Wordless Wednesdays picking flowers

Long weekend!

We had an exciting Columbus Day weekend.  As a side note: in Canada they celebrate Thanksgiving during that weekend and the best part it is socially acceptable to start decorating for Christmas right afterwards!  For us in the US it was only a 3 day weekend, but it was kind of special for some of our family members.  Karen, Jeff's oldest sister who lives in Virginia, asked us to join her in going down to San Antonio.  When we agreed we didn't know we would also be meeting her boyfriend!  Jeff's cousin's baby was also having her early first birthday celebration down there.  

 

On Friday the kids had a dentist appointment in Waco so we all decided to head south a little early.  The kids teeth looked great and they were both so brave.  I can't believe that Jason is almost at the age where we are looking out for wiggly teeth!  We continued south and stopped at the San Marcos Outlets.  At the beginning of the month we headed up to Dallas to get the kids new shoes.  By the time we got around to looking at shoes Jason was done!  Elizabeth got light up princess shoes, but we couldn't reward Jason's poor behavior.  Fast forward to Friday and Jason was so excited to find Darth Vader shoes that light up both blue and red!  After a little lunch we finished our drive down to San Antonio.  Grandpa had been watching lot of online classes with new Frisbee Golfing techniques so Jeff had to take him to try them out.






Saturday started with a trip to the doughnut shop and the kids really loved the free samples!  The rest of Saturday was filled with games and getting to know John, Karen's Boyfriend.  The kids had a blast playing with their cousins and going to the park with Grandma! 







Going to a small church gives a great sense of community, but the kids really like going to their Grandparents' church since they provide a wonderful Sunday school.  That afternoon we had cake and finished opening baby Riley's gifts.  We have found that with little ones it is much nicer to spread out the gift giving because they want to play with the new toy and get overwhelmed opening too many things at once.  That afternoon Karen took John on a tour of San Antonio Missions and the River walk.  The Grandparents offered to watch the kids so Jeff and I went to a movie and dinner.  We are so lucky that our kids normally behave better for others then they do for us.  Later that night we got a very exciting text: Karen and John were engaged!

Jason and Elizabeth breakfast selfies

Jason's ready to play laser tag

Monday morning we were all excited to discuss the engagement over pancakes at Magnolia Pancake House (I recommend the Munchener Apfel Pfannekuchen if you are ever in San Antonio!)  After taking a few photos, playing a game, and packing up we decided to go and play laser tag.  Elizabeth was a little too small and hung out with Grandpa, but Jason was so excited to play.  Even a week later he is recounting who got whom.  Before we knew it we had to start heading home.  What an exciting whirlwind of a weekend!

New Floors

So a few months ago I heard a dripping late at night.  Jeff thought it was the hot water heater with a leak, but I thought it was something from the air conditioner.  All we knew was the next morning our floor was soaked.  I was right, apparently the condensation line from the air conditioner was clogged.  The plumber was able to fix that easily enough, but the floors would need a lot of work.





Due to where the leak was the would have to replace just about all the wood laminate in our house.  I guess I didn't realize what a big ordeal this would be.  First we had to get the flooring in which ended up taking about a month.  Then when we finally got it in and scheduled the people to install it they ripped everything out of the bedroom and realized they didn't have enough flooring.  They did the bedroom, but didn't start on the living room until they had enough flooring to finish it.  About 2 weeks later they had everything and came back to finish up.  It took the flooring people twice as long as it was supposed to, but the floor is in now.













We like the way the new floors look for the most part, but there are issues that still need to be fixed, like the joint between our master bedroom and bathroom. There is yet another promise that this will be fixed and hopefully it will be soon.

Wordless Wednesday 9.17.14

Ladies Man

On Tuesdays I pick up Jason from school so we can get to Elizabeth's ballet lesson on time.  Jason's teacher takes all of her car riders to their parent's car.  Normally Jason is really excited to point out our car to his teacher.  As they walked over to our car this Tuesday I noticed Jason holding hands with a little girl as they walked over.  It was pretty adorable!  While Jason's teacher was helping him in the car she told me that he explained the hand holding so that they didn't get smooshed by a car, but the little girl whispered it was because they kind of like each other...Oh boy!  I asked if that was Bailey, who we had heard a bit about, but it wasn't.  In fact he couldn't tell me what her name was at all, maybe Riley.  I knew our guy was cute, but I didn't expect him to start attracting young ladies quite this early.

Birthday weekend and Elizabeth's big day

When people ask for an interesting fact about me I almost always tell them about Jeff and I sharing a birthday.  This year it happened to fall on Labor day weekend and we were down visiting Jeff's family in San Antonio.  We were joined by his cousin's family and Great Grandma.  We went Frisbee golfing and the kids played on the playground in the morning and Jeff and I went out on a date in the evening.  We love taking advantage of our grandparent babysitters!  The next day we all headed over to the water park for one last summer splash around.



Sweet baby!



Elizabeth had a huge day after we came home.  It was her first day of preschool and ballet lessons.  I'm glad she is so photogenic because as soon as we went outside to do first day pictures I got a call that Jason had gotten sick at school and we needed to pick him up.  I guess I will need to wait a few days for that kid free time.  There was such a difference between the two kids.  Elizabeth was just fine with me leaving her at preschool and didn't even seem to think twice about it.  I look back and remember Jason being so much more tentative with this transition. I think in part it is because for the last two years she saw big brother going off to preschool and has come to expect and really wish she could go.  She did great her first day, but I don't think she slept enough, especially considering what else was going on that afternoon.



When we got home from picking her up Elizabeth was excited to see that Grandma, Grandpa, and Great Grandma had arrived.  She was even more excited about going to ballet class.  Elizabeth has been talking about ballet for months now and has been counting down the days until she could start.  Today was her big day and she did wonderfully!











She learned first and second position



And of course there was a lot of spinning.


This is one happy ballerina!