16 September 2013

June 2013

The girls finished Spring soccer and were so proud to get their trophy's. I've loved them being on the same team for my own purposes but Jill is moving up next season so it won't happen again soon.
Jeff turned 33 this year. He was happy with a low key party. He has been so busy at work that celebrating is just not on his mind lately. Here's the family after he blew his candles out.  
Jeff had to make a fast weekend trip to AZ for work stuff and a wedding. He thought it'd be fun to have Coco tag a long. Here's my tired boy on the plane.
With the boys gone we decided to have a pampering day. We got our hair cut and our nails painted. The girls loved it!
I put the girls in a summer basketball league. I was really excited about it. They were less than thrilled. They hated the practices but loved the games.  Hopefully they'll learn to love it. I really enjoyed b-ball growing up and I can help them way more in this than in soccer.
The spring this year was unbelievably perfect. It has just now started heating up enough for the pool. Jillian has really become confident in the water which makes me so happy. Here she is doing a back dive and a back flip.
I bought a little kiddie pool for Coco but can't keep everyone else out.
Here's our newest addition. I've never had a first term ultrasound. I liked seeing the little babe so early. My nausea and extreme fatigue is the only other sign I have so far that I'm pregnant. Having the ultrasound was a nice little reassurance.

15 September 2013

May 2013

The girls came home from their respective school's one day with a animal hat. Camille was a butterfly and Jill a frog. It made for a really fun afternoon with these two.
Jeff's sales have been improving each month. Last month they broke a company record so Jeff took them all out on a rented boat. The kids and I met up with them for a ride and cook-out. We went to a really pretty little place called Emma Long Park. The girls even braved the water after the boat ride.
Jillian had a Mother's Day music show with all the other kinder classes. It was fun to see her up on the stage singing.
Camille had her Kinder Buddy Day and was lucky enough to be assigned to Jillian's class. We love Mrs. Estes and CRE.
Coco is finally getting more comfortable with walking. He still will do his Jungle Book walk often but he's getting much better.
My ward does such an amazing job on Mother's Day. They cover all the classes and feed all the women lunch during third hour. Look at this spread and the chocolate fountain. We didn't even have a lesson either, it was basically social hour. It was awesome.
Mother's Day is easily in my top 3 for holiday's. I'm just so proud to be a mother. I feel like it's made me a better person and brought me closer to Jeff and closer to Heavenly Father.
After church we ventured out to a near-by park and had fun exploring. It was a perfect day.
Well, I've been wanting to get pregnant for about 5-6 months and it finally worked! With us trying, and with the home tests being so good now-a-days, I knew I was pregnant at 3 wks along. It's going to be a long pregnancy but we are so happy about it.  
Camille turned 5 this month! She is such a sweet, tender soul. She had her friends come celebrate in fairy fashion.
Balloon launch.
Painting butterfly and fairy sun catchers.
Fairy pinata


