Hawkins visit for Thanksgiving

My parents and my sister, Whitney, came for Thanksgiving. It was so fun having them here.

Grapevine Mills Aquarium was awesome

The boys spent a fair amount of time on Grandma's iPhone and iPad

We went to the Gaylord Resort to see the Christmas display. They had this indoor sledding hill set-up. $20 to ride and an hour long line. We just watched.

Fisher and Aunt Whitney

When Whitney was a baby, everyone said we were identical. I think we look less alike now, but she's still definitely my sister

Whitney is a big Star Wars fan. She loved the Legoland Star Wars display

Yoda artwork made entirely from Legos

 Legos Dallas Cowboys stadium replica

Tyler discovered how much he loves Chick-fil-a. As a result, we went there FOUR times while my parents were here. Everyone was nice to put up with Tyler's obsession :)

I wonder if Whitney realized that was my smelly sock she's holding over her mouth

Shrek

Rice Krispie Train decorating

We somehow convinced ourselves to do Black Friday at Walmart. We'll never do it again, but we did get some amazing deals on things we really needed. Vacuum, ottoman, air mattress, really exciting stuff. We did manage to snag TWO of the 14 trampolines they had on special (one was for a friend). It was a little crazy but we have some funny stories and we all had a good time.

The boys got to make their own pizzas at Schlotzky's Deli as part of a playgroup that a friend set up.

The weather was gorgeous, so we ended up giving the boys their trampoline for Thanksgiving instead of Christmas. They were so excited. Fisher wants to jump all day every day and while he jumps, gleefully chants "I jumping! I jumping!"

Looking at flowers while disc golfing

Nap time with Grandma. He slept right through Thanksgiving dinner.

Eating frosting

Jackson and the giant santa boots at Gaylord Resort

The centerpiece Jackson made us at preschool

Tyler took a nap on the trampoline box. Seriously... that happened.

My dad said it may have been his favorite Thanksgiving meal ever. I think he was just flattering me. Or maybe he meant the company was the best. Jackson and Fisher are pretty entertaining.

Jackson was a little worn out

Ice Storm

Dallas has been in a frozen lockdown since Thursday night. We've ventured out a few times, but everything has been closed and cancelled all weekend and we've been going a little stir crazy. Snow days are fun, but after 3 days, I'm ready for life to get back to normal.

This doesn't look like much, but it's actually all frozen solid ice rather just the inch of snow that it looks like. Dallas is not equipped for snow or ice, so everything just shuts down.

We ventured out to Arbys, one of the only places open, just because we needed a break from being at home.

Jackson did not want his picture taken

We dug out the old race track that we gave Jackson for Christmas when he was 3. I think he's finally old enough to enjoy it.

And we finally used our fire place. I'm glad we had a box of wood in the garage left over from camping.

Sleep

Tyler can nap anywhere. Seriously, anywhere. This is in our backyard, planking on top of a trampoline box. This isn't staged or fake. He actually fell asleep like this. As someone who frequently has a very difficult time sleeping, I find myself feeling a little jealous. Although, that can't be comfortable.

Camping in November

Did you know that in Texas, you can camp in November? It's true. I was a little skeptical when our friends invited us, because it's November... But we decided to go for it. So I packed fuzzy footy pajamas for the boys, as well as multiple layers of sweats, hats, gloves, and those little hand warmers to put on their feet and hands at night.

It was all way too much. The temperature was actually pleasant. We had some wind and the tiniest sprinkle of rain, but other than that, it was a beautiful evening. We even ended up taking off hats and gloves at night because we were too warm. And we didn't even use the hand warmers. Camping in Idaho must have prepared me well.

We camped at Lake Grapevine. The campsite was 10 minutes from our house and it was gorgeous. We were at the top of a little cliff overlooking the lake, and you could climb down to the waterfront where there was some sand for digging and even a little cave to see. We did tin foil dinners and s'mores and hot cocoa by the fire before bed. It was fantastic. And 10 minutes from our house. And beautiful in November! So maybe Texas isn't that bad :)

Morning snuggles in the tent

Lake Grapevine

Hat hair after a cozy night's sleep

 It was much different than Idaho mountain camping, which will always be my favorite, but I could really get used to the mild temperatures down here. I'm sure we'll be camping a lot more (once we get our own tent and a 2nd air mattress, because sleeping with all 4 of us on  ONE queen air mattress was unsuccessful).

How My 5-Year-Old Thinks

The other day I picked Jackson up from preschool and he asked, "Can we get ice cream cones?"

Mom: "No, those are too messy. But I was thinking about getting a Sonic slush."
Jackson (sounding very disappointed): "Fine. I guess we can get a slush."
Mom: "Well, no. I'm not going to take your for a slush if you aren't even excited about it."
Jackson (still in a very disappointed voice): "No, mom. It's fine. Let's just go get a slush."
Mom: "No. We're not getting slushes if you're not even excited about it. We'll just go straight home today."

So Jackson thinks for a few seconds... and then gets his devious little smile.

Jackson: "Wait a second. Did you say glush?"
Mom: "No. I said slush."
Jackson: "Oh. Whoops. I heard you wrong. I though you said glush. If I had heard you say slush I would have said... Yay! Slush! I love slushes!"

And so we got slushes. Not glushes. Because nobody wants a glush.

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday morning, we realized Tyler had a few hours before he needed to head to school AND that it was my last week before I start teaching a billion classes per week AND that the sun was shining but for the first time since we moved here, it wasn't hot enough to melt your skin. So I quickly jumped on the computer to look up a morning activity. We discovered the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch was just a few miles from our house. I was a little nervous because it was so cheap, but figured we'd give it a try. It did not disappoint. In fact, it was awesome. We'll be back several times this month I'm sure. Tons of bouncy houses, hayrides, photo spots for every cartoon character you can imagine, and the coolest hay maze I've ever seen.

I'm in the middle of reading the Harry Potter series for my second time ever, so I couldn't resist getting a picture.

Kung Fu Panda

This hay maze was seriously amazing. It's full of tunnels. We lost Fisher in it for a while, but he didn't seem to mind. And Tyler managed to crawl through it twice, which was amazing because some of the tunnels are tiny and I was worried it would collapse on him as he squeezed through.

Fisher hugging one of the Bubble Guppies

Efficiency

Jackson got a little creative with his number 4 worksheet. He saw a way to save time and he took it. His teacher made him start over. I would have given him a cookie. I'm fairly obsessed with efficiency, so I couldn't be more proud :)

When Jackson Steals Your iPhone

Today is Fisher's birthday. He's 2. Can you believe that? 2!

But that's not what this post is about. I'll have birthday pictures in a few days when we're done with our week-long celebration.

Today, I want to share a couple the gems we discovered when we were browsing through Tyler's phone the other day. Apparently, Jackson gets a hold of Tyler's phone and takes pictures and videos quite a bit. There were TONS! The video below is my favorite. It's the sweetest video I've ever seen. And notice how well the background music from a commercial fits in when Jackson whispers "I love you, daddy." Also, Fisher's famous "Oh yeeeaaah!" This video is a keeper. I can't believe our boys created it without us knowing. What if we had never found it?

This one's not quite as cute as the heart-warming video, but I'm pretty sure it's Jackson's first duck face selfie.