A is for...

I am finally starting to have "conversations" with my little guy! It makes me so happy that he is responding to me, answering me, following instructions & sometimes obeying me! :) Yesterday at Panera we started to get out of the car and I said, "Ryder, I need you to stay with Mommy when we go in to eat, do you understand me?" To which he said, "Yes, Momma." We went in and he was a little thrown by all the cookies in front of him, but I picked him up and said, "Ok, do you want grilled cheese or peanut butter?" And he said, "gilled cheezzzzzz." :) We were getting ready to go out this morning and I said, "Oh we need a diaper to take with us." I turned around and here he comes with a diaper from his room. He walked over, stuffed it in my bag and smiled proudly :) This topped it all though... We were in target and he saw apples and started saying over and over "Apple, Apple, Apple," so I thought, ok the apples are on sale we'll get some apples. I got them, let him hold them and as we were walking away, I said, "Yes, apples. What letter does apple start with?" (Not really expecting an answer.) And as clear & quick as can be he said, "A!" Yep, and I even asked again in front of the checker lady to see if it was a fluke and he said it again... he IS listening to my constant babbling!!!

snow bunnies

We woke up yesterday morning to SNOW!!! Most areas around us got 2-3 inches... a lot for Austin! I actually thought it was raining, but was completely delighted to go wake up Ryder and taking him to see the snow. We scarfed down breakfast & headed out. You can't tell from the pics, but it was pouring snow at the time!!



snow covered cactus! love it!!

I brought little sister out to join the fun for a couple minutes.



The two little snow bunnies!

rosy cheeks: time to go in. Ryder was SO mad at me. :( I just could not explain to him: this is Texas, we are not prepared for this sort of thing and your jeans & tennis shoes are soaking wet!!! We came inside joined sister and he had hot chocolate and got a warm bath! :)

What a fun little unexpected morning in the snow we had!

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street...

Today was a very excited day in the life of Ryder Marcus Allen. He went to see ELMO. Let me start by explaining the new obsession that has developed with Elmo. We've only recently started watching Sesame Street but immediately Ryder was drawn to Elmo and started identifying him EVERYWHERE. Wednesday when Daniel came home from work Ryder had just woken up from his nap and was still sitting in his bed. I went in and said, "Ryder, Guess who's here?!?" And without missing a beat Ryder looked around the corner and said, "ELMO?" hahaha! "No," I laughed, "Just daddy."
So to put it mildly we've been looking forward to today: Sesame Street LIVE! One of the moms in my moms club got us really great seats with a group discount. It was quite a feat to get both of them downtown and in by myself (in the rain, without a stroller!) but thanks to the bjorn & the monkey backpack - we made it! Only a few minutes late... Since we were a couple minutes late the show had just begun and Elmo was already on stage and that just set him off. So as we enter the auditorium I'm carrying both kids down the stairs to our seats in the dark and Ryder sees Elmo on stage and starts SCREAMING over & over, "ELMO!!!"

The show was "123 Imagine!"


Ryder: entranced.

Me & Paisley girl...



La - La - La - La, La - La - La - La, Elmo's world!!

Happy boy :)

me & my little peanuts! - Paisley passed out by this time & Ryder so happy he got a pendant flag (instead of the $10 balloon!)



good show!!

We ate some lunch at central market (where he told everyone who he'd seen!) and then headed home.

Such a fun day. As hard as it is to do some of these things with the 2 of them at their current ages it was worth it all to see the look in his eyes!!!!

my funny little valentines.

Our Valentines weekend was pretty simple really. We didn't go on a date night out, we'll be doing that soon. Instead we just spent the weekend together - just our little family. My newest valentine...

Saturday afternoon we went to a park that's near some shops & restaraunts. Ryder & Daddy played while me & sister watched and shopped. And we ate burgers at Mighty Fine. mmm.


Sunday morning we started off the Valentines day worshiping our First Love. After church we went to brunch at Z Tejas. After we all took a nice sunday afternoon nap it was time for some valentines surprises! Ryder got a little Lion box with chocolate animal cookies in it... he was SO excited.

Giving daddy the valentine he made for him at B&N storytime.

And Paisley got a little monkey...

my little lovebugs.

