Sneak Peak of Colorado

Here is a sneak peak at pictures from Colorado:

Jon and I in the car after trying to go sledding, it was too darn cold (we later found out it was -27 degrees!!!) brrrrr

one of the dozen elk that we saw (a few were so close to the car and not timid at all that if we were brave enough we could have touched)

Bubba and Shortie playing while it snowed with Aunt Peyton (poor Shortie didn't have her snow pants on and her little legs were frozen, -9 degrees without the windchill factor)


Even Baby Zek has a snow outfit...he looks like he should be on Monsters Inc. You should see his little hat we bought --- so cute!

Our Van...

It's been abused!

more than 6000 miles in road trips since I left VA

in Austin...finally!

So we are finally back in Austin!

We had a great time in Cali and Colorado but its nice to not be on the road...


This is just a short post because I am still sick - on the drive to Austin from Colorado we decided to add a few extra hours (what is four more hours when already driving 18??) We want to go to every state, so by adding the four extra hours we could hit three more states.... what we weren't planning on is the stomach flu! It started with Bubba and spread to each of us... Some how (totally God) I was able to "put it off" until we made it to my parents house, lots of prayer! I was the first one to feel sick, and the last one to really be sick. What a joyous return we brought to my parents - 5 sickies!

We have a zillion pictures and tons of great stories to go along with them -- hopefully tomorrow I will be feeling better and can post them (Jon, Shortie and Bubba are doing better. Zek is now able to keep stuff down but he has a terrible cough...so hopefully tomorrow we will all be better!)

Still in California

So I am in still in California.
Jon is in Virginia, but flying back out to Cali on Wednesday
(yippy for a jerk of a boss and getting fired! ... but he might have a job lined up very close to home so that is super exciting! We have faith it will all work out)

Anyways- still in Cali, and gaining weight from all the food --- I feel pregnant again :0) (oh, and no I am not!)

So after Jon gets here we are hoping to drive out to Colorado to see his family!
Then we will head down to Austin for Christmas, and finally after that out to Virginia.

This is a lot of unplanned driving! Not to mention spending :0) ekk...

We have taken lots of pictures - so we will update one of these days when we get back to Austin.

California visit

SO EXCITED!

very random

but next weekend Jon and I are going to California!!!

I am still in shock

kinda like being in Texas - still in shock

wow...

So excited to see some friends and family

and eat LOTS of food!

(so much for loosing the baby weight...I'll be adding to it)

this is going to make me even more confused

I call Cali home

I call Austin home

I call Virginia home

my mind keeps intertwining places

this will just add to it- being to all three places within the month

my poor car --- will have driven from:

 the North East coast of Maine

to

the South West coast of California

although it has already driven from coast to coast a handful of times in the last two years

Kiddos

The kiddos playing at their table --- I love that Bubba is nearly naked, and Shortie is in full PJs. Thats how Sarah and I always were --- in fact I use to never sleep with blankets and Sarah had to have about a half dozen blankets --- thats exactly how Bubba and Shortie sleep :o)

Silly Shortie

Silly Shortie... having fun making silly faces

brothers

Bubba loves being a big brother, and he is a great one!

Bubba got Shoes!!!

Bubba finally is wearing shoes --- not flip flops :0) He picked out a pair of converse - although they didn't have the color he wanted in his size (it was grayish brown), but he really liked them. So, now he has winter shoes

.love.

Mommy kisses

Sitting Up

Little Zek has learned how to sit up, and when we first put him in the car seat he tries to stay sitting up. Its really funny to watch - he is getting so big, so fast!

Rudy's

We finally had some great Texas BBQ at Rudy's! Yummy! We got it just before Jon had to head to the airport -- we miss him lots - but at least he got some Rudy's before he went back to VA

Great Papa

:o) poor Bubba -- the only clothes we had easy access to were Shortie's PJs (we could have got the other ones out - but we were so tired by the time we realized we needed warm clothes for the night- so we just grabbed the first bag of clothes on top...) so he wore bright pink PJs. Bubba didn't really mind - and Jon & I think they will be great photos for when he brings his first girlfriend over - a little show and tell :0P hey, my parents did it to me but worse (put in home videos when I thought we were sitting down to watch some blockbuster movie...)

Anyways- here is Bubba having a moment with Great Grandpa. It looks like my grandpa was having a good moment too and enjoying the company :o)

On the Road

On the road back out to Texas.

