Thursday, December 10, 2015

Bowling

Last weekend, we thought it would be fun to take the boys bowling. We went on a Saturday night and it was Cosmic Bowling so the lights were off. The boys thought it was pretty cool. 

I loved Porter's teeny bowling shoes. 
Paxton thought he was a grown-up. When it was his turn, he would grab his ball like it weighed nothing and walk straight to the ramp and roll it. He didn't need help, he didn't need instruction. 
They both loved watching their balls roll down the lane and would yell "I win!" anytime they knocked down any pins (which was pretty much every time with bumpers and the ramp). 
Then Paxton amazed us all by getting a strike! He even made the "X" with his arms. 
They had an absolute blast and powered through the 9 turns at lightning speed. 

Saturday, December 5, 2015

November Was a Good One!

November flew by, but that was because we were busy having a blast! 

Porter learned how to do thumbs up.
Paxton asked to have a special night with Gramsy one Friday night and she was happy to oblige. They went to Carl's Jr and Wal-Mart and Jared and I got some single kid time with Porter. We went to Hidalgo's since Paxton doesn't really like Mexican and the rest of us do. Porter celebrated by drinking cheese sauce. 
We took a family trip to Austin and had a blast!
We put up the Christmas lights a little early since Paxton had been begging since the day after Halloween...especially once the neighbors put theirs up. 
We got our family pictures taken which was exactly as big of a disaster as I imagined it would be, but we got a few good ones!
We found out baby #3 was a BOY! And we announced our pregnancy to the general public. 
We went and picked out a real tree together on the coldest day of November and put up our Christmas decorations. 
The boys helped me bake for Thanksgiving. 
And they re-discovered their love for Pink Arctic Freeze and licking beaters. 
We had an awesome Thanksgiving!
Granny V made sure Paxton had some food to be thankful for by making him mac&cheese. 
And Gramsy officially switched us to Christmas season by giving the boys their first Christmas present, Christmas jammies and a Christmas movie. This year their jammies came with Santa hats and they literally left them on for 2 days. 
We ended the month with an ice storm that knocked down tons of branches and left us without electricity for the weekend. 
We slept on a mattress by the fireplace to try to stay warm...it didn't work. 
November was one of my favorites this year...it had all my favorite things: family vacation, fall weather, and a giant meal with our families. Now it's time for an explosion of Christmas activities!!!

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Big News!

The night before Paxton's first day of Pre-K, I was having some symptoms that I have had before. I took a quick trip to Target for some tests and couldn't even wait until morning to find out. I tried one immediately and....
WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!!

I was so nauseous the first several weeks. I never threw up but I felt bad all day every day. Everyone thought that meant it was a girl, but I just couldn't picture having something besides a boy. 

At my 17 week appointment (the day before the gender reveal ultrasound), the nurse couldn't find the heart beat. She didn't seem worried and said my doctor would be right in and she would probably find it won't no trouble. But I was worried. I hadn't been feeling the baby move and knew I had by this point with Porter. I was texting Jared and my mom and I was mildly freaking out. After about 10 minutes, my doctor came in and she couldn't find it either. She acted totally calm and suggested an ultrasound. I could hear her in the hall knocking on the door of the ultrasound room and asking the nurse if the girl in there was almost done. That's when I knew she was worried too. It was a terrible time to be alone...finally, the room was ready and I went in. She turned the screen away from me and I thought that was for the best...I didn't want to see...almost immediately, she turned the screen back around and told me the baby was moving and then she found the heart beat. We listened to it for a long time and watched it kicking around. Apparently my placenta was between the Doppler and the baby so it was only picking up my heart beat and not the baby's. I know I have an amazing doctor because she was visibly relieved and hugged me and we both had tears in our eyes. We finished the appointment and I told Jared and my mom the good news. I think that scary event got Jared and I more invested in the pregnancy. It hasn't really felt that real yet since we're busy chasing around the P's, but seeing how upset we were at the prospect of losing this baby made us realize how excited we are and how much we love it already. 

The next day was the gender reveal ultrasound! Paxton was at school, so Jared and Porter and I went to Baptist Hospital. The tech took her time looking at the brain and heart and kidneys and measuring the femur...but she finally made it down south. We both knew as soon as we saw...ANOTHER BOY!

We went to Babies R Us (it's tradition) to pick out a little boy outfit. Then we went to the store to get items for our gender reveal party that night (my mom and sisters insisted even though we had just planned on telling everyone immediately). 

When Jared got home from work, it was time to tell the boys if they were getting a brother or a sister. Since Porter had been playing the iPad during the ultrasound, he had no idea. We gave them each a paper bag to open and inside was a ziploc with blue candy. Paxton understood immediately and was so excited he was getting a baby brother! Porter was just excited for candy. 

We went to Chili's for dinner and gave each person a paper lunch sack to open. Since the ultrasound tech had announced "there's a stem on the apple" to let us know that Paxton was a boy, that has been a running joke with the family. Inside each bag was an apple...with a stem! 

We are so excited for another baby boy! We can't wait to bring another tiny bundle in blue pajamas home. 


Austin!

