Baby Cilla's Visit (and Rebekah's too!)

One of my good friends from college, Rebekah, drove from Waco to Round Rock this past Thursday to visit us. (OK, so she was really coming to have her daughter's pictures taken by our photographer, but let's just act like she only came to see us...) Her daughter, Cilla, is honestly the prettiest little thing I've ever seen & after her photo shoot, we had dinner & settled in for the kids' bedtimes & some "Project Runway" for Rebekah & myself!

Friday morning was relaxing around the house, and we eventually made it out to have lunch at Cafe Panini, one of the best places to eat here in Round Rock. We then ventured down to Whole Foods for some organic grocery shopping & fun...

We SO enjoyed their visit, and Austin just keeps asking when he's going to get to see Baby Cilla again. I do have to say that Cilla is an AWESOME sport -- between my kids giving her kisses, blowing raspberries, and dragging her across the kitchen floor on a blanket, she remained smiling the whole time. Such a great, happy baby...

At The Lake

Justin was off work on Friday, so we loaded up the truck, hooked on the boat & headed to Emma Long Park on Lake Austin. We set up our stuff at a day use camping area & headed out in the boat for a trip down the lake for about an hour before we headed back for some lunch. We grilled out some delicious hamburgers while the kids played in the water on the shore of the lake, and we just enjoyed the breeze & the sunshine. Such a relaxing summer day...

5K For Clay

This past Saturday marked the beginning of our running season again -- the race "5K For Clay". I always use that race as the kick-off for the season by not running 1 minute before that day, and then always trying to beat my time from the year before.

The race started at 8:00 am, and Justin & the kids were all there to cheer me on (Austin even had a "Go Mom Go" sign that Justin had made that morning!). The run went OK, seeing as how I hadn't run at all in 6 months since the Austin half-marathon; I did quickly remember that my new shoes gave me blisters though, so I had major flashbacks of my 13.1 miles in downtown Austin with huge blisters on my feet & the finish line no where in sight! -ha-

I finished the race in just over 37 minutes, placing 8th in my age division. I beat my time from last year, which was my only goal for this year. I see I have lots of work to do this year since I was a little over 12 minutes a mile -- I'd like to get down under 11 minutes a mile before the half marathons in early 2010.

Round Rock Fit, our marathon training group, starts this upcoming Saturday. It's a 26-week training program to get ourselves ready for the 3M Half Marathon in January & then the Austin Marathon on Valentine's Day of 2010. I'm running with my training group again this year while Justin will stay home with the kids; he's going to train on his own, but he's still planning on running both halves with me. I have such a love/hate relationship with running, so at this moment, I'm excited about starting up again, but I know I'll hit a wall come November or December & I'll be ready to be done. But I honestly must say that finishing a half-marathon (or two) every year is definitely quite an accomplishment & we have the medals to prove it! :)

Backyard Summertime Fun!

We have been spending a lot of time in the backyard lately in the sandbox & kiddie pool. Last Wednesday, I babysat Emma, and all three kids enjoyed the cool water & sand on the hot day that it was. Austin & Emma always have "projects" they're working on in the sandbox -- whether it's a castle or a river or a house...they stay busy! And, Kaylee just loves watching them & doing whatever they're doing...

Church Members

Sunday marked a memorable day for Justin & I -- we joined a church together as a family! (Our first!) We have been attending Celebration Church in Georgetown for a couple of years after some of our friends invited us to go with them. We really enjoy the worship service & the preacher is amazing, but we never took the next step & joined. Over the past 4-5 months, I've really been drawn to joining -- it felt like the right fit for our family, it's close, we enjoy it, and everyone there is so nice. We went to their once-a-month Sunday night "Connect" group where we got to meet Pastor Joe & his wife, Lori, and hear about how they met, moved to Austin, started the church, etc. We also got to meet some other new members & some established members that will help guide us in the church.

I must say that I am so excited about this new page in the life of our family! I feel like it's so important to be "plugged in" to a church in your community & even more important to raise your kids in church. Austin LOVES going to church & loves his Sunday School class, and even Kaylee is getting to the point that she doesn't fuss as much when we drop her off (chalk the fussiness up to separation anxiety). We feel so blessed that we found such a great church & are so excited about what God has in store for our lives.

(The pic below was taken Sunday morning before we left for church. Kaylee wore her new little dress that Shelcey got her for her birthday & I wanted a pic of her in it...)

