Spooky Spider

A few days ago, I made this ‘Spooky Spider’ pancake for Avery. It was a spontaneous project so I had to use what I had. I was stumped on what to use for the legs so I improvised with chocolate chips. They were just for decoration. I think it would have been better if I used cut strips of bacon for the legs so she would have been able to eat them. She did grab a few before I took them off. Nonetheless, she loved the pancake and had fun! I’m trying to challenge myself to use more of my creativity so this week has been really successful with quite a few fun projects “created”.

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Sleeping Beauties

I would like to capture a LOT more of these moments. They look so peaceful!

Today, these two get to dress up in their Halloween costumes and go to a party. Avery has been talking about Halloween and Trick or Treating for a month now!

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Birthday Weekend

This past weekend, my sisters came to help me celebrate my upcoming birthday by joining me at a really fun card-making workshop which has inspired me to “do” more creating going forward. Scott and Matt watched the girls while we did fun sisterly things like crafting, lunch, and shopping.
These are the cards and tags I made. Sometimes, DIY is way more rewarding than purchasing (albeit time consuming) but I just love looking at these:



And we learned how to emboss and line envelopes to make them extra special:

Then we had a mini-photo shoot with Lyla and Olivia…

We couldn’t get them to smile at the same time so we have one smiling here:

And the other smiling here:

And I captured the LIGHT! with this pretty picture of Lyla:

We wrapped up with a night out on the town (Scott and Matt included) starting at Uchico’s and hopping downtown from there. What a fun day and night!!

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DIY Notebook

I was in Paper Source Saturday with my sisters doing a card-making workshop and picked up a few really cute things to make my own notebooks. I purchased several so once I fill one, I can create a completely unique one next time. I like to keep all my notes in one place because I often go back to reference them so having one book to put all my to-do’s is way better than writing on the back of envelopes, sticky notes, and other pieces of paper that tend to get lost.

Supplies:

Finished Notebook (simple and pretty):

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Great Weather and a Cute Cut

It’s that time of year when we might get lucky enough to get a cool front (albeit only for a few days). We spent last Saturday enjoying nice crisp Fall weather. Avery saw I had a scarf on so she had to have one, too!




This pumpkin turned 8 months last week and is crawling, saying Mama, Dada, pulling up, standing and we taught her how to click with her tongue. We also have been teaching her signs so she has started using those. I could just eat her up! She is such a sweet, sweet baby!

Avery’s been asking for a haircut so we took her to get a trim:


She loved getting her hair styled!

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Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend, we dressed the girls alike and took a trip to Whole Foods where they had a really cute pumpkin patch set up. I thought it would make adorable pictures and it would have IF a) it wasn’t so bright b) the girls could actually open their eyes c) the stars would have aligned! We picked the wrong time to go. I thought evening would be great but we should have waited an hour. The sun was going down but there was nothing to block it and it was set up facing that direction. In any case, this is what we ended up with so we are going to attempt again before they take it all down. Olivia loved the cow! Avery thought it would be fun until Scott put her on it and she started screaming. After our failed attempt at pictures, we decided it was time to go get some goodies at Whole Foods! I love cool grocery stores and this Flagship Whole Foods has every grocery store beat (my opinion, of course)! I remember when I first moved to Austin many years ago, it was a very small establishment across the street where Anthropologie now is. Boy has it come a long way! It’s huge and is prepared food heaven…

Really MOM…Do we have to do this?

This is Avery’s fake smile…we resorted to bribery:

Too bright…I’ll smile and close my eyes:




Awww, they were troopers!

In dreamland, I would have one of these to park at my farm and take the kids on hay rides and go joy riding! Since it’s dreamland, my farm would be around Napa.

If there was a place you could walk in and instantly feel “happy,” this is it for me! I can walk in and it washes over me. It’s the simple things 😉 We really enjoy taking the girls on Friday evenings to plan our special weekend dinners (when we are in town).

