Busy Times

Here are a few snapshots from our past two weeks....

I am busy prepping for Abby's 5th birthday party with a candyland theme. There will be lots of candy and fun bright colors!

Gymnastics is going really well. Abby just blends right into her class which is a far cry from earlier in the year when she would cry, throw fits, and refuse to try. Her sweet friends Addison and McKenna are loving gymnastics, too!

Abby brought cookies to a Christmas party last week and took her job of decorating VERY seriously.

We had planned to see Main Street Bethlehem in Burnet Friday night, but it rained all day. So, we had dinner with our friends and then drove through the lights display in nearby Round Rock. It was nice to be warm in the car and see all the lights.

Watching the lights was exhausting!

Wednesday after school I took Abby to get her hair trimmed and we had her ears pierced. We had talked about it numerous times and just did it. She had them pierced at age 1, but an earring fell out, was lost, and the whole closed up quick. So, we waited until she wanted them and did it again. No tears at all. And, among all the sparkly earrings, she chose these simple crosses because "Jesus died on the cross." 

Saturday morning, Abby had breakfast with Santa at the local YMCA. It is our third year and always lots of fun! They do a craft, take a picture, and eat treats with Mrs. Claus.

I just love her Christmas dress this year! It was under $20 on Zulily a few months ago. She'll be wearing it again to church on Sunday and Christmas Eve, plus I am certain it will fit next year!

Our elf Holly has been visiting us each night. One night, she wrote a little note to Abby in candy!

Saturday was Abby Daddy day, so I went to New Braunfels to see my sister and spent the day with Kyleigh. We had fun talking about school, cheerleading, friends, homework and the like. Loved it!

I asked Abby if she wanted to paint her nails red for her Christmas program. She was all excited to have them painted and asked that "they be gold like the bright star when Jesus was born". Girl is rocking the "reason for the season" this year. Thank you church, school, bible study and choir!

One night last week Abby took it upon herself to spray her perfume before bed.... into her right eye. It was awful. She laid down with a wet washcloth on it and eventually let me add some drops. She was super sad and very brave.

We have been baking like crazy. I made over 250 cookies for Marcus' clients and then on Sunday took these pretty cookies to our Sunday school party and cookie contest. They won Prettiest cookies. I think they are quite pretty and tasty, too! 

Hope your busy holiday season is enjoyable, too!

Our Little Ol' Life

I haven't blogged much because nothing exciting has happened. We have a pretty full weekly routine which keeps us busy, but isn't great for blog posts of much interest. Here is our last few weeks.

We attend choir on Wednesday nights at our old church. We were early recently and went to visit Jesus in the Garden of Hope. I love that we have gone from praying for a baby here to having a little girl that loves to visit the garden.

Abby used her piggy bank recently to ride a few carnival rides in the mall. She is obsessed with smart cars and always wants to stop and take a picture with one. They really are that tiny!

One Sunday after church we had lunch at a local Mexican food restaurant and they had a balloon artist there. What fun!

Abby has learned to make her own bed and calls it "getting her bed ready for a party".

We are doing much better at gymnastics! We were struggling for a while with not trying and throwing a fit as a result of not being confident she could do it or do it well. Her coach is being firmer with her and we are coaching her a lot about having a good attitude and we've had 2 good weeks in a row!

I love that it is scarf weather and my hair is officially the longest it has been since college or maybe high school. It is weird to see myself in pictures and to learn how to style or not style longer hair.

Abby and I are doing Community Bible Study on Thursday mornings. Once a month we have brunch- check out the cutest cheese tray! She used cookie cutters. Love it!

This is Abby's school lunch every single day. She loves all these foods and eats them at school and then finishes up at home. I think she could eat this 5 days a week.

We are getting ready for Halloween at our house! We made little treat bags for our friends at school with these vampire teeth, bouncy balls, spider rings and a lollipop.

On the rare occasion that we are early to something, Abby loves to sit in my lap and snuggle and take pictures. I seriously should be early more often!

Wednesday night after choir we had dinner outside at the new Phil's Ice House that opened in our area. The playground is awesome and the burgers and grilled cheese were really good!

Finally, this afternoon we decorated pumpkins with our friend Kiersten and Kaylinn. We hadn't seen them since school started so it was fun to catch up and play. Tabriah made them rainbow loom bracelets and had pumpkins for them. A fun afternoon treat!

iPhone Photo Dump

We had had lots of fun the last two weeks and I have captured most of it on my iPhone. I haven't blogged much lately because I haven't been carrying my big camera around. As I am learning manual mode, I haven't wanted to change the settings for everyday life. Then, transferring pics from the iPhone to my blog takes too many steps! Marcus is going to fix that for me this weekend- I needed to install iTunes and set up my own cloud :)

Thursday afternoon we met out friend Natalie at Chick-fil-A. Abby loves Michael, but they are on opposite school schedules so they haven't been able to play lately. Natalie had one hour between Michael getting picked up and her big kids getting home from school. It was an added bonus that she had our friend Anna with her!

Abby loved seeing Baby Caroline, who happened to be in the best mood. I think she likes us :)

I am having fun dressing Abby lately. She is wearing little girl clothes now, so there is a whole new (and sometimes scary!) world of clothing opening up! I love her little leopard leggings. And yes, there are hamsters with rabbit ears sharing glasses on her shirt!