Sunday at Zilker

After church on Sunday morning, we drove downtown to Zilker Park & rented a canoe. We had wanted to do this for a while, and Sunday was just beautiful outside (hot, nonetheless, but there was a nice breeze), and we decided to just go do it! We paddled Town Lake & got to see many turtles, fish & ducks along the way. I must admit that wrangling a wiggly 14 month-old was the hardest part -- she wasn't too keen on the idea of sitting still & just enjoying the scenery! Austin LOVED it, though, and he had a great time looking for animals & catching "seaweed" (as he called it) in his hands.

After our canoe ride, we went to the bottom/end of Barton Springs Pool & let the kids play around in the water. Austin LOVES playing there, so we knew it would be a hit with him. We, however, didn't realize how much Kaylee was going to love it. She laughed & smiled the entire time, and when Justin would take Austin out do the deep areas, she'd fuss until he came back to take her with him too! I think we may very well have a water baby on our hands...

I'm Puzzled

I have been finding some awesome floor puzzles at garage sales over the past couple of weeks. Austin is in a major "puzzle phase" & will do any puzzle that he can get his hands on. I thought these would be good for him since he didn't have any larger puzzles, and he LOVES them! He completes them totally by himself (minus a little help on the Scooby Doo one -- that one is HARD, believe me!), and then is so proud that he wants his picture made with them! I actually just found two more at a garage sale this past weekend, so there will probably be more puzzle pics posted soon!!

Swim Lessons

No, not swim lessons for the kids...swim lessons for ME! :)

I know a lot of you reading this probably think this video is lame -- a 28 year-old swimming across the pool. But, if you have ever seen me around water, you understand why this is such a big deal for me. I have always been afraid of the water & have never really known how to swim until a few years ago when I took my first set of lessons through the City of Round Rock. Well, I took another adult class that ended last week & this is video of me on my last day -- not too bad for just learning to swim not long ago!

I'm taking another session of classes this week to get better at treading water & diving -- those are the things I need the most practice & help on. (Justin took a video of me diving on the same day as he took this video, but it's so embarrassing I refuse to post it! Plus, it shows the lifeguard laughing at my "dive", and you can also hear Justin just crack up when I fall into the water. So glad they think my diving is humorous... ha ha)

A New Chapter

A new chapter in my life (honestly, OUR lives) is about to begin! I've been accepted into Graduate School at Texas Tech! I'm getting my Masters in Family & Consumer Science Education through their inter-institutional "Great Plains IDEA (Interactive Distance Education Alliance) program. That's basically just a fancy way of saying: it's a totally online Masters program that is taught by professors at 4-5 different colleges across the US.

I start classes 3 weeks from tomorrow, and am working on getting registered this week. My degree will also come with teaching certification in Texas, which is excellent, because I would love to either teach high school Family & Consumer Science (Home Ec) classes, or work for Texas Extension. (I just pray I'll be able to find a job when I start looking...)

Keep me in your prayers as I start out on this new adventure. It's been 6 years since I was in school, and this time around should be harder with 2 kids, a part-time job, and keeping my family grounded. I'm just so excited that I'm finally starting on my Masters...

Busy Times

It seems like this summer is just flying by, and I also seem to have less & less time during the day to blog about what we've been up to. Here is my weekly "catch-up" post for everyone...

Last week, I completed my first session of swim classes for this summer. As a lot of you may know, I am deathly afraid of water & couldn't swim up until about 3 years ago when Justin made me take lessons through the City of Round Rock. It had been a while since I had taken lessons, so we decided that retaking those lessons would be beneficial to me since we're out on the lake so much. The teachers were amazing (though all were either in high school or college... young'ins!), and I decided that another session (2 more weeks) would help me even more. I'm on the verge of getting decent at treading water, and have mastered the freestyle swim stroke & breathing. I also need some major work on diving, so I'm working on that this week as well.

While I was at swim lessons one night, the guys decided to try a new circus stunt & impress me once I got home. You can see it in the picture below... Austin's balance is amazing (not sure if other 3-year olds are like this, but his balance is a lot better than mine!), and he's so trusting of Justin! They're always doing some crazy stunt to get my heart racing...

Kaylee is getting bigger by the day. She follows Austin around, doing everything "big" that he's doing, and gets really upset when he "wants to spend some time to himself" (which is how he nicely tells me when he's ready for her to beat it!). Case in point that she does everything he does? The picture below -- her standing on the edge of the coffee table. Austin stands up there & jumps onto the couch, and she has (of course) started doing the same thing... ugh...

Kaylee has 5-6 words that she says pretty regularly, but "Da-Da" is definitely her favorite! Check out the video below of me trying to get her to say who her favorite was last week...just in time for Daddy to walk in the door from work & surprise her. Too cute...