San Antonio!

On Saturday we went to San Antonio for the day. We'd never actually been downtown before and loved it. We went to The Alamo first. Not quite as exciting as we thought, but the grounds were pretty.

I took this picture inside (although a guy yelled at me right after...I guess no pictures allowed inside). Zach was most excited about all the old coins everywhere. He is in a money phase right now. He also liked the old swords though too.

What was interesting about the bottom of an old well you ask? Coins of course.

Classic Alamo picture...with my eyes closed. The sun was so bright! Check out Savannah's polk-a-dot Converse tennis shoes. She insisted on wearing them.

Our next stop was probably the kids favorite...McDonalds. They thought the two-story balcony seating was so cool. Too bad we couldn't lug the strollers up all those stairs to eat up there.

We then went up and down the Riverwalk for a while. It was so pretty and I'd love to go back there again sometime with just Dallin. The kids were bummed that we didn't get to ride the boats, but that's life. Connor was so happy to be out of the stroller he just wanted to run...

Zach loves to sit on people. It's his favorite spot.

Sarah, Steven & Max

Steven & Sarah's Visit - Friday

On Friday Connor, Savannah and I went in to Austin with Steven, Sarah and Max. First we went to the Botanical Gardens. We'd never been there and it was so pretty! Connor LOVED the "BIG fishies!" They had the biggest koi fish I'd ever seen.

Steven is a pool designer so I stopped by Barton Springs Pool for him to see. It is part of Barton Creek, but they have it gated off and keep it clean to use as a public pool. Just no chlorine.

Then we headed over to the state capitol...

And lastly the UT football stadium...of course. If you know my brother you know this was a mandatory stop. It was "ESPN Game Day" the next day so we got to see them setting up for that too.

We were going to head over to the LBJ Library & Museume or the Texas State Memorial Museum but the kids were pooped. So we headed back home to relax.

Steven & Sarah's Visit - Thursday

My brother Steven and his wife Sarah and baby Max are here visiting! We're so excited to have them and are grateful that they made the long trip here. The little kids and I picked them up at the airport on Thursday while the boys were at school. Savannah immediately attached herself to Steven and wanted nothing to do with me.

When the boys got home from school we went for a walk on the trail by our neighborhood. It was a nice, cloudy day and perfect to be outside.

Connor is doing great having Max here. He is being so nice to him (for the most part) and is always trying to give him toys. He's definitely grown up a lot since his cousin Joshua visited last year.

Steven also took the boys running with him at the track. (I think Steven ran and the boys messed around in the sand.) He even had them warm up with him...

Side note: Steven actually goes by "Steve" but that's also my dad's name, so we call him Steven. That's what I called him my whole life and I just can't break the habit.

"We're Singing in the Rain!"

IT'S RAINING!!! We've been in an extreme drought all summer. We've even had Mandatory Water Restrictions. But the last two day it's been raining almost non-stop, just a nice light rain. We're so excited!!! The kids were thrilled when I told them we could go out to play in it.

One of my new favorite pictures of Jacob...

Zach loved the worms crawling all over the porch...

How can kids "sit" like this? And with their feet flat on the ground. Try it...it's hard! Savannah found all the rolie polies and named them. Her favorite is named "Pink Balloon."

Connor was hilarious out there today. He was loving all the new bugs on the porch because of the rain. He calls them all "pets" because Savannah does. Here are a few Connor quotes...
" 'nother one pet spider. Where go pet spider?"
"Ants. Worms. Careful." (Then he accidentally stepped on one of Zach's worms.)
"Yook Mommy! Pet smells!" (snails)
"Where he go baby lizard Stinky?" (He calls the lizard Stinky instead of Sticky. Sticky actually stayed on the porch for a few hours.)
"The baby little ponies. Ahhhhhhh." (Rolie Polies)

Highlights of the week...

Well this week we haven't done too much out of the ordinary. Here are some pictures I took though...