Somewhere off of the 79 (I think thats the right freeway) there was a brush fire. It had just started, and as we approached it the fire trucks went flying by. The one picture is a fireman that just got there starting to try and put it out. It was pretty freaky driving through. Parts of it the smoke was very thick and hot ashes were flying everywhere. It was on both sides of the road, and it went on and off for about a mile.

Marshall, Texas - Jons great grandmother is from there

We thought this building was cool - it is just outside of Hutto (I believe)

Kids on the Road

The kiddos on the 25 hour road trip --- we are so blessed to have such great happy kids! They did amazing for such a long car ride, and we didn't really bring any toys (just a few teddy bears and star wars books)!

Jumping

oops = out of order --- before we left Baby Zek learned how to jump in his jumper :o) we were so proud and he loved it!

bye VA

Here are some pictures as we left our home in Fairfax and started off to Texas. I wanted to have a picture of the end of the fall foliage - knowing once in Texas I wouldn't see it again until next year in VA

Jon and Zek

Jon and Zek before we left for Texas

hello.hello

Happy Birthday Laura!!!

Happy Birthday Kirsten!!!

We went from fall weather around 30 degrees to summer weather here in Austin, it was 82 degrees earlier today when we went out! I miss my fall weather and foliage...

I have a lot of pictures to add to the computer but I need to go to my parents house to download the pictures --- so until then, just boring rambling post.

Earlier today Shortie came up to me and said "look Mom, my feet are like Daddy" I thought because she was barefoot -- but she then said, "they are so dirty!" we all had a big laugh about that one!

The kids miss all of their Virginia friends -- but they are having fun hanging out in Austin. We went to buy some pumpkins to make more pie and muffins and I told the kids we were going to the pumpkin store. Shortie looked all puzzled and said, "Mom I dont want to go to the pumpkin place, thats a long drive back to Virginia for a pumpkin." I love the way kids think --- the last two times we bought pumpkins we were in VA -- 

Maybe tonight when I get home from dinner with Kirsten I will post a longer blog --- once the kiddos are asleep :0) Jon is out at one of his coworkers house tonight. He found out last week that one of the new techs is a Christian and he has a new little baby at home.

*side note to Jon* I love you babe! We all miss you and look forward to seeing you on Thanksgiving! Shortie said "I love you to more pieces Daddy!" xoxox love ya. Oh, and remind me to tell you about a few jokes :0)

texas

So much has changed in the last week... its been crazy!

A last minute decision to drive out to Texas. Left Thursday afternoon around 3:00, drove straight through the night and arrived at my parents house a little after 3:00pm on Friday! We surprised my parents-- and grandparents :o)

6 weeks back in Texas. So happy that someone invented Skype!

Shortie's Pictures

Shortie took the camera and had fun taking lots of pictures.

star wars book, and a self portrait

Zek loves his Daddy

Baby Zek loves his Daddy!

Swing Time

Bubba recently discovered that he sort of fits into Zeks swing.

Hungry Zek

"But Mom, the bottle is empty!!!"

Getting ready to make little man a bottle.

Food time!

his little finger was inside the smoothie pacifier and he wasn't going to take it out. It was very funny to watch him try and have the bottle and pacifier.

Pumpkins and baking

The kids and I made a lot of goodies.

first we made homemade strawberry lemonade (yummy... not sure who liked it more Jon or the kiddos) then we took the pumpkins we got at Cox Farms and cooked them so we could bake lots of goodies out of them. We made spicy pumpkin seeds for Daddy, and garlic ones for the kiddos. A huge pumpkin pie, two pumpkin rolls, and chocolate chip pumpkin muffins (my favorite). We also made some blueberry muffins and strawberry muffins. We still have a ton of pumpkin puree left -- enough for several more pies and my favorite muffins :0)

The two medium (rather small but compared to the others they were big) pumpkins are sugar pumpkins - those we did all the cooking with. The smaller ones were just for fun.

Silly Girls!

Shortie wanted to take silly pictures! Lots of silly pictures!




Shortie giving me a kiss. Very sweet!









just being silly.


















like mom like daughter...hair everywhere & silly tongues

Zek in Yellow

Zek was very happy in his yellow outfit.

He found his thumb! Tons of drool...but he loves his fingers in his mouth... or our fingers, or his blankets... anything in reach is going to the mouth.

His little bashful smile. Love it!