Since Valentine’s Day was on Sunday this year — and because Carter missed his school Valentine party due to his surgery — we had a big celebration at home.
The kids each received a gift that we knew they would love.
Carter received a dart gun while Raine received books.
He needs to work on his aim!
Daddy made a giant, heart-shaped pazookie that was DE-LI-CIOUS!
On February 12, the Friday of President’s Day weekend, Carter had surgery to insert ear tubes and remove his adenoids. He had three consecutive ear infections from Sept to Nov and his ears were so gunked up that he could hardly hear. The ear tubes were to give him immediate relief from the deafening ear gunk while the adenoid removal was to help prevent future buildup.
Carter was in a bad mood when got to surgical center because I had inadvertently scheduled the surgery on the day of his class valentine party. He had been talking about it all week so I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he was going to miss it! We had to be at the surgical center in Plano by 7:05 a.m. so we simply picked up Carter out of bed and put him the car. He didn’t ask where I was taking him until we arrived at Cook’s, but then it was too late to protest. I realize this sounds like terrible parenting, but it really was the best method for this particular child. He would have gotten himself too worked up about it if he had known ahead of time. This way, by the time he knew what was happening, it was too late for him to get worked up. He just took the medicine and played video games until it was time for him to go back.
After the procedure, he woke up with a raging headache. The nurse quickly gave him a dose of hydrocodone, but the 20 minutes until it took effect were torturous. Once the narcotics were working, he dozed off again while I listened to the post-op instructions. Not long after that we headed home with a whole stack of prescriptions.
Carter decided that he had been medicated enough that day and refused to take anything else. We started negotiating and the winning bid was . . . a quarter! (You just never know what will strike this kid’s fancy.) Friday afternoon he took some ibuprofen and that night before bed his headache was returning so he took some hydrocodone, but that was the last painkiller he took. Saturday it was hard to tell that anything was different and by Monday, he was running and playing like nothing ever happened.
Here he is on Monday showing me how he does the monkeybars at the school playground. Then we went on a 2+ mile bike ride down the Cotton-belt Trail.
When Carter went back to school on Tuesday, he swore to his teacher that nobody had put tubes in his ears. He was adamant that nothing had happened after he fell asleep at the surgical center. He couldn’t be convinced until I showed him the picture of his adenoid that the surgeon had given me. He thought it was pretty cool to have a picture of the inside of his left nostril!
My birthday celebration started on Saturday, February 6 when we went to dinner at Baker Bros Deli on West 7th and then to the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo.
This was the only photo that I managed to take!
The rodeo was great! It was finals night so the competitors were some of the best cowboys and cowgirls in the world. We’ve been to rodeos many times before, but on this night, we discovered that Raine is an animal rights activist at heart. She sat with her eyes closed and her hands over her ears during every event that included calves — calf roping, team roping, steer wrestling. She didn’t have a problem with the bronc riding or the bull riding though.
My actual birthday was on Tuesday. I was in court that morning (watching helplessly as one of my case workers sank our entire case because she didn’t read her file before getting on the witness stand), fortunately, my legal assistant had brought doughnuts that morning! As soon as we finished there, we headed to Yucatan Taco Stand where we met the rest of the office for a birthday lunch and a delicious Nothing-Bunt-Cake! When I arrived back at my office I found these beauties sitting on my desk with a nice card from my secretary and legal assistant. My co-workers are the best, I love working with them.
That night, the kids had a QR-code scavenger hunt set up for me. It led me to Godiva Chocolates, dinner at Brio Tuscan Gill in the Southlake Town Center . . .
. . . and then home for a cake from Celebrity Bakery and ice cream from Milwaukee Joes. (This family of mine knows EXACTLY what I like!!!)
It was way past bedtime by the time we finished our cake so we saved presents for the next morning.
Daddy and the kids gave me this gorgeous Pandora ring, I spent all day admiring it.
I had a great birthday this year. It was filled with all of my favorite things and favorite people!
Raine – 2nd Grade
Carter – Kindergarten
Carter’s teacher is still only posting a couple times a month so there are a whole lot more photos of Raine than Carter.
12/3 – Raine and Mackenzie did a passion project on the American Fuzzy Lop
12/14 – Raine and Jimmy working on math
12/16 – Raine and Mackenzie experimenting with magnets
12/18 – Raine is in the middle of the top-right photo and on the far right in the bottom-right photo
1/7 – Raine is in the bottom-left photo
1/8 – Raine is in the top-middle of the top-right photo and in the bottom-left of the bottom-right photo
1/12 – Raine and Zoe working on a flow map in the bottom photo
1/13 – Carter is on the far right (standing by himself) in front of the fire truck
1/19 – Raine reading to Evan in the bottom-right photo
1/21 – Raine with her hand raised in the photo on the left
1/28 – Raine working on maker spaces in the middle-left photo
1/29 – Raine and Mackenzie working on spelling words in the bottom right photo
1/29 – Carter is standing right next to the librarian, Mrs. Kessel, looking up at her. They got ice cream for finishing the 2×2 book challenge.
Here are some stories that Raine wrote around Christmas time:
Carter finally lost his second tooth yesterday. There were no tears with this one, unlike the last. Carter went to bed hoping for a big payout this morning; he was a little disappointed to “only” find $3. Raine assured him that that was the going rate for teeth and this seemed to pacify him. Daddy and I just shook our heads and lamented how we only got 3 quarters for our teeth!
