Farris family blog: April 2015

We went to Houston for Spring Break and it was a really fun week with friends and family. My mom has some friends staying with her right now, so we stayed with Amy and her family this week. The weather ended up being so warm and sunny, so the kids played and played outside together in the creek and in the sprinkler. My mom took the boys one of the days we were there and took them to a special birthday treat. She took Tucker to build a bear and he got a ninja turtle (which is what he always wanted as he always says:)) and Carter picked out this huge lego set at the lego store! We had a big pizza night one evening at my mom's house and Tucker opted to stay with my mom and go to work with her one day too. He sure does love my mom and its so special when they get that one on one time. We ended up staying in Houston Tuesday through Friday and came back around naptime Friday afternoon. Got to see and spend time with both my sisters, which was alot of fun because I had not seen them since Christmas! Titus has gotten so big! Bret was in Atlanta for a day that week, so he wasn't able to come with us. :/ That weekend when we came back, Bret and I celebrated our 32nd birthday! My sweet mom came in for the whole day on Sunday and so Bret and I got a whole day date. It was perfect. We went and kayaked on town lake, ate at torchy's tacos for lunch and then saw a movie, then had dinner at a mexican restaurant in Austin. It was the perfect day for us to celebrate 32! Bret got me some new running shoes and clothes, and I got him a new grill! We have so been needing one. The kids had so much fun with my mom staying at the park for a few hours, then getting to watch big hero 6 that night with her. It is Carter's very favorite movie right now and he will tell anyone who will listen the whole movie from start to finish. ha. That was the movie I took him to see on our special birthday date. It was so fun and I loved getting to spend the day with him. He just sure knows how to melt your heart right now.

Yesterday was my dad's 60th birthday! We were planning on surprising him one weekend, but then him and Maggie planned a trip to Mexico. So a few weeks ago on a Sunday we surprised him at his house! My sisters and I all took him down to Galveston for the day, for dinner and some play time on the beach. It was such a fun trip for everyone. The kids got to play at my dad's house for a little while and ride his new four wheeler and his horses before we left, so that was a lot of fun too! We took my dad's to Nick's grille right on the seawall. The kids were so excited to celebrate my dad and they had so much fun at the beach. This was Rylie's first beach trip and when I put her down on the sand, she darted for the water not realizing how cold it would be when it pretty much knocked her over! She still had so much fun playing(mostly eating) the sand. Tucker, is Bret's child because Bret does not like the sand and doesn't like to be sticky or dirty and Tucker kept saying "It is too dusty". Ha. I carried him and Rylie to go play in the waves most of the time. With the exception of when Tucker had to go to the bathroom, to which he just pulled down his pants and peed right into the ocean. Pictured below. Carter on the other hand it my child at the beach. I would say 95% of the time he reminds me of Bret, but he loves the waves and the sand. He ran so far in so quickly I thought he was going to drown he got out there so quick. He loved playing in the waves, digging in the sand and just running around like crazy through the water. We had so much fun watching the kiddos play at the beach. Ana and Titus joined us down there as well, so that was a lot of fun. You know your kids traveled for a whole year when driving 6 hours in a car(down to Galveston and back) didn't really phase them at all. So thankful they are such easy travelers. It made the day so fun and easy for everyone!