I feel a special connection with Camille. I think she's most like me in looks and personality. Sometimes I just love to watch her interact with others because I feel like I'm watching myself. It's crazy.
I'm so lucky to have her in my life.
Camille graduated from preschool.  It was a fun ceremony with laughter and singing. We had a great year with Laughing Hearts preschool. 
Camille has a hypersensitivity to mosquito bites. She got bite the night before right by her eye. By morning it was swollen shut. Camille was devastated. We ran to the drug store and got an eye patch. We bought some duct tape and glitter glue to make it a little cuter. She was still really nervous until the first little boy that saw her said, "Cool eye-patch. You look like a pirate princess".  I'm so thankful for the sweet kids in her class.
The weekend before Jillian's last day and the day of our move-out was my first triathlon. I convinced Nettie to do it with me. I felt like I was in pretty good shape and the distances were short so I wasn't too worried. The problem came on Friday. I started throwing-up. It lasted all day and through the night. I wasn't sure if it was pregnancy or a bug. With the Peterson's coming to stay with us on Saturday I knew I had to tell them. We hadn't told anyone about the new baby but had to warn them. They decided to still stay with us and we were all hoping that it was the pregnancy.  
On Saturday we took them the the Twin Lakes YMCA to explore and play.  I was feeling a little bit better and hadn't thrown up. I also hadn't eaten though. I knew the tri wouldn't be easy at this point.
On Sunday after church, Nettie and I had to got pick up our packets downtown. We took the whole family with us and tried to get a feel for the course.  As luck would have it Jillian puked in the car on the way home. Once we made it home we found out that Elsie also puked on the way home. It was AWFUL!! Nettie and Jeff had many different thoughts of just leaving, or staying.  They ended up staying. No one else puked all weekend, but I think it's fair to say we were all a little queasy.
We rented wet-suits and Nettie was smart enough to rent a road bike.
The hype of the race was contagious. I really love environments like this even though we weren't feeling 100%. I felt weak from two days of no food and Nettie was feeling sick. It wasn't a good combo before a big race with nerves going too.
As we were jumping off the dock into the water to prepare for the start I lost all my competitive drive. Nettie went ahead and waited until everyone else jumped in. I was literally one of the last to jump in. (In retrospect I wish I had stayed by Nettie. I think I would have been more motivated to do better in the swim.) Anyway, I was in the very back of the pack when the race started. Right off the bat two or three ladies next to me started panicking and shouting for a kayak. One was carted out of the water right in front of me. Another one of the screaming ladies didnt' get a kayak right away. I reached out and grabbed her arm to help buoy her up. I shouted for a kayak for her but the one closest to us was already helping another swimmer. We had to wait for a kayak from the middle of the course to paddle over and help, all the while the race was going and I was helping her bob along. Finally she got rescued and I could start my swim (I hadn't even passed the start marker yet!) I was feeling pretty good after the first turn but my wet suit was a little too tight on my neck. I decided to unzip the neck part. Bad idea. I was on my back to unzip it and it instantly blew up like a balloon.  I tried to tuck in the flaps and push the water out. It didn't work. Then I decided to zip it back up. It wasn't the easiest thing to find the zipper behind me and pull it up while treading water. I finally got it up and was on my way again.  By the time I was almost to the last turn the male heat started. When I made my last turn they were on top of me. Literally. I had a least on of the fast male swimmers swim over the top of me and several passing me on the sides.  It was comical. 
Next was the bike. I had my mountain bike to ride on a road bike course. The route was really pretty and took us around the capital building.  I thought the bike would be the easiest leg. It was, by far, the hardest for me. I don't really know the proper gears for up and down all the hills. Also, there were many older, less in shape, women passing me that were on road bikes. I didn't know what a huge difference having a road bike would be. Nettie said having a road bike was amazing. Next time I'll defiantly be renting one. 
During transition from bike to run I saw Jeff and the kids.  It was really uplifting, but after the killer bike I was about done. Jeff said that I didn't look like I was having fun when they saw me. I was asking myself, "why am I doing this again?"  After the first mile of the run I finally found my stride and starting feeling really good. I picked up the pace and was having a good time. I felt as though I could almost sprint the last mile. Right as I was about it hit the last mile I caught up to Nettie. It was a good boost of moral to meet up with each other for both of us. Right as we were about to finish we saw the boys and all the kids. It was really fun to finish together. I'm so happy she did it with me. We talked of making this a tradition, minus the 6 wk pregnancy and stomach bug.   
Here's our times. Not that I'm particularly impressed but with all the special circumstances, I'm happy I did it and survived.
Open water 800 meter swim, transition, 10k bike, transition, 5k run, total time

Jillian had a fun field day on the last day of school and we were all so excited for summer time.
That same day we moved out of our beloved Quail Run home. That was the home I brought sweet Coco home to. We have made so many good memories and made such great friends in the ward and school and neighborhood. It was a sad thing. We will only be about 4 miles away, but it's a new ward and a new school. I really really loved that backyard. Our new home is nice and we have been welcomed by nice new neighbors. Hopefully in the coming years we can make it to some land and set down some firm roots. 


