Juan in a Million

This is one of our favorite places to eat breakfast! And, I had a Groupon that was about to expire, AND we got to beat the SXSW crowds, and celebrate the (near) end of cookie season.

We always get the "Don Juan" and Riley has never before finished it, even though he always talks smack about how he can eat 2 or 3 of them if he wanted. Well, he finally was able to finish one, but it looks like he's about to hurl it up!

So after breakfast, Regan and I headed back out to finish up our cookie selling!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Regan told me the other day, "Mom, no more homemade Valentine's, okay?" Ugh, shot to the heart! It was bad enough that this was my very last school Valentine party to go to, now I can't even make fun Valentine's!? So, I bought her some Fun Dip and called it a day. She signed up to bring Ranch Dip (the good kind, she said) and David had the day off work, so I figured we would both go.

First, David made surprise lunch reservations for us at Fogo de Chau! The kids have separate things tonight (Riley and David are off to Ft. Hood, Regan and I have a cookie booth) so we figured we would celebrate early. It was nice! After lunch, we ran to the store to get the good dip, then went to Regan's school, where David surprised her with flowers.

I think she liked having her daddy come and bring them to her too! Then we came home and took a nap before we had to run pick up kids, get cookies, and go our separate directions. Ah, true love. It's not all hearts and flowers, it's the day to day commitment of being there for each other through thick and thin and still being able to have a conversation over the lunch table (that's not about the kids!)

Merry Christmas!

I won't bore you with all the Christmas pictures, but here are a few. I don't know how it happened, but it looks like I only took pictures of the kids when they opened  clothes! They really did get more than clothes. First, I made my cinnamon rolls that I make every year, they are so yummy! Then we opened presents upstairs so Hunter wouldn't drive us nuts. Instead he just sat on the other side of the baby gate and whined the whole time! Riley got Beats headphones, some Navy Gear (sweatshirt and t-shirts and a guidebook to the Naval Academy), some paracord, and some stuff from Old Navy. Regan got a One Direction gift basket filled with 1D pencils, pens, stickers, magnets, AND...TICKETS to see 1D in September at the Alamodome in San Antonio! She was super excited to open that one. We will be going with some friends, and making a whole girl's trip out of it. She also got a new iPhone 4s (and a 1D case for it). Her phone has been messed up for a while, so she really needed a new one anyway.

I got David a Fitbit Flex, and he got me a new tea cup and some Christmas tea that I love. And I had to throw in pictures of Elise too, she had a great Christmas! She is such a doll!  The only bad part, was one of David's and Riley's MAIN gift was caught up in UPS hold. Thankfully Riley is old enough to understand! After we opened presents, we went to a friend's house for some appetizers. The kids (and guys) played a bean bag game and we just sat around and visited and had appetizers and sangria! It was a great day.

Mystery Meat Lunch and Progress Report

Regan's school was having a special "Thanksgiving" lunch for parents, so I went and met her, but "forgot" to order a lunch from the school! It didn't look like I missed out on too much either! But it was fun to sit there and talk with her and hear about her day.

The next day, I had a 504 meeting with her teachers and the school staff and it was a very good report. They re-evaluated her dyslexia and dysgraphia and she has shown so much improvement! They look for an 80 point increase in one program over a years time and Regan made over 180 point increase! They were all very nice and had wonderful things to say about Regan and her dedication to her education. She's doing so well in math and has really been getting into reading, and is on book 5 of a chapter book series, which is a big deal for her! She and I have been reading Harry Potter together in the evenings too, because she's been wanting to read them but I think the size of them has been a bit daunting. But I don't mind, it's probably my 5th time reading the books, I love to read and gladly read them to her!!

I'm just proud of her for sticking to it, and not getting discouraged, and making such huge improvements. She wants to be a vet so bad, loving reading and math will make that so much easier for her in the long run!

County Line

With Austin City Limits Festival in town, there's not much to do in Austin on the weekend that isn't super crowded and full of hipsters. So, we were at a loss as to what to do to get out of the house that wouldn't hurt Regan's head, and wouldn't get us stuck in a crazy crowd.

