Ice, Ice Baby!

Just because we live in Dallas, that doesn't mean we don't have our fair share of crazy winter weather.  In fact, I think Dallas has some of the most craziest weather of any of the cities I've lived in.  A little over a week ago, it was 79 degrees one day, and the next we dropped about 50 degrees with sleeting rain.  We were iced in for 4 days.

4 days people!

The boys were off school 2 days, Friday and Monday, and had a late start on Tuesday.  Church was even cancelled! Scott's office was also closed Friday, and that NEVER happens.  I think Scott was more excited to have a snow ice day than the boys!

On the first day of being iced in, excitement was in the air.  We slept in late, Scott made a big breakfast, and we were just loving not having to rush off anywhere.

The boys were so anxious to get outside and slide down what little hills we have around here.  I made them stop and have breakfast first.  You would have thought I'd ask them to cut off their right arms.

It's obviously been a while since I had to get a toddler dressed in winter wear.

Good grief did I forget how much of a beating that is.

We lived in Milwaukee when I was little, and my brother was a baby.  I have no idea how my mom had enough time to go anywhere after bundling both of us up!   We were just going to go outside to play, and it seemed like it took hours to get Harper bundled up.  Let's not even talk about how long it took to try and put gloves on her!  I need to invest in some mittens for her.

At one point, Griffin commented and suggested we just put on all the clothes she had on the day we got her!

She had on 4 layers PLUS a heavy coat! Oh, and two pairs of socks.

We finally managed to get her somewhat winterized and we were out the door.... to the front yard.  It was so icy I was not about to take Harper anywhere far.    It looked like snow, but it was pure ice.  She loved being out in it, and it was fun to watch her get so excited.  I'm not sure if she's ever seen snow, or in ice in this case, but she sure looked cute in her mismatched-thrown together-5 sizes too big boots outfit.

She slid around a while pushing her shopping cart.  Not sure why she pulled that outside, but she apparently thought it would be fun on ice.    Then, Scott pulled her around on the sled....

The boys and the neighbor kids had a blast taking turns going down the driveway on the sled.  Scott later took them to the golf course by us where they had a few bigger 'hills'.  I was more than glad to volunteer to stay back with Harper.  It was WAY too cold for me.  I was also that bummer of a mom that made them come in after 30 minutes.  No way was I going to deal with frostbite!

My mom and her husband moved up here from Houston about a month ago.  This weather was sure a nice "Welcome to Dallas"!  I slowly inched my way over to their house to make sure they were ok, and along the way, trees were down everywhere.  We had some serious ice going on!

The good thing about being iced in, we got to hang with out neighbors.  We pooled all our food together and had dinner.  So fun!

However, like every good storm, there comes a time where you just can. not. stand. being cooped up for another day.  By Monday, the roads were a bit better, but still not good enough for school.   I loaded up the kids and ran a couple errands, if anything, just to give us some different scenery. 

Even if that meant the aisles of Target.

We were in the middle of shopping at Target when Harper loses her mind after I tell her she cannot ride the skateboard. 

I mean..... LOST. IT.

I'm sorry, look at the picture.  First of all, there is no way she could manage to ride the skateboard without cracking her head open and ending up in the ER, but most importantly, there was no way she could ride a skateboard in her cowboy boots!!  

This was day three of constant togetherness, and I really had no energy in me to get her to get up off the filthy Target floor.   I let her flounder around a little, took her picture, and was going to let her wear herself out right there.  However, Brannen felt sorry for her, and offered to carry her.

I just love him.

 

It makes my heart so happy to see him in love with his little sister. 

The next day was a new day, and even though it was a late start, school was back in session. 

And.....life was returning to normal!  

The First Thanksgiving

For Harper's 1st Thanksgiving, we headed to my brother's house just outside Austin.  Of course we waited to leave Dallas pretty much the same time as everyone else the day before Thanksgiving, so it took us double the time to get there.  We all were never so glad to get out of a car!  

Thanksgiving preparations started pretty early because we had tickets to the University of Texas football game later that night.   My sister.n.law and her mom had all the food pretty much prepared, so the rest of us tried to keep "the girls" - Harper and my niece, Kaytie - out of their way.  

Kaytie showed Harper where she usually eats her snack...... on the first step, so it seemed like keeping them out of the kitchen would be easy.  

 With a doctor in the house (my brother), someone always seems to say "can you take a look at this?", and this year, it was Scott.  Haha!

 Soon, the fun of eating a snack on the first step wore off, and the girls were fighting over one toy.  It's funny how two year olds can fight over ONE toy when there are plenty of other things to play with.  So, we played referee for a while.....

And there was always one that didn't agree with the outcome.  In the case below, it was Harper.  She threw herself down in protest.  At least she was screaming into the carpet.... that provided a nice little buffer :)

There is a little park around the corner from my brother's house, so we decided to leave the wrestling ring of the living room and head there with the girls....

Soon, it was time to head back and eat!  When the girls aren't screaming over the same toy, they really do love each other.   Harper can get pretty bossy with Kaytie, but we'll just call it being protective.  Harper is always watching out for her .  On the way back from the park, she stopped to grab Kaytie's hand....

and made sure she was hydrated before getting a drink herself :)

We came home to find one of my brother and sister.n.law's cats had gotten dressed up for Thanksgiving.... thanks to my mom.   Doesn't he look thrilled?

Dinner was served before we knew it, and Harper was experiencing Thanksgiving for the first time.  Of course she loved it.  She really hasn't met a morsel of food that she doesn't like.  Well, tomatoes... she doesn't like tomatoes, but other than that, food is her thing.  Thanksgiving was made for her!  :)

 Harper also got to experience another Thanksgiving tradition..... sitting at the kid table.

 Second, and a few third servings, were eaten and we were off to the football game.  UT was playing Texas Tech, my sister.n.law's alma mater, so this was a house divided.  The girls stayed back with my mom and her husband.  

Boy, was it COLD!!  We had fun, but we decided to leave the game early just so we could warm up.  On the way home, I was scrolling through my pics from that night, and found a few pictures of the cheerleaders.  Appears Brannen had taken over my camera for a few clicks!  

Kaytie turned 2 over Thanksgiving, so we all helped her celebrate.  We had been working with Harper, before we went to visit, on singing 'Happy Birthday'.  I think she ended up giggling through the whole song because she was so excited!

Before we left to go back to Dallas, we made one more trip into Austin to visit with friends that were in our travel group in China.  Their daughter, Kaylin, is almost exactly a year younger than Harper.  It was SO much fun to see how much Kaylin had blossomed.  When we last saw her in China, she could barely hold her head up, and now she was walking all over the place!   It still blows me away that just little over 8 months ago, both of these girls were in China and had no idea what was before them.

I was just slightly (ok, very)  jealous that Kaylin let Brannen hold her, and not me!

And, with every trip into Austin, we took the boys to visit their favorite place.... Toy Joy.

Harper was pretty happy with the trip to Toy Joy because Scott gave in and bought her some candy.  He seriously cannot say 'no' to her..... we're working on that!!

Down the street from Toy Joy is a statue of one of my favorite musicians..... Willie Nelson!  Of course we had to stop.

So, Harper's first Thanksgiving is in the books.  I'd say it was a good one.  We got to hang out with family, meet up with part of our China family, and ate a ton of good food!  With Thanksgiving over, that means Christmas will be here before we know it.  I cannot wait to see what Harper thinks about that!!  Knowing her, she will take it all in stride.

 That is, until we take her to see Santa....

She'll probably freak.