Tui

I don't think there is anything worse than losing a child.  My heart breaks for Nikki and Kaj and I can't even imagine what they are feeling.  Tui was about to turn 3 and was such a cute little boy.

The day after the accident happened Nikkis neighbors and ward members tied blue ribbons all over the neighborhood in remembrance of Tui.   It was amazing to watch the amount of love and support they received and also hard to not be there to help.

We left Dallas early Wednesday morning so we would be able to go to the viewing that night.    Al was holding Cole and he peed his pants right before we boarded the plane.  I didn't have a change of clothes so he had to sit on the plane for 3 hours like this and Al's suit jacket smelled like pee :)

Everyone who helped with the viewing did such an amazing job with all the beautiful framed pictures, super heroes, and flowers.  

Viewings are already so sad, but when it's tiny coffin with a sweet little boy it just makes it even more  emotional.  Tui loved the Hulk so they put him in a Hulk costume with a special blanket made for him.  

One of the hardest things was watching how hard it was on Nikki and Kaj.  I watched her from afar that night and was so impressed at how she handled everything considering the circumstances.  

It was an emotional night for everyone and that cute Tui will be missed by all.

Dallas Tour

We wanted to take my mom and Alex somewhere Texasy for their birthday so we chose La Hacienda Ranch.  Pony rides before dinner, I love that they still have these around.

Lots of hugs for Dad

My mom and I shared their yummy veggie fajitas and stuffed ourselves full.  They even sang Happy Birthday to both of them, yay.

Selfie with Grandma.  

When we got home from dinner Al got a text from his mom that said please pray for Nikki's family, Tui's been killed.  Al came and told me and my mom and I burst into tears asking questions like what?  how?  are you sure?   That night was very emotional as we thought and prayed for their family.  It's always hard living so far away because you never know what you can do to help in the situation.  

Sunday morning we all couldn't stop thinking about Niki and her family and decided to take a drive to show my mom Dallas.  We saw Mary Kay's house and Dealey Plaza.  My mom left on Monday night and we flew out on Tuesday for the funeral.  We always have fun when Grandma comes to visit.

St Patricks Day

St Patricks Day was the day after we got back from our trip so I had to plan quick!!  My kids obviously missed us because they both ended up in our bed the first night back.  Alex has finally gotten better to sleep with, but Cole is the worst.  He has to be laying on you and loves to sleep with stacks of toys with one of his feet or hand in your back.

Al left for Austin the morning after we got back and Shelly left that afternoon so it was just the 3 of us celebrating St Patricks Day.  We had green eggs, pancakes, grapes, skittles and rolls throughout the day.  

That day we went to the Arboretum for Tiny Tot Tuesday and got their faces painted and let them run around.  They both chose Batman again.

These two cute boys play so well together and we are so sad that their family is moving to California next month.

Introducing Emily to the selfie stick.  It was the perfect morning for the Arboretum followed by yummy Torchy's after.

Drawing pictures before the rainstorm came......so much rain this year.

Alex's Robot Party

Ever since Christmas Alex has loved robots and when I asked him what kind of birthday party he wanted it was robot. I let him choose where we had the party and who he invited (except that list changed every minute).  Alex always lists things off, for example.....I want a red robot cake, blackberries, cheese, crackers, pizza and the list went on :)   I knew I had to make all the decorations and invitations before we left on our trip around the world so there were lots of days spent spray painting robots and robot heads for our photo booth (thank you pinterest).

This was our photo booth which didn't even end up really getting used.

The gift bags that talented Shelly made.

The amazing robot cake a friend in our ward made.

I made these red robot suckers with a robot mold.  All the signs, invites , and decorations were in a package I bought of Etsy for $20, such a good deal.  I just had to add the words.

I spent an entire afternoon peeling off crayon wrappers and making these little robot crayons in the oven.

The party was from 1-3 which I probably got a little aggressive about and will only have it 1.5 hours next time.  All my activities lasted about 20 minutes so we watched a little bit of a movie with snacks, played outside, played upstairs, and of course opened presents and ate cake.

One of my robot games was pick up the bouncy ball with the robot arm, dance like a robot, and color your own robot bag that I spent a long time spray painting and cutting out.

Happy 4th Birthday Alex.  Cassidy was the only girl that made it to his party and he was so excited.  He is always talking about how he plays with Cassidy at school.

It was a fun party that I hope he will remember, but if not we have all these pictures :)   Happy Birthday Alex, we love you.

Alex Turns 4

I've been trying to come up with some fun tradition for birthdays at our house.  I made Alex a 4 pancake and tied a bunch of balloons and crate paper to his bedroom door.

I asked Alex if he wanted to go to school or stay home and choose what we do and he said he wanted to go to school :)  For dinner he wanted Pie Five pizza

I bought Disney on Ice tickets a few months ago and decided it would be fun to go on his birthday and even better Al was in town.

Somehow I found front row tickets that were left and it was amazing!!  Sitting close just makes everything better.  We bought them some cotton candy, $15 which is insane.

It was a fun show and 2 months later they are still playing Frozen on ice games :)