A weekend of painting

We spent a large part of Saturday and Sunday painting our shed.

Nathan had sanded it down and filled in all the holes with "Great Stuff"
Nathan

The Kossums were over for breakfast and Jud came back in the afternoon to help prime the shed, that brown is the primer.

Emma hung out with Hannah and Evie while their dads were painting.

Nathan and I finished up priming it that evening and the girls played really well while we were painting. They are getting so big!

Sunday afternoon Nathan and I were at it again painting it white. Nathan did an amazing job doing the roof, it looks great and is fully covered with just one coat of white paint!

The sides I did definitely will need a second coat, but it really doesn't look that bad, MUCH better than before.

Again while we were painting the girls played really well. They spent most of the time outside. The decided to go inside around 5 o'clock, probably a little after....I finished up painting and went into check on them. I found the gate at the top of the stairs locked......and silence in the house. I went upstairs and found two sleeping girls

I woke Hannah up and she burst into tears! "Mommy, you didn't come! I called and called and you didn't come!" I thought she was dreaming, as I was right there. But no, she was saying when Evie locked the gate at the top of the stairs she had called and called for me, but I hadn't come to open up the gate.....oops. They couldn't have been up there more than an hour because I hadn't been out there painting more than an hour, I think it was less than that....she survived, but I'm sure I might hear about that for a while. Evie on the other hand, I couldn't wake up and just let her sleep, she's been sick and not sleeping well. She was up for an hour plus in the middle of the night Friday night, so I figured there was a good chance she'd sleep through the night and she did. She slept until 7:30 am this morning when she came in only half awake crying because she didn't feel good and her ear hurt. I took her to the doctor and sure enough she has an ear infection. I love that she can tell me what's wrong! She spent most of the day laying on the couch. Once Daddy got home she got up and is now helping him put a new sink fixture in the master bath. :-)

A day at the park

We spent four and a half hours at the park on Friday with lots of friends! It was wonderful! It was a beautiful day and the girls and I had so much fun. I even got sunburned! All the friends that were there are friends I've had since before Evie was born. It was a blessing to be able to spend such a lovely day with them. I brought my camera, but didn't take tons of pictures, Kacy was there with her camera and took a bunch. When leaving the house the girls asked why I had my camera, I said because we're not going to see our friends that many more times because we're moving. Their response? We can drive back and visit mom. I assured them this would not be possible and that it is a very long drive, at least three days. They said "three days isn't long" since when is three days not long to a three and five year old?

I will miss this group of women. I wouldn't have made it through the past few years without them!

And the kids.....

The girls will definitely miss all these great friends!

Playing hooky

Last Thursday we played hooky from Bible study. Both girls were coughing and snotty, so I felt it best to just keep them home.......or should I say, away from Bible study and close contact with a large group of children. What do you do with two coughing snotty kids? Take them to the museum of course! We went to the Museum of Natural Science and had a lot of fun.

The girls loved running around the gem section and look at all the cool rocks.

Here Hannah is enjoying some hands on fun.

What is a science museum without dinosaurs?

And stuffed animals? The girls really liked walking around and looking at all the animals. I remember doing that when I was young and really liking that part as well.

An hour at the park

We've been sick, we all have a cold. It's not very fun. The girls have been very clingy, today they were doing better. They let me rest for an hour while they colored, cut and made "crafts" it was some much needed rest for me. So this afternoon, after the rain had cleared, since we were all doing a little better we went to the park. To play in the puddles of course :-)

We saw a flock of robins! Which I haven't seen that often around here.

We also saw this....I think it's a REALLY long skinny worm. Click the picture to enlarge it and see that long line, it was moving.....and yes, it looped back on itself.

Besides the wild life the girls "went swimming" in the picture Evie is jumping into the pool and Hannah is swimming in it :-)

Hannah "ice skated" in the puddle and then washed her hands in the ice (yes, she said she was washing her hands in the ice).

They also went hunting. We read the fox and the hound twice in the past two days :-)

And what's half an hour in the park without a trip on a rocket?

Quite an eventful hour!

And the big news.......

We're moving to Connecticut! Craziness, I know. We'll be leaving Houston in about a month, probably. Nathan's last day of work is February 3rd. He has taken a new job with Goodrich ISR in Danbury, CT. I guess that means no more swimming outside in November. :-( But it also means no more fire ants!!!! And snow!!! We've currently been enjoying mid 70s here in Houston, so I'm letting the girls spend as much time as possible outside while they can. They are looking forward to the snow and the new adventure. Nathan and I are looking forward to it as well. We will definitely miss all the wonderful friends we have made in our eight years in Houston, but we'll be glad to get rid of fire ants and have some cooler weather. We're also looking forward to being closer to family!

