Keith's Birthday Week

I had great intentions to a birthday week celebration for Keith.  But my big plans in my head didn't translate as well as I had liked.  It was the thought that counted though right?  Starting last Monday I wanted to give him a little gift each day and the week would end with a surprise trip to a Rangers game on Saturday.  Well, life happened and the money I had set aside to do this wonderful trip and week quickly was eaten up by some medical stuff and a new phone.  So plan B ensued.  :)

I decided to have the girls help me with a prayer specifically for their Daddy each day.  We did pretty good at this.  We missed two days doing it together (Saturday and Sunday) but I did at least hold up my end.  :)  So Keith was prayed for specifically each day.  Check.  Did I remember to tell Keith what we prayed for each day...well, maybe not.  :)  Here was our prayer list:

Monday:  Strength.  Carli prayed for Daddy to have lots of strength to take care of all the girls in his house.  :) 

Tuesday:  Spiritual Growth.  The girls didn't understand this one.  They prayed for Daddy to read his Bible. 

Wednesday:  Mind.  Carli prayed for Daddy's head to stay strong.  :)  Love her interpretation of these. 

Thursday:  Courage.  To protect us from the bears and crocodiles. 

Friday:  Joy.  We broke out into song on this one..."I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart..."

Saturday:  Love for God.  I think Carli would have actually understood this one.  But alas, Keith got a "grown up" prayer on this day.

Sunday:  Faithfulness.  Enough said.

We also managed some other small gifts throughout the week.  We brought him a Sonic Drink one day at work.  One day we took him shopping to buy a new travel coffee mug since he has decided to drink coffee.  Thursday night, our friends watched the girls so that we could go out on a date.  Funny how fast you can eat when you don't have two little ones with you! 

Friday night, the girls went to stay at "Grammy's Hotel."  They were so so excited!

Word is that they got to eat pink pancakes in the shape of the letters "A" and "C" with whipped cream and sprinkles.  They visited Grandma, checked on the cows with Pa and made Daddy some Phinas and Ferb birthday cookies!

While the girls were having a blast at Grammy and Pa's, Keith and I slept in and spent Saturday buying him some new shoes with his birthday money, eating in peace and doing a little work outside that we had put off since it was difficult to do with our little helpers.

We finished Saturday off by meeting up at Chili's to get our munchkins back.  Sunday, which was Keith's actual birthday, we all went to church and had a plain old Sunday I guess you could say.  I did give him a pretty stinkin' good gift of taking the girls with me to Wal-mart for grocery shopping so he could have a little peace.  :)

It wasn't big.  It wasn't extravagant.  But it was heart felt with the best of intentions.  We hope that Keith enjoyed our "make-shift" birthday week for him.  Maybe next year we'll get a little more organized!

Sweet Cousins

Every Tuesday and Thursday we take Logan to speech before he and Carli go to school.  We look forward to our "Logan" time and I confess I may spoil them all with a trip to the Donut Shop every once and a while.  :)  I took these pictures on my phone on two different mornings.  I ask two of the kids to pls wait on the sidewalk while I put the third in the car.  Logan took it upon himself to have the girls hold his hand so they would stay safe!  :)  Too sweet!
 

John Deere Pink Blue Jean Quilt...

My best friend is having a baby and I couldn't be more excited! I'm pretty bummed that she lives all the way out in California but when I found out when her baby shower was, I just knew I had to go. Keith was great to not even bat an eye when I told him what I wanted to do! He took off a Friday and drove us to the airport and then arranged to meet up with Naggy, Pappy, Uncle Kevin and Aunt Megan for the weekend. I'm very thankful for my Mom coming with me and for my Dad sharing his airline miles to help out! Amber means a whole lot to our family. She is practically one of us and I was so happy to get to go see her even if it was for such a short trip.

