Valentines Day Part 2

We had a romantic lunch together at In n Out.  Cole and Alex call it the grilled cheese place, but they love it since they get hats, stickers, and yummy food.  Plus it's in their blood since they are California boys :)  Cole discovered his love for ketchup during this lunch and it was so cute watching his little chubby fingers dip his fries in it.

Our next stop was checking in at the Hotel and trying to get quick naps in. We had to be to the Stockyards for the cattle drive at 4pm!!   At 3:45 we got pulled over for going 80 in a 50 and the worst part is it was a major tollway that is identical to a freeway.  When the cop came over and Al rolled down the window Alex said look mamma it's a Cowboy, seriously so funny.  The cop still gave us a ticket and as we pulled off he pulled over another car!!  Happy Valentines Day  We made it to the stockyards with about 1 minute to spare and there was maybe 10 cows in the cattle drive.  I was envisioning about 100 cows and at least 10 minutes of entertainment.  Oh well :)

We had about 4 hours to kill before the rodeo so we walked around, hung out on the grass practicing selfies with our selfie stick.

We paid $5 for each kid to get their picture on a bull, but totally worth it because look how cute they are.  My little Texas cowboys in their skinny jeans and converse.

Another Tex Mex dinner for the books.  We love our chips and salsa!!

Doors opened for the rodeo at 6:30 and we were there with some funnel cakes, churros, and an hour and a half to kill before it started.  I haven't been to a rodeo in years and I've never been to one in Texas!!

Cole is a nose picker and thinks it's funny, thats a habit we need to break fast!!

Poor Alex was so tired especially since he didn't nap.  He fell asleep in my arms around 8:45 and we left the rodeo around 9:15.  

Cole woke up crying around 1am and it lasted for awhile until we got him to go pee.  The joys of parenthood.   Sunday morning we slept in until 9am!!  Alex was up at 7 or so and opened all his blinds in the living area, turned on the lights, and colored pictures until we woke up.  Al went to grab breakfast and then met us at the pool.  I hope we can find a house with a pool and then they need to learn to swim asap!!

Our last stop in Fort Worth was the famous water gardens I saw all over Pinterest.  They are these huge fountains downtown that you can walk to the bottom of.

I kept thinking one of them was going to fall in, but they listened pretty well and we all survived.  It was fun day in Fort Worth minus the ticket so just remember don't speed on their new tollway.  

Valentines Day Part 1

We talked about going to Austin for Valentines weekend to run the half, but decided at the last minute to not go since neither of us had really trained.  We had our Valentines dinner the night before at Bistro 31 in Highland Park Village.  I had some of the best scallops I've ever had, yum.

As we were finishing up our dinner this guy walked by that I went to high school with so I grabbed his arm and said hey didn't you go to Cottonwood?  Sure enough it was him and so random.  13 years later and I recognized him which I don't think he remembered who I was, but it was still fun to catch up for a bit.  

You never know how Cole is going to sleep.  For some reason this age is really hard with sleep and I remember Alex being so much worse.

Happy Valentines Day with their mini dinosaurs, new books, swords, chapsticks and Be My Valentine Charlie Brown DVD(they love Snoopy right now)!!  Holidays are so much better with kids.

Valentines day breakfast.  This was the only piece of heart shaped bacon that turned out.

We decided to spend the weekend in Fort Worth which is about an hour from us.  We went to the zoo that morning and had so much fun.  Their elephants, giraffes and hippos were all next to each other, it was awesome.

The weather was so amazing it was almost like being back in Pasadena.

The most exciting part of the zoo trip was while we were feeding the birds I had Alex sitting on the edge of a railing that had water below.  When we went to leave his shoe got stuck on the railing and fell into the water below.  I looked down and was like oh no and he started crying.  Luckily it was just a big bird cage and not where they kept the alligators.   

This nice zoo worker found his net and scooped up his shoe for us.  Al went to the bathroom and dried the shoe with the hand dryer and wha la good as new :)   

We took the train back to the front of the zoo and they loved it.  Cole says chugga chugga chugga chugga choo choo in the cutest little voice.  His love for trains is the best!!

and a family photo in front of the fort worth zoo!!!  I'm so glad we went when it opened because there was probably a mile long line of cars to get in the parking lot.  Early bird catches the worm :)

New Cuts

It's impossible to stay at home with these 2 all day.  We all go crazy so I try to find something for us to do.  I made them lunches and headed to the park with the scooters.

