Polar Vortex 2013

This is the face of the Polar Vortex of December 2013. The face of a kid who got to miss THREE days of school and was home for FIVE days having lots of fun. (See picture at bottom of post to see what the parent's face looked like.) The late evening of Tate's 7th birthday, the front blew in. For the next five days "we" (not all of us) were stuck at home as there were several layers of sleet and ice all over the Metroplex. Not the fun fluffy snow to build snowmen with, but the kind of ice that shuts everything down. The kind of ice that makes it tricky just walking to get the mail. But did that stop this kid?

Nope. This picture was after three straight hours outside. All kinds of sledding games were created and played. The high temperature of 27 degrees that quickly fell throughout the day did not deter his efforts.

What was tricky was that the white stuff looked a little deceiving and was really slippery. This picture is of the boots I accidentally left out the first night. Woops. Looks like pretty dusty snow. But I had to pry these suckers out of the brick of ice that had formed. Crazy.

What kind of parent lets their kid go outside in negative windchill with short socks on???!!! A parent who was so quick to send said kid OUTSIDE that she forgot to inspect for appropriate socks.

All kinds of neighborhood kid action going on. Recycling bins and trash can lids as sleds. This is Texas.

Notice that a certain member of the family is missing from the pics. Will went outside in this for approximately 5.3 seconds, slipped a little on the ice, and then wanted nothing to do with it. Surely the "rules" of how much screen time is advised is null and void when you're stuck in the house for FIVE days? Surely.

But not all of us stayed stuck in the house. Having Wade's office only 15-20 minutes from home is a wonderful thing for our family 99% of the time. Except maybe on ice days. "Soooo, when are you coming home?" was a text sent just a few times over those five days.

But he wasn't at the office the whole time. He had no issues with driving on the ice (or maybe has more of an issue with cabin fever), so he was happy to go by his parent's house since they couldn't get their cars out of their driveway. Tate went along for the outing, and as a result, got one of the best sledding rides ever!  "That Was Awesome!!!!" is what you can hear a couple hundred yards away. :)


And a special treat amidst all of the weather craziness was getting to see a friend we met during our most recent trip to Haiti. She got stuck at the DFW Airport while flying from Haiti to visit family in Lubbock. Instead of braving a cot with the 1,000+ people stuck at the airport, she braved a 7 year old's room filled with Legos for two nights.  (And this gave us much motivation to get our guest room finished!). It was a lot of fun having Suzan here. We even risked her life by driving on the ice at night to go out to dinner for some good 'ol Tex Mex.

This pic below was being shared all over Facebook. Cracked me up because it is SO true. Why are my thoughts so loud? On the 5th day, I freaked...there's no Day 5 on the chart. What do we do??!! :) Thankfully that's when it finally got above 32 and stayed there.

Misc. November

Every November, I host the annual Holiday Trunk Show at my house where all my talented and creative friends who have their own businesses get to set up shop at the same time. It was another year of about 100 people coming throughout the night. So much fun getting to see so many people and doing some great shopping!

I love that one of my favorite charities is supported as well helping some incredible women in Haiti.

I love this picture. After Wade brought the boys home and put them in bed, I could still see a certain someone's little face peeking out from upstairs watching all of the fun. :)

When brother sweetness happens, I have to capture it. Pretty sure someone hit the other within five minutes of taking this picture, but hey, it's baby steps, right? :)

'50s Day at Tate's school (50th Day of School) was pretty adorable. Tate even got to go in a vintage Ygnacio Valley High School letter sweater, thanks to Grandpa. Now granted, it's actually from the '60s, but who is really counting?

Will's school had a fundraiser run-a-thon as well. He said he had fun and got to "go fast!"

Someone learned how to flip a pancake! That's an important skill around here, because we eat a lot of pancakes.

 And just when I think he can't get any cuter, he turns around and smiles for the camera like this.

A happy/sad part of November was that Will changed classes and teachers. The happy part is because he had been making such great progress with his speech. The wonderful teachers at his school saw that with his increased speech, it would serve him well to be in a class with more verbal peers. So we said goodbye to Ms. Cindy's class. We are so thankful to Ms. Cindy for her graceful way of helping our family and Will transition to the new school. And so thankful that she was an advocate for Will to get him placed in the environment that would help him progress even more.

 These two have a love/hate relationship. :)

And finally, I love discovering Tate's Lego creations. My theory on this one was that instead of a ball pit, Han Solo is having a blast in a gun pit while the rest wait patiently in line. :)

KHES Fun Run

Our PTA at Tate's school had the Cowboy Stampede Fun Run to raise money to buy new iPads. It was perfect weather and a great day. All of the kids (and teachers) seemed to have a blast. Tate was pretty excited about running 22 laps!

Thanksgiving 2013

We had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving with both sets of families. On the Strzinek side, there is always a fun time had running around outside on the golf course at MoMere & Poppy's house. And of course if you find big sticks laying around, they will be turned into weapons somehow. :)

A treat for all of us was getting to see Wade's cousin Courtney. She was one of our flower girls at our wedding, and we hadn't seen her in years. So much fun catching up and reminiscing about the Thanksgivings years before when she was a kid and would come stay with us for the night.

And it isn't a major holiday, if some kind of crazy hat isn't involved. :)

The next day we celebrated Thanksgiving all over again but with the Enright side of the family. I barely got any pictures for some reason. But we all had a great time and enjoyed spending time with the Barberenas, who are practically family.

During the day, Shannon & I took the three big kids to see Frozen. I never would've guessed when we saw it then, that it would become such a huge movie. All the kids enjoyed it, and it was fun seeing a sister movie with my sister!

"Like a little baby unicorn!"  :)