Crafting with Baby?

One of the things I was most excited about regarding having children is doing crafts with them. I got inspired a few weeks ago when working the nursery at church and decided that I should start doing crafts with Austin. There was a plastic water bottle filled with a slow-moving clear liquid (as well as beads inside) in the room we were working. Austin loved it. He played with it every chance he could. Seth and I chatted about what the clear liquid was, and our best guess was Karo syrup.

A week or so later, I saw this bottle of lite Karo syrup on the clearance shelf at Tom Thumb, and decided that I would buy it and experiment with Austin and crafts. I knew I had tons of beads at home and plastic baggies and figured this would be an easy one to start with. We've been pretty cooped up this week given the chicken pox situation and this gave us something to do, which was perfect!

He wasn't much help with the project, so it mostly resulted in me doing all the work and him playing with it afterwards, but I'm still pleased with how well it went/worked. I got out a sandwich-size baggie, poured Karo syrup inside, and then dropped a few red beads inside. I attempted to have Austin drop a few beads in (he's great at putting things inside other things), but the beads were too shiny and tempting. They went right in his mouth. I sealed up the baggie, and let him play with it. Below is our documentation.

the supplies

the less-than-thrilled guinea pig

He would have preferred to just suck/chew on the baggie all day.

This is what it looked like when combined.

Austin had a pretty good time squishing the beads around, and then squeezing the bag entirely.

"Ok, I decided I like crafts."

I was even able to get a video of him playing with the craft. Enjoy!

It was fun and only took about 1 minute of preperation and 30 seconds of work. Time well spent!

3rd Annual Fredericksburg Trip

This past weekend, we made our 3rd annual trip to Fredericksburg, TX. We went with the Windsors this time, and it was a weekend without kids. The first for both of us! We shopped, we ate, we played games, we shopped some more and then ate some more. It was fabulous! And both boys did well with their respective grandparents. I had so much fun I'm already looking forward to next year's trip! :-)

all packed and ready to go

the must-have road trip treat

We stopped in Llano for lunch on the way down.

The place we stayed was called Oak Haven Haus. (Fredericksburg is very German.)

This isn't a great picture, but it was up on the side of hill. It's the red roof you see.

the gated entrance

It was a smidge too warm to enjoy the deck most of the time, but it did have good views!

one of our favorite stores

our most favorite store

my favorite store

Our 'haul.' Very few things are actually for us.

On the way home we stopped in Marble Falls for lunch, and had great seats at this restaurant!

Another funny video, #2

I took the video so that I could show people how he does finger-blowing raspberries now. He'll let me do it and he'll do it himself. The funny thing about this video, though, for me at least, comes after he's done the trick. ;-)

Fun Video Post

Georgia is so sweet to Austin. He pulls on her facial hair and she licks his hand in reply. Love them interacting like this!

Plano Balloon Festival 2011

We went to the Plano balloon festival for the first time this year. It rained the night before, so the morning glow was cancelled which is the #1 reason we went, but we enjoyed looking at all balloons just the same. They weren't even able to launch because of the wet conditions and low clouds, so it made it almost more enjoyable as the balloons were much closer to look at (than they would have been if they had been launched). Here are some pictures of the morning.

All smiles in the front-row seat he had!

For a long time, we saw basically nothing.

Still happy and smiling! Just sitting and waiting...

Then, the balloons started to inflate and lift off the ground.

This colorful one was right in front of us. I was glad that we got to look at something so pretty for so long!

It's getting bigger!

It's going up!

Then they let us out on the field to get a better look.

One of the crazy ones.

These two are our favorite balloons because they were the most colorful. (Look at my man's beefy arm!)

A few more crazy ones.

Overall, it was a very non-thrilling event. The event costs $5/person, it's $5 to park, you had to walk about a mile (through some mud), and it was super humid and wet outside. Plus, we were leaving the house at 6am, and that's quite the challenge for us now that we have Austin. I am glad we went, but really hope the event experience is better next year.

Georgia turns 2!

Our sweet baby girl, Georgia Mae, turned two on 9-15-11. I can't believe how the past two years have flown! She's such a sweet girl most of the time, but can also be quite the pill. She's never been anything but loving with Austin, which has been really wonderful to see. I love watching them interact! Love you sweet girl! Mmmwhah!

