Spring Break

 Gone are the days of bumming around for a week or being taken on a vacation skiing or to the beach.  But we did get a couple nice unexpected changes of pace.  First, the kids went to be with the grands for about 6 days!  It was great.  They spent a few days with each set of grandparents and got to see lots of family and do lots of fun stuff.  I got to work, organize life, work on birthday stuff (!) and have some date time with my hubby!  We got them back on Wednesday and then Friday we headed to San Antonio for the weekend with Phillip & Kristin for our first IWL conference... with kids!  ;)  We knew it might be a little stressful, but it was an adventure.  Phillip & Daniel worked the conference while Kristin and I tried to control the kids!!  We stayed on the riverwalk and after getting all of our stuff and children in the hotel we had an interesting trek to dinner Friday night.  Let me just say the riverwalk is not made for strollers!  We were stuck & could not get out!!!  Once we got there we had an awesome dinner at Acenar on the riverwalk.

Along the way we stopped for a few pics...

Love this girl:

Love this sweet baby too!

Me & the kids, in the big stroller.

Paisley chill-axin.  Pretty much what she did all weekend.

And Ryder with a mischievous smile... pretty much what he did all weekend. ;)

Saturday we hung out, did a little shopping and managed the kids while the guys did the conference stuff.  The kids all on the bed with Kristin.  Ryder & Paisley love baby Elle.

The church had a playground-  thank God.  :)  So the kids got some energy out in the afternoon there and I got some cute pics of them.

conversations.

This is the conversation I had this morning with Ryder.  I'd gone out to put Paisley in the car (and left him INside so he could not run away as he WOULD try to).  I came inside and he was crying.  By this point I was already exhausted because just getting them out the door together these days is such a feat.  


Me: Buddy, WHAT'S wrong?
Ryder: I'm scared. (whimpering)
Me: Why?
Ryder: You took Pay out and left me
Me: Ryder, have I ever left you here?
Ryder: No. (whiny voice)
Me: Do you think I would ever leave you here alone?
Ryder: No. (questioning)
Me: Have I given you any reason to think I would ever leave you here alone?
Ryder: Nooooo. (defeated, knowing he's wrong)
Me: Well, then I wouldn't so stop freaking out...


ME:  hmmm, that sounds just like conversations I have regularly with God.
Thank you, Jesus for using the voice of my child to speak to me this morning.


This song was playing in my heart:
I know that you are for me,
I know that you are for me,
I know that you would never
Forsake me in my weakness
I know that you have come now,
Even if to write upon my heart.
To remind me...
Of who you are.

Fun Family Weekend

Over the weekend I had some unexpected time off work so we actually had some time together as a family!  Friday night we made pizza at home & watched Toy Story 3.  

 Pizza with sundried tomato sauce, chicken sausage and fresh basil... mmmm.

 Thumbs up.  We don't get that much for food these days!

 Telling sister night -night! :)

Saturday it was supposed to be sunny & 75 and we had a fun day planned and it was put a little off course due to rain!  We got breakfast and were headed down to Zilker park when it started drizzling so we took a quick detour to Cavendars (the cowboy store as Ryder says).  We'd been talking about going to get Ryder a hat since he's going to have a Cowboy Birthday party this year, so we went to look and he had a blast.  And got boots too.  :)

Trying his stuff on.  This is from my phone, but it was too cute!

The "Snake" boots.  He fell in love with these and would not take them off.  And lucky for us they were a steal of a deal!

One Happy Cowboy.

 We headed on down to Zilker hoping to ride the train, but it was not running due to the weather.  So we played...

 Then we went for a little jog on the trail around the lake.  

 Even in the dreary weather it was still beautiful & calming.  Austin really is such a cool city.  

 We had lunch at Cafe Express & went home for naps!  Saturday night we were treated to a volunteer appreciation dinner at church with dinner from Flemmings- nice!  It was great little family weekend.