Sister Fun!

A couple weekends ago we got to have a very short visit from Ragnar's sister Daphne. She was going to interview at LSU and she stopped through Houston on the way home. So thoughtful of her to make the arrangements to stop by for a day or two on the way home so we got to see her. We loved visiting with her. We went to a place called the Aquarium for lunch and a day of play!

Gotta have an Aunt selfie on the way down!

Deacon was such a good boy and slept three hours. He missed almost all the adventures!

Inside the restaurant the kids loved watching the fish as we ate. The tank is huge!

 We went to the Tiger Exhibit first.

Can you tell which one is real? ;)

There were lots of reptiles and fish. In this tank there were 2 turtles kissing :)

Afterward we went outside and rode the ferriswheel.

Ella, Cavin, Daphne, and Ragnar fed the stingrays! So gross!

We rode on the carousal.

Then most of us went on this crazy ride that went high and just dropped. Once was enough for me ;)

Cavin, Ella, and Daphne rode it several times.

 The kids were pretty tired on the way home and Cavin's head hit my shoulder pretty quick!

Daphne is so good to the kids and they love having her around!

Daphne curled Ella's hair again and it looked so pretty.

We are so glad we got to see Daphne. Saturday was a beautiful day with hardly any crowds til the end and we got to see her for a minute on Sunday before she went home. So glad she came!

The next weekend my sister Marisa came in for just a couple days as well. We only got to see her for a few hours, but we enjoyed seeing her cute family! We sure love our sisters.

Deacon's Half Birthday!

Deacon is 6 months old! I always consider it a huge accomplishment to make it through those first 6 months and I always celebrate when we get there. He is a very happy and content baby and is back to sleeping through the night which I am grateful for. He has hit a lot of milestones this month and getting so big!

He has the most beautiful blue eyes and people stop me everywhere I go to tell me how beautiful they are.

He was such a big boy and got his passport photo taken. He was adorable as he smiled at the lady taking the picture. As a half German boy, you got to have those passports handy so we can go see Oma and Opa when we need to!

As I said he is sleeping through the night again and I love that I can still get him to sleep most anywhere.

He got to try Carrots for the first time and so far he loves them.

He is also sitting up by himself now. It sure helps to have chunky thighs to prop you up and a belly to lean on ;) He also got his first tooth!

He puts up with a lot from his very helpful big sister Channing. She loves to help him try on hats and jewelry. He sure doesn't seem to mind and we love our little happy Jack!

A Fresh Start

Ragnar and I moved into our home over 2 1/2 years ago. I have loved it and we got a great deal on it. It has been a huge blessing for our family. With that said, we bought the home as is and it still had the contractors paint that was next to impossible to clean or wipe when the kids got anything on it. I was really grateful when Ragnar "let" me hire a painter and give our house a fresh paint job! It doesn't look super different, because if you know me, you know I don't really love change, but I do love that it looks fresh and clean! Here are a couple before pictures.

Here are the after pictures. We did the house mostly beige but then painted the arch a darker brown.

I am excited about how it turned out and that I can wipe down the walls if I need to! Yay for clean walls!

Rockets Fun!

This season the kids have been able to go to a few more games than usual and they have loved it. One of the perks of Ragnar's job is getting our family tickets for a certain amount of games each year. I typically don't make it out a ton, because let's be honest...taking 4 kids by myself to the game that starts at their bedtime is hard work! This game we went to as a family was on Martin Luther King Day. Since it was a holiday it started at 4:30 and my parents and sister were even able to join us!

Cavin loves James Harden and was happy to wear his beard in his honor:)

I was grateful my parents wanted to join us and hang out in the suite. We had a fun time and the kids love cheering on the Rockets and being at the Toyota Center with their dad. Go Rockets!

Deacon 5 months

Deacon turned 5 months on December 30 and spent the day traveling home from Utah. We were at my grandmas funeral and he was a champ on the trip and the flight.

Here is our cutie who is such a good boy!

Here was our sleepy buddy on the flight.

This month Deacon started oatmeal at night to try and help him getting back to sleeping through the night. Thankfully it has worked!

He also went on his first "swing" ride. His big brother sure loves him! He is growing so fast. He still sleeps every couple hours and has been my only baby to really take a pacifier. He has the most beautiful blue eyes and he is almost always happy.

