New Old Friends

When I was pregnant with Lillian, I joined the site Whattoexpect.com. I met so many great ladies there going through what I was going through at the same time. I still talk with many of them today on Facebook. I also joined the February 2008 message boards on there when I was pregnant with Andrew. I wasn't as active that round since I still talked mostly with the first group of ladies, but I did meet a few new people and yesterday I finally got to meet one of them in person.

My friend Melissa and I have been keeping in touch on facebook for a while. She lives in Germany since her husband is based there for the military, but her family lives in Cedar Park which is about half an hour from here. So since she is in visiting them right now while her husband is deployed, we finally made plans to meet up. We drove over to her parent's neighborhood park and the kids had fun playing and we got to chat. Lillian and Andrew were very excited about their new friend Maya and they ran around and played a lot! When we left, Lillian was already saying she wanted Maya to come to her house and play dress up with her. We'll definitely have to try and play a few more times before they head back to Germany at the end of June.

Family Visit

We drove out to Boerne for the day to visit with Brandon's first cousin, Brian, wife Melissa, and little cousin Zachary. We haven't seen them in quite a bit and they moved into a new house in the past year, so we got to go check it out and all hang out for the day. The kids thoroughly enjoyed playing with Zach and exploring the house and yard and us adults got to catch up. We had a great lunch at their favorite Mexican restaurant in town as well. We are excited that the kids had such fun playing together and that we should see them again in a few months as they have agreed to be Marjorie's godparents. Here are some pictures of the kids today:

Our Little Slugger

We began a new chapter in our lives today as little league parents. Lillian had her first tball game today at Connally High School baseball field....it is one of the Pflugerville high schools.

Lillian was being her not wanting to cooperate self at first, but by the end of the game, she did great and had fun too. She hit the ball well and ran the bases and even got the ball 3 times when the other team was hitting. She was so excited after she got it and threw it to first. She ran to me saying, "I did it, Mommy! I did it!" It was really cute. I'm excited about her learning the concepts of the game and how to play. In this league for this age, they do not count runs or have outs. We just have every kid bat and run all bases. She has 5 more games this season, so I also look forward to seeing how much the kids improve by the end.

And here is a video of Lillian at bat.

I'm 30!

Wow, I'm finally entering my 30's and exited the crazy decade of the 20's. From what I hear, the 30's are great for most people. I think I'm through with all the major life changes like graduating from college, getting married, and having kids. So now maybe I can just enjoy all these things. I'm still having kids of course now, but not going through that first and 2nd kids adjustment from having none. I'm looking forward to what is to come!

We didn't do anything big on my birthday. Brandon had to work an evening shift, so he got me an ice cream cake and we ate it for dessert after lunch. Then I went shopping that afternoon and got myself a Kindle with my birthday money. It is really neat and I think I will use it a lot once I get some books downloaded. I have downloaded a couple of free classic books so far. So if you have some great books to recommend, I'm all ears!

Andrew's Birthday Gift

While my mom, Katy, Clay, and Parker were here visiting 2 weeks ago, that Sunday, Brandon took the kids to Shiner to visit their grandparents, aunts and uncles there since we haven't seen them since Andrew's birthday. From what I hear, they had a fun visit and Andrew got some great birthday gifts. He got more clothes, so he is really stocked up now for the spring and summer weather. He also got a few toys and games.

He loves his new Thomas the Train block set. I finally helped him set it up on Monday and he played with it for a while before bed. Here are some pictures.

Let's Go Fly a Kite

Brandon was off work on Friday since he was working all weekend and with it being such a nice windy day, we decided to take our kite out to the park and try to fly it. It was perfect weather and the kids had so much fun. Each took a turn holding it and then Brandon decided to see how high he could get it up. Here are some pics and a video.

Lillian and I took a break while Brandon and Andrew had to run way off to get the kite when it fell down.

St. Patty's Day at the Austin Zoo

This morning we all got dressed in green and I wanted to take our picture together before we left, but Andrew refused to cooperate, so here is me and my 2 girls!

