4th of July in Texas

We spent the week of the 4th of July in Texas again this year. Our first few days were spent in Leakey with the Rodriguez family. We shot fireworks on the 4th. Jackson and Mitchell helped with the display. They both had a blast and only got minor injuries. Really they both just got sparked enough to learn to be careful. We also floated the Frio river, played on the ranch, and celebrated Taylor's first birthday! Everyone was excited. I enjoyed watching Audrey drink in the smell of the cake, Mitchell help his little brother blow out his candles, and Jackson grin from ear to ear watching his baby cousin investigate cake for the first time.

It didn't take long for Taylor to dig into the cake and enjoy driving Mickey around on the icing while singing the hot dog song.

Taylor loved his presents and playing with family. There were lots of giggles and laughter, especially when Mickey did his songs and dances.

If that wasn't enough fun, both kids became go-kart drivers while we were there. Not something that was easy for me to watch! Mitchell taught them to drive...he can't reach the brake, which means they only know one speed, fast. Audrey almost crashed once, and when we had her stop so we could talk to her about how to be safe, we pointed out that she almost crashed. Her response was, "But I didn't!" We all couldn't keep ourselves from laughing since she said it with a huge grin on her face. Watch out world when this one gets her license!

We spent the remainder of the week in Fredericksburg with my Dad and the Money family. We went swimming and checked out the local farmers market and their vineyard. The kids loved playing together, and we had a wonderful time visiting and helping out however we could.

We wrapped up our visit to Texas with a visit to one of our all-time favorite restaurants in Austin, Trudy's. It was even better than we remembered! Great way to end a great week!

There are more pictures in the album.

Spring Picture Day

Thursday was picture day at school, so of course, we dressed the kiddos to coordinate. Then I attempted to capture a few pics of them in the midst of our morning chaos. We got a few good ones of them laughing at Ross or each other...

Is this a head lock or a hug?

Guess it was a head lock...shortly followed by a stiff arm.

Pics of these two together are nearly impossible, but they do take really cute pics by themselves!

As always, there are more in the album.

Non-Traditional Easter

This year we spent a good chunk of Easter day traveling home from the Dripping Springs/Wimbereley area of Texas where we spent the weekend celebrating the marriage of two friends, Pam and Jason. It was a gorgeous and fun wedding. It was outside in the hill country, and during the ceremony you could hear birds chirping and see butterflies floating by. There were so many fun, creative details that really made their wedding special! I decided not to take my camera, but...ohhhh...I was dying to walk around and take pictures of everything! I know they had a great photographer, so I'm looking forward to seeing their pictures!

I do have some pictures from the rest of our weekend and Easter celebrations though. Saturday morning we met up with some old friends from Austin, Sara and Mike, and their two kiddos. We went to Zilker park, and the kids got to feed the birds and play to their hearts content while the adults caught up a little. Jackson enjoyed throwing fistfulls of bird seed, while Audrey dropped one grain at a time.

My Dad joined us for the weekend too, which we are SO grateful for! He helped out a ton at the park and let us go to the wedding without the kiddos, so it was a nice, relaxing evening!

Jackson and Audrey got most of their Easter presents in the car to help keep them occupied, but the Easter Bunny left a surprise at home along with candy-filled eggs around the yard.

Jackson had a stomp rocket that he loved, but it didn't always work well and was getting a little torn up. The Easter Bunny knew he was in need of something a little better! Of course, the first rocket launched landed in the gutters, so we quickly learned to move this stomp rocket a little further into the yard. If you can't tell, he's pretty excited about his new toy.

Audrey got involved too, but she has discovered how to climb the ladder of the playhouse and slide down the slide. Every time we open the back door now, she makes a bee-line for it!

Audrey also enjoyed shaking all of the eggs with candy in them.

As for other Easter activities, we had a little egg hunt for Jackson and Audrey in our back yard on Palm Sunday.

These are just some cute pics from the same day that I have to share...

The Easter Bunny came to visit the day care, and I got to take pictures of just about every kid at the day care getting an egg from the Easter Bunny...every kid but ours! Both Jackson and Audrey were a little intimidated by the bunny. Here's Jackson's reaction. I didn't get Audrey's on camera, but there was crying involved.

Jackson's class did an egg hunt too, and these are some of the after pics. In this one his teacher, Ms. Monica is helping him with his "bunny teeth".

So we didn't get to go to church on Easter Sunday, and we didn't have a big meal with friends and family. We did find other ways to talk to Jackson about the reason we celebrate Easter, which quite honestly is hard to explain to an almost 3 year old! He constantly surprises me though, and when asked why Jesus had to die on the cross, he responds, "Because He loves me." Pretty sweet!

As usual, there are more pictures in the album.

Kemah Kids

On Sunday we made our way to Kemah for a kids festival they had going on last weekend. They had a couple of local dance groups performing along with several tents with fun activities, face painting, and the ever popular fountain.

Jackson loved watching the dancers and wanted nothing to do with playing in the water. Audrey, on the other hand, wanted to play. She wasn't 100% sure about the fountain, but she definitely checked it out.

Right after this picture, the water sprayed her in the face! She wasn't a fan of that, but it didn't stop her from going out again after a little while.

Jackson never wanted to put on his swimsuit, but he did eventually wander out into the fountain.

The highlight of the day for Jackson was getting Elmo painted on his hand!

There are more pictures in the album.

Thanksgiving

It took a little longer than expected to get these pictures posted, but they are finally here. We had a very busy but wonderful Thanksgiving. We made our way to Shreveport on Wednesday. I spent the afternoon doing a little shopping at some of my favorite local places while Ross took Jackson to the park.

Thursday we headed to Ruston. We were able to spend a few minutes with Heath, Barbara, and Carter before going to my Grandmother and Granddaddy's house for a delicious Thanksgiving lunch where almost my entire family joined us this year. It was so wonderful to see everyone! I didn't do a very good job of getting pictures of the adults, but I got quite a few of the kiddos. Jackson LOVES my grandparents' wagon, so he spent a lot of time having the bigger kids and some adults pull him around. He also made an attempt to pull the wagon himself but didn't get very far.

Friday we made our way to Austin to meet our precious little nephew, Mitchell. I posted a few pics in the last post, but there are many more in the album. Jackson loved meeting his new cousin and playing at a nearby park.

There weren't any baby swings at this park, so he really looked like a big boy on these swings!

He also had a great time hanging out with his Uncle Philip.

We even managed to get pics of each of us with Jackson for once!

After a full day in Austin on Saturday, we made our way home on Sunday and picked up our Christmas tree. Let the decorating begin!

Austin Weekend

We went to Austin this weekend for Sara's baby shower. Sara was one of a group of girls that I was very close to when we lived in Austin, so I was excited to be able to make it for the celebration of the baby they're expecting in just a couple of months! The entire weekend was a blast, which you can see for yourself by checking out the album. We got to catch up with a lot of our friends and finally introduce all of the new kiddos that have arrived in the last year. With so many of them it was almost overwhelming at times, but we had so much fun hanging out and being down right silly as you can see here. The pictures really say it all!