Fun Family Saturday

Yesterday was a really good day. I had a list of things to do that was about 30 items long, and we actually checked off almost every single one! A lot of them were chores to clean up the house, but some of those things were fun things--and we really had a good time doing them.

First off, Dane has been really interested in volcanoes lately. He found this non-fiction picture book we have about volcanoes, and has been carrying it around to read it during naptime and wants me to read it to him a lot. He is very concerned about them, especially since I told him that Grandma and Papa live near a volcano in Ecuador now. He prays that nobody will be hurt by the volcano in Ecuador pretty often. But he is still fascinated about them, and he has been asking to build a volcano lately. So I told him we could do it on Saturday with Daddy. They built some clay up around this cup, and he wanted to have some mountain climbers climbing up it that got covered with the lava. And then we did baking soda and vinegar and he was very excited to see it overflowing. 

That was a really fun thing that really only took about 20 minutes. I've been meaning to do it with him for a while now, but I've kept putting it off because it seems like a lot of work. But it definitely was not, haha. 

Then after Graham's nap in the morning, we drove down south a ways to Carlo's Bakery from the show Cake Boss. It's based in New Jersey, but they just recently opened up a bakery in Dallas. We watched maybe three seasons of Cake Boss a few years ago, but haven't watched any of it since, but we still have good memories of that show and always wanted to try some of their food. We had to wait in line for maybe 20 minutes to get our cannolis and pastries, but they were SOOOO good. I was worried I would be unimpressed, but no. The lobster tail that Tommy ordered was one of the best things I've ever had. 

They had a life-sized cut-out of Buddy, the owner of the shop, for you to take a picture with. YES PLEASE.

Dane of course wanted the enormous sprinkle cookie. (He shared with Graham.)

Amazing lobster tail. We are definitely going to go back. 

And then, since we were only about 10 minutes away, we stopped by the Dallas temple for a while to talk to Dane about the temple. He is giving his first talk in church today about the temple, and he is very, very excited. We tried to talk about what we do in the temple and he helped to write his talk.

His talk says this:
The temple is a house of God. When we go to the temple, we can get baptized for people who died and weren't baptized. We also should get married in the temple because then our families can be together forever. I want to get married in the temple even though I don't know who my wife is going to be. I went to the temple yesterday and while I was there I felt happy. The temple is very beautiful, and I will like coming into it when I get married. My mom and dad were married in the temple. I love the temple, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

So cute. So it was a fun day yesterday, right up until dinnertime when Dane took 35 years to eat his dinner and we all got frustrated and he ended up not getting to go to Sonic to get an ice cream cone liked we'd promised (because he never finished his dinner). So there were a few tears at the end of the day, but overall, it was good. Usually our Saturdays are just taken up with cleaning the house and exercising, so it was fun to do a little something different/extra.

Cousins, cousins everywhere!

One of the only things that was a little bit sad about living in North Carolina was that we were so far from family--from ALL our family. There was no one even within driving distance for us (except for the six months that Lindsay and Travis were in DC for us to visit). And that is one of the best things about Texas--we don't have any immediate family living here (yet--until Kurt moves here in a month!) but we are just SWIMMING in extended family! And in the last few weeks, we have been able to see ALL of our family living here in Texas.

First: Tommy's cousin Jessie and her family stopped by and stayed the night with us on their way from Houston to Oklahoma. Dane loved playing with their two cute kids, Quintin and Maddie (who didn't want to be in the picture). So these are the boys' second cousins on their Leininger side.

Second: We were in Houston a week or two later to play with my cousin Brittney and her family for the fourth of July. Some more second cousins.

Third: We spent last Saturday at Jon and Sarah Leininger's house (some more Leininger second cousins), because they are moving away from Fort Worth to Provo in a few weeks. We absolutely love Olivia, Anna, and Bianca (and baby Jacob!) and we are sad to say good-bye to them. But we have hopes we will be able to meet up with them maybe when we're there in September--and they say they want to come back to Texas when they're done with Jon's MBA.

Dane got all dressed up by Olivia in a girl's pirate dress. He just knew he was a pirate; he didn't know it was for girls. 

Look at these cute kiddos. 

Fourth: We got to play with the Warner kids twice this week. Loralee Warner is Tommy's second cousin, and they live here in Frisco. So Cameron, Mallory, and Mason are Dane and Graham's THIRD cousins. We love seeing them.

Everyone was very happy building forts and painting together.

