« December 2007 | Main | February 2008 »
January 31, 2008
PictureFest
Here's our pride and joy! The top picture is of her watching birds fly overhead. The last is of her kissing a painting of a cat. She LOVES cats (and dogs, monkeys, and anything else with fur). She is one active little girl these days and it is hard to get a good picture. Here are the best we've taken lately.
Posted by ben at 09:38 PM | Comments (11)
January 27, 2008
New Year's Highlights
Our friends from Nashville totally spoiled us by all coming at once to visit us. We can't even express how much we miss these guys. Just yesterday I forgot where I was for a second and thought about calling them up to come over and enjoy the beautiful weather with us. Unfortunately until they all move here that won't be possible! You know once Holly gets here the rest of you will follow suit too, right?!
Here is Violet, Jason, Kathryn, Holly, and I on top of Mt. Bonnell.
Daniel, Heather (pictured with Holly), and their kids Kaelin and Liam were here too. Lucky for us Daniel's parents live here so we'll get to see them here again on future visits.
Kaelin had her second birthday while they were in town. Don't Kaelin and Liam look so cute! They're dressed up for Kaelin's birthday party. Violet misses you two especially!
Here are Ben and Jason showing off the fact that after much brain muscling, they finally beat the Nintendo game Adventures of Lolo.
Hopefully this was the start of a great annual tradition! (You guys all coming to Austin for New Years that is, not Lolo.)
Posted by ben at 02:31 PM | Comments (6)
January 26, 2008
Day Trip to San Antonio
The day after Christmas, we took a little trip to San Antonio with Grammy, Poppy, and Tootie. We saw the Alamo, and walked down the River Walk. Here's some of the best pics:
Posted by ben at 11:53 AM | Comments (2)
January 19, 2008
Happy Birthday Ben!
Yesterday was Ben's birthday and here are a few pictures from our quiet little celebration last night.
Ben, Violet, "Tootie" and I were the party go-ers. We are so glad that Ben's sister Kelly aka "Tootie" is living with us. We were also celebrating that Tootie was offered a job yesterday!
Here is Ben opening a homemade card from Tootie. Notice Ben's mom is on the card.
Here is Ben seeing his gift from Violet and I for the first time. He is now the proud owner of his very own Heely's. A little over a year ago Ben was talking about how he really wanted Heely's but didn't think they made them for adults. This probably would have been his present last year except that we were in Taiwan. He hasn't mentioned it in a while as the Heely craze is starting to die down. However he was still excited! Nothing like a good surprise! We love you Ben! Congrats Tootie!
Posted by ben at 10:32 AM | Comments (9)
January 12, 2008
Christmas 2007
Ben's mom, dad, and sister traveled to be with us in Austin for Christmas. Christmas morning began in the traditional way for Ben's side of the family with orange danishes for breakfast. Here is Violet having her very first one.
 |
This is just a sampling of all that V got for Christmas It took so long for her to open all of them she had to nap midway to regain strength to finish the job.
I found Hundred Dollar Holiday at our local library a few days before Christmas and gave it a read. As you can see from the picture above, we didn't follow the author's proposal to spend only $100 on the holiday, however I HIGHLY recommend the book! One thing the author mentioned was his family tradition, inspired by St. Francis, of feeding birds on Christmas. As I understood, St. Francis felt that Christ entering this world was such an awesome and monumental event that affected all of creation. He felt that all creatures, not just humans, should be included in celebrating Christmas so he asked the emperor to order citizens to scatter feed so that birds and animals would also have plenty to eat on Christmas day. I was touched by this so V and I headed out on the 25th with bread for the birds. Violet couldn't help but take a few nibbles of it herself!
Christmas night we headed out to walk down the locally famous 37th street. This definitely has made its way into a new holiday tradition. The display of lights was very fun and beautiful. What we saw included an illuminated dinosaur, motorcycle, and toilet. We even saw Ricky Bobby praying to baby Jesus. A very special Christmas indeed!
Happy Belated Christmas!
Posted by ben at 10:35 PM | Comments (4)
January 11, 2008
Mom's birthday
About a week and a half before Christmas, Violet and I boarded a plane to go back to FL and help throw a surprise party for my mom who was turning a big X-0 (I'll let her reveal her age in the comments if she so desires)! Anyway, flying alone with Violet proved to be quite a challenge. Fortunately during a long layover in Houston, we ran into a generous little boy who shared many cool toys with my travel weary tot. The new toys kept her occupied for a nice long while.
We held Mom's party at my Aunt Janette's house. It was so exciting to crouch in the shadows with other party guests as she walked up to the front door. But she's too smart... she said "surprise" before any of us could! It was great to see her and everyone else. We love you and miss you mom!
Being a temporary single parent on this journey meant that I did not snap many pictures. Here are a few that my mom's friend Melanie took.
Posted by ben at 07:24 PM | Comments (1)
January 10, 2008
Catching Up
So much has happened in such a short time! I'm starting small with the catching up by just posting a couple of pictures from our photography session on our Violet-iversary. Hopefully there will be more posts in the next few days.
Unfortunately Violet was not in the best of moods during the photo session. It was nearly impossible to get her to smile or keep the bow in her hair. I guess that is just par for the course with a toddler. These are my favorite three photos from the lot.
 |
Posted by ben at 10:09 PM | Comments (3)