The Hermitage

 On the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, we got in free to The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's home. I guess this is the battle that made him famous.

  

 

The cotton blossoms were past season, but they looked pretty. We went with a few friends, including Ty's little friend Olivia.

 

 

 

 Channeling Harry Potter:

When Daddy's Away...

Tim has been on a lot work related trips the past few months, so at home, we have to keep ourselves busy.

 

 

 

I love when people at church take Lucy so I get a break. I don't even think they mind!

 

Okay, occasionally we splurge and go to Chick fil a without daddy.

 

 

 Apparently, Ty ate plenty. He also loves pushing Lucy around in the high chair with wheels on it (below).

Happy New Year!: Texas Christmas Part 4

Happy New Year from our crazy family! Grandma Diney planned a masquerade party for us. The kids got to make their own masks. Ty went for Optimus Prime from Transformers. Even now, about 3 weeks later, he loves his mask!

The Denzer's came up from McAllen to celebrate. We had so much fun when they lived in Denver, so Ty was happy to have his cousins back!

Mexican for dinner.

We all got to open a silly gift. Uncle Scott got this fitting cat calendar.

Grandpa Rod did a magic show and we set some fireworks off in the backyard. In Mexico, it's a tradition for Easter and other holidays to get these colored eggs with confetti in them and break them over someones head. Lucy enjoyed hers (see below).

Many mornings, we woke up to Mackenzie's cocoa stand, but it was official on New Years morning.

Ty thought he was so cool playing with older cousin Seth.

And Lucy got plenty of extra snuggles from both Sarah and Shelby!

These kids are just too cute!

We had a great trip to Texas for Christmas and New Years. We already miss everyone!

Anniversary: Texas Christmas Part 3

 

I know it's hard to believe because we are just so young and vibrant, but Tim and I reached our 9 YEAR ANNIVERSARY while in Texas! On our honeymoon, we visited an old mission in Southern California. To remind us of that, Tim planned an awesome date for us to rent the city bikes and ride between three of the 5 in San Antonio! Though I do the exercise bike often, I hadn't been on a bike in YEARS! Unlike exercise bikes, you actually have to steer these bikes; it was amazing and adventurous and SO FUN!  We are so grateful to Tim's family for watching the kids during our long adventure.

We started in the middle at Mission San Jose. It had a nice visitor center and was much bigger than the others. It was just so pretty!

 

 Next was San Juan. This one had a pretty walking trail just outside of it.

And furthest south was Mission Espada.

 From here, we rode back to San Jose and drove up to the Riverwalk for lunch with a view!

 We finished by walking by the Alamo, the furthest north Mission. It's hard to see in the picture below because we are rookies to selfies, but we were there!

Happy Anniversary! To many more years...

Presents and More Presents: Texas Christmas Part 2

 Most of Christmas and Christmas Eve were spent around the house enjoying each others' company. We had an amazing dinner and did a short program on Christmas Eve, followed by each of us opening one present.

 Tim got a fun Marble Run from his parents.

Anticipation as the kids are on their way to see what Santa had brought them!

 Lego's and a Transformers Boulder!!!

 Ty got a fun Hungry Hungry Hippo game from Matthew and Mackenzie!

 Lucy got her own set of Lego's because she likes them every bit as much as Ty does!

 Hanging out.

 Such fun and great gifts!

Christmas evening, we ate another amazing dinner followed by figgy pudding. Mmm! Pretty and delicious!

Playing on Christmas and the days after:

Ty got an awesome Nature Kit, handmade by Grandma Diney. He and Matthew enjoyed going to "do nature." We took them to Landa park the day after Christmas (because everyone else was sick), and Ty caught a bee! Luckily, he didn't get stung.

As mentioned above, more than half of the household got sick. Really sick. It was like living in a zombie apocalypse movie when one person after another ended up hovered over a toilet then disappeared to their room. We are so lucky none of our family got sick (we had something similar a few months before, maybe it was the same thing???), but we tried to stay out of the house. The weather was amazing, so we ate dinner at a Greek Restaurant and walked around a great San Antonio neighborhood to see their lights!