Lydia's early birthday celebration

Since James' family won't see Lydia again before her birthday in March, they decided to have a little celebration for her. We all went over to Julie and David's, ate dinner, had some dessert, and watched Lydia open her gifts.

Bubbles!

Trae and Ethan playing chutes and ladders with Uncle Mike

"Happy Birthday to you..."

Blowing out her candle

Decorating cookies

Opening her presents

Cousins!

The next day we left for home...with our EIGHT suitcases. During our layover in Houston Ethan left his carry-on by Subway. We didn't realize until we were done eating and, by that time, it was gone. Luckily, we had a four hour layover to try to get it back. I was not happy because it had some new toys (including Lydia's new bitty baby) and clothes in it. James searched for over an hour going to the service desk and even baggage claim with no luck. I figured it may have taken some time to get back to the service desk or be at a gate by the Subway, so Ethan and I quickly went back to the original terminal (a long walk and a ride on a train) to search. At the first gate we went to, the woman knew about the suitcase and found out that it was taken to the service desk. I was so relieved when we got the suitcase back. We literally ran all the way back to our terminal just in time to catch the plane! Never a dull moment when traveling with kids!