Quotes to Remember

Every once in awhile my kids say something and I think, "I've got to remember that!"  Here are two quotes that I want to remember: one from Luke and one from Micah.

About a week ago, Micah fell in the kitchen and started to cry.  I scooped him up and took him to the couch to hug him and rock him.  Through his tears he was saying something that was hard for me to understand.  I finally realized he was chanting over and over, "Too bad!  Too bad!"  And I laughed as I realized that I say that a lot when he gets hurt.  "Oh!  That's too bad!"

Also about a week ago, I heard Luke say, "Derlick!" when he was trying to fix something and couldn't quite do it.  I heard him say it again when he dropped something.  I said, "Luke, what does derlick mean?"  He said, "You know.  It means like 'Oh my goodness!'  It's what you say."  And that's when I figured out he was trying to say Darn It!  HaHaHa.  I've explained to him that the expression is "Darn It," but I guess he prefers Derlick because that's what he still says.

Kolaches

I have to begin this post with some quick background information.  In my effort to make a good impression on Jared's co-workers I made some cookies one Friday for Jared to take to work.  Then the next week we made some cinnamon rolls for him to take-- mostly because I wanted them, but I didn't want an entire cookie sheet full.  Those turned out so well that I wanted them again a couple of weeks later, so we did it again.  And now it has become somewhat of a tradition to the point that on Fridays Jared's co-workers ask him what he brought.  There are, however, a few people who don't work Fridays and have missed out on these tasty treats.  We wanted to give them a real doozy of a snack, so one Monday morning Jared brought in delicious HOMEMADE kolaches.

We love kolaches in our house!

So here's the story of kolaches.  In the time I was away from Texas I ALWAYS had to have a kolache or two whenever I came for a visit.  They are so good that, in my opinion, they rank up with BBQ brisket as one of the best foods in Texas.  Up until a few weeks ago I used my pigs-in-a-blanket dough to make some passable kolaches when I was really dying for them, but they really weren't anything like the kind I would buy at the donut shops.  And so they didn't totally fulfill the NEED.  I assumed that in moving to Texas I would now be treated to delicious, warm, melt in your mouth Texas kolaches like I was missing.  But alas!  We haven't found a donut shop in Amarillo that makes them.  So we went on a hunt via the internet for a good kolache recipe.  Jared found a winner!

Is your mouth watering?

If not, then you have never had a true kolache experience.  And you MUST try this recipe.  So click on the link below and have a great breakfast!

Sausage Kolaches-- Yum!

Oh, 2 final tidbits about the recipe.  We did not use little smokies.  We used the frozen sausage links (like the Jimmy Dean links), thawed first.  Also, we used grated cheddar cheese instead of American cheese, and both changes worked great.  Next time we're going to switch it up and do some sausage, some bacon, and some ham.  I can't wait.

Didn't see that one coming...

A couple of weeks ago we checked out "The Story of Babar" from the library.  The book, in all honesty, was a lot stupider than I remember.  Isn't that funny about childhood books/ movies?  But that's not the point.  Luke liked the book, and we read it several times.

So on Monday morning, with Luke home sick from school, we were looking for a show to watch on Netflix, and Babar seemed like a good idea.  In the book, Luke wasn't phased at all about Babar's mother being killed by a hunter.  In the movie, however, it was a lot more scary.  First of all, there were noisy gunshots.  Secondly, the hunter really did look pretty scary.  Luke seemed a bit tense, but he was alright.

But then, after Babar got to the city, he was chased by a policeman brandishing a gun.  Luke crouched down and plugged his ears.  I asked him if he was okay, and I said I thought we should turn the movie off.  I'm not sure if my concern was the trigger, but what followed was about a 10 minute total meltdown.  He started beating the keyboard with his fist.  He screamed.  He cried.  I pulled him onto my lap and reassured him that the movie was off.  He asked question after question about why guns are loud, about why the hunters were mean, about what would happen to Babar, about what would happen to him.  He was really shaken up!  The first few minutes we just tried to calm Luke down and help him use words to express his feelings/ needs.  "I feel scared.  I don't like this movie.  Turn it off."  And then we answered his questions.  He cuddled with Mama and D for a long time.  And now we know NEVER to watch Babar or ANY movie with guns, etc. ever again.

Rock Stars

The absolute best part about living in Amarillo is Jared's 9 hour/ day job.  It's wonderful having so much time with him.  The boys love it as well.  They get  D time jumping on the trampoline, reading books, and lately, PLAYING THE GUITAR.  

It started a week or so ago.  I had to go somewhere, and while I was gone Jared pulled out his bass guitar and had a jam session with the boys.  Luke and Micah had so much fun strumming the strings and playing with the amp that Luke asks to play several times a week.  Usually Jared is happy to oblige.  Sometimes they get the toy screw drivers and drag them over the string to pretend they are playing a violin too.  Such musical aspirations!

Time for a Haircut

When your child wakes up like this almost every morning...

It's getting out of control!

Trick or Treat

We had a small and simple Halloween.  The school didn't do any Halloween related activities-- no parade, costumes, party, etc. which made me feel very justified in our cheap costumes.  Luke said he wanted to be a fireman this year, and we found a jacket and hat at Goodwill (the yellow jacket) for a few dollars.  Jared found a second firefighter jacket there for Micah (the red one.)  I laughed about it at the time because the red jacket was much too big for Micah.  

