The Great Outdoors

We had some beautiful weather this January, so we took advantage of it and played outside a lot!

 Check out Joshua crawling up the stairs of this playscape all by himself.

 He discovered recently that he loves slides!

 One Saturday, we went to a nearby nature preserve for a nature hike. Here's Paul explaining to Eli and Micah which snakes are dangerous in the woods.

 Eli, Paul, Micah

 We found some shelf fungus growing on a tree, so all the boys had to touch it. ;-)

 Then, we found these huge live oaks! Paul climbed up there immediately and the big boys wanted to join him.

 

 Mr. Blue Eyes wanted to climb up the tree, too!

 Then, I got a turn in the tree with the boys.

 I love this picture of the 5 of us! To get this picture, Paul wedged our camera into another tree and set the camera's timer. It only took a couple of tries to get a good picture of us.

Despite leaving the trail we thought we were following and walking a little more than we intended, all three boys did a great job on our nature hike. We are certainly going to have to visit this preserve again!

Children's Museum

I have several blog posts in my head with the pictures we've taken over the last several weeks--and the ones I'll post below that were taken before Buddy died. But, honestly, it has been hard for me to get on the blog and see the Dear Buddy post. We have been so blessed by our wonderful vet's office who gave us a clay imprint of Buddy's paw as well as three plastic disks that hold some of Buddy's hair--the red and white. We still miss Buddy, but we are moving on and are looking forward to loving another Greyhound one day. (We have had a Greyhound come here to play with the boys and we took a trip out to see some Greys one Saturday.)

Now, on to the pictures....Since everyone was sick over Christmas break, we scheduled a trip down to the museum early one Saturday. We got to explore and splash all morning with a picnic lunch at a nearby rose garden. It was really a good family morning.

We started the day with a visit through a city where the kids "work" and get paid for the jobs they complete. The boys liked doing the jobs and exploring the different careers they could have.

Maybe delivery drivers?

 Veterinarians?

 Or maybe HEB employees?

While they had fun pretending, the water was by far the favorite stop of the day. Joshua saw this feature and kept saying "baa! baa!" (i.e. bath)

 They built

 and experimented.

We were all soaked by the end of our time playing--next time I'll bring some dry clothes for them! We had a fun time and look forward to going back soon!

Dear Buddy

Thanks for choosing us to be your forever family. When we found out that you had lived in two homes prior to ours, we promised you that no matter what happened, you were stuck with us for the rest of your life! Thanks for making that an easy promise to keep!

From our first ride home

 to our first family picture

  to the first time we saw you "roaching"

and running in our backyard, we were in awe of you!

You were the best dog we could have asked for. You were patient with the cats from the beginning

 and you learned to be patient when the kids invaded your home

 

and your personal space.

 Okay, you weren't always perfect, but you were OURS!

 We enjoyed our road trips with you--sorry about the snow!

 We loved catching you sleeping on the couch--yes, it was okay!

  We loved giving you treats

  and taking naps with you.

 You've always been our "Angel Buddy" and we sure hope there are dogs in Heaven,

 because we'd love to see you run like this again!

We love you, Big Boy!

Eli and Micah got toolboxes from their Uncle Taylor and Aunt Roxy for Christmas. When we got home, they had some time to start sanding the pieces

 and nail the boxes together.

 After going to the store for some paint, the boys got to paint the toolboxes. They worked so hard on these boxes and are really proud of them!

Eli

 Micah

 

Over the last week, we have had some beautiful weather and have taken advantage of it every day!

Eli, Micah, Joshua

 Joshua really likes the sand box...and has only eaten the sand a few times.

 

 

When I was downloading and going through our Christmas pictures, I realized I didn't have any pictures of our Christmas celebration with Grandma and Grandpa Cheney! I'm not sure how that happened...maybe I was too busy playing Honeycomb with Eli and Micah! This is one of their favorite new games and we've played it many times since Christmas.

Micah takes his turn.

 

 Eli takes a turn.

 A few rounds later...the bee and all the honeycomb pieces fall!

 And, as promised, a montage of videos showing Eli and Micah "scootering" every where!

Micah is on the blue scooter, and Eli is on the green one.

 

Christmas Break

We started Christmas break with a couple of surprises. First, Daddy came to pick up Eli and Micah from school. They saw him in the hallway and said, "What are you doing here?" It was fun to see their excited faces! Then, the ducks on campus let us get a really close look!

Before going to Kansas, we had a day at home and we let the boys open some of the gifts we weren't going to take with us. Uncle Mark and Aunt Rebecca got the boys these camping chairs, perfect for their camp outs with Daddy!

Micah asked for a microphone "just like the ones at church." I couldn't find a kid-friendly black microphone, but this blue one seems to be a hit!

Eli saw a picture of Marble Works in a few toy catalogs we got before Christmas. He couldn't stop talking about it. Eli and Micah have had a good time setting up "tracks" for their marbles to race down.

Eli and Micah have been asking for snow for a long time. We were excited to find Nana and Papa's yard still had snow on it! While the snow was too dry to throw snowballs at Papa, Eli and Micah did the best they could!

They even tried doing some snow angels!

Joshua got out in the snow, too.

It wasn't long before he was signing "all done."

Papa is fun to play with outdoors and in.

Joshua's too little to fly, but he had fun building and knocking over blocks with Papa.

The 5 of us on Christmas Eve

Kristy, Joshua, Paul

Eli & Micah

The grandsons in their Christmas Eve jammies

Papa (& Squirt), Micah, Eli, Nana & Joshua

By far, these scooters were the favorite gift of Christmas. Eli and Micah couldn't wait to ride them, so Papa agreed to let them use his garage to try the scooters out!

Joshua is curious about everything, but Nevaeh was very patient with him while he was exploring her gifts.

Nana got time to read to 3 grandkids.

All 5 grandkids.

Amory, Nevaeh, Eli, Micah & Joshua

We are blessed that our other Sister-in-Law is also from Kansas. Often, we try to coordinate our visits so that the boys can see all of their cousins in one trip--and we love seeing all of our nieces! Eli had spiked a 102 temp the day before we left and was still running a fever during our visit with the Cheney cousins, so he wasn't feeling very cooperative for pictures.

The Cheney cousins

Britton, Kaelyn, Joshua, Micah & Eli

The Cheney kids and grandkids.

On the second day of the trip, Micah spiked a 102 temp. Poor kid! He was such a trooper and really had a good attitude most of the day. He slept much of the afternoon, which his body obviously needed.

Our second week of break wasn't exactly what I had planned--with all three boys sick, (Joshua spiked his 102 temp the day after we got home.) we stayed home and had a lot of family time. It was good to have so much unplanned time together and when the big boys were feeling well, they got some time out in the garage with Paul! I will post those pictures soon!