Make Your Own Pizza

Tom asked if we could make personal pizzas this week. We'd never done it before, but it would be easy to do. Fortunately, I had already planned on pizza, so I didn't have to make a last minute trip to the grocery store. Next time though it'll be nice to have more topping options. Anyways, so I got the dough made and precooked, set everything on the table, and put Declan on the floor. We'd set Declan under the mobile, but when we looked up again we found this . . . he was a few feet away. He loves to be sneaky about his rolling for some reason.


Anyways, we were now ready to make our pizzas, and so the fun began.

And here are the finished pizzas . . .

As I picked up Payden's, I noticed this . . .

I guess she just couldn't wait for us to warm it up before she took a little bite. Once the cheese was melted, we were ready to dig in.

We had a lot of fun doing this. The girls were so excited to be able to make their own pizzas and thought it was just the funnest thing ever. I love how much fun the small and simple things are. Now we can't wait until the next "Make Your Own Pizza" night!!!

Play Time

I was in the kitchen when the girls decided to come in the kitchen to play. We don't have a large kitchen and dining room area, so it was a bit crowded, but it was fun getting to watch them play with each other.

The first thing Payden did was go and bring toys from the playroom into the dining room. Then Shelby and Taylor decided those toys would be in their way, so they moved them into the family room. So then Payden got some more toys and brought them into the dining room. She certainly has no problem doing what she wants whether they like it or not. This time she brought their walking dinosaurs. Now I often find this under my dining room table when I'm cleaning the kitchen after the kids have gone to bed:


Of course I knew one of the kids was doing it, but it was bugging me that I never saw how it happened, but only saw the end results - toys so far under the table that it was hard for me to get to them. Well finally I saw how they get there . . .


Payden puts them under the end chair and pushes their buttons to make them walk. When they stop, she scooches a little forward and pushes their buttons again. When the dinosaurs get near the wall, she just runs off and goes play something else. Today, because Shelby and Taylor were playing in the kitchen, Payden played a lot with the dinosaurs and then kept bringing other toys to play with under the table. You could tell she just wanted to be near her sisters even though she wasn't playing with them.

Now what were Shelby and Taylor doing? They were pretending to be battling dinosaurs. It was really cute.

They had their dinosaur books on the couch and would go flip through the books and pick out which dinosaur they were going to be. Then they would get opposite of each other to square off and start the battle.

Then the battle would begin. They were so funny. They would announce what they were doing because they were making sure their moves were accurate to their dinosaurs. I think Taylor was a Stegosaurus or something with a spikey tail in this move and was attacking Shelby with her spikey tail.

There would be slashes with claws or bites with big jaws or pokes with spikey thumbs or whips with spikey tails. It was so much fun to watch. I was also amazed that there were no tears. Usually any kind of rough-housing . . . especially with my dramatic girls . . . results in some tears as someone accidentally gets hurt. Not today. They would get hurt and then just keep going. I guess if you really like what you're doing enough then the bumps and bangs don't matter.

After a few bonks on the tile, I told them to go into the family room so that they would have a softer floor. I turned to continue making dinner when I hear Taylor giggling her head off. I found this . . .

I guess Payden had finally decided to join in and just went up to Taylor and knocked her down. The funny thing is Taylor seemed to be stuck. Apparently it's hard to get a 2 year old younger and SMALLER sister off of you. :)

After Shelby finally got Payden off of Taylor, Shelby and Taylor got set to start another battle . . . but Payden wasn't done playing. She suddenly ran after and attacked Shelby.

Shelby started laughing, but she too acted like she was completely stuck, so Taylor came over to help.

I just loved that one small 2 year old sister could overpower her big sisters. In reality, they could have easily gotten her off of them, but for some reason they didn't know that.

These are definitely the moments that I love to see and be a part of . . . sisters playing together, having fun, and enjoying being together. I love you girls!!!

A Few Moments with Mom and Dad

MOMENT WITH MOM . . .

Yea . . . I was being a "mean" mom and made him practice rolling over. First, I would sit him on his belly. Then the first time, I put his arm stretched out in front of him and took him through the motions of rolling over. Then I put him back on his belly and made him do it by himself. Then I put him on his belly, but with his arm back by his side, so that he'd learn to move it in the right position before trying to roll over. As you can see, he did not like our moment together. He was sooooo mad at me. BUT as of February 4, not only is he rolling over, but he's choosing to roll over to get to things on the floor.

