Christmas 2007

I can't believe Christmas has come and gone. We had an eventful week. My parents came back with the kids on Thurdsday the 2oth. The kids went to Houston to spend 4 days with Mimi/Papa Bob while I finished working (they were out of school, but I was not!)

Friday PM, we celebrated Christmas with a wonderful dinner and present opening. At 11:30p, after my dishwasher running for over and hour and never draining, we had flood #2. This time, the damage was significant as it took out most of the family room and the dining room, along with the pantry and some cabinet work. So, we spend 5 wonderful days with the company of 12 blowers and humidifiers!

My parents left on Sunday and we spent Christmas day with Nana and Papa. It was another wonderful day!

The "big" gift this year was a WII. After hunting for weeks for Nana and Papa, spending serveral days and many hours in line, I finally scored one. I can see what the hype is all about--it's definitely the coolest gaming system around! Davis got a pair of fireman boots that he has went to bed with almost every night and Lauren loved all her gifts not picking any one as her "favorite".

Can you guess what Mom got for Christmas? Yes, a new dishwasher!

The kids loved their gifts--Davis held each gift up like he won the gold medal. Lauren questioned the "Santa" claus wondering if he really was "real".

Thanksgiving 2007

We had a whirlwind week with no school, Lauren's 10th birthday, a visit from grandparents, a piano recital, then a trip to Corpus Christi for us to see my brother, his wife and their 2 kids! Phew..I am tired just writing that!

We are truly blessed to have had a healthy week, a fantastic birthday party, and 2 wonderful Thanksgiving meals with family!

Here are my precious nephews Dylan and Wyatt with Lauren and Davis. Wyatt is 18 months and just snuggly and chunky! Dylan was adorable and boy is he smart for 3 1/2! Davis had a blast playing big cousin and Lauren was the "babysitter" carrying Wyatt around like he did not have 2 perfectly good legs to walk on!

We managed to make it to the beach twice -once it was 89 outside and the next day--it was 49! The kids had a blast playing in the sand, but did not understand why they could not swim this time!

Happy Halloween 2007

We spent Halloween 2007 in our neighborhood. This was our first year in 10 years to not trick or treat in Carriage Hills. It was a bit sad to not see our old neighbors, but we did meet up with our neighbors in our "new" neighborhood so it was a wonderful new experience!

Our street is so long and the buckets were bursting at the brim before we hit the top of the street. So many homes celebrated this year that I think we will be eating candy well into the summer months!

Davis was dead set on "Harry Potter", his favorite books and movie characters. But when we hit Party City, he saw Edmond from "Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe" Knight costume and fell in love with the sword and head gear. He managed to keep most of the costume on for about 1 hr of trick or treating. The next hour, I was carrying the sword, arm shields and his bucket!

Lauren really was not wanting to buy a costume and wanted to purchase a "hair piece" instead. So on one of our trips to the Woodlands, we hit Sam Moon. For those not familiar with Sam Moon, it's a "China" town megastore of jewelry, handbags, hair everything! She decided to me a "actress".

Can't believe that the night is over and tomorrow is November 1st. Lauren is beside herself with 18 more days until her 10th birthday!

Loosing Teeth

First tooth gone! He was so excited because he got to be the first person in Ms. Gates Class to put his name on the "lost tooth chart" and his kindergarten teacher Mrs. Felty pulled it out for him. She is the "official" tooth puller at HCCSA! 9/9/2007





























My brave boy! He pulled this second tooth out today in the school bathroom all by himself! David was amazed at his "no pain" tolerance last night as he was just yanking this to come out! That top left tooth will next as it too is wiggly! I'm sad to say that we are getting "big"...

Summer Vacation

I can't believe summer is winding down. We are on our last full week before we start school on 8/29. Lauren is so excited as she has the 4th grade teacher she prayed for all summer. Davis has a brand new teacher, so I am nervous because..well..because I don't know who she is, what she is like and is my child going to do okay...



Anyhow...enough of that..we arrived home early Saturday AM (1:30a) from a wonderful trip up to the midwest. We left on 8/8 to drive up the back roads of Texas/Oklahoma and over to Missouri. We stopped off in Catherage, MO to visit the Precious Moments Chapel. http://www.preciousmoments.com/content.cfm/park_chapel
Wow! This was a "not planned" stop and we did it on a whim, but boy was it a gorgeous adventure!

We drove onto Springfield, MO that afternoon and managed to squeeze in the Bass Pro Shop. This was a 300K building and museum dedicated to the outdoors. It was immense and if only we were a camping, fishing, hunting family! We did enjoy looking at all the animals, waterfalls, and other "outdoor" items on display!