We found out a few weeks ago that Jared would need to go to Austin for work and since it was somewhere I've been wanting to go, we decided to tag along. We left on a Thursday morning and made it to Fort Worth by lunch time. We stopped at In-N-Out Burger. Paxton LOVED it. He ate his whole meal in maybe 3 minutes which is a record for him. Then he spent the rest of the meal eating off of everyone else's plate. 
We made it to Austin right in time for rush hour so we hit Zilker Park to burn off some energy. The boys had a blast on the playground and throwing rocks into the river. 
As it started getting dark, we started getting hungry so we went to Terry Black's Barbeque for dinner. Paxton decided he wanted to take a picture in front of the sign. 
It was a buffet-style restaurant which is always a hit for us. The boys ate their weight in macaroni and cheese and pickles and Porter loved the turkey. 

When we got to our hotel room, the boys still had a ton of energy and Jared had to get some work done, so we went down to the pool. It was an indoor/outdoor pool with a glass divider between the two, so the pool was freezing! Even Paxton who can swim for hours in water straight from the hose couldn't handle it! We ended up wrapping up in towels and putting our feet in the hot tub. It was their first time to feel the hot tub and they loved it. They really wanted to get in, but settled for dipping their feet and hands in. 

We headed back to the room for warm showers and snuggling up with a movie. Hotel Transylvania is their absolute favorite right now so that's what they watched. 
The next morning, we went to Voodoo Donuts for breakfast. Paxton picked an apple fritter covered in frosting that was approximately the size of his torso. 
After breakfast, Jared had more work to do to get ready for his presentation, so the boys and I went to Mt. Playmore. 
After playing, we stopped and grabbed lunch and headed back to the hotel room for naps. 
That night, we went to Trader Joe's to shop and both boys got to push their own little cart. For dinner, we went to a burger place and then two little boys needed some ice cream. 
We had heard Amy's was a place we couldn't miss and I'm so glad we didn't! It was our favorite part of the trip. We had the best ice cream ever. 
The next morning, we ate breakfast at the fancy buffet at the hotel and then hit the road. We stopped at Buccee's for some snacks and Paxton picked out a gigantic "rainbow" lollipop. 
Porter picked yogurt-covered raisins but decided he would rather eat my sandwich instead. 

We made it to Dallas around 3 and thought we would have plenty of time for a snack at Rainforest Cafe and make it home for the OU game. Well...apparently 3:00 on Saturday is not a slow time at Rainforest Cafe. We had to wait for 45 minutes and then it took forever to get our food. The boys had a blast and loved looking at all the animals. They were a little wary of the thunderstorm, but by then end they even thought that was cool. 
Jared had to watch the first hour of the OU game in the car, but it was worth it! That's somewhere I've always wanted to take the boys and they totally loved it. 

Since we were home on Sunday, we decided to put up the Christmas lights. Our neighbors had put theirs up the weekend before and Paxton had been begging for ours to go up. 

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Halloween!!

Our Halloween celebration started on Friday this year. Paxton had a little ice cream sundae party at school, so Porter and I carried on our tradition of Scary-face pancakes at IHOP. 
Jared got home from his work trip that evening, so after picking him up at the airport, we picked up dinner and a movie and built a fire. We all cuddled up and watched Toy Story of Terror. 
That night, Paxton woke up around 3am with a bad cough, but seemed a little better the next morning. In fact, the first thing he said the next morning when we woke up was, "It's Halloween! It's finally here! I'm so excited!"

We watched a Halloween movie and ate our Johnnie's breakfast in our pajamas. Then it was time for the activity Paxton had been looking forward to, pumpkin painting. 
The boys had a blast and painted for a long time. A bath was the obvious next activity. 

When Porter woke up from his nap, the boys were anxious to get their costumes on. They had been asking to be Buzz and Woody for Halloween since that lake trip when they became obsessed with Toy Story 3. We were thinking Porter would be Buzz because he's shorter in the movie, but they both agreed that Paxton would be Buzz and Porter would be Woody. They thought their costumes were so cool and the whole time they wore them, the called each other Buzz and Woody and wanted us to do the same. 
We stopped by Grandpa Mark's house and then grabbed corn dogs at Sonic on the way back home. We grabbed the wagon and got started! We stopped to see GG because she had presents for the boys. They were so excited about their new trucks and Paxton kept sneaking candy into his bucket the whole time we were there. 
Then we went to Papaw's house to meet Granny V and Aunt Candy and baby Brooks and start trick or treating! Gramsy met us too and we did Papaw's whole street and the cul de sac at the end. By then, people were starting to turn their lights off but the boys wanted to keep going. We started having to walk a lot between houses and it was getting cold and late so we finally gave up. 
They had so much fun trick or treating this year. Paxton came running down each driveway yelling "I said thank you!" And Porter said "can I have candy?" to most people instead of trick or treat...and then at one house, the lady gave him one piece and he looked at her sternly and said "give me another one". Luckily we were there to put a stop to that and remind him that thank you was more appropriate. He was also obsessed with everyone's decorations and would just stop and talk to them about the different things they had and they were all so nice to turn them on or answer his questions about them. It was funny. 

I love how excited they get about holidays. It makes every part so fun.