Ranch

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Today we had no where to be in the morning.  We had nothing that needed our attention and cause us to have to wake up early.  It was a nice feeling.  I think Evan got up after 7 and went downstairs to play MLB Power Pros on the Wii.  Noah got up sometime after.

We both woke up around 9.

I played Wii with the boys while Rachel continued to make cookies.  We had a potluck party to go to today and we were bringing cookies.  We made sugar cookies the other night.  Rachel baked chocolate chip and meringue cookies this morning.

We had a late lunch after Rachel had finished baking everything and we cleaned up.

Around 3pm we started to get ready to go.  The potluck party was hosted by our friends Will and Bradford.  They recently bought 200 acres in Driftwood, TX which is where the Salt Lick is.  It's past the Salt Lick from our house.

The property was really nice.  It butts up to a small river or large creek.  They had hired life guards and rented an inflatable water slide.  They also build a three story tree house on one very large tree as well as installed a zipline from that tree.  Evan had a blast on the water slide at first while Noah liked climbing in the tree house. Evan also really enjoyed the zipline.  Will is a fire fighter so I really could tell that everything was especially safe.  We never actually swam in the river/creek but nevertheless it was a nice late afternoon/early evening.

We came home and gave the boys showers.

Until next time...

Parents Night Out

Hello Everyone, this is Morry.

Last night I dutifully set my alarm to get up to Evan to school in the morning.  I woke up this morning and it was still dark so I rolled over to make sure that I had my alarm set.  I did, so I rolled back over.  Then it hit me, what time did that say?  Well I had never changed the time for my alarm back to what it needed to be now that school is back on.  It was 24 minutes after I normally get up.  I jumped up, got dressed and woke Evan up.  He was very tired.  He's been staying up late during the break so I think two straight mornings of getting up early got to him.

Evan said he wanted to walk to school.  To get there on time, he was going to need to run like he did for Rachel yesterday.  The only problem was that he was moving very slowly and not running.  Evan is very competitive so I had to challenge him to a race.  The two of us ran more than half of the way and we got to school on time.

When I got home, Noah was up.  I got some breakfast for him.  Rachel took him to school.

Rachel went for a run after dropping Noah off at school .  Then she made a run to Sam's Club run.   While there, she got a Roomba.  The flooring people recommended that since the hardwood shows more dirt.  They suggested just letting it run once a day or so.  It seemed to pick things up well.

Noah stayed home while Rachel went to get Evan.  He said he was tired.

When Evan got home, he thought the Roomba was really cool.  He came up to tell me to look at it.

Tonight, we had planned a double date with our friends Will and Bradford.  We had signed Evan and Noah up for a Parents' Night Out at the Little Gym.  We dropped them off at 6:30 and met Will and Bradford at Z'Tejas downtown.  We sat outside because it was in the 70s today.  It was a beautiful night.  The food was good.  After that we walked to a bar called the Kung Fu Saloon.  They have all these old arcade games there and free Skeeball.  Will and I played some video games and played foosball as well.

We picked the boys up and are getting them ready for bed.

Until next time...

Fountain and a Birthday Party

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

I was awakened at 7:05 by a little boy. As I opened my eyes, all I saw were lips puckered trying to kiss my face. It was Noah. I don't know if Evan was up as I just let Noah kiss me, rolled back over and went to sleep. Forty-five minutes later, Noah came in again because Evan had upset him somehow.

The boys played for a while in the game room before we got up. Finally we were able to roll out of bed and came downstairs.

We weren't sure what to do today, but we finally decided to go to the Liz Carpenter Fountain near Auditorium Shores which the kids can run in. We got breakfast ready for everyone, and jumped in the car and drove over.

The boys loved running through the fountain. They enjoyed standing over the water and letting it hit them in the tush. Evan told me he let one spray squirt him in the face and then said "Curse you, tiny toilet" which is a line from Despicable Me.

We came home and had lunch. For some reason, Evan started talking about Spaceballs and wanted to see that at his nap time. I told her what "barf" meant which is John Candy's character in Spaceballs. He thought that was really funny.

After "naps", quoted since neither boy slept, we went to Anna Belle's birthday party. Anna Belle is one of Evan's oldest friends, though they rarely see each other anymore. Rachel used to meet a group of women for coffee when Evan was a few months old and one was Anna Belle's mother. I go to the UT football games with Anna Belle's father, Will.

At the party, they had a clown/magician who was targeted at young kids. All the kids there seemed to really enjoy her. They served pizza and cake. They have a detached garage and a basketball hoop above the garage. Evan spent much of the party shooting baskets.

We came home and gave the kids baths and now they are in bed.

Until next time...

Characters

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

The day started off, as always, with Evan coming in our room. And like every weekend morning I set Evan up watching a movie with some breakfast in the game room.

