Friday Night Lights

Tonight we went to a fun pre-holiday event at a local park. We expected the lights to be the main attraction (and they were pretty...though Austin's Trail of Lights is still the best! :), but little did we know there was much more in store. After strolling through and seeing lots of lights, we came to an area where there was a craft fair, climbing wall, moonwalks, Santa and Mrs. Claus, and even pony rides! AG wasn't game for going to visit Santa, but she was ready to saddle up and blaze a new trail (for her anyway...the ponies little circle was well worn already!) riding a pony. What fun!
About halfway through I realized I should watch my step...these were real ponies, after all.
Can you tell it was cold out there? (Grandparents, don't worry...both girls made it just fine!) It was neat to experience a bit of Christmas tradition in our new hometown.

A Few Views

Spice Girls
Black Bean Beard
Out for Jess's Birthday Dinner

One Year and One Month

Where has the time gone? Our baby is growing into a toddler before our eyes! Just this week she has acquired several fun new skills. After weeks of practicing with her push-around truck and holding our hands, LL has taken her first unassisted steps, working from 1-2 up to about 6-7 in her longer stretches. She loves to stand up by herself and last night she ate her supper standing up...I would give her a bite and then anytime she lost her balance and sat down she popped right back up before she'd take another bite! Another meal-related trick is that she can now tell us she wants "more" using the sign. This is a big relief, since her usual way of letting us know she wanted more has been to scream at the top of her lungs! And to top it all off, we're hearing some recognizable words...last Tuesday evening we went over to our neighbors' house and as we were walking back home she waved and said, "Byebye." She also likes to say "beep beep."
The two pictures above were taken yesterday at the BR zoo. She loved the slide! We'd put her at the top and then she'd scoot a little to make herself go down, then laugh as her Daddy caught her at the end.
This picture reminds me of a similar one Nana took of AG in this jacket when she was just a little younger than LL.
Too busy pulling up, she's figured out how to take her cup along...hands-free! We are thankful for all her developments and excited to see what comes next.

We hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving. And we wish a happy birthday (today!) to PopPop!

Sweet Sisters

Now that LL is 13 months, she is a much more engaging playmate for AG. They had fun this week playing together in this pink tent. LL loved to explore new ways to get in and out of the tent: the door, crawling under the sides...but by far her favorite was diving headfirst through the window. However, most times she does this she gets stuck and ends up hanging on the "windowsill" by her waist and then needs some help to make a full exit. Of course AG finds all of this very funny, and it is so sweet to see them enjoying playing together and hear them laughing with one another. Another sweet activity we saw them initiate this week was walking side by side, hand in hand! LL can take AG's hand and pull up, then walk beside her (at least as long as AG will go at LL's speed!). This thrilled AG...and us!

Here's the view I have as we stroll together, at least when the girls are not looking out for the next interesting thing they can spot as we continue to explore our new neighborhood. AG likes to go see the bells at the church nearby, which we hear ringing at 8 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. daily. We have had some cool days this week so the jackets are finally getting some use!

Pretty Pink Princess+Pumpkin Pants

The scariest thing here in our neighborhood on Halloween night was not the costumed spooks running around candy-crazed...it was the swarms of all-too-real mosquitoes giving any little vampires a run for their money! (Welcome to the swamp!) But would we let them stop us from rounding the block to collect candy with our two little sweeties? Oh no! We simply put the "Off" on and hit the streets! AG loved wearing her fairy princess dress, crown, and wand (thanks Nana and Grandpa!) and saying "Tricktortreat" and "Tanktoo" to all the neighbors, and LL was pretty much just along for the moonlight wagon ride in her jack-o-lantern bloomers since we can still pretend like candy doesn't exist with her at this point (although she did enjoy chewing on an unopened bag of M&M's some of the way!).

