Weekend with the Grand-Parentals

Our time with Steve and Cozy was wonderful. It's always so sad when they have to go back home to Missouri.

The last time they came, Annabeth was just five weeks old. They were originally going to wait to visit until she was a little older to give us time to settle in, but we didn't want them to miss out on her tiny-ness. Plus, we wanted to take them to the rodeo. I thought I would be totally normal by then, but now I cringe whenever I think of that visit because of how crazy I still was from the hormones, exhaustion, and the wardrobe crises I was having every time I got dressed. Plus, at that time Curtis and I were at our wits end with the potty training marathon. We were both about to lose our minds, but everything fell into place shortly after. I think we were in a better place for this visit.

I already talked about what we did on Friday. On Saturday, we drove out to Tomball to have the world's best chicken fried steaks at a place called Goodson's. (You can read all about it on this blog review I just found.) After that we went to It'z Pizza, not to eat again, but to play the games. Well, it turned out that you have to pay for the pizza buffet to get in for the games. Awesome. We were not going to get out of there without Jackson getting to play some games unless we wanted to make a long visit to Meltdown City. Rather than pay for every one of us, Cozy, Annabeth and I left the boys and went shopping for some fake plants at Garden Ridge. Have I mentioned that I'm hosting bunco next week and that's why I'm in a rush to finish up at least some of my decorating? The boys had lots of fun playing games and I found some greenery to go above my kitchen cabinets.

After that, Cozy and I went to visit an outlet mall. The Baby Gap outlet had super cute onesies for baby boys for $4 and $5. For the record, I think the boy colors at Baby Gap are the BEST and I miss buying those little onesies. I got Jackson and extra bathing suit and swim shirt (love those) for our upcoming Galveston trip.

That night we had dinner at a neighborhood Japanese steakhouse. Yum. The only unfortunate thing was that we were seated with a young married couple who were clearly on a date. I felt so bad that they had to sit with us. I strategically placed myself and the children as far from them as possible. But from where I was sitting, I had an optimal view of their scowling faces. I don't know if they were super annoyed by us or if they were in a fight. Curtis and I have been in that position before, but hopefully we did a better job at masking our disappointment at being seated with other people's kids while ours were with a babysitter.

On Sunday morning, Steve-Papa (as Jackson says) and Nana left before 7 am. So sad. We went to church and then had lunch with our friend Ralph from Charasia. Ralph is who Curtis and Jerrell went to visit in India last fall. His organization saves young daughters of prostitutes from having to follow in their mothers' footsteps. They care for them in special homes where they are educated, taught about the love of Christ, and equipped to live a vibrant adulthood instead of being enslaved in a brothel. It's an amazing organization, to say the least.

I'm about to bombard you with a ton of pictures.

Nana and Pappaw came bearing gifts. Annabeth got a Jumperoo. She LOVES it.







Jackson got some miniature Nascars and a Tom and Jerry DVD. He also got this awesome wooden horse that his Great-grandpa Dixon made him. It's so neat!

















Here's Nana reading the Dr. Seuss pop-up book with the kids.



Jackson was really amused by his sister.









After we got home from Jackson's swim lesson yesterday, Annabeth had little beads of sweat across her nose. Welcome to your first Texas summer, baby girl. It seriously feels like August right now. So does that mean it will feel like October when August does come? Lord have mercy. We might actually get some rain today. Bring it on.



Sometimes the best thing to do when you've been in the 104 degree car is to get nekked.




Here's our bed with the new quilt. It totally made the room come together. I love it. When I first saw the quilt in the store, I thought it was a little too homey for me. But I think it works with the furniture we have.



That end table had a jumbled stack of books on it until a few weeks ago. After a visit to Hobby Lobby, it's in much better shape. That's Curt's side of the bed, so I had to add a picture of Jacks in his Batman costume to man it up a bit.



Thanks for all the great advice on what to do with my frame. I'll let you know what I end up with!