Making a fort

Channukah, Oh Channukah...

Matthew's Holiday Show

A trip to be remembered

It was a perfect trip. We got excellent weather, the lines weren't nearly as bad as we had feared, and the girls had a ball. We missed our little guy, but other than that, it was wonderful. We can't wait to go back in a few years so that he can experience Disney, but also so that the girls will be able to do even more than they did this time. Natalie was game for everything, though! She rode Space Mountain and Dinosaur, two of the scarier rides and wanted to do more. Meagan was one for the tamer rides, but she had fun with those. Her favorite thing was the Laugh Floor, a comedy show run by the Monsters Inc characters. Andy and I treasured watching them have such a great time. They got tired (we had VERY busy days), but they were good sports about everything. I wish it could have lasted longer....

Magic Kingdom photos

Animal Kingdom

Most of these photos were from Animal kingdom. We have some neat photos of the animals too, but I am not sure how good they would look posted on here.

Nickelodeon Resort

Breakfast with Dora

The girls loved Disney for many reasons. It was also fun to see the Nickelodeon characters at their resort.

Our Thanksgiving weekend

We are going to DisneyWorld for the real Thanksgiving, so we celebrated Thanksgiving with our family on Saturday. There are many advantages to doing this. Stores are open, roads aren't as crowded for travel, and there are no shortages of holiday-specific foods. We had a LOT of food. Our family is never lacking for food when we all get together. I made the usual turkey. This year, rather than making mashed potatoes, I made homemade Mac and Cheese from a recipe that a friend recommended. It was so good! My parents made applesauce with cranberries, stuffing and jello. Sandi and Bob brought some delicacies from Costco (we are in seventh heaven with leftover apple pie!) Matthew has been sick off and on so we weren't sure if we could do the celebration, but everyone risked exposure to whatever stomach bug is plaguing him.
We have so much to be thankful for. I was watching my kids play yesterday. Natalie was chasing Matthew around the house, Meagan was reading a book to Natalie, and Matthew was spontaneously running up to them and hugging them. They are happy. My life is as simple as that- my kids are happy, I am good. I hope that they are successfully learning in school, but most of all, I just want them to be happy. If they are self-confident and proud of themselves, they will have one less major roadblock to learning. I am also thankful for our good health, all of us. Matthew's stomach has definitely been funky, but that is about it. Natalie, thank God, has an immune system of steel. Even though she has hit that wonderful milestone of age 6 (febrile seizures are MUCH less common after age 6), I will always worry when she has a fever. Even our dogs are healthy. I truly believe that Barni, who is at least 11 years old, will live longer than any of us. I am thankful that I have a job that makes me happy every day. It is not totally perfect, but it is pretty darn close right now.

Halloween fun!

Our kids had a blast on Halloween. Meagan was a pink lady from Grease, Natalie was Pinkalicous, a character from a very popular book, and Matthew was a green frog. Matty spent much of his time in the stroller, but he had fun none the less. We stopped by our old neighbors' house (they moved to another house in our neighborhood) and the kids took a photo together for old times sake. The boys' parents go ALL out decorating, so they are always a fun house to go to each year. Grandma Lois came over to hand out candy and make sure that Barni didn't have a nervous breakdown with all of the kids coming by. I am absolutely floored by how gorgeous the evening was for Trick or Treating. It was in the low 70s or high 60s the whole time we were out there. Granted, I despise our summers, but I treasure each and every moment of an Austin fall. We may not have the changing leaves ( I miss Lawrence this time of the year!), but we do have some beautiful sunshine and a nice breeze. We are still missing out on the rain, though. It is truly sad to see how desperate the city has become. We have had mandatory restrictions before on water usage; they have never enforced them before.
I am getting into the groove of working. I am still loving it. The kids are a lot of fun and the teachers are great to work with. It is hard to get out of the door each morning because of time restraints, but it isn't that different from when I was not working. Andy has been awesome about taking over taking Matthew to school and feeding him breakfast. Actually, he has been amazing all in all when it comes to helping me out now that I have less free time. He is loving his new built in grill, so he is grilling up a storm. That means less cooking for me! Love it.

A busy end to the month

Last weekend we headed to Marble Falls to go to the Pumpkinfest at Sweet Berry Farms. We all had a great time, with the only exception being the fact that it was 93 in the end of October. Crazy, but at least it is cool now. They had a ton of things to do there, some of them being things that you would not expect at a Pumpkinfest, like zinnia picking. We went on a hayride, made sand art, and fed the animals. We did not have our little family get together last weekend for Matthew's birthday because of logistics, but we did this weekend. Andy's parents were not able to come at the last minute due to tire problems, but we celebrated with my parents and our third set of "grandparents", Joe and Alice. Meagan picked out the monster themed partyware and Target made the cutest cake to go along with it.
Last night Andy and I had our awesome babysitter, Kelsey, come stay with the kids and we went to our friends' Halloween party. I found a fabulous late '80s-early'90s wedding gown at Goodwill. Andy wore his tuxedo that he bought in college, so we were perfectly matched. We had a great time.

Nati's 6th birthday party

Natalie is six!

Natalie had her sixth birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. I hate that place. However, she had been begging me to have her party there, so I gave in. She has always had either very small parties, or ones that were outside. A few kids came from her class and it was fun to meet them. Meagan was psyched to have Lexi there and Nati was so happy to have her Faith Montessori friends there. Apparently her birthday shirt was too big because it is hanging off of her in every photo! She is such a special child, so strong in many ways and extremely independent. Despite this, baby Jenny is still in the picture. We keep on waiting for Nati to get rid of her, but she keeps loving on that bizarre doll. Nati is doing great in Kindergarten and making lots of new friends. She has adjusted very well to my going back to work. She still adores Matthew and loves to do things for him.