Then it was cupcake time!!

decorating his little mini cupcakes with LOTS of sprinkles.


After we put Ryder to bed I made a little dinner for us. Crabcakes (ok, I just baked them, whole foods made them) and asparagus & red peppers with goat cheese, bread and mini cheese soufflés.


MY valentines surprises from my love...


And... we had a special guest on our dinner date. Daddy & his itty bitty valentine girl!

It was a sweet little love-filled weekend!!!

Nashville meets San Antonio

Thursday we drove to San Antonio for the day to see our Nashville friends, Zack & Erin. They were playing a few shows in the area so we definitely wanted to see them while they were in the great state of Texas! Unfortunately it was the most rainy & cold day ever! We didn't even make it to the riverwalk where they were staying. But we we got to hang out and see them and spend a little time together. We met them at Mi Tierra's, a big mexican restaurant.


Mi Tierra's is known for their huge bakery. Ryder was pretty stoked about the cookies!


And what did he get? A "Hook Em" cookie. His 2 favorite words right now combined into one thing!

We explored the mercardo area. It was pretty empty and would have been a bit more entertaining if they'd not had signs everywhere saying not to take "dress-up" pictures in the hats and masks and such... cause that's exactly what I would have done!


This is as good of a family shot as it gets these days...

It was a fun afternoon and so good to see friends that we miss SO much!!!

Family weekend #3!

We've had parents here in some capacity for 3 weekends in a row now! (And it's been great!!) Poppy came to visit this weekend. My mom was at a conference with her students down here so he came to hang out with us. Friday he was the "Poppy-sitter" while I got a hair cut. :)
Paisley & Poppy - she's such a happy girl!


Saturday night we met Mimi & her crew at Fudruckers before they all headed back...


We had absolutely no interest in the superbowl & fortunately have friends who felt the same! haha :) So we went to dinner with Phillip & Kristin at a new Mexican place in the area and then stopped by some friends house to see the end of the game.

In OTHER news this week... Ryder POOPED on the potty! Sorry, but it's pretty exciting news. (If you don't wanna hear this, then that's the end of the blog for you!) I haven't really started hard core potty training him, but he's been going every day when I put him down for a nap, so I figured, well I'll just see what he does if I start sitting him on the potty then. So Monday I said, "Ryder, do you wanna sit on the potty like a big boy?" He shook his head yes (which he doesn't do very much - it's usually "no") so I took him in there, sat him down and he IMMEDIATELY went! I was in shock. He got up & flushed, we did a little happy dance and he got a cookie and called Daddy to tell him! I've sat him on there each day this week and he's gone a little. We'll see what happens from here but that was a good start for sure!!! The funniest part of this whole thing was Friday when we were at lunch with my dad. I said, "Ryder did you tell Poppy how you went poopie on the potty like a big boy?" And Ryder looked at us and instantly started "squeezing" (tying to go) right there at the table!!!! We CRACKED up laughing, while I was saying, "No. NO. Not right here!!!" Oh well... he's understanding SOME of it anyway!

Happy Birthday Weekend.

So this blog is a couple days late, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIEL!!! (He turned 27 on Monday!)
Grammy & Grandpa came to visit for the weekend & celebrate. Ryder just loves having company - He gets so excited!! He played hard and stayed busy entertaining the whole time.

Saturday night we went out to the domain to the new Gloria's for dinner. It was pretty yummy... or as Ryder decided to say, "Cool!" That's his new word - everything is cool. He stopped to ride the "cool" armadillo.

He also really enjoyed his quesadillas.

Little sister, just chillin and looking adorable. ;)

That afternoon I'd made a birthday cake using a recipe out of my Julia Child's cookbook. I made the chocolate almond cake. It was a small one layer cake (the french do things in moderation!) but it was pretty rich & delicious I thought. And I gotta give it to the woman - I have never had my egg whites whip up like this. She's a genius. I had to take a picture to have as proof...

So we came home after dinner to have some cake. Ryder was Oh SO excited about the cake, and yes I let him have chocolate cake & ice cream at 10pm! But isn't the look on his face worth it all!




(and yes, he's eating the powdered sugar off the counter, but daddy's responsible for that!)


Happy Birthday, Babe! We ALL love you SO much.