Big Tex

I'm sure some of you (of the non-Texas variety) have been wondering what in the world that creepy picture of the dude with a cowboy had has been doing next to my blog title for all these years.  Well, that creeper just so happens to be Big Tex.  Big Tex has stood welcoming people to the Texas State Fair for the last 60 years.  He stood 52 feet tall and was considered a Texas icon.  On Friday, an electrical fire caused Big Tex to burn to a crisp.  Many Texans were sad to see this icon go, but my first thought was, "oh no!  now I have to change my blog banner!"  

I am not one for change and I have a need to keep things in my life simple, but clearly it is time to change things up a bit on this blog.  In fact, I think i deserve some type of blogging award for keeping my blog exactly the same as the day I started it over four years ago.  

And here are a few pics of Big Tex in his final moments.

I don't mean to be disrespectful, but this picture makes me laugh every time.  It's totally not digitally altered to look like that, but it is a little creepy- like Big Tex is waving one last farewell to Texas.

 I hear that a new and improved Big Tex is in the works.  Hopefully he is a little less creepy looking.

And hopefully I can change the look of this blog before then.

Summer's over...THANK HEAVENS!

This summer was definitely one for the record books...literally. It was the hottest summer on record here in Texas. We had 70 days of temperatures at or above 100 degrees. And when I say above 100 degrees, I mean like 108-110 (which is not normal for us). We also haven't seen much rain. I think we went over 6 or 7 weeks without rain. There were days when we'd even just hope for a cloud or two just to give us some relief from the sun. It also didn't cool down much at night. Needless to say, it was a pretty miserable summer. Our AC and water bill are higher than they have ever been and the landscaper around these parts is looking mighty brown and sad.

I'm glad it's over. Here are a few pics and tips on how to stay cool (in case you ever need to know):

1. Choose a house right next to the neighborhood pool.

2. Go there often, but only go before 10 or 11am, after that the pool water just feels like nasty warm bath water and you will literally melt on the short walk home.

3. Take your whole family there and get as soaked as possible.

4. Bring your friends with you...especially if they bring donuts :)

5. Teach your children how to help keep YOU cool.

6. Lay in front of the industrial sized fan with the air blowing up your shirt. 7. When all else fails, freeze a bunch of toys in containers in your freezer, unload your ice cube compartment, and play with ice cubes (this activity may only last a few short moments, but it will keep you cool if you pile them in your lap or down your shirt).
We're so glad summer is over.

Oh, and here is a video of Robby trying to swim. He seriously swam laps across the pool steps. We'd have to make him stop and take breaks in betweeen laps. I love his little arms that flap like crazy!

Spring has sprung (and then it left all too soon)

Summer is undoubtedly here- school is out and it's sunny and hot. But before the hot weather arrived, we were blessed with a lovely spring and we tried to enjoy it to it's fullest.

Spring brought with it lots of outside play time (which also means more vacuuming time for me).

The boys discovered bubble tennis. I blow bubbles and they try to pop them with tennis rackets. It is amazing that no one (Robby) ended up with stitches from getting whacked by his brother.

Tyler also enjoyed field day at school. I was glad I popped over before the activities got rained out. I'm pretty sure they still had a great time, even if it was a little soggy.

...and of course, no Texas spring would be complete without a few tornadoes and some golf ball size hail. Ty thought it was awesome- I hated it. This particular storm sent us under the stairs in our "shelter" for a few minutes (which always feels like eternity), and once the storm had passed, we joined our entire neighborhood out on the street watching two funnel clouds form a little north of us. I was grateful that the storm had passed, but I was still a litter nervous by watching such a luminous sight.

Snow, Snow, Snow

A couple weeks ago we had some SERIOUS snow, breaking the record for snowfall here in Texas. It was spectacular!

We woke up on Thursday to a nice blanket of snow so we bundled up and headed out to play in the snow before preschool. Given that we are used to snow melting so quickly when it does come, we thought we'd better get out in the morning. I took Ty to preschool late and it just kept snowing...all day. They closed school early and sent the kids home, so we bundled up again and headed out again after school.

By Friday morning, we had 14 inches of snow. John and Tyler headed out to work- snowmen, snow forts, and karate angels were on the to-do list for the day. Lucky for me, Robby spent an unusual amount of time napping that day. He wasn't so fond of the snow. He'd stand in the protection of our doorstep and wouldn't move, and when I would pull him out into the snow, he'd cry, so it was kind of nice to go out and play with "the big boys" while Robby slept the day away!

It was a very memorable day with trips to the hill by the park for sledding, building a snow cave and snowman, jumping in piles of fluffy white snow, creating a ramp off the fort, and more hot chocolate than we've had all year.

I'm glad I took lots of pictures because come July, I'll NEVER believe this ever happened!

Let it snow!

Wednesday morning I woke up to a very sweet, very excited boy whispering in my ear, "Mommy, it's SNOWING!"

I almost didn't believe him because that doesn't happen very often around here, but sure enough- it was snowing and there was already a bit of accumulation. We bundled up and were outside throwing snowballs and making a snow angels by 7:40 in the morning. Good thing I bought Tyler his new coat only a few days prior to this. In fact, in some of the pictures you can still see the tags.

