Celebrating New Years at Legoland

Our favorite tourist attraction in Dallas. They were hanging out noisemakers for all of the kids to celebrate the New Year. Noisy, noisy fun!!

On the Way...

Santa's on the way to your house... he's already been to ours. Merry Christmas!!

... Like Jesus

I took out Lainey's braids today and she said, "my hair looks like Jesus."

Gingerbread House

This is our first attempt of decorating a gingerbread house. I think the kids are naturals!!

Food Book

Lainey is having fun reading the "food book" to Daddy and me. She keeps asking if we like whatever food is on the picture. Yummy!!

Christmas Build and Grow

The kids and I had a good time on Saturday at the Lowes Build and Grow. We built the Christmas train engine and coal car. Zach did wonderful with the hammer and following directions... and Lainey managed to not hit my fingers with the hammer. Success!!

I Wish I May, I Wish I Might

On our drive home this evening....

I wish I may, I wish I might

Have this wish I wish tonight

Mommy: I wish that Daddy would feel better soon.
Zach: I wish that we always have food to eat.
Lainey: Daddy get better.

What sweet wishes!! Especially this close to Christmas when the kiddos are thinking about toys, games and Santa Claus.

Our Little Pilgrims

Our little pilgrims hope that everyone enjoyed their Happy Thanksgiving as much as we did!!

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

Only one thing can get Zach out of the toy department at Walmart... the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders!!

While shopping for a birthday gift, an announcement over the loud speaker let us know that the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders were signing free autographs in front of the men's department. Forget the toys, Mommy!! Let's go up front!!

The kids seemed to enjoy their free photos... for about 5 minutes. But, their excitement sure was cute while it lasted.

Happy Halloween 2011

The kiddos had such a great time dressing up and trick-or-treating yesterday... and HOLY SMOKES did we get a lot of candy!!

Excited and can't wait to leave:Tired, but full of candy:

Raptors T-Ball, Fall 2011

We just wrapped up the Raptor's fall 2011 T-ball season with our last game yesterday morning and our season-ending party today. What a great time we've had!! Waylon's dad has been taking pictures of the boys this season and we each received an awesome team DVD and photos. Here is a small set of my favorites... ENJOY!!

Playground Forgiveness

Zach's Happy Gram! from today:
"This happy gram is for Zachary's willingness to forgive a friend while playing outside. The friend that hurt his feelings apologized to him and Zachary offered him a peace offering and the invitation to play with him again. I was very impressed by this kind gesture displayed by Zachary. Great job!!"

One of life's most necessary skills... forgiveness. I hope that he continues to show the same patience and forgiveness for YEARS to come!!

Violence and Violet

Daddy and Lainey were in the living room watching TV when a movie commercial came on.

Daddy: We don't want to watch this. It has too much violence.
Lainey: No, Daddy.

Lainey scampers away and comes back.

Lainey: Here is Violet.

Teacher's Helper

Alaina is such a good teacher's helper. She received this Happy Gram! yesterday.
"While playing with the colored counting bears the other day, Alaina color coded them all and then was asking all her friends "Now what color is this?". What a sweet little teacher helper she is! :)"

Little Ms. Manners

My sweet Little Ms. Manners received a Happy Gram! from school today. It said:
"Alaina always has the best manners! Towards her teachers and her friends! I am proud of the way she uses her manners at the table especially. She always asks to get up and throw her stuff away!"

Good job, Lainey!!

Sunday Funday

Boys with the boys... and girls with the girls...

Zach and Daddy went to New Orleans for the weekend where Zach enjoyed his first Saints game (and a win!!) on his Sunday Funday.Meanwhile, Lainey and I relaxed at the park and tossed bread crumbs to the ducks.

A Good Day at School

Lainey and Zach both had a good day at school today and came home with a Happy Gram!

Lainey:
"Alaina is quite the chatter box once you get her playing. She told me today that I wasn't playing the story right while playing animals with her! Too funny!"

The teacher seems pleased, but looks like we have a bossy girl on our hands.

Zach:
"This happy gram is to tell you about Zachary's excellent job on our "Sports Collage" activity. He went above and beyond the requests of the assignment, thinking outside of the box, to think of sports like horseback riding. I love Zachary's great big brain and my favorite is the pride in his eyes when he comes to show me his work. Great job Zachary!"

Our First ER Visit

It took a little more than 4 years for our first frantic, frenzied, nerve-wracking ER visit... and I think we all passed with flying colors!!

Zach came into our bedroom near 4:00am last Tuesday complaining that he couldn't breathe. We had put him to bed the night before with a dose of Children's Advil to knock out his slight fever, so thought he may wake up at some point in the night, but we never expected this!! He was wheezing, his eyes were goopy and swollen, he was hoarse and had a hacking cough. We gave him a breathing treatment here... which caused him to throw up. He had blood in his vomit which REALLY scared us. It was off the ER for Zach and Daddy!!

I dropped Lainey at school at 6:34am (they open at 6:30) before rushing to meet up with Zach and Daddy. He was just getting discharged when I arrived. He was diagnosed with Croup and sent on his merry way... which is pretty much how he felt after a LONG morning nap.

Zach recovered with plenty of yogurt and his favorite... long noodles!! The healing properties of ramen noodles should be spread far and wide!!

Hot Air Balloon Festival

Grandpa, Grammy, Zach, Lainey and I went to a hot air balloon festival this past weekend. The balloons were up before us (isn't sleeping in great!!) so we didn't see those, but we enjoyed the carnival rides, bounce houses and splashing in Lake Lewisville.

Piggy Go Boom

The happenings in the Ribaul house on Thursday morning...

