Happy Valentine's Day!

As you can see, it was another unbelievable morning of holiday picture taking in the Holland household today.  Bless her heart...

 As you can see, even Al is becoming a bit concerned...

 Oh - and, you can't see it in the pictures,but Alex's shirt says I 'heart' you where the I and the O and the U would typically go in the alphabet - it's pretty cute.  Thanks again, Grammy for the annual Valentine's day shirts!

Today

was crazy hair and mix/match clothes day at school!!!

I have to say that I think that my throw-it-together outfit was a pretty good mix/match outfit.  The hair?  Well, that is as crazy as Avery would let me make it. 

Making Progress

In the singing department - not so much in the "it isn't really all that manly to be wearing pink" department...

As it turns out, the big Al man just may have inherited some of his mother's musical abilities.  As you may remember, Al's first performance of Twinkle, Twinkle went like this and then we moved up in the world and his second performance went like this. 

Well, people, I'm happy to report that I do believe Big Al has mastered Twinkle Twinkle AND you can even understand MOST of the words...

Surprise!

Yesterday was my mom's 60th birthday.  So, given that it was kind of a big milestone, we wanted to make sure it was extra special.  And, what better way to do that than to have me show up for the celebrations!  :)  Kidding.  Kind of.

Given that it is my busiest time at work, I wasn't sure we could make it happen, but we ended up finding flights that allowed for me to not miss any work. Granted, that meant being in Houston for approximately 36 hours and arriving at 12:30 in the morning on Friday night/Saturday morning, but it was worth the trip. 

So, clearly, given my arrival time, Mom was dead asleep when I got to the house, but just to make sure she didn't see me, William and Lexi thought it would be best if I slept on a totally different level of the house than her.  For those of you who are familiar with her house, you may be asking yourself, but there is just their bedroom on the first floor, so where could you have possibly slept?  Silly you.  The closet, of course!  Don't worry - this is Texas after all and everything is bigger in Texas - including my little sister's closet, which as it turns out, can fit a QUEEN SIZE BLOWUP MATTRESS in it.  But, I'm not jealous. 

William had a great plan for the actual surprise.  Mom was in the family room with the girls, so I waited in the bedroom (which is right next to the family room) while William went into the kitchen and - 1) Asked my mom if she wanted some coffee, 2) Asked Lexi if she wanted coffee and then 3) "Whitney, would you like any coffee?"  We missed that part on the video, but you can at least see my mother's reaction, which was pretty cool...

The rest of the trip was great.  That day, Lexi, Mom and I went shopping and then went to lunch - it was 70 and sunny, so we were able to sit on the patio and enjoy a bottle of wine - just the girls.  It was great!  That night, we went to dinner at a local Brazilian Steak House.Holy meat, batman!  I think that I consumed my weight in cow, pig, lamb and chicken. But, it was delicious.

I think that mom actually ended up with 3 cakes out of the deal.  This one from the restaurant...

And, this one that Lexi made for that evening after dinner decorated with....tea lights?  Apparently, the Davie household was out of candles at the time...

And, then Lexi made her cupcakes on her actual birthday.  Note to anyone who is reading this - I too would enjoy 3 different forms of cake on my birthday, please.  Thanks for your consideration.
Sunday, we just relaxed (as you can see I was taking full advantage of no kids and no responsibilities that day) at the house and had Mom open her presents. 

Not only was it great being able to surprise mom for her bday, but it was also really nice to get away and recharge for a bit.  Both kids were being rather challenging the week before I left, so I really needed a break.  At one point, Josh looked at me and in all seriousness asked if I was actually going to return home after the trip.  When he asked me?  I wasn't sure.  However, you will be happy to know that I was very excited to return and I do in fact like my kids all over again (don't worry - I never stopped loving them. But, liking them? Well, I may have stopped that for just a bit), so it was a successful trip on many fronts!  :)

Happy 60th, Mom! 

This boot was made for walkin'...

New Englanders are very confusing.  I swear - in the summer?  It's too hot and humid.  In the winter?  It's too cold and snowy.  But, then?  When you don't get snow?  "Where's the snow?  I am getting really annoyed that it hasn't snowed yet."  You can't win around here...until this weekend.

Not only did we get our first snow fall of the season, but we got a lot of it!  I think that we probably ended up with well over a foot at our house.  It was pretty crazy going from nearly 50 one day and then a foot of snow the next.  Needless to say, the kids were thrilled.  Well, Avery was. Alex was still trying to figure out if he was thrilled or annoyed that he is still a bit too short to really walk through that much snow. 

