Random Randomness

It's been busy here lately, but nothing too fancy-camera-worthy.  Except, my Mom and I did take the kids to Houston to watch my nieces show their chickens...but I forgot to take the camera.  "/  

Anyway, we had a little stomach bug come through a couple of weeks ago, and it was bad enough to take Meredith down a notch.  Fortunately for me, my Mom got the brunt of Meredith's illness.  Yikes!  I thought she was going to quit on me...it sounded terrible.

Poor girl.  She laid there for 3 hours.  :(

But she was back to her normal, crazy self in no time.  :)

And today was the kids' first soccer game of the season.  Well, technically last weekend was the first game, but we missed it with our trip to Houston.  It was also team picture day today.  There was a new photographer this time, and she appeared to have it together, so I didn't feel the need to hover behind her and take my own pics like a total jerk.  I'm excited to see how they turn out.  

Josh tried to get this look to fly, but I nixed it.

Although he stays with his team a lot better this season, he doesn't tend to be very engaged.  Right before this I had promised him some ice cream if he kicked the ball...so he was on a mission to get at least one good kick in.  

I love team huddles.  :)

And little bro photo bombers.   :)

There are at least 4 families on Wallace's team that have another kid on the same team as Anna.  The league must have done this intentionally.  They practice at the same place and the same time, and their games are usually very close together.  Today they were overlapping a little, so I missed the start of Anna's game.  

Anna's found a new favorite thing to do...

In-bounding the ball.  :)

She pretty much doesn't let anyone else do it.  

Yep...this is her big job.  :)

I did catch her getting a leg in there at one point though!

She always makes time to socialize too...

So, they could keep their jerseys from last season if they wanted to, and this season they decided not to bother with numbers... So, you can tell who all is new, or maybe just who lost their jersey.  

Anyway...although we've been busy, it's been nothing too exciting.  "/  Just busy for the sake of being busy.  

And I thought I'd finish off this post with another shot of Princess Meredith.  :)

Hamilton Pool

Today my sister Jenny thought it would be fun for us all to go to Hamilton Pool.  It's a nature preserve outside of Austin.  It's very beautiful, and there's even a waterfall, so I took along the tripod!  

It was a bit crowded (a Spring Break Saturday), but it was as crowded as it was going to get.  The parking lot is fairly small, and once it's full you have to wait in your vehicle at the entrance until someone pulls out.  

Wallace liked running ahead of all of us and scaring the crap out of me!  

Meredith was really good the whole time...until it was time to get back into the car.  "/  We got a solid 2 hours of good behavior out of her though!

I would have loved to have spent more time tinkering with my camera and lenses, but the kids weren't really into it...

Carrying the tripod was a pain in the butt, but it was nice having it for a selfie.  :)  Plus, I'm pretty sure all of the adults ended up taking a turn carrying it, so that was helpful.  

My kids managed to find a "sand box" on our way back out.

Meredith kept bumping her head every time she stood up.  

Tough lighting, but cute sibling pic.  

Thanks for getting us out of the house Aunt Jenny!  We all had a good time...with the exception of Meredith...getting back into the car...  ;)

One busy day!

Meredith's birthday was last Wednesday.  The Ides of March.  I just love that her birthday falls on a day like that.  :)  Josh was out of town all week, and rather than wait for the weekend, we ended up just doing a small party for her at my Mom's house that night.  Anna actually ended up planning the party!  She made a little list of all the things we needed, made party hats, and even invited a couple of guests.  She was so into this birthday party for Meredith.  It was adorable. 

She started blowing out her candles before we were done singing.   :)  I'm not proud to say it, but this was the first birthday that I didn't make a homemade cake...  This Costco cake was amazeballs though!  Wallace picked it out. He really wanted to eat those big icing flowers.

The day ended up being a long one.  I'd managed to squeeze Anna into an ENT appointment to take another look at her tonsils.  Turns out that for now she can keep them.  Her tonsils are ridiculously large, and I worry that someday she's going to hate me for not having them removed while she's young.  So every couple of years I have the doctor check them out and calm me down.

Anna was so excited to get to go to work with me that morning.  I assure her that work is fairly boring, but she always thinks it's so fun.  

She does little art projects.

And this time, a co-worker had her daughter there at the same time since it was spring break.  So the two of them ended up under Celine's desk watching a movie on the iPad, giggling, and making fast friends.  The two of them have planned a summer play date at the downtown park already.  :)

She was kind of over me taking her picture at the doctor's office.  "Mom....Stop taking my picture!"

So after that I took her back to my Mom's and finished off my day at work.  Then I picked up Meredith for her first ever dentist appointment....on her birthday!  What was I thinking???  

This dentist office is pretty cool though. And these two kids were so nice to her even though she interrupted their video game.

Wallace insisted on coming along so he could play with all of the toys too.  "Oh...Meredith's going to the dentist?  Can I come too???"