And fifth: We spent the day at the Myres' house in Double Oak this week. Dane spent maybe three hours swimming around in their awesome pool with Ethan, Katelyn, Matthew, and Ava. Their house is seriously like heaven on earth for Dane. He had a hard time leaving at the end. The Dallas Myres are actually MY cousins, even if they are closer to Dane's age. So that makes them his first cousins once removed.

It was pretty cute seeing Graham and Rachel play together. They're only three months apart. I bet they're going to be good buddies as they get bigger.

So, in the last few weeks, my boys have been able to play with their second cousins, their THIRD cousins, and their first cousins once removed. This has definitely been one of our favorite things about living in Texas. We love, love, love seeing so much family. Tommy and I were talking about how lucky/blessed we are to have such a wide extended family, all of whom we love to see and spend time with. There's nothing quite like being with cousins. I love giving Dane some of that experience that I remember so vividly, of disappearing for hours to play non-stop--that sort of thing that seems like it doesn't happen so often on short play dates at the park that we have in our everyday life here with friends. But it ALWAYS happens on long play days with cousins.

And on that note--we are leaving very soon to go see some of Dane and Graham's ACTUAL first cousins in Utah. WE CANNOT WAIT!

Dane boy

I don't want to think about how Dane is almost FOUR. I keep thinking he is 3 1/2, but he's now closer to 4 than 3 1/2. Major tears even just imagining that. He's such a big boy now--literally. Total boy, no toddler any more. A few things lately:

- He really loves doing our preschool time together. He likes having his little calendar, where we talk about the weather of the day, what day of the week it is, and what month it is. We have been practicing learning scriptures together, and he kind of acts like he doesn't want to do it, but he memorized 2 Nephi 2:25 in about three days. "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy." (I chose a super short one at first because I wasn't sure how he would take to it.) He's basically memorized 1 Nephi 3:7 too now, which I am very impressed by. He's got a great memory--which we have learned by him internalizing things from our conversations that he overhears and then later asks us about (showing us we need to be careful what we talk about around him).

- He's totally becoming more aware of the world around us. We told him about the earthquakes in Ecuador a few months ago, and he has been worried about Grandma and Papa going down to Ecuador last week, saying, "Mommy, I don't want there to be more earthquakes with Grandma and Papa there." He talks about tornadoes here in Texas too. We told him about the police officers that died this morning, and he was asking me about it through the day. Sad, hard things, but he picks up on hearing us talk about them and then we try to explain it in an age-appropriate way.

- He insists that he's not "cute," or "handsome," or "cool"--the only descriptor he will allow is "big brother." So if we accidentally say, "Wow, you look so handsome," we have to quickly modify it to, "Wow, you look like such a big brother."

- Every. Single. Sentence these days is preceded by, "Hey mom. Guess what." "Hey mom. Guess what. I like PB and J." "Hey mom. Guess what. We're going to the Fun Club." "Hey mom. Guess what. What are we doing tomorrow?" I'm not sure he gets what is worth "guessing."

- We are reading chapter books together, which I love. And which he loves. I know he's not getting all of it, but he does seem to be understanding quite a lot.

- Every time Tommy comes home from work, Dane likes to hide from him and wait for Tommy to come find him. He will run and dive under the covers on our bed, or in the empty cupboard in our kitchen, or in his closet in his room. If we're already sitting and eating at the table, he will just bend over so you can just see the top of his head and not his eyes, and he feels like that is sufficient hiding for Daddy. Tommy is always very nice and acts surprised to find him every day.

- Whenever we drive anywhere, Dane likes to bring his stuffed frog Charlie, buckle him in to the seatbelt next to his carseat, and have him go to his own imaginary places while we go to our real places. When we go to the Fun Club, "Charlie is going to his Fun Club now." When we go to church, Charlie goes to his church. Charlie is amazing at unbuckling his seatbelt and always getting back to the car by himself before us.

- He is very serious that he is a superhero. He says it very matter-of-factly: "You know, I'm a superhero. I can fly." I was trying to talk to him about how superheroes help people (you know, use this interest to promote his development into being a good person or something), and he just kept saying, "Yeah, and they fight the bad guys." I guess that's better than nothing.

- We read this really cute book about the true story behind Winnie the Pooh, and it talked about WWI and soldiers going to fight in the war. Ever since then, he has been very interested in talking about "war" and having his toys fight in wars together. It makes me sad to hear it, because I don't want him thinking about something so harsh and sad, and pretending about it! I'm trying to steer him in a different direction whenever I hear him talking about it to his toys. I don't know how, but boys just automatically get taught about fighting from such a young age. Dane has never seen a superhero show except The Incredibles, and he's watched the Stripling Warriors Living Scriptures movie (which he loves), and I think that's been enough to make him think a lot about fighting. There's nothing for it except to talk about it a lot and try to share what we want him to get out of it.

