The Riverwalk

We played tourists in downtown San Antonio. We walked down memory lane and showed the kids Frost Bank where both of my parents worked when they were young and where I worked as a teller and "information girl" during 2 summers in college. Then we ate at my FAVORITE Mexican Restaurant. It was just as yummy as I remember. Then we walked the Riverwalk to the Alamo. We stopped for photos like a true tourist along the way.

Omie and Maddi and Cade paused for a photo inside the Hyatt Regency. The Hyatt on the Riverwalk is where Brett and I had our wedding reception 10 years ago (almost 10 years, May 30th is the big day). We went back to the ballroom to show the kids where we had our reception. Then the kids favorite part of the day was riding the glass elevators up and down to the highest floor. It's the little things that make a difference to kids.

Brett and I were reinacting a cheesy pose that we had taken at our reception. They still have the same crazy carpet they had 10 years ago and we still look like goofballs in "the pose".

In 10 years our love has grown and so has our family! Brett, Maddi and Cade are everything I dreamed of 10 years ago and so much more. In fact, they are so much more than I could have dreamed that I no longer dream of having 4 or 5 kids. The two I have complete our family perfectly!

At RiverCenter Mall we went in a magic store and the kids went over to the fortune telling machine. They thought the creepy lady in the box was great and they thought the magic tricks they were demonstrating were really cool and wanted to buy them all.

REMEMBER THE ALAMO! There were too many people in line to take the tour inside, but we got our picture our front and then walked in one of the exhibits on the side. Me and my mom tried our best to make up stories as we remembered from school about the Alamo to tell the kids all about what they were seeing in the exhibits. When Brett came by and heard our stories, he was not convinced that we knew what we were talking about. Notice we are wearing tank tops and shorts. Ahhhhh.....80 degrees with sunshine. It was so nice to have warm weather for awhile.

A typical tourist shot on one of the bridges on the Riverwalk.

One of my favorite memories of my dad is this grate on the way to Mexican Manhattan. It blows air out and my dad would always crack up when he stood on it and his shirt would balloon. One time my Aunt Lynn was visiting and we took her to eat downtown and my dad had her stand on the grate. She was very surprised when her skirt blew up over her head. My dad and her were cracking up and I just thought it was so funny that she fell for his trick. The kids thought it was really fun to get all wind blown from the bottom up.

Sea World and more fun in San Antonio

Breezy, Blake, Maison, Maddi, and Cade trying to pet the dolphins. That is one of my favorite parts of Sea World. It was such a nice warm day for Sea World. A little windy, but still a beautiful day and we all had a blast and were warn out by the time we left.
Shamu! Cade and Brett sat in the Splash Zone because really wanted to get wet. You can see Brett's head in the gray cap. Cade was very disappointed that he didn't get wet.
Ugh, I forgot to rotate the picture and now I don't know how to fix it! Maddi is such a good cousin and so nice to have around to help keep an eye on Blake and Case. They are little monkey boys climbing on EVERYTHING.
Cade was being a little sh** when we tried to get a photo in Natural Bridge Cavern. It was really cool to see the cave.
Cade and Case were speding some time together. Cade has come such a long way with babies. He used to not even look at them.
Breezy with her 3 little ones dying Easter eggs on Omie's porch.
Another photo attempt with Omie, Grandad and the 5 grandkids with Easter baskets from Omie and Grandad. Maison is the w.t. baby in her diaper. Breezy took her clothes off so she wouldn't get egg dye on them and then Maison didn't want to put her clothes back on.
Maddi thought she was beautiful with all the confetti from cascarones in her hair.
My brother Todd was gone from his kids for a few days and when he got to my mom's all 3 of his little ones wanted Daddy right away. He picked up one kid and then the others were crying for their daddy too.
Cade, Ella, and Maddi. Ella is my cousin Alexa's little girl who lives in Colorado. They used to live in Arlington and we would get together with them. Then we both moved to the snow and cold. It was so nice to see Alexa, Ella, Uncle Greg and Aunt Gale again.
Maddi made a friend in her step Aunt Miria (? not sure of the spelling). They played dots for a long time.
I LOVE this picture of Cade getting love from Blake. Cade was hiding under the kitchen counter/desk area and Blake came right up to give him love. So sweet!

