oscar fashion!

Oscar night - my favorite Sunday night of the year. Except this year I had too much to do and not enough time to just sit and enjoy. I did turn on the red carpet coverage starting at 4pm (!) and watched along the way (while feeding, changing and chasing babies). We got some Rudinos sandwhiches and cleaned and worked while watching. I thought the show was overall a little boring, BUT the fashion was interesting and that's all I really care about anyway. My favorites... #1 Sandra Bullock. She won for her amazing movie & she looked stunningly classy. I do kind of wish her hair was pulled back so that we could see the full neckline, but I just love her in this Marchesa dress.

I equally LOVED this more interesting Ellie Sabb dress worn by Rachel McAdams.

And this picture does not do it justice, but SJP in this Chanel Haute Couture is amazing. The back was gorgeous.

And my worst picks... love her, hate this dress for the oscars. It's not the worst dress, but she looks like she going to a spring dance or dinner on a cruise or something... ugg.

And this was just odd & wrong.

And lastly, the most unique & interesting dress for me was this: worn by the winner for costume design, Sandy Powell. Never heard of her, couldn't find who the dress is by, but I thought it was just super cool, timeless & fashion forward at the same time.


In other news around here: we had a busy week. I feel like I just can't catch up. My day yesterday started at 3:30 am and ended at 11pm. BUT, Tuesday Kirsten is coming!!!! Yay! So excited to meet sweet Anders and for them to meet Paisley. It will be a fun week for sure.

almost 2 : almost a half

It's already March! Our little babes are growing so fast and this month made me realize that big marks are just around the corner. Ryder is 23 months old today... 2 is SO close! And Paisley, now 5 1/2 months is getting closer to that 6 month mark and all the things that come with it... sitting up, crawling, eating, talking...
So just for today, before they get ANY bigger, I'm gonna enjoy THIS:

Our little drummer continues. Notice he has his drums lined up, sitting on one, with the other next to it, while beating on the bucket! (Our favorite part is the signature drummer tongue!)


starting to sit up pretty well:

hungry girl?

We thought we'd try giving Paisley a little cereal last night. She's been showing signs that she was ready recently, but it kinda went the same way it did the first time we tried with Ryder.
She went straight for it at first...

And then...

well, she really liked chewing on the spoon anyway.

And she took a couple bites, then promptly spit most of it out.

We'll try again soon and I think in a few weeks she'll be chowing down!

Brother Sister Bathtime!

We've started bathing Ryder & Paisley together (now that she's a little more sturdy and he's a little more aware of her)! She's very interested in what he's doing these days and he likes helping bathe her and will even share some bath toys - it's so cute!

brushing her hair...


you can just imagine the noise level here:

nothin' better than a clean baby!


This was actually a couple weeks ago, when Paisley turned 5 months!

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!!!!