Mimi and Papa Paul's Visit

My mom and dad flew in for a quick visit earlier this week! My dad had not come to visit yet, so we were happy he finally came to see us. Every time we go to Ikea, someone says something about how much Dad would love it. We were right! I am pretty sure he picked up, studied, and declared what a good deal every single item was! He was not happy that he had flown and therefore could not bring home all of his heart's desires! I have no doubt he will be showing up with a truck next time. As always, I was terrible about getting my camera out when someone visits. I just enjoyed having them here. I stole a few off of mom's facebook page, and I did take a few of the fabulous makeovers Hope and Mimi gave each other! I somehow got my mom to try two different things while she was here. The first was sushi. She had never had it before. And she loved it! Woo hoo! Isn't it supposed to be the mom making the daughter try something new and not the other way around?! Oh well. And also, California Pizza. Her first question was if they had pepperoni pizza. I did tell her she was not allowed to eat pepperoni. She tried my favorite Spinach and Artichoke Pizza, and again, she loved it. Success. We did have to take Dad to Uncle Julio's so that he could finally taste what my sister, brother in law, and pretty much any one else in our family talks about when coming here. He approved. The Plato Gordo does not disappoint. What he did not approve of, was the Texas water. That's ok, neither do we. Little Rock has the best drinking water in the world. No, for real. We miss it. I will never be okay with our water tasting like dirt. When hearing that our new town had been named in the top 5 places to live, he came up with a new slogan for Little Rock:

Little Rock. We aren't McKinney, TX, but have you tasted our water?

Ha.

Here are some pics: Noah was so excited to ride the "Hersie" at the mall. I think Mimi was pretty excited too.

 We visited the outlet mall near our house, and Noah's reward for not loosing his two year old mind being somewhat good was riding what he calls "The Garbage Truck", but is actually the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Mobile.

 Mimi and Hope love have makeovers! They had some big plans for Mimi's last night here! Hope pulled out the lipstick I bought in Las Vegas, that I have only worn in Las Vegas!

 Poor Hope has a mom who rarely wears any makeup, and never fun things like eyeshadow. Thankfully, I was able to dig up a free sample of eyeshadow I had so the night was not a total loss.

Aren't they lovely? And isn't Mimi a good sport? :) This was before the hairdos! ;)

Hope hates to say goodbye. Hates it. You can see her start to worry about someone leaving a full day before they leave. It really is sad. She is ready for a long Mimi visit again. At school, they write in a journal everyday (?) and then their teacher or a volunteer will help them publish their favorite story with correct spelling, grammar, etc. Here was Hope's published story from last week:

Mimi and Hope are at the table, and I am back there (without makeup!) taking pictures.

And yes, Mimi, you can have the story.

Little Girl Blue

Just a quick iPhone pic post! More to come!

Art Show!

 Hope's artwork was chosen to be in a district-wide Art Show this month. A few were chosen from each grade at each school, and we were so happy for her. We got to go to the district office Thursday night to see her artwork and for her to get her certificate.

 Even she didn't know what piece had been chosen, though, so it took as a bit to find hers! She had done texture rubbings on different pieces of paper, and then cut out the different pieces to make tulips. I should have known it would have involved scissors and a collage, because that is what she loves to do!

So proud of her certificate!

With her art teacher, Ms. Fee. She really does an amazing job. Each of the other elementary schools in our district their art on display, and I thought our pieces were the most diverse, a credit, no doubt, due to Ms. Fee. Hope always loves art day at school!

Explaining her work to daddy. He might have been a tad bit proud. Maybe.

And, we had to show baby sister too, or most likely, we wanted our little friends see that we could carry our baby sister...

Noah Red was not as impressed with the art show, and we had to leave as he was disturbing the peace.

We celebrated by trying yet another pizza place, Brooklyn's. Blah. Why is there no outstanding pizza here? I need some US, or Paxton's, or even Larry's!

Baby sister was in such a great mood before I started getting her ready for bed, I had to take some pics of her in her rocking chair.

Help me, I Have Created a Cheerleader

Hope has been so excited that she has become an Upward Cheerleader! Hope has always wanted to be a cheerleader, and I have always wanted her to not be a cheerleader. I really don't know why, I cheered through college, but I really hoped she would stick to the gymnastics and such. But, when we heard about Upward, we thought it was a great opportunity for fellowship as well as getting her some cheerleading in! It is at our church, and has been a great opportunity for her to meet new friends and get to know some school friends better. My favorite part is that she memorizes a pretty long scripture each week. Her memory scares us sometimes how quickly she can memorize things.

She was so fired up for her first game!

On this chilly morning she walked outside and said, "I think Cheerleaders should wear pants." Ha! 

 Some half time entertainment!

 She was really into it!

I love this... 

And look how pumped she got the crowd!