Daddy: Zachary, let Daddy put your piggy bank on the shelf. It's very heavy and can break easily. Zachary, I don't think we want you to keep playing with it like a toy.

Zach: Daddy, I just want to push it into Lainey's room.

Daddy: Zachary, why don't you let Daddy put it in your room. Ok, Zach, let's get dressed for school. Where's Lainey?


CRASH


Daddy: LAINEY, DON'T MOVE!!

Lainey: Piggy go boom

Zach: Lainey, you broke it on purpose.

Zach & Lainey: WAHHHHH, WAHHHH

Zach: Daddy, I'm sorry I didn't listen to you about my piggy bank. I love you.

The Fantastic Four

Zach recently celebrated his fantastic 4th birthday with a super heroes party... with a suprise visit from Batman!! Zach received a new bike from us, but was more excited about the coloring books.

Jesus Gave Me Power

We have been struggling with too many tee-tee accidents recently - from both kiddos. This is the conversation that I had when talking to Zach about his most recent tee-tee accident.

Mommy: Zach, maybe we need to go the doctor to see if something is wrong. I don't understand why you keep having accidents.
Zach: Jesus gave me the power to have tee-tee accidents.
Mommy: Bud, Jesus gives power for good. He wouldn't give you the power to have tee-tee accidents.

A few minutes later...

Zach: Mommy, I need to make poops.
Mommy: Ok, Bud. Just make sure that Jesus doesn't give you any power to have a poopy accident.
Zach: No, Mommy. Jesus gave me the power in my brain and it went to my wee-wee so I could tee-tee.
Mommy: I hope that he gave power to your feet this time, so you can run fast to the potty.
Zach: Yes. Jesus sent the power to my brain and it went to my feet so I can run fast.

And off he ran...

I really think it's time that we attend church regularly. I don't know if the Baby Bible is really providing enough spiritual guidance at this point.

New Orleans Visit - July 2011

The Family Truckster was loaded up once again for the fun-filled drive from Dallas to New Orleans. Sal and the kids stopped in Baton Rouge to visit Mike the Tiger (and get really excited about lizards) on their drive down.

During our week, we enjoyed refreshing snowballs, fed and held alligators and visited with Grammy Noll.

We spent one morning at Insta-Gator, a alligator ranch that is working to revive the alligator population in Lousiana. I think they've done their job well - the alligator population now numbers 3,000, 000!! I was shocked that Lainey would so willingly reach out and touch the alligators... and she was the first one with a hand out. Zach had a great time feeding marshmallows to the alligators and holding them.

Here's our little One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Pink Fish splashing in the pool. What fun!!

Learning to Count

Too bad Lainey is camera-shy because I'd love to share some videos of her counting. She can now count to 11... almost!!

She counts 1 -2 -3 -6 - 7 -8 -9 -10 -11

Letter to a Friend (Part II)

I ran into Sloan's mom this morning while taking the kids to school. I showed her the letter that Zach had written and we both oohed and awwed over how cute it was. When I was putting Sloan's letter in his folder, I found the letter that he had written to a friend.

"To, Zachary. I love you. I like to play with you."

The sweetness of young friendships...

Letter to a Friend

I thought about putting the following letter into his friend's folder at school, but I figured it was better to blog Zach's letter first.

Lesson plan for school: write a letter to a friend

Zach's letter:
"To, Sloan. I love you. I like to play with you."

Aawww... does that melt your heart the same way it melts mine?!?!

A Note from the Teacher

Zach received a Happy Gram! from one of his special teachers, Mrs. Anu, yesterday. It said, "Zachary is excellent in putting puzzles together. I am very proud of him. He loves to swing while we are outside."

I wonder what she'd think about Zach's insistent in pulling out the 1000-piece puzzle during Grandpa and Grammy's recent visit... and to know that he got pieces together?!?!

Legoland

Zach and Lainey had a blast at Legoland yesterday morning. I'm not so sure that Grammy and I can use the word "blast" as easily... except for seeing the smiling faces of the kiddos. Legoland is a little small, a little loud and a lot crowded!!

The Ribaul Cootie Party

I think that the Ribaul Cootie Party has finally ended. Zach and Lainey have been to school for 2 straight days!! Quite an accomplish with the (bad) luck we've had lately. Over the last 2 weeks we have battled:
Pneumonia (Zach)
Fevers (Lainey)
Strep throat (Lainey)
4-day stomach bug (Lainey)
5-day stomach bug (Zach)
Pink eye (Zach)

Clorox and prayers have finally kicked in and knocked the germs out!!

Future American Idol

Lainey received 2 Happy Grams! from school today. She is a future American Idol in the making...

"During circle time Alaina did a good job singing the weather song."
"Alaina was all into singing the number rock during cirlce time."

Now, if only Daddy and I knew these songs!! I asked Zach to sing the weather song at dinner tonight and he looked at me like I asked him to fly to the moon. Hhmm... how can I learn this song so we can finally move away from Ashes, Ashes?!?!

The Weather Song

Lainey received a Happy Gram! from school today. It said:
"Alaina did a great job singing the weather song during circle time."

I wish I knew the weather song, so we could sing it at home. We have a broken record playing Ashes, Ashes (aka Ring Around the Rosie) at our house lately.

Easter Weekend

What a fun holiday Easter weekend!!
Bonnet parade and Easter parties at school:

Date night at the Texas Rangers game. Rangers win, Rangers win!!

Easter baskets and backyard egg hunt:

We ended our holiday weekend with some quality family time spent in the hall bathroom. Gosh, I just love the Texas spring weather filled with hail, lightning, tornados...