For my birthday my Mom bought me a sewing machine. I have a sewing machine. A really good one made from all metal that Mom got me a while back. The only problem is that it came with no directions and well, I need directions! So Mom got me a really basic Janome to start me out on the right foot. I had tinkered with it a little making the girls some car blankets, but when I found out Amber was having a little girl I really wanted to make her a blanket. This was not just any blanket though. It had to have John Deere. It had to have blue jeans and it had to have camo. Awesome combo, right?

The history here is that my Grandma made Amber a blue jean John Deere green quilt when we were in college and Amber LOVED it! :) I thought it only fair that that sweet baby girl feel the love in California all the way from Texas!

I got a pattern online for a puff rag quilt that was pretty forgiving for this newbie sewer. It covered up lots of "oops!" and "oh shoots!" I cut up my most favorite pair of jeans that had way too many holes to count. Keith even donated his favorite pair to the cause. I found the perfect John Deer pink fabric and some camo fleece. And after cutting lots and lots of squares and some direction and advice from my Mom...away I went!!

Each square was sewn together and stuffed with poly fill....

Here's the back all laid out...

Half way through sewing!

The front of the finished quilt.

Here's a close up...see the "rag" part of the quilt. This is what covered up lost of my newbie mistakes but is also what makes it so stinkin' cute!

Front and back

The back all sewn up.

Mom made Amber some super cute burp rags and a car seat blanket too. :)

This is the closest thing I got to a picture of Amber and I. Sad right? We were too busy catching up and visiting that we forgot to get a picture. Oops. Guess I'll have to go back to visit once baby girl gets here!

We were only in California for less than two days but it was so worth it to get to see Amber and visit. Mom and I had a great time too. We got to catch up without all the normal interuptions. Can't wait for May 8th when Sweet Baby Girl Skenduli makes her appearance!

The Highlight of Our Mini Vacation...

Our first day in San Antonio we walked around the mall. They had a Disney store. And it captured two little girls attention. They in turn smiled at their Daddy and we came home with two princess night gowns and two Minnie Mouses.

Red for Ava

Pink for Carli

So when you ask the girls about what they liked best about going to San Antonio, don't be confused if they answer they loved getting Minnie Mouse. It's the closest they have gotten to seeing her for real!

The Children's Musuem & The Best Indoor Playground EVER!

After our yummy Krispy Kreme breakfast, we took the girls to the Children's Museum downtown. Carli kept calling it the Discovery Science Center b/c it was very similar to the one we have here in Tyler. Only it had three floors of toddler heaven...

Carli was so excited to see an airplane! She literally ran from one seat to another to another...

They had a big bubble room...it sounded a lot cooler to the adults than it did at holding the girls attention.

Their mini grocery store was pretty awesome. They had aisle and a multiple checkout lanes.

Hopped on the trolley...

And from there Ava saw her most favorite part...a ball pen...lots and lots of balls!
I had one of these light changing fish things in college...maybe I should have kept it.

The museum was pretty amazingly awesome. We grabbed a quick lunch and then it was time for naps. Woohoo!!! Naps! Did I mention that this was Keith and my favorite part of the vacation? Mandatory adult nap time. Sadly when naps came to an end, it was time to go have some more fun. Since it was raining out, Uncle Tone did some research and found us the most amazing indoor playground I have ever seen. Carli was so excited, she peed in her pants. Literally. But we got that fixed and had a blast...

Uncle Tone was a great sport following two very excited little girls all around the play equipment!

We ended day two with a awesome meal at Saltgrass before hitting the sack flat worn out!

Krispy Kreme

Our second morning in San Antonio started off with some yummy warm Krispy Kreme donuts. True to my little Carli's personality, she is not much for change. Krispy Kreme did not have her version of a Kolache (pig in a blanket) nor did their iced donuts with sprinkles look "just right." But eventually hunger prevailed and Carli decided breakfast was pretty good!

Ava was our good little sport and wore her Krispy Kreme hat for our enjoyment!

