Memorial Day weekend

Friday afternoon we started our holiday weekend with a visit from Cheyenne and Kingston. The kids had a great time playing together as usual.


Bubble fun- pardon the unattractive comforter I was drying in the background. :)


Ethan recently started pushing sister around on the Mickey Mouse ride on toy.
She loves it and Kingston did as well.


Happy kiddos.

Saturday morning we gathered swimming gear and headed to Nancy and Ed's house in Benbrook. We planned to play outside with their new swing set, go swimming and grill lunch together. We arrived and the kids immediately headed out back. It was a really nice morning and we enjoyed spending it outside. They recently had a stone patio laid and it was wonderful. It gave the kids ample room to drive their cars and play with toys. We ended up not going swimming because it was too cold that morning. The water was ice cold! Dallas thought it was fine but Nancy and I out voted him. The kids had a lot of fun playing and we had a good time visiting.


Ethan did not mind being in the toddler swing one bit. They all took turns on the swings. The kids and Allison play so well together.



Baby Riley enjoying being outside with the big kids.

I was having major stomach issues while we were there. We had drove through Whataburger in Fort Worth on the way just to grab something small to eat. We knew we wouldn't be eating until lunch and we had been in too big of a rush to eat at home. We grabbed the kids a biscuit and I got a sausage biscuit. By the time we arrived at their house I did not feel very well. My stomach continued to hurt for the entire visit. Once it was lunch time I really started feeling bad. I sat there while everyone was eating trying to hold it together. I finally surrendered and excused myself to the bathroom. Safe to say I had food poisoning. We left shortly after and headed home. By the time we got home I was even sicker. I spent the rest of the day, night and half the next morning sick as a dog! It was so horrible. I couldn't even drink a sip of water or I would be dry heaving. Thank goodness I have a wonderful husband who stepped up and took care of the kids the rest of the day. It has taken me a good 6 days to get over this and I would not wish it on anyone.

Sunday was my little brother, Brandon's, 21st birthday. I can't believe that he is that old! He is 7 years younger than me and has always just been a little kid. Now he is a grown man, how weird! We had ask him if he wanted to go out for his 21st a few weeks back but he was going to be out of town. His plans fell threw so we ended up getting to hang out with him after all. I was the designated driver since I was still feeling sick anyway I knew I wouldn't be drinking. Dallas' parents came over to watch the kids and we headed out that evening. Normally Sunday would not be the ideal night to go out but since everyone was off for Memorial Day the following day we knew it would be fun. We talked April and Jen into going out with us as well and we all headed to Lower Greenville in Dallas. We only went to two different bars but we had such a great time! I imagine it was not the 'crazy' time he would have had with his own friends but I truly think Brandon had a good time. Our crowd sits around the tables and talks and laughs all night. The 21 year old crowd dances and really parties. We can't even begin to party like that anymore. I was surprised we all made it to 2:00 am without falling asleep in our chairs. We stopped at Ihop on the way home to grab something to eat. All I can say is there are some real weirdos out at 2 something in the morning. Linda and Micheal woke up with the kids that morning and I did not get out of bed until almost noon. Can you believe that! I was still trying to sleep off that food poisoning. We had such a great time hanging out! Too bad I did not take one stinking picture the entire night. Sorry! Happy Birthday Little Bro!

Monday, Memorial Day, Mike and April were breaking in their new grill and having everyone over. We were both so exhausted but decided to go anyway. You can't use the excuse that you are tired from going out when the group you went out with is there. I knew I would not be the only one who looked like I had been ran over by a semi truck. Ha! The kids were really excited about going to play with Reese. When we showed up the kids immediately took off to Reese's room and we did not have to worry about them much. They are old enough now to really play with Reese. She is old enough to direct them with what she wants to do and they are old enough to follow her. None of them are old enough yet to fight about what they are doing either. Bliss!

The kids were playing "night, night" at one point and I did not have my camera with me. All three would lay on Reese's bed and play like they were sleeping. Ethan even fake snores, so adorable! April would turn off the light while they slept. Then she would turn the light on and they would all jump up and scream with glee. Then it would start over again and again and again.

At one point they were all lined up in the living room turning circles. They would turn, turn, turn until Reese fell down and then Ethan and Paige would follow.

