Riding Bikes

It was a monumental weekend for bike riding! Yesterday Ella decided she wanted to try riding her bike without training wheels. We have not been practicing with her, but decided to go for it. Daddy took the wheels off and away she went after a few tries! She is riding all the way around the block on her own with daddy running close behind.

Well today, Caleb decided that he could do what Ella could do! We took the wheels off and he picked it up right away too. He is a little more wobbly than her and has not figured out how to stop and get off well yet, but he made it all the way down the street with not a hand on him.

They were so excited and we were so proud of how brave they were. And, no big falls either! Something really special is that grandma Katherine and great-grandma Mimi are here visiting, so they got to see it! Here are some videos.



Ella riding bike



Caleb riding bike

Halloween

Here are some pictures from our fun Halloween night! We trick-or-treated in our friends' neighborhood and there were lots of us! Then, we went back to our house later in the evening to see neighbors on our own street.

Obviously, Ella was Rapunzel, Caleb was Ironman and Silas was Pooh. I was really happy that Silas kept his costume on the whole time. (Thanks Gwyneth for Pooh!) Ella bought the Rapunzel hair months ago with some lemonade stand money she made. Caleb borrowed his costume from grandma (thank you!).

Here is a little video of Silas trick-or-treating...

Bye crazy Einstein hair...

Before...
There were no "to-do's" about this first haircut like you do with your first. No pictures in process (I was here by myself) and no planning...I just went at it...it needed to be done. Silas is a really messy eater and food is constantly in his hair. And, not to mention, it was beginning to look like crazy Einstein hair. We didn't have to cut Caleb's hair at this age...it never got this long. Hopefully it looks alright...I am sure I will have some touch-ups to do tomorrow. Love ya little guy...

Haircuts

I am not the best at getting the kids haircuts done on a regular basis...I usually wait too long in between so I don't have to spend the $$. I tried cutting both kids hair myself last time. Ella's I did not do good...very crooked. Caleb, I did alright, but it took me about 1 1/2hrs. I know I will get faster the more I cut it, but I just wasn't wanting to take the time this week. They need to get their pictures done before we head out of town and I wanted to make sure they were right. So, here are Ella's and Caleb's haircuts. This is the shortest Ella's has ever been. She was super excited and wanted it as short as mommy's. I think she looks too grown-up. :(

Happy Birthday America!

We spent a relatively quiet day at home this year celebrating the 4th. In the morning, we went to a free neighborhood festival with some bouncy houses, train, petting zoo, etc and the kids had fun. Then a midday swim in the pool and finished off the day spending time with my sister, brother-in-law and cousins! Hope you all had a great 4th.

How did I miss this?

Even though this is the 18th day of consecutive 100+degree days here in Austin, our garden seems to be thriving in the midst of it. I am not watering it more than the rest of the yard...still just three times a week. Everything is doing good, except for the peas...I think it got a little too hot and they are the farthest thing in the garden from the sprinkler. Some things are growing well....just nothing to eat off them yet. Our strawberry plant has picked up in the last few weeks. I also have more squash than I know what to do with. They are amazingly fast growers, which is how I missed this one....I can check the garden on a Friday and see a tiny squash growing and by the end of the weekend, it will be about 6-7in long. I can see the yellow squash pretty well, but I keep missing the green squash; I think it blends in more with the soil. So, this green squash measured 15in long! It will probably not taste great...I heard it is ideal to pick them when they are smaller. I am not a big squash fan (well, to be honest, most vegetables), but I have figured out how to use them in cooking where I can actually eat them. They are great grilled and tossed on our homemade pizza. Just yesterday, I found a recipe for sweet fried summer squash and it was yummy.

It has been such a delight to go out to the garden with the kids a couple of times each week and see what we have to pick. Looking forward to some onions and carrots soon.

Girls Weekend

Last weekend I was very blessed to be able to get a little time away on a girl's weekend with some friends. This is the second time we have done this. We went down to the Hyatt Wild Oak Resort in San Antonio. I would definitely recommend this place, especially if you were wanting to spend a few days in San Antonio doing Sea World, Fiesta Texas, etc. It is right next to the larger Hyatt Hill County Resort and right across the highway from Sea World.

This place has a lazy river...which I LOVE! A sandy beach area, poolside cabanas with hammocks, water slides, hot tubs, gameroom, campfire night with smores and lots of fun stuff for families. They have a great room set-up...they offer two bedroom units, with two baths, a living room and full kitchen. The only downside is they only have one on-site restaurant. But, you are right next to the larger Hyatt Hill Country resort which has lots of eating options.

Our weekend also included massages/facials at Academy for Massage which is a training school and has very affordable services. We also went to Target...which was very funny...we get out of town and we go to Target.... We all had so much fun though just looking at things we wanted to look at, without kids and no time limit. This Target stayed open till 11pm...it was great!

This weekend was a definitely much-needed relaxing time for this mommy. Thanks friends for joining me!

Silas's 1st Birthday!

We were so excited to celebrate Silas turning 1!

He is such a sweet, easy-going little guy. He is definitely and snuggle-bug! He has lots of energy and can really "hang" with his sister and brother. He is currently everywhere...I often find him crawling out the back door (left open by the older ones), across the yard and crawling up the playscape slide! He likes to play outside, especially on the "big" kids playscape and play in his water table. He loves our dog Laci and will often just sit and watch her eat and pet her. He loves wrestling with daddy and Caleb and Ella. He likes to crawl and push a little car in his hand around the house....making car noises. He also likes pushing the shopping cart around and having all of us take turns pushing him on his airplane walker. He is thrilled about airplanes and immediately if he hears one outside will look up in the sky trying to find it. His favorite book is probably The Hungry Little Caterpillar. He can say a few words - fish, dog, mama, dada, all done and loves to do the sign for airplane. So, we had a small, family airplane birthday party for him.

Hope you enjoy the pictures and get to know our little Siley a little better.
Not easy to see from the pictures, but I put a little picture of Silas's face flying the airplane.
Daddy even made paper airplanes and hung them from the ceiling. Silas loved looking up and pointing at those.
How big am I? Soooooo big!

Enjoying the afternoon...

The kids and I went to the park near our house the other afternoon and enjoyed playing in the sand and blowing dandelions. Here are a few pictures. While many of my days are so similar and cyclical, I realize how short the time is when they are young and then I remember how thankful I am to spend my days with them...Trying to blow a dandelion...

Videos of Silas

I am posting these two videos of Silas specifically for my mom and step-dad who are taking care of the two older ones while we are away with Silas. Thank you so much! They missed seeing Silas this weekend as they were anticipating, so I thought I would let them see a little bit of him here.

Some favorites of Silas....

Our little guy is over 10 months old now! He is getting everywhere in the house and is really enjoying exploring. Fortunately, he is really understanding when I tell him not to touch something and he stays away. Last week I put him out on the back porch during lengthy dinner preparations and he was content out there on his own crawling around for an hour. He may have eaten some dirt, leaves, bugs, but it was great. (There is a video of him crawling below in an earlier post).

He really loves his sister and brother and the excitement about "Siley" and has not wavered from them either. They really watch out and take care of him and celebrate with every new thing he does. He is doing some signing - mostly just dog, more and all done. I am almost convinced he is saying "mama" and working on "Ella", "fish" and "dog". His favorite things are swinging, going for walks, baths or playing in water, our dog "Laci" and wrestling/tickle time. He is really such a pleasant, easy-going baby - I am truly whipped on him! Here are a few of our favorites of him over the past few months. The first two were from today....