- Dane is going to do Joy School in the fall with some friends in our ward. I am so excited for him. It is going to be so cute and fun to see him doing that.

Graham baby

Our little Graham boy is getting so big. He is 15 months old now. He is such a funny little person--I can see his ideas getting bigger and bigger, and his desires to be doing his own thing and following in the footsteps of his big brother also increasing. This has meant an uptick in screaming and almost-tantrums. But oh, my goodness, he has also been so cute lately that I can handle the craziness.

He understands so much more now than he did just a few months ago. In just the last few weeks, he has learned a lot of words--not that anyone else could understand them other than us--"trash truck" (seriously--although he uses it to mean any big loud truck), "trash," "socks," "baba." He also says Dada and dog (sound the same) and has occasionally said Mama but not all that often. He can point to his belly button (so cute!) and flicks his ears when you say "ear." He understands when you're talking about food and has been known to do the sign for "all done," although he is very stubborn and usually doesn't want to oblige us, instead just throwing his food on the floor when he's done (shocking!). He likes to be grumpy sometimes and has started to hit me when I tell him "no." If he can't reach me, he screeches to show his displeasure. I was telling Tommy yesterday that he sounds just like a Nazgul from Lord of the Rings. Many afternoons this week he has just walked around screaming nonstop, looking for something to get mad about. It is really cute and funny, and naughty.

He still loves reading books, LOVES dogs whenever he can see them, loves going down slides by himself (we taught him how to turn himself around and go down on his stomach and it's the cutest/most hilarious thing ever), loves berries (the kid would exist on a diet of only blueberries if he were allowed), and loves his DAD. He spent all day today wandering around looking angry about life, and then the minute Tommy got home he was all smiles. This was probably because Tommy immediately started tickling him and letting him chew on his chin, which Graham loves... and I guess my attempts to snuggle him and entertain him are not as good as that. (Duh.)

Graham really has gotten so good at going to bed. We can ask him, "Are you ready for your nap?" And he will say "Es" for "yes", and start whimpering in a really happy way. He loves his blankie and pubby, and the minute I close the curtains and turn on the sound machine he just snuggles up, lays his head on my shoulder, and rubs his blankie while I sing him a couple of songs. It is the most precious part of my day. Even when he is being totally wild--which happens all the time--he is always snuggle and motionless while going to bed. And there's no crying at bedtime at all. It's wonderful.

Graham is a great eater as long as you feed him what he wants. And once he decides he's done, that's it. Any bite you trick him into opening his mouth for will get dribbled out and all over his shirt the minute he realizes it's there. He will eat berries all day long, cheese, and bread. But he won't eat PB and J (come ON) for more than 3 bites and it takes a lot of work to get him to eat much actual dinner.

The biggest thing about this age is that he is everywhere, all the time. He just wanders around the house finding things to play with and getting into things. This is great while we're home--I don't mind him making messes. But it's stressful when we go out and about. If we go swimming or to the park, I have to be literally holding his hand or hovering over the top of him so he doesn't throw himself off the play structure or try to dive into the water (both of which he attempts all the time). And I'm just picturing our travels this summer to visit our family--it is not going to be very relaxing, trying to keep him safe from himself the whole time we're staying at different houses. Oh, people complain about two-year-olds, but at least they aren't falling down stairs and choking on door stoppers! It will be worthwhile even if it is a lot of work.

Fourth of July in Houston

We made plans a few months ago to come down to Houston for the Fourth of July. We have loved coming down to see the Colemans and Bodines every time we've come--they are amazingly fun hosts and Dane and Graham are completely in HEAVEN the whole time we are there, because of the fun kids (and dog!) to play with. They run around playing the whole time, and the adults spend the whole time talking and catching up and we all really enjoy ourselves. It was a total party. My cousin Tanner was also there this weekend, so it was really awesome to get to catch up with him and talk--even though I didn't a picture with him (AGAIN--darn it!). But it's hard to remember to get a picture when all you do is talk for hours. We did get lots of pictures with the kids together, of course.

