Spring Fling & Such....

Once upon a time, Gage and Daddy went camping for the weekend, and Darnin came for a quick visit! Yay!

At the same time, the neighborhood Spring Fling was happening. There were vendors, pony rides, food, bounce houses....fun times.

Eliette first wanted to ride the ponies.

After that, it was onto the little petting zoo...

Then she discovered the bounce house.
Quite possibly her first bounce house experience.... I can't remember. I know this: THIS was the moment she discovered she LOVED the bounce house!

Sweet, happy girl!

...and then it was time to go....

That, of course, didn't happen. Rather, Sister led us down a path straight to the playground....

Darnin couldn't resist, and why would she want to?
They had a blast, and I just stood back and took pictures and watched.

:)

What happened in our day after that?
A little shopping, but not much.... Darnin was reminded that day about how hard it is to shop with a toddler---when the toddler clearly doesn't want to shop!

So----we headed over to a local restaurant for dinner, and had fun with that....

Then we let E run around and play downtown for a bit.... Then we headed to Braum's for dessert....then we headed home.
:)

All the while, I got these camping pics from the guys:

Happy boys....

Back at the Casa de Lainey-Paney, someone was playing the poor-pitiful-me card....

She was tired but knew that lotion, diaper, and jammies were right around the corner.

Oh, it was just a great day.
It ended with me putting the baby to bed, and then staying up late to watch a movie with mom. {Well, I did.... Darnin fell asleep. Guess my toddler wore her out. wink*wink}

Snow.

The day it snowed again, I opened my front door to see this:

More snow days?
Home from school?
Oh, okay!

A tiny snowman was made. Olaf? Is that you???

 Snowballs were thrown...

 ...but this one fell a little short of hitting Mommy! Hhahahahaha!!!

 This one did not. Grrrrrr!

That's when Mommy was done with the snow and took herself inside.

Happy Valentine's Day!

How we spent our Valentine's night: hosting dinner for these gentlemen and a little lady.
How many dates did you have for Valentine's, Eliette? More than she could shake a stick at! {Such a Southern expression, am I right?}

We had home-made pizza....ran out of pizza, and then had to order pizza!
Oh, these boys. I mean to tell you---we have hit the point where the appetites are definitely increasing. Two large pizzas to feed 6 boys? That's no longer enough. Crazy.... They're just growing boys.

The conversation at the table was hilarious. They were seriously discussing dragon farts. No lie. "Do you think there are flames that come out, or just puffs of bad smelling air?"  May I never forget this age!

"Fart." Not a word we've used too often here at the Casa de Lainey Paney. It's just not. Gage just recently 'graduated' to using it. "Mom, it's not cool to say 'toot.' Nobody in the third grade says that." {Well, maybe you guys shouldn't spend so much time talking about flatulence!} So, I've lost the battle against "fart." ...such is life.

He's growing up.
It's both wonderful and scary. Exciting and sad all at the same time.

New Year's Eve....

Oh, to go from year to year....
Going from 2012 to 2013, I had a rough time. I wrote about it here.
Going from 2013 to 2014, I was fine and had fun. I wrote about it here. Oh, no, wait. I didn't write about it. I just posted pictures....Well, that was the year that we went out for a nice dinner with friends and I ordered two entrees. That's right.
:)

Well transitioning from 2014 to 2015 was all about the food yet again.... This time it was a bit more low-key and involved a bit more fire...

...and smoke....

 It's a shame that the flames didn't appear in the pictures because from the kitchen it was said, "Ummm, there are flames out there. Like fire."

 ...some of the bacon wrapped asparagus didn't fare too well when pulled off the grill.

 Completely charred! Yikes!

How about some home-made onion rings? This little dipper yummed them up.

Those are onion rings and dipping sauce she's feeding herself.  She loves anything she can dip.

It was a kid filled night with James and Jess at our house. Low key and fun.
The word of the night, "Dominino!"
;)

Halloween 2014

We had a few Halloween festivities this year....

Let me start by saying that my husband goes ALL OUT with the yard decor. He loves decorating for Halloween and Christmas, and if passers-by stop for pictures and what-not, he just gets over-the-moon excited. It's awesome.

So, those are the pics from Halloween night. Never mind the chairs in the driveway---that's where we sat to dispense candy.

Scariest thing in my front yard: THIS girl.