Thursday, 8/9 we woke early to drive to Mansfield, MO. Here we spent 2 hrs. touring the homestead of Laura Ingalls Wilder. When planning this trip, this was the only destination I wanted to see on our way to Minnesota. With much apprehension, david agreed. Much to my surprise, David said while driving home from Nebraska that this was one of his favorite places we saw! Almazo Wilder built a magnificent home for the monies they had and the ability he had with his limp leg. He built the kitchen to fit the 4'11" Laura. Most of the home had original wallpaper, flooring, and furniture.

We drove into St. Louis about 3p on 8/9. We spent this afternoon walking around downtown, viewing the Arch during the day. We stayed in an awesome hotel. One of our rooms overlooked the Busch Baseball stadium and the other room overlooked the Arch. We managed to listen to the PM Cardinal game on TV while watching from the window. About 9p, the city of St. Louis blew off the most spectacular fireworks display over the Arch. This was the highlight of the evening! The Arch had a wonderful Lewis and Clark museum in the basement and it had hours of history!


David, Lauren and Davis in front of the Arch.

Friday, 8/10 we woke early to hit the first ride up to the top of the Arch. I was fearful of going up in the little elevator. It was a magnificant site once we rode up the 4 min ride! We left the Arch and headed out to Grant's Farm. This was another "must see" we heard about that was great fun! The farm was owned now by Budweiser family. We left the farm and head to the Budweiser brewery to tour. The kids did awesome on this 2 hr tour! It was so interesting the architecture, the smells, the landscaping and of course the free beer at the end! The kids loved the 50 deg. chilling room!

We left Budweiser at 2p to head over to the City Museum! Wow! What another amazing adventure here! We spent 3 1/2 hours playing in this building that created 4 floors of every type of climbing, sliding, hiding, adventure for kids!

We ended this day purchasing tickets off the side of the road to go to the LA Dodgers /Cardinal game! David struck an awesome deal and we sat on the second deck 1st base! The seats were sweet and the experience was great!

Are you tired yet? Friday was packed from 8am-11p nonstop!

More of our Midwest trip to come.....

Lauren and Davis here posing with the characters from Six Flags Fiesta Texas. We purchased season passes again since it's a quick 2 hr drive south.

Swimming Fun!

Today, Davis and his best friend Sam had the entire pool to themselves thanks to the this lovely rainy days we have been having. The weather broke and we headed to the slide pool for some fun! She came over and did not bring her suit so she borrowed Davis'. She LOVES wearing his clothing and was equally pleased when the guard told her she'd go faster w/out her shirt! Since it was just us I said "I don't care..just don't tell your dad!"

Crazy Summer Weather!!!

We had a CRAZY afternoon. It was bright and sunny one hour. By 2:30p, it was dark, eerie and suddenly the skies were pounding softball size hail to the grounds! It was absolutely the weirdest thing we have ever seen lately in Austin weather! Our front and backyard is laden with ice!

Last Day of School

On Wednesday, May 23, Davis celebrated the end of kindergarten with a performance in cap/gown. The kinder classes sang about 15 songs ranging from phonics, hymns, to rapping the B-I-B-L-E with Coach Lodovico. It was very fun!





Here is a picture of Davis with the girl who has captured his heart already! She is the sweetest gal in the class and I can see why he is smitten by her! He said "Mom..I need a picture with my girl"..and would not let anyone else come into the photo until I had snapped them together!





Lauren celebrated "Roman Days" that afternoon as well. She dressed up in a toga and was "Livia". We packed a picnic basket lunch of hummus, grapes, cheese, salami, olives, and bread. The 3rd graders ended their year of "Greek/Roman" learning with roman games out on the football field.

David and I enjoyed a nice evening out at Hill Country Christian School Annual Silent Auction.

We went to the Lakeway Inn and Resort and had a wonderful evening!

May

Happy May! We are just about at the end of the bluebonnet splash across our hillsides. It was a rainy season so the flowers were magnificant this year!

This, I think..is the LAST of my posting on "painting". David and I almost finished the upstairs game room. We've got the corner and the wall top trim by the stairwell which is virtually impossible to get to without a 10 ft. ladder.

Overall, I am very pleased with this "Mississippi Mud" color. It is very warm and welcoming.

I have yet to hang curtains, pictures, or any wall decorations. My mission for today! I have bunco tonight at my home and a friend visiting, so I have incentive to get them up and off the floor!