I have probably said this before, but I especially love going down there because I feel like it gives Dane a chance to have some real quality cousin playing time, the kind where you disappear for hours and get into your groove and run around and no adults are around or caring what you do. This kind of playing is something that I don't think Dane ever gets as a three-year-old in our highly supervised world, but I think it is SO important and cute and fun. I have such vivid memories of the hours and HOURS of crazy activities I would do with my cousins in Grandma Myres' backyard, or the sock wars we would play on the volleyball court at the park by her house, or the forts we would set up in her attic space. I want Dane to have that same chance--but it's hard when all you have are play dates that last just an hour or two at the park. He also gets to do this whenever we are in Utah at Grandma and Grandpa's house, playing with his Leininger cousins, but it's so nice that we can do that here too, with his second cousins.

Anyway, we didn't do anything too exciting on this trip--which was perfect. We went swimming a bunch of times, and played around at Kaylene's house, and ate lots of ice cream and watermelon. What's not to love about that? I wish we could have stayed later on the Fourth of July, and even watched fireworks with them (which I'd originally planned/hoped to do), but it just wasn't realistic to try and do that with the boys, who were so tired out by the end and needed to get home and not drive through the night. We had a great time with what we did.

We went to a neighborhood pool, and Dane was so brave to go off the diving board! He jumped off maybe 30 times and couldn't get enough of it! (Wearing his floaties of course.)

I love hanging out with my cousin Brittney. She is only a week and a half from giving birth to their fifth baby, so I hope she doesn't hate me for using this picture--but it's the only one I got with us in it. She is really fun to talk to.

Graham was such a crazy kid at the pool. He wants to run around and just throw himself into the water, face first. He does not care at all about getting submerged--the more water on his face, the better. He LOVED the slides and learned how to climb up and turn around and slide down on his tummy. It was adorable. Every time he had this enormous smile on his face as he went down.

Dane and Lily were little buddies this weekend. Usually Dane follows the big boys around, but this time, they played together so well.

All the kids eating ice cream in the backyard.

And then after ice cream, some more after-dinner swimming!

The boys all dressed up for church together. (Ethan Myres was down visiting for the week and came back up to Dallas with us.)

Reid Bodine was so sweet and took Dane to Primary with him, holding his hand.

The other thing that my boys love about Aunt "Kay-ween's" house is MANGO. Major heart-eyes all around here for Mango. Graham spent the whole weekend walking after her saying, "Da! Da! Da!" She was so sweet and patient with him smacking her the whole time.

Dane and Lily spent maybe 45 minutes together building a "railroad" out of these building blocks. They were so cute.

Fourth of July shirts!

All the kids went to see Finding Dory in the morning. Tommy had never gone to see a movie with Dane before and loved it.

Aunt Kaylene did this super cute art contest with the kids and had them draw pictures of something representing America, and colored in soldiers with the "armor of God" after her Primary lesson on Sunday. The kids were way into it and spent a long time working on it. Then she printed out awards and had prizes for them--some poppers for them to do in the front yard. 

I thought poppers were a great fourth of July activity!

I even got a picture with the popper going off. Boom!

I was super patriotic and made an America-shaped fruit pizza and an American flag one too. That was about the only patriotic thing we did all day.

We left at around 4:00 to drive back to Dallas. We have to do SOOOO many different things to keep Graham entertained in the car. Every single thing only lasts a few minutes. He liked the baby balloon popping game on the Kindle for about five minutes.

Dane is always so interested in the Sam Houston statue on the side of the freeway in between Houston and Dallas, and this time we stopped for five minutes to look at it. Pretty cool. 

Ethan even snapped a picture of us with Sam Houston's legs. 

Graham loves LOVES stopping at Buc-ee's, the huge Texas-sized convenience store where everyone in Texas stops on that drive. He just walked around pulling candy bars off the shelves for 10 minutes.

We figured out on the fourth of July that Dane didn't really recognize the American flag (he would only call it the "Captain America" flag--which I understand is confusing). He knows the Texas flag and points it out all the time, and he knows a bit of Texas history already because of us visiting the Alamo and explaining the battle there. But he doesn't even have a concept of America (it's very confusing to him that he lives in Frisco, and Dallas, and Texas, and America). But I decided to try and change that and had a mini-lesson with him on America and states and the Revolutionary War and the American flag (maybe 2 minutes of talking, haha). I think he's starting to understand the difference between the states and countries. And maybe now he will start to recognize the American flag now that we've painted it together. I don't want him to have only Texas pride, even though he IS a through-and-through Texan now.

I wish we could have done some sort of Fourth of July parade or something, because that sounds so fun, but it really was hot and swimming and relaxing was the best thing I think we could have done. It was so great to get to hang out with family for the weekend and it was a nice getaway. Happy birthday America!