Happy Easter

It was a fun Easter with the 5 cousins at Omie's house. We missed having Paul and Benton with us, but then again that would have been even more chaos! Cade is holding Blake, Maison is in the middle, and Maddi is holding Case. They must have been really good kids because the Easter Bunny hid LOTS of eggs for the kids. The twins weren't really into picking them up but they did love to eat the jelly beans inside.
Cade, however, was VERY into finding eggs. Maddi got to an egg before Cade did and Cade had a nice big fat fit over it. Like he had room for it in his basket anyway. And of course I couldn't tell him, but his mommy gets in his candy when he isn't looking and eats it all anyway!
An attempt at a photo with Omie and Grandad. Seems like yesterday that Maddi and Cade were the size of Maison and the boys. Now look, they're all grown up! It makes me so sad.
A McDonald family photo attempt. We enjoyed hunting for eggs without snow to contend with.
A tradition in San Antonio, cascarones (confetti eggs). Cade had just smashed an egg on Brett and Brett was getting him back. We all got up and enjoyed a nice big breakfast of blueberry pancakes and sausage that Omie made for us. Then we had the egg hunt and pictures and we were still early to church. Man, are we good or what?!?

Last Day in Texas and First Day with Maison

Before we left San Antonio we were trying to find a Chick Fil A to have one last Oreo Cookie Shake. We drove by Trinity University and decided to stop by and show the kids their Pa's picture in the Hall of Fame. They were proud to see their Grandpa was such a talented baseball pitcher.
Saying goodbye to Maison at the airport wasn't easy for Todd and Breezy. But Maison was such a big girl and she was ready to get on the airplane without hesitation.
Poor Breezy was having a very hard time saying by to her little girl. Cade said, "Don't worry Breezy, we'll take good care of her." How sweet is that?
Maison was so big and pulled the princess backpack with her all over the airport.
Cade and Maison enjoyed movies on the plane. All of the kids were perfect on the airplane.
Our first day back home was nice and windy and cold.
Maison wasn't much of a fan of the wind but she played for a while then we went back in to warm up.
How fun! I forgot the camera yesterday but we went to Chuck E Cheese and the park. It was much less windy and nice and sunny so we stayed and played for a long time.

Some pics from Dallas area visit

We are back from Texas and I will slowly put up pictures from our trip. We had a great time seeing friends and family. I apologize they are all out of order, but at least they're up! I brought my 2 1/2 year old niece home with me, so we are enjoying having a little one around the house, but I don't have as much free time to blog. It's amazing how one extra kid can add so much more work! Pics of Maison, my niece visiting, coming soon...

While in Allen we visited with Maddi's kinder teacher, Miss Phillips. She was such a great teacher and Maddi and her adore each other.
Sunday evening we got together with Kim and Dusti and their families at Kim's beautiful new home. The kids and adults all had a great time playing and talking with each other. How our lives have changed from the good old college days.
This is Dusti's little girl, Reece, and Kim's little boy, Tanner. They were precious and gave each other many hugs and kisses. A very young romance!
Maddi spent the night at Grammy's house. Cade chose not to stay the night because Mommy wasn't staying with him.
Maddi with Aunt Becca. Maddi always enjoys hanging out with her sweet Aunt.
Maddi was trying to get Grace (Joel and Sara's little one) to sit with her for a picture. Grace doesn't really like to slow down for pictures. We enjoyed Grace and she enjoyed soaking up all of the attention.
The kids enjoyed a snack break before we left the Chicago O'Hare airport. We were very lucky and all of our flights were on time and uneventful.
5 minutes before we landed Cade fell asleep. Poor Brett had to carry his sleeping dead weight to baggage claim where we finally got him to wake up.
The kids were so excited to see Uncle Joel at the airport!
Joel bought us all Texas A&M basketball shirts and we were quite happy since we can't get Aggie or Cowboys attire in Chicago. Brett and Jesse enjoyed watching the basketball game.
The morning before we left for our trip Cade went to the clubhouse for an egg hunt and brunch. Poor Maddi had to miss it because she was at dance.

We'll be back y'all

I'm practicing my Texan talk because we are flying south! We are leaving this afternoon after Maddi's dance and the brunch and egg hunt at the clubhouse. We'll stop in Dallas for 48 hours and then head to San Antonio for a week. We have actually had beautiful "warm" days in the 50s for the last 2 days so I am so ready to soak up even more warm weather in Texas. Today we're back in the 30s for highs so it's a great time to head south. We'll be back with lots of pictures from our trip soon!

I leave you with these random thoughts:

1. Don't you hate when you get a manicure and the polish comes off the next day? I love getting manis/pedis but I hate when the polish starts chipping. It looks worse than not even getting a manicure at all! It almost makes me want to get acrylic nails so the polish will stay but it's so bad for your nails, ugh....