We're making changes!!!

After: -taken at 1opm-so the lighting is horrible!


















Before pictures above--plain khaki walls.




As many of you know, I have the painting bug. Have had it for years. Some of my friends have yet to put one color on their walls in years, while I have changed rooms many a times! David and I FINALLY spent this past weekend painting the downstairs family room and dining room! I am so excited to not have little hand prints on my walls that do not belong to my kids!





We JUST finished at 11pm Sunday night after 18 LONG hours of painting. We make a great team, but I am telling you my back is killing me from stretching for our high ceilings in the dining room! Nothing is on the walls, but here is a sample of before and after...

A Month of Family Fun!!

Right: Mimi/Papa Bob before the Spring Concert at HCCSA.

Right: Dad and Lauren before Father/Daughter "Hawaiin" Dance. David wore attire, but Lauren opted for her favorite brown dress!

Davis is learning to be bat both left/right handed...David is elated! Davis' coach gave him the nickname "hoover" the first practice because he catches everything that gets near him and sucks the ball into his glove! Davis is not too fond of the name because I think he thinks Matt (coach) is teasing him. But it truthfully is funny to hear Matt call him "Hoover" on the field!

We had a very busy month since my last posting. We ended basketball for both kids and started up baseball for Davis and volleyball for Lauren. Lauren went on a "dad/daughter" date to the girl scouts "father/daughter dance". They had a blast! My parents came to watch the kids perform in their first annual spring concert at school. Unfortunately, David's parents were unable to make it due to being under the weather.

We spent Easter weekend in Houston with my parents and Rob, Erin and Dylan and Wyatt. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures to share digitally because I went directly to CVS and uploaded them to print for scrapbook night and accidently deleted them off my memory card! SORRY! But, ensure..a fun time was had by all despite the gross weather!

March Madness is over

............Although I've survived countless hours of basketball games at home this month , I've still not managed to post anything new since January!

We spent spring break relaxing--riding bikes, seeing Bridge of Terabithia and Charlotte's Web. The highlight of the week was going up to Waco with Andrea and her girls; Casey and her girls along with Casey's friend and her awesome son who wanted to be the "wagon puller and kid watcher" most of the afternoon! We arrived in Waco safely only to get lost at Baylor University due to my lack of writing ALL the directions down! What a gorgeous campus! Finally after Casey directed to the "right side of the highway" we made it to the Dr. Pepper Museum.


We had a blast touring the Dr. Pepper Museum and tasting the "real" soda out of the fountain! What great artifacts they have and who would have thought such a "small town" like Waco would develop such a cultural icon such as Dr. Pepper Soda!

After our fill of Dr. Pepper floats, we headed over to Cameron Park to spend the afternoon with the animals! WOW! What a gem of a small and beautifully landscaped zoo! The kids spent a leisure afternoon running all around, playing on the playscape and sliding down a tube slide that was in the otter habitat -the tube went through the water so the otter's swam over the tube with you inside! It was very cool!

The Texas Bluebonnets have begun to pop to life! Look for pictures coming soon!!!! Plus, David has worked hard on the backyard building the retaining wall, so I'll add updates soon!

We are looking forward to April as our good friend's the Haviland's will be coming on Sunday, April 1st. Lauren and Davis will play "hookey" on Wednesday to spend the day with Courtney and Nathan! I am sure I'll have cute photo's to show of our "Minnesota friends". We head to Houston for Easter! Another great photo weekend with the Prijatelj grandkids!

February

Icicles on the roof-hard to see-but they are there..no laughing my NORTHERN friends!


It's not much--but it MOVES!





That snowball-it's COLD and packs a punch!

Well, I completely MISSED posting Christmas pictures and anything fun that happened in the month of January. The new year escaped me so quickly, I don't believe I can recapture it all.

We did manage to have a wonderful 5 1/2 day week"end" starting on Friday at 11am the 12th. We went into the Martin Luther King holiday weekend with the anticipation of ice and freezing rain. It was a miserable weekend starting immediately when we got out of school for teacher work day on Friday. Saturday AM, the rains pelted our area and the preserve next to us filled almost to the fence line of our property. By Monday PM, the rains formed to an icy cold sleet and paniced most of Austin, thus canceling school for Tuesday and Wednesday. Needless to say, it was wet, cold, and cabin fever had began to settle in for a nice warm stay.

Here are some of the "fun" shots I took of our patio and the preserve where the kids "ice" sledded. I even attempted to ride the boogie board (that's all us Texan's had-other then card board!) and it was a sad, sad sight.