Over Thanksgiving, Mike's cousin Heather came into town and did a family photo session with us. She was so laid-back and made the whole thing so fun that my kids actually enjoyed getting our pictures done! That is a miracle to say the least. Check out Heather's site sometime... www.heatherannette.com 
Austin in the car today: I wish I were 16 so I could take a girl on a date.
Me: What girl would you take?
Austin: A cute one.
Me: Hmm...good choice.
Austin: You're the girl I wanna take, Mom. (you can see why I'm a sucker for this one)
Me: Aaaww, really? Where would we go?
Austin: To the North Pole. We'd visit Santa's house & play with the penguins.
Wow. I'm thinkin' that might trump my first date with Mike ;)
I know it's a month after school ended, but since I use this blog as a way to journal for our family, I figure it's better late than never. Ethan has had a great year in Mrs. Dunning's first grade class. She is way into marine animals, as is Ethan, so he became very inquisitive about lots of different animals and has done lots of research about orcas and dolphins.
At his First Grade Awards Ceremony, he received several different awards for reading, good citizenship, etc., but his Environmentalist of the Year Award stands out to his proud mother. The story behind it: Throughout the school year, Ethan would take a few minutes at the beginning of recess and go around the playground picking up trash. He would often bring armfuls of trash to his teacher b/c there were no trash cans around. One day he brought up the idea of writing a letter to the principal to get trash cans on the playground. His friends signed a petition and his teacher tried to give them an experience similar to petitioning local government officials for change. Because of his efforts, they now have 5 trash cans on the playground and his friends help him pick up trash each day. To me, the coolest thing about this is that it was all his doing. I didn't even know about all of this until a few days before school ended. I'm proud of him for being conscientious of the environment and taking the initiative to make it better.
A couple weeks ago, I surprised Austin with a trip to Grapevine to see (in his words) "the real Thomas!" The smile never left his face.
With the Conductor...
One of the more colorful animals at the petting zoo...
With Sir Topham Hat...
There were all kinds of things for the kids to do, from a train display to bounce houses, storytime to a big sandbox, then the hilight of the day- a 30 minute train ride on Thomas. It was so nice to have a special date with just the two of us.Remember these?
Katie was given one for Christmas and didn't know what it was. But when I showed her this video, she said "phone. Hello?"
Can't wait to get an iphone. And if you can't get a hold of me then, you'll know it's because I'm just trying to be like this guy...
This is how Austin opened the story he was telling me this morning:
A few other recent Austin moments:
In church last week, Austin said he really had to use the bathroom. "Don't worry, Mom, I can go by myself," he said. You'd think after 4 1/2 yrs with the kid, that would be my first clue that something was up. But, being the somewhat naive mom that I am, and not wanting to leave during the great talk that was being given; I let him go, thinking to myself, "Wow, it's so nice that he's getting older."
About 10 minutes later was the first time I realized he had not returned from his trip to the bathroom (it was a really good meeting). I left the chapel and found him holding the door open for everyone who came in or went out (seems innocent enough, right?). So I said, "Austin, let's go back into the chapel." He thought about it for a minute, then responded sweetly, "Mom, I know this is a sad choice, but I just want to make the wrong choice this time."
I told Austin that he needed to eat lunch before having the treat he had in his hand. A minute later, I saw him walk to Michael's office, plop down on the couch, and say "Wow, Dad. That Mama is one tough cookie," while shaking his head in a much-too-grown up way.
Her hair is long enough that I can actually do 2 side french braids! Y'all know how exciting this is for me :)
We actually have snow here- LOTS of snow! We have at least 6 inches and are definitely enjoying it. We've had several snowball fights, made 2 giant snowmen, and played...and played...and played some more!!!
The view from our porch- we sat outside sipping cocoa and taking it all in.
Yes, I taught them to do this.
Our snowmen looked like they were snuggling each other last night. By this morning they had both fallen over.
It took 2 men to put the mid-section on the snowman. Ethan played king of the mountain on it while he could.
Emma & Austin working on the snowman.
Nothin' like a good ol' fashioned snowball fight.
