Sunday Best

Here is Knoxx eating his favorite food, Black Beans. His teeth look so cute in this pic. 

We got all dressed up for church this last Sunday. It has been really nice having church at 1:00. I have so much more time to get ready.  It is also nice to be able to fit back into all of my pre-prego clothes. John took a few pictures of us before we left.  In a few weeks our new church building will be ready and our Church will change times to 9:00 this will be harder on the getting ready side of things but then John will be able to come with us to all of church. Yippee!!!!

The boys looked so cute in the blue shirts and vests.  Greta Jumped in the picture as soon as she saw the camera  she must get that from my side of the family. 

You can see that Knoxx is standing in this picture. He now can stand without holding on to anything(in this pic he is still using his hands to balance). He only stays balanced for a few seconds but it is SOSOSO Cute I don't think I can ever get enough of how adorable it is. 

Rocklond is such a sweetheart after we got home from church I asked him what he learned about in his class. He told me that he said the prayer and prayed that dad would be safe at work.   

He also is learning the primary songs really well. There is one that has a line in it that goes like this "whenever I touch a velvet rose."   He was singing it to me and he said "Whenever I touch a ros-roast beef"   

He loves to have me sing to him the songs that he is learning in primary. He thinks I am super cool because I know all of the words. 

Happy 4th Birthday Rocklond

I put up a few picture from Rocklonds birthday party but I wanted to add a few more and now that things have calmed down a little I might actually be able to explain things a bit.
Rocky's birthday was on a Preschool day I had made a cake the night before. Once the preschool kids saw the cake I couldn't not give them any so we sang happy birthday and had a mini party. I learned a very important lesson this year and that is that kids don't need to much to make a birthday special. Rocklond was so happy about his unformal "Birthday Party" that I could have stopped the festivities right there.  But no I had  a whole weekend of birthday fun planned.  John and I gave Rocklond a Boat for his Birthday present. he has loved it and about a day later said that next year he wants a Fire Boat.

The next day my sister cam in from Ft Hood to come with us to the Houston Children's Museum.  I feel like most of that place has always been for the wrong age of my kids. half of the museum is for kids over 5 and the toddler area is for kids under 3. Luckily the water area out side didn't disappoint. We could have stayed out there all day. 

My sister had her 3 kids with her and they were just the right age to play in the  toddler area. they stayed up there the whole time.  here are her 2-year-old twins 

The next day was Rocklonds Birthday party.  We stayed up late getting everything set up and then spent the morning cleaning and such. 

Rocklond chose the theme for this year. "Robots" and it was a really fun party to plan and throw

Of course I would have like to made a few of the elements a little more polished but it turned out just fine. 

These are rocky's 2  vending machines he got one for Christmas and one for his birthday. At the end of the party I gave every child 2 quarters so they could buy what they wanted to take home. 

Here are some of the balloons that we put up I really liked how they looked and am thinking about putting some drop down lighting  in this spot. 

The Amazing Robot birthday cake

(Funny story: the night before the party we waited until everyone was asleep to start baking the cake and cupcakes. So about 11:00pm you know how it is when there are cousins all under the same roof. well anyways I have a silicone baking pan that I used to cook the cakes and I had forgotten that it sets off the fire alarm like no other. So 11:00pm the fire alarm starts blaring and wakes up all the  babies. John and I had to open up every door to get the alarm to finally stop .  I decided to stop cooking the cake that I was making and  just have cupcakes. the next morning I had a stroke of genius and just frosted my kitchen Aid bowl to look like a cake and voila! really cook Robot cake.)

The cupcakes had white frosting with a silver air brush food coloring sprayed on them to make them look metal.  I had printed out and made the little signs to stick into each cup cake. 

here is everyone singing to Rocky. 

We played a few games 

Here we are making hats.  they decorated the paper and then taped a straw to the top for a robot antenna. (funny: I am wearing that same outfit today minus the futuristic topknot.)     

   It was a really fun weekend celebrating my baby's birthday.