03 September 2013

April 2013

Well, I got a call from the real estate agent saying he wanted to come take a look at the house. We have been very vocal about our desire to purchase this home in the near future. We had asked if we could renew our lease for one more year as we would be able to buy it then. When he came to the home he started taking pictures and then walked outside and slapped this sign in the front yard. I felt like he literally hit me in the gut. I asked what the deal was and he just said, "the owner needs to sell". He didn't tell me what day it's going to hit the market or any other real information. I'm so sick about it. People will drive by and slow down, take pictures of the outside of the home and the sign. If I'm outside, they get out of their car and ask me tons of questions. I hate it.
In better news, Coco continues to hone his ball skills. Not only does he throw a mean fast ball, he now can dribble a basketball, and kick a soccer ball. Granted he's not walking but he makes it happen. He really has amazed me. On day at the girls soccer practice he was watching them kick the ball around. He then saw a free ball and bear-crawled (his current choice of movement) to the ball, angled his body just right and kicked that sucker with all his might. Then, he chased it down like Mowgli would've, and kicked it again. This day me and Jill were outside shooting around and once we put the basketball down he promptly went to get it. He rolled it onto the pavement and grabbed it with two hands, threw it down (dribble), caught it again, and threw it down again.  I just can't believe it sometimes.
I ended up putting the girls on the same team for the spring soccer season. This meant that Camille was playing up. Although it is tough for her playing against bigger kids, she didn't give up. It was a lot easier on me and my schedule to have them on the same team, but I don't think I'll do it again.
I've been following a few yogi's on Instagram and I always want to try what they do.
Our ward has an annual camp-out and we were able to go. Texas this time of year is just gorgeous with all the blue bonnets blooming like crazy. The campsite had a large meadow with huge patches of the flowers. It was so beautiful.
The weather was perfect but the fire made it a little too warm during the day.
Jeff's good friend from HS invited us to his wedding in Marfa, TX. It's about 6 hrs away so I told Jeff to go and I'd stay with the kids. At the last minute was pawned off the kids with our wonderful friends for two nights and had a getaway. We brought our bikes and had a great time riding around the small, artsy town. It was such a slow moving, small place, that I felt like I had be transported back 50 yrs.
Here's the bride and groom: Rich and Megan Coffey
We had a warm patch of weather and had to take advantage of our backyard while we still have it.

March 2013

March was busy, busy, busy. We have made some great friends in Round Rock. A few of us love to try out new restaurants. This night we went to a place that served us Rattlesnake. It actually wasn't too bad.
Me and the kids hit up the Austin's Children's Museum one Saturday that Jeff was working.
I worked a little on my inverted yoga poses. I really would like to take Yoga more regularly but every time I'm at the gym I opt for a cardio class.
For Spring Break we made the long trek back to AZ to visit family. We made a pit-stop at Jeff's friends ranch in Ozona, Texas. It's a working goat ranch. We all had a great time, riding the range in a four-wheeler, and feeding all the goats.
Once we finally made it to AZ our week was filled with hanging out with the cousins.
 
My old Zumba class had a "reunion' night. It was so much fun to dance with this group again.
The Cranes had a little get together at the Comptons house.
Wyatt and Coco got to know each other finally.
We visited the Gilbert temple.
I had some good quality sister time.
These girls were inseparable.
The three Jeff's united.
We don't miss much about AZ, but we sure do miss these peeps a whole bunch.
On the drive home, while stopping for gas, we ran into some familiar faces. They were traveling to a Taylor reunion/camp trip in TX. We ended up caravan the rest of the way.
(side note: Here's one of the bluebirds I've been feeding. And here's the pesky squirrel I've been feeding)

The same week we got home from AZ my dad had a work trip to San Antonio so we got a visit from my parents. It's always so nice to have them here. We visited the park downtown and rode the train.
We also visited a cave that's really close to our home. It was unbelievable.
Easter was low-key and perfect. We attended a few eggs hunts, went to church, and then had a large dinner with some friends.
With all the activities we found time to squeeze in a trip to the Austin Zoo/Rescue. We all actually loved it, despite it's poor reviews.