Last weekend was Easter weekend! We decided since we had just went to Houston that we would stay in Bastrop for the weekend. Plus, we really wanted to be at church to help and Bret had been asked to do the announcements for church for all three services. I am glad we stayed in town, because it was such a fun weekend together. My mom ended up coming in town on Friday to surprise the kids dressed as the Easter bunny. The boys LOVED it! Rylie, not so much! She was terrified of the Easter bunny. As soon as my mom took the costume off, Rylie went right to her, but everytime she put it on she did not like it at all! My mom hid some eggs for them outside, so they found those and gave them special new gifts. She bought the boys new swimsuits for the summer, and Rylie a beautiful dress for Easter! They swam all afternoon in their new swimsuits, which Rylie joined them in the pool and LOVED it. Then, that evening we went out to dinner with my mom before she headed home. It was such a great surprise from her. Saturday, Bret worked for awhile then that evening we decided to go do something fun in Austin. We took the kids to jumpland, which is a trampoline park in Austin. We all had a great time. Carter( and Bret ) were both doing flips all over the place. Tucker and Rylie had fun racing across the trampolines as well. We went to dinner at Chipotle after and then our kids slept like rock stars that night! Easter Sunday we went to church, then came home for lunch and naps. Bret hid all the eggs in our backyard for our kiddos and after naps we had our egg hunt. Carter was so sweet about making sure the little had the same amount of eggs as him and helping them find some. They all had more than candy than they could of ever dreamed from Carter's egg hunt at school that week, to hunting with my mom and now our own family one. Needless to say I made Bret take it all to work with him and share it with our team yesterday. Tucker was obsessed with the jelly beans and just kept asking for more "beans" in his eggs. I will have to say they made a bag of only red and pink starburst jellybeans and they are good:). Later that day we went for a family bike ride. All the kids LOVE going for a bike rides right now. Even Rylie will bring us a helmet to put on and go point to the bike seat. It is adorable. We grilled out some veggies and hot dogs that evening and had a great night. It was a great day. Carter would tell us the whole Easter story and had Bret read the story with him that week a few times. It was fun to hear him tell the story and be able to really show us and tell us what Easter is all about. I love watching him learn and grow. It never gets old.

During these last few weeks, Rylie started walking!! The boys love to imitate her walking like a zombie. She is all over the place these days. She loves to also use the bikes and her scooters now that she is stabilized. She is now more into things than ever before as well and thinks she can climb onto and into everything. The other day the back of our car was opened and she pulled up and crawled into the back of the suburban. Looks like I will have three climbers on my hands. Some of her favorite things right now are still her blanket, she walks with it everywhere, she loves when she wakes up to go to the boys rooms and play on the bed with them. She still loves food. All of it and any kind. Tomatoes off my salads are the things that gross me out the most, but I did crave those so much with her when I was pregnant which is crazy to me. She is constantly in the fridge and pantry bringing me food. I need a lock on both for her. She loves to climb up in the game room window and put squidz on the window. She does this adorable thing where she gasps when she sees something or gets so excited. She is obsessed with dogs. forever and ever. I went and bought her some new clothes this past week and can't get enough of her in her rompers. She is so very sweet and can be a little aggressive at time. (I blame the boys for that) She loves being with them and she tries to climb up the CFA playground with them as well now. I always have C bring her down for me:)

Tuck is 3 going on 30 these days. The things that come out of that kids mouth are hilarious. Recently, "This is terrible" "Oh no, not again." "What in tarnation?" "Please just give us another chance?" This morning at the park he went around telling everyone to be nice to each other. He plays his cards well. He is always the kids that will run up and give anyone the best hug, but he can turn on his I don't want to do this I don't care what you say in second. He says everything as if it is no big deal. I broke it mommy. Oh sorry. It is just always the consistent, oh yes, I did this. I guess it is good he is SO honest?? Not sure what to do about that yet. So, yay 3. Bret and I laugh a lot to say the least. He is so excited about every.little.thing we do, eat, or place we go. I sure do love that. His loudness may be getting louder. He will sing songs for us now and loves to read all the books where you find things in them. He also eats 3 bowls of cereal every morning. Ate 5 hot dogs the other night and I have no idea where he puts it all. He is such an incredibly fun kid. I can't imagine my days without him because he makes me smile so much with all his antics.

Carter is SO big. I really want him to stop growing. I even tell him all the time and he says "Mommy, I am going to keep getting bigger." sigh. I do know that. So I make him sit in my lap all the time (like at CG the other night) and we always go back and forth about how much we love each other. So, I am just gonna keep soaking all that up right now until he is too big to not do that all the time. The other day he had a rough night because he was so tired. He just pushed it too far, and he was so upset about it. I took away dessert and when we got home he was behaving so well and trying to work so hard to make it better. I ended up giving him some dessert. He just always tries so hard. I knew he was tired. Parenting is so very hard, but sometimes I really do just want to give my kids everything because I love them that much. It probably was the wrong choice, but it was worth it seeing him smile again before he went to bed. I am so thankful for grace. That we have the grace of Jesus washed over us so we can do and teach the same to our kiddos.