At 9am, Noah got up. Our friends, Will and Bradford, invited us over for breakfast and offered to take care of the boys for awhile. We got everyone dressed and went over there. Will and Bradford have a girl, Annabelle who is Evan's age, and a 14-month-old boy, Clayton. Annabelle was funny as she was trying to tell Evan it wasn't play time, it was time to eat breakfast. Evan didn't really listen to her. Will made eggs and Bradford made blueberry pancakes. They also had potatoes. The food was all very good. It was nice having breakfast with them.

Rachel and I left and went to Scooters. Rachel got a coffee and I had a Red Bull smoothie. It was nice just sitting there talking without the boys. When we got home we cleaned some. Then Bradford brought the boys home.

The boys were very wound up when the got home. They were running around playing and screaming. They definitely are characters.

We put the boys down for naps. Evan wears a pull up for his nap. Not because he needs it, but because he insists on it. At night, he sleeps in underwear but for some reason he always insists on pulls up during naps. Well today he peed in his pull up for some reason. That was his last pull up. To get him to sleep in underwear I told him tonight we'd go to Target and get him special underwear. That got him excited and he laid down.

After naps the boys came down and I made popcorn and we played Wii.

For dinner, we went to Texas Roadhouse. We had a coupon. Rachel is eating more healthy and I knew she could get fish there, I could get a steak and Evan could get grilled shrimp. The high was in the 30s today. When we got there, I pulled Noah out of the car and he said "Cold! Brrr!" It was very cute.

The boys were well-behaved at dinner for the most part. Evan kept saying he had to poop but then didn't got when we got him in the bathroom. He made us do this 3 times. Noah discovered he could take his own shirt off and in the middle of the restaurant just took it off. He had a big smile on his face and was very proud of himself. At one point, he rubbed his nose and Evan yelled, "Noah, are you snotty?"

After dinner we went to Target. Noah was very talkative in the cart and was being very loud. Evan picked out a pack of 5 different super hero underwear and then a 2-pack of glow-in-the-dark Spiderman boxer briefs. (They look really cute on him) Then he said he had to poop again so Rachel took him while I went to get some other stuff. Noah saw the character band aids and as loud as he could yelled every character he saw: Dora, Buzz, Woody, Spiderman. We went to check out and met Rachel and Evan. We saw them from far away and Noah was yelling "hi" over and over. When we had paid the checkout lady said bye to Noah and he yelled "Bye! Bye!"

In the back of the car on the way home, they were just being so silly. I felt like they were trying to one-up each other. At some point, each started yelling "Oh, great!" I have no idea why.

They are in bed now and Evan is wearing his Spiderman boxer briefs. He's already come out several times. Noah is quiet.

Until next time...

Brrr…cold

This morning Will came over and took the boys out for a couple of hours. He took them to Jim’s for breakfast. On the way there Evan told him he wanted a blueberry pancake. Will said Evan ate one blueberry. That was it. He then took Evan and Noah to HEB and they shared a donut.

It was really cold here today. They predicted snow, but we only got a little flurries. Nothing stuck. Evan and Noah enjoyed watching it. Evan asked why it wasn’t on the ground. He wanted to build a snowman.

I fed Evan and Noah lunch and then they took naps.

Morry’s office party was supposed to be tonight, but it was postponed a few days ago due to the weather.

We just stayed home tonight and ordered food from Hula Hut through Eat out In. Our food was good and they gave us a huge bag of chips. It was a paper grocery bag filled about halfway with chips. We asked for extra chips, but had no idea we would get that much.

We put Evan and Noah to bed but, of course, Evan is still up.

Go Longhorns

This morning Evan came into our room around 7am and woke Morry up. Morry got him breakfast and a movie and got back in bed. A little while later Noah started crying so I got up and took care of the boys so that Morry could sleep.

I tutored a student from 10:30-11:30 this morning.

When I got home we made lunch for Evan and Noah. Then, Will and Anna Belle (3 years old) came over to pick up tickets to the football game today. We sold Will 2 of our tickets. Evan and Anna Belle played upstairs in the game room. I went up to check on them at one point and I heard Evan telling her that he sleeps in together with Noah in Noah’s room.

After they left we put Evan and Noah down for naps.

Morry and Michael left to go to the UT Longhorns game around 4pm. The game wasn’t starting until 7pm, but they wanted to have enough time to park and do some tailgating. Ticket City was having a big tailgate party and so was F5 (where Michael works).

For dinner I asked Evan where he wanted to go and he said Subway. I said I’d just pick up some food and we’d bring it home. He wanted to eat at the restaurant. Both boys were very good there. Noah did not spill any drink on him this time. They both picked out a bag of chips. Noah chose Cheetos again, and Evan picked Sun Chips. Evan also got a bag of apples. I brought some other food for them in the diaper bag as well.

When we got home we called Bubbe on Skype. Noah was very excited. He kept screaming “Bubbe!” Noah even sang some the ABCs for Bubbe.

I gave the boys a shower downstairs. We went upstairs in the game room and watched a little of the football game.

I put Evan and Noah to bed in Noah’s room around 8:30. Noah is still making noises, but Evan actually seems quiet. Oh, nevermind, I just heard Evan.