Day Out With Thomas

Celebrating Hunter's birthday, we spent Saturday afternoon at the Cotton Belt railway station in Grapevine, Texas because that's where Thomas the Tank Engine was! Yippee! Hunter was thrilled to see the little blue engine and take a ride on him. It brought back memories of taking Curren to ride Thomas in Heber, Utah when he was younger. The kids got to play in a jump house, watch model trains, color pictures, get tattoos, and of course, play with the all the toy trains. Hunter was in heaven and was surrounded by hundreds of other little boys who love trains just like him. While we were on the train, he was so serious! We rode out to the airport and back and I pointed out the planes and he just nodded, when he usually points them out himself. So funny. He was so upset to leave so we got him a battery powered Thomas which made it much easier to walk to the car!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Hunter!

Happy birthday to the craziest, funniest two year old I know! Hunter loves his brothers and sister and he likes playing with his trains. He has a scruffy voice and he will talk to anyone who talks to him. He loves candy, chocolate, apple juice, jumping on the trampoline, and getting dirty outside. We love you, Hunter Mc Gunter!

Porter, 4 months

Today our little guy is four months old! He is squealing all the time and we just started giving him rice cereal. He loves eating from a spoon. Emily thinks it's so fun to feed him, too.

Hanging out in the Circle

Most afternoons you'll find the five of us playing outside. Curren is skateboarding, Emily is on her scooter, Hunter is playing with the bugs, and Porter is in the wagon with a neighbor, while I pull it.

Easter

For Easter we have a few fun traditions. One of the kids' favorite is dying eggs. It is a huge mess, and smelly (I can't stand the smell of boiled eggs and vinegar!!), but fun anyway. We also made sugar cookies and decorated them with frosting and sprinkles. Hunter LOVES to bake and he had a blast with the cookies. He dumped an entire container of tiny pastel balls on one cookie and the kitchen floor. It was a MESS!

That afternoon we went to church and the choir put together a really nice program and that evening our friends came over for a yummy ham dinner. I even got out my grandma's silver and my china for the adults. We ate in the dining room while the kids had their own party in the kitchen. We're so thankful for our family of friends here in Texas!

St. Patrick's Day Triathlon

The same day we went to the arboretum, James did his second triathlon. He did really well and had fun swimming, biking, and running with a bunch of other people from our ward. This race was right in our town and went right past the front of our neighborhood, so that's where we waited to see him ride by. He has been working out pretty hard since last summer and he is in great shape. He inspires me! In fact, I met with a trainer where I workout (since it was free) and he set me up with a program. It's only been a few days, but I am feeling stronger and I'm also eating better. He also challenged me to drink a gallon of water a day. That is a lot of water!!

Dallas Arboretum

Every spring the arboretum is filled with the most amazing displays of tulips and other bulbs in bloom. It is absolutely beautiful! This is the second trip we have made to take pictures of the kids in their Easter outfits and enjoy being in the gardens. This year's theme was the Star of Texas, so there were cowboy hats for the kids to make and decorate as well as a root beer saloon. At the end of the day we hung out with friends on a patio with comfy outdoor furniture while we had root beer floats and the kids ran around. I LOVE the Dallas Arboretum! There are cute cottages, a little town of western playhouses that the kids love to play in, as well as "spitting" frog sculptures to run through when it's hot. It was such a fun day. Things were going so well that we decided, with great hesitation, to have dinner at Pappasito's. (James had recently pledged not to go out to eat as a family until Porter was 16!) Since our friends were going, we decided to give it a try. So it was 6 kids and 4 parents and EVERYONE was so good! Seriously, it was probably the only time all of our children have been good at a restaurant. They gave the kids a roll of tortilla dough to play with and Hunter made his into a snake. He had so much fun making "snake" eat his food and drink his chocolate milk. We had a great time and the fajitas were awesome! Texas has so many great places to eat, and Pappasito's is one of our favorites. By the way, I think this was the best picture we got of all the kids together. It will probably be several years before we have a picture suitable for enlarging and framing!