Our trip to Iowa!

Evan has been very interested in holidays lately!  The other day he asked to listen to Frosty the Snowman song in the car, and I told him the CD was with the Christmas stuff now that Christmas is over.  He said no Santa come to my house and bring me presents again? I chuckled and explained the order of the upcoming holidays.  First is Valentine's Day, then your birthday, then the Leprachaun comes and then the Easter Bunny.  He asked if the Easter Bunny is going to drive to Apple Lane.  Oh, the imagination he has! Later that night we made a chain from construction paper to countdown the days until his birthday.  I can't beleive our little boy is turning 3!!

He's been a big help lately with Emery while Alex travelled this week.  I was anxious about working too and getting everyone to their daycare and picking them up.   Much like the rest of the country this week, we had two snow days on Monday & Tuesday.  We got about 8 inches overnight, and then an additonal 2.  I've never seen this much snow at one time! None of it has melted and hasn't been warm enough to play in.

Last weekend, my parents flew into Des Moines for a birthday party!  It was my great aunt, Lela's, 100th birthday!!  Lela is my mom's dad's sister!  Her two cousins she grew up with and their kids/grandkids were all there and it must have been 25 years since we were all together.  It was also special because my dad met Emery for the first time.  Evan LOVED staying in the hotel.  We had a room overlooking the indoor pool so Evan was definitely anxious to swim.  He would climb onto the a/c unit to check the people out and reported how many sharks he saw.  Alex took him swimming twice and he loved it!  Lela's celebration began at the fellowship hall at the church in the afternoon and then we met up with everyone for dinner.  It was such a great time had by all! Lela is the sister of my mom's dad.  Her sister, Marguerite, is who I'm named after.  We've been really blessed to live so close to Des Moines to visit for this incredible milestone! If we could all be so lucky to live 100 healthy years! 

there's 100 years between these two!  Lela & Emery

My parents and I drove around town while Alex napped with the kids back in the room.  We drove to the cemetary where my mom's parents are buried, but couldn't locate their plaques as the ground was covered with snow or too muddy.  We also visited the house my mom grew up in, her high school and searched everywhere for Chick-fil-A!!! Yes, Chick-fil-A....haven't had a sandwich or sweet tea since last May and there were 2 restaruants in Des Moines.  I later found out that the one closest to where we were was actually in an office building food court. For those of you who live where there's a Chick-fil-A nearby...don't talk to me! I realize it's just a fast food place, but....it's worse than craving their chicken biscuit on Sunday morning and can't have it b/c their closed. And no, McDonald's southern style biscuit/sandwich is not comparable, plus our Mickey D's quit serving them...guess there's not enough southerners living in Austin!!! ;)

the house my mom grew up in

my grandma lived there until she moved to Atlanta in 1988

Another big thing this week, was Macy, our cat, leaving our home :(.  We have 3 cats and there's some type A personality clashes between Macy & Heinz.  Being that Heinz & Pitsy are brother/sister we didn't feel it fair to separate them.  So my parents agreed to welcome Macy to their home.  She's a wonderful cat, the most perfect companion for anyone except an 18 lb male cat.  We think Heinz's behavior issues were a result of Macy's presence and before succumbing to medication we decided to isolate the problem.  My parents just lost their cat a few months ago and rescued a 9 month old kitten.  Macy is adjusting well, and definitley getting some exercise with Willow.  My mom says her favorite place to lounge is the treadmill...ironic since she's almost 15 pounds and 19 inches long!  On our way back home, Evan was sad because he missed Macy and our hotel room...but not Grandma & Papy!! Deep down he misses them too!!

Macy