Frank lately

Frank has been such a good boy lately.  In the last few months, he has really transitioned from a boundary-testing, strong-willed kid into a helpful, kind, and respectful boy.  He is doing so well in school, and he is excited about starting kindergarten.  He is also doing great in baseball.  I do not remember the last time I had to put him in time out.  He earned "Top Dog" at school last week and again today, and he also got a "star student" award today for excelling in his music class.  He is FINALLY night time potty trained, and he is so proud of that.  I am really, really enjoying this time with my son.

Frank's likes right now:

TV - my little pony, PJ masks, wild cratts, scooby doo, ninja turtles, rescue bots
playing - science experiments, drawing pictures, crafts, legos, playing outside, riding bikes, helping to work in the garden, cleaning.  He is so creative!
food - his favorites are chicken salad sandwiches [Eatzi's is his favorite place to go eat], chicken nuggets, pickles, cinnamon toast crunch, candy, peas, and pizza
best friends - Bennett, Ethan, Jonah, Harper, Lucy.  Lucy adores Frank.  Her mom recently told me that she writes him a note every single day after school.  Frank still adores Harper.  His very best friend is his sister.

Frank was sick a couple of weeks ago for the first time in a very long time.  He had a fever for 5 days and then was extremely congested.  Turns out it was a sinus infection.  The day he went to the doctor he asked Frank how he got a "science" infection.  It was so cute.

He gets jealous of time I spend with Lily and with Frank.  When Frank and I go on a date, he always tells me he wants to go on a special date with me too.  We went to the sunshine glaze pottery place last week and painted crosses, and this Friday we are going to get donuts and coffee before school.  I sure do love this boy and all of the special time we get to spend together!

NYC trip [very belated post!]

Frank and I spent a whirlwind two days/two nights in New York City this week on an impromptu adults-only vacation.  We got super cheap plane tickets on Southwest, so we decided to go for it.  Frank and I have both been to NYC several times, but we have never been together, and neither of us had been in several years.  We stayed at a nice boutique hotel called the Library which was really conveniently located and had a lot of great amenities, including a wine/cheese cocktail hour, complimentary breakfast, and amazing coffee/lattes available all day.  Our first day we just enjoyed exploring the city, strolling from Bryant Park all along Fifth Avenue, shopping, drinking coffee, and enjoying our time together.  We took a carriage ride through Central Park, saw the big tree in Rockefeller Center, and took in all the amazing decorations at Saks, Bergdorf Goodman, and other NYC stores.  That night we met up with Frank's sister Ariela and enjoyed a nice italian dinner.  The next day we woke up bright and early (no relaxing on this trip!) and headed to Battery Park to catch a ferry out to the Statue of Liberty!  This was on Frank's bucket list, and I was excited to share the experience with him, even though I had already been there once as a child.  We enjoyed the ferry ride and our time with Lady Liberty before heading over to Ellis Island and exploring the immigration museum.  I will be honest, I was about history-ed out at this point, but Frank really wanted to explore the whole museum so we stuck around for quite awhile before heading back to Manhattan.  We were STARVING when we returned, so we found a little cafe and enjoyed some delicious NY pizza.  We strolled along Wall Street before making our way to the 9/11 museum and memorial.  I was actually in NYC on 9/10, the day before the 9/11 attacks, with one of my ex-boyfriends, and neither Frank nor I had been to ground zero since the 9/11 attacks.  Frank was very emotional at the memorial and did not even want to go in the museum, but I convinced him to go, and I am so glad we did.  It was a wonderful museum - probably the best museum I have ever been to.  I loved the way it was laid out, and it was really cool (although also very emotional) to re-live that day.  We went out to a big fancy dinner at Tavern on the Green and had one of the best meals of our lives.  It was a gorgeous restaurant, and it was so pretty all decked out for Christmas.  We really had a wonderful trip!  It was great to take time to reconnect with my sweetheart.

The sweetest day

I am so far behind on blogging, and it is hard to pick it back up when there is so much I haven't written about!  Frank and I took a quick trip to NYC in December, and it was GREAT to get away for a few nights without the kids.  Kiersten watched them for us, and it was wonderful.  Speaking of Kiersten, she has been out of town for the last few days, and we have missed her so much.  She does so much more than just watch our kids.  She is really a positive influence in their lives, and she does so much to help out around the house.  As I was folding 5 loads of laundry over the weekend, I quickly realized how blessed we are to have her help!

December came and went with tons of Christmas-related activities including a trip on the Polar Express with Rylie and Allison, a night at the famous Arlington neighborhood Christmas lights (never again!), and hosting my family for Christmas.  We had a wonderful holiday season!

We have just completed three really big home improvement projects, and we are thrilled with the results.  We replaced all of our windows, painted the exterior of the house, and replaced all of the plantation shutters.  The windows were an enormous headache, but we are so happy they are done!  We are planning several more projects for this year including painting the upstairs interior, new doors, updating the wood room fireplace, new drapes for the master bedroom, replacing part of our fence, fixing our drainage issue, and doing some major landscaping projects in the back yard.  I love our house, but it is so nice to feel like we are updating it and making it ours.

January flew by with trips to the zoo, the Kimball art museum in Fort Worth, and the McKinney Heard conservatory to see the dinosaurs!  We enjoyed a lot of time outside in the unseasonably warm weather and spent a lot of quality time together as a family.  I have been very slow at work the last couple of months, so it has been nice to relax and work less and play more.

