Fun with the Family

I had so much fun with the French family last week! It was hard saying goodbye to this sweet little face on Saturday but hopefully he and Stacey will be down for a visit soon.

Stacey, Jason, and Reid

Sisters! And Reid making it impossible to get a picture of the the ATM on his onesie and booties. We had such a great visit together but I was still happy to get home and see my boys' smiling faces.

I think Daddy has been a little lonely on the other side of the ocean because he's been calling more than any other time in our lives. We passed the computer around Saturday evening so he could talk to everyone in turn. Skype makes it so easy to keep in touch!

On Sunday Grandma and I took the boys to see Toy Story 3. Alex laughed at how the chair folded up on him but I didn't think it would be funny for over an hour and a half so he sat in a booster and enjoyed the movie. Ben liked it as well but was concerned the entire time that some of the toys left the others. Grandma and I loved it and had some good laughs.

A little more exciting was finger-painting turned naked-full-body-painting in the backyard. And apparently painted naked boys need to run in circles in the driveway.

Alex wasn't thrilled to share in Ben's body paint and cried for me to wipe him off.

Instead we just dunked the boys in the little splash pool and let them sort it all out.

Monday was Alex's true birthday and we celebrated all day. We opened presents while Aunt Amanda was visiting and watched the boys go crazy over the new toys.

The big birthday dinner was at Chili's with all the grandparents lavishing attention on the birthday boy and his brother. Both kids were very aware of all the loving adults around and were in top form.

Alex LOVED it when the servers came by to sing happy birthday. He sang along, danced, and clapped the entire time. Then he noticed the brownie and ice cream and didn't mind so much that the song had ended!

Happy birthday, sweet boy!

Here's a special message from Ben to Daddy...

We all miss Matt every day and wish he could be here with us. Visiting during the summer has been tons better than all our previous Christmas visits because everyone doesn't have crazy schedules already. It's been laid-back and relaxing, which is completely the opposite of our holiday visits which are usually packed and completely busy. Plus, it doesn't hurt that we've missed one of Perth's longest cold streaks while we're enjoying the long summer days here.

Happy Birthday Alex!!

It's so exciting to celebrate the second anniversary of the youngest member of our family...life would not be the same without our precious baby Alex. I guess I'll have to stop calling him a baby now that he's a full-fledged 2-year old, but he'll always hold that special baby place in my heart. Alex is an absolute joy and brightens any room. He loves attention and will do anything for a laugh. He's been athletic and coordinated since the day he started walking and amazes me regularly with the feats he's able to accomplish physically. Books are a favorite and he'll sit down and read an entire stack with me, especially if he can make animal sounds to go along. That little body is still soft and round and completely huggable but I can tell that each day he's getting taller and slimmer and that baby fat will be gone before I realize it. Alex gives the best kisses (sometimes with the surprise open-mouth bonus) and prefers receiving hugs backwards. His temper is still lightning fast and his volume reaches decibels that don't seem humanly possible, but thank goodness he is usually easily distracted with a little treat. Give this boy a ball or a car and he's set for life. We are all so thankful for beautiful little Alex and all the love and laughter he brings into our lives.

Sweet baby boy just a few days old...

One year old and sporting a few teeth...

Two years old, with a head full of hair (still never been cut but getting close) and plenty of birthday cupcake goodness on his face!

Happy birthday, Alex!

Over the River...

...and through the woods to Grandma and Grandpa's we go! The kids and I moved camp to Tomball over the weekend to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa K for a while. Ben and Alex couldn't wait to explore and play with all the toys!

Snakes outside...scary. Snakes inside...lots of fun!

Getting tickled by Grandma is the best!

By far their favorite game is playing kangaroo together.

It's so much fun to watch the kids enjoy playing with their grandparents.

Meanwhile, Puppy and Koko have been napping a lot together.

After the boys were settled, I took the opportunity to sneak away for several days to meet my nephew Reid in Dallas. Look at this beautiful baby!

He looks like a tiny Aggie yell leader in this outfit :)

Sweet baby sleeping on his mama. Stacey and I are having fun spending time together and oohing and ahhing over all the precious baby things. But don't worry, Matt, as much as I'm loving a newborn, I won't be asking you for another!

I've been talking to Ben each day and know that he's having lots of fun with his grandparents. It's nice for me to have a little vacation from full-on motherhood but I'm looking forward to seeing my boys soon!

Good Times

The boys and I have been loving Texas life. Target, Wal-Mart, Chick-fila, Sonic...the list goes on and on. The best part is four very happy grandparents and two kids that are basking in all the attention. Even Abby is happy to have visitors, provided they share their yogurt lids with her.

It's HOT here...much hotter than I remembered. I guess a year of low humidity will do that to you because I think the climate isn't that different from Singapore at the moment. It's still hard to have fun outside in the heat but the boys have managed to find every method of keeping cool (waterguns are fun!).

Grumpy found the old flying turtles circa 1984 and they're as much fun as ever!

Chalk is fun, too!

Alex caught right onto hopscotch.

After working up a good sweat he also learned to cool down in Grumpy's garage fan.

Another of Alex's favorite activities is playing the piano. He's surprisingly careful and really listens to the "music" he's making...might have a little Beethoven on our hands.

The highlight of our week was a visit from Miss Lou Anne, our dear friend from Singapore who has since relocated back to the US. We got to spend 3 days together playing, laughing, and shopping. We couldn't pass up a ride on the "carous-wheel", as Ben calls it.

Despite the serious face (he had waited very patiently for a long time to ride) Alex had a ball on the carousel.