So we took Riley to Camp Mabry for his military approved haircut. Then we decided to have some BBQ and since we were semi close, and the kids had never been, we took them to County Line. We hadn't been since Riley was 1 month old and Walt and Linda were in town! (It looks the same by the way).  The kids loved it, I think Riley ate his weight in ribs and then we went out back and fed the turtles.  It's so pretty there, and the homemade ice cream was pretty good, too!

Cooking Lessons

I've been teaching Regan to cook a few things. She loves to cook and is always asking to help out, and usually I'm in a big hurry and don't want to take the time to mess with teaching her. But then I thought hey, teach a kid to cook, and that's one less thing for me to do :)

So we started off easy, with tacos, and the next night I taught her chicken fettuccine Alfredo, so she's got a couple of basic meals she will know how to make when she does move out on her own. Hopefully she won't be reduced to Ramen noodles like her brother (he "doesn't know how to push a few buttons")

Oh, and we got to wear our matching aprons from Ikea!!

Regan's 11th Birthday Party

Regan turns 11

We decided to have Regan's party a little early this year, usually being in the middle of June, people are already leaving for summer vacations. And since school isn't out yet (grumble grumble) we thought this would be a good weekend.

We started the day with breakfast at Cafe Java, her favorite (or our favorite) and then headed to the horse party!

She's been wanting a horse party for FOREVER so I found this stable near our house, and thought she would love it. A friend of ours from church makes the most awesome cakes, so I had Regan pick out her flavors and colors, and left it to Jennifer and the cake turned out perfect! Regan, and all the kids, loved it! And it was delicious, the kids all loved eating the "apples" and Regan saved the horse and the bucket of apples, she said they were too cute to eat.

The girls started in the barn and looked around at all the horses and helped get them saddled up, and headed to the covered arena to ride. The rode for almost an hour and then we went to the party room for cake and presents. Then they went back to the barn and saw some babies and just spent some time with the horses. Regan is very excited that Mimi and Papa are getting her a few horseback riding lessons for her birthday! And she can't WAIT to get started!

It was a great party, not too crazy, even if it was crazy hot, and Elise ended the day by falling asleep on dada. The party was right during nap time, and she was cranking up a little, but they both got a little cat nap.

Happy Memorial Day!

Well, we didn't do too much for Memorial Day. Riley had his friend Yosh spend the night, and Regan spent the night with a friend, and we were home with Elise who is still contagious so not going out anywhere. David smoked a brisket and we just hung out at home. Working on crawling and standing with Elise. She's getting better at crawling, not quite there yet, but she has one leg that just won't cooperate! She has been on her hands and knees and her elbows give out and she konks her head! But she just keeps on going, she's a tough old bird!!  So here's a video of her crawling (with a photobomb by Princess), or trying to crawl, to Riley, and of course, a picture of the yummy brisket!

Happy Mother's Day

After our exhausting Diva Day, we headed over to Mimi and Papa's to celebrate Mother's Day a day early so we could all take a nap on Mother's Day!! Hey, it works for us. I made potato salad, we grilled burgers and hot dogs, and ALL the kids and grandkids were there, plus some. It was a house full! Elise enjoyed seeing her cousins that are little like her, they played together a little bit. We played games and just had a good time.


On Sunday, it was my day to do set up and breakfast for the green room at church, so we had to get there pretty early to get that done. Then after church we had a quick bite for lunch and went back up to church to take down and help set up for lunch. Then took the kids to see a house we liked (we are thinking of selling our house and buying a new one) and then took Riley to a friends house, and then home for my Mother's Day nap. No lie, it was probably the best gift I got! It was so nice.

Regan made a bookmark for me at school, and she and Riley gave me the sweetest cards. David bought me a book, and flowers, and a card, and he surprised me with dinner at Perry's Steakhouse! It was super nice! It was a really great Mother's Day.

