Austin Stay-Cation...Part I

Last weekend my dear old Mother offered to keep my little darlings so Hubby and I could have the weekend to oureslves for a late anniversary get-away.  Alone.  As in NO-KIDS-IN-SIGHT.  It was a stay up as late as you want because you can sleep in the next morning, eat out 3 meals a day in peace (like without milk getting spilled, cries for more food, gags because a certain little someone HATES the delicious broccoli you just cooked) just because you can, stroll 6th street and go in tattoo parlors,  and do whatever the heck you want until you check back in on Sunday with Mammy kind of weekend!  And that is just what we did.  We were indulgent (with-in reason), we were lazy, we were spontanious, we enjoyed each others company, without any distractions.  Let's be perfectly honest - I love my kids more that life itself.  I think they are the cutest little beings on the planet.  I love being a stay-at-home Mommy to them and spending coutless hours with them.  I love the good, the bad and the just-plain-ugly moments with them.  But let's also get real: I love my husband. I love spending quality, adult time with my husband.  I love to do things together, just the two of us.  I love being lazy and self-indulgent with him.  Call me crazy but I think in order for us to be good parents, we NEED time to ourselves and time for each other.  And with that said, I am sooooooo beyond lucky that I have a mom of my own who knows just how necessary spending alone time is.  And since we didn't have time or $$ to go on a "real" vacation, we decided on a nice little stay-cation in Austin.  And I'm so glad we did.  We had a blast.  We got to spend one very late evening dowtown with my brother and his awesome wife, who were also celebrating thier 10th anniversary.  We get along great, and I love spending time with them, and because they live in Ft. Worth, it's rare that we get to.  We slept in the next day and didn't leave the hotel room till noon.  We dined on some fabulous, melt-in-your-mouth food, looked at tattoos (which I DID NOT end up getting, more on that later), and lounged by the pool, followed by another fabolous meal that night.  All-in-all, a fantastic, much needed weekend!  And in case your wondering why the title of this post is Austin Stay-cation part one, it's because there most definitley will be a part two....hopefully not too far away =} 

Vince Young Steakhouse....YUM!

Happy 7 Years! 

With Cody &7 Jennifer

Love My Sister-in-law

Our amazing view of Lady Bird Lake & Downtown

Love this man...

Happy Birthday Kinley!

Kinley's one....
Can't belive my sweet girl is a year old.  4th of July has always been a super fun holiday, especially since for us, it's ALWAYS spent on Lake Travis.  And this year was no exception, but even more special because we got to celebrate our sweet girl's birthday.  I thought I would dislike Kinley having to share her day with the festivities of the 4th, but here are the reasons it's a great day:
-Daddy is ALWAYS going to be off to share her big day with us
-For a long long time she will believe that those impressive, beautiful fireworks are just for HER birthday =}
-All our friends and family get together for the day, so she will always get 2 parties (what girl doesn't like having numerous parties in honor of her?)  And one party can be red, white and blue, the other pink of course =)
-There will always be a parade and other fun things going on
-She will always be "Little Miss Fourth of July", litterally
So we had a great day on the lake, celebrating our sweet Kinley...

And the party didn't stop there.  We had her real birthday party that next Saturday.  The watermelon theme was so much fun.  I worked my butt off in the kitchen and was pretty happy with the way it all turned out, but I also learned a big lesson - trying to prepare everything took SOOO much more time than I had anticipated (especially having 2 kids to work around!)  Next time, I'll allow much more time to cook (like more than the day before and the day of).  I  had a brief moment of "oh &$#!" though, when it began to POUR 30 minutes before the party was supposed to start and we had plans for slip n' slides, and pools.  It stopped just in time and was hot and humid but the kids still had a blast.  Kinley was a perfectly cute little Watermelon princess and really hammed it up when opening her presents.  She threw on her new pink shades and would laugh and clap.  Too cute! 

Love my girl.  It's been a wonderfully blessed year for us.  I knew I needed a girl...I got her, and now I know why. I love all things girl, I love painting those precious little piggies, I love that she is a senitive little thing, I love her sweet hugs around my neck and that precious, infectious giggle, I love that her big brother is protective over her, I just love being HER Mommy.   I  love my little Kinley to pieces and I thank God every day for giving me her.  I am so looking forward to the years to come =}

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of her birthday party:

And a few of her actual birthday:

Little Miss 4th of July =}

With her BFF

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KINLEY MORGAN!!!