A landing and three rounds of Christmas…

"Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas."
-Dale Evans

History was made this week when SpaceX successfully landed the 1st stage of the Falcon 9 rocket after delivering 11 satellites into orbit.  The timing of the launch and subsequent landing was perfect for the kids and I was excited to share it with them live.  They may not have fully understood what was going on, but it was neat to see them share in my excitement at witnessing a pivotal moment in mankind’s journey into space.

On now to things that more directly interested the kids (although with much less impact on their future):  Christmas!

The festivities started as they do every year with a children’s service and then dinner at Joe Ts.  We took advantage of the kids being dressed up and took some family pictures in front of the tree.  None of the pictures turned out awesome because we couldn’t get all three kids to cooperate at the same time, but that’s life with 3 small children.

Afterwards the kids opened their Christmas Eve bags to see their ornaments, Christmas books, and the PJ’s that they would end up wearing for 2 days straight because they refused to take them off.

The next morning the kids ran downstairs to find a living room filled with presents.  Our floor was quickly littered with wrapping paper, extra batteries, and boxes.  The kids liked all their presents and even Rusty felt his one gift was pretty good.  Even if the kids didn’t get everything they wanted, it would have been ok because there were still two more Christmas events to go.

Round 2 was in Fort Worth where the kids got to play with their cousins Ben and Sydney.  More presents, fun with family, and a big Christmas breakfast.  It’s a good thing we had a lot of breakfast because the kids needed to build up their energy for yet another Christmas.

Round 3 at the Wolfe’s!  More presents, a great dinner, and some fun times with the cousins.  Isla confirmed her love sweet potatoes, James had fun with a new lightsaber, and Ashlyn made her first cookies in the Easy Bake Oven.

And that’s how we closed out 2015, with family and more presents than we know what to do with.  Merry Christmas everyone!

The Force is strong with these children…

"Hope is not lost today... It is found."
-Leia Organa

This week Isla only destroyed a few things in the house.  Her biggest mess was somehow unscrewing the lid to the spray conditioner we use on Ashlyn’s hair.  She then proceeded to empty out th contents of the bottle, smear it all over the floor, and then try to eat it.   After we got her cleaned up she put on her new Christmas diaper and proceeded to remove any ornaments within reach on the Christmas tree.

Star Wars (Episode VII) came out this week!  As nerd parents we were excited to make Star Wars the kids first movie in a theater.  I’m glad that Mom and I saw Star Wars by ourselves the day before because I ended up spending half th emovie running up and down the escalators with James.  Ashlyn was able to sit through the movie though.  She liked it, but thought it was too long.  I loved it though, and am happy that Star Wars is back and true to it’s original form.

With Christmas only five days away we felt it was about time we got pictures with Santa.  None of the pictures came out very well but at least we got the traditional photo where one or more of the kids is smiling and the smallest one is screaming.  We then spent some time wondering around the mall and riding the train while we waited for them to get some more CD’s to hold our pictures on.

The next post will be the final one for the 2015 blog!

A hunt, a meet, and a run…

"My doctor told me that jogging could add years to my life. I think he was right. I feel ten years older already."
-Milton Berle

In this week’s episode of “What did Isla do now?” we heard a crash from the book room.  Running in to make sure everything was ok, we saw an unashamed Isla playing with a box of pencils that she somehow was able to pull down off a shelf we thought was too tall for her to reach.  Time to reorganize.

 

We discovered something new this weekend that I suspect will be something we’ll do for many weekends to come.  It’s called Geocaching.  We’ve heard of it before but never tried it.  Essentially people hide little caches that contain a log of everyone that’s been there and little trinkets.  You find the general area through GPS and then hunt for it.  The kids had a really fun time searching around the park for the caches and got really excited when they found one.  We took a trinket, left a trinket (Ashlyn got a gecko and left a scuba diver) and they already want to go again.  I like it because it’s an adventure each time you go out and will encourage them to explore places they would have never seen otherwise.

This week Ashlyn’s gym had a practice meet.  It was held in a traditional meet format with the teachers as the judges and the girls got to go around in rotations showing their skills at each event.  To get a trophy and move up in ranking the girls had to get a 9.0 or higher in each event.  Not all the girls did, but Ashlyn completed her skills at each event and got her first trophy.  She was really excited, and we’re proud of her.  Way to go Ashlyn!

I’ll start this next section by saying this is something I normally wouldn’t post.  When I saw the pictures on the camera though, I had to post it because I was touched.  I ran the Dallas Half Marathon this weekend, which I’ve never done before.  It was cold and rainy and I wouldn’t let Heather drag the kids out to the race.  So she did the next best thing by putting the race on TV and having the kids hold up signs to cheer me on.  That’s Ashlyn and James holding “Go Daddy” signs that Ashlyn made (James is holding his upside down).  It must have worked because I not only completed the race, but I finished it in under 2 hours which was my stretch goal.  Every runner out there who had a family waiting for them back home, myself included, owes their families a big thank you for supporting them along the way.