Flowers, Football, and Family Fun

Last weekend we took our first road trip to MS since we moved closer. That three hour drive was nice! The girls had lots of fun with their grandparents and we got to go to the MSU/Kentucky game and almost saw our Bulldogs win! Above, AG gets an introduction to snapdragons from her Nana (they're not nearly as scary as they sound!).
LL had a special treat to initiate her into the "Bulldog family" on her first trip to MSU...a visit with the real Bully himself! It's hard to say which of them was more (or less:) excited judging from this picture, but she was pretty friendly with him off camera (and he's clearly used to attention from little ones!). Her PopPop was proud to show her off to old friends at the game.
LL got into the action in the stands during the game. It was fun for us to take her to such a special place (where her Mommy met her Daddy and her Gran met her PopPop!)
LL had fun with her Grandpa and Nana, too. She was even more friendly with their cats, Gus and Phoebe, than with Bully! Watch out, kitties... next visit she'll probably be on her feet!

Boo at the Zoo!

We had an awesome time Saturday morning during our first visit to the BR Zoo! It is really a neat zoo with a wide assortment of animals, exhibits, and fun features for little ones such as a great playscape and petting zoo. However, since their Halloween festivities were going on this weekend, what grabbed AG's attention the most were the tables set up throughout the zoo where sponsors would give the kids candy. Although she wasn't dressed up, we'll count this as her first trick-or-treating experience, because she definitely got the hang of holding out her bag and saying the magic words! And since then she pretty much either is holding or vigilantly monitoring the whereabouts of her treat bag, which she gets to dip into for one piece after luch and another after dinner. I guess the days when we can pretend candy doesn't exist are officially over at our house, but it will still remain a controlled substance! At least she's not carried away with all of it...today she took one bite of a red Laffy Taffy and then decided she'd rather have something else because it was "too yucky".

But back to the zoo...Trey and I agreed that the giraffes were our favorite animals of the day, and you can tell from the picture that they got LL's vote, too. One was especially friendly and came about as close as he could, sticking his neck out right toward us. We interpreted this as a friendly gesture and will go back to visit as often as we can! We also saw tigers (white and regular), elephants, monkeys, bears, zebras, ostriches, lions, alligators, otters, birds, a rhinoceros, a hippopotamus, and lots of other interesting creatures.

Happy Days...

Here are some favorite photos taken lately...
Can you tell how excited AG and LL are to be going out for a stroll? LL was mostly interested in her zwieback and AG wasn't quite sure if she wanted to get too comfy in the towel-covered seat since it was damp from one of our recent downpours, but we decided to head out anyway and managed to dodge most of the mud puddles.
And here's a "Good Morning!" from LL!

LL Turns 1!

Here are some pictures from LL's first birthday party. We were thrilled to be able to celebrate at our house last weekend with family from MS and LA, including all 4 of her grandparents, her Mimi and PawPaw (great grandparents), 3 great aunts, 3 great uncles, and 2 cousins! She had a great time opening presents and eating her cake. As you can see, AG was happy to help out with those things! It was a fun day for all of us celebrating having this sweetie with us for a whole year!

Yes, we are still around! Thanks to all who have checked this blog and encouraged me to update it...it's been off the priority list for the past few weeks, but we want y'all to know we are all alive and well in south LA. We hope to be into our house within a few weeks...bear with us through yet another "settling in" phase, and maybe by mid-October we'll be somewhat back to normal as far as keeping you up on some news and photos of the girls.

AG and LL are doing well...both riding the waves of this transition fairly smoothly, though sharing a bedroom with her parents has thrown off LL's sleep pattern (and ours!). AG has reached new levels of independence... wanting to do so many things herself and repeatedly saying, "Do not help me" just in case we forget! I almost wonder if we left one child behind in TX and somehow arrived her in LA with another one! Both AG and LL were troopers through the daily grind of the house hunt and AG is looking forward to having "the movers" bring back lots of the items she misses when we get to the new house. Here are a few photos so you can see how they are growing! The one of both was taken in our front yard in Austin the week before we moved; the others here in our temporary apartment with AG keeping the stroller wheels hot and LL showing off her favorite new funny face!

Check Us Out!

We all enjoyed a recent trip to the Austin Children's Museum...AG especially liked the little grocery store area. She shopped and then took over the cashier duties, as you can see! She's gotten more and more into pretend play lately and it's always fun to see what she comes up with next. LL is officially, though unconventionally, "crawling" and can cover a good distance quickly now, even with her own unique style of keeping one leg out in front of her and kind of scooting along on her hands, bottom, and other leg. She's also discovered AG's baby dolls and got acquainted with one of them during AG's nap one day! And...she cut her 6th tooth yesterday!

