perfect fit

Hawken is a big fan of taking pictures on my phone. Mostly, they are of his feet, or of his toys, but every so often I discover a gem. A picture that captures something like this. Matix holding Solace, and Lullaby talking to him. Hawk was probably giggling along with Matix at whatever Lulli said or Solace did.  So precious. I love how much they love each other, and I love how much you can tell they just fit together, all four, this is perfect.

alligator park

We went on a nature hike at a park in Sugarland.  It's where our church stake center is, so it's not too far from us.  When we got there we found out it was an alligator preserve... yikes! The kids had so much fun hunting for alligators. Every little stick in the water, or ripple of waves was CLOSELY inspected by the kids. We didn't end up seeing any alligators, but that's mostly because the lake was covered with an invasive species of plant that had taken over just in the last few months...

After a while on the bridges, we decided to walk around the lake on a little path. We didn't make it the whole way around because I was being eaten alive by the mosquitos and it was nearing dinner time.  We did find lots of tracks, deer, alligator, horse and something that looked like a dog (maybe a fox? maybe a dog?).

The stick obsession continues...

The kids also saw leaf cutter ants. It was really cool watching them move little bits of leaves here and there.

Then we left and picked up some free pizza on the way home. I got a bunch of "free mini murph" coupons at that Humane Society Fall Festival.  They are good forever, but I wanted to use them before I forgot about them. They turned out to be really cute. Each kid got to make their own pizza however they wanted it.  Fun dinner!

Matix's cavity extravaganza

Matix went in to see the dentist again to get his pre-cavity drilled and refilled with sealant.  He was pretty excited about it, mostly because last time he got tons of prizes... They gave him "silly juice" and then sat him back in the waiting room with me. He was fine at first, but after a few minutes he got weak. In fact he fell forward out of his chair at one point and bumped his head. I felt really bad that I wasn't holding him, so I held him  then and it was a good thing because he got to the point that he couldn't even hold his head up.  It got pretty scary for me to see him like that. He couldn't respond to me very well and I was worried. Thankfully, it was all normal and the nurses and dentist were very reassuring.  I carried him back to the room and they strapped him in so he couldn't wiggle or hurt himself, which I sort of laughed at because he couldn't really move on his own anyway.  The actual procedure was quick and the dentist carried him back out only a few minutes later.  Matix was already a bit more coherent and talking some too which made me feel a thousand times better.  I took a video of him as I strapped him into the car... it's pretty funny to see how out of it he was.

He only got better after this, but it took him a few hours to be able to walk again, which was sad for him.  We went back to Logan's house to pick up the other kids (Thanks Mindy for watching the troops!), and when we got there Matix really wanted to see Logan and play. I thought he could sit on the floor to play for a bit so I carried him in, but he couldn't even sit. He kept trying to stand up or crawl and would topple forward and bump his head on the ground... My mistake. So I dragged him out of there (and the others), and back home, all the kiddies took a nap. Matix slept in my bed with me because he needed help going to the bathroom and I wasn't sure that I would hear him in time if he were in his room, plus I didn't want him to fall out of his bed.  Everything was better after naps, although he still felt a bit sick.  He never complained of his mouth hurting though, so they must have done a wonderful job.  Hooray! Hopefully there will be no more of this though, it was stressful in the beginning.

fun with Laurel

Late last night, Laurel and I tried to go to Nature's Nightmare and then to Haunted Trails again, because we were rained out the first time. The first one was scary, but the trail was clearly marked (even though you had to stoop over to fit through some small tunnels, ahhhh!), so it seemed very staged.  The last part, as always, was a guy with a chainsaw. I, of course, was thinking of the TEXAS chainsaw massacre, and RAN as fast as I could.  The guy chased us out and it was super scary.  The second one we went to was called Haunted Trails and it was a similar set up except there was next to no light and the trails were not clearly marked, so it seemed a lot scarier. There were several times that I shut my eyes, screamed at the top of my lungs, and once that I froze. I have never been frozen with fear before. They had a set up from The Ring (the movie), with the film playing on repeat and all the creepy noises coming from a small tv... Then the scary dead girl crawled out off a well right in front of us, right where we had to walk past. I was SO scared. Poor Laurel has bruises on her arms from me.  The end of the second one was the same as the first, a guy with a chainsaw. He was scary, and we ran again out of there.  We were standing in a small crowd outside of the trails then talking and the crazy chainsaw guy came OUT and RAN at us with his scary face and swinging his chainsaw this way and that. I almost had a heatatack! I ran as fast as I could all the way to the car. By the time Laurel caught up with me, she was laughing so hard she couldn't breath... Ha ha. Our hearts were racing and we were dripping sweat.  It was so scary, and SO fun. Thanks Laurel for another fabulous Halloween!

pet fest!

Paul had a Saturday off, and there were about 20 free events going on that day to choose from. Free movies (indoor and outdoor), a Korean Festival, and many more. We decided to go to the Wildflower Festival. It was up in the Woodlands, north of where Dale and Vanessa live, so we called to invite them. But they were already going to the Old Town Spring Pet Festival... So we changed our plans and went there instead.  The kids love their cousins, and although we live pretty close, we rarely get to see them.

The littlest two slept most of the time in the stroller, so cute!

The Pet Festival was just as the name suggests.  People from all over brought their pets, mostly dogs, some dressed in costume, some not, to parade around Old Town Spring. There were balloon animals, people dressed in dog costumes... The kids were in heaven. There was also plenty of candy and other little freebies for the kids to enjoy.

This huge blow up slide was a favorite of the day.  Even Lullaby loved it. I tried to get a picture of the 5 biggest kiddies going down the slide together, but was accused of being a fun killer... Fine then, no picture. :)

Vanessa chased around looking for the wiener dog races pretty much the whole time. It wasn't very well organized, and she never did find them to enter Jasper.  Too bad, that would have been fun to watch!  There was a parade and the people in it threw necklaces and goodies to the kids.

Seriously, they had fun. Thanks Dale and Vanessa for the tip about the festival!

love

Every afternoon, really, every single one, Hawken wakes up and needs a snuggle. He will tell me in the sweetest, sleepiest voice, "Mommy, can we snuggle for just a few minutes, please?" How could I ever resist? Such a love. He is crabby to everyone else during this snuggle time, but sweet on me. I love it. Matix and Lullaby are still snuggle bugs too, and I hope none of them outgrow it.  I will gladly lay down on top of the once nicely folded laundry to soak up every second of my sweet boy.

There is something so sweet and wonderful about my boys. It's the same way I feel when I see Lullaby with Paul, there's something extra there, something special and different.  I have heard the word boy defined as: noise with dirt on it.  Which I think is very true, but there is another definition that adds also: most precious to their mothers.  And that is the most true. I love my boys.