Great Aunts & Cousin Cuddles!

At the beginning of February, Julie & Denise (Jeff's Aunts) came down to Houston and stayed with us for a night. With them, they brought Jeff's cousin Alayna. She is so sweet and is an AMAZING child! She's also hilarious. We enjoyed visiting with them, and Avonlea and Linley enjoyed all the cuddles and playtime! Love all these girls!

 

 

Patrick & Jamie sitting in a tree [singing]

This is going to be "Old" news to many of you, but I still need to put it in my blog. My little, baby brother, Patrick (aka...Pitterpat) and his gal pal (with sugar) Jamie Jo called with exciting news on December 8. They had gotten engaged!! We are so excited to have such a precious gal joining our family, and are so thankful for God's direction in their lives. We love you both and are so excited for this Summer!

Christmas 2013

For Christmas, we were in MN. While there, we ate, hung with cousins/aunts/uncles/nephews/nieces/parents/grandparents, visited with friends, bundled-up, spent time with family, celebrated birthdays, shopped, attended the Holidazzle parade, made several trips to Kwik Trip, built snowmen, ice-skated, made snow angels, threw snowballs, pulled the kiddos on the sled, some attended a Timberwolves game and went to see a couple movies including Frozen (Avonlea's favorite). It was a great time!

Valentine's Day 2014

Skating!

Over Christmas break, we headed up to MN. We thought this would be a good opportunity to try out our (and Avonlea's) skating skills. We had a great time, but I don't think it will be one of Avonlea's favorite activities. After a cold afternoon, we headed to Patrick's house to warm up with pizza and games! :)

Levi (Jamie's nephew) rockin' the trainer

 Lindsay and Levi

An Unforgettable Weekend @ the Beach House

So a couple weekends ago, we decided to head down to the beach house. This was going to be Linley Belle's first time there. We took off at about 11:30am and rolled in to the Galveston area just in time for lunch. As we crossed over the bridge, we listened to "Galveston" by Glenn Campbell (a tradition not to be abandoned). Avonlea had been complaining of her ear hurting, so we stopped at Target on our way to get some meds for her. We ate at the Spot, a great burger joint on the Seawall and of course went over to La King's for ice cream treats. After lunch, we collected all our extra items we needed from Walgreens and went to the ferry. Once we got to the beach house, Jeff started unloading and I started getting items in the fridge, setting up items and watching Linley. Avonlea decided she wanted to help Daddy, so she began to open the big, iron gate as he was bringing up the luggage. AND THE WEEKEND WENT DOWNHILL FAST! She was so excited to help she pushed the gate open which maxed out at a certain point; however, Avonlea kept going. Yep, right into the gate. Her little forhead will never be the same again. She ran right into the gate and got a minor gash. We weren't sure what to do and decided to call Jeff's mom about our options, as we knew she would be requiring stitches. Unfortunately, there is absolutely NOTHING over on the peninsula for medical help. We got the kids back in the car and boarded the ferry back to Galveston. We decided to go to an Urgent Care place and Avonlea got the treatment she needed. She not only underwent the stitches (which really turned out to be the glue because she freaked out so much with the stitches) but also had her ear irrigated so they could see if she had an ear infection. Of course she did have one. So she got a sticker and a popsicle to ease the suffering of the horrible experience and then we took her to the store to pick out some toys (and medicine), because she needed to end the day on a better note. Back to Bolivar! The next day, we went to the beach, watched movies, went to our favorite donut shop over there and just relaxed. That evening, we ate at the only show in town. All in all, the weekend was on the up-n-up. Then at 1am, I figured out quickly that I had gotten food poisoning. A couple hours later, Jeff was in the same boat as I was. We spent the rest of the night dealing with that. We are so thankful that Avonlea didn't get it and that I could still nurse Linley. To summarize, we will never forget Linley's first trip to the Beach house!

Meeting Linley

Uncle Patrick and soon-to-be Aunt Jamie flew down on Wednesday (Oct. 16) afternoon. We had just been discharged from the hospital at about 11am that morning and Jeff went to scoop up the two lovebirds from the airport! ;) We had such a blast having them come down to meet our newest member. Mom and Dad sent us out with them on a double-date that Thursday to Taste of Texas (perhaps the best steak in town) while they watched the girls with Jeff's mom.

While the Crazy Cuatro (Dad, Mom, Patrick and Jamie) decided to make a spontaneous day trip to Waco for Baylor's homecoming, Aunt Susan was making her way down from Dallas to meet Linley. As the Cuatro arrived back at our house at about 1am, a "Bad Man" was lurking around our neighborhood breaking into cars and stealing out items. He decided we didn't have enough challenges having a newborn, a 3-year-old and company so he also broke our windows in our car and took our stuff at 4:45am. I was awake feeding Linley and heard him break in. Unfortunately, by the time I had run to get Jeff, he was long gone with our stuff. Let's just say Linley's birth week was very memorable! Anyway, Linley got to meet a lot of fantastic people her first week of life!