Two candles atop her 'cake.' She sat patiently while we sang to her. (I blew out the candles, though.)

She loved her 'cake'!

Georgia's always very interested in helping tear open her presents.

She got 2 presents because she turned 2: both rubber chew toys, a bone and a circle. Bright pink, of course.

I Love Where I Live

I love where I live. 

I mean, I don't really love DFW all that much, and I was certainly not excited to move here (almost) three years ago, but I do love where I live. I love where I live within DFW. I love my home and my neighborhood. Here are a few reasons why:

Elementary school (K-5): .3 miles away (1 minute by car)

Middle school (6-8): 1.6 miles away (5 minutes by car)

High school: 2.7 miles away (8 minutes by car)

Park (swings, soccer field, etc): 397 feet away (21 seconds by car)

Neighborhood Pool: .6 miles away (3 minutes by car)

Library: .7 miles away (4 minutes by car)

Dentist Office: .8 miles away (4 minutes by car)

Eye Doctor: .8 miles away (4 minutes by car)

Urgent Care: 1 mile (4 minutes by car)
CVS: 1.2 miles away (4 minutes by car)

Vet Clinic: .6 miles away (3 minutes by car)

Albertsons: .9 miles away (3 minutes by car)

Sprouts: .9 miles away (3 minutes by car)

Tom Thumb: 1.1 miles away (5 minutes by car)

Target: 3.7 miles away (10 minutes) 

Our Church: 8.3 miles away (15 minutes)

Seth's work: 9.4 miles away (18 minutes)
DFW airport: 17. miles away (23 minutes)

I listed the above miles and minutes in car time. In actuality, though, we usually walk to most of the above places, and some are closer if you walk there. I love that I live in a neighborhood where things I need on a regular basis are so accessible to me. I especially love being able to walk Georgia Mae to the vet clinic since she hates being in a car! I love that I am spending the majority of my money in my own neighborhood. It feels very 1950s. Which makes sense since our house was built in the 50s. I can't fully put my finger on why spending money so close to home is so important to me (to us), but we do the majority of our spending within a 2 mile radius. Score!

I love that you can come into our neighborhood from any direction--north, south, east, west. It isn't all sealed up behind a big fence with one or two entrances. I love that we are less than 5 minutes from the highway, and love that you can't hear any of the traffic or construction noise from said highway.

I love that Seth works close enough to the house that he can come home for lunch. Or when I need a serious break from parenting. I love that he doesn't drive into the sun each morning and each night--he drives west in the morning and east in evening. Yay for not driving into blinding sun every day!

I love that we have a big yard--it's a third of an acre--0.342607 acre, to be precise. I love this now for Georgia's sake and believe I will love it even more when Austin is able to enjoy it. I love that I will be able to send him outside to get 'the stink out of his pants.' I love our large trees. (Large by Dallas standards, anyway.)

I love that we don't have vaulted ceilings or high windows. I love that (except for a small situation one day this past summer) our normal-height ceilings mean we can keep the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter without worrying about all the wasted air in up in the vaulted area. I love our electric bill when it makes most people start crying (in July/August), and I love that I can reach all the windows when I want to clean them. Or open them.

I love that we have an alley for the trash and recycling, but don't actually use it to get to our house. I love that we have a driveway. I love that people can park in our driveway rather than on the street. I love that we have an attached 2-car garage (that faces the back--extra bonus!) and room still left over in the driveway for our third vehicle. I love that we have a monthly bulk trash pick up and access to more drop-off locations/situations in the city.

I love my front porch. Especially when it's cool enough to enjoy on a nightly (or morningly :-) basis. I love that I have a mailbox. A mailbox that doesn't require putting shoes on or taking a key. I simply open my door and voila!

I love my large dining and front rooms. Especially when we host events. The dining room is so large that we have all our leaves in the table at all times. It can seat 8 people comfortably, 10 people easily, and has been known to seat 12 or more on occasion. I love that the walls are deep red. The front room can seat 8 people without moving extra chairs in, and up to 12 or more if we line chairs up around the outside. I love that I have a wall of books in the front room. I've always wanted a library of my own. I love that my grandma's piano gets a place of such prominence.

