Christmas 2014

Another year of decorating done. I didn't take any pictures of the process of decorating this year. Mostly, this post is just to showcase some of my new decorations.

Sometimes, as much as I love lights, I like to see the tree without the lights on because then you can see the ornaments better.

But the lights are SPECTACULAR!

My most recent decorations have a Peanuts theme for sure.  I opened my presents from my mom over the weekend since I won't see her for Christmas, so the above picture is a new gift from this year.  Each of the bases has a part of the Christmas story on it.

The above set is a gift from last year.  Have I mentioned that I love Peanuts.

And I bought the above ornament last year.  Guess why?  Maybe because I love Charlie Brown!

The above ornament is my 2014 ornament.  I wasn't sure if it was technically allowed to put it on the tree, but since I opened it early, I decided to go ahead and just do it.

The snowflake is my 2013 ornament.

Here is more Peanuts stuff.  The plates are several years old, but the glasses were a gift last year.  Here is each of them up close.  Now I can have chocolate milk in festive glasses all month.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Speaking of selfies with little kids

The night before I left for Texas, I was able to use hang out with family.  I really only went up to their house because my ticket was way cheaper from Chicago then Peoria.  But they were a very fun bonus to my trip (even if my brother might not agree that a 5:00am wake up call and ride to the airport was "fun").  Close to bedtime, I was laying in bed with my mom.  When I visit, John has a sleepover with Mom so that I can have a room to myself.  Apparently, John does not like anyone else lying by Grandma, because he quickly squeezed in between us when he saw me in the bed.  So then we took a picture, which turned into a 20 minute photo shoot. :)

Pretending to sleep. John is much more convincing then Mom and I, isn't he?

Funny faces.

More pretending to sleep.

And look at the face above.  Definitely up to no good.

Let the silly faces commence!

The creepy one eye in the corner.  And I think Mom is really trying to sleep at this point!  No more pretending for her.

Punching the scary one eye in the corner!

So many faces...

I love when I get to spend time with him.  Even if he would rather play video games or watch TV then do something with me!  Because precious moments like this are what being an aunt is all about!

9v batteries and pirate ships

This morning as I was getting ready for work I was trying to remember if I had put 9v batteries on my list for the store. Then I thought, "No. I already bought those while I was waiting for the pirate ship to get unstuck. " Wait. What?  And then I remembered that was just a dream. What is it with dreams anyway?!

Texas State Fair

My last day in Texas we went to the Texas State Fair. This was a new experience for me because I never went when I lived in Texas. It was BIG and crowded. It was the Texas/OU game, so there were a ton of college students and fans there. But it was still a fun experience.

"Big Tex" (at least I think that's what his name is.  Danell wouldn't stop to pose in front of him with me.  Party pooper!  In her defense, we were in search of food.  And all pretty hungry.

Selfies to entertain ourselves while waiting during lunch.  It was cold in Texas for October.  And kind of overcast all day.  Even I stayed in long sleeves all day.

Nothing better than eating meet off a stick at a fair.

More selfies.

Horses.  Made out of butter.  Seriously.

And you can't go to the fair without getting a selfie with the butter horse's butt with your best friend!

Really Big Ferris Wheel.  Yes, it made me think of Divergent.

Cuteness galore!  I love that scrunched-nose face!

One tired little girl.  No nap and a lot of walking (well, for her mostly strolling in the stroller, but still).  Fingers in the mouth=a sure sign that she is tired.

But not too tired to make some funny faces.

Hanging upside down while we wait.

Makes me kind of dizzy just looking at it.  I am so old.

And then it was off to the airport.  And that concludes my Texas vacation series on the blog!  I hope you enjoyed, even if it took a while to get every installment up.  Life is crazy busy right now.  I feel like all I keep doing is trying to play catch-up.

Hannah

One of the saddest things about living so far away from friends is that they have babies that you don't always get to meet right away. One of the things that made me stop procrastinating and make a trip to Texas is the fact that Hannah is 19 months old and I had never met her. So she was a delightful little highlight of my trip. And even more so, because the last time I saw Clare and Lucy, they were about Hannah's age!

More funny face selfies.  It might be an addiction of mine.  But only with children involved.  Hopefully I won't just start taking funny face selfies of myself!

Some after dinner entertainment.  Smooshing her face against the glass.

It's just hard not to smile when she is so excited about seeing herself on camera.

Reading books.

Look at all that hair.  And chubby cheek cuteness.

Looking at an airplane.

And tracking it through the sky.

Settlers of Catan, Jr

One of my favorite things about hanging out with Danell and Ken is playing games. I didn't get any pictures of the adults playing games, even though it consumed a majority of the trip. Whether it was Ticket to Ride on our phones, Set, or 7 Wonders, we played a lot. Thursday afternoon was Ken's day off, so he and I played Settlers of Catan Junior with the girls. It is amazingly like the adult version, with just a few different rules.  Here is the board:

For the most part, the girls do really well with the game.  Their ability to understand an exchange rate to get the resources they need amazed me.  However, the game might be a little long.  The girls tend to get a little distracted after awhile.

Clare wanted to pose with her resources.

The end of the game.  Ken won.  So not fair!  I didn't even have beginners luck.

Texas style outings

Beware, this is A LOT of pictures (I don't really know if I need to say that ever, but I like to give warnings anyway).

The first night I got to Texas, Danell put the girls to bed and came out laughing.  She said that she was talking to Clare and Clare said, "Mama, Teresa coming wasn't quite what I expected."  Danell tried to figure out what Clare expected, but she couldn't really say, just something more exciting.  So Danell thought she needed to give Clare some excitement.  She told her we were going to the zoo.  Technically, this was already planned, but Clare didn't know that.  The next morning Clare told me the same story all over again.  "Last night I told Mama that you coming wasn't quite what I expected.  So now we're going to the zoo!"  I had suggested the zoo because, frankly, I love zoos.  But also because it is a fun kid activity.  And we had gone to the zoo once before with the girls.

I loved that Clare and Lucy were so interested in the maps.  I can remember going to the zoo with John where he looked at the map more than he looked at the animals.

The orangutans had a little baby who was SO STINKING CUTE!

And Hannah is even cuter!

A sleeping lion.

And a posing meerkat.

And a very tired Lucy, who just needed a little rest in the shade.

The owl building was one of my favorites.

Bats eating an apple.

We took a little rest for a snack.

This picture is out of order, but these fish were so weird.  It's called a paddlefish.  Do you see the bottom one with its mouth wide open?  It just swam around like that.

More owls.

Even more owls.

The slide that goes through the otter exhibit.

And of course, Nemo and Dory were together!

There were two scuba divers cleaning one of the big tanks.  It was pretty fascinating.  There was a lady talking to us about it.  Apparently the tank gets cleaned three times a week and it takes two hours to clean.  Most of the divers are volunteer.  The tanks are provided by the fire department.

Apparently, the lady also said that the eels have been pretty testy lately.  So, one person would clean while the other person watched.  When this eel came out of its hole, they quickly got out of the way.  At one point, it swam straight at the woman and she had to use her scrub brush to gently push it in a different direction.  It was pretty exciting to watch!

See if you can find this snake's head.  It blended well with it's surroundings.

This picture cracked me up because the front fish photo bombed the purple fish! :)

And a zoo trip wouldn't be complete without a giant tortoise picture...or 4.  It was on the move and I caught it's progression to the water...

...

...

...finally soaking in the mud!

It was a fun trip to the zoo, even if it was climbing into the 90s throughout the morning.