A Halloween Masterpiece

Sammy's House Costume Ball

For the past several months I have been involved with the fundraising committee for a local non-profit called, Sammy's House. Sammy's House is a day care for developmentally challenged and/or medically fragile children. A place like this is very hard to find for families that need extra special care for their little ones and who absolutely need to be able to work to pay off mountains of medical bills.

When I heard back in January that they needed a good team to put together a successful fundraiser I jumped in whole-heartedly not really knowing what I was getting myself into. Turns out putting together a charity ball with a silent and live auction (which is what I was in charge of) is a whole bunch of work! Pediatric Cardiology of Austin (Byron and his partners) became the presenting sponsors for this event and Byron and I invited our closest friends to join us for a fun night and a good cause. The party was such a success and we raised more than double the amount of money that they usually raise! There were definite learning pains, but I am so happy we did well and am super confident the following years will be better and better.

Byron was Ricky Bobby from Talledega Nights and I was The Tooth Fairy (Dorky? Yes. But it's the best I could come up with!)

Thanks to our awesome friends who helped us have a great night!!!

The Sanchez', The Rileys', The Rodriguez', The Dallas' and The Marascios' (not pictured)

Pumpkin Patch 2010

Today, we made our annual trekk to Sweet Berry Farm in Marble Falls to check out the pumpkin patch. Now, I think we usually go later in the season but this was really the only free weekend we could squeeze it in and we learned a very important lesson today. That lesson is that if you hit the pumpkin patch before Halloween you will be there with about 2000 other people. It was crazy packed!! We usually go out there for a quiet, peaceful little family outing and, of course, fun photo op but today it felt like utter chaos and translated to loooooong lines for every. little. thing.

We still enjoyed ourselves and took some cute pictures, but we certainly did not dawdle around or feel peaceful when we left. Lesson learned. Anyhoo, enjoy the pics....

Sweet Snow White :)

We had Gaby's tooth fixed just in time for some Halloween costume pictures. Since we are in the throws of being a 3 yr old, you can imagine there was only one way to go for a Halloween costume this year...........a Disney princess, of course! What a lovely Snow White :)

All Better!!

Today, we went to my office to see if Miss Gaby would cooperate to fix her tooth. And would you believe it? She was a total angel!! She did AMAZING while I bonded her tooth. I think she understood that this HAD to be done and she was so anxious to get her tooth fixed that she sat perfectly still and let me do my thing. Headphones and Dora on TV didn't hurt either ;-)

Back to normal!!

I am so very proud of my sweet girl and you can tell she is also very proud of herself.

Way to go, kiddo :) !!!

A Dentist's Worst Nightmare...

My beautiful, sweet daughter fell down today and chipped one of her front teeth. That's such a bummer. Poor thing was pretty traumatized when it happened. I think I've always impressed on her how careful you have to be with your front teeth that she pretty much thought it was the end of the world. I had to reassure her that "Mom is a tooth doctor and will fix it for her". Except that a couple of months ago when I took her in for her first visit, she would barely let me take an xray, much less clean her teeth. So we'll see how it goes tomorrow. Hopefully, she will be a tough cookie and let me do what I have to do. I'll keep ya posted. And of course, I had to take pictures of this very important moment in her young life... That's one sad little girl :(

BFFs :)

Gaby & Ellie fooling around!

Kiddie Acres

Gaby's friend, Maddie, had her 4th birthday party at Kiddie Acres a little while ago. We've been invited there before but have never been able to make it until this time. It's this cute little amusement park for the 7 and under crowd. It's pretty basic and a little rundown but a total blast for the kiddos. Gaby had such a good time riding all the rides. There was even a pony! It was alot of fun :)

San Diego 2010

We just got back from what is now my new favorite city (except for Austin, of course) in the country- San Diego!!! We took a 6 day vacation to sunny California with Mimi and Papa. The Tramontes were supposed to join us also but had to cancel last minute which was a major bummer. Although we missed having them with us and getting to see Gaby & Mia enjoy all the sites together we still had a great trip. San Diego is awesome and has so much to offer so we kept ourselves busy and attempted to see as much as we could.