I love that my family room has a fireplace, a huge built-in cabinet to display pictures and store games, and still fits our extra-large red couch. Is it terrible that I enjoy being able to lay down and watch tv without having to touch Seth? I love that we have a big enough space that we can watch football on Thanksgiving and fit the entire extended family in there. I love that most of the family room is cut-off from view from the front door/most of the front room. Stoppers-by never know if it's messy! 

I love the size of my bedroom. It's plenty big, but not too big. I love my walk-in closet. Especially after we had it outfitted with custom cabinets/shelving. Love, love, love my shoe section. (Even though 99% of them don't fit right now.) I love that Austin's room is big enough for three children, should he have siblings someday, and that there's still another bedroom for yet more siblings. I love that our lot is big enough we could add on should we desire/need to at some future point.

I love where I live.

"20 Minutes from Company"

Have you ever heard that phrase?  I hadn't until very, very recently. When I heard it for the very first time, it clicked immediately. I felt like "That's exactly how I want my house to be!" We like to entertain so much that the thought of having the house clean enough to literally accept guests within just a few minutes is very appealing to me.

I generally like to have a clean house anyways. It makes me feel more calm. Having piles of stuff, dust bunnies, or Georgia Tumbleweeds blowing through the house makes me feel stressed, anxious, and uptight. I don't like to live in that sort of environment, and just being in my dirty/messy house can create it.

This was not the environment I grew up in, though. Our house was usually messy AND dirty. I remember one time telling my mom that a friend was on her way over and how much she freaked out. She started piling dirty dishes into the dishwasher, oven, microwave, etc. Anything she could stuff and close, she did. She also then started a sink full of big pots/stuff that wouldn't fit other places and began washing them. I didn't realize how embarrassing that would have been for her (if the friend had shown up and it still be messy) until I got older and had a house of my own. Now I can't imagine living like that. (If you know my mom or ever meet her, please don't tell her I shared that story!)

I have often dreamed of having other people clean my house, and I recently got the chance to experience it. I got a Groupon for a cleaning crew and jumped at the chance. I was less-than-thrilled with their performance, however, and it's made the dream of having other people clean my house lose its luster. I'm back to imagining myself doing all those things. yay.

But now that Austin is in school 9-2 every Thursday, I will have more time to get things done un-interuptedly. My plan is to spend that sans-Austin-time alternating between being productive and being non-productive. Every other week, I will have about 4 hours to spend cleaning the house top-to-bottom, which should leave it always in a relatively clean and orderly state. 4 hours is enough time for me to vacuum and dust the whole house as well as do both bathrooms which are the main things that are hard to do with a baby around.

And now that I have a way to describe how I'd like my house to be, I can give my family a phrase to live by. 

This doesn't mean, of course, that we will be perfect. Nor does it mean that the house might not sometimes get 'Over an Hour from Company.' It simply means that we will have a way of describing our efforts of keeping our house relatively clean. "20 Minutes from Company" means to me that a quick sweep of picking up stuff, wiping down kitchen counters, and checking the guest toilet will result in a house ready to receive guests. And we certainly won't be stuffing dirty dishes into the oven.

Houston Bday Gathering, Austin presents #2

Things operated a little differently this year birthday-wise, and we ended up having a late summer birthday gathering for the immediate family plus Rory and Grandma at Kim and David's. It was again super fun to watch Austin open presents. He was totally into it!

He first wanted to play with this decoration.

He probably would have chewed all day if we let him.

"Ok, enough chewing on this, it's time to open presents!"

"Rar!"

He did a pretty darn good job of tearing the paper off.

Unfortunately, immediately after this picture was taken, the box tipped and down he went. He got a bloody lip!

"Ooh, a gift card."

"I'm ready to go shopping. Who'll drive me!?"

Austin with his second 'haul.' (I realize the picture is a bit blurry, but it was too good not to post anyways.)

No one on this side of the family asked about gift preferences and he ended up with a lot more toys at this event, but still a good amount of books (some in duplicate!) and clothes. Still no experiences, though! ;-)