Happy St. Patrick's Day

 We had a fun weekend celebrating the Irish holiday. The weather has been amazing and Texas has been very good to us on all fronts.  Many people have welcomed us in and made us feel at home and we are very grateful.  Great people make all the difference. Even though we are enjoying our time here, sometimes homesickness has a tendency to still creep in.  We have found a good way to help overcome the 'homesickness' is to get together with awesome friends, so we had a St. Patrick's Day Party.  Friends help take your mind off things and make life fun. The party was a good time and of course involved an element of chaos, which you can always expect with a large number of kids. We did silly pictures, ate green food, and even managed to survive a scavenger hunt. Ha!  The Millets came over for a green brunch Sunday morning, which was a highlight. Memories were made and I think we even avoided getting pinched. :)

A few of the faces from the party.

Kate refused to have her picture taken.  

The girls wanted to get Brett into the fun and dressed him up. He was a good sport.

Amber and I did the St.Patrick's Day 10K in Temple, TX.  It was a windy run but beautiful with fields of yellow flowers.

Big Girl

This girl has to be one of the easiest kids to potty train.  I am in shock.  Honestly, I was avoiding potty training because I really don't like it AT ALL, but really, who does?!  When I trained Abby I tried to push her too soon and that turned into a disaster.  So, with Kate, I just plain avoided it. I dreaded the moment I needed to break down and train her. Well, she has been asking since November to go on the potty like a big girl.  I didn't want to start training and then move across the country so we avoided it at the time.  When we moved to Austin she continued to ask me and I kept trying to push it off with excuses (basically because I'm a wimp when it comes to this department. ) She continued to ask until one day I decided to break down and face it.  In fact, why not, we're still renting and I would rather teach her in this rental than in the house. ;)  (That's not very nice of me to do to the apartment is it?)  We made a day of it and I was really surprised when she grasped onto it so quick.  The difference between her and Abby is I was forcing Abby to learn too soon and Kate wanted to learn.  Poor Abby has to be my experiment for so many 'firsts.'  Anyway, we are basically accident free after a week and I am one happy momma.  I know we still have a ways to go down the road, but she has made huge progress and is so excited to be wearing big girl panties all day long with basically no accidents.  The only problem I am facing now is that I shouldn't have given her an M&M or a jelly bean each time she successfully went to the bathroom. She has now learned to 'work the system' with her rewards. She knows if she just goes 'a little,' lots of times, she gets more treats. Hmmmm. Now to wean her of the bribes....wish me luck on that.  But Hallelujah, we have success with one of my least favorite projects. :)
Way to go Kate!

Cousins

My Cousin Sara lives here in Austin and we absolutely love having her family close by.  They have done so much for us as we have adjusted here and we are very grateful, such a blessing. A few weeks ago Sara and Dan made a trip to Utah to visit their daughter, Amy, at BYU for her birthday.  Little did we know that the real purpose of the trip was to have Amy's boyfriend ask for Dan's permission to marry his daughter.  Pretty eventful trip for all. Congrats Amy!  We got to stay home with the rest of their kids while they were away and had a great time. The girls were estatic to be able to spend hours upon end with their cousins.  We played games, made food and went on some cool nature walks around the area.  They are awesome kids and really helpful.  Gratefully everyone was alive and well when the parents arrived back home, even the dog.  The only fatality was the fence.  We had a huge wind storm pass through knocking out their back fence.  Opps. 

We love having family nearby.

 Kate was cold and Jared offered his coat... So CUTE!

  The girls were in heaven playing  'beauty parlor' and we had some 'fun' with it too.

I think the car might be a bit small Jared.

Outlet shopping.  (The outlets are 10 min. away.) Dangerous.

Lindsay making tortillas...she's a pro.

 Jared found the Utah version of Monopoly.  I felt pretty cool when I bought the Great Salt Lake.

  

This kid was offering free foot massages.  Like I said, this family is awesome.

Haircut

Kate's hair was getting pretty crazy but I kept procrastinating having it cut because I didn't want her to lose those beautiful curls.  Well, the girls love playing 'beauty parlor' and as a result of multiple twisted combs in their hair and mom desperately trying to revive it, it came time for a haircut.  Since we still don't know much about the area, I just took her to the local cheap Hair Cuttery.  She felt so big sitting in the chair and having her hair done.  It was cut a little shorter than I thought and a bit uneven, but gratefully hair grows back. As we left because the young stylist picked up some hair off the floor and taped it to a certificate for her 'First Hair Cut'. Very sweet and nice of them to think of us, though it was funny when I looked down at the paper. It was mixed with all colors of hair from all the previous clients of the day. (A bit gross, but it's the thought that counts.)  I think Kate's hair was taped there somewhere. Ha! ;) Don't worry, I had picked up a small (clean) lock before we left.  

Best result of the cut, she kept her curls. 

Lately

The weather in Austin has been blissful the past couple weeks.  The sun is shining, the temperature is divine, the trees are blooming and a nice Spring breeze.  This probably sounds weird but I guess I didn't connect that Texas has 'seasons'.  I just thought this state had hot and really hot.  I am sure we are going to experience what the 'hot' season is shortly, but until then we will soak up the beautiful Spring Weather.  The park has basically been daily event, sometimes several times a day.  The girls also love running through the grass behind our apartment just before dinner. 

We did experience our first thunderstorm here just a few nights ago.  Holy Moly!  I jolted out of bed because it lit up our room and shook the whole apartment.  Sheesh!  Talk about electric.  To sum it up, we didn't sleep much, but we did love listening to the rain and braced ourselves when the light flashed out our windows.  I do love a good storm so I must say even though I kept us awake, it was exciting.

Cruisin' South Congress

I could people watch for hours here.  

Good music on the street.

Checking out the Brushy Creek Lake near our new house. We move in April and we're excited!

Hide and seek on the greenery behind our apartment.  This is the girls favorite thing to do every night.

Cruising the slides...Kate without pants. Oh boy.

The girls love story time at the library.

Beautiful view of the sun through the trees.

Dr. Seuss Day

I guess it's the teacher in me, but I love to have some fun with Dr. Seuss' birthday.  We found an Art Gallery in Austin that had a free Dr. Seuss party so we decided to go check it out.  There were lots of copies of artwork that Dr.Seuss had kept locked up until he passed away.  It was fun to learn more about his life and see more of his creations. The girls loved the balloon man and cookies, of course.

We tried making cupcakes but the hair didn't turn out that well. Mashed cotton candy results in a 'bad hair day.' haha.

Foooood

We are quickly learning that Austin is famous for it's food.  Yum!  We have had a chance to taste a few great places in the past couple months and they have all been fabulous.  Food trucks are a big deal here and the first one we visited was Gourdough's Dounuts. You gotta love the name. I have never seen a donut so huge in my life.  One bite was plenty filling but sure tasted good.  Hopdoddy's was another great recommendation from several friends and it did not disappoint.  We were a little bit leery of waiting in line for 40 minutes to get a burger and shake, but it proved to be delish at first bite and worth the wait. Mmmm. And, just for the record, Teji's Indian has the best Naan I have ever tasted. Writing about all this food is making me hungry. We're hoping to try the Pink Cupcake Truck on South Congress next week, they look divine.
You need to come to Austin and try the food, really you do.

Cousin Lindsay and Abby patiently waiting for the donuts.

Can you see why we all just took a few bites...Haha. My favorite was the peach and strawberry.

We should have taken a picture of the food at hopdoddy's but we were too busy eating it. ;)