Our Park

 Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Since we’ve been here in Houston we’ve been able to go to several different parks with our ward play group. But, this park, Bane Park, is the one we’ve claimed as our go-to park.

We have at least three small parks that are closer to our house. But this one has our library right next to it, a bigger jungle-gym, a splash-pad, a walking trail, a fishing pod, and some other wildlife. Not to mention bathrooms, which is nice when you have a potty training little boy.

 Karl loves the swings, so we make sure and spend some time there whenever we’re at the park. He’s also learned to love the slides. Karl has been my brave boy so far, where Jared has been more careful when we’re at the park. Karl also loves to run up and excitedly pet other peoples’ dogs without a care as to how big they are. Jared will hide behind me ‘til he knows it’s okay. But, they are both very imaginative and adventures when we go to the park. On this day, Jared play pirates with his friend Tristian; the whole playground toy was their ship.

Before we leave we like to take a lap around the pond. We look for animals and Jared likes to stop and read the signs they have posted telling you about the different plants. This time that we went it must have been a good time of day or time of year, because we saw more animals than we usually do. There are always a lot of ducks and geese at this park, which Jared loves to feed, and if we don’t have food than he loves to chase them. But, this time we also saw beavers and a heron. Jared thought the beavers were pretty cool. We always have a good time at this park; we love our park!

The Driving Range

Saturday, January 17, 2015

 Ryan’s liked to get out and golf every now and again over the years. So far he’d always been golfing right-hand, and done pretty well. After Ryan got his left-handed golf set for Christmas, he was anxious to really get to try them out.

 He found this really nice, low-key, driving range. One reason Ryan picked it is because it had a little playground. That was awesome for me and the boys. Ryan found that being able to golf left-handed made a huge difference for how well he swung, and how much easier it felt.

 The boys had a fun time playing on this little picnic table and swing set. It was some fun family time together.

Late Christmas Presents :D

January 3, 2015

Since we’ve moved to Texas, we’ve gotten used to expecting that some of our gifts might not make it quite on Christmas. But, who doesn’t love getting January presents?! Just when you think the present opening fun is all over some more arrive on your door step. It’s the best!! It’s generally from our Utah family.  (Cough, thank you Gramma Mary and Papa Rick for January Christmas!)

 This year Jared got an Avenger’s Hawkeye crossbow with darts and a tricycle. Karl got a huge stuffed puppy and a Plane’s Dusty airplane toy. Karl’s plane was a lot like one that Gramma Mary had back in Utah that all the grandkids love, so it was nice for him to have one to play with here in Houston.

Karl having a blast riding his Dusty plane backwards!

 Jared was crazy about the crossbow, and he was really excited to get out on his tricycle even if he didn’t really know how to ride it yet. I helped him practice, but after that he just wanted to have fun riding around on it by walking it his feet instead.

 These two creative boys had a great time with their new toys and it was a fun January Christmas. J

New Year's Eve

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

 For New Year’s Eve night we went to a friend’s house who was having a pizza party, and brought some of our favorite toppings. It was a lot of fun and we got to try a few different kinds of pizza, including one that had cranberry sauce, chicken, and cream cheese, which turned out to be really good.

 They had something for the kids to do each hour. Ryan and Jared’s absolute favorite, for obvious reasons, was a nurf gun battle out in the backyard. Jared just had to have a turn with this big turret-like gun.

 We didn’t want to have cranky kids the next day, like last year, so we headed home at about nine and put Karl to bed. After that we went out front with Jared and lit a bunch of small fireworks we had gotten. Ryan had picked out some “Halo” tanks that Jared really liked.

 We also had fun dancing with the sparkers and showing Jared how he could write his name or his alphabet letters. Jared loved getting to do throw some of the snappers too.

 As usual with holidays we could count on our neighbors to have aerial fireworks going throughout the evening. We barely made it to staying up ‘til midnight, but we did! It was a fun last night of the year!

End of Year Camping Trip

December 29-30, 2014

 On our way home from Dallas, we stopped at our favorite camping spot in Flynn. We had a great time playing, fishing, boating, and staying warm by the camp fire.

 Kerry had been working hard during the past few months to get his shop put together. He had some work contracted out, but Ryan came and helped with some of the work he did himself, and even brought one of the young men from the ward to help one time. This was the first time I got to see its progress and it’s looking pretty good. It was a favorite place of Jared’s to play while we were camping this time.

 Ryan and the boys caught and released some fish, just keeping one.

We weren’t quite prepared for how cold it would be there, so we decided to only stay for one night, instead of the two we had intended, but we still had a fun time!

Ward Christmas Party

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Near the first of December our ward put on a Christmas dinner. At the dinner there was a ton of amazing food: two or three different kinds of everything, some great entertainment from each of the quorums and auxiliaries, and also… pictures with Santa provided.

 Throughout the morning we had been preparing Jared for this opportunity to meet Santa in person and sit on his lap. We talked to him about what kind of gifts he’d want and so on. By the time we got to the church we thought he was ready and excited. Well, all our preparation didn’t really translate when it was time for him to go sit on Santa’s knee. He pouted the whole time; and Karl wanted off before he even got on. It was so funny and sad all at once.

 We did get Jared to whisper to Santa what he wanted, “Iron Man toys,” before he got down. He did talk about the experience afterwards like it was a good one, so I think he’s glad he got to sit with Santa. But, after a week or two when the picture results were sent out, they were pretty hilarious to see. The photographer took nine tries, we saved them all, but here’re just a few.

For the Christmas party, I made an Apple-Cranberry Pie and a Banana Cream Pie. They were the only pies so they were both gone before I got to the dessert room. Ryan was disappointed about not getting any of the banana pie, one of his favorites. So I fixed both our pie needs by making our family our own banana cream pie the next week. J

Weekend with the Davises

December 27-29, 2014

We didn’t know of very many people who we knew, who lived in Texas when we first got down here. But, we were glad to know of at least one family who we were related to, and one who were old friends (both to Ryan). So, just after Christmas, we made the trip up to Dallas to see our relatives, Ryan’s cousin Betty Jo and her family.

They were such great hosts. Trevor gave up his room for our family while we were there, which was great, because he had a huge bed. Jared and Karl loved having big kids to follow around and play with. Jared especially liked to play with Daisy, who was to closest to his age, but he also loved playing with Trevor and his Star Wars Lego toys. The older girls, Kylee and Natalie, were great with helping me with Karl and showing him fun things to play with.

They had an amazing theater room, so we took the chance to watch The Lego Movie with them. Ryan fell asleep the last time we watched it in Evansville, so I was on his case to make sure he’d stay awake this time, but he couldn’t do it. He fell asleep again. Oh, well, I guess he’ll just never know how “everything is awesome” when you stay awake to watch the whole movie.

The Davises had some fun things in their backyard, and Jared liked playing on this seesaw with Daisy. Meanwhile, Trevor entertain Karl inside, because it was very cold outside while we were visiting.

We had a great time getting to meet some of the family for the first time and getting to know Betty Jo and Darin better. They were a lot of fun and we look forward to hopefully seeing them more while we’re living in Texas. J