The Kids Sledding

We have had record snowfall in the Dallas area - 12.4 inches in a single storm. That's the most they've had in 32 years! We took advantage of it!

Game Time

The kids still love playing games, and if I am playing, they enjoy it for hours. I try to take time to play with them at least once a week, and each time I play, I realize how much they learn while playing.

Connect Four is a favorite of ours, and the kids can actually beat me now!

Memory is a game I love even as an adult. Sophia is so good at it! She beats her brother almost every time, and I rarely win!

The kids are now learning how to play pool on this mini pool table. They're enjoying challenging the grown ups to games here and there.

Snow Days

Fun in the snow!!!

We have had the largest snowfall in 32 years here in the Dallas area! Over a foot of snow fell yesterday, and went out and had fun in it!!!! We are pretty much the only ones here with sleds and snow gear so the few hills that are around, we own. :)

Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures I've taken. I realize snow is not a huge deal to lots of people, but for these California kids here in these here parts of Texas, this is HUGE!

Too Many Monkeys Jumping on the Bed...

Actually this monkey was running to the shower when she fell and broke her head! Last night, Gina and I were off at the movies trying to catch as many of the Academy Award Nominations as possible. Sophia was spending the day with her cousin, Kaylie.

Shortly after our second movie ended, I got a text message - "Call me now". My heart sunk. I had a feeling that it couldn't be good. My sister-in-law is never demanding. Sure enough when I was finally able to reach her, I found out that Sophia had split her head open while rushing to get into the state of the art beautifully tiled doorless shower.

I mean part of me can't blame her. I'd run to get into that shower too. I mean 4 jets coming out of the wall and 2 from up top with no door. It just looks like a great big water room. Oh, the feeling of desire that must have overcome her when she began to rush to climb in and feel the warm water cascade over her little body. Instead of that superbly superior shower, she found herself making a trip to the emergency room with her Auntie and cousin.

Gina and I met them in the middle and followed. Hard to explain that process, but suffice it to say that we are still not used to all of the loops here in Texas. We get lost 90% of the time so we insisted on following my SIL to the hospital rather than simply meeting there.

Unlike CA, we were in the waiting room for only 5 minutes before being called back and given a bed. Within 10 minutes, the wonderfully friendly doctor was there giving us our options. She could have her hair tied in a knot to hold the gaping wound closed, but that would create a huge tangly mess and a very ugly scar out of which hair would not grow in the future. Next option was to have it stapled up nice and tight so it would leave a minimal scar. Of course, we chose the latter.

After this Sophia had a choice to make. She could get a numbing shot prior to the staples or just get the staples. Gina explained the options thoroughly and Sophia chose no shot. That girl is a tough one. She wanted to take it like a woman partially so she could tell the story and partly because she just have 6 shots a month ago and did not care to relive it. Either way, she made a tough choice.

The doctor and nurse came in and cleaned the wound - lots of blood. Then as they hovered over her, they put 4 staples into her head. Sophia giggled while it was happening, and then she burst into tears. I can't imagine the pain of having my head stapled let alone staples into a fresh wound. After a few minutes of tears in Gina's arms, she settled down and began to recount that she is the only kid in our family to have ever been stapled!

She has to have the staples in her head for 10 days at which time I'll take her back to have them removed. That part is not supposed to hurt.

I am SO praising God that this ended up being a minor incident. It could have been much worse. This is the second incident for Zack and Sophia since we've been in Texas. I'm not sure if I mentioned earlier that Zack took a dive dropping in at the skatepark and blacked out. I'll never forget picking up his limp body wondering for those few seconds if he would ever move again. This mom thing exposes the depths and heights of emotion in a way that I've never experienced before. It often reminds me of a quote that goes loosely like this, "Being a mom is like wearing your heart outside your body." So true.

Family Night February 2010

In celebration of the kids doing well in school and putting in lots of effort in keeping their chores done without being asked, we decided to go to Amazing Jakes for some family fun.

We started out with a fun game of put put! While it seems like it could be rather drab, it wasn't at all. We had lots of fun hitting the balls around and watching some of them escape off of our course and catapulting into someone's shoe on the next hole. Lots of laughter was had by all.

We had an age range from 39 all the way down to 6, and we all had fun!

The younger kids had a great time on the bumper cars. I had to sit out on that one because I was certain I would have ended up with a headache!

Is anyone ever too old for a carousel?!

Air hockey competitions!

And, we ended the night with rock climbing.

I LOVE my family! I look forward to the fun times we can get out and just enjoy life. Sometimes, I'll admit, it is stressful for the grown ups and being out late gets tougher and tougher for us oldies, but spending time doing things that the kids think is fun is so very important to me. I think it's because I have so many fond memories of spending this kind of time with my dad. It rocks to have adults take time to act like a kid again even if they have to move a little slower than the youngsters!