Christmas 2013

What a great holiday season we had in 2013! We had unusually cold weather for Austin but no snow. Thank goodness Ohio delivered snow again for us this year!

Memorable moments from the Christmas season this year...

Pre-Christmas music show at Tarry Town UMC:
(first pic of Kara and Jack's group, second pic of Ainsley's group)

Gift donations to SafePlace (this year we sponsored a family of seven):

Giant Santa went up, but then deflated a few days later and was replaced by the Holiday Husky:

A visit to the Zilker Tree:

Making cookies:

Christmas Eve service:

Children's Christmas Eve service:

Christmas Eve at our house:

Christmas morning:

For Christmas dinner we ate at Tom & Erika Hibler's house, along with their entire family. We sincerely enjoyed spending time with our amazing neighbors and their family. It was a really great afternoon and dinner.

On December 26th we flew to Ohio to spend time with the Diamond family. Temps were cold the entire time, but we didn't get snow until the very end of our stay. The snow made for some happy kiddos! (The day we left it was 8 degrees, brrrr!)

Card games at Grandma & Grandpa D's:

Lots and lots of cousin Emma time (also time with Uncle Luke & Aunt Amanda but we didn't get a pic of them!):

A visit to cousin Kevin's house to see his horses, pigs, piglets, and dog:

Making buckeyes with Grandma D:

This is a finished buckeye:

Sledding with cousin Emma:

Family pic: 

Snow ice cream and hot chocolate after sledding (at Ron & Judy's house):

Snowman (blueberries for buttons, carrot for nose, cherry tomatoes for eyes, sticks for mouth and arms):

So much joy and fun closing out 2013. Lots and lots of great memories as we look forward to 2014!

New Belts

Ainsley and Kara earned new belts this week in their ATA Martial Arts class.

Kara moved up to a yellow belt:

Ainsley moved up to a camo belt:

Both girls are very proud of their new belts. They worked hard through an entire semester of classes and leadership training. Tough girls!

Gingerbread House

With one week before Christmas we decided to make our very own gingerbread house! This was our first time making one from scratch, so a little trial and error were involved. The kids were patient while I cut the dough and had lots of fun decorating. The house collapsed several times, but we finally got it all stuck together! It isn't the prettiest house, but we had fun. We even made some gingerbread men to eat :-)

An iPhone photo at each stage of the process...

Making the dough:

Rolling the dough out to cut the templates:

Pieces of the house baked and ready for assembly:

All pieces put together (it collapsed several times after this, good thing we made a lot of extra icing):

Decorating with candy:

The finished house! (That is a "D" over the door):

Jack's gingerbread man:

Happy 7th Birthday Ainsley!

For Ainsley's 7th birthday she chose to have a party at Blazer Tag. Fun was had by all!

While there was no particular theme for her party, she wanted Chima characters on her cake:

Ainsley and her best buddy, Colin (who shares the same birthday):

 Happy birthday to our amazing 7-year-old. You are truly a blessing.

Kara Lost her First Tooth!

Kara was very excited to lose her first tooth! It was overdue to come out (the other tooth is already grown in!) but she was scared it would hurt. Definitely did not hurt and she was squealing with excitement when it finally came out!

Recent quotes from the kids that made us laugh

Me: "Ainsley and Kara, if you both lose a tooth in the same day, and the tooth fairy visits you on the same night, will you get anything special?"
Ainsley: "Maybe we will get a credit card!"

Jack: "Mom, when I grow up I want to be a person."
Me: "Anything specific?"
Jack: "A person that doesn't go to school."

Jack: "Since I was born in Singapore I remember how to say some words from Singapore."
Me: "You do?"
Jack: "Yes!"
Me: "What do you remember?"
Jack: "Agua"

Kara: "Jack, mom said you can't do that."
Jack: "Kara, you are not the boss of me!"
Kara: "Mom is the boss and she said you can't do that."
Jack: "No, Jesus is the boss."

Kara: "I am a vexaterian!"
Me: "What is that?"
Kara: "A vegetarian that eats meat."
Me: "Kara, why don't you just eat meat and not worry about calling yourself something?"
Kara: "Because I want to be a veterinarian."
Me: "You can be a vet and still eat meat."
Kara: "I am a vexatarian."

Halloween!

The weekend before Halloween we carved pumpkins into jack-o-laterns and readied the front porch. (downside of living in Austin on Halloween is by the time Halloween day rolled around the inside of the jack-o-lanterns were rotting! yuck!):

We had a great Halloween! Weather was perfect for trick-or-treating and everyone had a good night. Jack the pirate with a light saber, Super Girl Kara, and Ainsley the vampire:

We were joined by friends for trick-or-treating which made it super fun! (grown ups: Matt, Tom, Erika, Daniel, Anna; kiddos: Vivian, Ainsley, Jack, Kate, Kara; dogs: Shelby & Blackie)

Enjoying Fall

Fall is off to a great start! Lots of memories in the making and so much anticipation for the upcoming holidays.  Halloween is in the air and the kids are counting down the days! Some snaps from October...


At the Barton Hills Farm fall festival the kids enjoyed a corn maze, sand box, jumping pillow, pumpkin patch, kettle corn, cow barrel train, and perfect fall weather:

Outside of Tarry Town UMC, after Sunday School:

Blackie sad that he is missing out on the action in the backyard:

On our way to ride bikes in a nearby park:

Could Kara possibly fit one more stitch of pink onto herself?