Tyler had a great time and came in completely freezing, but so very happy. John and I joke that sometimes Tyler is the real life version of Buddy the Elf from the movie, The Elf. He gets so excited about things and he is so sweet and innocent. Some of my favorite "Buddy the Elf" phrases he said on this particular day were:

"Oh boy, we're going to need a lot of hot chocolate today!"

"Mom, can I get in your bed and cuddle while we watch the snow?"

"Let's make snow angels, and snow balls, and snow men!"

"Now we're lucky like Utah and Colorado because we have snow too!"

(Picture him saying each of these thing with the biggest grin and with such sincere and pure excitement...it's one of my favorite things about Tyler)

It was a fun snow day. We enjoyed it immensely, but I have to admit that as I looked at the pile of wet boots, coats, gloves and hats that sat on the floor by my door for the rest of the day, I was glad that it isn't an everyday occurrence.

Celebrating the holidays...Texas style

The day after Thanksgiving, we headed down to Stockyards Station in downtown Fort Worth for the daily cattle drive. It's one of those touristy things that we typically do with family when they come to town, so we thought we might as well stick with tradition (minus the long, boring tour).

Twice a day, every day, they close down traffic and do a cattle drive right down the street in the middle of the city. It's pretty cool to see those longhorns up close and they typically have a few activities for the kids as well.

You can even get your picture taken with "Old Jake."

And can you tell how thrilled Robby was about this whole idea?

Not to worry...big brother took good care of him and he cheered up just fine.

Tyler liked watching the "real cowboys," and did a great job impersonating them.

Beautiful weather and good fun...what could be better?

I loved watching both Tyler and Robby's reaction to the cattle drive. Robby loved the horses (although, I'm still thinking that he thought the cattle were horses as well). You can see his little mouth making the trotting noise as he watched the whole thing.

Just a little taste

I stepped inside for one quick second and came back to this

Did Tyler seriously think I wouldn't notice if he gave Robby a taste of his fudgesicle?

"But I was just letting him have a little taste, Mom."

Ever wonder what a flying saucer looks like?

Evidently it looks something like this

Here's the story:

The other night we had another wicked Texas-sized storm come through. Of course, John was out of town for this one. As the storm intensified, I decided to bring the babies downstairs to my bed. Tornado season is over, but you just never know! I enjoyed my cuddle time with those two drowsy boys up until the wind really started to have me concerned. I left the bed and paced around the house, peaking out each window assessing any possible damage to come. As I check out our front window, I noticed the top half of a tree sitting in my yard. I immediately started scanning our yard to see which tree had snapped. After confirming that all of our trees were still intact, I noticed the severed trunk across the street. The tree had come from our neighbor's yard. I felt relieved that it wasn't one of ours, but felt bad for our neighbor. He's a nice man who is terribly sick battling cancer right now and I felt bad that this would happen. It was a lovely tree and trees that size are quite expensive. (Here it is after John dragged it to the back yard until we figure out what to do with it).

The storm died down and I returned my sleepy boys to their own beds. Morning rolled around and as I was contemplating what to do with the large tree in my yard, I heard a knock on my door. It was my neighbor behind me and his neighbor to his right. This is how our conversation went:

Them: Good morning.
Me: Hi
Them: We had a bad storm last night
Me: We sure did
Them: Your trampoline is on our fence
Me: Dangit

Evidently the wind picked up our large piece of recreational equipment and turned it into a destructive flying saucer. It flew the entire length of our yard, over the fence, the entire length of our neighbor's yard, and landed right on their dividing fence. It is a miracle that no windows were broken and an even bigger miracle that it didn't land in our other neighbor's swimming pool. The trampoline landed propped up on one side of the fence and all the legs flew off and landed in the other yard (some hitting his house, but missing all windows). Oh how I wish I had a picture! Better yet, I wish I had seen the whole thing happen!

Anyway, John returned home that evening and dragged the tree out of our front yard and then with the help of one of the neighbors, returned the trampoline to it's rightful place.

So there you have it, the story of the flying saucer. We'll now be staking that thing down so that it won't make any more flights to outer space...or into the neighbor's yard.

Everything's Bigger in Texas

Last week we had a hale storm blast our area. I promised a few family members some pictures of the hale stones that we keep in our freezer as a gentle reminder to keep our 72 hour kits up to date.

We've lived here long enough to have experienced our fair share of Texas storms, but none have ever pounded us with hale as big as this. These were in the category of "golf ball size," but I tell you what, when I looked out the window at our lawn, I couldn't tell the difference between the hale stones and Tyler's baseballs out on our lawn. I don't even know how to begin to explain the sound of hundreds of these stones pounding our roof and windows. Luckily, both cars fit in our garage so we are dent free. Our roof doesn't seem to have any problems and no windows were broken. Whew! It was a very intense 5 minutes and I'm SOOOO glad John wasn't out of town for this one. I always tell him that I hate him traveling in the spring during tornado season and this is exactly why.

So there you have it folks...Texas size hale!