Cousin Grant comes for a visit

This past weekend my brother Aaron had an annual sales conference in Dallas and he brought along his son, Grant.

Grant is our only boy cousin, and even better that he's only 6 weeks different from Sam, so they're buds.They flew in a day before the conference so that we could spend some time together. We decided to go to the Dallas Zoo. A much needed rainstorm had barely blown over and when we got there and so we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves.
We were a bit worried that due to the rain and cooler weather there wouldn't be any animals out, but just the opposite we saw every animal we wanted, and in some cases, VERY CLOSE UP. We saw: Gorillas, Zebras, Elephants, Monkeys, Alligators, Tigers, and more. We rode the carousel and just had a great time.

A funny story happened with Matthew. He insisted on walking most of the day even though we had the stroller, and since it wasn't crowded, we let him. When we got to the cougar exhibit we saw the cat and had all walked on to the next thing and Matthew hadn't quite joined us yet and fell a few steps behind. As soon as he was alone that cougar stood up and started staring Matthew down, it was like he/she was in hunting mode. She saw the weakest in our group, that he was separated from the group and had zeroed in on my precious little guy--scary!

Then that evening we enjoyed an early Birthday dinner for my mom who was going to celebrate her birthday on Sunday.

Grant then stayed with us for the weekend while Aaron was at his conference, it was fun to have him with us. He really got a kick out of our big screen and playing the wii on it, and our kids really enjoyed Super Mario Bros.--which was Grant's favorite game, thought I think he really liked our favorite, Lego Star Wars, as well.

We're driving, we're driving...

We had a long weekend in January, and there was a lot of driving.
Saturday morning we drove (4 hours) to Houston for our niece, Shelly's, baptism (in our faith we baptize children at age 8).
It was honestly a bit nostalgic for me because her family lives and attends church in my first area where I served my mission, my apartment was around the corner from that church building. The baptism was nice and it was good to spend the time with family.

We attended church with them the next day and then drove (1 hour) to College Station to spend Monday there, we had an appointment....

Here is the long story:

Stephen is an accomplished violinist. In High School he got all sorts of accolades, and his teacher, Harold Turbyfill, LOVED him. In all his years of teaching, Stephen is one of his favorites.

In the McKneely family, violins are kind of our specialty. Stephen's great grandfather apparently played the violin too but we didn't know this until recently. His violin resurfaced and his grandfather had it. It was in bad shaped and needed fixing. He asked Stephen's mom if she knew how to get it fixed.

She did, Mr. Turbyfill is now retired but in his retirement has opened a shop where he fixes stringed instruments. Susan takes the violin to him. He explains that he's only willing to fix violins that will actually get played. She promises that if he fixes it, the violin will be played. He pushes it and asks if STEPHEN will play this violin. Susan promises that Stephen will indeed play this violin. Mr. Turbyfill then takes it a bit further and insists that if Stephen's going to play this violin then it's going to need a new bow (which indeed was a need, the one that the violin had was in awful shape). She agreed that he would need one and just asked him to pick one out. He, however, insisted that Stephen needed to pick out his own bow. (Now if you ask me, I think he was trying to finagle a way to see Stephen--and who could blame him?)
So our "appointment" on Monday morning was to go to the shop and let Stephen pick out a bow. The shop was closed but of course Mr. Turbyfill met us and we spent a lovely 2 hours with him. Stephen was a bit rusty at first but it all came back pretty quickly. And he played probably 20 different bows until he settled on a nice one. Carl and Susan took the kids for a tour of downtown Bryan while we visited and Stephen played.
He also took us on a tour of his workshop upstairs, and for this Kaitlyn and Sam joined us, Sam really got into seeing the tools and parts and figuring out how things work, and Mr. Turbyfill gave him one of his violins he uses for parts--he was on cloud nine!

And it was so nice to meet Mr. Turbyfill he told us that seeing Stephen "made his day, well actually a lot of days." Stephen said it best when he said for him to see Stephen doing well, with a family and happy was a measure of his life's work, a teacher's payday. And I was so proud of Stephen for sacrificing so much to do something nice to make Mr. Turbyfill happy.
But then comes MORE driving, because we had to fulfill the "promise" of Stephen playing THE violin. During the Christmas holiday, Susan took the repaired violin to show it to Grandpa McKneely, it's repair was his Christmas present. She assumed she'd just take it home with her for Stephen to choose his bow and then play it. But Grandpa McKneely wouldn't let it out of his sight, he had plans to learn to play it and wanted to keep it, so in order for the "promise" made to Mr. Turbyfill to be kept, it required us to drive (2 hours) to Nacogdoches, to Grandpa McKneely and give him a private concert of sorts with Stephen playing his father's violin with the new bow. Which we did.

We enjoyed a nice visit with Grandpa McKneely, went out to dinner at Cici's Pizza (it's his thing to do with his family when they come to visit) and then headed home, driving another 3.5 hours.

In the end, Grandpa McKneely has decided not to take up the violin, so it's in the possession of Susan who is charged with either learning to play or finding someone to play it, my money is on Sam, who I think would make a GREAT violinist.

And while it was a lot of driving, it was the right thing to do, we made a lot of people happy.

Maverick comes to our house

We had a guest this past weekend.....

Maverick, Sam's kindergarten classroom Mascot

He got to come spend the weekend with us and join in the adventure that is living in the McKneely household.

