My 3 Valentines

This year on Valentine's Day, Jeff was out of town for some much-deserved guy time. But he made sure to leave me a little surprise behind so that I had something special from him. After a few clues by text message, I found several little notes around the house to put together this puzzle message. So cute! Oh, and each message had a little $$ to go along with it, so by the end I had a nice little wad of money to buy myself something fun with. Sweet and cute idea from my #1 Valentine!

Puzzle message :-)

After the kids woke up, they were excited to open their special Valentine package from MeMe and Grand Daddy. Card games (and an extra Nerf gun bullet leftover from Christmas), right up their alley! We ended up enjoying lots of games on the cold Valentine's Day weekend.

Valentine's Day treats from MeMe and Grand Daddy.

Connor's elementary school has two classroom parties each year, and the Friendship Party is usually held on or near Valentine's Day. Since I'm the Homeroom parent for Connor's classroom, I was in charge of getting the party ready for Mrs. Sartor's class. We had a photo booth with props for the kids to get their picture taken, a wooden picture frame to decorate, and even a candy buffet for some take-home treats. The kids were so cute and all had so much fun!

Kaitlynn was my little helper for Connor's friendship party.

The candy buffet table.

Connor with his teacher, Mrs. Sartor.

These two Valentines cuties!

Connor's 2nd grade class.

Connor shows off his decorated photo frame.

Posing for a photobooth pic.

Connor and 2 of his buddies in the photobooth.

I'm so lucky to be his very first Valentine. But most definitely not his last. (sniff sniff)

Posing in front of one of Connor's art class pictures that we found hung in the hallway.

Connor was really excited to share valentines with his friends in his class this year. I found a neat idea for valentine treats on Pinterest that actually turned out really cute. Connor and Kaitlynn both were able to pass out their little Minions (twinkies) to their classmates.

Twinkies dressed up like Minions. The tags said, "You're one in a Minion."

After the Friendship Party, I took Connor and Kaitlynn out for a special Valentine's Day date. We went to Katy Mills, got some cookie treats, went to see the Lego movie, and then enjoyed dinner at Rainforest Cafe. Connor and Kaitlynn were so sweet and really enjoyed our special time together. Although we missed having Jeff around, we still had a great time together on our special date!

Kaitlynn puckers up to give Connor a Valentines kiss along with his Valentine cookie.

Fun in the Forest

One of the reasons we picked our home in Katy was the nice sized backyard with wrought iron fence that overlooks a small lake. It's not exactly what we were used to at our last house, but we have a vision of creating the perfect spot that our family can enjoy for years to come. Last month as a belated Christmas present, we added a gate to our backyard fence so that we could easily get to the lake for fishing and exploring.

Connor and Kaitlynn strike a pose in front of the new gate.

Past the gate, there are lots of areas to explore!

What we didn't count on when we bought the house was discovering a bonus in the form of a "forest." There is a patch of woods right behind our house, adjacent to the lake, that the kids love to visit and explore. Such a fun surprise and unexpected treat when living in a big city! Now when Connor has friends over, he always takes them to the forest and they have quite the adventures. Sometimes they pretend to play Survivorman (like the TV show) and so they make sure to bring their camping supplies and survival snacks, ha!

Connor and his buddy Reid about to explore the forest (you can see it in the background).

One day after returning from the forest with the kids, Jeff started telling me about a treehouse and a zipline that he discovered built into the large oak trees. I was quite intrigued, so recently I joined them all for some forest adventures to check it all out. Sure enough, there is a neat treehouse with steps built into one of the trees, and from the treehouse you can ride a zipline about 50-60 yards from one big tree to the next. Oh my goodness, so cool!! Someone spent a lot of time and energy building the zipline and making sure it's secure and safe. We have no idea who did it, but we sure are enjoying it!

Jeff and the kids in front of the big oak tree, treehouse, and start of the zipline.

The kids and even Jeff LOVE riding the zipline! It takes a lot of help from Dad to make sure the kids can get up there and ride safely, but it has become such a fun adventure!

This is how Connor reaches the zipline handlebars.

On your mark, get set...

There he goes! Weeeeee!

Here he is at the end of the zipline. You can see the lake in the background.

Kaitlynn's turn!

Ready...Set...

Go! She is SO good at hanging on tight!

But Jeff runs behind her, just in case!

And of course, Jeff has to take his turn too.

He starts from the top of the treehouse.

Weeeeeee!

He might be a tad heavier than the kids! ;-)

I took these videos of the kids riding the zipline yesterday. Who knew there would be so much adventure awaiting us right in our own backyard!

Dental Fail

Every mother has her faults. Admittedly, I have many. But I have known for a while that one of biggest faults was going to come back to haunt me in a major way if I didn't get my act together soon.