My favorite game by far was when they were playing kitty cats. Near the end of the visit we hear a weird almost squealing sound coming from the hall. We step in the living room to see Reese crawling on her hands and knees followed by Paige and then Ethan. They were meowing and crawling like cats! It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. They crawled all through the living room, kitchen and around the island. It would have been even cuter if we weren't trying to clean up at that exact moment. I of course did not have my camera for any of these cute moments. This was the first time the kids have ever followed behind someone using play imagination in front of me. It was so cute and it made me very excited for the future. I think they will have many years of playing fun imaginative games with Reese. Thanks for having us over Mike and April! The food was wonderful, the company was great and the kids had a blast!


They all said Cheese for me!




Paige was the only one who played "night, night" for me when I ask her to.




Reese loves her Uncle D so much!


Everyone on Dallas!


We were all so beat from the long weekend!

Easy maybe too easy???

We have recently transitioned the kids from their cribs to their toddler beds. They have done absolutely amazing with the change! We ordered the beds a few months ago but one was damaged in shipping. Rather than send the entire bed back we called the company and had the damaged piece ordered to ship to us. However the piece was back ordered and would not be able to be shipped to us until the last day of April. Obviously this certain piece was being broken during shipping due to insufficient packing prior to shipping. I was not happy but did not really have any other choice than to shut up and wait for the piece to arrive.

We decided to go ahead and switch Ethan to the undamaged toddler bed and have Paige remain in her crib until the replacement piece arrived. Ethan was the one climbing out of his crib. He tends to go to sleep much quicker than Paige. He is also the lesser of the wild sleepers out of the two of them. We put his big boy bed together and he started sleeping in it immediately. This was about a month and a half ago and he has done fabulous!

Ethan has not once gotten out of his bed and/or left his room! He got out of his bed the third day during nap but he grabbed his blanket in the chair and directly ran back to bed. I have only found him asleep in the floor one time. He has done excellent with getting used to sleeping with covers, sleeping on only one end of the bed and essentially the entire transition.

He did start having separation anxiety in the last three weeks when we leave the room at bedtime but he is slowly getting better. I have to say good night then step back and wait a few minutes. Then I step back further by the door and wait for a few more minutes. Finally I open the door and stand there a little while. He raises his head a few times every time you move further back but this has seemed to work very well. He doesn't get up and by the time you make it out of the door and shut it he is fine. He does not even get out of bed in the morning or after nap until I come get him. He just sits or lays in bed and plays. Amazing!

We finally received Paige's replacement piece for her toddler bed a few weeks ago. Dallas quickly put her bed together and we moved her to the bed that Monday. I was a little more worried about Paige's transition simply because she stays awake playing in bed for over an hour almost every night. She is such a wild sleeper and was always all over the crib throughout the night. She always kicks out of any blanket I put on her and won't stay on a pillow for more than a few hours.

We started Paige on a Monday night because I did not want to wait an entire week just to start on a Friday. I figured if it blew up in my face I could just put her back in the crib until the weekend. There was no need she did wonderful! She has not gotten out of her bed one time! She still stays awake over an hour every night before she falls asleep but she plays on her bed.

The last week she has gotten better about staying on the bed while asleep too. The first four days I found her on the floor sleeping twice each night. I have Ethan's big blue body pillow next to her bed so if she does fall out of the bed it is a soft landing. She actually does not 'fall' out of bed she inches out of bed. I watched her one night on the monitor. She slowly worms her way down the bed then after a few flops from one side to the other side she has at least a leg off the bed. She then proceeds to get another leg off the bed and eventually she is on her knees on the body pillow with her top half still on the bed. Every time I have found her on the floor she is curled up in the corner of the bed, the pillow and the wall. It is so cute. I have to resist grabbing my camera in the middle of the night.

She also has not gotten up from bed until I come to get her. I left her bedroom door open this morning waiting for her to wake up and I thought I heard her. I walk in her room and she is sitting up in bed playing. Even with her bedroom door wide open she still sat there until I came and got her. Just crazy!

I have to say I love and hate several things about the new toddler beds. I love that I can sit on the floor and pat them or sing to them. I don't have to lean over that damn rail and squirm in pain from my lower back. I can lay on the floor next to them and still see them easily. I can even lay in bed with them somewhat if I want to. It is much easier to get to them in the middle of the night for medicine or to check a temperature. I also don't have to pick them up anymore. They can get in and out of bed alone. My back is so happy! It is also so much easier to change the sheets in the open toddler bed than in the crib. My favorite thing about the bed is the way the kids react. They are so proud and thrilled to be big kids sleeping in their big beds!