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Summer Family Photos

We received our photos from August. We took them the last week of being in The Woodlands so they are very sentimental to us. They mark a huge step made in our lives!

Doing a twirl:



Livy’s teething so her fingers are always in her mouth 🙂


Not such a great picture of us but Olivia’s face is PRICELESS! She wasn’t a fan of pictures or the grass:



NO LIKEY THE GRASS!:








Tummy Love…I love her little belly:

To say we were worn out after this shoot was an understatement. We did this right smack dab in the middle of the big move week. I literally ran and bought their outfits the hour before the shoot and Scott and I threw some clothes on and met our photographer at the club house.

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October Love

October is one of, if not, my favorite month out of the year. Perhaps it is because I was born in October so I have an affinity towards it from childhood. What I really love about October is the cooler temperatures, the start of Holiday season, the changing color of the leaves, and everything apples!

My Mom had birthday last weekend and we went home (to me, it will always be home even though I don’t live there) to celebrate! I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of mom and the girls but I did get a chance to take a picture of O + A.

This is right before Olivia and I were headed to a baby shower:


Avery in her “Little House on the Prairie” jammies:

The girls playing while Papa and Daddy watched the Texas vs. OU game:

After celebrating Mom’s Birthday and going to Amy’s Baby Shower, we came back to Austin for a fun-filled few days with Colten and Conner, Lovey, and Aunt Jen Jen.
This little guy loves to FISH so Scott took him to Fish Camp (a cute little place in our new future neighborhood) and Avery helped.

The one picture I got of the whole group ended up not working out but this is us heading to Panera Bread Co:


She is admiring the cinnamon roll!

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Jack-O-Lantern

Avery loves jack-o-lanterns so I decided that we would carve one….my first ever Jack-O-Lantern to carve. Avery wanted to participate so I let her touch the slimy insides but then made her sit about 6 feet back (for safety reasons) while I tried my to butcher/carve this pumpkin. It was a job using a kitchen knife. The pumpkin was as thick as my knife so my patience was growing short but I was not going to give up. I should have drove down to HEB to get a carving kit. It probably would have been a lot faster. All said and done, I’m so proud of my first Jack-O-Lantern and Avery really likes it!

I drew a heart rather than cutting it out because Avery insisted I have a heart but I knew cutting out that little heart would be impossible with my kitchen knife.

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Scott’s Big Birthday Surprise – NYC

Last Thursday, we celebrated Scott’s birthday! He always does such special, thoughtful things for my birthday so I decided to surprise him with a trip to New York City. He was surprised! Mom and Dad took care of the girls while we were away.

We had so much fun and the weather was awesome, especially considering we have had such warm temperatures and they have had quite rainy weather. We hit the jackpot for cool, sunny days with a touch of rain one afternoon.

We stayed at the Trump Soho hotel and it didn’t disappoint! Everything was perfect and the location ideal for shopping, eating, and walking around. We certainly did our fair share of shopping and eating, too. A few highlights: We stopped in at Vosges Chocolate, one of my favorite chocolate shops (they have a shop in Vegas and a few other places…check out the owner’s story; it’s very inspirational for business women) and sampled a few truffles. We ate at Lupa, Mario Batali’s restaurant in Soho. It was such a cute little restaurant and the food was superb. Oh, and we then saw Jenna Elfman and her husband, probably walking home. That reminds me, even cooler than that, we rode on the plane to NYC with Dan Rather. He lives in Austin and spoke at my graduation from UT so I was excited to see him. We stopped in a million shops but my favorite was Henri Bendel. I found so many cute things. For Scott’s special birthday dinner, I took him to L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon at the Four Season’s and we did a custom tasting menu which was excellent!

We can’t wait to take the girls next time in the winter when Christmas is near. I think they would really enjoy it!

The view from our room was outstanding, especially at night!





He’s embarrassed I’m taking pictures of him:

At FAO Schwartz…this one is for the girls:

Our views from the room…

Happy Birthday, Love!

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