Legally Blonde

I took the girls and some friends to the local high school musical. We had a great time!

Today --

Today, I worked on getting caught up on my blog. I took Owen out for a walk and we watched monarch butterflies who must be migrating through here because they were everywhere!



And then, because it is Thursday and for as long as I have been a mom we have had this tradition, we went to the library. The kids absolutely loved the New Canaan Library and it has taken them a little while to attempt to like the Southlake Library, but it is slowly growing on them. The boys loved that the library today had dragon football crowns and Catherine graciously agreed to put one on for the picture too!

Owen and I checked out the Bob Jones nature center

It really is a neat place and literally in our front yard. Owen loved looking at the stuffed bobcat, raccoon, otter, and beaver in the building. As we walked on the trail I noticed a stuffed baby deer right by the trail and we walked right past it (about 2 feet away) only as we were walking back and an older couple had their camera out did I realize (since it had now moved) that the deer was actually real. Apparantly baby deer can be VERY still. (why can't baby humans?) And I didn't really even look at it (I guess after living in New Canaan deer just aren't that exciting to me!)

Here is Owen in the field. He is so cute.

Christmas lights . . .

After the decorating, we awoke to intermittent tree darkness.

Christmas may be all about Jesus. But Christmas lights . . . no so much.

Decorating . . . it gets easier every year

My kids LOVE decorating for the holidays. They are so anxious and excited and happy to do it. This year I gave them the go ahead and I did not go in the attic. I did not locate the 8 boxes. I did not carry a single box out of the attic. I did not unload a single box. I did not place any Christmas decoration anywhere. (although I have rearranged a few). And just like that . . . the halls are decked.

Now just to be clear I still had to remind them 8 billion times to carry the empty boxes back into the attic. I had to remind them to shut the attic door at least as many times. They're good kids, but they are still kids!!!

Sunday recovery and run (wait . . . isn't it usually the other way around?)

We got home from Houston late Saturday night and quickly got the kids in their beds and the car unloaded. It seems we came home with more than when we left. We brought home germs, coughs, colds, and a whole slew of new medications.



Trent took the older two girls to church and I stayed home with the sickos. Madelyn, Adam, and Owen and their coughing chorus.

Trent and I are still in training mode for our upcoming half marathon and unfortunately did not manage to fit in our longest training run on either Thanksgiving, the Friday after, or Saturday. I don't know why????? But that meant we got to run today. The weather was nice and honestly I was looking forward to 2 hours or so to get lost in my own thoughts. So I headed out on my 11 mile run around 1 pm. Trent and I take turns on these long runs and then whoever is not running acts as runner support bringing drinks to eachother about every three miles. We track each other on the iphone so we know where to meet up. I felt pretty good. Twice during my run my runkeeper app shut down. This has never happened before. I ran until it said I hit 11 miles and then came in and plotted my route on google maps. Turns out I actually ran 12.25 miles. I guess I am ready for the half marathon!!!!

Trent then headed out running and he said he felt so good that he went ahead and did the full 13.1. I think maybe after all that family togetherness (coughing, holding sick kids all night) that maybe neither of us wanted to stop running and come home!!!!

The Houston Thanksgiving day parade

I can't say enough how enjoyable the Houston Parade is. The weather is generally beautiful. The crowds are not too bad. You don't have to be there too early. The traffic is not too bad. While I "enjoyed" our Macy's Thanksgiving day parade adventure the Houston Thanksgiving day parade is really more my forte.

It was pretty easy to find and meet up with all our family.



The balloons are big and fancy and fun and you are a lot closer to them.



And it ends with Santa Claus and the reindeer too! and then Pancho Claus and the lowriders. Macy's doesn't have Pancho Claus. (come to think of it . . . does anyone else have Pancho Claus??)



Here are some more pics of all the family, cousins, aunts, uncles and turkey!

































Once the parade ended we went back to my Dad's house for dinner. We had a wonderful time with great food. 2 food highlights were the smoked turkey and the sweet potatoes (baked, then mashed with a little butter and orange juice and topped with Tyler Florence's streusel).

