Bathing Beauties

I am pretty sure I have never loved the park as much as I have loved it in November. The weather has been amazing and one of my favorite things to do after dinner is load everybody up and go on a family walk to the park. Regardless if I can make it a whole family affair, we usually hit it up once during the day. Annalee is starting to really enjoy some independence at the park and even accomplished a MAJOR milestone of going down the slide by herself. This milestone really changed my life. No longer do I don't have to squish Caroline in the body sling, prop Annalee up in my lap on top of Caroline, stuff my rear in the kiddie slide and all go down together...those days have come and gone. Thankfully, for me and my self esteem.

How much does a mother love a B-O-B? It is so wide and vast...the love simply can't be measured. The B-O-B will be my absolute last baby/kid item to go. I would not mind pushing teenagers around in this thing. Love.

The swing used to be her thing...now the slide conquers all!



I love the park.
It was moments after I found out I was pregnant for the second time that I began planning bath time in my head. I am VERY bad at bathing children. It could have something to do with the time of day that the bathing occurs. Regardless, Blake is the residential expert of bubble baths. I think of this precious 30 minutes of bath/bed time prep as my taste of daily heaven. A break. But tonight...we threw Caroline on in! Perhaps a little too early? Maybe. Annalee washed her from head to toe and pointed out each body part as she scrubbed. My break just got a little sweeter!

Actually, my break consists of eavesdropping. I love listening to Blake talk to Annalee during bath time. I love hearing her giggle with him and play, and kick and splash. Blake has been giving Annalee a bath almost every night since the first day she was home from the hospital. It has always been there time together. I realized tonight, as I eavesdropped on him with both my little girls in a tub of bubbles, that my life, at this moment in time, is darn near perfect.

Halloween 2010

Do I feel a family tradition brewing? This is the second year in a row that Mimi has visited us on Halloween. It is such a fun weekend...the weather was BEAUTIFUL in Austin and this was the first year Blake and I hit the streets to trick or treat with a Bumble Bee. This post was one of my favorites to make. There are several pictures that when I took them, I knew they would immediately be treasured.

Annalee and Caroline are so lucky to have gotten to meet so many of their Great Grandparents. Peggy and PaPa came with Mimi this year and stayed with us for a night. Possibly my favorite part of the weekend was watching them hold my children outside on the deck...watching PaPa dance with the girls to old music from his day and age. Thanks for the visit. I never expected the feeling of gratitude and thanksgiving I get when I watch other people love on my kids. What a gift.

Here is Caroline with Peggy. Annalee was so happy to get the Teddy Bear Vampires from her Halloween treat as well as stealing Caroline's. She is still squeezing these cute things.

This is Annalee after Mimi's Halloween treat! Thanks Mimi!!
My favorite photos from the post are that of PaPa with the girls. Whenever PaPa comes to visit he very rarely is seen without a baby in his arms. He is a baby charmer. Caroline slept to his singing and dancing and was so content in his arms. PaPa gets to visit whenever he wants!

This is Annalee reading one of my favorite books from my childhood.

He was willing to sit like this all morning...and so was she.

You get a black and white glimpse of Annalee's homemade bumble bee costume. Amazing what can be done with duct tape these days!
We all sat for a couple of hours in our PJ's and hung out while Annalee's costume got made.
I snapped this of Caroline while she napped that morning. Precious.
He has love written all over his face!!
My favorite part of this shot is the TV guide hanging out of PaPa's pocket. First of all, how cute is it that he still relies on the TV guide that comes in the Sunday paper? He brought this from home so that he would not miss any of the scheduled sporting events.
Mimi with the completed Bumble Bee Costume.


Pretty, pretty couple.

We attended a really fun Halloween party that Annalee's friends Henry and Gage hosted with some other folks. Annalee kinda bonded with Fred.
During this party...Halloween started to overwhelm me and I never recovered enough to keep taking pictures. We trick or treated with our neighbors. They blocked off the streets in our neighborhood and there were several minutes at a time that all four of us became separated. It was crazy, a bit scary and a REALLY fun night! I think Halloween with these girls is only destined to get better!

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.