It's a Marrvelous Life: March 2021

Pregnancy- As we were putting together this blog post, we realized we hadn't said anything about the pregnancy yet. Alicia is pregnant! With twins! One boy and one girl. Both healthy. They are due May 21. Alicia is now past 32 weeks, which is what our local NICUs can support. Our ward has been extremely supportive as we're getting ready for the babies to get here (and through our various snow-related adventures. More on that to come!). On the left is the 8 week ultrasound when the technician first told Alicia we had twins. On the right is the 20 week ultrasound.

Peter's Nativity Play- The two four-year-old preschool classes put on Christmas plays. They streamed it so grandparents got to watch Peter not sing with his class. He waved to me (D) throughout the performance. I love this boy.

Drive-Through Nativity- Our ward put on a drive-through nativity in the church parking lot. It included stations representing Jerusalem and the Nephite people, with lots of animals. I offered to go play Christmas music as people came through. I ended up singing, playing piano, and playing trombone. Everett came and sang a few Christmas songs with me. He also walked around to the different stations. When we helped clean up he had fun with the animals. He really wanted to hold the lambs, but they kept running behind their mom. I had a lot of fun with him there.

First trip to Mexico - We went and visited Michael, Alicia, and Adam in Piedras Negras for our 9th anniversary! Right after we crossed the border Michael met us on his motorcycle and took us to their house. We passed by a plaza that had model pyramids decorated for Christmas (La Plaza de Las Culturas). Our kids were so excited to be there visiting. Here's a video of the madness from the first night:

Yes, that was Abram trying to rip cousin Adam from Alicia's hands. The other kids were chasing or being chased by their little dog, Coco. Somehow they all settled down and slept. The next day we went to that plaza with the pyramids and then walked along the Rio Grande. That night we went to see the Christmas lights at the Macroplaza.

The Rio Grande. The other side is a golf course in Texas.

The Macroplaza

Our trip was short but we had a wonderful time visiting with Michael's family.

Christmas- This was our first Christmas with just our family since Alicia and I married. Abram was excited the first while, but started melting down about 3/4ths the way through opening presents so we put him back down for a nap.

Everett and I pooled our Christmas money to get a new piano when our old piano went out. That piano lasted us since we lived in Spokane. I love how much our kids are interested in playing the piano. I also love how I can play for our at-home church meetings and family home evenings. Everett often plays in my absence for FHE if I'm not back from class/work in time. (The Everett compilation video is from about 4 months ago.)

Christmas decorations at Millard's Crossing-

First snow- We had our first Texas snow since being here on January 10. It wasn't too cold so we were able to play out in it. The kids loved it. They built snowmen, forts, and spaceships. Even though it was only a few inches, school was cancelled for a couple days since snow is so rare here.

We had a lot of tree branches come down during this first snow storm, but we were safe.

This snowstorm wasn't so bad - it never got terribly cold, we did not lose power, and it melted shortly thereafter.

Snowpocalypse- The SECOND Texas snowstorm (February 15-18) was a different story. It got really cold, snowed, sleeted, and then froze again. More branches came down. The snow and ice persisted. We lost power for about a week. To stay warm at night, Alicia slept on our bed on the floor of Everett and Adeline's room with Peter and Abram. I slept on the couch. It was a very cold week. We used our car to warm up, and would put on movies in there for the kids. Overall, we managed alright. We played a lot of board and card games. Gratefully we had saved water ahead of time so we never ran out of that like many people did. The whole town was shut down for about three days. We were one of the last homes to get power back, as we had to get some trees trimmed before they could reconnect us. Then we had to wait a couple more days to get internet back. About four days in, our Bishop's family invited us over to warm up at their fireplace. Multiple families offered to let us come over and take warm showers/baths. Others offered to let us use their washer/dryer/dishwasher/internet, borrow their generator, while still others brought us food or invited us over for a meal. We felt so blessed.

The freezing and refreezing produced some cool effects on the trees:

Second trip to Mexico- Over Spring Break, we paid Michael's family another visit.

Mobbing Adam:

Alicia (Michael's) offered to watch the kids while we took a nap. It was very appreciated.

At the Macroplaza park. We got lunch from a vendor across the street who served Chilaquiles in Chinese takeout style boxes. It was yummy.

We visited a few parks in Eagle Pass and got dinner from Yopo's. There's a reservoir lake with a lot of different kinds of ducks that we walked around. Peter fell into the lake while jumping between rocks, but was able to stand up and get out on his own.

Bowling

We had a fun hour of bowling at the alley Michael works at as a cook. Alicia doesn't love this picture of her, but we have to have some pregnant with twins pics for posterity's sake.