We finally had a warm day last week, so Marcus and Abby played outside. Abby was so excited to draw me a rainbow.

We recently made the decision to take a break from swimming and take gymnastics. Abby has been swimming for 10 months and is getting tired of it. She is stuck on station 4 and in order to move up has to master moving from the wall, into a float on her back, kicking across the pool on her back and then turning properly to grab the wall. We decided to let her take gymnastics and I'll work with her in the pool this summer. She is super close to just swimming away!

 During the two weeks she was off for Christmas, we took a one day winter camp class at the gymnastics studio where our friends go, and she was so excited about it! So, we are finishing swimming this month and start gymnastics in 2 weeks.

She tried out the 4-5 year old class and they recommended we put her in 3-4 instead. The 3-4 year old class is 45 minutes as opposed to 1 hour and they move faster through stations. Abby would do a "trick" 2 times and wanted to move on!

I am loving my photography class. Last week we studied freezing and capturing time. Marcus was so kind to join in and spit water for me!

We have a fun weekend planned celebrating Marcus' Mom and my Dad's birthdays!

Our Week

Abby and I have had a fun low key week. On Monday, she had her last Little Gym class. She loved her summer teacher, Ms. Christina. She grew so much in her class- follows directions better, braver on the balance beam, and more interactive in general. We are trying out our local YMCA for gymnastics this fall. It costs a lot less!

Since Mimi lives close now, she joined us for class and dinner afterward. Abby was super excited and almost giddy to have a fan club at class!

On Tuesday, we went to Chick-fil-A early one morning. I wanted to start reading my new book and thought Abby would enjoy playing. She can finally open the playground door by herself which is wonderful. She would play, come out for a bite of biscuit, say "thank you" and run back in. She did that at least 10 times! She had the playground to herself which is just how she likes it. QUIET!

My new book is phenomenal and will no doubt change my life. Click here to learn more about Jen Hatmaker's book 7. 

On Sunday, we pulled Abby from church a little early to see our friend Blythe baptized. It was so wonderful to see a little friend of ours invite Jesus into her heart and to see Abby so excited for her. It opened up great conversations for us with Abby!

After church, we snuck into the playcourt for Abby to see. On September 1 she will promote into the next class at church and she will be able to spend time in the playcourt on Sunday mornings. Knowing our child, we wanted her to see and feel confident in the new space before 15 kids run in it with her. She loved it!

Marcus' Date Night

Date night is almost always my choice. I just know what I want to do or eat and Marcus' doesn't ever really care. So, I decided to make our date night on Friday about him. We had some friends tell us about a new sports bar with virtual golf and I made us a reservation.

Here is the great thing, this was my view while Marcus played golf. I could watch him and the opening ceremonies which he was not interested in!

The virtual golf was pretty cool! Marcus decided to play Pebble Beach. The screen worked much like Wii golf in that it adjusted his ball and shot based upon how fast and at what angle the cameras captured his swing. Marcus played a few holes at Pebble Beach and then played a couple of games- trying to break windows in a house, hit a moving tractor in a field, etc.

The Range had yummy food! We shared a green chile hummus appetizer, fried chicken sliders with fries, and apple beignets with cinnamon ice cream for dessert. 

While at our date, Abby spent the night playing at The Little Gym. They did free play in the gymnastics area, made gold medals for their own olympics, and after pizza, laid on the angled gymnastics mats and watched a movie. She was mad we were there early to get her!

The Great Dance Debate

You might recall back in early Spring, we moved Abby from her dance class to Little Gym and watched her have fun, show interest, and interact better than she had in 6 months of dance class. The past few weeks she has told me she wants to take dance again so when we missed gymnastics to visit the zoo last week, we chose a dance class for our make up class.

It is safe to say, dance still is not her thing. I threatened to leave more than once (even walked her out!), was embarrassed by her behavior, and held her crying for a portion of the class.

Gymnastics, on the other hand, is so much more fun for her! She does what they ask, listens well, and gets so excited when she can perform like they ask. I love giving her thumbs up through the window!

We just have a few more weeks of Little Gym left. In the fall we are trying gymnastics at the YMCA. It costs $50 less per month and has an even bigger program and gym area. 

Fireworks Fun!

Wednesday night we met up with our friends, The Smiestrla's, for dinner and fireworks! Abby and Lilia were in dance class together and her mom Liesl and I became friends sitting through dance. Our husbands hadn't met before, so it was a fun new family to hang out with.

Abby and Lilia were so excited to see each other. Abby was convinced she was spending the night and kept discussing sleeping in Lilia's bed. 

After playing in the backyard and a yummy hot dog dinner, the kids got to play with a couple of fireworks in the driveway including poppers, sparklers, and a snake. 

Then, it was time for the big show. Their house backs up to a major park in Cedar Park and that is where the city's show is done. It was perfect! We didn't have crowds, had a private viewing area, and we could see everything big and loud!

We were a little scared of Abby's reaction to fireworks. She is still frightened by loud noises. She hasn't seen  them before this year. Looking at this picture, I think we were wrong. She loved them, giggled at them, and kept saying "oh my chinny chin chin look at that". Funny girl!

We had a wonderful day and an awesome night! Happy 4th to all!