Out with the old, In with the new!

So the last time I blogged was May. I definitely haven't kept up with that, and I definitely haven't kept up with the crafting part of the blog I said I was going to do. I'm catching this up and getting on with thew new, okay? Okay. So, 2011 started off to be a rough year for us, but it did get better. It all started out with Mike's mom being diagnosed with cancer just before the New Year, then in January my dad had a heart attack. In February we had to put our dog Chloe to sleep after she had a slipped disc, surgery, and ended up being paralyzed in the back legs. We would have had to make her a wheelchair dog and express her bladder everyday. Along with that she was having stomach issues and not able to keep anything down. She was 12 and we opted to have her put down, feeling it was the best decision. We still miss her a ton!
During all of that I had a gum graft done on one side of my mouth and had stitches for about 4 weeks. It was so uncomfortable to eat! Mike ran his first every marathon in February and did awesome! He will be running again this coming February as well. We continued on with spring t-ball and had fun with that.
We enjoyed Easter with friends and family.
My hydrangeas were in full bloom again this year. I do not have a green thumb, but for some reason these come back bigger and better every year.
In May Bryson graduated preschool. He has been at that school since he was 18 months old! Such a big day!
Then we headed into the summer time. We took a small family trip to Hyatt Wild Oaks in San Antonio, and loved that getaway. We ate good, slept good and played hard.
We watched some baby birds hatch from a nest on our back porch, watched them being fed for weeks, and then actually saw their first flight out of the nest, all 4 of them. It was the sweetest thing!
Finley started her first dance classes, and has fallen in love with that.
We spent some time at the lake at Mimi and Poppi's house.
Bryson lost his first tooth just before heading to kindergarten.
In August Bryson and Finley were in my cousin Amber's wedding as a flower girl and ring bearer along with cousin Eisley.
Shortly after, Bryson started kindergarten. He has loved it and has a great teacher! We love her!!! Over the first few weeks of school he made some new friends in class and the teacher says they are all so cute she says she envisions them being college roommates because they are so tight. :) He took her some of her favorite cookies to start the year off right.
Soon after he started school, Finley started back at preschool 3 days a week, and we love her teacher too! Bryson had Ms. Marie when he was at this preschool too :)
We then celebrated Bryson's 6th birthday at the jumpy castles with a baseball theme.
He then lost a second tooth soon after.
In the fall Bryson started playing coach pitch baseball. He has done great, and was loving it!! We are looking forward to picking it back up in the spring after we have a winter basketball season.
For Halloween this year Finley wanted to be Minnie Mouse, and made a darn cute one! Bryson had gotten a Rangers jersey for his birthday from his Mimi and Poppi and wanted to be a Rangers baseball player for Halloween.
In October Bryson and his class enjoyed their first field trip to Crowe's Nest Farm, a place I went to on a field trip when I was little too :)
In early December we celebrated Finley's 4th birthday with a Rainbow Art Party at home. They painted, played and had rainbow cupcakes that Finley and I made. She had a blast, and the cupcakes were a hit!
In December, right before Christmas we were able to surprise the kids with a trip to DisneyWorld that we had known about for a while. They were so excited!! We had a great time!



At the airport we ran into Santa before boarding our plane.
We explored our hotel grounds when we got there that evening.
More around the hotel...
We rode some rides, watched some shows.
We had tickets to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Parade, and that was lots of fun!
The kids at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique with a princes makeover and knight (with pirate face-separate thing)
We met with lots of characters, but here are just a few of our favorites.
Hoping 2012 brings much more happiness and fun for us all!

Mama Bird

At the end of April we noticed a couple of birds building a nest on our back porch. We have curtains up along the inside of the porch roof and they have built a nest in the very corner on top of the post near the curtains. They worked really hard on the nest. I did some research and they are a couple of house finch birds. They are so cute. The mama is very petite and the daddy has a red chest and head. They built and built, until one day I saw mama start sitting on the nest 24/7. She sat like that for about a week and a half, rarely ever leaving the nest. When she did, she would be right back, but we did get a chance to sneak up and take a few pictures of the nest to see what might be in there. We were excited to see 4 little blue speckled eggs up in the nest. They just hatched sometime over the last day or two and we took another picture while the mama bird was away and there are little furry chicks in there. I can't tell how many made it (hopefully all 4 of them), but I am so excited. I just want to help mama bird out, but I know she probably wouldn't appreciate it. Hmpffff. Little does she know it might be nice... or, maybe she's done this a time or two. I hope they come back again next year!


I hope to get some more pictures of the birds at some point, but don't want to upset anyone up in the nest, so I'll see what I can do over time. From what I read the babies should be there for around 2 weeks. We've already seen the mama and daddy bird appear a few times to feed the little furballs. Some of these are hard to really tell, but it was hard to get the camera to focus when we couldn't really see what was up there.


Around the same time of all of this happening, Finley had made a little mama chick and 2 baby chicks in her class at school. With it just having been Easter Bryson and Finley found some matching empty Easter eggs and put the chicks in those and made their own nest out of a blanket. It was cute, so I had to take a few pictures ;) I love my little chickadees!

The Good Part of February

My husband. My idol. This post is long overdue. My husband is unique. He is funny, caring, and responsible. He balances me out on that last part. I'm responsible, yes, but you know what I mean... Anyway, when he puts his mind to something he sticks with it. He is THE most reliable person I have in my life. I love him for that! He decided that he was ready to run a marathon this year. He signed up, started training and never looked back. He stayed on track and did so well mentally and physically. He ran his first marathon (first race more than a 5K for that matter) and finished proudly and well deserving. I never doubted him, but he just amazes me. Here are some pictures from that race day...

We Are Exploding Hearts Around Here

We stayed in a lot last week with the colder weather and snowy days. I just didn't feel like getting out! We got busy painting and coloring hearts, and I made a random banner for the fireplace with the painted ones, and then taped the colored ones to the pantry door. I promise I'm not really THAT into Valentine's Day, I just happened to have some extra time on my hands this year. I think it has something to do with my kids getting a bit older :)

As many of you know, my dad stayed with us for a few weeks after being released from the hospital after having a heart attack. He actually had to go back into the hospital for a few more days after being here with us for about a week because of a rapid heart rate, but now that is all stabilized and he went back home from our house this past Saturday. We already miss having him around here, but so glad that he is feeling better and getting back in the groove of things. Anyway, we was here with us when we painted the hearts so he painted one as well. It was a fun activity for us and the kids.

Snow Day

Last week we had a snow day here in Austin, and the kids loved playing in it. We got around an inch, which I'm sure is really funny to the northerners, but it's a lot around these parts and I love that we had 70 degree weather a few days later :)

I love the way the sky coloring is completely different in the following 2 pictures. These were taken at the same time that day, just one view looking down the street one way, and then the other way.