Even though it was a little tough to get her in the chair, she ended up doing great!

And then it was finally party time!!!  She ended up opening her presents as soon as we got to my Mom's.  They were all sitting out.  As if this girl was going to eat first.  :)

I don't think she's ever gotten this many gifts at once.  And for the first time I felt so confident that I'd gotten her stuff she'd like because Anna helped me pick everything out!  She was so good.  She spent time with each and every gift she got.  

She ate a lot of cake and ice cream!

Over the weekend when I took Anna with me to shop for gifts, she'd decided she wanted to make Meredith a gift.  And she decided on making her blocks.  So I cut and sanded them all, and then we took them to Granny's and she and Granny (mostly Granny) painted them all just the way Anna wanted them.  Anna was getting so offended at the party because the blocks were literally the very last thing that Meredith sat down to play with...  I was worried she might not at all, but then she finally did.  

She would build towers and Wallace would knock them over.

Anna's trying to play it cool here, but she was elated inside.  :)

Happy bithday Meredith!!!  

Cooperative Kids!

Every now and then I'll bring out my camera just to get a simple photo of say Wallace riding his bike, and then out of nowhere all 3 kids will decide they want their picture taken.  I'm starting to think it probably happens because I'm trying to focus on just one of them.  Maybe I'll use this new-found knowledge to my advantage the next time I want to get photos of the 3 of them.  They cracked me up when we did this bike session though.  If the weather is nice when we all get home we'll go outside just about every day, and they all ride bikes around the circle while I sit in my chair and chill out.  It's actually super relaxing!  So, it was a little odd for them to see me bring out the camera.  They were posing it up so much that at one point the three of them were circling me like vultures.  Haha!  

Meredith would slowly ride right in front of me keeping this kind of creepy eye contact the whole time.  :)

And Wallace liked to do this passing me on the left and looking back over his shoulder thing.  :)

And on an unrelated note, this past week was Dr. Seuss week at school.  This year it snuck up on me once again!  Last year I pieced together a Gertrude McFuzz outfit for Anna that ended up not looking so great, and then when I looked at the picture of her class her teacher took, half of them were wearing Cat in the Hat hats...which would have been so much easier!!!  I kept seeing the hats on Amazon and had intended to order one for her since December....but I never did.  So on Monday morning when I was clearing out their backpacks and putting their lunches together I saw that there was dress up crap for every day of the week!  Ugh!  Fortunately Monday was just crazy socks and most of the other days were just a certain colored t-shirt, but Thursday was character day.  "/  I checked Amazon and the stupid hats were on back order!!!  :(  Anna was hysterical.  Great way to start the week.  

So, I found a simple pattern online and mustered the courage to try to make the hat myself.  I called the fabric store to make sure they weren't sold out of red and white felt and went over lunch to gather the supplies.  I ended up sewing them all together in record time!  I feel so craftsy!  

Yep...I made 3.  I realized later in the day that Wallace would be doing all the same dress up that Anna was for the week.  And then I figured Meredith would totally freak out if she didn't have one too.  I'm so annoyed that you can see Anna and Meredith's hat seams in the picture, but oh well.  

Anna seemed happy, and as long as we don't lose the hats I'll have Dr. Seuss week taken care of for years to come.  :)

Prepping for Valentine's Day

I'm making the same Valentine's Day cards for the kids that we've made every year for the past few years.  It's basically a photo of each kid holding out their arm, and after I print the photo I cut two little slits around their hand and put a tootsie roll pop through the photo. 

Anyway, I asked Josh to come out and help me keep them all corralled, and for whatever reason, he decided this would be the perfect time to get Hoss out of the kennel and work with him...  "/  Ugh!  It took me forever to get a photo of Wallace actually looking at the camera.  I think what Josh really wanted was a cute photo of the kids with Hoss since they were all kind of coordinating in their outfits.  So we gave it a try...

Not sure what Meredith was doing here...

Oh my gosh Meredith!  Will this girl ever be normal?  Haha!

Anna did pretty good on her own.  :)

Meredith tried to butt in on Wallace's photo time. 

He didn't take it too well.

Haha!  Look at her refusing to get out of the frame.  And Wallace was maintaining his tootsie roll pop hand the whole time!  :)

This weekend I also took Meredith to her first birthday party that a friend from school was having.  It was a princess dress-up party...  Meredith probably would have preferred to go as Spidey.  We compromised with Supergirl.

I wish I could say she was on her best behavior...but about 30 minutes into the party Princess Elena came over, and it was kind of downhill for Meredith after that point.  She doesn't really take social cues from me or listen to me in general...so she was constantly all up in Elena's grill and wouldn't really let the birthday girl take center stage.  "/  So we left a little early.  Oh well.  She had fun and took a 3-hour nap when we got home!