A springy winter...

It has been a mild winter so far in Austin and Kyle & I have been trying to enjoy it before it gets to be scorching again! We like to have our Sundays be a day of rest.  We typically go to church and then come home and take a family nap and then spend the rest of the day trying to be as relaxed as possible.  This sounds nice, unless you also have a 14 month old in your life and then you will realize that "relaxing" is a thing of the past.  We used to enjoy our lazy Sundays to rest and recover for the week ahead.  Now we just try to keep Knox occupied and happy while resting as much as possible.  All that to say that we decided to forgoe staying home and listening a bored toddler whine.  Post family nap, we headed out to Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center to enjoy the free January admission. After our trip I would like to note that it is probably free in January because there are absolutely no wildflowers to be found.  Just a side note.  But we still got out of the house and enjoyed the warm, sunny weather.

I know I am biased, but seriously this kid is photogenic and cute to boot!

He found a hidden door and was HIZYPED!!!

 One of our pre-baby purchases that we have utilized the most is a carrier backpack.  Knox loves riding around in the backpack and we use it almost daily for walks.  I got some good pics of Kyle & Knox enjoying some backpack time together!

We taught Knox to give head scratches...

Giving Dad a kiss

The boys puckering up for their kiss

Like father like son- these two are total hams!

Two happy guys!

It was a fun Sunday! It is supposed to be rainy and cold this weekend so good thing we got out while we could! 

-Stacie 

Roomie Weekend

Every year since I graduated college (I am afraid to admit how many that is now- yikes!) my two roomies & I have gotten together for a reunion weekend.  We've met in Seattle, San Antonio, Houston and Austin.  Now that we all live in the same state again, we've been able to get together more than once a year and it has been so fun for all of our kiddos to get to know each other.  Between the three of us there are 5 children- 2 under the age of one.  Becca brought her little man Hunter (7 months) and Meredith brought her  newbie Presley (4 months). 

Knox supervising his little buddies playing on his mat

Here we are with the youngest of the kiddos

I was able to get some pictures of sweet little Hunter while he was here as well.  What a doll he is! Just so happy and sweet.  

Who doesn't love a baby butt? 

It was fun to get to hang out and have the little guys all together.  It was a bit of chaos with three nap schedules and three feeding schedules but still a really fun time.  We spent hours talking, ate ice cream, too many cookies and watched a movie.  All and all a perfect roomie weekend.  

-Stacie 

Beasley

It hasn't been until recently that I started to notice that I no longer have a baby, but a toddler.  Not someone who only needs me to provide them with the basics of food, milk and love to help them survive. Now I have someone who still needs those things but he also has an opinion and his personality is starting to show through.  Before he would just sit in a corner and coo and now he is running around the house and using words to tell me what he wants!  These things have happened quickly, almost before I even realized it.  

All that to say that my little man has a best-friend.  He has known Blythe since he was born, but now he is old enough to voice his opinion and his opinion is that he likes her.  Most other babies that he comes in contact with he kind of just plays "around" but not "with". But Blythe is different.  When they are together that get into mischief together and actually interact with each other. It is so cute to watch his first real friendship form.  

It's not a date without a meal!

This little girl is hyped about life! 

The Mickey Truck is top of the toy list over here...

Knox & Blythe exploring some toys 

Buddies

We joke that one day maybe they will get married.  Probably they will grow up to think of each other as brother and sister. But then one day they will realize that they were meant to be together and then "bang" true love! I am totally sure that is how these things work...

-Stacie 

He's Back!!

Felipe is back! You may or may not remember Felipe from 2010.  But he met an unfortunate end one evening when someone stole him from our front yard.  While in his Santa costume no less! After much searching he is finally back home where he belongs (thanks to my sweet husband this was my b'day gift last week).  Safe in our backyard.  Welcome back to the family Felipe!

13 months and lovin' it

Yes he is! Go get it buddy!

 

Our Christmas

This Christmas was a fun one with Knox.  Last year he was only a few weeks old, so even though it was sweet, it wasn't very memorable for him.  This year was a different story.  Knox loved opening gifts and playing with the boxes and wrapping paper.  We traveled to Spokane to be with Kyle's family for Christmas and once we got there (I will tell that story in a minute) we had a really great week.  Knox adjusted well to the time zone and proceeded to sleep in every day last week (Merry Christmas to us!).  So it truly felt like a vacation.  We spent a lot of time just relaxing at Kyle's sister's house with her two kiddos and all of their new and exciting toys.  It was a low-key, relaxing week and we were sad to leave on Friday.  But Sally, Heather, Marek and McKenna will all be here for Spring Break- so we'll be together again before we know it!

Now for our travel saga.  We left for Spokane on Thursday evening, Dec. 22nd.  Our flight flew out of Austin at 7pm and we were scheduled to have a 45 minute lay-over in Denver and then on to Spokane.  Well, that afternoon Denver got a snow storm, so our flight out of Austin was delayed going into Denver. We were scheduled to land at the same time our next flight was scheduled to leave.  We were told that the airlines would hold our flight because there were plenty of other people in the same predicament.  We arrived in Denver at 9:28 pm and our flight left as scheduled at 9:20 pm- without us.  Once we landed it was apparent that there were hundreds of other people who had missed their various connections as well and we were instructed to stand in the customer service line to get help.  After waiting in the line for 45 minutes without moving an inch, I went to find help.  With Knox as my sympathy points we headed off to the nearest ticket counter.  I was informed that we had missed to last flight out to Spokane and the next available flight was on Sunday afternoon (ie- Christmas Day).  That was 2 days away! What about back to Austin? I asked.  Monday- they could get us back to Austin on Monday.  Here is where I started to get a little upset.  Long-story short- we were put on stand-by for a 1am flight to Seattle which we found out at 12:50 that we were 2 of only 3 people off of standby who got on.  We arrived in Seattle at 3am with no flights going to Spokane in the next 24 hours.  Then, we met a group of strangers in the same predicament. And together 10 strangers all rented a 12 passenger van at 3 am and drove 5 hours across a mountain pass to Spokane.  We arrived in Spokane at 8am on Friday morning and Kyle's mom picked us up at the airport!  It was an insane trip to make alone let alone with a 13 month old, but we did it and Knox was a trooper!  Whew- we learned our lesson though. No more Denver airport in the winter. Next time we are flying through Phoenix no matter how much more it costs!

Here is our Christmas photo montage!

The whole family!

Fun in Spokane

Christmas Day Action

Knox's new Llama Rocking Horse! Best gift ever!!

Knox loved ripping all the paper off the packages

Miss McKenna

Knox's first look at snow!

Christmas Eve reindeers

Cousins! Only 13 months apart, they are buddies already!

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas too! 

-Stacie