Vals

A video of us up at my sisters house.

Robot Birthday

Rocklonds Robot Birhday Party

  Happy 4th birthday my big boy.

John the Birthday Boy

We got back from our Crazy adventure New years 2012 Just in time to celebrate my favorite man's Birthday. 

Thank you John for being born. (Well really thank you Kari for having him)   John you are so amazing and bring so much laughter and happiness to my life. I love your enthusiasm for things that you love. I love your Bold way of saying things. and how you never are afraid to tell anyone the truth.   I am so lucky to be your wife. I love you John Happy Birthday. 

this cake was super yummy and really easy. it was strawberry and chocolate. Knoxx thought he would add his own decorating style to the cake

We were really busy getting my sister ready to go back to Ft hood so we didn't get to celebrate John's Birthday as large as I usually do, but He is 31 and I guess you have to stop having a super hero themed birthday party sometime. 

new years 2012

My sister Valerie moved to Texas this last week.  They got lonely out there driving and called us to come out and join them in their long journey. 

this looks like two sets of twins 

Cute!

So my sisters husband just finished basic training and was assigned to Ft hood. so they decided that after Brandon Christmas leave he would help them drive to Texas. Valerie and her three kids, 2-year-old twin girls and a 8-month-old-boy, were going to come and stay with me for  a few days until their stuff would arrive and they could move in to their new house.   the first two days of driving went well and then just before crossing in to Texas their car broke down. this was Saturday night. I called Valerie Sunday expecting them to be nearing my home in Houston. But they were still in New Mexico. 

 Sunday and Monday Quickly sped by as Brandon and Valerie were forced to go threw plan A, B, C and all the way to Z.  the fact that the car broke down on a holiday weekend left them with even more hurdles to jump.   plan D: get a new part to fix the car.  dealer wont get it in till Thursday.    Plan M: rent a car and drive to Dallas to get the part. Dealership wont be open because of Newyears Plan R; rent a car and drive to Lindsey's car rental place wont accept a debit visa card. 
Valerie called me and told me the news about the last plan failing. and I was already packing my things while I was on the phone. I told her "I am coming to get you" this is something I had wanted to do since sunday but had help out hope that the other plans or combinations of the plans would work.  so with a tooth brush and a change of close for everyone Rocklond, Knoxx and I all set out to clovis, NM  a  10 hr drive from Houston. I left at about 2:30pm and rang in the new year just before reaching lubbock. I wish I had been able to get there a little sooner so I could have celebrated the new year in texas and then crossed the time zone and celebrated it again. but I didn't get in until about 1:30am MST

Monday started off with high hopes now that plan AA was in motion: tow the Jeep behind Tindseys Toyota to Ft hood.  

Once again our plan was ruined as we began hitting more and more hurdles of the day. everything that we needed was in stores that were closed and we were running out of time because Brandon had to be back to Ft hood by 6:00 am Tuesday. 

We spent the day at McDonalds and in the car while Brandon had the stressful job of finding a way to get the jeep to attach to my car. 

the kids were handling everything so well and we were very hopeful that this was going to work and we were going to be able to tow the car. 

We finally were ready to begin pulling the car.  None of us really knew what we were doing add that to three sleep deprived adults two of which also where under immense pressure from moving and being stranded for the last two days. and throw in half of the stores in small freeway town were closed. led us to spend all day on a project that we should have thrown the towel in from the get go. 

Here We are all happy ready to give the beautifully crafted trailer a try. 

Note: DO NOT TOW A CAR BACKWARDS! DO NOT TOW A CAR WITH ALL 4  WHEELS ON THE Ground and DO NOT MOVE OVER A MAJOR HOLIDAY. 

We didn't have a way to attach the hitch to the front of the car so we thought well why not try the back? We had seen cars towed this way but what we hand noticed it that only works if the front two wheels were off the ground on a dolly. I think this plan would have worked if we had been able to find a way to attach it to the front of the car but the frame was just to far back.   Anyways what we got was an epic fail.  the car was basically being dragged behind my car.  