This may be my last chance to blog until after our move...we'll post more pics and news as soon as we get settled in our new place. Love to all!

Raisins and Burgers and Peas....Oh My!

We have two little pigs at our house...two cute little blonde-haired, blue-eyed pigs. LL has gotten into "baby" food, literally, with gusto over the last few months, and now that she has three (almost four!) teeth, I imagine that it won't take her long to get into the real stuff, too. Here's a picture of her showing off her teeth after enjoying some peas. The other day AG decided to help herself to some raisins...alot of raisins. Mommy was distracted when this self-serve operation began, so I don't know how much of the mountain she had done away with before I noticed. And then she had another culinary adventure, one she certainly had to have before we left Texas...her first Whataburger! Although she seemed to think the burger was OK, she was much more impressed with the fries, and her Daddy will probably remember to get his own next time! (Notice the ketchup pool she made for her fries on top of her hamburger?) LL watched patiently from a high chair, as you can see. Maybe next time we come to Austin she can have her own burger... (PS: You've probably noticed that the photos are usually out of the order referenced in my writings...I try to get them right, but it never works, and I'm trusting that you can figure out which is which!)

Seriously Silly

AG has come down with a case of the sillies over the last few months. It's always been one of our favorite pastimes to make her laugh, but more and more it seems she is the one making us laugh. For a few weeks she's been randomly taking off her shorts and I think she thinks it's fun to run around in her diaper whether Mommy notices or not, but the other day she came bopping into the room making sure I would take note... because she had her shorts on her head! Thankfully, the camera was handy, so you can see, too. Another example of her silliness is that for a few weeks each night when I ask her what story she wants to read, she'd say "green beans." I'd kind of laugh and was thinking, "OK, maybe there's something in one of her books about green beans...one day I'll figure it out." But tonight when I asked which book, she said, "Lima beans!" It is really fun to see what she will come up with next these days.

On the Move

It's been an eventful few weeks at our house...amidst all our prep to get the house "market-ready" and starting to plan for our move to BR, LL has found time to do some serious teething (see pic for just one of many examples!), become forwardly mobile in her own unique way (hands and knees are involved from time to time, as you can see), and even work on her balance while standing. She's developing a higher level of determination every day to reach her "goals"...which may be any toy, camera, ball, or shoe she thinks is accessible...her selection has narrowed since most of our "stuff" is neatly put away as we show the house, but she's pretty motivated anyway. She has a good cheerleader in AG, although AG has taken on a new level of vigilance about her own "stuff" now that LL is able to get to it!

Road Trip!

Seems like it's been a while...since I posted, but also since we made the 500+ mile drive to visit our families in MS. We caught up on the latter over a long holiday weekend and had a wonderful time seeing all the grandparents, friends, and other family members we could squeeze in while we were there. There were lots of memorable moments on this trip. A big highlight was the celebration of 35 years of marriage of my parents, Jim and Martha, aka "PopPop and Gran." We enjoyed a special dinner with them and some of their friends and family, at which the girls made a brief appearance before their bedtimes (see picture). AG got her first "up close and personal" view of a real live turtle at their house, also, as well as seeing and hearing lots of trains, which she always enjoys. Fun was also had with "Nana and Grandpa": AG got to help pick tomatoes and squash in the garden, went to a big park with Nana and Grandpa, and went swimming twice with her Daddy...she seemed to enjoy having an audience of other family members and neighbors watch her as she kicked, blew bubbles, and jumped off the side of the pool at least 2 dozen times. She also had fun modeling some of her Nana's mother's earrings...her first time to wear "earmeens," as she likes to call them. Doesn't she look lovely? LL, who had discovered how to clap just a few days before our trip, got lots of practice by playing pat-a-cake with Nana. She also started to get the hang of eating her first finger food...sweet potato "puffs" which were worth all the effort to get them from her tray to her little fist to her mouth, as you can see in the picture. LL also got to show off her first two teeth! We returned with a little less sleep but alot more memories to cherish.