Where do I even start with Cole!!  Just looking at this picture makes me laugh because he is so funny.    It's fun to spend one on one time with him while Alex is at school as long as he isn't throwing a tantrum about something.  He's so independent and wants to do everything himself including give the lady his token to ride the merry go round.  This day he wore those sunglasses everywhere we went.

Alex has been talking about Valentines Day for weeks!!  He was so excited to have his school party and get all his Valentines.

I had a cookie exchange for relief society and let Alex decorate a bunch of cookies for our family to eat:)  He loved it so much and said I made one for Alex, Cole, Mama, and Daddy.  So sweet he is.

Our yummy relief society cookie exchange!!

Yes we went to the mall again.  I feel like it's been more than usual since I've been trying to prepare for our big vacation around the world.  We were supposed to meet our friend this morning, but they couldn't make it and I already told them we were going so we went straight to the playground for an hour and then Alex asked me if we could eat at the chicken place for lunch and it wasn't even 11am yet, haha.  

and of course we went on the Merry Go Round!!

Their hair was starting to drive me crazy so I we went to Sharkies for haircuts.  I've been wanting Alex to get the Rinaldo haircut for weeks and finally decided to go for it, so so cute.  I'm so glad I did it.

I ended up having Cole's hair trimmed too and they only charged me for a bang trim since his hair is so fine.  He was so good for the lady and listened to everything he said.  Sometimes it's hard to believe he's only 2.

Suckers and balloons for the win with super cute haircuts!!  Love these two and so grateful for them everyday.

Legos

While the antibiotics were kicking in there were a few nights Cole struggled with sleep.  I remembered what newborn life was all about and questioned myself about wanting a 3rd child.  

Al was in New Jersey for his National Sales Meeting getting lots of awards and recognition for all his hard work.

An evening mall date with dinner of course. They wouldn't listen to anything I said while I did a return so I held strong to saying we couldn't go to the playground.  I always feel bad but hopefully it helps them learn that they can't act like that.

We found the firefighters after lunch one day and they let the boys check out their truck and try on their hats.  

We decided to not buy the house we live in and start looking for one in our ward boundaries and boy is it hard.  It doesn't help that I'm picky, but we are crossing our fingers that the right one comes along!!  While we were talking to our realtor Cole and Alex were playing in the car and Cole was hysterical giving me his goofy smile and driving the car.

We took the boys to the Home Depot workshop and for some reason they do it outside at this location.  It wasn't too cold, but it was so crowded and Cole was a disaster.  Next time I'll just have Al take Alex so he can enjoy it more :)

Al took me to the mall to pick out my Valentines present :) and Cole and Alex got to play in the lego store for being good.   Alex could spend the entire day there, he loves to build.

Blowing bubbles and dumping them all over his shoe.  Cole is full of laughs and silliness, we love him so much.  

Daily Grind

Since the weather is so up and down here we try to go to the park every day that it's warm.

We went shopping with Dad one night to find some dress shirts and ties.   Cole pooped his pants in the store, so that was fun.  Thank goodness I brought extra underwear and jeans!!

We did lots of shopping that day because we also went to Northpark and had lunch with my friend Kristin.  A mall is so much more enjoyable when no one else is there and your kids can run wherever they want :)

These two had the worst coughs and then Alex told me his ear hurt so I took them to the Dr and sure enough both of them had ear infections.  They were both so good at the Dr and listened to everything she said.

We talked Al into going to see Paddington Bear on a Saturday.  We love our movies and are just trying to convert Al :)

We had dinner at the famous Gas Monkey Garage which was over rated, but fun to see since it's named after a tv show.

Superbowl Sunday was low key this year.  We ordered pizza and wings, watched the commercials while Al watched the actual game.  Alex and Cole love Katy Perry so they were all about the half time show dancing and running around in circles.

Oh the terrible twos.  Everywhere he goes it's only a matter of time until he has a melt down.  This day he was mad at me because he wanted to walk around and then he wanted me to hold him and then he wanted juice, but I had already walked by the sample station.  It was one one of his worst melt downs, but we survived while everyone in Trader Joes stared at us :)