We all felt bad and horrible and helpless. kind of the way I felt after the last election.

I wanted to know what went wrong and how we could have fixed it and so I began Googleing things to learn about towing cars. I came across this little list. http://jalopnik.com/5941155/the-ten-worst-ways-to-tow-a-car/gallery/1    really funny and makes me feel a whole lot better that at least we didn't do any of these. 

Well with our spirits crushed, stamped,and broken we left the Jeep there in New Mexico.
It was about 5or 6 pm  we drove all night long and arrived in Ft hood around 4 in the morning.

Brandon had a few minutes to shave and change before we dropped him off for his first day post Basic Training.    those little glimmers of light are other solders in their PT clothes and reflective belts. 

In a week filled with trials there was one thing that really came through. Valerie and Brandon were supposed to sign their lease on Monday but they were still stranded in New mexico. they were able to sign over E-mail and so they just needed to pick up their keys to their new house. 

Brandon got an hour off to change after PT and so we picked him up and drove over to the leasing agent.  I waited in the car as they went in.  I was praying and praying that they would come out with them in hand. It really wouldn't have surprised me if they hadn't after all the bad luck I had seen on this trip. 

so I was so relieved to see two Smiling faces as they brought back their KEYS!!!!!

Here they are after looking thru their 4 bedroom house.  here is the link to my sisters blog where there are more pics  http://illguthlife.blogspot.com/2013/01/worth-it.html   they had moved from a two bedroom Apt. 

their stuff wont be there for a few more days so Valerie and the kids all came to Houston with me.  I hadn't changed clothes, showered or brushed by hair or teeth since Monday when I left to go and rescue them. So you can imagine I was happy to be home and get cleaned up.  Valerie was equally as happy  she had packed enough clothes for her and the kids for a three day road trip not a five day disaster.    We spent the rest of the day doing laundry, cleaning out the car and  sneaking naps in between taking care of kids.  

that night John was reading to Rocklond and I was sitting on the floor nursing Knoxx. every few moments  I would hear a loud banging noise It took me about three times to realize it was my head hitting the wall every time I fell asleep. 

Today after everyone got a real nights sleep in a bed.  Valerie packed up her now clean stuff and her kids and went back to Ft. hood in Johns car. 

they will borrow that car for a while until they can go back to New Mexico to fix the Jeep.  she still doesn't have all of her stuff but I lent them a few necessity's and they can buy/borrow the rest from ft hood PX and another place where they let military families borrow items for a few days.

I hope that they can try to find some sense of normal in the next few days and begin to feel the stress levels going down.  I am just glad that I was able to have an opportunity to help my sister.  Most of all I am SO SO SO Happy to Have they Living so Close!!! Although they might never want to set foot in another car once this month is through.  

Christmas 2012

We have has a fantastic holiday season. Christmas was really wonderful. John had the christmas eve and Christmas off. It was so nice not to be rushed Christmas morning.  

here are the gifts. this was the snake button. it didn't have a button and it had an assortment of animals and maybe one snake but Rocklond loves it and has used his whole quarter savings on the little sticky animals inside. 

here is the yellow bus from last Christmas and the new and improved Fire Bus that Rocklond dreamed up for this year. 

I got just a regular yellow school bus and then spray painted it black. It took me a few tries because I didn't know 100% humidity and spray paint doesn't mix. Well actually they do mix,  leaving bubbles all over the project.

the stickers were done twice too because the first batch I printed off of my computer they looked like cheep tape stuck to a black bus. so we used the skull stickers and john painted on the fire.  

 Rocklond looked a little disappointed that there wasn't any real fire involved, but still loves it.

here are my presents. new running shoes, socks and fuel for running. I am training to run the Woodlands marathon in March. 

this is a mix of my presents and Rocklonds. 

and here are some of johns. 

Knoxx got this cute little walker that resembles a toilet a little too much for my tasts, but it is by far the favorite gift.

after our relaxing quiet Christmas we received a surprise for new years