out, it was freezing on the morning that we went to see Santa, so the trip was short & sweet.

We will get to see Santa again soon so stay tuned!

Christmas Season

We are so excited that the holiday season is here! This will be our first Christmas in our new house and surely a very special one. It took me a little while to figure it out, but I was able to get the decorations out around the house in one weekend. The lights outside are a different story...

The first day in December always brings us our favorite North Pole elf, Evie! She came with the girls' first tree topper of course! The girls love to look for her each morning. It is also a good motivator to get out of bed and off to school.

The girls also happened to have their holiday caroling show at their school so we got to see what they had prepared. Both girls did well & sang as best they could. Didn't get great pictures with the lighting and the crowds, but it was a sweet little performance.

Nora sang "I'm the Happiest Christmas Tree"

Janie sang "One Little, Two Little, Three Christmas Bells"

We are looking forward very much to what the month of December will bring. We are trying to take it back a notch to avoid the hustle and bustle and just try to enjoy the joy of the season! Enjoying the view!

November Fun

We've kept busy in November with the normal routine of things. Towards the end of the month it started to feel like fall, just in time for everyone to start unpacking their Christmas decorations. We are just as guilty of it. We always decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving.

This year, the tree lighting that we went to was before Thanksgiving, but we went anyways! We actually had a pretty decent time. If Justin hadn't have gone to Starbucks to wait in a ridiculously long line for a cup of decaf coffee, it might have been even better. We got free hot cocoa, watched the tree get lit up, and then waited in line for a free horse drawn carriage ride. I wish that we had gotten there a bit earlier so that we might have avoided the longer lines for the carriage ride, but the girls loved it.

Other than this and our trip to Seattle {see previous post} we really didn't do a whole lot of extra things. Work has been busy enough I suppose.

Here's this cute picture I got from school to round out the post:

Happy Fall!!

Happy Thanksgiving

This will be short & sweet:

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

We hope that you remember to be thankful each and every day for all the many positive things in your lives.

XOXO,
Justin, Lisa, Nora & Janie

Seattle Again

You might be thinking, "Wait, weren't they just in Seattle?" And if you were thinking that, you're right! We found out shortly after we had decided to go to Seattle for fun that Justin's annual work trip with families would be there, too. We kept our original plans knowing that we wouldn't be able to get what we wanted to done in a few short days.

I contemplated going since I really couldn't take much time off of work anyways, but decided why not. I got on a plane to Seattle after school on Friday and came back Sunday evening. The hardest thing about the whole weekend was adjusting to the time difference. Or I suppose, not adjusting.

This was my row on the plane. I still cannot believe it!

A good thing about just having been was that I didn't feel pressured to see anything. It was just a leisurely weekend {well, except for Justin's work meetings} in which we got to enjoy each other's company. When I got there, I immediately walked into the first work function. The next morning, I walked around {it was raining} and shopped at a few places while Justin was in a meeting. Then, we walked to Pike Place Market to have lunch. We went to a cute little restaurant that had yummy food the last time we went, per a recommendation, and wanted to go back.

We had a second work dinner that night that was at the Chihuly Glass Museum, which we hadn't been to the first time around, and was beautiful. It was also conveniently right next to the space needle, which we didn't venture out to see either. So look at that! We got in some new things and didn't even plan it.

We had plans to meet a couple of Justin's cousins for brunch on my last day {Justin stayed a bit longer} but since we were up early anyways, we tried to find some decent fall foliage. We went to a park, which I don't even remember the name of, and walked around a bit. Unfortunately, it seems like we missed most of the color. A lot of leaves were already fallen to the ground. It's funny because in Texas, I think the leaves were basically still green at this point!

We enjoyed being able to catch up with family, have some time to ourselves, and catch up with work friends. It was a good second trip to Seattle!

Happy Halloween

There should be a rule that Halloween should not ever be on a Monday. It just doesn't seem... right. I have come up with a few tips for parents to have a successful evening with toddler trick-or-treaters on Halloween, especially on a Monday!

Me with my cutie toddlers on Halloween!

Tip #1: Get ready early and then wait outside until you see {hearing suffices} even just one other child out and about. Do not hesitate to begin trick-or-treating!

What is the "appropriate" time to begin trick-or-treating? When it doesn't get dark until after six o'clock and your children have to get ready for bed at seven, you don't necessarily want to wait for Halloween. So take my advice, get started early. I think we started around 5:30pm this year.

Tip #2: Lower your expectations. Like waaaaayyy down.

There's regular trick-or-treating and there's toddler trick-or-treating. If you have never been trick-or-treating with a toddler, you have to lower your expectations about what you will accomplish. First of all, they walk as slow as they have ever walked before. I'm not sure if this is because they are distracted by the lights and noises and other people out and about or if it just feels like they are walking slower than usual, but... oh man. And then you get to a house. You answer roughly 17 questions about who lives there and what decorations they have and are they real and what candy will they have and if they will have a dog and will it bark before they go up to the doorbell. You repeatedly tell them to say "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" at each stop. The sweet people on the other side of the door love to let your indecisive toddler choose out whichever candies they desire. So you wait while they pick out three candies, one at a time. So finally after an hour, you've made it down the street. You decide to push bed time a bit because, well, it is Halloween and all. Plus, they are getting the hang of it all and it is going a little faster. But then, you realize that you have to walk back to your house. And they are getting tired and walking slower and to top it all off, now they do not wish to carry their candy because it is too heavy. Heavy in toddler is equal to about 30 pieces of candy. Your saving grace is that they realize that they need to go potty which forces you to run home, officially putting an end to the Halloween evening. Except when they cry because they realize they cannot go back out to ask for more candy. Which leads me to my next tip...

Checking out the decorations.

Tip #3: Use the restroom before leaving the house. Like immediately before.

Tip #4: Take pictures before you go trick-or-treating.

I know they are excited and hard to contain but trust me it will not happen if you do not do it before hand. You will be ready for them to go to bed more than they are ready for bed and that is saying a lot. 

Here we are! My little ballerinas.

Tip #5: Bring something to take video.

You are sure to find one house in your neighborhood that scares the daylights out of your child. You honestly won't know whether to be upset because c'mon they should know better or to laugh because it is a hilarious reaction to witness first hand, but either way you will laugh about it later. For us, it was a house with a pre-teen boy in costume who was sitting on a bench by the door. His dad was encouraging the girls to get closer and when they did, he jumped and yelled BOO! The girls screamed and were absolutely terrified. They talked about it for days afterwards. The boy came to our house to trick-or-treat later and apologized for scaring them. I don't think he anticipated quite the reaction that he got! I learned this the hard way and do not have a video to share...

Tip #6: Encourage your neighborhood to have adult trick-or-treating.

One house in our neighborhood had a margarita machine for the adults. How genius is that?? If we could all get on the same page and have a house on every street offering a beverage or a snack for adults, this whole Halloween thing could start at 4 and go until 8, in my opinion. But hey, if anything is going to make trick-or-treating with toddlers on a Monday better, it's a margarita!

I'm not even going to touch on how difficult it is to teach kindergarten the day after Halloween. I'll just let you imagine it. But, like I said... Halloween on a Monday is just icky.

To wrap it up, here are some pictures from their school's sweet Halloween parade of costumes:

Wondering where Pops is...