May 2015

MOTHER'S DAY

My sweet kids on Mother's day morning.

The girls made me some cute paper flowers, and Jared helped the kids make me breakfast--poached eggs on toast topped with melted cheese and green onions and orange slices on the side.

Me and my cute kidos.

Picture of all my kids minus our sweet Thomas. I sure miss him.

BURIED TREASURE

The Mayborn Museum has a new exhibit all about buried treasure and undersea exploration. The kids loved the pirate section.

Here is Maddy trying out a wind tunnel to see what it would feel like in a small hurricane.

Here they are by one of the machines used to explore shipwrecks and gather the treasure and artifacts. This lead into a nice science lesson about water pressure.

JARED'S BIRTHDAY

Jared got a Texas size hat for his birthday. He had to work on his birthday so I brought his cake to his office.

Jared with his family who loves him.

Margret (Dr. O'Grady's wife) decorated Jared's office for him. The kids loved all the balloons.

For his birthday Jared got two new Brandon Sanderson books that he's been wanting to read for a while.

THE NOT SO GREAT OUTDOORS

Unfortunately Jared's birthday didn't end on a very good note. Even though it was his birthday he had to go out in 95 degree weather to mow our lawn. To avoid bug bites he wore long socks and jeans and showered immediately after coming in. Despite all his precautions he got some awful chigger bites all up and down his legs. He says they itch worse than mosquito bites and they still itch after more than 2 weeks.  

It rained almost everyday in the month of May and I had a scary experience slipping on the wet pavement with Audrey in my arms. We got really tired of the muggy, gray weather during the day and the bright, loud thunderstorms keeping us at night. On Memorial day we got our biggest storm so far. We were out of power and internet for over 5 hours and received severe thunderstorm, flash flood, and tornado warnings. The kids were super scared and I was glad that I had our emergency radio so I could keep updated on the weather. The storm flooded our backyard, but luckily our house stayed dry (which is more than I can say for the rest of Texas). Jared was in San Francisco the whole time so he missed all the excitement.

On a more positive note, the wet weather is perfect for growing mushrooms, which I'm sure my dad would appreciate.

SWIMMING

Here are Nathan and Abby swimming (Nathan has the purple noodle under his arms, and Abby is just to the right of him in the picture).  Abby can now swim the length of the pool by herself.  Nathan is a big fan of the noodle races that he does in his class.

Maddy has improved a lot as well.  Here she is doing the back stroke with Abby doing breast stroke to the right of the picture.

JARED'S SURGERY

One good thing about moving to Texas is that Jared was able to have Dr. O'Grady operate on him. He decided to get it done right before his trip to San Francisco so he could heal while he was away. He had a left carpal tunnel release and ulnar nerve transposition (decompressing nerves in the wrist and elbow).

DADDY'S HOME!

The final leg of Jared's flight got canceled so he didn't get back until Thursday.  The kids were super excited to see him.

Audrey was excited when she got a coin purse from Chinatown just like the big girls. She also got a stuffed seal (Jared brings back a small stuffed animal from the conference every year, and it has become something of a tradition).

ART

I think Abby would make a great museum curator someday. She put a sign on their bedroom door announcing that they had displays inside and that we could ask her if we wanted an "explanshon" about any of them. She had a table with the fans and coin purses that Jared brought back for them, as well as this display of American girl books and dolls.  

Here is picture she drew of her doll.

CRANNEY COUSINS

The Cranneys moved here last Wednesday, and I love having my sister in town.  Nathan loves having some boys to play with.

AUDREY BEAR

Audrey eating her toes.

She is also a big fan of watermelon.

She has decided that she no longer wants to be spoon fed and insists on trying to feed herself like the big kids. She ends up getting the food everywhere but in her mouth.

She now manages to scoot or roll anywhere she wants to go. In this video she is playing with a door stopper that she had just discovered.  

She is getting really close to be able to crawl.

Her arms are getting much stronger and she is getting pretty good at her planks, table tops, and what the kids call her seal stretch.

We love our sweet, happy, little cub.