We're banana transporting back to old school...

Once in awhile we have a lull with work and church, etc. where Kris has time to hang out with us long enough that it qualifies as family time.  Family time means all four of us being in one place doing something together longer than five minutes.  

Today we actually spent the latter part of the day together.  After church we took the kids to Olive Garden.  They shared a steaming bowl of pasta and then we treated them each to a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  Izzie did get a tiny tummy ache from the dairy but she really enjoyed her ice cream.  I know, I'm a bad Momma.

But look how happy she is about getting some ice cream.

 And it was only a small bowl.

   

Seriously, her tummy ache didn't last long.

 Noah enjoyed his ice cream too.

 

After lunch we went home and took a family nap.  Shut up!  No, I'm not joking.  We all slept. at the same time. sorta.  Noah fell asleep on the way home and we just plopped him in his bed where he fell back asleep.  Izzie slept with Kris and me in our bed.  Kris fell asleep first, no surprise there.  I gave Izzie a back rub and we fell asleep shortly later.  I woke up to Noah rummaging around the house.  Kris and I stumbled out of bed after we heard a loud crash.  Izzie woke up crying, most likely because it was later in the evening, dark outside and she wasn't in her bed.  

I made some T.J. hot cocoa which Noah inhaled (his was warm cocoa) and Kris set up the Nintendo 64 which he brought home from his parents house.  So far, Kris and Izzie have played Mario, Mario cart 64, Diddy Kong 64 (where Diddy banana transports), and some other random games.  I love it.  The music is cheesy and the graphics suck, but it's good, clean fun.  No one's packing an assault rifle waiting to carjack someone or fill them with holes.  There's no blood, violence or foul language.  It's the way video games should be.  

Izzie is very encouraging, especially when Daddy gets frustrated:)  She'll say, "Keep trying Daddy..."  Not that Kris would ever get frustrated over something like a video game.  

(I hate the lighting in my house.  It's so dark.)

Kris has his game face on.  He's ready for some Kirby.  At the moment Kris is having a hard time giving Izzie a turn:)

Family time was much needed after this morning.  The kids woke up in a decent mood, but they both seemed a bit tired.  We all know what happens when Noah's tired. 

I had us all ready and out the door for church fifteen minutes earlier than we needed to leave.  That's a pretty big accomplishment in my house.  But nothing is guaranteed until I'm actually backing down the driveway, and even then there's always the possibility of Noah having a blow-out diaper or Izzie yacking. 

The truck was warmed up as much as it was going to be.  We were outside and I had the doors to the truck open.  I went to open the gate, and when I came back, Noah decided playing in the snow was much more fun than getting in the truck.  He wouldn't get in the truck.  Nope.  Wasn't going to happen.  I tried to pick him up but Noah has this super power where he can make himself slippery in order to escape the grips of Momma or evil (which he might need one day, you never know.)  I could not get a hold of this kid.  Izzie was sitting in the truck saying, "Come on Noah.  I want to go to Church."  When I finally wrangled Noah up, we were both soaked from the snow and covered in mud.  So much for being on time.  

We ended up being about ten minutes late.  Izzie kept saying, "It's okay if we're a little late."  When we pulled in the parking lot she said, "We made it Momma.  See, we're here."  I dropped the kids off and Noah started sobbing.  He usually stops crying as soon as I leave, so I headed into the service where the music was just finishing up.  I couldn't find a seat, so I went up to the tech suite to sit with Kris.  About a minute later Mr. Andrews came up to give Jody, who runs graphics during the service, Noah's call number (means come get your kid before he causes one of the helpers to have a mental breakdown) to put on the main screen, but since I was up there he could just tell me that Noah needed me.  Kris came down with me to see what the situation with Noah was like.

After I left Noah in the nursery, they noticed his bum was wet.  They tried to change him but you can just imagine how that went.  The back of his pants were soaked but his diaper was dry.  Being the Momma, I smelled his pants and it didn't smell like pee at all.  I suddenly remembered that when we had left the house for the second time, Noah had plopped down in the snow for a split second before I hauled him up into the truck hence the wet bum.  I didn't realize it had soaked his pants.  Anyway, the nursery was pretty full and Noah was not about to let go of me, so we took him up to the tech suite with us, where he sat quietly and munched on chocolate animal crackers.  

The eyebrows kill me.  Sometimes when he's really upset he can make them look like perfect triangles.

While Izzie took a turn at Diddy Kong, Kris had some down time with Noah.  He tried using Noah's pillow pet, but Noah made it clear that the bumble bee belongs to him.  Dakota had no problem filling in as a pillow pet for Kris.