2. We have had a warm up in the 50's the last couple days which means the snow has melted and the ground is thawing. Our dog has been chasing our neighbor dogs along the fence and has turned into a mud ball two days in a row. The ground is not muddy, but when she runs it makes the wetness slosh up at her belly and legs. We have had to give her a bath, which she really needed the first day just because she was due for one anyway. But last night I was not thrilled to bathe a dog that was nice and clean before she ventured outside. The problem is that once she gets out and is barking/chasing the other dogs I can not get her to come inside so she stays out forever and just gets muddier and muddier.

3. Cade had a fever Thursday afternoon. Kept him home from school Friday and he hasn't had a fever at all. We'll keep our fingers crossed that he stays well for our trip. His asthma has kicked in and we are in need of more of the daily inhaler preventative. I went to get it filled the other day and was told our insurance will only cover it twice per calendar year. What?!? They want us to use the mail in pharmacy. That's fine, but we need it now! I can't wait for the mail, especially because we'll be out of town. It's over $100 if we buy it without insurance. Thanks for letting me know the rules have changed. We've been getting it for about 4 years now. I have a love/hate relationship with our insurance. It's mostly hate, but I love that we have it, I guess.

4. Looking for a good movie? We watched Mr. Brooks last week. It's pretty gross and sort of weird, but pretty good. How's that for a movie revue? The men will like it!

Down for the count?

So the last post said nothing can keep Maddi down. Now I'm thinking she's down for the count. This is the third day she is sick. Not so sick today, but still has a low fever around 100 so I can't send her to school. She is bored, I'm bored and I REALLY hope she can go back to school tomorrow. This bug is nasty and everyone who has had it has been down for a few days and then it seems to come back. So fun. She has been my little shadow when she is feeling well and has energy than it's back to the couch to get some rest because she is really low on energy. I've been doing "home school" with her to keep her up on her school work. She is missing next week of school because we're going to visit family in Texas. Looks like I'll still be "home schooling" for another week and then I'm retiring from being a "home school teacher" hopefully for a long time!

I get knocked down....

but I get up again! Never gonna keep me down.

This seems to be Maddi's theme song lately. She woke Friday with fever, sore throat and threw up. Took her to the doctor and it was not strep throat, maybe the flu, but probably a virus because she didn't have a cough or anything. By Friday afternoon she was running around like her normal self. Saturday she went to two birthday parties and had her friend Maddie sleep over. She woke up Sunday with a tummy ache (no vomit), headache and 102 fever. Ugh. She stayed on the couch while her friend played with Cade. She later ate pancakes and was feeling better. She ran around like her normal self with her friend Maddie H. and we've ordered her to the couch for the afternoon since her friend has gone home. Oh yeah, might be the flue since she now has a cough, sneezing, and body aches. Brett is all achey now too and I'm not feeling great, but I think I'm more tired than anything. I just hope Maddi feels better and the rest of us can avoid whatever she has. Her are some pictures from the sleep over last night and this morning.

The kids were playing "chase the flashlight". It was actually very dark and I used my "night portrait" mode and it turned out like this.
Maddi is now in control of the flashlight.
TWISTER!
Crafts with Maddi and Maddie. It's so confusing to have two girls with the same name around. Our Maddi is Maddison and the friend is Madelyn, so we tried to call them by their real names, but we'd forget and get everyone confused. They are in the same class at school and they go by Maddi M. and Maddie H. They actually like that they have the same name and like to pretend they are twins, but then again my Maddi tries to be twins with Cade too. She is obsessed with twins and really wants twins when is a mommy. For now she can practice being a twin mommy on Blake and Case, her boy twin cousins.

I Spy with my Little Eye....

Cade's Legos ALL OVER MY HOUSE!!!!
Here is a shot of Cade yesterday with his Lego explosion in the play room. Doesn't he look happy surrounded by Legos!?! Let me assure you he was not so happy when he and I spent FOREVER cleaning up the Legos.
So this morning I realized although the play room Legos were cleaned up, I found them on the coffee table in the family room. If you look closely, you'll see all sorts of other "junk" on the table including a sock of Maddi's, a sock of Cade's, an egg carton (they were playing a game with it), a pokeball, Cade's toy bag, and who knows what else.
This is the lovely pile found on Cade's dresser.
This creation is on Brett's nightstand. He created this Tuesday and Brett was working late and Cade went to bed before Brett got home. He left this for Brett to see when he got home from work. Isn't that sweet? But, alright already, he saw the creation now put it with the rest of your creations in the play room!

This would be the random pieces from the Batman Jail found on my dresser. He took it apart and was in the process of getting it back together. Ugh....

I love that he is so creative with Legos and I don't want to stifle his imagination, but I really don't want to see Legos everywhere I turn. It's too bad that he was forced to clean up his pile in their bathroom and on the office desk before I could get pictures of those too.

I keep reminding myself that he will have a child just like him one day. It all works out in the end!