Sunday on the Farm

Early this morning Ryenne got out of my bed (she sneaks in just about every night) and went wondering off. I was half awake so I figured she was just going back to her own bed. Then I hear footsteps... RUNNING footsteps and she says, "Mommy! Mommy! Elphenora MOVED! You won't believe it but she's on the light high up in the ceiling!" - the extreme amount of amazement in her eyes was visible even through my grogginess. This elf thing is pretty cool! 

Then we were off to Gams and Pops for our Sunday morning ritual - a country breakfast with visiting. We feasted on all the country standards - eggs, breakfast potatoes, sausage gravy, bacon, and whole wheat biscuits. It was amazing. There was a chill in the air but the sun was coming out so we headed outside to visit with the cows. This is always the kids' very favorite part. They can hardly get through breakfast before asking when they can go see the cows. 

Pops scooped up Cruz and we were on our way...

 Kai loves the metal buckets.

 As we were outside the wind kicked up and crazy clouds came in really quick. It definitely got cooler but it just passed on through.

 Ry was pretending she could fly through the wind.

 Meesie Belle was the nanny dog the whole time.

 I ask them to hug each other and they each give me disgusted faces. So much for a Christmas card pic!

 I adore this one of Kai and Meesie.

 Making "Soup"

 Here I go again thinking I can get them all to look at me for a Christmas card picture. When am I just going to learn that I cannot photograph all three of my kids looking at the camera? I keep thinking I can but it's pretty impossible. This was my favorite from the series though. They are each just in their own little world.

 Cruz's face seriously cracks me up. He was really happy to find this stick and the wind was blowing. Love that little man.

 Mmmmm sticks! Fiber!!

 Gams and Cruzito (love!)

After our time at Gams and Pops we headed home and played outside for a while. Then we Skyped with Grandma and Papa on Maui. We got to see DonDon (Ry's cousin) who is SO BIG I can't believe it... and Auntie Jean who was home from UH for the weekend. I think we need to Skype more. I hate going so long without seeing all there faces. Truly the saddest part about being in Austin is not having EVERYONE together.

What a wonderful day. Have a great week everyone!

Thanksgiving and Elphenora Dimplebottom

You know what I love about our Thanksgiving? I love it's simplicity. I love that we get together because we want to and not out of obligation. I love how we can be in our ratty houseclothes with kid muck about us and still be thankful. I love that there is no set schedule - it comes together at it's own pace and we all sit down together hungry and when that first bite goes in, everyone just slows down and says, "Mmmmmm".

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. 

The stay started out in the 70's and so the kids and I went out on a walk. I took the little Fuji with me. This week the leaves have really started to fall off trees and Fall has FINALLY hit Austin - though at 70 degrees + I guess it's a bit warmer than everywhere else. :) 

 (This first pick of Peter and the boys was actually from day before T-Day. Just thought it was so cute.)

So we start out with breakfast. Cruz has taken a real liking to having one foot on the tray of his highchair.

 On our walk we found some really great leaf piles!

 We were examining different leaves - feeling them and looking at the colors. They are fascinated by the leaves.

 These are all the pictures from Thanksgiving. Honestly, I hadn't slept well in about 3 days and I was just so tired. I didn't want to fuss with the camera. I just wanted to sit and enjoy the day. And I did. Mom and Pops came over and we shoo'd the kids out of the kitchen while Gams did the cooking. I did the green bean casserole and sweet potato pie.

We sat down to an amazing meal of apricot and orange marmalade glazed pork ribs, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberries, pumpkin cheesecake... hope I'm not forgetting anything. It was scrumptious!! 

The evening wound down and by 7pm I was so tired I was in bed already. Fortunately, Peter took the kids this morning so that I could catch up on sleep. I felt like a new person this morning. 

We caught up on some laundry and set up the tent in the living room. Cruz loved the tent.

 When Peter woke up we went on a grocery run at HEB. I had been putting off grocery shopping because I didn't want to be in the holiday crowds. It was a nice, quiet day at the grocery store. When we got back home, we were bringing in groceries and I put our new little elf on the front door along with a note and rang the doorbell and then ran back to the garage door with a bag of groceries. 

Ryenne opened the front door to find her - Elphenora Dimplebottom - our house elf sent by Santa to make sure the kids are being good.

 When I read Ryenne the note and explained why Elphenora was here, she had a sincere look of concern on her face. I call this her "oh shit" face. She realized at that moment that she can't get away with half the things that she does - because Elphenora will tell Santa.

