The Decemberists

Greetings, faithful readers!  I apologize for the length of time in between posts.  As I'm sure you all are well aware, we moved into our house!  Huzzah!

Before I post pictures of our crazy mess organized dream of a house, here is an update on our activities the past month:

Miss Sophia:  She's came and gone.  I conducted the Great Social Experiment to see if Nolan would recognize her after not seeing her in-person for five months.

Nolan at the airport eating a smurf.
Kidding!
He ate a member of the Blue Man Group.

"Where the heck is Sophie?!"

Nolan did in fact recognize her, which effectively ended my research psychologist career.

Together again!  Sophie and Nolan at the new
house on Friday, December 20.  This was her first
time there.

We did many enjoyable things with Sophie.  As Brian pointed out, it was actually a blessing in disguise that we didn't close on our house Friday, December 20, because we would have been crazy busy trying to get everything moved and we wouldn't have been able to enjoy just spending time together.

Nerding out at the Perot Museum of Nature & Science

Building your own dinosaur.

Nolan stared at this marble slide contraption
for about 20 minutes.  To say he was fascinated
is an understatement.

Probably one of my biggest pet peeves.

Since it was Christmastime, it was important to get together with family.  Brian's cousin and his wife live in Plano, so this enabled Sophie to meet her second-cousins for the first time.

Nathan (age 15 months),  Maddie, (age 5-1/2),
Sophia and Nolan

On Monday, December 23, we braved the mass crowds and did some last-minute shopping.  Rather, Brian and Sophie did last-minute shopping and Nolan and I wandered around wondering why we decided to go with them.

Dinner at the mall.

Most importantly, we were able to have some nice relaxing time together.  Sophie and Nolan got along very well (most of the time...)

Hanging out in the World''s Tiniest Apartment.

Christmas 2013:  Although we were stuck in the World's Tiniest Apartment, Christmas was fabulous.  The kids loaded up on gifts while the grown-ups got loaded.  Christmas 2013 was also my thirtieth birthday(!!!), which I memorably rolled in by puking up crab legs and champagne at 2:30 in the morning.  Glad I can still handle my alcohol.

Good morning, gorgeous.

Oooo... the lights on the tree look so pretty!

Something that was definitely unique about Christmas in Texas was the weather.  I don't think I've ever been able to play outside on December 25 in my pajamas without freezing.

Playing with Sophie's new helicopter...

... which promptly broke within hours of opening it.

Nice pajamas, dude!

An extra house-guest: Since we weren't cramped enough, we decided to help out our friends by watching their son for three days. Brad and Jenny volunteer for the amazing charity Operation Once in a Lifetime and they had the opportunity to fly to NYC to ring the NASDAQ opening bell on December 27.  When their babysitter fell through and their second choice was unable to help out, we knew we had to help them.

As previously mentioned multiple times we were living in the World's Tiniest Apartment, so we decided to get out of there as much as possible.

We checked out the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve...

Garrett making like a troll.

Nature!!

Sophie climbing a Texas mountain.

The boys.

Daddy and daughter.

We also went to the Dallas World Aquarium...

Garrett and Sophie got along pretty well (most of the time).
He's in 5th grade and she's in 7th.

"Mommy's a funny looking fish!"

Nope, not asleep. Just playing possum.

Waiting in line to check out the otters.

This is how Nolan gets around people to
check out the exhibits.

Looking for the otter.

The things were fast. I think that blob in the center of the
photo is the otter, but it could be a tree.  Or Nessie.

Otter!

The otter wanted to play with Nolan.  By "play" I mean scratch
at his body and chew on his face.

Sophie sure liked something in this cage. 

Garrett checking out the fish.

Help!  Brian's in the fish tank!

Mommy and Nolan.

"I want to see the flipping flamingos!"

Closing:  2013 ended quite well as we were able to close on our brand-new Beazer home.  Stay tuned for another update with photos.

At the closing.

Fall Festival: Mega-Church Style

It goes without saying that Texas is known for having a lot of churches.  It's also well-known that some Texan churches are ginormous (Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church, the largest church in the USA, is located in Houston).  There are a few huge ones around the DFW Metroplex, and one of them near our apartment was hosting a family-friendly harvest festival this evening.  Since it was free and it sounded fun, I decided to take Nolan.

The first sign that this was going to be different than any other church festival I had been to before was the sign itself.  It was a custom-printed banner, full color, and large enough to attract traffic going both directions. There wasn't any paint or paper covering up last year's date and time.  This was brand new, printed just for this occasion, and will end up in tomorrow's garbage.  

The second sign that this was going to be interesting was the semis dropping off equipment and rides this morning.

If those two signs weren't enough to convince me, then the traffic controllers waving overflow parking into an adjacent lot should have done the trick.  And it did.

After Nolan and I parked, at the gate we were each handed a custom-printed plastic bag bearing the church's name (Freedom Life).  The greeter instructed me to use my included "campus map" to get a layout of the fair.  The "campus map" was printed on heavy, glossy card stock.  This wasn't from an outdated Xerox machine.

So just what was there for us to do?  There were approximately 12 bouncy house variations, an over-sized boxing ring, a "wipe out" type course, a survival boot-camp course, a mechanical bull, a zip line (not kidding. It was seriously a zip line), those oversized inflatable balls that people roll around in, a trackless train, a petting zoo, and pony rides.  There were games, photo booths, ridiculous amounts of candy, refreshments, several food vendors in trucks, face painting, and a balloon animal "artist."  Here's a few pictures as proof:

View of some bouncy houses

Petting zoo

The younger kids' area.  There were also separate toddler and teenager areas.

Nolan loved this bouncy ship.

Probably because of the slide at the end.

Somehow, Nolan managed to pick up this bunny.

Somehow, Nolan managed to hold it nicely.

Nolan and a scared-to-death chick.

Balloons always mean there's a good time to be had.

Some of the games.

The main food area with some attractions in the center.

Nolan and I had a really good time (of course... there was tons of stuff to do and we didn't have to pay for it) and we're both stuffed from candy.  We both enjoyed completing the boot camp course and I was happy with my yummy cup of hot apple cider.

Honestly, though, I'm not sure how beneficial this was for the church to reach out to the community and create fellowship.  I only talked to one person (a woman from New York who told me all about her son not watching commercials and how she never has to buy him stuff) and nobody from the church ever introduced themselves to me or invited me to come to worship with them.  

Will I do this again next year?  Sure.  Will I ever attend this church on a Sunday morning--or Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening, Saturday evening, or Wednesday evening?  Probably not.  Will my clothes be a smidgen tighter as a direct result of all the candy I consumed?  Absolutely.