Claudia visits and Brian gets a getaway!

Can you believe what a great picture we got from last week?  All 3 kids looking at the camera, and 2 of them are smiling?  It will be on my Christmas cards, but I had to post it here since this has NEVER happened before, and since I'm sure it might be a few years before it happens again, I had to document it! 

We had a wonderful week and an even more fantastic weekend with a visit from Claudia!  Brian flew to Tampa to have a guys weekend with John, and Claudia (although a day late due to being sick) thankfully felt better and came to spend the weekend with us on Friday.  We picked her up and went to Hermann park to ride the train around the zoo and have a picnic lunch.  The kids had a great time, and since the weather has cooled off and been beautiful here, it has made many a park days very enjoyable.  We had a fun filled weekend with Claudia, Jason watched the kids so we could go to lunch and we were able to make the Nutcracker Market on Sunday.  The kids got to pick out ornaments for their tree, we went to Chick Fil A, they got new stuffed animals (Gilbert the guinea pig for Jacob and giraffe the giraffe for Gwyn - they each named their own) and she spoiled the kids rotten.  We loved having her here, and we had a wonderful time.  Brian did miss us, but he had a great time with John.  They got to catch up, sleep in, swim, and go out to dinner a few times.We decided next time that John should come to Houston with Brian and they can watch the kids and I could fly to Tampa to have a girls weekend of our own, ha!  I took just a few pictures, here is Gwyn on the train:

Jacob and Gwyn on the lookout for some ducks to terrorize.  There were ducks and tons of pigeons around and Jacob would take off running after them with Gwyn trailing right behind.  They were always on the edge of the water (which was only about 1 ft deep around the edge), so they were keeping us on our toes:

 Annie enjoying the craziness of her brother and sister:

Jacob with his transformer (that Daddy was able to transform into a car when he got home):

We have spent several days over the past week at the park after school with play dates, and we discovered that Annie LOVES to slide.  She gets all giddy as she is going down.  I didn't have a camera with me, but I can't wait to catch it next time.  Annie loves all things surrounding the dishwasher...her latest is arranging the plates, just right...here she is hard at work:

I did have to take all three kids to the grocery store last week.  I get the race car grocery cart (this is a HUGE deal, and I sometimes circle the parking lot til I can find one!), and I carry Annie while pushing the kids, and then Jacob helps me out by holding Annie if I need two hands for some things.  Jacob kept busy with taking pictures on my phone, I didn't even realize he was doing this until halfway through the grocery store, and I later found 78 new photos on my phone...here are the highlights of a grocery store ride through the eyes of a 4 yr old.  One of many shots down an aisle:

 Orange Juice...too many choices for one item:

 I get the sign of the cow, which was by the milk, but why a penguin over the yogurt/cream cheese section?

 Jacob's steering wheel:

 Gwyn's steering wheel:

The store Christmas tree (Jacob was holding Annie when I passed this, and he was upset he missed it, so after checking out, I pushed our loaded down cart back over so he could get a good shot, he said, "I GOT IT!"):

Here are just a couple of the kids at the house this week.  They are so busy and are playing together so well.  This picture was just too cute of Annie and Gwyn sharing a seat in the playroom:

Annie playing behind a chair (she is just so used to being put inside these made up houses that Jacob and Gwyn box her in with that she did this one on her own):

The kids after they saw Annie and wanted inside too:

Sweet little Gwyn, she was so proud of this tee pee she made at school and wanted to show it to everyone:

Jacob got to go on a field trip to the grocery store with his preschool this week.  I wasn't able to go with him this time, but he had a great time and came back telling stories of going in a big freezer and getting to hold a crab that didn't pinch you because it had rubber bands around its claws.  Here he is the morning before his field trip, he wanted his hair spiked up and I asked him if another kid in his class spikes his hair up, and he said, "No, just me."  So, of course I spiked it for him, how awesome is that that he wasn't trying to copy anyone else, he just wanted to be cool all by himself!:

A friend gave Gwyn several princess jibbits (the things you put on crocs to decorate them), and Jacob didn't have any on his.  We had lost his crocs at a park (haven't you ever seen someones shoe at a park and think how did someone just leave a shoe here, they had to walk in here with them on and left with them off, so how did they not notice that - well, I'll tell you, when your kid steps in a fire ant hill when you are all packed up and about to leave, then one parent runs over and picks him up and takes his shoes off to make sure there aren't any ants on him and the other parent is rounding up the other two kids and all the stuff, the shoes get left behind since the kid is carried to the car crying because he was bit by an ant...and you later realize after you've gotten upset with your kid because his crocs aren't in his cubby and he can't find them that you actually left them at the park).  Back to Jacob.  When I bought his new crocs, they didn't have jibbits, so he was jibbitless (this is devastating to a kid whose previous crocs had a batman AND a light up buzz light year).  So, if you are still reading this after all this jibbit background information, then I really applaud you for being such an awesome blog follower!  So, he had mentioned several times that he wanted some more jibbits after Gwyn was given several (at this point Gwyn has probably 10 on her shoes!).  That night before bed, we had read a book about wishing for something on a star, and Gwyn wished for a nightgown (??) and Jacob wished for "those things you put in your crocs like Gwynnie has."  Break my heart, he's so mistreated, and when I looked up at him, he gave me this sad look, but it really did look like he knew what he was doing.  Needless to say, Brian came home from Florida with a Buzzlight year, Wolverine, and he now also has a batman too! 

She says, "I love you so much" just out of the blue:

Funny things the kids said this week:
Jacob (after Brian read him a story about aardvarks):  We need to get an aardvark so it will eat our fire ants so they won't bite us.
Gwyn (she talks to Annie like she understands everything she says):  It's okay, Annie, I'm here.
Jacob (when I told him I couldn't go on his field trip):  But you won't have any fun mommy?
Jacob (after seeing his plate at dinner):  Thank you mommy for not cooking me peas!
Jacob:  What are those things you get in your eyes when you sleep?
Me:  Sleepies?
Jacob:  Ya, can you plant those and they can grow into a tree?
Me:  No, sleepies aren't seeds. (I guess they do kind of look like them!)
Gwyn (after hearing Annie on the monitor wake up):  Annie likes me so much...hang on Annie, I'm coming!
At night we always talk about our favorite part of the day, here is what they said a couple of nights ago:
Gwyn:  Going to chick fil a with you mommy.
Jacob:  When I got my new guinea pig Gilbert.
Me (to Gwyn as we were leaving):  Come on little ornery.
Gwyn:  I'm not ornery, I'm Gwyn (oh, I forgot).