Perfect Weekend

The weather this past weekend could not have been better!   Friday afternoon, we took the girls out to the house so we could meet with the HVAC guys before they left for the weekend and then headed to the fishing pond.    My girly girls love getting dirty too and are so happy when they get to run and play outside.   After fishing, we stopped by Hat Creek (the eat park) for a few burgers.  Avery calls any restaurant with a playscape the EAT PARK.

Saturday was another “outside” day so we took the girls back out to the new house to the neighborhood swimming pool for a little fun and met some new friendly neighbors.  Then we headed to our friends house up north to meet their beautiful new baby boy and have dinner.

She didn’t like the sand so much…

Sunday we decided to make another outside day because I couldn’t get enough so we went to eat lunch at Shady Grove, walk around Town Lake, and to the Domain for the splash pads (which seem to still be off due to water restrictions) so we shopped the Art Fair instead.


Starting to make a silly face at Daddy:



She is waving at the big bird statue (off to the left):

P.S.   This is totally off topic but I can’t forget these things so I must journal them. I need to do this more often.

-Avery asks at least every other day after I pick her up from school if our new house is ready yet.   I guess she doesn’t understand how long months are.

-She says funny things and really is at a very imaginative stage.  We tend to eat out a lot and she makes her forks her princesses, kings, and queens and talks to them.

-She asks Why?  about everything.

-Note to myself…..don’t ever forget the funny thing she said about pancakes going “slap, slap, slap” (flap) and the big and strong pizzadillas.   This is a family joke that I cannot forget.

-Every little girl and boy in the world is her fraannd…said with a Texan drawl.  She loves friends and anytime she sees a child, she wants to go talk or play with said child.   She is such a social butterfly.    For example, we could be going to the mall and she will say, “Look Mommy!  There’s a girl.   She’s got a beauuuutiful dress.   She’s my friend!”   or  “That’s a boy.   What’s his name?  He’s my friend!”

Olivia:

-She says “Dada”, “Mama”, “Daw” (Dog), “No-No” (with the shaking finger), “Hi”, “Moo” when you ask her what a cow says, and Agua for water though I think she is trying to say “WaWa” and it comes out as Agua

-She is such a lovable, cuddly, kissing, baby!  Oh, I could just melt every day because she is soooo loving.   She is especially fond of her big sister.

-Livy loves to eat, if you couldn’t tell from the pictures.   She still giggles with her billy goat laugh, especially when food is involved.

-She is going to be my little jokester.   She makes funny faces and does all kinds of silly things to try to get you  to laugh.  Yesterday, while in the car, she was mad because she was tired and hungry and she told me “NO-NO” in a really loud, mad voice and I looked at her and said “No Livy!” in a flat, stern voice and she knew she wasn’t supposed to do that and started making clown faces at me…..at 13 months.   I don’t know  how you can even try to keep a straight face at something like that.

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Cute Art Jars

We are back from vacation and while still in a relaxed frame of mind, I decided to take on a craft project I have been wanting to do for a while.  I saw a version of this on pinterest.   I also have been in organization mode so I thought this would fit nicely with my recent organizing frenzy for the girl’s toy closet. Avery can now actually see her art supplies so I hope this will inspire her to want to do more art. This morning she found these canisters on the table and helped herself to the purple paint tube. Luckily we have been reading ‘Olivia the Pig’ so she knows that painting on anything without permission would make a Mommy a teeny upset.

Supplies:
Canisters from Container Store:

Spray Paint (forgot to purchase the white so I used what I had):

Cute Animals from Michaels:

I have to go to the hardware store to pick up some epoxy because apparently super glue, hot glue, Gorilla glue and liquid nail do not work well on metal to plastic. This project was very easy except that one snag.

I love how cute they are and Avery does too 🙂  I didn’t realize she had so many markers!!   The finished product ended up costing about $15 for each to make with all supplies.  It would have been less if the animals didn’t cost $5 each.   I was picky though and wanted the cute ones.

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A Little R&R

I’m looking forward to 1 week of this beautiful place.   I’ll catch up when we get back from this much needed vacation.

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Home Build: Kitchen Range

The design process for me this time around is so much more fun since most of the details are already thought out. I do have a dilemma though right now. I’ve been looking at different ranges because DCS changed the look on me from our last style. The last range we had was the DCS 48″ Gas Range by Fisher Paykel and I absolutely loved it. We had a Viking before that and I didn’t like how hard it was to clean under the burners and how it leaked gas when baking (our whole home smelled like gas) but the DCS was an A+ on both of these and performed perfectly while looking pretty. The new design that DCS has come out with isn’t my taste so I’m looking for either an old model or alternatives.

I love this La Cornue Stainless Cornufe:

The LaCanche:

or

My Old Standby (the old DCS Range that I had and loved but has to be found from a dealer who has the old design).  Though it isn’t quite as fancy as the two ranges above, it’s spot on in cooking/function and I like the clean design so it’s a safe option:

What to do?   I’m stuck!

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Kite Festival

This past weekend we were blessed with the most amazing weather! While Scott traveled on Saturday, I loaded up the girls and drove down to Brenham to visit Matt, Dawn, and Lyla for the day. It was short but very sweet! Dawn and I even got a chance to sneak away for a bit to go antiquing.

On Sunday, we went out to Carlos ‘n Charlies for lunch by the lake and then headed back into town for the kite festival. This is our first time experiencing anything like it and I can honestly say, I have never seen so many kites in my life. It was really cool and the girls loved it!

Outside Carlos ‘n Charlies (we are still in need of lots of rain because usually the water comes up to the top of that limestone across the lake):

This little turkey didn’t want to take a picture:

Riding in her new “big” girl car seat:


Once a video is on, she tunes everyone and everything out!

I took these pictures with my new Nikon Coolpix P7000 because my big one is a little much to haul to places like these. I love the picture quality. The one thing I wasn’t able to show in these pictures was the sheer volume of kites. There were thousands and thousands.



That Black Kite was really ginormous:

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Photos and New Friends

Last weekend one of my new friends, Kari, put together a playdate at a beautiful park here in Austin by the lake and J. Bell Photography came and took pictures of the kids for us. It’s a park I had never been to and is really well hidden and quite a hike to get to but so worth it. We had so much fun playing with friends, balls, bubbles, and doggies!

We didn’t get many pictures of Olivia because she was afraid of the photographer.

Meanwhile, this little princess was hamming it up for him:



Livy isn’t so sure here:

I’m so grateful for my new friends here in Austin. It can really be hard when you move to leave old friends. We don’t get to see our friends from Houston quite as often and that does make me sad. My first few months here was a little lonely but I forced myself to put myself out there to meet other mamas with small children and now our schedules are jam packed. The ladies I’ve met over the past few months here have been wonderful and such a supportive, fun group!

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