MOMENT WITH DAD . . .

I love how dads think babies are objects to be lifted and thrown and tossed and spinned and swirled and any other crazy thing that comes to their minds. Fortunately, Declan enjoyed this moment.

A Girl's Love

Last Christmas the girls got their very first Littlest Pet Shop animals. Then for her birthday, Taylor got some more. In the packaging she found this paper that showed most of the Littlest Pet Shop animals. Now the girls did enjoy the animals, but Taylor LOVED this paper. By the time this Christmas rolled around it was in about 3 or 4 pieces and every single edge was ratty. Tom even tried to throw it away, but Taylor went and got it out of the trash when he wasn't around. It was a well LOVED piece of paper. For Christmas the girls got a lot more animals; we ended up with about 4-5 of those pieces of papers. We kept every single one of them. We keep meaning to laminate one of them. Fortunately I've hidden 2 to eventually be laminated, but for now the others are getting the same love as the first one.

Another Trip to the Capitol

Tom was in the mood again, so we headed up to Austin for the afternoon to go run around the grounds at the State Capitol. It honestly allows us to leave all the stress in San Antonio and get away from it all for a bit.

We have NO idea what this thing is for, but Tom decided to have the girls go sit under it and take a picture. I was a little scared that something might drip out of it, but I guess it can't be dangerous if it's so accessible. I still wasn't thrilled about them sitting under it. I can be such a worrier.


We tried to get them to all look up at us, but 3 girls laying on the ground by each other only ends up in giggles.

Here we are heading into the back doors of the Capitol. I really love that the girls enjoy both the grounds, but also the statues and pictures and things inside the building.

At this point, Tom decided to let Shelby have the camera, so you get to enjoy this from her perspective.

I caught her taking this photo of the water fountain, and said, "Don't take picture of that." She replied, "But it's all gold!" Funny girl.

Taking a picture of the guy taking pictures of someone else.

This girl is who the guy up on the 2nd floor was taking a picture of. EVERY TIME we go, there are girls dressed up and getting their pictures taken. I'm assuming they are taking pictures for their quincenearas. We've also seen little kids all dolled up like this, getting their pictures taken. Of course we've also seen brides as well.

Shelby got so frustrated taking this picture. She couldn't understand why it was light when she was looking to take the picture, but once she took the picture it was dark.

Tom had her take this picture . . . the guy's last name is Coke - a favorite drink in our house.

We discovered this little library. We were on the third floor, and we could look down into the library, but we couldn't actually go into the library because it was closed.

This picture isn't very good, but it's a picture of Mirabeau B. Lamar, the Father of Texas Education. My high school and the school district grew up in was named after him.

This is a photo shoot Shelby set up all by herself. It was too funny watching her direct the girls on where to stand and how to pose.

Tom's turn was next.

Here Declan and I are looking at the Alamo Memorial.

We found this huge grassy area, and Shelby gave back the camera so she could go run and play. That's one of the things we like about coming here; it just feels so safe and comfortable.

Payden and Declan got to chill with Dad outside for a bit while I took the older girls to the bathroom.

Tom discovered the cornerstone as we were walking back to the car.

The girls did a bit more running around as we headed back to the car.

I wonder how many more trips we'll make before we leave Texas. I'm just glad we have somewhere to go to relax.

Family Slumber Party

It all started with Taylor's surgery. After surgery, Taylor got to sleep in Mom and Dad's bed for awhile. One night Shelby told me that she really wished she could sleep in Mom and Dad's bed. Now I'm sure you can see why we don't allow kids in are beds unless they're sick . . . because we'd have every single one of them in our bed each night. It's not that we don't love them, but our sleep is much too important. That's when the idea came to me . . . I asked Shelby if she'd like for us to have a family slumber party some time. She immediately lit up and got extremely excited. So from there, the planning began.

First we set the date. We wanted Taylor to be able to enjoy eating all the fun junk food that you get to eat at a slumber party, so we had to wait until after she hit 2 weeks past her surgery so that she would be allowed to eat regular food. Then one night Shelby decided to make invitations for Taylor and Payden. It was cute. Then Taylor got a little jealous cause she wanted to make an invitation, so we had her make one for Shelby.