And here she is by herself

Since he wouldn't stand still for a picture in the house, he started jamming out in the car, so I took his picture then!

We made it to the Austin Zoo...definitely unlike any other zoo I've ever been to. It was very rustic and hard to push strollers around! But it was a neat place to visit! Here is the closest pic of all the kids we could get today.

Love for the rooster!

The kids feeding the deer

Andrew checking out the tortoise

And a tiger

The kids at some monkey cages

My ducklings

Pausing for lunch

We decided to stop on the way home at Amy's Ice Cream! Yum! Marble Slab just thinks they have good ice cream...wow, I had forgotten how awesome Amy's is! Lillian was amazed at the guy throwing the ice cream up and catching it in the cup.

It is safe to say Andrew enjoyed it too!

Cades and Grandma Teddy Visit

My brother-in-law, Clay had some agri-business to attend to nearby, so they went ahead and decided to come spend the weekend visiting with us and he could tend to it on Monday. And with Katy and Baby Parker coming, Grandma Teddy decided to visit again too since she hasn't seen him since he was born and the trip to Rotan is too far for her right now with her on chemo treatments each week.

So Friday afternoon, everyone arrived at our house. We ate a good Mexican meal at Antonio's and visited.

Then Saturday, Brandon grilled and we hung out together all day. Katy helped Lillian practice tee-ball. And Grandma Teddy and I watched Parker. The kids always have a blast playing with Uncle Clay and Aunt Katy.

We had a nice weekend with everyone and were so glad for nice weather to enjoy it.

Here are some cute outfits Grandma Teddy got at the Carter's store at the outlet mall. Now when Marjorie comes home, we can take a picture of all the kids in matching outfits! :)

We Are T-Ball Ready

Growing up, my sisters and I were raised as softball players. No soccer for us and I want to keep it that way for my kids! I, in no way, want to be a soccer mom. I love little league softball/baseball and that is what we are going to pursue. Lillian is finally old enough to play t-ball with a league this year, so we got her signed up and had a team meeting this weekend. I'm excited that a lot of the team members live in Forest Creek or close by, so we are practicing at the elementary school...very easy for us since we live a minute away! I was also designated "Team Mom", so I'll be responsible for coordinating some things. I'm just glad I'm not coach! That is a tough job even though as parents we will all be kind of coaching together. I helped my mom coach my youngest sister's t-ball team back in the day and boy is that stressful...especially since back then there were so many competitive parents in town that just had to go after that t-ball championship! ha ha! I'm glad we are in a league that at this age doesn't count runs and lets every kid bat and run bases just to get the rules and foundations of the sport down.

This should be very interesting to see! Lillian will be on the Cubs. We made the trip to Academy today and bought Andrew and her gloves, a bat, a tee, and some practice balls. I worked with her in the car while Brandon ran in another store just on how you keep the glove on one hand and throw with the other...there are so many concepts you just don't think about that don't come naturally to them and have to teach them! Anyway, we are off to a good start. We played with the tee outside when we got home and both kids loved hitting the ball. Poor Andrew is going to be so upset when he realizes he can't play at the games. Their first game is March 26th at a high school baseball field! I'll share pictures of that for sure! For now, here are some of them practicing outside today.

Austin Kite Festival

I have been wanting to take the kids for several years now to the Austin Kite Festival. We really were going to go last year, but then it rained it out and it got moved to a date we couldn't go, so when I saw it was this weekend, we thought we would finally check it out. The kids were very pumped to see all the neat kites. Of course it wasn't very windy today, so a lot of the kites stayed down or went down fast, but a few people got theirs up high and they were so pretty to see, especially with the beautiful backdrop of the city of Austin behind them. The festival is at Zilker Park and there is a huge rock wall in the middle of it, so the kids spent some time climbing around on it too. Here are some pictures from the festival this morning:

A Nice Day for a Picnic