Sunday morning, January 3, we checked out of our little cabin and headed back down the mountain. We found a church to attend prior to heading over to Uncle Jake’s house in Centennial — their ward met way too early in the morning for us to get to. We had dinner with them and made a quick visit to the home of one of Daddy’s high school friends, Nathan Smith, in Parker. They had fun catching up, especially watching videos from Nathan’s mission farewell in the late 90’s.
We spent the night at the Anderson’s house and then went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science the next morning. I didn’t take many photos, but here are the ones I managed to snap before we headed out to the airport to catch our flight home.
Seth, Grant, Rose, and Raine
Carter and Daddy
Raine and Rose
Carter and the walrus display
New Year’s weekend we spent in Denver, teaching the kids to ski and visiting with family and friends. We flew in on New Year’s Eve day and headed to the Ellis’s house. They graciously invited us to stay at their house where they fed us dinner, taught us how to play Kinect games, and then fed us chocolate fondue!
We stayed up chatting until the wee hours of the morning (until around 3:00 am I believe). Needless to say, we weren’t up real early the next morning!
We packed our bags and headed up the mountain to Loveland ski resort where we were determined to teach the kids to ski.
Eventually, we made it out of the lodge with all the gear we needed — but not before a minor meltdown. (What were we thinking when we put 15 layers of clothes on a kid who hates to wear anything besides shorts and a t-shirt and then made him sit around in the sport shop while we buckled hard plastic boots on his feet?!! Of course he lost it! But we’re pros at handling meltdowns and soon enough we had him outside and geared up.)
The next hurdle was getting them to the base of the lift. Wow, we were on the verge of a Mommy meltdown before we got anywhere close to that lift! Seriously, who puts the lift 100 feet uphill from the lodge?!! It is hard enough to duck-walk yourself that far uphill in skis, let alone drag a small child that far — a small child who has never even stood up on skis, let alone maneuvered them up a hill! And yes, we eventually took the skis off and hiked up in our boots but hiking up hill in ski boots, carrying two people’s skis, is no simple task either. Luckily, once we got to the surface lift, it was a cinch to ride with a brand-new skier.
The kids quickly figured out how to balance and we made a bunch of runs down the bunny hill before we headed back to the lodge for lunch.
As soon as we finished eating, however, I looked over to find Carter fast asleep on the bench. The kid can sleep anywhere!
Daddy and Raine went to try the chair lift while I waited in the lodge with Carter. She was pretty good by the end of the day.
Eventually, I had to wake up that sleepy kid because we were loosing daylight. I convinced him to put on all his gear one more time so we could make a few more runs. This picture is him showing me how he could jump in his skis — I love the tongue!
After an exhausting day of skiing, we headed to Idaho Springs where we checked into our cabin at Indian Hot Springs.
We had dinner at the Main Street Restaurant and then headed over to the mineral hot springs to soak our weary muscles. (Actually, I think that I’m the only who had weary muscles, but it sure felt good.)
The next morning we drove back up to Loveland, dropped the kids off at the kid’s club, and then Daddy and I skied the rest of the mountain.
It was a great day for skiing; the temps got all the way up to 25 degrees so we didn’t freeze to death! They didn’t have any fresh snow, but it had been so cold the week before that the snow they received earlier never melted.
Here are some of our favorite photos from Christmas morning.
The kids were up early this year — at least earlier than Daddy and I wanted to get up — so they had to do the waiting game while we got going. Finally, it was time to look through their stockings.
They get to open all the presents in their stocking at the same time.
Then, we sort out the presents under the tree and open them one by one, taking turns from the youngest to the oldest.
Carter was so excited for Daddy to open the drone that he picked out.
After the presents under the main tree were opened the playing began while Daddy and I made breakfast.
At some point, Carter happened to wander into the library and realized that there were more presents under that tree (just like last year).
They were so excited to get scooters. They rode around the circle for hours in their jammies.
As soon as Daddy got his drone charged, he brought it outside for a test flight.
Raine spread out her new art supplies on the driveway and went to work making posters for her girls only spy club.
We had a great Christmas, very low-key and relaxing. In fact, we had so much food left over from the night before that we didn’t even bother to cook our Christmas ham until today! We also made our favorite breakfast treat today, monkey bread!
And finally, here is our Christmas family photo.
We had a very warm Christmas this year and the kids loved it. They spent the entire day before Christmas playing outside with our neighbors, Riley and Ryan. They even insisted on a picnic lunch so that they wouldn’t have to miss a minute of sunshine.
That evening we hosted Christmas Eve at our house and had several of our favorite families here to celebrate with us — the Walkers, Eastmans, Richeys, and Boyers. The kids donned scarves, towels, and neckties to act out the nativity story.
Carter and Alice were the shepherds. Avery and Hudson were Mary and Joseph.
Here come the wise men, Boston and Cade.
The entire cast: Jordan (narrator), Carter (shepherd), Alice (shepherd), [BACK] Raine (angel – she was standing up on the stairs so my pictures didn’t capture her), Boston (wise man), [FRONT] Cade (wise man), Avery (Mary), Hudson (Joseph).
After the nativity we played gift exchange games. The kids played the left-right game and it was hilarious because most of them don’t know their left from their right without at least thinking about it for a minute! Once they finished we sent them upstairs to watch The Grinch Who Stole Christmas while the adults had a white elephant gift exchange.
After saying goodnight to all our friends, the kids opened their Christmas pjs — ninja turtle jammies!