Sure enough, the day of reckoning arrived this month. At the dentist's office.

*Cue the horror film music*

Yes, I'm being overly dramatic. But it's confession time. My kids had their regular dental checkups at the dentist this month, and it was not a good report. Why? Because I was terribly deficient in overseeing my kids' dental hygiene. I almost always forget to remind them to brush. We never flossed. And even when I KNEW they weren't brushing or at least not brushing right, I didn't correct them. I'm not sure why this was such a chore for me, but when it came to my kids' teeth, I admit that I failed miserably!

The dental hygenist discovers the months (years) of abuse.

The one positive note from our visit: Kaitlynn was finally a BIG girl and handled her cleaning like a champ.

Well, NO MORE! After our visit this month and having to schedule additional visits to fix the problems our lack of hygiene created, I have turned over a new leaf. Now we have a new routine which requires Mom or Dad to brush and floss each kid's teeth every morning and every night after they first do it themselves. It is SUCH a chore! But at least now I can mark ONE fault off of my long list. ;-)

After our visit, they were all smiles vowing to take better care of their teeth.

Spring in January

Why is it that every January my blog seems to be completely empty of new posts and updates? We're still here, and we're still as busy as ever! I thought I would start the first blog post of the new year with some fun in the sun. After a COLD start to 2014, it has really warmed up and become very spring-like around here. We are enjoying gorgeous and cool sunny days, perfect for family bike rides with the kids' new bikes from Santa!

Kaitlynn's new princess bike has streamers, a basket, and even a carrier for her babies. But of course!

The kids love to go on bike rides up to the elementary school, which is around the corner from our house. Once there, they enjoy playing on the big playground and eventually ride their way home. A perfect activity for these gorgeous spring-like days. I wonder how long this weather will last??

Jeff, Kaitlynn, and Connor at the school playground.

Jeff decided to get a little daring on the kids' playground equipment.

He thinks he's just one of the kids.

Like father, like son.

On their way back home, riding down the sidewalk behind the school.

Christmas 2013

Another fun Christmas season has come and gone for the Courtrights! We began our celebration by spending some time at MeMe and Granddaddy's home in White Oak. All of the cousins gathered on Christmas Eve to exchange gifts and spend some fun time together.

Favorite photo of Christmas: the Morgan cousins!

All the stockings hung with care at MeMe and Granddaddy's house.

Kaitlynn and Daddy share a Christmas hug.

Couldn't resist posting this pic of the cousins' bedheads. Accurate portrayal of Christmas morning!

After opening our stockings, we enjoyed some breakfast and then started our family gift exchange. Then the kids had so much fun playing with all of their new gifts.

Jeff and Connor play with one of Connor's gifts.

The popular gift for the cousins this year: the rainbow loom. Everyone loved it!

Kaitlynn LOVES her new scooter from MeMe and Granddaddy.

Marissa and Kaitlynn were thick as thieves, as usual!

Marissa and Kaitlynn still love MeMe's baby crib.

Later that day, we had Round 2 with the extended Morgan family. We enjoyed lots of food and more gifts!

MeMe brought out all the nice Christmas dishes and platters for the dessert table this year. So pretty!

Marissa and Kaitlynn playing with some of their gifts.

The big girls, Gracie, Renee, and Karlie.

Kaitlynn wearing some of her new princess jewelry.

Kaitlynn with some of her gifts, so fun!

Michelle and Chris cozying up together on the couch.

My sweet cousin Robin and I on Christmas Eve.

Uncle Ben with his Moose Drool.

On Christmas Day, we had the movie theater to ourselves to watch Frozen. One of my new favorites!

Back in Katy, we waited for the older boys to come over so we could all celebrate our family Christmas together. Collin's girlfriend Martha was able to join us this year and we had a great time. We had a special arrangement with Santa to make a trip to our house a little later than usual and it worked out great. ;-)

Sprinkling reindeer food on the lawn in preparation for Santa.

Cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.

When the kids woke up, they were excited to see that Santa came! After inspecting our stockings and gifts from Santa, we then exchanged presents as a family. So much Christmas fun!

Santa brought some big gifts this year.

Inspecting the new Barbie dream house from Santa.

A classic Christmas-gift reaction from Connor. He couldn't believe we got him the rainbow loom, and he loves it!

Collin opening one of his gifts.

Martha (Collin's girlfriend) shows off one of her gifts.

One of the gifts from Nana and Grandpa, a "toxic" laundry bag. Perfect!!

Jeff's favorite Christmas gift every year: his personalized family calendar.

All in all it was another wonderful Christmas! 2014, here we come!