Hiding Under Pillows

Mackay and Beckett love to hide under the couch pillows and pretend they're in a little house or fort or something. Of course it means we have a hard time keeping our couch looking nice! :) Here are a few pictures I thought were cute.

More Chirsmas Fun on the Ranch

We had a great time visiting Andrea's family over Christmas. It was the fist time that we've had Andrea's sister, Julie, and her new husband there for a Christmas. We're hoping they'll decide to come give Texas a go. It's really not so bad. And at least by living in Texas we know that we can always secede from the Union if things get too out of control with the rest of y'all! :)

These were our costumes so we could role-play the story of Jesus' birth.

Pre-Christmas Fun

We had a great time with my parents and sister, Amy, and her family, who came to visit the weekend before Christmas. Amy's kids and ours get along amazingly well. Mackay and Hannah are the best of friends. I wonder how close they'll be when they're teenagers...

Beckett and Austin seemed to get a long pretty well...sand is always fun.
Is Grandpa under there or is that a dead body??
"Look at me Grandma! I'm cute!"
Sometimes it's just more fun if everyone gets to open the present together!

Who Says it Doesn't Snow Here!?

Yep, crazy as it sounds, we got some snow...less than an inch, but it lasted through the night and part of the morning! I'm just glad we don't have to deal with this sort of weather all winter like the rest of y'all up north!

Shamu's Got Game!

We decided to take advantage of living relatively close to Sea World so we decided to get season passes to it. The boys absolutely love the place. They ran and played and saw lots of cool things. They even experienced a 4-D Polar Express show (the 4th D was the fake snow at the end!). With gas at under $150 a gallon, we might be back again before we know it!

Just look at their faces as they watched the Shamu show...awe and amazement...

Musically Inclined

Mackay and Beckett were having a great time playing their ukulele (that we got them in Hawaii) and singing in their microphone. Oh, and they added some sweet dance moves to finish out their number. I guess you could say that we've been watching too much Dancing With the Stars around here!

Too bad we didn't have audio for this video...

Peter Pan & Captain Hook

Andrea did a sweet job making Mackay and Beckett's Halloween costumes. Beckett wavered between wanting to be Peter Pan like Mackay or being Captain Hook. With a little prodding from Andrea, I think he finally settled on being the crazy pirate.

You will note that this is the best they looked the rest of the night. Beckett wanted his hat off and neither one kept his shoe covering on. If you look closely, you will see that Andrea painted in chest hair for Beckett and gave him a "Dad" tattoo. It was pretty sweet! For more details, check out Andrea's new blog!

Books Make Me Fall Asleep Too!

Beckett is such a cute little guy. Sometimes he likes to take a book to bed with him before he naps (yes, he still naps!). I love that he fell asleep with the book still standing up in the air. At least it wasn't upside down, like it was last time!

Wedding in the Family

We enjoyed a nice (short) weekend in Utah for Andrea's sister's wedding. For more details, go to Andrea's entry or see her sister's blog. Here's a picture of Andrea and a few of her siblings (her younger sister is on a mission in Argentina).

Joys of Home Ownership

We are really enjoying life in a real house (as opposed to a condo or apartment!). We're also enjoying transforming our yard (which the previous owner left as little more than weeds!) and adding a few features.

Many thanks to my parents for all of their help building the deck. We couldn't have done it without you! Now if we could only convince them to move down here...