Christmas 2014

I am finally able to blog about Christmas! I was trying to load a program on the new computer so I can put my camera pictures on it but haven't figured it out yet so it took a while to get this going so a month and a half later I have forgotten some details and it will be short, yet documented.

Christmas this year was interesting. The kids were excited but it was a difficult start for me. We had recently found out that my mom had breast cancer and then my grandma died 2 days before Christmas. Needlesstosay my mind was a little distracted. We did our best just to enjoy the day and have fun with each day we have.
Christmas morning the kids were excited to come down and start a tradition a friend gave us of looking for the Christmas pickle. Supposedly it's a German tradition, but most Germans I have talked to have never heard of it. It was fun regardless.

Cavin was the lucky winner and therefore he was able to open the first present. I hid it pretty well :)

Ella got Lego friends and spent several days putting them together.

Channing would not take off her Elsa dress. She was so excited Santa brought it for her.

The cute kids with their favorite treasure.

Deacon was happy to chew on his new football ;)

Cavin lost a tooth on Christmas eve and Christmas day so we got to sing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"

We got to have a visit with my sister Marisa and her kids and we were excited to have them here!

Marisa, Ethan, Ragnar, and I were able to get away for a fun date to Top Golf. It was a great afternoon! We are so lucky to have my parents here and both my sisters for Christmas. We have so much to be grateful for and I am extremely grateful for the birth and life of our Savior that we get to celebrate each year.

Patricia Haws Funeral

On December 23, 2014 my grandmother Patricia June Story Haws passed away. She died in her home with my grandfather. She had been in poor health for many years so although it was unexpected, it wasn't completely surprising. It is a little sobering to have a funeral looming a couple days before Christmas, but we did our best to celebrate Christmas and then my sister Marisa who was in town from Arkansas and I flew to Utah to join my parents, 2 brothers, and other sister for the funeral. Ragnar was wonderful about being willing to take some time off of work so that I could go support my mom and family and be able to celebrate my grandmothers life. I had to take Deacon with me as he was only 4 months old and he did really well on the flights and the trip. I consider that a huge blessing in itself. 

Here is Deacon on his first flight. He was a good baby. I was worried about his ears hurting or something but he fell asleep as we took off and slept for a while. It was my cute sister Marisa who was next to me that we should have been worried about! She had major motion sickness!

When we got to Salt Lake City, miraculously my brother Corey's flight from Michigan, my brother Chris' flight from Washington, and our flight all landed within 20 minutes of each other so we could rent a car and drive the 3 hours to Vernal, Utah together. It was so nice to be with my siblings. When we got to Vernal, Deacon got to meet his great grandmother Mabel who is still living at almost 90. She is an amazing lady who still hosts and cooks and cleans and cooks and cooks some more! She loves to feed us and is going strong. She is a good example of staying healthy.
Sunday was the viewing "visitation" for my grandma.

It is always a little unsettling to me to look into the casket and see their lifeless body. I am grateful for the knowledge that this will not be the last time I see her and that we have eternity together. My grandpa was doing fairly well and in true fashion he had all his disposable cameras with him to take pictures :)

Here I am with Grandpa Haws. He has a fun sense of humor and although I am sure very sad, he was enjoying having his family around as I know my grandma would have loved.

It was really wonderful that all of my siblings could make it to the funeral. I sure do miss having them around and I love each one of them so much!

The funeral on Monday was sweet and a good reminder of the wonderful woman my grandma was. It was a very cold day so going out to the viewing was pretty freezing and my dad made it short and sweet. I love this picture of many of her grandsons carrying her casket.

It was great to be able to spend some extra time with my sister Marisa. I don't get to see her often and she was a great help with Deacon. There were so many blessings along the way throughout this trip. Deacon had an overall very happy/content demeanor, the travel plans all worked out great and we were even moved to first class on the way home.

Ragnar did awesome with the kids, they really missed me and were happy to have me home. They made me this cute sign.

Overall, I really felt like angels were watching over us and our families as we were all gone. My brother even had his son born the next morning. It was a great time to be together for my grandma. I will miss her phone calls. She was really the only one who called our house phone so it will be weird not to hear it ring. She was always so proud of us and our family and always let us know. I will miss hearing about her life adventures and the things she knew about the world. Although we never lived close by to her, I knew she loved me and I will miss her. Families are Forever.