Why I Love Austin

I love Austin. Such a fun place to live with quirky traditions. Last year we noticed people decorated the cedar trees on Loop 360. Conner wanted to decorate one badly, but I wasn't ready to attempt it with a 2 yr old and 1 yr old. Last night we arrived with bags of ornaments from the Dollar Tree and started decorating!!

Picking out our tree. Shep armed with some ornaments and his dragon (aka, a big stick)

Shep helped for a few minutes, but he was much more interested in exploring.

Conner had such a blast. He'd been talking about doing this for months.

While exploring Shep started collecting all the ornaments that had fallen off other trees. (I only saw him take an ornament off another tree once, but he put it back:) A purple one!

Here he comes with a green sparkly one.

"Momma a pink sparkly ornament!!"

Hanging up his prize.

Well, now he found a red one. Ok, Shep, that's enough.

Finished!!

The boys can't wait to drive to church tomorrow and see their tree all decorated on the side of the road.

We aren't out much at night, so we don't see many sunsets.

It was such a fun, beautiful Thanksgiving. Breakfast and Macy's Parade. Yummy dinner with friends. Football. Fun outside. Thank you, God, for my life.

Lately

The boys like to put their mattresses on the fall and "camp out". We found them like this before we went to bed one night.


Conner always has a project he's working on. He gets inspired by things he sees on Curious George or in books. I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and he said, " I want to build buildings". I could totally see him being an engineer. It's funny how you can see how their bent from such an early age. Here is Conner with a robot he made from various things around the house. He spent most his rest time that day collecting items for his robot.

A little bike practice. (I promise he normally has a helmet on) Conner has gotten good at his bike. He rides it just about everyday.

Shep giving me his "sweet face" while climbing a tree.

Working on a sand pit project with cones and cars. This was inspired by a cool book we found at the library. He wanted to dig a big hole and was disappointed that he couldn't. I didn't think the apartment complex would appreciate it. I promised him that someday we will have a yard for those kinds of things!

Today was Conner's Thanksgiving feast at school. They went all out!! Turkey, stuffing, rolls, sweet potato casserole, green beans and lots of pie. Boy, I'm gonna have to watch it. Sure wish my next appointment wasn't right after Thanksgiving. I have a feeling their could be a couple extra pounds gained.

This big boy here has gotten tall! He measured in at 38 in (95%) and 34 1/2 lbs (50%) at his 2 1/2 yr appointment. Looks like I've got a tall, lean boy on my hands. They've both had a bit of a spurt lately. Conner measured in at 41 in and 39 1/2 lbs.

Shep tried everything. He's much more adventurous than Conner when it comes to food.

Conner's class made pumpkin pudding today for the lunch.

Remember how I told you this boy was student of the month? Well, here's the poster from his class room!

Going to get the violin out tonight. I'm playing in the Christmas string ensemble at church. Haven't played publicly since we moved to Austin...yikes!!

Two pictures

Picture #1

This picture pretty much sums up what the past couple days have been like around here. This time change has been particularly hard. I'm not sure why. I talked to the boys about it ahead of time and kept them up an hour late Saturday night in hopes it would help, but no. Shep got up at 4:45 this morning and fought me for 2 hrs. Wish I could say he finally gave in and went to sleep, but no. It was a rought morning. I was very discouraged. Not sure why my boys have always fought sleep so much. I set very clear boundaries, remind them of what is expected every night and discipline accordingly. I will admit, in one of my weaker moments, the thought "and why am I having another baby??" crossed my mind. Parenting is just hard work! It is also so revealing of the sin in my own heart.



Picture #2

I'm 17 wks, 2 days. I'm finally starting to feel more "normal" and have even been able to drink a little coffee, which due to the circumstances surrounding picture #1, I have desperately needed:) I've felt the baby since week 15, but this week have really started to feel some actual kicks. Yay! I can't wait til the boys can feel the baby.

Holding down the fort tonight. Zack is in Dallas for the performance of two of his choir pieces in his friend John's doctoral recital. All is quiet. Think I'll go to bed early!

Too much sugar

Time to sugar detox. In addition to trick-or-treatin' last night, we had 3 birthday parties last week and a fall festival. The boys are allowed to pick two pieces of candy each day and with all the loot we've managed to collect, it should take awhile.

Yesterday was a big day for Conner. He was the student of the month for October! He got a certificate and a very cool gum ball machine (more candy!!) that you put money into. So proud of his hard work, good listening and obedience at school.


Boys couldn't wait for Daddy to get home so we could set out. We live in a great old neighborhood. The boys were really into it this year. They pretty much ran the whole time from house to house.

For some reason, Shep who doesn't even like hats, decided to wear his Mater hat with his Buzz costume. We decided he looked like a NASCAR driver.

Cute shot of my boys.

Candy anyone??

Oh, yeah!

Looking through their loot again first thing in the morning while they ate breakfast.

This is such a fun age for celebrating the holidays. Can't wait for Thanksgiving. Love this time of year!