Spring Happenings

We sure have had some fun in Texas so far (despite the fact that I'm highly allergic to tree pollen...which I must confess I didn't even know you could be allergic to trees). 

In March, James started soccer. He's really gotten so much better as time has progressed! Watching 3 year olds play soccer might be the funniest thing I've ever seen. It's certainly entertaining. The kids just follow the ball and the coaches spend their time trying to corral the children back to the field. They don't keep score since the kids tend to just kick the ball into the closest goal, but they all have a lot of fun in the first half of the game. After that, they all start having meltdowns from hunger pains and being tired and it's sort of a pain trying to get four of them out on the field. In any case, it's been fun. We have three more weeks of soccer and then we get to sleep in on Saturdays (which we are really excited for).

I love how kids are automatically friends.

James has a tendency to go a little crazy out on the field. He was so cooped in Utah and whenever he got out he would just run like a horse that's been penned up for a long time. Whenever he sees a field like this he just runs and says "I'm free as a bird" over and over. It makes for interesting soccer practice... I can't help but think of Forest Gump in those moments (Run, Forest, run!)

James and I have been on a quest to find the perfect library. It's been difficult not comparing all libraries to the Provo library where they had excellent programs and a huge children's wing. San Antonio has 27 libraries! So far we've been to Igo, Maverick, Central, Landa, Parman & Great Northwest. Only three of those actually have a children's wing, and none really compare to the clean and bright Provo, but I think that's something I'm just going to have to learn to deal with. Who knows though, there are still 21 libraries that we haven't been to.

This is the Landa library. It doesn't have a children's wing, but it is by far the most unique library I've ever been to. The Landa family wanted their home to be turned into a library. It sits on a beautifully maintained estate with the best playground I've seen. It's really incredibly beautiful. The home has all the original floors and details that you'd expect in an old rich house. It's a fun place to explore and we like visiting here.

Our backyard was really out of hand when we moved in. It looked like it hadn't been really cleaned up for years. We bagged 15 yard bags full of leaves alone, and this pile of tree branches is only about 1/3 of what Paul ended up trimming from the trees. It was quite the project. This is how I learned of tree pollen and developed pretty nasty allergies. My left eye has had nothing but trouble since we moved here. It's been undergoing an allergic reaction for months and is puffy and baggy and red and itchy all the time. At one point it got so bad that there was blood coming from my tear duct! It hasn't been the fun part of living here. I'm so glad to have all that brush out of the yard. Now if only we had grass or a deck or something out there besides dirt.

Ok, this picture just makes me smile every time I see it. James is such a studly little kid. 

So, I know I will probably not think this once it gets hot, but I have really loved the Winter and Spring weather in Texas. We get rain at least once a week, sometimes more (which we love and it's great for the garden!) and on most days I've been able to open all the windows and let the sunshine and fresh air in. Just looking at this picture makes me want to throw open the windows and take a nap (but it's raining today). I've adapted to the weather quickly and while I would have been wearing flip flops and shorts at 50 degrees in Utah, that is chilly weather here! 

Another fun place we visited is Buc-ee's. The first time we passed Buc-ee's gas station I was really confused as to what could possibly be in such a HUGE store. It's one of those places that you sort of have to visit to get the real idea of how big it is. This is just one half of the store! Everything's bigger in Texas, I guess.

I made these for our garden. I really love them and am so pleased with how they turned out! The garden is growing well and it's time to thin out the millions of plants that my little helper James dumped into the soil as seeds not so long ago.  Next time I will pay a bit more attention to him when he's grabbing seeds.

So, on Easter Sunday Paul had the stomach flu (which he graciously passed on to James and I the next day), so we didn't make it to church. We had acquired a couple of new outfits for James, including an easter outfit (see the studly photo above), but he wanted to show off his orange shoes, so this is the picture we got for Easter.

We finally decided that James is indeed left-handed and have been working on his writing skills. He's doing pretty well! He can copy down what we write so we had him make an Easter card for Grandma and Grandpa (peepaw) Willardson.  I'm having him write his name every day in hopes that one day he won't need to copy it down and will just be able to spell it on his own. I am doing preschool with him every day, but he is not really the contemplative, quiet type. I see so many children who have all their alphabet and sounds memorized EARLY, and James can hardly concentrate long enough to tell me what the letters he does know are (although he's very close to having them all memorized). I wonder if there is a book out there on how to help kids concentrate on things... In any case, he is very bright and even though he doesn't know all the names of all the letters, he can read a lot of three letter words. I love the BOB books! He's been able to read several of them on his own. I guess every kid learns differently and I should stop comparing him to other kids and focus on his accomplishments.

Last weekend we took a three hour drive down to Sugar Land to go to a work conference for Paul's company. They put us up in a hotel for the night and fed us delicious food and made Paul go to boring meetings while I got a hot bath and a nap. James stayed with my cousins who live in Sugar Land and had a blast! I hadn't seen them for years and it was so good to be around family again. I forgot how much I missed that until we drove away and I was sad to go back to San Antonio where we don't really have anyone.

This is the view from our hotel room. There was some sort of very strange snake festival going on down there. Weird.

Watching the sun rise on our way to Sugar Land. 

We live close to a Wal-Mart and Home Depot and a bunch of other shopping. James and I often go for a walk to get out of the house. Every time we pass these little trees he insists that I take his picture by them. I have no idea why.

I'm going to try and be better about blogging. I'm so sick of all the drama on facebook and I don't get to share as much through status updates as I can through blogging.

Anyway, that's what we've been up to lately. We are looking forward to August when Rosi and Roy come for visit! We miss our family!