(Emmy yawning there made me laugh.: )

And look how pumped this fan was!

 I promise Mommy was excited for you, Hope. You did a great job!

No, Really, I'm a HORRIBLE Housewife.

Inserting adorable baby pictures, just to keep you interested:

OK, I feel like I should really start documenting some of my not-so-glamorous, horribly embarrassing, but still pretty hysterical moments of me trying to become an awesome stay at home mommy. You saw the birthday cake, right? Well, just know that stuff like that happens EVERY day!

I thought I had it all figured out that once I stayed home I would become the organized mommy I have always wanted to be. I blamed the chaos on me working full time, while John was gone 4 days a week. Ha. Confession: I am more disorganized than ever. Double confession: I had a housekeeper while I was working full time. Triple confession: I miss her.

So, here are just a couple of my glorious moments lately!

I really have been much better at making meals myself rather than (GASP!) frozen, boxed, or premade meals. Last night, I went back to my old ways for the sake of convenience. I put some frozen meatloaf in the microwave, made boxed (you can gag if you need to) 4 cheese mashed potatoes on the stove, and crescent rolls in the oven. It seemed just easy and I was thankful not to have had to brown the meat, cut the potatoes, etc. So, John came home right in the middle of everything getting done... I timed it all right at least... SCORE! I had pulled the potatoes onto a different burner, checked on the rolls, opened the microwave to find that the meatloaf was finished. I grabbed it, put in on the stove, turned around to get the rolls out of the oven when Hope starts yelling "SMOKE!" I had put the PAPER microwave meatloaf container on the burner that I had just taken the potatoes off of! What an idiot! It was burning, John moved it, giving me a "what in the world were you thinking" look, which hurt my feelings, because, seriously, did I mean to do that? No. Emmy was screaming because "OMG SHE'S NOT HOLDING ME!" John started asking me how much milk did I put in the potatoes, because, don't I know, you are supposed to put a very precise amount of milk in them? Which just really irritated me, so I took Emmy and sat on my bed and chilled with her for a moment so I could calm down without getting upset about a stupid frozen meatloaf. Which makes me giggle a little bit. I went to check on Hope, who was upset that there was fire/smoke in the house. I told her she was the hero for telling us what she saw, and that made her feel better. So, I go downstairs, when I realize that I never did pull the rolls out of the oven. :) Burnt. Awesome. Happy Tuesday!

And my favorite happening: A little back story first. Something I have done well is cutting out from our budget. Specifically our grocery bill. By more than half. Yay me! So now, it really bothers me to have to run to the store between my planned grocery store visits. So a few weeks ago, we ran out of detergent for the dishwasher. I googled for a recipe for a temporary replacement to try to get one more load washed before I went to the store. I found one online with some stuff we already had. As a bonus, it suggested putting vinegar in the Jet-Dry container in the dishwasher as a replacement for Jet-Dry. So I put some in.That night, I ran the dishwasher and John was trying to figure out where that awful smell was coming from. I told him what I had done. He was not impressed! Meanwhile, he was spraying down the counter top using a spray bottle I had just filled with vinegar to try as a cleaning product. Only he thought it was the usual solution we keep in that bottle. So there he was, complaining about the awful vinegar smell coming from the dishwasher, all the while spraying it on the counter tops as well without realizing. It was a snorting laughing kind of moment for me. Him, not so much. I did eventually let him in on the fact that there was vinegar in the spray bottle, too. So a few minutes later, in true John fashion, he makes up a song. The title of the song? "I Don't Care How Much the Jet-Dry Costs." He was belting it out, and I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. Fun times.

Anyone else want to share some of their less than glamorous house wife moments? Mom, do you have a meatloaf story you would like to share? :) Leave it in the comments.

It Snows in Texas?

We had prepared Hope for the fact that it doesn't snow much in Texas. That there might not be snowman building during our time here. Hopey Lou loves some snow. So does her Daddy. When the forecast started calling for snow, I did not even tell her. Until the morning of when it seemed it was for sure headed our way. The biggest snowflakes ever started falling and so began the non stop pestering questioning of WHEN CAN WE BUILD A SNOWMAN?

Daddy did not disappoint with his 7 foot giant snow man, that of course Hope is taking all credit for. I mean, how else would those eyes and nose gotten on just right?

This was the best view in our house as the snow fell. The kids and I just sat on the balcony/hallway and watched it come down.

Our first snow in our new house.

Enter Jill's ADD: Thanks for the boots, Mom!

Follow the Leader!

My adorable baby who came out just for some obligatory pics with the pink snowsuit. My sister's girls, my girls, and Baby Rosalie have all worn this for their first snow!

