Hooray for cousins

When I first moved in with Anne and Rex 6 years ago, I never imagined I would have a house just down the street. What a blessing it is to have some family only a block away. Especially now with Danny - he has so much fun with his cousins nearby. We are just sad we can't live close to all our cousins! Here's a few recent shots of cousin fun.Brenna, Eli, and Danny after a lunch playdate. It's great to have a sister nearby for last minute babysitting trades and lunch fun!Singing and dancing with Matt. He recently picked up his guitar again (I don't know that I'd heard it since Valentine's Day 2003 when he was trying to win my heart over) and has been playing a lot. I love hearing him practice and the kids love dancing and singing along.Eli has been great big brother practice for Danny. Even though Eli's not really old enough to boss around, Danny has fun being the bigger, older cousin. Although I don't know that Danny will be bigger much long (see first picture). :)

Hooray for cousins. Maybe someday we can live closer to our Hong cousins because we always have lots of fun too. At least there's always EISF.

Really?

Tonight Matt took the crib down in Danny's room and set it up in baby sister's room. We put our baby boy to bed in a big bed. His room looked so much older. Is our little baby really growing up so quickly???

Despite being exhausted tonight, I got really nostalgic and was going through old pictures and videos and found this one. Nothing spectacular, but it just captures 1 year old Danny. I think I'll treasure every moment more with this next baby. . . it really does go so fast.

Eggcellent Easter

This year Danny really got into the egg hunting. Maybe that's why he couldn't smile for any pictures - he was too focused on finding the eggs. We went to a ward playgroup egg hunt at Mercer Arboretum and then we also went to a huge egg hunt at a Lutheran church near our house.

Danny also had fun dying Easter eggs this year. He shares his Grandma Couch's focus and intensity, trying to create the perfect egg. Sadly, he still has a way to go before being able to dye an egg without dying his hands.





Easter Sunday was a wonderful day. There were no meetings, so we were able to spend the whole day as a family. Danny slept late, we found our Easter baskets, we ate monkey bread, sausage, and smoothies for breakfast, and then we got ready for church. I was glad our FHE lessons had paid off when Danny remembered that we were celebrating Jesus. He's still trying to get the word resurrection down . . . maybe by next Easter. It was fun to have him retell us the Easter story with his paper tomb from nursery. My handsome guys! Gotta love the matching blues and khaki.

After church Billings came over for a tasty feast with ham, funeral potatoes, fresh green beans, rolls, and the traditional deviled egg chicks and coconut cake. Yes, the chicks are a little creepy, but they are one of my FAVORITE traditions from when I was a kid. I loved helping my mom make the deviled egg chicks. We were all stuffed beyond belief.
So even though this isn't the best family photo ever, I like it because we used the timer and Danny did a good job hiding his baby sister. You can hardly tell that I'm ready to hatch (well, in 2 more months). Happy, happy Easter!

Danny Missin' Granny

We always love when Grandmas and Grandpas come to visit. Grandma Hong was able to come down during her spring break. Danny had SO much fun with his granny. He got sick shortly after she left and I'm pretty sure it's because he was missing all the extra love and attention she gave him.

One afternoon they made Texas shaped ice cream sandwiches. Danny is helping out by eating the brownie crumbs while Granny does the more intensive labor.

Delicious and oh so messy! Another morning we took a trip to the mall and Danny got to ride the carousel. And the highlight of Granny's visit was flying kites, something we'd never done before. Danny finished filling in a potty chart, so chose a Buzz Light Year kite as a prize. Matt got a Transformer's kite and Granny got a Barbie kite. Apparently they had a successful potty week too. :) The wind was perfect the day after we bought the kites, and all three flew great. Dad had to make a few kite rescues, and before the evening was through Buzz had flown too powerfully. He got stuck on a neighbor's roof that was too high to retrieve. Amazingly, Buzz continued to fly up there for at least an hour! Thanks again for a fun visit Grandma Hong!

Popcorn Popping

Though I know some of you are still getting blizzards, we've been thoroughly enjoying our few weeks of Spring. It is great to garden and play outside in shorts and t-shirts all through March. We recently had an FHE lesson about seasons. It was a little tricky to explain the four seasons, since we don't really have 4 seasons in Houston (no snow for winter, no fall colors or leaves falling off trees . . . just warm and hot). Perhaps it would have been more accurate to define our seasons as hurricane season and non-hurricane season. :)

We've noticed all the "popcorn blossoms" out on the trees lately, and Danny was a big help planting flowers in front of the house (he watered the flowers and then sprayed himself down with the hose) so we decided to make our own popcorn blossoms. Danny loved using the popcorn maker Grandma Angie and G-Pops sent for Christmas. If you haven't been around Danny for a while, you'll love the Danny giggles as they wait for the popcorn to start popping.

He had a hard time gluing the popcorn pieces on our popcorn tree because they were just so tasty to eat. We'll be using the popper more regularly now that we realize how tasty and fun it is! Thanks for a fun Christmas present!

Fun at the Fair

It's no Eastern Idaho State Fair, but the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is pretty fun. This was the first year we haven't gone to the actual Rodeo and a concert. In the past we've been able to see Bon Jovi, Amy Grant, Martina McBride, Rascal Flatts, and someone else I can't remember. The concerts are tons of fun, but this year we just headed down for the animals, food, and carnival rides. Danny had a blast!! Here he's learning about the process of farm to market. At the end he traded all his goods in for money at the farmer's market, then purchased some real apple juice and raisins at the store. He enjoyed this display so much that we went through it twice.
I witnessed my first pig races, which were quite exciting, and we also ate some tasty (cowboy burritos, cinnamon rolls, corn on the cob) and not so tasty (chicken fried bacon) food. We did not find anywhere to buy teriyaki chicken, ham fried rice, or egg rolls. Maybe the Good Wok could do a little expansion. :)

After lots of fun looking at longhorns, chickens, and goats we decided to head back over to the carnival. We bought enough tickets for two rides and Danny chose the ferris wheel and super slide. It's always hard to tell who's having more fun - the big guy or little guy. I sure do love my guys!

Who's the bigger kid?

We had some time between disembarking the cruise and getting on our flight back to Houston, so Rex, Alex, Brenna, and our crew ventured over to the Tampa Aquarium - just a short walk from the cruise terminal. I never could get a good picture of the kids with the sharks, but the outdoor play area with surfing and pirate ships provided some good photo ops. Something about bright sunlight vs. dim spooky shark lighting. My favorite is the video of the water play area. I think the big boys had as much fun as the littler ones.