But---before I get to Halloween night, let's post about Trunk-or-Treat at the church. Well, wouldn't you know it---I signed us up to host a trunk, and then find out that we have a baseball tournament that weekend. Whoops.
Mother in law to the rescue! While Damon stayed at the baseball tournament with Gage, I got Eliette and the trunk ready for Trunk or Treat. My mother in law came up to the church to watch Eliette while I finished the set up. Eliette was a mad woman, running all over the place that day.

 Eliette LOVED the Halloween pencils, and wanted all of them.

Daddy and Gage arrived after the event started---when Gage's baseball tournament was over.

Oh, those two! Seriously: how blessed are we? So lucky to have two healthy kiddos who ADORE each other. So lucky.

Sister was easily the cutest black cat I've ever seen, and Gage was just my handsome little man, per usual!

Gage with his buddies:

What else did we do pre-Halloween?
Well....there was an awesome backdrop for this little one to have her picture taken....It was our yard! (Thank you, Hubby).... We were actually going to visit family this day, and E just looked so cute that I had to snap a pic.

 ...and on our walk later that day: how cute is this???

Here's Eliette in her super cute candy corn headband that Jess got for her. She LOVES the indoor trampoline park. This was on one of our Sunday School mom's gathering there for toddler jump. Good times.

In our pre-Halloween festivities there was a little failure... That was really all my doing. What do you want from me? I tried....

Sweet girl loves the holidays! Who says that all Halloween costumes have to be scary? Not this little Bat-Girl!

Of course there was some holiday shopping.... We can't help ourselves....

Reminds me of "Big Baby" from Toy Story 3. Eliette was not having it!
And the creepy doll baby section? Ewwwwww!

Had to make a comparison shot to share: 2013 vs 2014.

Heeeheeeeheeeee.....

On Halloween day, Eliette had a fun play-date at our same indoor trampoline park. After that, it was lunch with friends. It was a busy morning. How cute are these little bitty pig tails?

 ...she's a runner!

I *thought* I had more pics saved from that adventure with friends, but apparently not. (boo!) The point: had fun & had lunch. Life was good.

I took E home to nap and ran up to Baylor to visit a friend who had a baby! Baby K was welcomed into this world before Halloween, but I was super excited to visit and meet her on Halloween Day.

And then, before I knew it, it was Halloween Night! Now, for our actual Halloween pics! Damon usually goes all out in costume. (Yay!) He puts his make-up on with Eliette around so that she doesn't freak out when she sees him. This year, his face was pretty creepy! She wasn't scared at all. Gage? He hardly wanted his picture taken at all, and getting him to participate was like pulling teeth. He wanted to run off with his friends every 5 seconds. He's at that age....


Pics from our night, featuring Eliette as "The Itsy Bitsy Spooky Spider", Mommy as a black cat, Gage as "Death" (though he wouldn't wear the mask, and rarely wore his hood up, and generally had a smile on his face. He was the happiest, non-scary "Death," and this mom is okay with that!).

 Please note the face. She's not amused...barely happy at all. We'll get to that later....

Heeeeeeere's Daddy:

 Goodness! The scariness!!!!

R2 and Eliette, then Jess & R2:

Check out this YAHOO:

No lie: that fool just kind of stood on the sidewalk around our house and the neighbor's house...he'd silently walk along the sidewalk with his one creepy balloon....or just stand under the street light. People would CROSS THE STREET just to not be anywhere near him. {It's our neighbor, James. Damon always likes to scare people on Halloween, and what's the one thing that Damon's most afraid of? Clowns. Ha!!!! Points for James. (seriously, it was pretty creepy.)}

The kiddos trick-or-treated for a while, and it was fun to see the neighborhood kids that we know. I like it when Gage's classmates come by too and I get to see them in their costumes... So cute. Gage and R1 trick-or-treated for just a bit, and then they wanted to stay home and hide and scare others. That's the spirit that makes Daddy proud!
:)
Gage and R1 with their loot:

And then what happened?
I took Sister in to change her diaper. She was burning up. Took her temp. I can't remember how high it was now as I'm typing this, but it was crazy high. Urgent Care vs. ER high.
:(
Got her changed into jammies, dosed with Motrin, hugged Memaw 'goodbye' and hit the road to have her checked out.

Final diagnosis: tonsillitis and double ear infection.
BAM.

Antibiotics, Tylenol/Motrin, Pro-biotics, and bed.