A Bucket and Sand

Galveston Weekending

Right now I'm staring at a pair of shoes still covered in sand and mud from our weekend adventure.  Early Saturday morning, Jon and I loaded up the kids and headed south and east and landed in Galveston.  My parents, uncle, Dad's cousin and family, and Debby, Jeff, and Avonlea started the party earlier that morning, and we were happy to join the fun.  Some stayed at the Galvez, but our (Bushwar) clan stayed with the Crains at the beach house in Bolivar.  The kids loved playing in the sand, shopping on the Strand with Grandma and Grandpa, the ferry ride back and forth to Bolivar, and being with their cousin.  We were only there for a day, but we packed in as much activity as you possibly can with three little ones in those twenty four (and a half) hours.

Gettin' Ready to Go to Church

The Red Sunglasses

Everyone loves the red sunglasses, but I think Marin loves them the most.

When Brother's Not Looking

Ellery took the opportunity to play with Liam's toy when big brother was busy doing something else.

"This is just between you and me, Mama."

Even though she wasn't even playing a game, Ellery was sprawled out on the floor  like this for twenty minutes, turning the LeapPad on and off and using they stylist like it was nobody's business.

Sleepyheads Love Cartoons

We're tired around here.  It's been one of those exhausting kind of weeks.  The kind where you want to push snooze on your alarm clock until ten (or at least seven o'clock) every morning.   Here are three sleepyheads watching cartoons on one of those mornings...

This Week

Eighteen Months (Plus a Little More)

Marin and Ellery turned 18 months on December 15, but we didn't get around to taking them in for their check-up until yesterday.  Can't believe our babies are already a year and a half!  We've been a little late in the check-up department for the girls, but with the holidays (actually, December, in general) and also trying to coordinate appointments for two tykes and two parents, it can get a little tricky.  Our doctor said they both look great.  Ellery keeps her title of "little sister" with a weigh-in of 23 pounds, 10 ounces and a length of 31.75 inches.  Marin is a little bigger at 32.5 inches long and right around 25 pounds.  When is was time for shots, they both put on their brave face.  Ellery cried for just a second, and Marin barely flinched and didn't make a sound.  Guess living with a rough and rowdy 3-year-old big brother can really toughen-up two little ladies.

(Photos by Diana Busch)

Happy New Year!

The 2011 Bushwar Top Ten



10. In February, a snow and ice storm stopped North Texas in its tracks. Despite Liam’s pleas to ice skate on the pool, the Bushwar crew was sequestered inside for the better part of a week.

9. Liam officially mastered potty training in late winter, cutting the number of diapers used in the Bushwar household from 9,490 to just under 7,300 per year.

8. Starting in January, Jon and Susan participated in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University at church and realized that having money=good and broke=bad.

7. When the “Obama Bucks” which had been funding instructional coaching ran dry, Susan returned to teaching special education at the start of the school year.

6. The Bushwar’s Dallas zoo membership expired in July, but thank goodness their membership to the Bushwar Zoo never ends!

5. After a year of uncertainty and massive budgetary cuts for Irving ISD, Jon is thankful he still has a job teaching art. However, he now has the added responsibility of making his own supplies from the materials he is able to find in the recycling bins around school.

4. Jon was in attendance at the Ballpark in Arlington to cheer on his Texas Rangers once again this October at the World Series, unfortunately…sorry, still too soon to write about it.  :(

3. Snowbirds before their time, the Bushwars spent most of the summer in Minnesota. During July, they enjoyed lots of time with family, took trips to Wisconsin and Duluth, said goodbye to Susan’s sweet Grandma, and enjoyed a break from the Texas heat.

2. Liam had a big, orange birthday party to celebrate turning three. Two months later, his loving and precious sisters, Marin and Ellery, turned one. In those moments when all three kiddos require chasing, feeding, changing, or refereeing, Susan and Jon feel acutely outnumbered.

And the #1 Event of 2011…

1. For the first time in over five years of marriage, there is not a major announcement, event, or happening to report. Life is grand!

(Diana Busch Photography)