St. Paddy's Celebration

On Saturday, March 15th, Josh and Carrie had a family friendly St. Paddy's Day celebration at their house in Dallas.  They live really close to lower Greenville where all of the action usually is, and they went ALL OUT for this party!  All the kids had goodie bags, there were food and drinks a plenty, a bounce house, sidewalk chalk, and bubbles for the kids, and my favorite part--a crawfish boil!  

We all sported our green!  Even me with my big, green, 36 weeks pregnant belly!

Our cute leprechaun!

 

The weather was not ideal--lots of rain and humidity, but we made the best of it!  I felt so badly for Josh and Carrie because people were going in and out with muddy, wet feet and their poor floors and rugs were taking a beating.  I finally just took Lane's shoes off and rolled his pants up, and he still went through 3 pairs of pants and 2 shirts while we were there because of the mud and rain.  

He loved jumping in the bounce house!

Playing with sidewalk chalk

And he loved the bubbles in his gift bag from Carrie!

Lane was pretty intrigued by the crawfish!  Josh showed him the claws and let one pinch his own finger so Lane could see.  As he was saying "It doesn't hurt" that thing clamped on and drew blood from poor Josh's finger.  Lol!

 

They can't pinch any more!!  Josh did a fantastic job on the boil.  I have only had crawfish one other time and liked it, but this time I loved it!  The potatoes and corn were so tasty and the crawfish were really well seasoned.  Well done, Biscuit!

Daddy and Lane

There were quite a few other children there, but Lane had the most fun with Saylor Grae.  She is Abby and Aaron's daughter.  (Carrie went to high school with Abby and Aaron.)

They are only a few months apart and get along really well.  He played with her at Gage's birthday party in February and back in July for the Bays' 4th of July party.  They are so cute together!

One last pic before this guy fell asleep and we headed home!

A big thanks to the Bays for their awesome hospitality!  We had a great time!

A Christmas Spectacular Weekend!

Last weekend Lane and I went to DFW so I could help host my college roommate, Riley's baby shower.  Since it fell in mid-December, Lane and I decided to make it a fun Christmas-y weekend!  We arrived at Mums' house after I picked up Lane from school, and he was quite impressed with all of her Christmas decor.  He especially loved her snow village.  She didn't put it out last year, so this was the first year he had seen it!

Harvey met us in Mansfield and immediately needed a snack!  Lane found him munching on some nuts with the nutcrackers!

 

Friday morning we woke up and drove to Dallas with Gran to see the train exhibit at NorthPark Mall.  We timed it perfectly and got there just as they opened.  It wasn't crowded at all and we were able to take our time looking at all the trains before it got busy.  You will definitely be able to tell from the pictures that Lane LOVED it!  

 

Lane's favorite train was a fire train that kept coming by.  For some reason he thought it would be funny to say "There goes that stinkin' fire train again!" Every single time it came by.  It definitely became the quote of the trip!  

A nice lady offered to take a picture of the 3 of us.  Nice, Lane.  Real nice.

 

He was a happy guy!

  

After the trains we headed to lunch, stopping off to give a donation.  Lane loves giving money to the bell ringers!

 

We had lunch at Mermaids, where I ordered Lane plain pasta off the kids menu with marinara on the side.  His picky eating drives me nuts, but the kid INHALED his pasta without even dipping it in any of the sauce!  He literally ate the whole bowl of penne and polished off his fruit as well.  If we could just get the kid to eat some meat we would be in business!

 

 

We had such a fun time with Gran!  Hopefully we can make this a Christmas tradition!

On Saturday I went to Fort Worth to help host Riley's baby shower.  Her friend Brooke had it at her beautiful home, and I think the two of us pulled off a pretty good shower!  Riley is due with a little boy at the end of January.  We had fun celebrating Carson Brooks!

Saturday night, the holiday fun continued.  We went with my mom, Kori, and Evin to the Mansfield Christmas Spectacular at the Performing Arts Center.  It was a free show put on by our church and included other churches from the community as well.  There was a choir and musical dancers/actors that sang lots of fun Christmas songs.  Lane enjoyed most of the upbeat songs, but got a little wiggly when the slower, traditional songs were performed.

He also loved riding the shuttle bus! 

 

 

Our two Christmas cuties after the show!

Another great group picture face from Lane.  Aye, aye, aye!

 

We stayed up late that night decorating a gingerbread house!  Lane was pretty into it this year and did a good job with the decor!

Powdered sugar faces!

 

Before we left and headed back to Austin, Lane read the whole entire 12 Days of Christmas book to Evin.  He has a couple of Christmas CD's and one includes the 12 Days of Christmas.  We have listened to the CD's so many times in the car that he has almost every song memorized, including all 12 parts to the 12 Days of Christmas.  I got it on film, but the video was like 8 min long, so I didn't post it!  Kori caught this cute moment between L and E.

I just love this time of year!

The 6th of July

After our trip to Kerrville, Kyle and I drove to DFW for the weekend.  Josh and Carrie put together a little Independence Day party at their house in Dallas.  We joked that it was a 6th of July party!  Josh went above and beyond to make the get together PERFECT for all of the kids.  He bought an awesome pool, bought the kids firecrackers, had sidewalk chalk and bubbles, and grilled burgers, chicken and hotdogs! 

The guest list included some pretty cute kiddos!

LANE

GAGE

 

SAYLOR GRAE

 

ABIGAIL

 

KINSLEY

The kids had a blast in the pool!  It was definitely the hit of the party.

 

 

And they loved the popping firecrackers.  Lane would throw them down with a serious look on his face and then just crack up!

More poppers, Trey!  

Abby and Aaron brought their blow up bounce house.

 

And we brought a slip-n-slide!  I'm telling you, it was a kiddie paradise!

Abigail looked so cute in her American flag bow!

We stayed the night at Josh and Carrie's, and Josh went to get us donuts for breakfast the next morning.  Thank you for such a fun time Biscuit and Carrie!!!!