Texas Andersons

New flowers and herbs are in our gardens and seem very happy with their new homes.

Our wildflower patch is lush, and the bluebonnets are just beautiful!

Ben, Morgan, Landon, and Madison had a blast at the church’s spring party, complete with food, bounce houses, and a night time Easter egg hunt.

The Blue Sharks finally got to win a game! Ben even scored a few goals!

And we stopped by Tractor Supply Co. to purchase a couple of bunnies for upcoming Easter portraits!

Yay, spring!

Another week of celebrating Ben!

Friday ended with a full week of good marks from school and getting a treat at Sonic. We were also very excited to see such an excellent report card!

Saturday morning Ben had a couple of soccer games. First was lost, but they had fun. And second was forfeited since the other team didn’t show. So instead, half our team put on yellow jerseys and they played each other. It seemed like they had a great time doing that!

Then it was time for the birthday party! Engines revved, cars were smashed to smithereens, drivers’ laughter filled the air. A vendor (okay, me) served up hot dogs, popcorn, fruit cups, and cotton candy. And there was swinging, sliding, sandbox-playing, and visiting going on.

Cake then quickly consumed to get to the presents. And Ben loved each and every one of them! He’s been busy playing with the Hot Wheels ramp; he has been trying out all the games on his new Leapster cartridge; we’ve put together the weather station and have put it out in the yard; and all of the remote control vehicles have been driven around the house (one even goes up the walls!!!).

THANKS to everyone who made yesterday such a special day for Ben. And THANK YOU to all who were such a big help in getting everything set up.

Day 1 (Sunday): We pack up the car and head out to the Davis Mountains. We make it up to the cabin, unpack, and visit.

Day 2 (Monday): The guys work on projects. Debbie cooks and cleans. Evan and I hang out. We play a few games. We update our family portrait.

Day 3 (Tuesday): We head out to the McDonald Observatory and drive into town for lunch. We spend the rest of the day in the cabin.

Day 4 (Wednesday): Hike is cancelled because of the freezing temperatures. We spend the whole day in the cabin by the fire. More cooking and cleaning; more games.

Day 5 (Thursday): Packed up and drove home, stopping half-way to eat lunch and play at Sonic.

Nathan had wanted to stay until today, but I just couldn’t make it. What I left out of my daily account was the fact that we were dealing with Evan’s terrible allergies, he would not sleep through a single night out there, I was tired of being stuck in the cabin taking care of Evan every day, and we hadn’t packed warm clothes in preparation for the cold front that blew threw and dropped temps into the low 30’s.

So now we’re home, all nice and cozy, comforted by having electricity again, loving the sight of the rain, enjoying our own beds, and sleeping through the night!

What a fun birthday week!

Ben was the “WOW” kid at school on Monday. For his treat, Nathan took the boys to Cheesy Jane’s for burgers and milkshakes (yum!).

On the day of Ben’s birthday, I went up to his class with a bunch of homemade cupcakes for the kiddos and then we headed to Chuck E Cheese! Evan had a blast at CEC, driving the cars and just watching all the lights. He was wide-eyed the whole time. And Ben enjoyed a police chase game that he played over… and over… and over again.

The next day I headed back up to Curington to photograph the kids at the Jump Rope for Heart. It looks like they had a great time with that too. With all different basketball and jump rope stations, they had lots to do.

And today Curington had their Kinder Rodeo. The kids had cowboy stories read to them; they had a cowboy dress-up race; they got to ride stick horses; and they got to pet all kinds of animals (a rabbit, chickens, goats, a horse, cows, and alpacas). We all great a blast!

And now we have to get moving on packing for our spring break trip to the mountains. Then we’ll have the party. What a great birthday, getting to celebrate it for weeks! Lucky duck!

A big CONGRATS goes out to Nathan!

He found out this week that he was named one of the top 200 Rackers! He rocks! And it’s great to know he’s being recognized for it.

And although it’s sad he’ll be leaving his current team (all of whom he loves working with), he is excited to be moving to a new venture for him within Rackspace. He finishes packing his stuff this week and will move back downtown the week after spring break.

Oh, no… wait. I can’t even get into my jeans.

That’s right. I’ve made absolutely no progress on my weight. The last article about this I admitted to being at 175. Thanks to the holidays and Girl Scouts, I’m now at 180. And hardly anything fits any more.

I still have two hopes:

1- That this has all been simply because of the pregnancy and not because of a metabolism slow-down. If so, I should be able to get the pounds off and keep them off with little effort like it was before.

2- That the time change this coming weekend will allow us to begin walking every night again.

If you have any tips, suggestions, or encouragement, please send it my way!

PS- Here’s a cute photo of Evan (chubby cheeks and fat rolls look good on him).

This past week was busy!

Nathan and Ben started their soccer practices, Alice and I attended a photography seminar, we had a full day of errands and shopping, and I had sessions back to back all day yesterday.

One big event was the first spring soccer game on Saturday. It was cold (in the 50’s); it was incredibly windy (who knows what the wind chill was!). But we sat there in our coats, hats, gloves, and wrapped in a blanket to cheer on the Blue Sharks. Being a brand new team, with three of the players never having played soccer before, they did great. We think they lost by just one or two.

And the other big event was a date night. We couldn’t remember the last time we had gone out (we even missed Valentine’s Day), so Nathan made it special. He took me to The Lodge, a very fine dining establishment. I was worried when the first plate brought to me had just one raspberry and a tiny ball of goat cheese, but with the multiple courses, it did end up being a lot of food. And it was all delicious, with a few things that I had never tried before. Yum!

And a few milestones- Evan is busy getting in his third and fourth tooth while Ben lost his third. And Evan is crawling all over the place and starting to pull up on things. Watch out world, here he comes!