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!!!

It's a GIRL!!!!

Last week I had a gender reveal party for some of our very best friends, Natalie and Mark.  We had so much fun.  I asked guests to wear either pink or blue to guess what they were having...we had fun taking pics as "Team Blue" and "Team Pink".  Then after a billion pictures, Mark and Natalie FINALLY got to bite into a baby decorated cake pop to reveal the gender---- another GIRL =}  3 Girls, wow!  I think they are pretty lucky myself =} Anyway, it was a highly anticipated evening and hopefully one they won't soon forget!  Love you guys and can't wait to meet sweet baby "G"!

Too many ideas in my head...

Okay.  I admit it.  I'm officially obsessed with all things relating to my new house.  Maybe because I'm living in someone elses...maybe because I'm DYING to start seeing my house go up...maybe because I'm feeling crafty and need something useful to put my time (yeah right, what is time?  I mean my very few hours at night or the rare occasion that I get BOTH kids to take a nap at the same time) into...WHATEVER it is, I'm obsessed.  I'm searching Pinterest, Etsy, and other design websites (my favorite is www.houzz.com, it's basicaly Pinterest for homes)  like a mad woman.  I  want to come up with an awesome playroom...I want the perfect mantle...the list goes on.  Seriously, I need to stop.  Just because I see all these great ideas, and think I have great ideas, does NOT mean my house will look the same.  I have champagne taste on a beer budget =}  And I know my dear old hubby would agree.  He says we're not buying anything till we get into the new house.  Yeah right.  A girl has to plan!  SO, I am out to design/create something cute and original while being on a budget at the same time.  What I'm NOT looking for is my whole house coming from Hobby Lobby or Target and looking like everyone elses.  Not that there is anything wrong with those places at all, in fact I'm sure I will have plenty of things from both, but I want something different. Kind of shabby chic/vintage-y/rustic.  Now don't hold me to that if my house is none of those things =}  I'm going to a Country Living Affair this weekend downtown and  I'm super excited.  I'm also dying to get to Canton first trade days (http://www.firstmondaycanton.com/).  It's been way too long since I've been and I LOVE that place.  Okay, that is all....  

Surgery & Lack of Sleep. Zzzzzz

Kinley went in for tubes on Tuesday morning. Everything went well, and it was a quick procedure with no problems. The nurses and Dr.'s were litterally ooohing and ahhhing over how cute she was. One would walk out and another would come look b/c someone told them to go look at the cute baby down the hall. She was all smiles and she did look pretty darn cute in that little Looney Toones baby hospital gown at 6 am. It's always a little scary to put your baby under anesthesia, especially for the first time, so we were relieved to have this behind us. Dr. Brown said she currently had an ear infection at the time of the surgery, and this was just a few days after stopping a 30 day antibiotic she had been on! Geez! I sure hope this helps, and it's good to know she can probably hear us clearly now. Everyone says they see a difference almost overnight with this surgery. Not here. She has been fussy and irritable and overly clingy ever since it. Hope we see some changes soon!

Sleep deprivation is another issue we are currently deealing with. We had a few nights once we moved of good sleep, but it has been mostly downhill in the sleep department lately. I am so TIRED of being TIRED all the time. Kinley wakes up anywhere from 1-3 times a night, and will not go back to sleep unless she is patted or rubbed. I swear you can do it for 30 minutes, and just when you think she's finally asleep, you walk away, and she starts crying. Then as soon as you place a hand on her fat little thigh, she shuts up. DIVA BABY! For real! It's so exhausting. And lately all she wants is me...she won't even take a bottle from Daddy or Neena. She's rotten. Dowright spoiled rotten. But oh so cute at the same time. Baby bootcamp began today of *attempting to let her cry it out. Man is that hard, listening to your baby cry. And cry isn't even a good word for what Kinley does. She wails. She hollers. She is FIRED up! Her cry is not like a little baby whine. It's like a death wail. It honestly sounds like baby cursing. So say a prayer for me that this is a short thing we can overcome b/c it's really tiring.

Random Photo Dump =}

Here are just a few random pictures of the past month or so! Baseball games with Grandpa, playdates with friends and Kinley growing before my eyes...

This and That

LIFE....
has been busy, busy, busy lately! We're all moved in and slowly getting settled into our new "home away from home" in Lago Vista. The whole thing has gone much smooter than I expected. The kids have adjusted well, they're sleeping good (for the most part) and we've almost upacked all our belongings. Jackson tells me every day "I just want to go home Mom...to Jackson's house." I then tell him that Neena's house is where we live now, while we wait for the workers to build us a new house. Every time his respose is "Our house is broken Mom, we're getting a new house." Haha, even though he's prefectly happy here, he just doesn't get why we need a new house. The other one must be broken if we need a new one =} So cute.
KINLEY.....
has a dr. apt. on Monday with the ENT to look at and discuss getting tubes. We're actually already on the schedule for the following Tuesday for surgery. Poor baby girl is going into a 30 day stretch of being on antibiotics for double ear infections. She just can't catch a break with her ears. The dr. told us it's most likely anatomy, which makes perfect sense because I had several sets of tubes after constant ear infections as a kid. Hopefully all the infections will soon be a distant memory for her (and us!) She's been irritable, not sleeping well and fussier than her usual happy-go-lucky self, so I know this is what's best for her! She still continues to amaze me. She is just a smily little ball of chub! She's 22.7 lbs (whoa Nelly!!!), crawling (military style), and has 2 1/2 teeth. She's got the cutest little personality and seriously brings me so much JOY! Love this little girl so much, I've decided I need one more.....in about 2 more years =}
JACKSON...
is just his same silly little energetic self. He cracks me up daily. He's still going to his Mother's Day out twice a week and really enjoys going to church on Thursday mornings while I go to a bible study. He's started asking me, "What day is it Mom?" and then proceeds to tell me what we have going that day (It's a stay-at-home and play day, Mom," etc. He's a smart little cookie. He loves to sing, and of course still loves his cars and trains and books. He loves his baby sister (until she takes his toy away) and is starting to understand more when we tell him she's just a baby and she's still learning. He is fully potty trained! Pretty much even night trained too, which is so great! He's such a big boy and I'm so proud of him. It's nice to only buy diapers for one kid and I'm already thinking about how nice it will be to only have one kid in swim diapers this summer. Those things are expensive! My favorite thing about him at this age is how every night (before I even tell him), he tells me, "Mommy, I love you abigwholebunchdeeperthantheocean!" And yes, it's strung together, exactly like that...so dang cute! Love my boy!
PATRICK...
still loves his job got a promotion and a nice big bonus as well. I am so proud of him and all his hard work...and it came just in time for all those lovely little upgrades on our new house! Way to go Daddy!
I...
am just trucking along. Nothing new or exciting, just trying to lose weight....a never ending battle it seems. And I'm dreading the thought that bathing suit season is just aaround the corner, and I am So. Not. Ready. Ug! I wasn't blessed with good genes in the weight department, and I also wasn't blessed with the ability to somehow "forget to eat." I hate when people say, "I am just so busy I forget to eat!" Why, oh why, as busy as I am, do I not just forget to eat? Nope, somehow I always remember that I'm hungry. In the meantime, I'm trying really hard to tell myself that a salad for almost every meal isn't that bad. Yeah right =} Anyway, life is good...hopefully the next time I blog I'll be able to say that I've hit a ten mile mark. Fingers crossed!