The Surprise

My parents came last weekend and we had a great time. My Dad was a huge help cleaning up the yard! They got to enjoy Hannah's party on Saturday and on Sunday I had a surprise for them :-) Niki's husband Tom works on site at Johnson Space Center on a very fun project, what was previously called the Moon Rover and is now the SEV (Space Exploration Vehicle).

 This was on the door to the first room we got to go in, it had Robonaut research stuff in it :-)

 Then we went to the upper bay, where they have mockups of all kinds of fun space things

 like the Orion vehicle

 Here are some station mockups, you see the glass mid way up on the right side of the picture? That's where most people get to see this stuff from :-)

 I thought this spider was cool!

 And here is Tom telling us about his baby, the SEV.

 After we hear all about it we got to get in....my Dad was really excited about it

As was Nathan

 And my mom and Evie

 

 Really, who wouldn't be excited about getting into a SEV?

 And taking it for a drive! You can't really see in there very well, but that's my Dad and yes, he did get to drive it.

 Here are some pictures from their mockup moon and mars location

 Family photo op!

My Mom driving

 A great time was had by all. Thank you Tom!!!!!!

Hannah's party

Hannah turned five on the 11th. I can't believe I have a five year old! We had a party for her while my parents were here last weekend. It was a cookie decorating party, so we had cookie cake and had sugar cookies for the girls to decorate. It was a very low key party, they played some outside, ate some pizza, played some more, had some cake, decorated some cookies and played again. They seemed to have a good time. 

All ready for lunch

 Playing outside

Hannah read almost all her cards by herself!

 She got a guitar, which is what she's wanted forever.

Blowing out the candles on her cake, she helped me make it and when asked how she wanted it decorated she said she wanted triangles on it, so that's what she got.

Evie enjoying decorating a little too much :-) But do you see the angle on the plate? They were 3-D sugar cookies that got decorated and could stand up!

RAIN!

Sunday night the 8th through Monday morning it rained here and rained good. We got about 4 inches of much needed rain. There were LOTS of puddles!! With it being a fairly warm day Monday what else is there to do than enjoy the puddles? Here are some pictures.

Can you see that brown patch Evie is pointing at?

This is what it was, a mound of fire ants trying to survive the flood at their house. There were lots of mounds like this, most were about the size of my fist, one was the size of my hand. It was a little scarey, and Hannah did end up with one ant bite since they were floating all over the place!

 Running through the HUGE puddle!

 Having fun :-)

 Sitting, swimming...watch the video!

 I noticed while the girls were playing Hannah had her pants on backwards....oops.

Here's a video of some of the fun in the big puddle!

Making people jump

My parents got Nathan a Wii for graduation, and us a new TV for Christmas (Thanks Mom and Dad!) and we've been enjoying it. Hannah was playing bowling on the Wii the other day and found that she could throw the ball backwards and the people behind her would jump. She thought this was hysterical, and started doing it instead of knocking the pins down. Here's a clip:

Texas Birds

I saw a pink bird the other day while driving, I thought it was a flamingo, but I found flamingos don't live around here. I decided to look into and see what kind of large pink bird does live around here, as I've seem them in the past in large flocks. I have found it was most likely a Roseate Spoonbill, they're big, they're pink, they live around here. Did you know flamingos have a lot of black on their wings? That's something new I learned while looking into this today. I also decided to look into the green birds I see all the time which I've been told are Parakeets, and that appears to the case. We have a flock of them that lives around here, I see them fairly often and have even found feathers from them. Green and blue feathers are pretty cool :-) I learned that parakeets live all over the US, they escape and can survive. These ones are much larger than what I'm used to seeing as pets, maybe that's because they're in the wild now? Interesting none the less. That's all I have for a tropical Texas bird lesson, I'm going to enjoy my 77 degrees and sunny day now!

An early spring

Yesterday was beautiful! It was amazing weather, sunny and low 70s, the kind of day you just can't stay inside for! We got up early and drop Nathan's car off at the shop for some much needed repairs, after dropping Nathan off at work the girls and I had about 20 minutes to kill before Bible study started, so we went to the park. The girls weren't so excited about Bible study after just having play at the park and you could tell by their face. Everyone thought they were just tired still, until I explained that I had to pull them away from the park. :-) After Bible study in the morning the girls and I had a picnic lunch.

 Our picnic :-) 

 

Hannah changed clothes because she was too hot in long sleeves!

 Do you see how beautiful the day was?

Evie making mud pies!