Now is when you should feel a bit sorry for poor Noah, who, unfortunately for him, did not outgrow the "Hoover Gnome Snowsuit" this year. To remind you, all 4 of us Hoover siblings wore this bad boy at some point in our childhoods. And many of the grandkids have suffered through had the pleasure of wearing as well. Maybe next year Noah will grow, and pass it on to his baby sister. :) If this doesn't make you think of Randy from The Christmas Story, then clearly you missed the marathon on TBS this year.

Hope has a pretty good snowball strategy worked out. She is a smart girl who knows that it is best to not throw one at Mommy. Daddy and Noah were not so lucky.

All of my snowbabies.

Oh, I loooooove him. Melts Mommy's heart. He yelled "HI YA" everytime he threw snow at someone.

Walking out to the snow.

More snow fighting. Daddy shows no mercy.

Hope thought a little too long on her strategy here, and daddy swooped in while she was thinking hard.

The bigger, the better

Please forgive me again as my pictures are all mixed up and nothing in the world is more frustrating than trying to rearrange pictures in the new blogger.  This is how we roll on a snow day. In our pjs, playing some wii...

You can't see this clearly, but let me assure you, Emmy is screaming her head off because she can see me and realizes that "OMG SHE'S NOT HOLDING ME!" Emmy does fine entertaining herself for a few minutes if I am nowhere in sight. If she can see me, it's not pretty. And yes, my santas are still on the mantle. I'm not quite done putting away Christmas. Almost. Promise. Don't judge.

And now for some reminiscing for Mommy. I was trying to think if there was any snow the last time we lived in Texas, in the grand town of Midlothian... I came across these. I so miss this little 2 year old Lulu baby.

And to round out the fun, John got to call poison control tonight after dear Noah drank some "Liquid Bandage" stuff. That he got after climbing on the tub, onto the bathroom counter, and into the medicine cabinet, and then opened and drank. Where were his parents? I have no idea. Just kidding. He wanted to nap on our bed, but snuck into the bathroom when we thought he was asleep. He is 100% fine, just crazy.

A Keeper

You have seen this picture before, probably, but I have been playing with it a lot. I think this is the way I want it on a huge canvas...after I save up for that :) Of course, I wish Hopey Lou was in there too, but I have come to terms with the fact that the perfect picture with all three kids is just not going to exist any time soon. Plus, we have 1000 professional pictures of Hope all over our house. And not the others. Yet. If you don't remember, Noah was not a fan of his baby sister in the first few days. This was one of the very first sweet moments they ever had. Love love.

Emmy Love 5 Months (& 2 weeks...oops)

Emmy, my Love,

We still have not figured you out! :) You continue to surprise us, all the time. You like bananas, you don't like bananas. You like the car, you Don't like the car. You sleep through the night, you don't sleep through the night. Oh, baby girl, it appears you have your mother's indecisiveness. You rolled over twice on Christmas day at Nenny's house, but not again since. The biggest change from 4 months to five months is how big you are! At 5 months, you weighed 13 pounds 2 ounces! You jumped 10 percentile points in 4 weeks. Up to the 16th! My little bitty baby that wouldn't grow has turned into a bit of a chubby baby! I call you "Fatty" quite a bit, but Daddy does not like when I say that. But, I promise you, it is a term of endearment :) You have the most awesome neck rolls ever! Look!

(Okay, yes, I did dress you up in Noah's baby clothes, sorry about that.)

You still like me, a lot. The closer you can be to me, the happier you are. If I could just glue you to me, you would be so so happy. So, instead, I end up "wearing" you a lot. Baby Bjorn, Moby Wrap, Peanut Shell... You like them all. And I use them all a lot, because if I stick to only one, my back starts to hurt. I actually just added an Ergo to the list, because I like that I can actually wear you on my back, but I am not sure I like it or not enough to keep it. I think maybe I am too short? Who knows. At some point, though, I am going to need you to ride in the stroller when we are out. Can we make a deal?

And, last night, I finally finished your nursery. We bought your dresser last weekend, and we have worked hard to finally finish everything. I know it seems like it should have been done a while ago, but it was pretty low on the priority list with you sleeping in our room for so long and us keeping all your clothes downstairs in our room... but, you are a big girl now who likes her own bed now, so it was time to make the room yours. I love it. I hope you do too.

You are quick to smile, but not quick to laugh. It takes some work to hear that belly giggle that we love so much.

You cannot eat enough in the morning. You wake up starving, and down 7 ounces right away. Then, an hour later, maybe an hour and a half, you are demanding another bottle. And you usually get it. You take another 5-7 ounces! Crazy baby. Then, you settle back into your 7 ounces every 3 hours schedule for the rest of the day.

You follow every move we make. You can turn circles on your back, and you will turn and turn until you get a better view of who you are watching. You have rubbed off a big chunk of hair on the back of your head by doing this, so don't come crying to me about your hair being all uneven ;)

You are such a delight. I tell you all the time that I never knew how much I needed you.