 Elphenora was hanging out on the basketball hoop watching the goings-on of the afternoon to report back to Santa tonight.

 The kids will find her tomorrow on the picture ledge, ready to watch for the day.

I have heard of "Elf on the Shelf" and loved the idea. But at $30 I just couldn't justify it. We found this lovely elf at  Homegoods for $7.99. I thought a handwritten note would be more meaningful than a commercially done piece. Ryenne went to sleep tonight saying how cool it was that an elf was visiting her house. 

Sweet dreams everyone!

Out all day

What an amazing day I had today. I truly feel spoiled.

After dropping the older two off at school my mom came over and picked up me and Cruz and we had a lovely breakfast together and then went out to get the last things we needed for Christmas. The kids are done. Totally done. I will have lots of baking to do next month, but I'm glad I won't have to battle crowds.

Mom and I had a lovely time. It never fails to amaze me that we have everything we need within a 15 minute radius of our homes. I had meant to tell her that we hit everything in one fell swoop, but I got tongue tied and said we hit it in one swell foop - so it was our joke of the day that we did everything in one swell foop :)

The other really awesome thing today is that Peter has a customer that visits the hotel regularly that invited us to try his restaurant, Moonshine, in downtown Austin. We had never been able to take him up on his offer but tonight we had the kids' babysitter Hannah over for a couple hours while the kids were sleeping and we went out. It was lovely. The food was awesome. We enjoyed talking together without kids throwing food around us. We dressed up. It was so much fun!!

(ps - I know there will be questions about my hair.... it's not really that long. I got this cool clip in thingydoo a while ago so I was experimenting with it being long)

What a day!!

We are working on not using the tv so much in our house. My mom and I have discovered that the kids are really suffering from lack of imagination so it's been off for the last three days. This is such a good thing. I've been doing a lot with them, but also sending them off to the playroom or their own room for some play by themselves. I really can't be the entertainer all the time. They need to learn how to play by themselves too. 

Kai woke up with a cough and the snots so we didn't go to therapy today. I thought maybe he had the beginning stages of Croup (that barky cough) but that went away as the day progressed. 

We started out with breakfast and Cruz was all smiles straight from the get-go.

We heard that there will be a freeze on Thanksgiving and my basil plant needed harvesting anyway - so we headed into the backyard. It was already 70 degrees by 9am! Ryenne and I love smelling the basil!

She helped me pick the leaves that were nice and green.

Cruzito was thrilled to be outside. Honestly, the past few days have been his first "real" experiences outside as not just a tiny, helpless baby. Now he can really discover things outside and it's so awesome to see his face light up at something new. He loves to taste the leaves. Must be a texture thing. He doesn't eat them - he just licks them and puts them back. 

He just seems so much bigger today. Could be that I caught him standing in his crib for the first time. Or also could be that he can now pull himself up the one step into the foyer. He was hanging out by the front door today too. 

He has the longest toes! They're like fingers! 

And here is the basil that we harvested. 

So after basil harvesting and outside play we came inside and I told the kids they needed to play by themselves for a while. I was trying to clean up breakfast stuff and I come out and find they had emptied three baskets of toys in the living room. I went up the stairs to get this shot of them. Kinda blurry I know... but my regular point and shoot is broken.

After drying the basil leaves in the oven, our spice jar is now full! 

Ry having Dexter snuggle time.

After nap time, I had promised Ryenne that we could do their letters to Santa. A neighborhood kid was doing a fundraiser for their band class (you know, those catalogs) so I had bought each of the older two a letter for Santa. 

Ryenne's list reads:

1) My family to be all together.

2) Jellyfish Night Light

3) Princess tattoos

4) Toy top

5) Princess pencils

6) jewelry

7) A clean earth

She even practiced writing her name at the bottom. She did it on another sheet of paper too for practice. I'll need to get a better picture of that. I'm so proud of her!

Kai's list is pretty straightforward: Cars, Trains, and Tractors :) With his drawings of course.

We went outside in the front yard and had an ice cream sandwich picnic, but I didn't take the camera for that. Kai was covered in stickyness so off his shirt went. He was a nakey boy the rest of the day.

Ryenne was wearing a shirt with sequins on the front. When she came down the stairs the sunlight caught the sequins and "made magic on the wall" as she put it.

Three sets of buns almost ready for bath :)