January

New Years Eve was uneventful, as usual.  I think I made it to midnight, but I can't remember.  I was too excited for the next day, when Aunt Shanny and Uncle Tom came to visit with Baby Brendan!  Although he is less baby and more toddler now.  We didn't do anything spectacular- just hung out around the house, and had friends over one night for dinner.

We did venture out on the DART to visit downtown Carrollton.
Someone has a huge obsession with trains!

Other pics from January:

Enjoying Christmas presents: cake Pops from Aunt Col and Uncle Bobby

Color your own bag from Grandma

And of course, Rainbow looms.  Ow the rubber bands.  They are everywhere!!!

A friend of ours was taking care of puppies.
Elia was in hog heaven.,  Can we get one mom???

Adult Time- ATL

Megan arranged for babysitters to come over 2 times while all the adults were in town.  We went out to dinner on Friday night and then to Sweet Water Brewery and The Vortex on Saturday.  So fun to be with my sisters too!  We missed Colleen and Ryan of course!

Bro in Laws

Book Ends.  Chris photo bombs.

*can't fix my wonky pictures... sorry!

Birthday Surprise, and Fossil Rim

Over Memorial weekend, the Marschners came to visit!  Shannon basically woke me up at 2:30 in the morning and totally surprised me out of sleep.  Their flight was supposed to get in much earlier but bad weather had them circling and their rental car situation went from bad to worse(no car seat for Brendan even though they had reserved one!!).  So Chris snuck out of the house with a car seat around 1:30 and got them back here to wake me up.  I think Tom, with Chris' help, had been planning this since March!  I honestly thought I was dreaming when she came in and sat on my bed.
There really is nothing better than spending time with my twinnie, but its even more special when we get to be together on our birthday!  We sort of just hung out and did fun kid stuff, like the splash park and walks around the neighborhood, but the highlight was Fossil Rim.  I have been wanting to go there since I heard about it a few years back, and it was pretty fun!  Feeding animals from your car?  Elia was in paradise.
With our awesome new minivan, we were able to scrunch all 4 adults and 3 babies in one car!

Love

Loving the new sunroof

Prob my fave pic of the day!

Little loves!

Croup-tastic Marschner Visit

Chris' grandpa passed away so Chris took Elia out to Napa for the funeral.  That left G and I to fend for ourselves for 5 days.  He left on Monday night and they came back Saturday night.  Shannon, Tom, and Baby B had plans to fly in Friday night.
Friday afternoon while teaching, the school nurse called me to let me know that G was there with a fever and complaining of her throat hurting.  So I made some sub plans and left for the afternoon to take Gianna to the doctor.
She diagnosed her with Croup, which totally freaked me out for a bit.  My doctor assured me it was fine, that its going around, and prescribed a steroid.  Then I remembered that Aunt Shanny was coming with her 8 month old and I freaked out again.  Shannon and I went back and forth about what to do, but in the end we decided they all should just come.  I bought G a face mask and she had strict orders Friday night and Saturday to wear it when she was around him.  Thankfully he did not get it (nor did Elia once she got home Saturday night) and the weekend was a large success!  Tom went to the football game while the girls and Brendan and I shopped and went out to eat.

St. Louis: Hanging with the Family

Right before we left.  I hid away some of theirbday presents, plus new packs of crayons etc. for the car ride. 
They were so excited to get in the car.  However, they weren't so excited by the 5th hour.  Or the 9th.

We got in late Friday night so this is the first time they hung out with the cousins-
helping grandpa make banana split pancakes!

Hello Kitty Bingo, of course.

Blanket fort.

Colin taught G how to make rainbows.  

Sweet Baby Anna!
 I was totally reminded of Elia, as she wore a lot of her old
clothes and has the same coloring and cute chubby cheeks!

Ryan graduated from SLUH!  Looking good there Ry.

Deep conversation while they took Elmo out.

Grandpa reading

Filling the bird feeder

Happy Birthday Ice Cream at Oberweiss

Always always helping!  This was right before G accidentally swung
the hose right overElia's head and got water all over Elia!

Meeting Baby Brendan

Gianna and I took a whilrwind 30 hour trip to St. Louis over the weekend. 

My travel buddy

Reading the emergency procedures

Gianna stayed with Grandma the whole time, and I spent my time at Shannon's, loving on the new baby.  He sure is cute!

My mom had us all over to dinner so I got to see Colleen and Bobby, and Ryan too.  More pics to come- these are the ones on my camera and I am having trouble loading the ones form Shan's phone.

Dallas Zoo

Shannon and Tom came in town for NYE.  The only pictures I remembered to take were from when we went to the zoo.  It was such a beautiful day to go to the zoo.

Uncle Tom and Daddy

 

They got so close to this giraffe. 

Tiger in the background

It was an exhausting, but fun day!