The girls really enjoyed watching how the donuts were made. There were lots of "look at that one" and "that one" and "Oh! Look over there!" I had no idea which donut we were suppose to be looking at because, well, they all looked alike. But the girls were happy...and that's all that mattered. :)

Alamo and Bowling

Time to back track! Back in March when we got to go see Uncle Tone for the weekend, he took us to see the Alamo. Turns out the weather.com site was so wrong on the weather. When I packed it said everyday would be in the 80s. When we woke up Friday morning, it was COLD! Oops! I had actually brought some hoodies for the girls, but Keith and I were out of luck. Uncle Tone let us borrow some of his jackets...and thus is why our wardrobes were a bit interesting. All in the interest of staying warm! :)

After a yummy breakfast at IHop we headed off to see the Alamo. Uncle Tone was an awesome tour guide.

Carli and Uncle Tone

Daddy and Ava

Group picture...

Family picture...we were cold! :)

Ava checking out a cannon

The Alamo

Since we were in downtown, we went to the mall and let the girls run off some energy and we all got warmed up. Then it was time to walk down the river walk to go find lunch. The girls really enjoyed pointing out all the ducks in the water.

"Vacation" with two toddlers means that after lunch you have a scheduled nap time. Keith and I didn't complain! We all went back to the hotel and took some naps. Ideally we were going to go swimming after our naps but turns out our hotel didn't have an indoor pool and since it was in the low 50s swimming outside was not an option. Carli wasn't very happy with us!

We ended up taking the girls bowling. It took Carli awhile to warm up to the idea...Ava was in heaven with all the balls! Halfway through the frame, Carli decided she could bowl to. She was pretty good...even got a strike! The 128 score was mine...yep, I beat the boys. Ha!

After we bowled, Uncle Tone took us to his hole in the wall Italian food place. It was very very good! We ended our first day in San Antonio with full bellys and some happy, tired little girls! They were really happy to make it back to the hotel and to their beds!

Easter Egg Hunts

Saturday was the annual King/Bennett/Nerren reunion in Alto. What is kind of cool is my Pawpaw was one of four brothers who married two sets of sisters. Pawpaw and Uncle G.L. married the Bennett sisters and Uncle Joe and Uncle Cloyce married the Nerren sisters. Pretty cool huh? Anyway, growing up all the cousins were pretty close since there were lots of combined holiday celebrations, etc. Now that all the cousins are grandparents, etc they put together a reunion on Easter weekend to stay in touch and reminisce.

Like every good family get together, there was lots of yummy food. But the kids were pretty pumped about their Easter egg hunt! Finally the adults complied and it was time to hunt!

Pretty sure Ava wasn't sure what was going on...

Carli and Logan were getting tired of waiting! They were very ready to get the hunt going!

My new favorite picture of Carli...I can see Pawpaw in those pretty blue eyes.

It didn't take long for Ava to catch on!

The first thing Carli wanted to do when the hunt was over was show Grandma all the eggs she found!

And then it was time to inventory of the loot!

Ava absolutely clung to Allison most of the day on Saturday. Which would make you think that I would have tons of pictures of the two together. Actually I took advantage of the freedom and enjoyed the fellowship of my family! :) Ava had such a great time with Allison that she refused to nap. All day. I was impressed we didn't have a meltdown one!

Sunday after church we headed out to the lakehouse for another Easter Egg hunt with Logan. Ava had caught on to the whole concept and was so fun to watch. She would exclaimed, "Oh! Another one!" or "Ball, ball, ball!" She hunted until we told her they were all gone. Carli had fun too, but her attention span was quite short. After 10 minutes she declared herself done and needed to go play! :)

Ava wearing her Lion hat from Grammy

Here we go....

All done! And this is just a sample of how our attempt at a group picture went most of the day!

And finally, my new favorite picture of Ava Bo...


We had an awesome, exhausting weekend! How blessed we are to have such a great family to spend it with!