February 2011

Moving onto February.  The winter weather continued and it put January's snow storm to shame.  The Relle Clan (along with the rest of the DFW area) were house bound for a week.  Literally did not leave the house for a week.  Luckily we were good with food and other necessities but eventually Nick did

have to go out for essentials.  This go round it was not as warm and fuzzy up in the Relle house.  Day one upset about school closure because I'd have to make it up, but a nice excuse to stay in our pajamas (although Noah and I were already sportin' that on a daily basis).  Day two fun for the uniqueness.  Every day beyond was confining, boring, and contributed to my future stay at the crazy community instead of retirement community.  Despite my being dramatic (not usual for me huh?!!? :) we did manage to have some fun in the backyard, roasting dogs and marshmallows in the microwave, snowboarding (which my lack of ability resulted in an x-ray), and Nick & Jack went sledding on a local hill.  And although my documentation of our family as four has not been up to par to even my lowest standards out of boredom I was able to capture some pictures of our family in the snow-ice-cluster.  Love my sweet baby Noah in his cocoon (Thanks Anderson!) and the priceless face he is making when Jack is intently following my request to kiss his brother so that we could get back inside to the warm.

 Papa and Bebe came into town and it was perfect for all that Jack (well I had) signed us up for snack in February.  With Mardi Gras being aligned with this visit Papa and Bebe gathered up some good loot to celebrate a little Louisiana culture with Class F.  Jack did not know about it of it so seeing his excited face when Noah and I walked into the room was great, but the expression when he saw his surprise guests was better than  a sack full of parade throws.  Bebe read Gaston Goes To Hollywood to the class and then passed out some of their very own Mardi Gras beads before we headed home.  The rest of the weekend we celebrated my birthday with swimming at the hotel, pizza lunch, and tasty petit fours for my birthday wishes.  Olivia came to hang out with Jack (as did Fluffy his class "pet" for us to document our weekend adventures).  After the traditional tree picture in the front yard our nighttime munches were a perfect excuse to make one more birthday wish (even though I already have more than I could ever ask for in life) before calling it a great, birthday weekend with family.

 February finished out with out any freakish weather contitions.  After being trapped inside Noah and I decided we needed to start venturing out more when we had the time to without added stress of traffic, crowds, and well...an extra passenger.  We would get dressed (well.....he would look super cute, I would look presentable at least changing out of my pajamas).  Target was our main destination and it was always a bit more stressful than it was worth....but made me feel accomplished for the day.  Noah even got a strike when he got to tag along with us to Splitsville for a little family fun bowling. 

 Pictures....a beating that although every attempt for the perfect collections results in a vow to not worry about it because we should live life in the moment and not waste our time stressing over staged moments, results in us back in the rat race that is a photo session a few months later.  Because I was on leave and am just in general cheap I made The Relle Boys an appointment at the Picture People for their $9.99 package thinking Nick and I opting out might make it less stressful.  Um...I was WRONG!  The place was packed, hot, and took FOREVER.  Although we mentioned only desiring a picture of the brothers together, they still snapped a plethora of single shots increasing my monkey blood pressure with every flash.  In the end our package was free (it comes with entirely too many portraits) for the wait, she continued to increase my pressure trying to get me to purchase more sheets, and we caved a bit which is just was those scam artists planned.  And to finish off the month...well, the picture about sums it up....an adventurous February with lots of first, fun, and family!