Bubbles and chalk

Pictures of life at our house.

Afton at 17 months

She has a few different kinds of laughs: One geeky hiccup-y kind of laugh, a big belly laugh, and a giggle kind of laugh. So cute.

She's got the cutest little waddle walk. She can't run yet, but walks really quickly when she's trying to get away from Sam.

She loves her shoes. She only has a few pairs - sneakers and church shoes. I just bought her shoes that have a strap between the toes and she hates those. At least they were only 50 cents.

She has three teeth - two on bottom and one snaggle tooth on top.

Since she only has three teeth, I constantly think she must be teething. I really think she is now, though, because she's a little more grumpy and whiny lately and she chews on her fingers sometimes. She also wants her pacifier all the time now.

She only says a few words, but she makes a lot of inflections with her throat. It's really cute.

She does a kind of roar/growl thing, too.

She loves her big brother and running around with him, but he often pushes her and pokes her and ends up making her cry.

She's getting better at following directions and will hand you things, go get things, put things away, etc.

She sleeps with one blanket, a dog, and a hippo.

Her hair is getting quite long but she'll only keep a clip in for about 5 minutes.

She's got her daddy wrapped around her finger.

We love our Afton!

The weather has been gray lately, so pictures are lacking, here's one.

(Guess she wanted a vent in her PJs.)

Sam-isms

Sam really likes to ask "Why?" Often, he'll keep it going so long that I no longer know the answer. That or I just get sick of answering his questions, so I finally say, "I don't know why." He'll come back with, "Well, why don't you know?" I tell him that I don't know everything.

So the other day we were in the car and that happened. I admitted that I don't know everything. Here's the rest:

Sam: Why don't you know everything?

Me: I just don't.

Sam: Oh, I don't know everything either. Daddy doesn't know everything either.

Me: Who does know everything?

Sam: Iron Man.

Obviously I was hoping he'd say Heavenly Father or Jesus...

Sam really likes Iron Man. The other day I came downstairs to find Iron Man keeping a watchful eye on our living room.

Rest of the reads

These are the rest of the books I read in 2011. I think the total was 40 books. This year my goal is at least 30, but if I read more, that's good, too.

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
Room with a View by E. M. Forster
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio by Terry Ryan
The Book of Mormon

I really liked most of these. Lost in Shangri-La is a true WWII rescue story about 3 military survivors of a plane crash in the middle of New Guinea. Wives and Daughters was really great, too. Anyway, just wanted to document these. Now I can start my new list.

The first book I read of 2012 was The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain. (A few months ago I discovered the "Classics" wall at the library, so now I know where to go to browse if I don't have something specific in mind.)

The Dursts Come to Town

Dan's sister's family was coming to town for a wedding, so they spent a few nights with us. Dan's brother's family (Adam) came over, too. Dan's parents, not wanting to miss an opportunity to see three kids at one time, made a trip out of it, as well. The fun started on Thursday. Friday Dan took the day off and we showed his parents where Texas was won - the San Jacinto battlefield.

Saturday we took everyone down to one of our new favorite places to go with company - Kemah Boardwalk. However, they have started charging more and the rollercoaster was closed, so we might have to reconsider our little happy place. Not to mention, our poor nephew was barfing his guts out all day.

I didn't get many pictures of everyone, but here's one with Afton and her cousin Lucy who's 3 months older than Afton. I think they kind of look alike.

While everyone was here we enjoyed the beautiful weather and went on lots of walks to the lake to feed the ducks. Sam got some great use out of his new bike and rode the whole way!

 And Sam has been making great use out of his Christmas present. We play Candyland at least once every. single. day.

Thanks for coming, Durst family!

Sea World

The day after Christmas, we packed our bags and drove on over to the wonderous city of San Antonio, Texas. We arrived around 2:30, dropped our bags off at the hotel, and went to Sea World. Dan and I have year passes (you pay once, you get in free the rest of the year) but we had to buy one for Sam now that he's three. We'll have to make him do chores to pay for that.
They have a nice "kid zone" type area with lots of little rides and a big playset. We spent most of our time there. Dan and I also switched off riding the two big roller coasters.

When we got hungry, we headed to the famous Riverwalk. Except the GPS wasn't finding "Riverwalk." So I thought "Riverwalk Garage" sounded like it would get us pretty close. I assumed it was a parking garage. Well, it turns out that it's a mechanic garage, so we ended up in some ghetto part of town surrounded by auto mechanic buildings. Nice to see the real San Antonio... Once we got to the Riverwalk, it was pretty. We took a few pictures.

We tried to maneuver around all the other people also walking on the tiny sidewalk. Dan was pushing the double stroller and I was trying to keep Sam from falling in the river. I wished I was Andre the Giant when he yells "Everybody MOVE!" in The Princess Bride. Dan started bumping people with the stroller, but that's as aggressive as we got. After a while we got sick of it and ate some dinner at a restaurant at street level. We also did a drive-by of the Alamo.

Then back to the hotel for us. It had apparently been a while since we slept in the same room as Sam because he WOULD NOT go to sleep for the longest time. Dan and I were attempting to read in one bed while Sam was lying in the other, but anytime I shifted or anything he would raise up and look at me and smile or ask some kind of question. So it wasn't a very restful night for any of us.

The next morning we got up and swam in the hotel pool, then headed back to town to check out a church. It was overrated.

 Then I saw this guy who looked like he must have been famous, so I paparazzi'd him.

We met up with Dan's brother's (Adam's) family at Sea World and spent the rest of the day with them before driving back to Houston that night.

Happy birthday

Happy birthday to my wonderful mother!

Love you!

Wreath

I have things I want to write about: Sea World, our visit from in-laws, the rest of the books I read in '11, but I just made this wreath and I think it's cool and I want to share it.

It's supposed to be "Valentine's-y" but Dan didn't think it was. Do you like it? Our ward is having an auction to help the youth pay for their Nauvoo trip this summer. It cost $5 to make. Do you think it would make more than that in an auction? (If not, I'd rather just give them $5.)

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime

Christmas was wonderful, as usual.

We started the festivities on Christmas Eve with a nice dinner with Kirk and Gretchen. We had ham and rolls (Gretchen), and salad and cheesy potatoes (me). I know, I got the easy stuff. After dinner, Kirk read the Christmas story while we acted it out with homemade puppets.

Our neighbors invited us over because Santa was coming to their house. It was great. Except for the fact that our kids hate Santa. Carter, however (and apparently Gretchen), love him.

 This is as close as Sam would get.

 Afton, too. That's our neighbor in the black dress.

They have a rule where before you get your gift from Santa, you have to sing a song. So it was nice to sing some Christmas carols (and the OU fight song - we live next door to the biggest OU fans in the world) to feel the holiday spirit. We went back to our house for dessert and to open PJs from G&G Cheney.

Christmas morning Dan and I got ready for church and woke the kids up to see their stockings and eat some breakfast before 8 a.m. Sacrament meeting.

After church we opened the rest of our presents and enjoyed Christmas tree-shaped beignets (perhaps a new tradition?) using Cafe Du Monde's recipe. Delish.

We went over to Kirk and Gretchen's house for leftovers that night and played some mean speed scrabble.

Merry Christmas!