Decorating Starts Tomorrow

Texas Thanksgiving

We had a nice, quiet Texas Thanksgiving with our new Family of Five.

I want to tell you this Thanksgiving that I’ve begun to notice that I’m becoming brainwashed.

I’ve gotten used to seeing police cars with “constable” on the side… and almost every po-lice officer wearing a cowboy hat.  I no longer laugh when I see the “Church Ahead” warning sign.

(Not sure why we need to know where EVERY one is along the road….I think maybe Texans like to let you know when you should be feeling guilty.)

I also barely laugh anymore at the commercials.  They don’t have Wendy’s burgers here; They have Wendy’s TEXAS burgers which really are the same as burgers everywhere else, but I think it gets Texans to eat more if you throw “Texas” in front of it.

One thing I love about Texas is specifically Austin.  It is a great city for so many reasons, one being the fact that things like this happen here:  Road Signs Warn of Zombies We laughed so hard when we saw this on the news one night.

I know this is seeming disjointed, but the point is that we are so thankful for being here in Texas.  We never felt like Arizona was home – even though that’s where we both pretty much grew up.  Something just never clicked with us deep down about the place.  You never know where life will take you – maybe we won’t be here for good, but we are thankful to be here and are so happy that this is home. We missed our family in Phoenix SO much, but we had a nice little celebration here alone.

Collin and Violet together in the morning.

Violet trying to focus.

Collin helped me arrange the fruit and set the table.  He was SO excited about having it “fancy”.  This picture of him is so serious because he was trying to be like a waiter and show you how he was serving the food.

Drew’s a picky eater, but that doesn’t mean he’s not passionate about eating!  As we were getting things organized at the table he apparently thought “enough is enough!”  He started dragging the high chair tray over to get things started!

My favorite people in the entire world.  Words can’t express how thankful I am for each one of them.

Me and Violet at the table.

Violet doing her snuggling.  She’s now 5 weeks old!

Collin.

Drew.

One happy, tired, thankful Lucy.

After Thanksgiving Dinner we played Clue Jr, where we found a cartoon version of Collin:

And then watched A Christmas Story, where we found Drew’s twin:

We hope you had a wonderful holiday!

Lego Day!

 

To avoid having legos seep into every corner of our house, we have a rule that Collin has to keep them up in his room. On a day we make “Lego Day” he’s able to bring them downstairs and create with Mom and Dad.  Yesterday, Collin made a bunch of his complicated, master-designed ships.  I made a funky fresh abstract Christmas tree (that funky fresh was for you, Jamie) made from all white Legos.  It was a little….well… weird.  Collin wanted to be sure that his cousins were able to see his cool ship.  So, hey kids!  Come take a look!

Collin and Me on Lego Day.

Good times, Good times.  Any day with Legos is a good day in our house.

Decisions

 

Hmm…. which train will take the next bite….

Favorite food find of 2009

Okay, so you know my food issues, right?  I can’t have corn.  I can’t have wheat.  Now I can’t have dairy because it bothers Violet.

It’s a pain, but it really helps me and her!  My acne has almost cleared up, no more migraines, no more all-consuming fatigue and no more horrible stomach pain.  And no tummy pain/colic at night for her.  Hooray!  Having food restrictions isn’t really too big of a deal at home.  It’s mostly when you go out to eat or when you go to a friends house and you really have to think about it instead of just digging in.

Like most people, my morning starts with my beloved cup of coffee.  Once Violet declared loudly that she didn’t care for dairy, I started using Rice Milk.  Which sucks – At least in coffee.  It’s really thin so it’s more like it makes it 1/32 of a shade lighter and waters it down.  Blah!  Who wants that?  I’m not a fan of black coffee so I had to figure something out.

Why not just use non-dairy creamer? You ask?  Well, I shouldn’t really be having the non-dairy creamer because it always contains corn in some way – like Corn Syrup or Mono- and Diglycerides.  Which always runs the risk of me being in fetal position 1-2 hours later wondering if I should take a trip to the ER because the pain is becoming so intense.

I started looking online for ways to thicken rice milk because people post those kind of tricks all over out there.  And I found something even better!

• Made from a wholesome blend of almonds and cashews
• Dairy free; cholesterol free; gluten free; Vegan
• Rich in vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants for cell protection
• Shelf stable; requires no refrigeration until after opening

No corn!  No wheat!  No dairy!  It’s thick.  It’s creamy!  And it protects my cells!

If I get too bored with just regular creamer I can add a bit of Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Hot Chocolate for a hint of flavor!  Mornings are back to normal.

*sigh!*  I’ll never take you for granted again, perfect cup of coffee!

Birthday Boy!

Guess who’s two years old!?

Our little Drewby Doobie Doo!

We can’t believe how big he has gotten.  Here he is in his first year. (I’m not sure of how many months…?)

And here’s our little guy last week with his beloved blankie.

He just is so adorable and has the sweetest personality to match.  We are so thankful that God brought him into our family!  What an incredible, amazing blessing!

H A P P Y  B I R T H D A Y, D R E W !!!!

From Japan with Love

Here is Violet showing off her newest onesie!  My friend’s family is stationed in Japan and sent it across the ocean with love.

Thanks you, guys!  She looks adorable in it!

Soccer Saturday

We took the boys to the park today to play some soccer.  Collin was loving every second of it… Drew was pretty much done after these pictures were taken.  It was really fun and really cute.

Mommy and Violet spent our time cuddling at the sidelines:

Hope you had a great time with your family today!

1, 2, 3, 4

You gotta love the classics like Rubber Ducky and C is for Cookie, but I can’t help it… this is my favorite Sesame Street song right now.  :)

Busy Week

This has been one busy week… are you ready for a big update?

Dave and I celebrated our 11th year of marriage!  What a great anniversary present to be home with our brand new baby girl!  My mom watched the boys whilst we went to our local sushi place with little Violet.  What a wonderful gift from my mom!  It was awesome!  Violet gave us the gift of sleeping through the entire thing and allowing Mommy & Daddy to have a conversation.  Thank you, Violet.

More proof that this labor and delivery was totally different from my last two:  I actually felt up to a little trip to a tea room with my mom.  I was so excited to squeeze in some special time with just my mom.  And it wound up being so cute because it turned out to be Violet’s first “tea” with the girls.

Our beautiful little Violet had her first bath this week!  I may post video of this later – or not – you’ll have to wait and see.  :P

It’s amazing how much I just already adore her.

While my mom was in town we thought we’d grab the chance to celebrate Drew’s 2nd birthday since it’s only a couple weeks away!  Halloween afternoon we decorated, opened presents and had yummy cupcakes.  Here he is looking at the Thomas the Tank Engine balloon my mom found.

It’s just not a par-tay without streamers!

Drew loved his new barn and parking garage!  But especially loved his new James Engine.

What’s all this hoopla about?

Baby Violet hanging out with Grandma on Halloween.

Grandma sneaking in more kisses.

Dave and Collin having fun.  Leftover streamers make an awesome mummy!

We also fit in some pumpkin carving that day.

Pumpkin Designer:

Pumpkin Carver:

Drew wound up being too exhausted to do any trick or treating.  I think from the mix of refusing to take a nap that day and being worn out from his little party.  So Daddy just took Jango Fett out.  Or Boba Fett.  I can never remember which is which.

As you can tell the poor kid didn’t have any fun at all.  Sad.  Just sad.

Quick picture of my mom with the grandkids before she took off for Phoenix.  We had so much fun with my mom the last 2 weeks and it was such a blessing to have her here.  Thanks so much, Mom!!!!