Cold Fronts

This post is pretty random. There are a few photos that I have taken lately that I love...so I wanted to get em up. The cold weather brings rosy cheeks on babies and fun foods and beverages. If this lovely weather would please leave out the snot rockets coming out of my girls' noses I would ever so thankful.

Caroline has become a "sling" addict. Blake has even been known to break it out. This has caused her to be obsessed with being carried and she no longer finds infant swings or bouncy chair acceptable. I'm going to pull my hair out.
Can a mother get enough shots of her child going down a play ground slide? In my world, no.


These are those cheeks I spoke about earlier. Love.

Here is my sweet husband just getting home from work. Hands full. Great time of year.

Gypsie Picnic!

A couple of weeks ago we met up with Brad, Shea & Graham for the Gypsie picnic. Wow. Crazy lines, yummy food and a cranky toddler almost sent me over the edge. But...the weather was beautiful and the overall concept was LOTS of fun.
Brad and Graham in the stroller...my brother in law Brad still has my vote for the most hands on Dad out there!


The amount of dogs at this Austin event was UNREAL. Almost could change the name to Pooch Picnic.
All in all...I enjoyed the gypsie picnic and could see returning for a 2nd annual. We ended the picnic at Threadgills...no line, no dogs, and a kids menu!

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!