Donkey Kong Craziness

Recently someone gave us the game "Donkey Kong Returns" for Wii. Mason started playing it, but needed a bit of help, so Daddy started playing. Little did we know, this would become an obsession for the next few weeks between Daddy and Mason. They would sit for hours (it seemed) and play levels and conquer bad guys, unlocking secret worlds, and in general warping their brains. Mason would ask all day long for extra playing time, and inpatiently wait for Daddy to get home from work when the playing would resume.

FINALLY, after a few weeks of playing each and every night, they won the game, unlocked all the secret worlds, and did everything they could do. This stopped Jes from further play...but Mason...not yet.

Kite Flying!

Why do we do this? Yes, the pictures below look like a lot of fun. But every year, Daddy buys the kids kites, full of excitement, he puts them together, brings the kids outside, and sends the kites high into the sky. They kids exclaim "wow!"...pause for a moment, and then hand over the reins to Daddy. Next thing Daddy knows, he's standing there holding a Tinkerbell kite with no kids around. And it takes forever to slowly bring those kites back in. Oh well, we'll keep trying!

Tori holding her kite high in the sky!

Tori's princess kite! She loved it...for 5 minutes.

Even Ry-Ry held the kite for a minute...but didn't get the point.

Valentines Day

Valentines Day has never been a big holiday at the Taylor household. In fact, it's gone pretty much unnoticed in past years; however, now with the kids, it's making a resurgence. This year, Tori and Mason got to make Valentines day "mailboxes". One night Ashlee was gone, so Daddy and the kids made Mommy valentines day cards and decorated cookies. The cookies were so greatly decorated, that Mommy just couldn't bring herself to eat them, so we ended up at Baskin Robbins (on behalf of Grandma Vickie).
Mason and Tori also made Daddy a couple of cookies and cards which he had no problem eating.

Baskin Robbins bounty!

Happy kids!

Mason took a picture of his ice cream cone.

This was Tori's cookie she made for Mommy.

Here was Mason's cookie that he made for Mommy.

Mason, making his cookie.

The cookie project. When given so many options, why wouldn't you use them all?!!?

Mason's valentine's box...

Friendly Neighbors

Our neighbors have a bunch of random animals in their backyard. Now and then when our veggies start to wilt a little more than we'd like, we'll go over to the fence and feed them. When they realize we have veggies (versus a dead leaf or something) they come running! Sometimes we take it for granted that we can just walk about back into our own petting zoo!

Snow in Austin doesn't happen very often. In fact, this is only second time we have seen it in the 4 years we have lived here, and the first time was much less than what we got Friday! We woke up to a winter wonderland of almost an inch! Mason was so excited. He has been asking to go see snow all winter.

Aryah wasn't too impressed. Her hands were really cold.

The front yard

Mommy teaching Mason and Tori how to make a snowball. It was hard cause it was just powder and didn't want to stick together much.

Tori's first snowball!

Aryah was a little happier after we put socks on her hands. I couldn't find her gloves anywhere and we just don't have the wardrobe for snow, or the 20 degree weather we have been having!

More snowballs.
Snow angels

Mason couldn't wait to get out in the snow. He ran out on the patio in his jammies and socks! He didn't care one bit that his feet were cold. I had to make him come back inside and get dressed.

The backyard

Snow in the morning, gone by noon! That's my kind of snow!!!

Grandpa

My Dad flew into Dallas yesterday on a business trip so the kids and I drove up to see him. First we went to the Dallas World Aquarium, which if you Texans haven't been you should go because it's really cool! After the aquarium we went and picked my Dad up from the airport. As we were driving in circles waiting for him there was a man standing on the curb that looked a little like him. Mason kept yelling out "There he is!" every time we passed him and I would tell him that no, that wasn't him. I pointed out that this guy had a mustache, and Grandpa didn't. He was getting frustrated... and we kept circling. Finally on the 4th or 5th time around Mason yelled out

"GO AWAY MUSTACHE MAN!!! I'M TRYING TO FIND MY GRANDPA!!!"

We took Grandpa to his hotel and had a blast breaking in the bed for him by jumping on it! Then we drove around for about and hour with 3 starving, crying and complaining kids looking for a place to eat. The hotel person had given us directions to the headquarters of a restaurant, not the actual restaurant. So we ended up in the middle of nowhere! We did finally find some good eats, and then everyone was happy.

We dropped Grandpa off at the hotel and headed back home. We got home at 12:30 am.

3 1/2 hour drive up, 3 hours with Grandpa, 3 1/2 hour drive back.

It was worth it!

Too bad I forgot my camera...

Trampoline

You have probably heard of the "family bed". As parents we strictly go against this practice. We feel it uncomfortable and and non sleep inducing!

However,

the family trampoline is a different story! We spent about an hour on the tramp as a family, and had a great time! Of course when I realized this was a good picture opp I ran to get the camera and when I got back the moment had passed, mostly because Daddy felt sick from swinging the kids in circles. I was able to catch a few last ones anyway.

Doggie pile on Daddy!
Crazy Tori

This isn't the best picture of Mason, but I thought the sky looked really cool!

All our poor kids have major face abrasions right now. Poor Mason had a picture frame fall off the mantle and gouge his cheek. Poor Tori fell flat on her face on the driveway cutting up her nose the next day. And the day after that Poor Aryah fell down 2 stairs also scratching her nose.

Maybe we should keep a better eye on the kids...