We all had so much fun playing with our old friend! She is like family and we look forward to our next visit when Mr. Scott can join in the fun, too.

Ben loves her so much and would do anything in the world for her. She mentioned sandwiches one day and Ben wouldn't eat anything else for lunch. Too bad we couldn't keep her around longer to tell him to eat all his vegetables. Thank you, Lou Anne, for taking the time and braving the flight delays to come visit us!!

Today we packed up everything at Grammy and Grumpy's and moved camp to Grandma and Grandpa's, where the kids will stay this week while I go visit Aunt Stacey and baby Reid. Alex "helped" this morning by sitting on his computer and unpacking toys as fast as I could pick them up.

It's so great to see old friends and get to take part in normal things like baby showers. We're all having a great time here but still miss Daddy. Don't worry Matt - I'm eating extra Blue Bell and tex-mex for you :)

Happy Fathers Day!

We are all sad that Matt can't join us on this trip, and especially that we're not together to celebrate Father's day with him. Our boys are so fortunate to have a wonderful Daddy and we all send our love across the miles to him today!

Daddy and Ben, June 2006

Daddy and Alex, July 2008

The greatest gift I ever had
Came from God; I call him Dad!
~Author Unknown

It is special for me to get to spend Father's day with my own wonderful dad and watch him in the role of granddad as well. I love you, Daddy, and I'm so grateful for all of your love and guidance over the years. My boys are fortunate to be learning from you and loving you as well.
Dad, you're someone to look up to no matter how tall I've grown. ~Author Unknown

The Long Road Home

We are in Texas and it sure feels good to be home! It's hot and sweaty and I love it. This is my first Houston summer in 4 years so I'd forgotten the sweltering heat for the most part and can enjoy it again after such a long break (and knowing we won't be here to see August). We've got a lot of friends and good food to catch up with but we're taking things slowly and trying to get adjusted to the time difference and the heat first. It feels really nice having 6 weeks and no Christmas holidays making everyone's schedules hectic, so this should be a very different trip home.

In case you're wondering what a 36-hour journey across the world with two preschool boys entails, I'll walk you through our trip.

We left the house at 10:30pm Perth time to catch our flight to Singapore. The boys had slept for 6 hours already and were full of energy and excitement for the first plane ride.
Let me pause here and say how much the Perth airport drives me crazy. I always have to beg the ticket agents to let me keep my stroller until we get to the gate and there they call for the strollers about half an hour before they board the flight. Not fun lugging around all the bags and a carseat. To make matters worse, all passengers have to walk down four flights of stairs to get to the jetway. I asked about an elevator but it's apparently too much trouble for them and no one was available to assist me so a kind passenger helped carry Alex to make sure he didn't fall down all the stairs. This is all AFTER I had to argue with the gate agent about changing my seats because they had me 12 rows behind the kids. Don't think that would have worked well....at least not for the unfortunate person sitting next to them. But we got all the kinks worked out, left Perth around 1am, and had a nice 5-hour flight to Singapore. Everyone ate and we all got a little nap.

We arrived in Singapore around breakfast time and stopped for hash browns at Burger King.

Afterward we wanted to see the butterflies but it was pouring rain (found out later they had a major flood that day on Orchard Road) so the boys played at the koi pond and playground instead.

At 9:30am (still on Perth time), we took our 7-hour flight to Seoul and my patience began to wear a little thin. Alex took a short nap, Ben didn't sleep at all, and everyone began to get restless. Both boys watched a lot of TV but the kids' choices were really limited and my laptop wouldn't plug into the outlets so we didn't have any other options. I started digging into my stash for all the entertainment I could find, like stickers and waxy sticks.



We were remaining on the same flight out of Seoul but had to deplane, head through security again, and then got a chance to run around. Alex was addicted to the moving sidewalks so the kids ran up and down these until it was time to board again.

This is when Ben began to ask if we were there yet and I began to doubt my decision to do this alone. We still had a 10-hour flight to San Francisco just to get on US soil.

But I gave the kids each a little dramamine and this is what I enjoyed for about 9 of the 10 hours. (pet peeve about Singapore airlines - they love to turn on ALL the lights whenever they do any kind of service, no matter what time of day. Their service is good enough for me to forgive them but it still irritates me)

Sweet sleeping babies! I woke Ben up for breakfast and a potty break and he asked to go back to sleep.

Cool view of Mt. Fuji when we crossed over Japan.

Finally, we arrived in San Francisco, about 27 hours after leaving Perth. Unfortunately we had a 5-hour layover before our connection to Houston but the kids were great and used the time to eat, watch a movie, change clothes, and roll their cars over every square inch of carpet in the terminal. I found a plug for my laptop and made my own movie theater.

On our last flight of the day, 3 1/2 hours to Houston, I gave up on Alex's carseat and checked it so he got to sit like a big boy in his seat. He walked on the plane and started screaming "TV!!!" and pointing to the back of the seat...didn't take long for this little guy to notice the lack of personal entertainment systems. Luckily we survived and each boy got one more nap while I was digging down to the very bottom in my bag of tricks for entertainment.

Sunset look over the bay area and Golden Gate bridge in the distance.

Finally, finally, finally we made it into Houston about midnight and Grammy and Grumpy met us at the airport. I didn't get any pictures but was so happy to see them and come home to their house. The boys didn't waste any time getting reacquainted with their favorite furry friend, Abby.

But luckily they passed out eventually and have even been sharing a slightly modified queen sized bed.

Now we've been hanging out with our favorite four grandparents and getting down to the business of summertime in Texas!