Grapevine Sea Life Aquarium!

Today we were lucky enough to go to the Grapevine Aquarium with Leslie and Annabelle Grace! We had so much fun looking at all the fish, stingrays, and sharks! It was not crowded at all today so the kids were able to kind of run around and take everything in. They were more engaged than the last time we went which was great too. Mav got a little unsure about the glass bottomed areas and insisted that I hold him while we walked over them. But he loved pointing out the fish and rays and told me that the shark resting on the bottom of the tank was going "night night". After the aquarium we went to Corner Bakery for lunch. The kids both got Macaroni and Cheese because if they get something different they just eat each others' food :) We had a great time and we are so incredibly blessed by our friendship with them. I know we will have many more fun adventures like this one with them!  :)

Mav checkin out the fish

In awe :)

Checkin out the small yellow fish next to him

AG doing "Cheese!"

He did NOT want to walk on the glass part, this was as close as he would get

The sleeping shark

The big stingray

A puffer that came to say hello! :)

Opening Presents and Playing!

Mav had a lot of fun opening presents this year, unlike last year where he was a little confused as to what to do. He ripped into the presents and would get real excited about whatever he opened. It took a couple of days for him to open all his presents because after he would open them he would want to play with that present for a while. I didn't want him to get too overwhelmed so we took our time enjoying each one. The first present he got to open was his bounce house from Grammie and Gramps. He LOVED IT! Here are some pics of him opening it and enjoying it! 

Ripping off the paper!

Playing in it with Aunt Mal and Dada!

Maverick loves his bounce house!! He says we say the magic words "Yo Gabba Gabba" to turn it on and when we turn it off we have to tell it "Night night". He has put all his balls in there and jumps around with all the basketballs and footballs etc. His big present from Mimmy and Grandpa was a play kitchen! He loves it too! We got him a bunch of play food to go with it and he enjoys acting like he is cooking or stirring and pretending to eat the food. The other big gift from us was a new basketball hoop. He always wants to go down to our neighbors house who has one or go to the school behind us to play with the ones there, so we decided to get him a youth sized one that looks like the big ones. Currently, it is in our entry way :) 

Opening play food

Playing with his new basketball hoop!

Maverick had a wonderful Christmas with his family. We went to church at 10 on Christmas day and then celebrated with my family for lunch. Then after nap time we went to Ross's family's house and celebrated with them. It was a lot of fun and we ate a lot of food!! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Time! :)

We had a wonderful Christmas here in the Lindsey household!! We went to the Grapevine Christmas Parade to kick things off! We went with the Bartels after a lovely dinner at our favorite place for the kiddos, Chickfila, and then headed down to Main Street in Grapevine. The kids like the music, but got a little timid when they played really loud and when there were characters that got too close. It started to mist so we booked it out of there and got the kids home and into bed. Here are some pics from the parade. 

Sitting on Daddy's shoulders

The daddy's holding the kids :)

Enjoying the parade 

Watching the parade

He got a cool glow in the dark necklace!

We had a fun time decorating the house for Christmas too! We put a tree in the rounded staircase area, one in the Juliet balcony and one at the back of our house. We did garland down the stair well and had christmas lights put on our house! I was very excited because I love Christmas and love all the decorations. Here some pics of us decorating. 

We also had to take pictures of Mav for our Christmas cards. It took a little bribing of M&Ms but we got some great shots! 

We also got together with our playgroup for Christmas party and exchanged gifts. The kids also made a craft of a Christmas tree made of their hand prints. The kids had a great time, and we got them to sit still for a few seconds and get a great pic of them!

Cheese!

One day when we went over to Caleb's house to play, we got some great photos of him outside. Here they are!

We also tried to go see Santa at Bass Pro Shop but they were already out of passes, so instead we got to ride the carousel with the AG!

But we did get to see Santa in Southlake. Mav did pretty well, but wanted us to sit with him. So here is our Santa picture for 2011 :) 

Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

In the beginning of December, we were lucky enough to come by some Yo Gabba Gabba Live! tickets. We thought it would be a great early Christmas present for Mav since he is obsessed with the show! The seats were first row in the middle, I knew that he could either freak out or love it. And actually, he did a bit of both. He was kinda scared in the beginning so we moved back about 15 rows and let him warm up to the show. During the intermission we decided to move back down to our seats and try it again. Once the show started back up, he was perfectly fine!! He was dancing and clapping and waving to the characters. After the show we got to go back stage and meet the characters. He got his picture taken with them and everything! We had a great time at the show but I think he would get a little more out of it if we wait about a year or so. I am glad we took him though! We all had a blast!

Waiting for it to start!

This is how we spent the first half... he was a little overwhelmed

Waiting for the second half to start!

With the yellow robot Plex!!

He was hitting Toodie.. probably because she is a brat!

With the tall and friendly Muno!!

And with Mav's favorite, the little green one, Brobee!!

Fun times around the house

When the weather is bad or too cold, we do have to find some fun things to do around the house :) Mav loves playing in his ball pit, with any type of ball, chasing the dogs, watching NickJr and playing in his playroom. Here are some fun pics of him playing around :) 

Putting on a hat with Daddy!

We bundled up one morning and went outside to swing :)

Mav's version of jumping!

Monkeying around :)

Playing in his new Fireman raincoat and boots from Mimmy & Grandpa

Playing soccer around the house!

We also have fun times around the house at Mimmy and Grandpas! Here are some pictures of fun times over there :)

In a box :)

Relaxing by the pool

Look what I built! :)

Maverick is so energetic is now its imperative that we get out of the house at least once a day or he will go stir crazy! But we find fun things to do even if its trying on Mom's necklaces and shoes, dismantleing the pantry, or playing with a box. He is so fun and is starting to do pretend play with phones, food & cooking utensils/pots& pans and loves to sit in front of the computer and watch clips of Yo Gabba Gabba and Blues Clues.  

Dallas Arboretum and Fun with Friends

Wow, I haven't been on here in forever! I have a lot to catch up on! The holidays got quite busy and I didn't have a second to sit down and blog, but now things have calmed down so here goes nothing! :)


 Well after Halloween, we decided it would be fun to take the kids out to the Dallas Arboretum and see their 40,000+ pumpkins!! Annabelle Grace, Leslie, Kinley, Lindsay and Ty all went with us. We sat in traffic FOREVER on 35 and almost decided to turn around and go home, but we stuck it out and finally arrived at the Arboretum with only a little over an hour to enjoy it. But the kids had a blast! There were so many pumpkins and they were in displays of little houses and cottages based on fairy tale princesses. It was pretty cool! Maverick enjoyed chasing birds, throwing little pumpkins and running around :) We also got some great pics that day!

Inside one of the pumpkin houses

Throwing baby pumpkins

THROW!

Beautiful walkway

All inside Cinderella's Carriage 

Group photo :)

We also took advantage of all the beautiful weather this fall and went on lots of walks! We enjoy going through Bob Eden Park and walking to the playgrounds. Here is a couple of photos from our outings :)