Then we went to Shad's house for pies. There is so much to be thankful for this year and always.

Mercer Arboretum

Today we drove up to Mercer Arboretum. I had never been there before. It is off of F.M 1960 between I-45 and Hwy 59 and is really quite the hidden gem. The grounds were beautiful and the hiking trails were just the right length. We also crossed the main street and enjoyed a picnic lunch at the park. If you live near Houston I would recommend this as a fun outing!

Mexican Food

Already the best part about living back in Texas is having good Mexican food whenever you want it. Today we tried a Mexican restaurant that is also a tortilla factory. It was delicious but I fell in love with the decor. You just don't see this in New England!!!

The car wreck

Well, it was an interesting Sunday. We headed to church in 2 cars today since Owen has a runny nose and we didn't want to send him to nursery. Right after church I took Owen home in the van (since that is where his carseat is). When church ended Trent loaded the 3 girls and Owen into his brand new car, backed up, and joined the line of cars leaving the parking lot.

Then all at once he heard the "crunch." A lady didn't look behind her when backing up and crashed broadside into the side of Trent's car. She damaged the metal piece of the frame above the passenger side rear wheel.

Trent hopped out of the car, asked her for her insurance papers, took a photo of them. And hopped back in the car. They probably exchanged fewer than 10 words. He came home pretty bummed about the whole situation. We talked about it, looked up dealers and body shops and then called the insurance company to find out which body shop they require you to use for estimating (I know that you can use any shop to do the actual work.)

We made a plan for Trent to drive the van to work on Monday and for me to take the car to get several estimates so that we could get back to the lady who hit us on the estimated costs for repairs. It's not super easy to switch cars since not all of our kids can fit in his car.

About an hour later our phone rings. It is the lady's husband. He is furious. He says his boys told him that Trent was rude. He is screaming through the phone. Trent stays super calm and tries to talk to him, but he just keeps yelling. And then he hangs up on us.

Trent looks at me and says, "Where have we moved? What kind of people hit your car and then call you and yell at you?"

I will have to say that we have been shocked at the lack of manners and "Southern Hospitality" that we have been shown here. This is not the first time that someone has exhibited absolutely extreme rudeness towards us. In both cases, they stated, "I don't know how they do things back east, but here in Texas . . ." And all I have to say is that being a "TEXAN" myself I have been surprised at people who claim to know the Texas way and yet clearly have no manners at all.

The man did call back and apologize about 2 hours later. But it is always interesting when you have a peek behind the facade and see people's true colors. So it is now being repaired, it is a huge hassle. It is a pain. I don't really want to look this family in the eye at church tomorrow, but I will. I'll smile at them. And I have forgiven them. But I also don't think we will be best friends either.

Friday Night Lights

So our little town of Southlake takes football pretty darn seriously.

Here is what wikipedia says . . . "In their 44-season history, the Dragons have produced an all-time record of 398-126-8. They have been particularly impressive in the last 20 seasons, winning eight state titles in nine championship game appearances." and "In the 2011 season, Southlake Carroll was the district champions, going 10-0. The Dragons defeated Plano East, Cedar Hill, Arlington Bowie, Arlington Martin and Dallas Skyline to advance to the 5A Division 1 state championship game against Fort Bend Hightower were the Dragons won 36-29 to claim the 2011 state championship. The win allowed Southlake Carroll to tie Celina High School with eight state championships, the most of any 11-man program. Southlake Carroll has now won five of the previous ten (2002-2011) Texas 5A state championships."

So we went to the first round of the Texas 5A State Football Playoffs tonight at Cowboy Stadium in Arlington.

The whole experience was fun, eye opening, and impressive. We won. It was like 45-0 when we arrived in the 2nd quarter.



Owen loved all the action!



The screen was absolutely huge!



At the end of the 3rd quarter the score was 58-0



My girls came prepared in case football wasn't exciting all the time!