Here's what we did with him:

Dad took the scouts camping, so that means those of us left at home have a movie night--we watched Beauty and the Beast. And then he got to sleep in Kaitlyn's doll bed (which she not so gracefully agreed to let Maverick use).And then over the weekend there were other adventures including wrestling matches, and horsie rides (which was a bit funny to me since Maverick himself is a horse) But all in all, it was a great weekend! Come back anytime Maverick.

Lindsey's Firsts

Lindsey has had A LOT going on lately.

As a combination Birthday and Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa McKneely--she got a Hermit Crab! This is a big deal as it's our family's first ever pet. She was pretty funny about getting it too. Right after we went ice skating with our McKneely relatives, she rode home with Grandma and Grandpa and happened to stop by the pet store.

She knew nothing about the surprise, only that she was going to go shopping for it with them when they got here. When she heard that it was a "pet" she was VERY HESITANT--"Mom doesn't let us have pets." "Does my mom know about this?" "Are you sure my mom said I could have a pet?"--apparently she was very unsure about the whole thing instead of being excited like we thought she would.

Katie the Hermit Crab was larger than mom imagined but has turned out to be very low maintenance and at this point kind of anti-climatic. It is winter time and they like to be warm so all it does is burrow itself into it's home and try and stay warm. He hasn't been much fun yet, but we're hoping that will turn around. But I have heard her say, "Mom, it's fun to have a pet."

The OTHER "first" for Lindsey is she has started Preschool! The above photo is of her on her first day--in her self selected ensemble! She was very proud of her backpack and stowed her own lunch in it. She has LOVED going the two mornings a week and her teachers tell me they wish they had a classroom full of Lindseys!
Her first day was pretty un-eventful. She told me a few mornings before that she would miss me while at preschool but that she knew I would come to get her. Then the morning of, she informed me that as soon as we got into the classroom I could just leave (the norm around here is that I don't leave them on a first day of something until they feel good and safe and then they tell me it's okay for me to go). This little confident gal was so sure she'd be fine, and she totally was! I ADORE HER!

New Years with the McKneelys

We hosted the McKneelys over the New Years weekend, we had a GREAT TIME!!

Everyone arrived on Friday just after lunch and we headed out the door to go ice skating!

Our kids had been asking all vacation for us to take them, but we did the math and knew that we didn't have enough adults to help our kids learn how to ice skate. So we waited for our company to come in town because then we'd have enough helpers for our little skaters. (one of my New Years resolutions is to get out from behind the camera and be in more pictures--here is proof!)

I have to say I'm really proud of my little skaters, of course they were hesitant at first and scared to fall down. They clung to the edge but with time their confidence grew and both Sam and Kaitlyn were able to skate independently! They were so excited.
And I think Lindsey's favorite thing (apart from taking breaks from the ice to be with Grandpa McKneely) was going in front of Dad on the ice and leaning back and just letting him push her and go REALLY FAST! My little thrill seeker!

Then that evening was spent having Christmas Part 2 as we had waited to open presents from each other until we could be together. It was a great time, and gave my children another round of toys--just when they were tiring of their first set of Christmas gifts.


Then, the next day was a sacred experience for our family. We spent the day at the Dallas Temple where we did the temple work for Stephen's grandparents. It's hard to put to words the feelings and emotions that accompanied us this day. I hope I never forget it. I am so grateful for my family, and for my knowledge that families REALLY ARE forever.

Then the evening was filled with all the culinary preparations for our traditional won tons and egg rolls, cheese dip and other munchies.

Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We had a wonderful Christmas Day! My parents and sister spent much of the day with us.

Christmas with small children is just so magical. Everything is exciting for them, everything is something they are grateful for.

Here are some highlights of the GREAT PRESENT OPENING--
This girl WORKED a super hero cape made by her aunt Summer.Kaitlyn got a doll she'd REALLY wanted, a set of looms for making hats, and some beloved Pet Shop toys.Sam's cousin Grant sent him the thing he wanted most, a Nerf gun with suction cup darts. And Stephen was really excited about it too, he started playing with it, until he remembered one he had in the closet from when he was a teenager, and then a mini war broke out.
And I LOVE this cute shot of my two boys playing with their electronics

Another fun memory was that Sam has become a bit fascinated with the Rubbik's Cube, so Santa brought him one. But Stephen has taken upon himself to master the puzzle and now the kids like to mess it up just for him to fix it again. AND he was the one that sat down with Kaitlyn and her knitting looms and helped her make her first hat. I just like remembering that my sweetheart was as excited to play with our children's toys as he was!

Then after the present opening we got to go to church! I really LOVED having Christmas fall on the Sabbath, there was something about being able to worship our Savior on the day we celebrate his birth.

Then it was back home for a turkey dinner with all the trimmings. We talked to family on Skype and the phone, all in all it was a WONDERFUL holiday!

Lewis Christmas Traditions

Let the Holiday Festivities and Traditions Begin!

So as we have for the past few years, during the Christmas Season, we spent an afternoon at my parents house to ride on their "tractor" (riding lawn mower). The pictures speak a thousand words:

AND decorate gingerbread houses. This works well because we have a one to one ratio with our kids, and as in the past, our youngest child preferred to eat the candy instead of decorate.

Then the next day my parents came over and brought "Polar Express" for all of us to watch on the movie screen. We had Pizza and went to go see the Christmas Light show at Frisco Town Square. This is a great display set to music and is really fun.

I love family traditions and making memories. A wise friend recently told me that we don't get to choose the memories our children take from their childhood, the trick is to do them enough that they remember something.=)