Happy Easter Everyone!

Dying eggs.

 Easter egg hunt at the church....

 The Easter bunny filled their nests :) It was strange. Payton was the first one up. While she acknowledged the fact that there was stuff in her Easter nest, she didn't go probing through it. Ian on the other hand - there was not stopping him. Once he saw his goodies, that was it. He was all over them.

The family before church.

 We tried to get a good picture of the kids.....These were the best...

Why is it always such a hard thing to accomplish?

Our doorbell rang and the kids discovered the Easter bunny had come and hidden our eggs ;)

I hope everyone had a joyous Easter.

Day 2

We always had a couple of hours to kill before Legoland opened, so we would drive along the coast and occasionally explore one of the beaches.

Day 2 was actually Payton's birthday and she wanted to do the water park. But it didn't open till noon. One of the things you could do was build a car out of Legos and race it against other kids. Payton tried, but soon gave up. Ian on the other hand tweaked his car several times until he got it to go just the way he wanted. I was very proud of him for being so persistent. 

The water park was fun, but a little cold. The water was warm, but anytime you went from one pool to the other, you were a little chilly. We forgot to take pics of the water park, but afterwards, since we were all still in the getting-wet mood. The kids and Scott did this ride. I tried to shoot them with water canons from the side.

Legoland!

We had an opportunity to go on our first family vacation and we seized it! To Legoland California we went to brave Lego rides, Lego minilands, and greatest of all, Lego mini-Star Wars exhibit.


First, with the two hours time difference, we usually had about two hours to kill before the park opened. We had to survey and plan.....

Of course, we had to go to the Star Wars exhibit first.

Like father, like son...

There were different scenes from all six episodes built out of Legos. They even came to life with movement and sound.

It was all 'pretty cool', as Scott would say :)

Happy Birthday Payton!

Payton turned 6 last Friday! I haven't blogged about it because....we were at Legoland Ca. So before I get to Legoland, I have to say a few words about Payton.

Payton is a very sweet girl. She likes to sidle up next to you and tell you how she feels, especially if she's in a lovey mood. There have been many occasions whe she'll grab my hand and rub her head against my arm and say, 'I love you, Mommy' and my heart just sighs.




She is also very articulate. She usually has commentary on everything and comprehends a great deal for a 6 year old.

She is still my little baby girl, and I love her so much!

We spent her birthday at Legoland and the Legoland water park. For her birthday she wanted to get a caricature drawn of herself. She chose to be drawn as Princess Leia. She wasn't so sure about the final product because she was hoping that Leia would be holding a gun....I don't know what to say about that.

Dallas Arboretum Bloom Festival

We really enjoyed the Dallas Arboretum today. We didn't go until the afternoon because Ian had a soccer game this morning, so it was warm. But beautiful!

The stroller was for our stuff...not for the kids. 

Ian stole my sunglasses and wanted to be in charge of pushing the stroller.

After about an hour and a half of running around and seeing everything, we took a rest under some red maples and flowering dogwoods.

I really enjoyed the late-blooming tulips and daffodils. But there's something so wonderfully whimsical about poppies. And the azaleas were gorgeous. Ahh, spring.

ps - Ian had a good game this morning. He scored 2 goals and took the ball away from his opponent several times. He does pretty well when he actually goes for it :)

Remembering Gizmo

Gizmo passed away Saturday night. He was almost 12 years old.

I noticed last week that he wasn't eating very well and then on Friday, he was breathing funny. The vet gave him subcutaneous fluid and antibiotics and told us that he had an upper respiratory infection. Saturday I gave him some bronchial dilator medicine and antibiotics. He ate a little in the morning, but then went downhill the rest of the day. At about 10 pm I called a friend to come sit with the kids while I took Gizmo to the Emergency Pet Hospital. He died almost as soon as we got there. The vet said that Gizmo probably had some undiagnosed heart condition or cancer :(

I'm going to miss Giz. He was quite the cat. When we lived in Friendswood, TX our neighbor found him in a ditch when he was about 6 weeks old. He was a stray and pretty sickly. Our neighbor had a dog and couldn't keep him, so Scott thought it would be a great idea if we adopted him. I wasn't quite so sure, but agreed. We named him Gizmo because he reminded us of a gremlin. He had mange, ringworm and ear mites. The vet thought he would be okay if he was taken care of. Well, he did just fine and we were amazed at how his appearance changed.

Gizmo had beautiful fur. It was soft and so nice to touch. But it was also a pain to keep brushed and un-matted under his legs. Thus, he received several hair cuts. He didn't always like the process of getting there but he mostly liked the end results.

He loved the outdoors. When we lived at apartments, his favorite place to be was sitting out on the balcony watching the world go by, or just sleeping. Of course, when we didn't have a balcony, if he saw an open door, he was out into the world like a shot. They're have been several times when I've had to go searching for him....

Gizmonster was always good with the kids, too. They would chase him around the house. The kids were pester him and pat him and Gizmo would take it all in stride - never once even scratching them.

Of course, I wasn't always so sweet. When he was between the ages of about 0 and 5, he would come scratch on our bed at about 3 'o' clock in the morning. If he didn't do that, then he would be meowing, rather loudly at 5 am! There was also the matter of his water dish. He never wanted to drink from it. He always chose a water glass that was left on the table or counter. I know we lost at least half a dozen drinking glasses that way - especially in Phoenix.

Gizmo has lived in 5 different houses and 3 states. He has traveled across the country and back. He was quite the trooper.

The last several years, after the kids were in bed, Gizmo would come curl up next to me. If I didn't start petting him, he would paw at me until I did. Giz and I had an appointment every night for a ear and neck scratch. When he was done, he would get move to the other side of the couch or go curl up by himself to sleep for the night.

The house seems a bit emptier now that he's gone. And now our Christmas cards will have one less variable.

The kids seem to be taking it pretty well. There haven't been any tears yet, except for mine. Ian, on Sunday, randomly said, 'Mommy, I miss Gizmo.' about 5 times. And my reply, 'I miss him, too.'

Gizmo, if there is a kitty-heaven you should be there. We miss you and love you.