Date Night!!

We moved to Austin well over a year now. I love this city. I love Austin like I have loved no other place. I feel at home here. It is the only city I have ever lived where I have felt like I could live for the rest of my life and never want to move away. It took very little persuading to get Blake to agree to raise a family here. We still say to each other, "Can you believe we live in Austin, can you believe how much we love it?" I thought the love would wear off, or even become for granted...but it has only grown stronger. It has especially grown this year because the longhorns are losing a lot...but that is totally off topic. Almost every time we drive through downtown Austin we talk about what we would do if we were "out on the town" without the kids.

So...you can imagine how excited we were when Blake's family offered to come in to town from Dallas and babysit! Date Night.

We took some "prom pose" pictures. Rare these days since Annalee and Caroline are such cute camera targets.

So we headed to the Roaring Fork. I had not been in years and Blake had never been. We had a reservation and everything. I can't remember the last time we ate at a restaurant where we had to "make a reservation". The food was amazing and in the corner of the restaurant there was a bar, in the bar there was a TV..and the TV was announcing some very fun news. Aggie beat Tech! We felt like we needed to stay and have another round to celebrate the victory. Then...we see the Rangers win a World Series game. Celebrate! THEN...possibly the best victory of all, the Baylor Bears beat t.u. at home. Can the night get any better. Downtown Austin just got a whole lot more fun.

It was also Halloween weekend. So ran in to some scary faces.


We ended the night at The Broken Spoke, an Austin tradition. This is the sign that is posted on the front door. It does not describe me and my husband. The night was so fun. I was reminded of all the reasons why Blake is so fun to date, so fun to be married to and so fun to love. Thanks Mimi, Gramie and PaPa for babysitting! Thanks Blake for the fun night out on the town. Gig'em and God Bless the Baylor Bears!

Bliss for a snip

For about a year my mother and I have been hacking a little bit at Annalee's hair. Every so often people would ask, "did Annalee get a hair cut yet?" I decided it was time to retire my services and take her in for the real deal. I made both of us an appointment at my absolute favorite salon in Austin to visit Kris and Lanie at Bliss. This is my favorite salon for a couple of reasons. First of all the walls are painted with glitter paint. Can you beat that? Never. Second, I love the two gals that cut hair there. So...we made it a family affair. We all got fresh cuts. Well...except Caroline. She participated by viewing the action while strapped in to her car seat.

Here is the great Salon that is tucked in to a funky Austin neighborhood street just north of downtown.
I thought I should post a few before pictures. Annalee had a hard time cooperating. I was just glad she was smiling. I don't know what I was thinking but I made the appointment at the start of nap time. Keeps life interesting.

We started out with Blake holding Annalee and me snapping the moment.

As you can see...it did not last long before Blake and I had to switch places and the cape and shirt came off of Annalee.


I really can't believe how well Annalee did. I was so proud of her.

I was proud of Caroline too. Here she is up on the eye brow waxing table. At the rate her hair is growing...she has a few years before her first snip.

Finished product! A little shy but so cute!

Pretty girl and pretty locks! We all hung out for a while and played in the cute salon with the glitter walls. I had Annalee twirl and showed her herself in the mirror about 100 times. Then I loaded up the girls in the car and met my visiting mother in law in front of the salon. She asked if I kept her first snipped lock...I forgot all about that sweet tradition! The blog update will have to do.

Best Birthday Party Ever

Happy Birthday Sophia! This birthday party was last weekend, and I felt like adding it to the previous October post would not due it justice. It was by far the best birthday party I have ever attended. Sophia's party deserved a post all for it's own. Here's why:

Sophia with her mom Monica and Dad Mario. Great people. We have actually known them for years. The first time I met Monica she was ironing her clothes for sorority rush back when I was a freshmen. She does not look any different than she did back when I first met her. If I did not love her so much I would hate her for that!

So....you know a party is going to be great when you drive up and the line for the pony ride loops around the petting zoo. Precious children all around. Pretty much chaos. Perfect atmosphere for a 3 year old's big day.
Here Annalee is checking out the goats. Goats seem to be an October theme for our family. Blake at this point was scoping out which goat he wanted to let Annalee hold. Unfortunately I am a one woman camera or I would have snapped his face too...but hey, Annalee is the kid. She wins.
I know this girl and can read her mind. At this point she is thinking, "I'm not sure if I am ready to hold a goat."

I love the kid's digital camera in the corner of this picture.
Here's the kid since I accidentally cut him off before. He looks serious.

This is Sophia and her sister Olivia. I love watching these two. Monica does an amazing job of dressing them a like but not identical. I'm taking lots of notes.
Let me just say...we waited in that pony riding line and it was "Space Mountain line" worth it. A nice party guest offered to take pictures for us because right when we got to the front of the line Caroline had to be held and needed her pacifier held in place. Two hand job. It was urgent for her and obviously the guy could see the look of panic on my face when I was afraid I was going to miss out on capturing the Pony ride moment. Thanks nice party guest man!
I can't get enough of these pictures. I go from being obsessed with Annalee's face to being mesmerized by Blake's. How CUTE do they look with that pony!
Here is Blake pointing out me and Caroline.
I'm waving hysterically at this point.



She was so happy till...she had to pass off the pony to the next kid in line. Dropped her weight on to the ground and through a big fit. She loved that pony.
On to the next activity...pumpkin painting.


One of the best things about being a little girl is pigtails.
Annalee took this activity very seriously and her pumpkin turned out amazing. I am a little bias.
Finished product.
Well...I just thought it was finished. Thank goodness for Tide Stain Sticks. She marked up her dress a bit too.
Blake would tell you that one of his favorite parts of the party was the food. 5 corndogs and 2 cupcakes later he told me that he was going on a run later that evening so that he could still look at himself in the mirror tomorrow.
This is what a Texas hay ride looks like. We all loaded up our kids in to a trailer behind a four wheeler.
How do you not love that?
Family shot of the Fuentes family.
Here Mario puts Sophia up on the table right in front of the cake. She looked like a princess up there.

Happy Birthday SOPHIA!!


Believe it or not...the activities did not end. Pinata time.

Thank you Sophia for turning three. Thank you Fuentes family for including us in the celebration!