Buckle Fracture

Well, what a long day! We got a call last night from the radiologist and they said that Regan's arm is definitely fractured, and to take her to a pediatric orthopedist at Dell Children's ASAP. So I kept her home from school so we could go first thing in the morning. Well, that didn't work out like I planned! I recently changed their primary care physician, because we have new insurance. I was all the way through all the million questions to get the appointment when they say, "Oh wait, you need a referral from your primary doc!"

So, called the NEW PCP, and had to explain, well, we just switched insurance, had to pick a doctor off the list, we have never seen you, but we need a referral. Guess what? Not taking new patients, nothing they can do. So I call the old doctor, hey, I need a referral, quick! Well, they weren't listed as the PCP so they couldn't do the referral. A HUGE MESS!

I was on the phone for over 3 hours trying to get something set up, and they could find us a place to take us but we would have to pay cash, or we found a place that would take us but not until Monday, and I was getting more and more worked up, so I called David and passed the buck to him. He called back within about 30 minutes and had it all taken care of! He talked to a supervisor at the insurance company and they sent a letter promising that we have coverage and they will get their referral ASAP, so they got us in this afternoon finally.

Once I knew we were going to get in, we made our way downtown. We stopped for lunch at one of David's favorite places, Arpeggio Grill, it's a Mediterranean buffet and Regan LOVES that kind of food. She was in heaven. She had never been there before, but I think she would go there for every meal now!

Then on to the ortho, and more x-rays, and sure enough, a buckle fracture of the radius bone. She said it was like when a coke can crumples, and the bone is soft still since she's young and it didn't break all the way through but just kind of crumpled. So, nice hot pink cast, no getting it wet, no scooters, bikes or PE for the next 4-6 weeks! We go back in 4 weeks to see if it's healed up enough to take the cast off. Pretty crazy day! But, she's doing a lot better now. Last night she was in a lot of pain, I think from using it too much, so I think this will help a lot.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice, fun Thanksgiving this year. It was not too crazy and pretty relaxing, so I'm happy. We spent most of Wednesday getting ready, getting some pre-cooking and shopping done. Thursday morning we finished up our cooking and headed over to Pam and Dave's. David smoked 3 chickens, they were so good, and very moist. I made Brazilian Pao de Quiejo (cheese bread) and sweet potato casserole, deviled eggs, cheese and sausage dip, and sausage stuffed stuffing balls (Regan's favorite) with gravy. Pam had a ham, deer roast, fruit salad, and some pies. Matt and Kelly brought yummy greens and curried cauliflower and a chocolate pecan pie. Kris and Makayla came too, the rest were at Jen's family for lunch.

After lunch, Riley and Dave took off on their bikes to the park, they found this really cool bike trail and Dave got some good pics and video of Riley on his new bike.

Then we all played Cranium, guys v. girls, and guys won, but barely. It was fun, the kids played too and they enjoyed being included, and they did a great job! Riley did a great impersonation of Michael Jackson, and Regan had to draw "kiss" with her eyes closed!  So here's our day in pictures:

Thanksgiving 2012

Random Pictures

Just a couple of cute pics of the kids. David bought a Groupon for Salt Lick BBQ, Regan had never been, and it was about to expire so we took the kids for dinner. Regan thought she had died and gone to heaven when they just kept bringing out beans and meat! She really liked it. And the other one is Riley at Kawaii Ice, eating his blue coconut snow cone. The kids love that place (the kids, yeah!)

Christmas Cookies

Just showing off some Christmas cookies I made for Regan's Girl Scout Troop's Christmas party. I thought they turned out pretty cute! They are melted snowman cookies!

Got Feathers?

So I guess these feathers are all the rage right now, I've been seeing them all over the place. And of course, Regan wanted her own feathers. So we had a "girls day" which was really just a "return things to various stores around town" day, but she was okay with that. I took her to get her feathers at the spa, and then we went to the Domain and had a ladies tea. She loved it, even though she's not a fan of tea, she got some tart lemonade, and she had a sandwich with the crusts cut off, a pine nut plum scone with jam, fruit and a tea cookie. I had a bacon, arugula and tomato sandwich that she tried to steal (it was yummy) and a cashew salad. It was nice to be "girlie" and sit and enjoy our tea time.

