Conscious Decisions

I know it's been a while but I guess no news is good news.

We have decided to scratch the idea of selling our house for the time being. We are going to make the conscious decision to be happy where we are. We always keep our eyes open to new opportunities no matter if that is a new car, house or whatever, but for now we will be happy where we are. Luckily, there isn't anything wrong at all with where we are and the itch to move has come and gone.

We have started to make decisions on improvements and re-decorating for our house. It is already pretty satisfying and I'm glad we didn't jump too fast. We have purchased new coach lights for the front of our house and I've ordered a new duvet for our bed. I'm most excited for my new canvases to arrive! I finally ordered some great canvases of the family portraits that we took a few months ago and will start to re-do our living room once those arrive. The new pictures will be displayed above our fireplace and the painting that is currently there will find a new permanent place in our home. The only part of this process that I really don't like is that everything I want to do is expensive and that I can't do it all at once, I'm not a patient person. Doing things piece by piece is another thing that I am going to have to tell myself to be happy with, and remind myself that I really am lucky to be able to do almost everything I want in our home even if it is a slow process.

(This is our current mantle, stay tuned for the update!)

I'm looking forward to getting to so many projects in our home! I'll keep you all posted on the progress as I get to each project! There are so many parts that I'm excited about but there are also plenty that I'm excited to get over with, like organizing our garage. The garage is a top priority for Chad and while I want it done, I don't want to waste my weekends getting it completed. Same with our garden, I'll be very happy once clearing it out and the plating is over. Wish us luck!

Abby will be starting her second season of volleyball this evening, she is very excited! She is a natural athlete and loves being active, I hope she keeps that passion her entire life!

Grace has her UIL competition for band next week, she is looking forward to it! Chad is taking the day off and we will be watching her competition, we're confident she will do great!

Orin had a nasty fall about two weeks ago at school, where he scraped his face pretty badly and broke his glasses on his face. I was able to replace his glasses the same day and he is almost completely healed.

Chad is doing great things, kicking butt and taking names. I'm so proud of him!

I've been keeping busy with our kids, spending time with friends while the kids are at school and occasionally teaching. I'm teaching two full days this week and I'm really looking forward to it!

I hope everyone reading this has a great leap day and a fantastic week ahead! xoxo

Until next time, count your blessings! :)

Sara

Best Days

Last night Chad and I went to the "I Love The 90's!" concert, it was SO much fun!! We got to see Young MC, Rob Base, All 4 One, Kid N Play, Coolio, Salt N Peppa with Spinderella and Vanilla Ice. It was a blast! Dinner was great and our company was even better, we met up with our friends Janine, Ken, Sommer and John for dinner and had fun talking and getting amped up for the concert.

Our friends that we ate with had purchased their tickets together a while back so we were in different sections but after the first intermission we snuck to their area and were able to finish the concert with them. The show was pretty much everything we hoped it would be! Some of our favorite songs of our youth with Salt N Peppa stealing the show! Words can't do justice to describe the great time we had! I danced my booty off (I do NOT dance, I have zero rhythm) and had the best time! 

After the show we were thinking of going out to a local karaoke bar but decided to go home instead. When we woke up we were so thankful we made that decision! We were already sore and still tired so we were happy to not wake up hung over too.

When we woke up we realized that we had nothing planned for the day. Not a bad thing by any means but pretty rare for us. We stay very busy most of the time. The thought of having nothing down in the planner and all chores done was kind of exciting! Before we got out of bed Orin crawled in with us and we snuggled him and decided that we would go downtown today. We live in a suburb of Austin so it isn't far but we don't venture downtown very often, especially with all of our kids in tow. As long as we've lived here (24 years total, moving away for college and to Florida for a few years-other than that I've been here pretty much all of my life) I've never driven to see some of the murals and art work that is part of what makes Austin so unique and the incredible city that it is and today sounded like a great day to do it. The weather was beautiful and there was no way we wanted to spend the day inside. Everyone got ready for the day and we were on our way. 

We left the house at about 10:45am and started driving south toward Austin knowing that we needed to stop for lunch first. We decided to eat at Chuy's, which fit the theme for the day because Chuy's is an Austin staple. It was a perfect way to start what would turn out to be such an amazing family day!

After lunch we ventured into downtown Austin and found a place to park off of Congress, which was a small victory. Parking was a little nuts! After we unloaded our clan we found the "I Love You So Much" mural and took some pictures. Orin didn't want to cooperate at first but eventually got on board. After our first photo op we walked around for a while and eventually found the "Austin" mural. We again took some pictures that Orin again didn't want to participate in. We still were able to sneak him in some of the pictures thanks to the generosity of some strangers willing to take the shot for us. One of the things I love about Austin are the locals who are almost always willing to lend a hand for a quick favor and expect nothing in return. We of course offered to take pics for those who helped us out and were more than happy to help if they took us up on the offer.