On Halloween night we got all ready for our church trunk or treat.  Luke had on his yellow jacket and was dancing because he was so excited.  Meanwhile Micah refused to cooperate with anything.  He wouldn't wear the pirate costume I had for him.  He just yanked at it yelling, "Shirt off!" so I tore apart the closet in Jared's office searching for Luke's doctor costume from last year.  I finally found it (bottom box, of course!) and put it on Micah who immediately screamed, "Shirt off!"  This is how Jared found us when he got home from work.  He asked where the other firefighter jacket was.  "Just put Micah in that!" to which I rudely pointed out that it was much too big.  So Jared talked Luke into wearing the red jacket and when we put the yellow one on Micah, that stinker just smiled and said very smugly, "Coat!" and we were off.

We were a few minutes early to the trunk or treat, so as people finished setting up, Jared took the boys to do some traditional trick or treating at some houses right by the church.  Then they came back to do a quick round at the Trunk or Treat and it was time to head home for bed.

Happy Halloween!

Amber and Trevor's Visit-- Day 2

Wednesday morning was Early Intervention day at the Discovery Center, so Amber and Trevor came with us.  We spent a longer time than usual in the space and robot exhibits, which I thought was nice because it was a change.

But when we got to the motion/ energy part there were a lot of new things.  I'm not sure what the point of all the arcade games were, but Micah especially was excited to play "drive a car."

Luke is pretending this is a hand dryer.

I think this magnetic toy was Luke's favorite of the day.  He played with this for a very long time!

(It was my favorite too.)

Or actually, maybe I liked these glasses the best.

We left about 11 to get Luke ready for school-- extra spiffy because it was picture day.  And after school we packed in more fun.  We took Amber and Trevor on a tour of Lowe's (It's a visiting Luke tradition), and then we raced home for dinner.  And then back out to visit the pumpkin patch.  It was a lot more entertaining than Pumpkinville where we went in VA.   There was a big corn maze, several slides and climbing equipment, zip lines, a Big Blob (Is that what it's called?), a petting zoo, hay ride, corn cannons, and of course the patch.  

Slide inside the corn maze

Chasing after Micah

Bouncing on the Blob

The Hayride

Luke was scared of the "bumps."

Going down a slide with D--

OVER AND OVER.

We had so much fun with Amber and Trevor!

We just wish they could have stayed longer--

like PERMANENTLY.

Amber, Trevor, and Playing the Tourist

We were SOOOOO excited to have a visit from Amber and Trevor this week.  It was a short visit, but we packed in as much fun as we could.  I hadn't done much of the touristy stuff in Amarillo.  To be honest, I wasn't even sure what tourists do here.  So I found a travel blog, came up with an action plan, and voila! we all became Amarillo tourists.  

First stop Tuesday morning was a trip to The Big Texan.  According to Amber, this restaurant was made famous by the movie "Pee Wee's Big Adventure."  I lost enough brain cells due to pregnancy that I'm not about to make it worse by watching that movie.  I'll just take her word for it.  And you should take mine by visiting this restaurant.  It was awesome!

So the outside is (obviously) loud and obnoxious and decorated with giant cows, boots, and windmills. Perfect!

Had to get a shot of Luke by the big windmill.

He asked if he could just stay outside and stare at it all day.

The inside was decorated by lots and LOTS of dead animal heads.

But somehow, even with all that, it had a really homey feel.

Our waitress was awesome. 

And our boys had freedom to move around and explore a little.

Also, much to Luke's excitement, there were also LOTS of ceiling fans. 

The food was great.  We had the breakfast buffet that included biscuits and gravy, french toast, pancakes, omelets, breakfast enchiladas (YUM!), fruit, cereal, sausage, bacon (thick AND crispy), scrambled eggs.... See why you need to go there?

The Big Texan is actually famous for steak-- not the breakfast buffet.  There is a big platform at the front of the restaurant where those ready brave enough... or stupid enough try to win a free dinner by eating a 72 oz. steak, baked potato, side salad, and bread all under 1 hour while everyone in the restaurant watches.  

And apparently this is SOLELY a tourist restaurant because when our waitress asked where we were coming from and I answered here in town, she looked totally shocked.  

Exploring upstairs

We took a quick peeksy in the gift shop.  I could spend a fortune in there.  They had the best little cowboy stuff EVER.  Instead I spent nothing, and we went on to our next adventure:

So you know from reading Jared's post about his dates with Luke that he and Luke had been here before.  Lucky for us-- because he gave us the heads up to bring spray paint.  We nabbed 2 cans from Wal-mart and felt very prepared.  It turns out that to be truly prepared you need about 5 cans so that when beggars come asking for extra, you are prepared to give them more than a retelling of the 10 virgins.  And, should any of you actually come to town, let me give you the advice to bring some white and black paint along with your colors.  For us, we had green and pink. 

And a lot of wind.  Not the best weather for spray painting.  But we all had a blast anyway.

Notice his tie...

HAHAHAHA!

And then home to google how to get spray paint off skin (EYE MAKE-UP REMOVER!) and to get Luke ready for school.

That evening we met Jared at the duck pond for a picnic and family pictures.  We have never paid for family pictures and probably never will as long as we can talk family or friends into taking a few for us.  We nabbed the opportunity to shove a camera into Amber's hands.  Combined with Trevor's mad photo-shopping skills we ended up with a pretty good shot:

This was the real picture:

And since it was the ONLY shot with both the boys looking at the camera, Trevor took my face from another photo and created the picture above.  Thanks, Trevor!

A few other shots from the evening:

And, for a fair trade, they got pictures too.

I know the lighting isn't perfect, but minus the one picture that Trevor played with, none of these shots are edited.  I have no doubt that Trevor will make these into framable masterpieces.

I love this one!

And that was day 1!