Ft Worth Zoo

For spring break (and on St. Patrick's Day), daddy took a day off and we had some family time at the zoo. It was great weather and we had lots of fun!

 

William // 3 Years Old

WHAT!!! Howwww are you already 3 years old! Crazy. We love you to pieces despite your nonstop tantrums and your goofy side is something hilarious. Here are your stats:

Height: 37.5"

Weight: 34.3 lbs

Sleep: 11-12 hours at night, 2 hour nap and sleeps amazing in his new big boy bed!

Potty training: fully trained in the daytime as of December but in a pullup at night

Shoe size: 9

Food: good eater but not with veggies yet

Liquids: mostly milk and water with some juice and sprites

Counting: up to 12

Shapes: can recognize all shapes and draw a circle

Letters: working on recognizing them. Ha!

And now for the same questions I ask Drew and Ady each year on their birthday since they turned 3!

Favorite color: red

Favorite toy: racecars

Best friend: Colter

Favorite food: mac n cheese

What do you want to be when you grow up: A big boy

What makes you happy: huggies

Where is your favorite place to go: the beach 

Love you little man and am thankful for the days you want to snuggle and are sweet. But also love how much you make us laugh when you're being goofy. Your sister and brother both love you to pieces and you really play so nicely with both of them for the most part. You LOVE 'dozers' (bulldozers) as well as Paw Patrol and Mickey Mouse and still twirl your hair right before you fall asleep. You talk an insane amount narrating almost everything you're doing and know exactly what you want at all times. 

 

Golf & Big Boys

Drew has begun his second season with a Junior PGA league team he plays with and is loving it. This spring he'll have some tournaments and we are super excited for those! 

Also, who is this huge, big boy?

He helped us break down his crib and put together his big boy bed and man was it hard. I posted in our local groups finding a mom who could use it and we did. Her and her husband were hit hard losing their jobs during the pandemic so it was amazing gifting the crib and dresser to her. Very, very hard and sad, but sweet at the same time. 

Anyway, he loves his new construction sheets with 'dozers' on them and has been sleeping like a champ in there! :)

 

Kidless Key Largo

Thanks to my parents watching the kiddos for 3 nights, we got to get away to our warm, beach vacation! We had planned to go for Valentine's Day but due to the crazy Texas Freeze, we postponed and are so thankful we did! It would have been so stressful to leave the kiddos with parents when houses were out of heat and pipes were bursting all over the neighborhood. So, 3 weeks later we were on a plane and it was amazing! Here's what I wrote on facebook that summarized the trip: "Grateful. That’s the word that summarizes how we feel after our trip. We are so grateful for the ability to get away thanks to grandparents watching the kiddos and friends helping them. Grateful for our health to be able to walk along the beach and smell the fresh air. Grateful for delicious food served and prepared by others that we could eat at our own pace. Grateful for palm trees and sunsets and sites outside we could enjoy without masks on. And most importantly grateful for our marriage and this time together to recharge and renew."

 

Ady Soccer & Will's First Movie

Another season is happening with the Pandas and Ady just loves her teammates. She's also pretty darn good at soccer when she puts her mind to it!! 

A few weeks ago we took Will to see his first movie: Tom & Jerry The Movie. The movie itself wasn't the best but Will did GREAT and enjoyed snacking the entire 2 hours! :)

 

Then Texas Came Back

And just like that, a week after it was a record setting 0 degrees outside, we hit 74 and it was GLORIOUS. 

These 2 have been playing together a bit more than normal and quite the cute duo.

Even at 10 and 6.5 these 2 will still play for hours upstairs and it makes me so happy. 

We stayed in for one extra week to watch church online.

 

Sledding!

On day 4 of the freeze-ocolopse of Texas 2021 we let the kids outside. It had been in single digit temps with negative windchills the 3 days prior and we just didn't want to risk any issues so we waited. But then we sled for over an hour and while Will didn't stay out there long, the bigs LOVED it! Thankfully we had snow bibs for the littles from when Drew was young and Drew wore mine and I wore Derek's! We found any gloves and scarves that we could and I put Vaseline on their cheeks before heading out for our fun on the hill just down the street with our buddies. Who knew how amazing pool floaties would work for sleds!

 

Texas Freeze!

So on Valentine's Day 2021 we all went to bed with a couple of inches of snow on the ground and our faucets dripping knowing that it was going to freeze that night. We were told there would be 'rolling blackouts' of energy to conserve the grid as Texas wasn't prepared to handle what we were about to get. We woke up to a couple short outages where the power came back on a bit later but at 5am things changed. It was about an hour in and the power didn't turn back on. Being in the single digits we made the kiddos layer up, threw extra blankets on them in bed and then tried to get them back to sleep. A friend texted us how to start the fireplace up with a battery which helped as it was getting quite cold by 9am. We had the kiddos in several layers and their beanies and did what we could to stay by the fireplace but man it was dropping in temperature. 

By noon it was too cold to stay. We have an open floor plan where the living room is 2 stories and although 55 degrees outside feels warm, it was SO cold in the house. Our friends were exploring hotel options and we made the decision to head to Gramma and Poppa's house since their rolling outages were continuing as planned and their house was staying warm. 

We spent the first night there and then woke up to news that our neighborhood had lost power again at 5am and everything was happening again. We decided to stay another night just to be safe as their house was warm and cozy and felt much less stressful. We played games, got out all the toys and enjoyed our time over there!

The kiddos and I even stayed the 3rd day during the day while Derek went home to check on the house and work there all day. Thankfully by night 3 the house held power for long enough that we could move home to stay there. We did learn that this little nugget LOVES the fireplace in the process. She climbs up there any chance she can get to lay next to it...