Last Sunday Connor made his first cereal necklace in nursery. He was SO excited and wore it for a couple of days. Then he left it on the ground

For Savannah's preschool this week we did the letter C. Here are her favorite projects...the Crown and the C clouds with Cottonballs.

I had a friend over to scrapbook and set Savannah up with the leftover scraps and pictures. She had a ball. I am working on the LAST page of Savannah's baby book today! The first 2 years of her life only took me 4 1/2 years to complete. Hopefully Connor's won't take that long.

This morning we went and cleaned the church. One of the kids found this baby gecko lizard in the building. They carried it around the whole time and named it Sticky (because it's feet stick to walls). They really wanted to keep it as a pet but I'm not into collecting bugs for food. They let it go on the back porch.

Zach was taking it from Savannah and accidentally pulled it's little tail off. Poor Sticky. The kids thought it was cool that it's tail kept twitching for a while on it's own.

I went to Zach's parent info. night at school this week too. Zach's class is moving to another room this week to make room for a new kindergarten class that is being formed. He's excited because he'll be just down the hall from Jacob.

Fredericksburg

Today we took a day trip to Fredericksburg, TX, which is about 2 hours away from us. It's an old German town in the hill country with lots of farms and vineyards. It was a pretty drive and the day was overcast, so it wasn't even too hot. We've driven through this town every time we go and come back from Arizona, but never stopped. We're always in such a hurry to get to our destination.The main purpose of the trip was to get peaches for Dallin. He loves them. The bad part was that there was a freeze in the area this year and nobody had local peaches. But a few people had them shipped in and we got a nice big box of peaches from Colorado. We also got some vegetables, honey and salsa verde. I came home and made zucchini bread. Connor kept saying "Mmm, nummy Mommy." Breads are one of the few things he'll eat.

We had lunch at McDonald's (which the kids were totally excited about of course). Then we walked up and down Main Street for a while. It's an awesome place to go if you love antiques and boutique-type stores. Not so awesome if you have 4 kids who want to touch everything and a bulky stroller. But we had fun just walking around and seeing the old buildings. We did go in the general store and the candy store.

Outside the library...

This sculpture/carving was on the lawn of the library. It used to be a tree and when they chopped it down they turned it into this eagle...pretty neat.

On the way home we stopped by the Longhorn sculpture on the side of the road. Only in Texas can you find a Transformer-like bull.

Here is our souvenir from Fredericksburg. Meet our new "pet", Mommy Armadillo.

"Baby Armadillo" fits in a little pouch in the Mommy's tummy. Connor loves the baby, but won't touch the Mommy.

Homeward Bound

Today was a monumental day at our house. The boys walked home all by themselves for the first time! They finally got a crossing guard at the light close to our neighborhood, so I feel much better about them doing it alone. They also walk more than halfway with 3 other friends from church, whose moms meet them just inside our neighborhood. We live just down the street from the school, but there is so much traffic that I've worried about ever letting them do it alone. Yesterday they walked home without me, but I went and watched to make sure they payed attention at the crosswalk and stuff. My boys are growing up!I also got to go help in their classrooms for a little while today while a friend watched the little kids. It was fun to see them in their new rooms with new teachers and friends. Zach's class is actually moving rooms soon (to make room for another kindergarten class), and he and Jacob will be just down the hall from each other.

Dancing Savannah

Today was Savannah's first dance class! She has been counting down the days since we signed her up. It is just a little class at the rec center nearby. She was given a bunch of leotards and tap shoes from friends. Since her leotard is black she insisted on black tights and black ballet slippers. This from the pink queen! To give her a little color I made her a pink skirt. It was $1.50, instead of the $10 they charge for a ballet skirt at Target.

Here she is posing before we left. She was very inspired by the movie "Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses." She's been dancing and singing all over the house since we borrowed it from the library.

There are only 2 other girls in her class. One of them lives almost right behind us, and her brother is in Zach's class at school. We'll probably be getting to know them better.

Tapping away!

Walking on tip-toes with her teacher...