Then we went to Macy's and tried on clothes and then she got to play in the fountains on the way back to the car. It is just so hot here right now, and I was pretty tempted to run through that fountain myself!

Regan's Birthday Part 3

Regan wanted to go to Chuy's for her birthday lunch after church, so here we are, the waiters came out and sang to her, she was very embarrassed, but I think she decided it was worth it for the free ice cream!

Piano Recital

It's that time again! Piano recital. This one was L O N G, but there were some really good performances. Here's Regan playing Russian Sailor Dance:



And here's Riley playing The Theme Song from The Office (he loves this show, and has wanted to play the song for a while now, he got it about 2 weeks before the recital):



And my favorite song that he did, Riding the Wind:



After the recital, we went to East Side Cafe for the best dinner ever (seriously). After the kids at, they went out back to the gardens to play with the chickens and see the huge sunflowers.

Austin Symphony

Austin Symphony Day

Regan's music teacher always organizes these music field trips for her class and her piano students. It sounded like fun, so I made Riley come too, and it was fun. The Symphony had cameras set up so you could see each instrument as it was being played, and they had an announcer come out at the beginning and introduce each instrument and have them play a little bit so you could hear what it sounded like.

That was the fun part, the timpani played a bit from Star Wars, and the bassoon played Katy Perry's "Firework". Anyway, the kids liked seeing all the instruments and hearing the individual sounds.

Then we had some time to kill before we headed to tutoring, so I thought I would share my obsession with Torchy's Tacos. They have some of the best tacos in town, sold out of a trailer, of course. Our tacos were super yummy, and we even had birds come to share our lunch with us. And just as we finished up, Holy Cacao was opening their trailer, so we got some yummy cake balls for dessert!

Then we went to the Barton Creek run off area, (the free part) and the kids got to play in the water. Regan had a change of clothes in the car, but Riley didn't, so he rolled up his jeans, and I think he tried not to get wet at first, but then slipped and fell flat on his butt, so that didn't last long. There are a lot of dogs there playing fetch and swimming around, so the kids loved that, they found an extra tennis ball and played fetch with this one cute older dog that would come right by them to shake, it was cute.

But, short lived, as we had to get to the other side of town for tutoring, but it was a nice break from school, and a fun packed day. My favorite kind.

Dinner for Drake!

It was dinner time for Drake, and Riley had Cody over to watch, and we all stood around with our cameras/phones taking pictures! Poor snake, he's going to be camera shy if we aren't careful! But after Riley got his tiny little frozen mouse out of the freezer, thawed it in one of my glasses (ick) and then laid the thawed mouse on one of my dish rags, and then used some tongs to wiggle it for the snake, Drake snatched it up and then spent the next 5 or 6 minutes trying to consume the whole thing. As tiny as the mouse was, it was still so large for his itty bitty snake mouth.

So, I only included the first video where he snatches the snake, and the last video, where he finally got it all the way in. I was surprised, that little thing can eat! And then it was disinfect the kitchen time!

Kawaii Ice AGAIN!

We really love Kawaii Ice! Well, Colton was over spending the night, and he and David had never been to Kawaii Ice, so the kids were begging to take them. It was a nice treat. Colton had Tiger Blood so he could be like Charlie Sheen (ha) and David tried Blueberry. He ended up with very blue lips and teeth, (and wouldn't let me take his picture) but it was fun, and yummy. David was blown away at how busy they were. They're THAT good!

Girl Scout Cookies!

This is only fun because I'm posting this after cookies are done! But, between me and Amie, we had to haul 300 cases of cookies and unload them in my garage! We bribed half the neighborhood kids to help and paid them in cookies (well worth it). Regan's goal was to sell at least 1000 boxes of cookies (She did) but let me tell you, it's been a busy cookie season!