Texas BBQ

Texas is known for BBQ.  We're on the search for the best BBQ we can find.  (Don't ask me why I'm blogging about a restaurant.  3 months here, and I am still struggling to find qualities I like, so I've set my mind to try and focus on the good.  But really, people, I can't love a place that doesn't have Fall.  My heart is crying, sobbing, dying for Fall, and it's still in the 90's. I'll stop there.)  It's going to be tough to beat Jim 'n' Nick's cheese biscuits, but we'll survive.  We heard about The Swinging Door. The minute I stepped out of the car I fell in love with Texas. (It lasted until we drove home.  Baby steps.) The smell was out of this world incredible, and the restaurant was kind of out in the country.  It's huge, has great character, and atmosphere. It was exactly what you think of when you think old Texas BBQ restaurant.  The food was good, although the menu was small and they didn't have very great sides, but they did have homemade root beer.  The cowgirl in me comes out at places like this, and I feel like I could be happy smelling smoked meat forever.  I might break down one day and buy Josh's dream ranch.

Tanner tried his first pickle.  He loved it! He kept going back for more.



Girl's Day

Sidney and I had a fun girl's day.  We got our nails done, and then got cupcakes.  I love doing girly things with Sidney. She had this smile plastered to her face the entire time, it was so funny.  And the nail ladies loved her.  They were playing with her hair, too fun!



9 Months

Tanner turned 9 months.  So crazy.  These 9 months out have been a million times better than his 9 months in.

 

Stats:

Weight: 18 lbs, 11 oz.- 32nd %

Length: 27 1/2" - 17th %

Head: 17 1/4" - 17th %

 

He got Josh's small head.

His weight has tapered off from all the crawling, so he's  not as high up as he was, and he's a shorty.

He is crawling so fast and climbing stairs.  We call him Turbo Tanner.

He waves a little bit.

He babbles "Mama" a little bit, and I love it.

He is such a peaceful baby.  I have said that every month, but I just feel so calm around him. I feel like his personality is going to be very calming.

He feeds himself really well.

He has stood up for a couple of seconds on his own.  Scary.
He has 7 teeth.

Kidisms

Over the summer Jayden and Sidney shared a room.  A sleepover every night, they were in heaven.  We would hear them in there every night, laughing and having way too much fun, far past their bedtime.  But it was hard to want them to stop, because they were making memories.  Sometimes it would get out of control, like when they went into the bathroom and started filling up the sink with water, and soaking themselves, or when they rearranged the mattresses to create a bridge from one bed to the other, and then bent the mattress in half and sat on it.  Anyway, by the end of the summer, Jayden kept saying he couldn't wait to get his own room again so he could get some extra sleep, and he was so sick of Sidney keeping him awake.  The first night in our house he said, "YAY! I can sleep tonight!  FINALLY!"  After bedtime prayers and scriptures, they went to bed in their own rooms.  Less than a minute later, he opened the door, dragging his pillow and blanket, went into Sidney's room, and went to bed.  The next night he said, "I'm going to sleep just one more night with Sidney, then I'm going to sleep in my own room."  After the next night, he said, "Actually, I'm going to have sleepovers for the rest of the summer." And they did.  And tonight, Sidney sneaked into Jayden's room, even though it's a school night.  I peeked in there, and it's so cute to see them cuddled up together. 

Sidneyisms

Yesterday I came into the kitchen to find she had cut off a little bit of her hair. 
Me: What are you doing?
Sidney: My hair was sticky so I cut it off.
(In her defense, she really does need a haircut pretty bad.)

Today I was feeding Tanner in his room and she came in crying.  She had burned her finger.  She said she had turned the water too hot, which seemed weird, but I couldn't think of what else it could have been.  Then I went downstairs, realized I hadn't unplugged the iron, and it was sitting flat, where it had begun to burn the ironing board cover.  The house could have burned down.  Awesome.  I always unplug it when I'm done, but was distracted with a crying baby, so forgot.  Hopefully, lesson learned for both of us.

