Thursday, July 2, 2009

A month behind and not a good excuse for not updating more often on here. Again, rather than bore you with all the stories that you'd rather not read, I'm going to let the photos do the talking and give you the stories below each one. Life continues to be good here in Austin. Wish a few more people were buying and selling homes but honestly, the slowdown in the economy has been good for us. We've been spending so much time together at home as a family and really enjoying having everyone over to hang out and play in the backyard. I'm in the process of trying to install an outdoor theatre so we can watch movies in the pool at night. Most exciting thing I can think of off hand is Anne went to NY 2 weeks ago and left me alone with the girls again. We had a blast. Thursday morning we ran to San Marcos to shop, came home and grabbed PTerry's burger and met Shane and Kelsey at Mayfield Park for a picnic. Friday was Sea World! What an adventure. A huge thanks to my Mom for staying with Tinsley all day while Tatum and I hooked upwith Reese and Shelly, Shannon and Ainsley and Shane and Kelsey for a fun filled day. We were shooting to get there by 10am and leave by 1:00. We ended up arriving closer to noon (thanks to Tatum's getting sick 2x in the car....bless you Shelly...I owe you something for that!) and leaving more like 4:00 . All the kids had a blast and I might have had more fun than anyone. I'm looking for an excuse to go back. And you'd be proud of me...while looking for a Shamu stuffed animal that was life size to bring home, Tatum pointed to the "baby Shamu" that was about 12" long and that's the one I bought. One day we're going to have our house explode because of all the junk I buy that's completely unnecessary. I was proud of myself for being a little more reaasonable for once. It's HOT...over 100 every day recently. Looking forward to 4th of July with family and friends this weekend. For the first time in a long time I'm really feeling like I NEED a vacation. I'm telling Anne that when somethign big closes we're going to go hide for 3 days and leave our phones and computers behind. I'm starting to run on empty and need to recharge my batteries. I hope summer is keeping you all cool and that you're having fun somewhere.
We tried to escape the heat with a lunch time boat ride. It's always great to have Gyl around.

This it Tatum about to get her 2nd haircut. I love this picture...she looks like she's 9.

I have a picture of me when I was about the same age with a towel on my head. I need to do a side by side comparison.

I was so proud of myself for gettting the girls dressed while Anne was in NY. I had them both in all white to show off how clean I could keep them. We went to the mall and Tatum was strutting her all hite with white bow and white glasses and red shoes with matching fingernails. She was a freakin' ROCK STAR. I got lots of props from the other Mom's and made me feel good about myself.

This was Tinsley in her all whites. She was a little more incognito since she was floating around in her Lavender cloud.

This was our final rest stop at Sea World. We all had a much enjoyed and needed ice cream break.

Anne and I took a great little picnic to Zilker Gardens (they don't allow picnics by the way). It wasn't super easy in a stroller but I was excited to show Anne and the girls a little Austin treasure. I have great memories of running around there when I was little and want to share that with my girls too. I hadn't been there in probably 20 years. They have done so much with it and really made it great...but so much of it still felt the same and as special as it did when I remember going.

I had to put this in because it's actually a picture with me in it! Nettie (mom) and I took the girls to Cicso's on a Saturday morning and then down to Town Lake to feed the ducks.

This was us loading up the stroller for Town Lake. I had both girls in their hats (Tinsley wasn't so fond of hers, or maybe thought it was more of a toy). Both were in their Mexicna dresses Anne brought back from Cabo...I thought that was appropriate for Cisco's.

Oh yea! I forgot about the Ballet Recital. I could have an entire blog about that. It was just awesome. Tatum and her class took the stage and pretty much stared at the audience for their 3 minute performance. They were so cute in all their little fairy princess Swan Lake wanna be costumes. I took some contraband photos to commemorate the event. Towards the end Tatum (far right) and Natalie finally moved their feet a little bit. Nats actually did a jump! We had a great crowd of friends come and watch and Tatum was covered up with flowers after it was over. It was a prescious moment and I hope we have many more years of these ahead of us. Thanks to so many family and friends for coming and cheering on Tatum at her debut.

I think Pam put it best in this photo. She said they looked like two little girls caught with their hands in the cookie jar. You can just fast forward this image about 15 years and know that I'm in for some trouble. But how could anyone ever scold these 2 faces!? They can do no wrong my friends! Look at their eyes though...you can tell they're plotting against me already.

If you're ever having a bad day and need a smile, just walk in our front door. I swear this girl hass butterflies living in her tummy. She just laughs and giggles. We're at over 9 months and still no teeth...we love looking at those gummy smiles.

Anne took me for an impromptu (I can't spell!) picnic on a Friday at Mayfield Park. I got some great pics of the girls. Tatum discovered the waterfountain for the first time...a BIG hit. She loves the Peacocks and is always tryign to shase them and talk to them. Below I got a good pic of Anne and Tins with a peacock showing off his feathers.

The Sea World Crew. I hate that Shannon wasn't in the picture but someond had to take it. This was us at the Shamu show....which I thought was a ton of fun.

On Sunday we went out to HSB for brunch. I got a couple of fun photos of Tatum and Trip playing in one of Poppy's wooden boats.

This is from our Mayfield Park trip with Shane and Kelsey while Anne was in NYC. Shane said it best when he said the caption for this photo should be..."how many Aggies does it take...." These girls had some clever engineering to get a drink. I appreciated Tatum's foresight to let someone else do all the work while she enjoys the fruits of the labor.

I don't remember what this was for but was very proud of the best pigtails I've ever done. I can't wait until Tinsley has enough hair I can get ahold of it.

Our last adventure while Mom was in NYC was a Sunday pool party. Both girls love splashign around. Now that I think about it, Anne took this picture so it couldn't have been from when she was away. See what I get for waiting a month to do my blog.

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