Not to mention, he isn't a huge fan of all of the gear it requires - the boots are too small, the mittens are too big, the scarf goes up to high on his face, etc., etc., etc. But, once he got out there? He enjoyed it.Josh bought both kids snow shovels when he was out and about, so they had a blast helping dad shovel.

 

And, in case you haven't noticed yet, no new seasonal adventure would be complete without Alex wearing pink.  As with everything else, Josh and I were not prepared for the snow, so Al had nothing that fit him - except for Avery's old pink snow pants.  So, pink it was! 

Avery actually had nothing that fit as well, but Josh was actually able to find her snow pants at Walmart that morning (they did not have any boy snow pants left). Prior to that? I tried to convince her that the 3T's would work just fine. However, as it turns out, when you try to put pants that are too small on someone? They give that person a never-ending wedgy (or grundy, as I like to call them). Ah - that brings me back to my good ol' college days when I forced my poor friend Amy to wear the pumpkin costume that was made for a 12 year old - as it turns out, a 12 year old pumpkin costumer will also give the 21 year old wearing it a wedgy. But, I digress. Point being, Avery wasn't a big fan of having snow pants up her butt, so we held out on our outdoor activities until Daddy arrived with the new pants...


And, just as I was getting excited about (gasp!!!) getting out of the house to enjoy the outdoors??  I realized that I still have this *&W#$#$%'ing boot on my foot.  And, this (#$%$#%'ing boot?  It isn't closed toed, which clearly wasn't going to work in the snow.  But, I'll be damned if I was going to miss out on a fun activity with the kids, so my solution?  This...

And, I was still kind of nervous about hurting my foot on the uneven snow, so not only did I have the bag?  But, I also brought my crutches along...

I'm sure my neighbors thought I was crazy.  And, if they didn't see me?  I'm sure they were wondering what peg-legged creature had been traipsing through our yard - crutches make pretty amusing tracks in the snow.

Anyway - Alex had enough of the snow after about 30 mins, but I'm glad that I had this ingenious thought because Avery and I had a great time.  She made a bunch of snow angels..

and then realized that sliding down a slide that is covered in snow is really fun and fast, so we did that for a good 45 mins.



   

Overall, bag and all, it was a great day...

Damn! My ass is smokin' hot!

So, a few weeks ago, when Avery was on Christmas break, Josh's mom was watching her during the day.  To make things easier, we switched cars so that she could have the car with the car seats.  I was perfectly fine with this switch, as it resulted in an upgrade for me from an Acura (don't get me wrong, I do LOVE my car) to a BMW X3, which is pretty fun to drive....until it nearly starts on fire.  I was driving home from work one night and decided to put on the seat warmers.  About a minute later, I smell burning.  Having no idea what it was, but assuming it may have something to do with the seat warmer, as I had just turned it on, I turned it off.  And, sure enough the smell went away.  At the time, I thought it was pretty crazy that the seat warmer was obviously getting hot enough to the point where it would smell, but didn't really think much of it...until I noticed THIS the next morning!!!!

The seat warmer burned a freaking hole in the seat of Josh's parents' car!!!!  Can you believe that?  I mean, had I not realized that it was that, it could have started on fire!  And, what's worse????  It burned a hole in my favorite coat!  So, now I'm walking around with freaking feathers falling out everywhere. 

Needless to say, I've requested a new coat from the BMW dealership.  Not sure if the request will be granted or not, but I figure it is the least they can do for nearly starting my ass on fire. 

Oh, and you didn't really think that I would really be bragging to the world about having a smokin' hot ass, did you? Trust me, after 6 weeks on crutches (i.e., limited exercise)?????  That is FAR from the truth....

A girl after my own heart...

Every Monday is library day at Avery's school.  So, the teacher takes the entire class over to the library and they get to pick out a book to bring back to the classroom to read.  So, last night, Avery tells me:

"Mom, today, at the library, I almost checked out a book about the 2 kings who tried to kill Jesus when he was an adult."  (mind you, she goes to a catholic school)

Me - "Oh really?"  Not really knowing a) what the heck she was talking about and b) how to react to the idea of someone killing Jesus.

Avery - "Yeah, but then.....I decided to get Fancy Nancy instead.

HA!

I mean, I can't tell you how many times this conversation has taken place between Josh and I except instead  of the 2 kings killing Jesus, insert some ridiculously boring book about WWII and instead of Fancy Nancy, insert People Magazine.

I love it.