Next came the food planning. We decided on hot dogs; nice and easy, and perfect since we don't have them very often. Of course you've gotta have chips and soda, too . . . yeah we really went for some healthy food. :) Then there were the snacks to eat. Tom and Shelby went to pick them out while we were at HEB and we ended up with popcorn, M&Ms, gummy dinosaurs, Jolly Ranchers, and some chocolate covered trail mixes. Then he got ice cream, whipped cream, and bananas (to go with the hot fudge, caramel, and peanuts at home), It's a guarantee that when Tom picks the food . . . there will be a lot.

Finally the night of the slumber party came. The girls were sooooooo excited. We started off with dinner.


Next the girls REALLY wanted to paint. They've been dying to paint since watching Barbie paint in Barbie Rapunzel. I have a picture, but I made them strip down to their undies, so I don't think Shelby will appreciate me posting the picture. They had a lot of fun and of course got paint and water EVERYWHERE. Shelby painted a beach scene and the earth in outer space while Taylor painted her normal colorful world, which she colors everytime she draws. Payden painted a little here and there and then of course had to "help" Taylor paint as well. At first there were a few squawks, but then Taylor just let her do it.

While the girls painted, Tom and I played Rock Band 2. Then it was time to get pjs on and get ready to watch the movie, Dinosaur. Can you tell how much our kids love dinosaurs? :) While the girls got ready, Declan and I had some play time. I can get him laughing so much. It's so cute and so much fun.


Then it was time to start the movie and time for Declan to go to bed. This is Tom trying to get a shot of the movie. If you look hard enough, you can see one of the monkeys from the movie.

When I went upstairs with Declan, the girls had to put away the candy so that they wouldn't get tummy aches.

When I got downstairs after feeding Declan . . . at about 8ish . . . this is what I saw. Tom was definitely the party pooper. He's just lucky we didn't use the whipped cream on him! Poor guy though. You can tell when he's stressed because he starts sleeping a TON. In fact, I had to wake him up around 9ish the next morning so we could go watch him play basketball. Sleepy boy.

The girls were sitting up and messing around while watching, so I told them to lay down in their sleeping bags. Shelby kept telling me they couldn't because they were still watching; I told her they'd still get to watch, but they'd be laying down. Now I knew there would be no snoozing off before the movie ended . . . my girls just don't do that. Once the movie, I tucked in the girls, turned off the lights, and then waited. Now Shelby I knew would have no problem falling asleep, but Taylor and Payden are the kind of kids who have a hard time settling down if they're not doing their normal routine . . . heck they have many nights where they cause lots of problems even when we do their normal routine.

Now Taylor was laying down like she was trying to go to sleep, but would then pop her head up, look around, and then lay back down. Eventually she buried herself in her sleeping bag. Payden on the other hand wasn't even trying to sleep. She was playing with Kleenexes (she was sleeping next to me and with my allergies I have to have the Kleenexes handy), sticking her legs up in the air and wiggling them around. At 9:02 I decided to give her until 9:10 and then I was going to take her up to her bed. At 9:04 I couldn't handle all her wiggling and took her up. She begged for me to take her back to Shelby and Taylor, but I knew it just wasn't going to work. I rocked her for a minute and tucked her in and then headed down to wait on Taylor to go to sleep. I thought she was finally asleep, so I got up to get a water bottle - another must with my allergies. As soon as I walked by her, she popped up. I asked her if she wanted to go upstairs to sleep, too, and she said yes. I was proud of her for realizing that that was the best choice for her. It was only about 15-20 minutes after I put Payden to bed, but she was already conked out. Now Taylor still goofed off and came down for a bit, but finally settled down. By the end of the night, this is what our slumber party looked like.

I figured it would be that way - Shelby downstairs with everyone else in their own beds. Now of course the night was still kind of crazy with Declan waking up to eat a few times and Taylor getting out of bed (she's still not 100% and one of the remaining problems is for her to sleep well) and Tom going upstairs and then coming back down because Taylor was bugging him in our room and then of course I had my normal can't-sleep-because-of-my-allergies problems. Next time, Taylor and Payden won't get the chance to try to sleep downstairs . . . sorry girls. They can have sleeping bags to lay on while we watch a movie, but they will definitely be going to sleep in their own beds.

Despite all the craziness, we had a lot of fun and are excited to do it again.