The biggest complaint I have with the toddler beds currently is the cover situation. Both of the kids were used to wearing footy pjs to bed almost every night. They had a hard time staying in blankets so we used swaddle blankets until they out grew them. We used sleep sacks after that until they outgrew those. The finally step of guaranteed warm sleeping was footy pjs. I am trying my best to get them used to sleeping in sheets and a comforter now. I can't put them in heavy pjs because combined with covers they would burn up. However they don't really stay under the covers all night so when they kick out in light pjs then they wake up freezing. Geez! I now have Ethan pretty much trained to stay in his covers and can dress him in light pjs. Paige is still having some trouble with this but she is getting better. I absolutely despise getting up all hours of the night to tuck them back in. I wake up even when they are not making any noise to check and see if they are covered up or not. Dallas swears that they are kicking out of the covers because they are hot but I disagree. When I check them their little legs are ice cold and they are in a little ball shivering. I am now trying to really 'tuck' the covers in on both sides very well so they won't come lose. This has seemed to work a little bit but the rest is just going to have to be learned.

I almost feel guilty that our experience with the toddler beds has been so easy. We never had a problem dropping the bottle, moving to the sippy cup or even quitting a pacifier. They never would take a pacifier. We have had some incredibly easy transitions with some major hurdles for young children. Everyone I know told me not to rush into getting them toddler beds because then they were free and life would be completely different. It hasn't been at all. I think it helps that our kids are so very routine and scheduled. They have always known exactly when bedtime is and what is expected of them. They like their sleep and apparently their new beds too!

I will add some pictures of their new beds asap!

Abbey's Playtown

Sunday evening we decided to get the kids out of the house. We could not go outside in the backyard or to the park because of the muddy conditions. We have been trying to get out and do something as a family at least once a weekend. The kids were very restless and honestly so were we. I had found an ad in one of the coupon magazines a few months back for a indoor play area that I wanted to try. We packed up the kids and decided it was time to check it out.

The place was called 'Abbey's Playtown' and it was located off I-20 in Grand Prairie. I had done my research on the place prior and it sounded great. It was locally owned by two families. My favorite thing about this place is it was made for toddlers and young children only!!! I absolutely despise taking the kids to the Parks Mall to play because of the older children. We are never there more than 5 minutes and one of the kids is knocked down by some 12 year old wild child with no parents in site. Just chaps my hide! So I was very excited about not having to worry about the kids getting hurt by routy bigger kids.

It was easy to find with the directions from the website. Simply take I 20 E, (from SW Arlington) exit 161, continue straight through the light for 161. Make a right on Robinson and another right on Polo Dr. It is down a little bit on the right in a strip mall. When we drove up I was not impressed by the outside but was still eager to go inside.

We walked in the front door and I knew instantly we would be back! They have a fenced off area to store your shoes. You have to complete a waiver upon your first visit but not after that. You pay up front per child. The normal rate is $7.00 a child but the coupon brings it down to $6 or $5 a child. There is NO limit of time the children can play. They have picnic tables up front to eat, drink and rest. They even have a flat screen set up with accessibility to the remote for the parents!

You can bring your own food and drinks! They have toddlers and understand that a lot of what they eat comes from home. They do have drinks and snacks to purchase if you wish but you are not forced to like most places. If you do decide to purchase a snack I noticed individual packages of goldfish were $0.50 which is very reasonable!

The walls were all bright colors with familiar children's characters on the walls. They had children's songs playing in the background while we played. The kids would stop playing every once in a while to dance to the songs they recognized. So cute! I was also very impressed by how clean the place was. Not only were the play areas clean but also the bathrooms were nice. The bathrooms were very clean with new clean changing tables. The women's bathroom was decorated with Disney princesses which I noticed made the kids not so uneasy about laying down in a strange place to change diapers. They even had a stool for the kids to stand on and wash there hands. I credited the owners for thinking of pretty much everything.

Once we got all of our shoes off the kids took off to the bounce house as I grabbed us a table. Once I dropped all of our stuff I made my way over to see if they were having fun. The were jumping, laughing and screaming with glee.