After we took pictures the house/business next to the "Austin" mural caught Chad's eye. It was a Patisserie and something sweet sounded good to all of us! We went inside where each of us ordered one small treat. Chad bought an eclair while each of the kids and I ordered a different macaroon. They were delectable! Seriously, the best macaroon I've ever had! I had an almond one, Grace strawberry, Abby lavender and Orin had a chocolate one. They were perfect! 

After our sweet treats we started to walk back to our car stopping in some classically Austin stores and farmer's markets along the way. We were in no rush and spent over an hour walking half of a mile and enjoying our time together. When we made it back to the car we decided to seek out the Austin Graffiti Park. We drove the less than three miles to our destination and spent a good ten minutes finding somewhere to park. We finally did and made our way over to the park. I've seen pictures of it before and the pictures have never done it justice. It was so cool! There was some scary climbing involved with no stairs but we all made it. When we got to the highest level I was a total nervous wreck because Orin wanted to get too close to the drop off and Abby was wearing boots that I didn't trust her not to fall in. Chad kept his hands on them both and we were able to sit back and enjoy the view of the Austin skyline. It was an experience that we will all treasure. We all sat down on the ground (another kind stranger offered to take a few pictures of us) and we all actually enjoyed sitting quietly together just admiring the view. It was really special. 

After a while we made our way down the hills and back to our car. We decided to pay the capitol of Texas a visit. When we got to the capitol I was so happy to see how excited my kids were to read plaques and listen to what we had to say about Texas history and our personal connections to people who have served our great state. We all enjoyed taking our time and walking around the building and looking at all of the pictures of our Governors and elected officials. Again I was pretty nervous about Orin wanting to run around, I was scared that somehow he would lean too far and fall over the ledge down into the rotunda. He had to hold mine or Chad's hand the entire time, he wasn't too happy about that but had to get over it. We all had a great time exploring the capitol! When we left the inside we walked around the grounds for a little while, the kids were happy to be able to run around for a while and we discussed how old some of the trees on the grounds are, they were interested and we were happy to teach. 

We made our way back to the car with 13 minutes to spare on our car meter, score! We headed home and started talking about our favorite parts of our adventures for the day. We all agreed that we were so happy with how our day went and are eager to do it again. I love that our kids enjoyed the day all together and are more excited about our family days together than anything else, even Grace, our teenager. 

Days like today make me even more appreciative of the life we have worked so hard to have and they make me appreciate my husband and our kids individually, even more than I already do. I'm thrilled to have these experiences and that our kids tell us that "today was the best day ever!" every single time that we get to spend time together like this. We are so blessed to have so many Best Days!

I Love The 90's Concert!     February 5, 2016

Family Day <3     February 6, 2016

Until next time, count your blessings! :)

Sara

Family Trip, Feb 2015

The To me there are two types of trips, a family trip which is where we bring our kids and a vacation, which doesn't include any children. We love both! As our children get older we are enjoying family trips more and more. We no longer have a baby which makes these trips so much less stressful and we all have an opportunity to do a lot of fun things together and strengthen our bond as a family. We are able to create incredible memories that are so precious to us all.

In our school district there is a "February break" where the kids have a long weekend (no school on Monday or Tuesday) and this year we decided to take advantage of it! We spent the weekend in the Dallas, TX area and took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge. This was our second adventure at GWL and this trip was even better than our first. Within reason we stopped caring about the expense and bought our kids each a Wolf Pass and stayed in a fun suite. A Wolf Pass lets the kids do a ton of extra activities that without the pass would cost almost double. Along with having a great time at the indoor water park we all did the awesome ropes course, the 3D movie, had extra sweets, played in the Arcade, played the super cool Magic Quest game (we also had the Compass game loaded on their magic wands that are needed for the games), the kids got to create a stuffed animal (similar to Build A Bear), play laser tag and so much more! We had a blast together and each of us walked away happier than we went in and so thankful for the fun time we had together.

Because we were in the area that Chad's sister, our BIL and nephew live we were able to visit with them twice. We really enjoy getting to spend time with them and loving on our perfect baby nephew! They came to visit us when we arrived at GWL and then we spent part of the late afternoon at their house on Monday.

Chad and I have decided to invest more in memories and experiences rather than things for our children, we have not regretted that decision once. I'm so thrilled with the experience we all just had together and it makes me eager to plan another family trip soon!

Until next time, count your blessings! :)

Sara