The morning we landed we headed straight to the world famous San Diego Zoo! It really is a wonderful zoo with not only great animals, but beautiful plants and trees all around. We took a bus tour, rode the air tram, and walked around for hours. Gaby's favorite animals on this zoo visit were the pandas- they were sooo cute!

We spent the next couple of nights in La Jolla which is such a quaint little beach town- beautiful and laid back. It was pretty chilly in the mornings and nights so we did not attempt to get into the ocean although I was so surprised at how many people actually got into the frigid 61 degree water. But we played on the beach and dipped our feet in the water. There is alot to see in La Jolla- the La Jolla Cove, Children's Pool (which is where all the harbor seals live), The Torrey Pines Reserve, Mount Soledad, just to name a few.

One day we headed to Carlsbad, California to visit Legoland! It is the perfect amusement park for the under 8 crowd. Gaby was a daredevil as usual and had an absolute blast riding all the rides and roller coasters.

The last two days of our trip we parted ways with Mimi and Papa who began their 3 wk California/Seattle/Alaskan cruise vacation (lucky kids!!) and headed to Mission Bay which is more central San Diego to check out the sites there. We took a cruise of San Diego Bay to see some navy ships, seals and sea lions, the Coronado Bridge, and other famous San Diego sites.

I just love San Diego and think it is such a neat city! I can see why it is always ranked so high as one of the best places to live in the U.S. Hopefully we can go back and visit again sometime :)

As you can imagine, I took over 600 pictures and it was very hard to narrow it down to the select few I've posted here. But I think these give a pretty good glimpse of our little vacation....

Fun :)

Double Past Tense

Do all three and a half year olds do this?

It is so darn cute, most of the time I don't want to correct her.

But her Daddy is a stickler for proper speaking!

My thought is she's going to figure it all out eventually, right?

Here are a few of the cutest gems...

"He licked-ed me!"- talking about the puppies

"Mommy, I bonked-ed my head!"

"I ran-ded all the way here!"

"Did you bought-ed it for me?"

Cutie :)

Labor Day Weekend

We were lucky enough to spend Labor Day Weekend at our friend's, The Brauchles, house in Lake Livingston. They have a beautiful home there and invited us and the Hulshofs there for some lake fun. We had a blast riding the boat and jet skis and just hanging out and relaxing. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was beautiful out there! Gary & Kyle Brauchle Jumping off the boat dock... Tubing off the jet ski. Gaby had NO fear! The kiddos- Owen, Gaby & Kyle. Jet skiing w/her daddy. Again, NO fear! Water hose fun! Riding the boat... Waiting for daddy to get up on the skis... Go, Byron, gooooo!!! Sunset cruising... Yipeee!!!!!!! We had such a great time in Lake Livingston.

Thank you Gary, Maren & Kyle for an awesome weekend!

Back to the Routine

This fall we've decided to do two extracurricular activities. Since Gaby is now going to school Mon, Wed and Fri that leaves one a day on Tues and Thurs. Gaby's picks for this fall are dance and swimming. This year we decided to try another dance school, Synergy Dance, to see if we like it better than last year's school. Gaby and five of her old classmates all moved to the new school and so far the girls are really enjoying it and the moms are much happier with the new place.

Walking in...

There's Reese, Ellington, Maddie, Gaby & Elizabeth.

She also started back up at Emler Swim School and is in the Advanced Beginner class (This is the 3rd level for kids 4yrs and up. Gaby has bypassed the first two levels and as you know isn't even 4 yet. That's my girl!!) She has definitely become an confident, fearless swimmer this summer, but being in this new class she will actually be working on form and strokes. It's starting to get a little serious now ;-)

Sooo happy to be back at Emler...

Doing the I-glide...

A small class means much more personalized attention. Her classmate, June.

Keeping her bottom up and big splashy kickers...

I look forward to watching Gaby learn a whole bunch of new skills this fall and have fun doing it! It's good to be back into a normal routine again!!