A while ago she randomly said, "I'm nervous to kiss when I get married."  WHAT?  I asked her if she knows what nervous means, and she said no.  Where is she hearing this stuff? 

She got the rolling pin out and was offering everyone back massages.  Then she was singing in a Minnie Mouse voice, "I'll hit you with this rolling pin, so please don't touch."  She got that from a song from her dance recital video.  She's out of control.  Every day, she says something, which makes my jaw drop.

Aquarium

We visited the Houston Aquarium.  We were enjoying ourselves, looking at the fish and sea life, then there was randomly a white tiger, and then the exit.  It was a tiny aquarium, but it looked big, so we were surprised when suddenly we were done.  And after having been to the world's largest aquarium in Atlanta, we will forever be disappointed by any aquarium for the rest of our lives!  Outside they have some fair rides, but in the 100 degree weather, we quickly got tired of being there.

This was the kid's first ferris wheel ride.  Downtown Houston.



Tannerisms

One of my favorite pictures from the last few months.

New Schools

New state means new schools for both of the kids.  Jayden started 2 weeks ago, and is in 2nd grade.  The schools definitely do things differently here.  Not sure how we feel about it yet.  He has had a lot of apprehension about a new school, more homework, and not knowing anyone.  But he has done great so far.  They wear uniforms here.  He rode the bus in the morning the first few days, but we were getting up at 5:50, which is insanely early, so now I drive him.  It was too dark for pictures before school, so we did them after.  He did have some drama on his first day.  He rides the bus home, and thought he had missed his stop, so he had the bus driver turn around.  We got it all figured out, but he was in tears and cried the whole 2 blocks walking home.  I'm sure it will be one of those traumatizing memories he will have from his childhood, but what I hope he remembers is that he said a prayer he would get home to me, and that his prayer was answered.

 

Sidney is in her first year of regular preschool.  She is in her second week, and is loving it.  She keeps thanking me over and over for signing her up for preschool.  She hasn't had any traumatizing experiences yet, but I did when she said her friend from preschool said she can have a boyfriend.  When I told her she is too young, she said, "I can have one whenever I want."  We had a whole conversation about boyfriends, and dating, and I don't even know what else.  And that was after one day of school.  I should not be talking about dating with my 4 year old.  About 2 weeks before school started she planned out all her outfits for the first few days.



8 Months

Tanner is almost 9 months, but I needed to sneak this in here.

 

He got another tooth.

He started crawling!

He plays well by himself, but won't say no to attention.

He scrunches up his face and gives the biggest smiles ever.

This little man loves to eat.



Summer Theme Weeks

Our theme weeks this year were few and far between.  I just couldn't pull it together like I used to.  We didn't even have library cards all summer to get books to tie it all together.

 

Ocean Week

We went to the beach, which I posted about earlier.  We hung sea animals above their beds, and added to it after these pictures were taken.

We painted ocean pictures.

And made this palm tree snack.  Not sure what that look on her face is. 

 

Circus Week

This was probably the best week.  We made these clown pictures.

We had a blast face painting.  We did it a couple of times. 

We had the ultimate circus snack while watching Madagascar 3.

We finished off the week by going to the circus.  So much fun 

 

Monster & Alien Week

We went and saw Monster's University, and I think we also watched an alien movie at home.

Sidney's monster face. 

Our monster food creations. 

Balloon aliens. 

Jayden made this for lunch.

 

Super Hero Week

For this week we went to the children's museum that was having a super hero theme.  Awesome museum, but way too crowded.

Homemade capes with their initials.

You know those really cute photos you see on Pinterest that are like this, but better? 

 

I guess that was it.  How is that for a sad attempt?  We tried having an animal week, and I think we did one thing, but I don't have any pictures.  We kept talking about all these other things and never did them.