Yesterday I took off work because Kiersten was out of town and my mom was not able to come watch the kids (she came up last week to help out on Thursday and Friday but was not able to stay all weekend).  I dropped Frankie off to school at 9:00 and then got to spend a wonderful day with my sweet girl.  We played Candy Land approximately 20 times, and she loved it.  She doesn't care if she wins or I win, she just loves to play - so different from her brother, who has a hissy fit if he does not win.  Then we read about 10 books up in her room and played with her stuffed friends.  I took her to her gym class, and she did so great!  She is really fearless, and she was always the first one to volunteer to work on new skills.  After gym we went to Central Market for a mommy daughter lunch date, play time on the play ground, and a little grocery shopping.  By the time we got home, it was time to head up to White's chapel to pick Frankie up.  During our day together, Lily did not cry, whine, or yell.  She did not complain.  She gave tons of hugs and kisses.  It was THE sweetest day.

Frank is FIVE!

I cannot believe that my baby boy turned five years old yesterday.  It really is amazing how fast time flies.  Lately, I really feel like Frank is becoming a boy, a little man, and it is so amazing to watch him grow.  There are so many times when I look at him and feel like I am looking at myself.  Not just because he physically looks like me (which, he obviously does), but because so much of him and his personality comes from me.  My parents always told me I was a "difficult" child.  And I am now a stubborn, strong-willed, argumentative adult.  I have no doubt that he will be too.  But I was also creative, ambitious, hard working, and extremely intelligent - and I am proud that Frank shares those traits with me too.  He is going to be a leader, and he is going to do amazing things.

We celebrated Frank's birthday week with donuts at school on Monday and then pizza, cake, and presents last night.  It was great to spend some time at Frank's school with his class.  He was so happy to show us around his classroom.  We got to watch their morning circle time, and Frank was the leader, so he got to stand at the front of the class and help the teacher.  He held the flag while the class said the pledge of allegiance, and he got to call on other friends to answer questions.  Auntie Allison and Rylie came over last night for dinner and birthday cake.  Frank loved getting to spend some time with them, and he loved his gifts (a great improvement over last year).  We got him a tent, a big lego set, and a shark book.

I love my little boy so much, and I am thankful every day that God chose me to be his mom.  Even though he can drive me crazy, I hope he always knows how much I love him.  I never want to forget his contagious laughter when we tickle him, or how he always wants to tickle my armpits because he knows that will make me laugh.  I never want to forget that he always wants to be the first one to see Lily when she wakes up in the morning, and he bursts into her room and says "I'm coming to the rescue Sis!"  I never want to forget that he still prays for Shiny every night.  I never want to forget that he loves sharks, hates pants, and loves Halloween.  I never want to forget nights lying in his bed, telling him stories about the jungle, the ocean, and Central Africa.  I remember dancing with him when he was a baby, and reading him books and rocking him to sleep like it was yesterday.

Pumpkin patches, Halloween, Silver Dragons, and Great Wolf Lodge birthday celebration!

October was a very busy month, both for work and for family fun!  I found out the results of my big trial this month, and we lost.  It was very disappointing.  I put my heart and soul into that case for several months, and to get a bad result was heartbreaking.  But, I am trying to keep my head up and learn from it.  You cannot win them all!

This month I took the kids to the Flower Mound pumpkin patch with my sister and Rylie, instead of going to the Arboretum as we usually do.  It was great!  We picked out two giant pumpkins and two little ones, and the kids loved the bouncy houses, playground, maze, etc.  A few weeks later, the whole family went out to a different pumpkin patch in McKinney with the Manktelow family.  This one had horses, and Lily was SO EXCITED to ride a pony!  We had a wonderful family day.

Frankie has been playing baseball, and we are loving it.  He is….not hating it, so it is huge step up from soccer.  But I wouldn't say he loves it.  He has two friends on his team, and I know he likes going to practice and games, but he is not asking us to play constantly or anything like that.  He does great batting, but he gets bored and distracted out in the field.  I am hoping he will grow to love it, because we are really enjoying watching his team play!  He was awarded the game ball in his second game, and we were all so excited and proud of him!

A few weeks ago we spent the weekend at Great Wolf Lodge with the Davis family to celebrate Frank and Bennett turning 5!  The kids had a blast.  The boys and their dads arrived on Saturday around 1:00 p.m. and played their hearts out in the water park.  We met up with them around 4 after the little ones' naps, and then we all ate pizza and cupcakes together in our room and watched the Aggie game.  Our room had a "wolf den" area with bunk beds and a TV for the kids, and they loved it!  Although our family got no sleep --Lily refused to sleep in the bunk bed, and she woke up several times at night crying and having a really hard time going back to sleep.  We were all very exhausted the next day, but thank goodness for the Starbucks inside the hotel!  We spent the next morning at the water park again, and then decided to head home for lunch and naps.  The kids slept so hard, but we woke them up around 5 and headed back up to the hotel for more water park, dinner, and ice cream.  We ended up staying until 9:00 p.m., and we caught story time with the wolves, which both kids loved.  The hotel was pricey, but it was a really fun little stay cation for the kids and it was great to spend some time with the Davis family.

This last weekend was Halloween!  My parents came in town, and it was great to spend some time with them.  They manned our house while Frank and I took Frankie and Lily trick-or-treating with Allison and Rylie.  Frankie dressed up as a firefighter and Lily was Elsa.  They both were so cute running up to the houses and yelling "trick or treat!"  Our neighborhood does not get many trick or treaters, so most of the houses handed out huge handfuls of candy to our kids.  Several of the houses gave out full size candy, and a couple even gave out large bags with tons of candy inside.  It was nuts!  We also bought way too much candy, so now we are stuck with enough candy to last us for at least a year.