Don't all kids love bounce houses! The signs said 3 and up to get in the bounce house but they knew our kids ages and never said anything to us about it.

and there she goes...
They have two of the smaller roller coasters set up directly next to each other. For all you twin parents- this was a great opportunity to race the kids! I don't know who got a bigger kick out of it, the kids or Dallas and I!


They have numerous cars, motorcycles, trucks and even tractors for the kids to ride with lanes made on the floor with tape. There are signs to direct traffic too. :)

They have two average toddler swings but they are suspended from a rafter about 5 feet in the air. The swings have a lot of room to fly and the kids get a kick out of being so high off the ground.

Ethan's first time swinging. He looked a little concerned with the height but quickly was smiling and enjoying himself.

Fly by picture :)


The train is a large blow up obstacle course that looked fun. Neither one of our kids were interested in it this time.

I never could catch Paige's face while swinging but it was pure delight! She kept standing under the swing saying, "Swing, yes... yes!" All the while jumping up and down and pointing with excitement. I flashed back to when she was about 4 months old. She would bounce and swing for hours in the jumper that attached to the top of the door frame. This was the same thing generally. She could fly through the air and spin around in circles. The suspended swing was definitely Paige's favorite activity.


They have a rack of dress up clothes, a box of hats, a vanity and a mirror for hours of imagination fun.

Through the tunnel and in the tent. Down the slide she goes.

Ethan's favorite activity by far was the larger roller coaster! It was almost chest high to me and very sturdy. The child is supposed to be able to push the car up the ramp while walking up the stairs behind it. Ethan could do it but I liked to help him out so it wouldn't take long in between rides. The child then pushes off on the orange sides of the coaster.


Up he goes... and he is ready for take off!


Over two speed bumps... Zoom...

and into the blow up for a landing!
Honestly this looked like so much fun. Dallas and I both wished we could have fit in it! Ha!


There were no infants there so the kids played in the infant area with the baby toys too.


They have a large playhouse full of dishes and such.


Paige enjoyed playing in the wrap around kitchen. She was really obsessed with the pepper grinder. She was just adorable playing in the kitchen.

They also had a climbing mountain, balls and basketball goals and even huge bowling pens and balls. Dallas decided it would be fun to play bowling with babies. He would set up all the pins, put the kids in one of the cars and push them into the pens. They had a blast!

We were the only people in the place besides the two owning families. Abbey from 'Abbey's Playtown' was actually there playing with her brother. It made me sad to see such a wonderful place not being utilized. I talked with one of the owners and told him I would be passing the information for this place on to others. He said that they were currently trying to figure out better ways of advertising. I told him about my Mother's of Multiplies club and trying to get together a play date for them. He said that for groups they only charge $5.00 per kid as long as you have ten kids. That is only 5 families for the multiples club. :) He said to let him know through his email on the business card if I wanted to request a group time. He said they would gladly open the place during non business hours so our group could have it all to ourselves. They have a large room full of more picnic tables in the very back to accommodate large parties. They were simply very nice people with good business ethic.

We left very satisfied with our experience at Abbey's Playtown! A part of me wants to keep this place my little secret so we can go play freely at anytime. The other part of me doesn't want this place to shut down due to lack of customers. I feel that Abbey's Playtown is an excellent adventure for toddlers and younger children at a very affordable price! We will be back very soon!!!

Abbey's Playtown
1700 W Polo Rd Ste 190
Grand Prairie, TX 75052
972-352-5262
www.abbeysplaytown.com

Lazy Saturday

Saturday was a very lazy day and it was wonderful! I actually laid on the couch and watched an entire movie! I even fell asleep for a little while. Amazing! We had planned to take the kids to Country Critters Farm but it rained. They were closed on Sunday as well due to the remaining mud.

April came over that morning with baby Kai for a mini photo shoot. I had set up a couple backgrounds and was hoping for at least a few good pictures. You never know with children how they are going to corporate. Kai is almost 3 months old so the positions were limited but we managed to get some good ones. April doesn't want to send them out until we try again and then pick the best pictures. I can blog about them because her family doesn't read my blog. :)




I love this one!


So stinking cute!


I love his little tongue.


Future NFL star!


Beach bum!


Say awww


Little man holding his head up.
We wore him out...