Somersaults

Recently, the kids learned to do somersaults. And they're both pretty good at it! I can't wait for Lucy to start her gymnastics preschool in January.
If you ever say to Owen, do a somersault! he'll drop everything and hit the ground:
nice form!
tuckered out.
The other day at the park, two teenage girls were doing round-offs and cartwheels in the field next to us. Owen looked over and saw what they were up to. He got off the park toys, ran over to them, dropped to the ground, and performed his best somersault. When he finished, the two girls stood there and applauded him. It was the cutest thing.

the many faces of Cinderella

Back in October I found this little dress at a local thrift shop. Though it was a bit FLDS, it was just Lucy's size and just what Lucy would call a Cinderella Dress! No question. She loved it.
And danced around for a couple hours.
I love this shot.
Oh, commoners. They have no idea the cat fights I've won to get to where I am.
and this little video sums it up perfectly. Here's Lucy's rendition of Cinderella, in 90 seconds. The video jumps-in to the middle of the story, where the mice are making Cinderella's pink dress. My favorite moment being, "and cinderella cried, cried, cried"

obedient

There was a time when all we had to say was, Owen do you need a time out? and he would walk right over to the wall and sit himself down.
Those times are coming to a close. But the little guy still gets his fair share of time outs. His 2 year old manners are already creeping out.

Who can resist this though? Once a cuddler, always a cuddler (I hope!)

Waco

During our Girl's Week together, Lucy and I took a road trip up to Waco (an hour north of us). Like most Americans, you're probably thinking of David Koresh and some cuckoo cult. But Waco is also home to the Dr. Pepper museum! And a very cool zoo. So we checked them both out.
Guess who took this picture? Yep. Lucy.
It may not seem like such a feat. But just picture the little girl, holding my large SLR camera, having to look through the eye piece (you can't see what you're shooting on the LCD screen like point-and-shoot cameras), and pushing the proper "click"! button. Oh, and adding a nice angle WITH the Pepper word in it. Good job Luce!

The museum was actually ho-hum. Casey always jokes that my blog posts sometimes make the outing look way cooler than it was. And that's exactly what this was. But there were tons of old retro cans and bottles:
Vintage coolers and vending machines:
and we got to watch a medley of old Dr. Pepper commercials. "Wouldn't you like to be a pepper too? Be a Pepper...Drink Dr. Pepper...."
Next up, the Cameron Park Zoo.
This zoo was much cooler than the LA Zoo. For some reason the LA zoo has been under construction for the past 6 years. Hmmm....sounds kind of like the 5 freeway. This place was clean, colorful, and actually had animals!
Lucy's favorite, always:
One of my favorites....especially because it was African, with cool ears. The other ones look so circus-y.
And this guy kind of freaked me out. He stared right at us for minutes. That wire is pretty strong, right?
We found some cool exhibits near the monkey cages, where Lucy could ride,
jump on chimes:
and swing from ropes. She figured this one out all on her own and loved it:
Overall, a very fun day. But my assessment of Waco: it's exactly the place I would expect a weird cult to well, cultivate. The city is very strange. It feels, forgotten. But not in a cool ghost town way. It's a strange forgotten town, still sporting the not-so-cool aspects of 80s life. And there's no one there. No one walking around downtown. No one in the restaurants. And just a few people at the zoo. Weird. You can all check Waco off your list! We've seen it for you.

Happy Birthday Dana - from the Mr.

She paints. She sews. She cooks. She sings and dances. She's a mom and a teacher. And she's a babe. Did I marry Mary Poppins or Martha Stewart? Both, maybe. For looks, a little more Mary Poppins. But for talent, kind of a mix of both.
Today is Dana's birthday, a day that always gets lost in the throws of Thanksgiving and traveling. Thanks for being a great wife and mom, we love you!

6 days of Lucy

A month ago, Casey went to LA for an entire week to work in his office and check-in with everyone. So, he took Owen along with him and they both stayed at his parent's house. That meant it was just the girls at home! 6 days of Lucy. The one-on-one time was great fun. But at the end of the day (or week) I really, really missed our boys. Let's hope that there's never a reason we all have to be apart like that for a long period of time.

So what did the girls do all week?
We went to a ton of Thrift stores, ate out for lunch, visited the zoo, bought Lucy a new bed and some random toys, and most importantly.....I let her jump, prance, and dilly-dally as much as she liked (holding my breath back, wanting to say, come on! let's go!)
I just let her do her thing, without a time-line or agenda.
We hung out in downtown Austin:
Rode the cool glass elevators to the top floor of the Hyatt:
We also rode the escalator a few times (which we rarely do, so she thinks it's an amusement park ride):
We went "fishing":
and met friends along the way:
And then, of course, we did something Mom wanted to do....checked out the beautiful homes in downtown Austin. When I saw this home I thought, certainly it must be the Governor's Mansion. Nope! Just a house! Just an 8,000 sq foot house, priced at $5.5 million.....and a mortgage payment of only $21,000/month.
It's pretty spectacular.
But I'd be willing to downsize to any of these.....
Can't wait to see their Christmas Decor!

The little moments

It was one of those days when whatever I said, Lucy wanted the opposite and was adamant about it. There were a chain of time-outs and many moments when I just had to walk away or I'd break down in tears of frustration. How can a person so tiny drive me so insane?

Later that afternoon I let the kids help me make banana muffins and when they were done, we sat on our front porch, eating, and watching the sun go down. Little Lucy, who had made my life miserable all day long, came over, put her arms around me and with a squeeze said "I love you mom."
Thank you, I thought. It was just what I needed....That reminder that somehow she recognizes the things we do for her, as her parents. It seemed to be her way of saying sorry for the horrible day Mom. Thank you Lucy. I love you too.

just sleeping

I made Lucy a fort today. And while I was at the computer, I noticed it had been quiet for a real long time. I went to check on her and she was laying there very still. I asked if she was okay and she said, "I'm just sleeping."
While Owen ate lunch at the table above her.

some sewing stuff

I hate double-booking the blogs here. But I never know which readers check-in on what. So I'm plugging it here too. Just some recent sewing ventures.....
I'm participating in an online craft competition called S.Y.T.Y.C. (So You Think You're Crafty). Basically, there are 10 crafters. Each week we come up with a "craft" based on a theme. The winning crafter that week gets to post their tutorial on the site and the losing crafter is eliminated. Last week was the first week and.....MADE won! (with the Harvest Dress and Dinner for Two, above). The competition has definitely kept me busier than I planned for the holiday season. But I'm having tons of fun.

We just started WEEK TWO and the voting ends this Friday. So head over and vote for your favorite (the crafts are anonymous). The competition is tight this week, which is really fun. I tell Casey it's like a tight-scoring football game for sewers.
In other sewing news.....I was featured in a UK based publication called: SEW Magazine. So fun! When they asked if they could feature me, I couldn't respond quick enough with, Ummmm, YES! Please! You can find all the details here.
I'm really having a great time with MADE and I try to think of it like my part-time job. It keeps me energized, I'm in contact with a great network of crafters/sewers, and the readership continues to grow (which is really exciting). Of course the trick is trying to find a balance between doing my craft and making sure I give enough time to the kids. Lucy is going to start preschool when we get back in January and that will help (the guilt) a bit. I still don't know exactly where MADE will take me but there are some paths I hope to walk down. And of course, I'm still amazed at how the internet makes this all possible. How else could I become penpals with sewing moms in Denmark, Australia, Canada, even Italy? It blows my mind.
Here's to another week of SYTYC!