Merry + Bright

A couple of weeks ago, I could hear that the kids weren't sleeping, which, honestly, is not that unusual for our kids. Especially Aspen, who is our resident night owl! Earlier that week, I had taken them to pick out some lights to decorate their room. Aspen wanted white lights, and Sawyer wanted the colorful ones. Well, white lights must be popular, because we couldn't find them anywhere. But, good sport that Aspen is, she didn't mind when Sawyer offered to share the colored lights with her. So, we made a starry garland with white and cream colored stars, and hung the colorful lights all around. That night I went in to check on them...this is what I found. It was so enchanting and magical, I quietly went and grabbed my camera and snuck in to capture a bit of the wonder of childhood. It brought me right back to my own. My heart was overflowing and I didn't care that it was almost midnight. Watching my son fall asleep under the twinkling bright lights and my little daughter dance on her bed and tell her little bed "friends" all about the lights was more than I could ask for, or wish for - they are, after all, my dream come true. I thank my Heavenly Father for them, daily, and often feel undeserving of these, my greatest gifts. Really? These are for me? They are mine? How I will treasure them, forever!

May your Christmas be Merry, Magical, and Bright! 
May we thank the Lord for our greatest gifts, and the greatest gift of all...His son.

xoxo The Carters

Mr. and Mrs. Claus

Last night we went to Zilker Park and the Trail of Lights. I thought it would be fun - but little did I know how big an event it is! For those who know what the Seattle Center is like during Bumbershoot or Folk Life, I now know that Austin's equivalent is Zilker Park festivals (after all, we do host ACL and SXSW). We got there almost two hours before they opened the gates, and still there were throngs of people. We parked, walked, and found a place to eat (most of the sit down restaurants had a 1-2 hour waits so we just got burgers, fries (and peppermint + chocolate milkshakes!) at P. Terry's, and then got in line. I think we entered the trail around 7:30pm. It was one mile of millions of lights and all sorts of fun characters and set ups including The Grinch, Charlie Brown and Co., Winnie the Pooh and Co., Dora, The Chipmunks, synchronized trees to music, etc. etc. etc. We enjoyed live bands and stepping on each others' toes :) We had our double BOB stroller, one baby in arms (and ergo), one toddler in stroller, and one kid in a backpack - plus I brought my camera backpack (heavy) because this was going to be our only chance to see Santa this year! Wow! Jacob and I felt like pack mules! We had brought jackets and things, thinking it would be chilly - but no, this is Austin! We were nice and toasty in our t-shirts :) It's supposed to be 77 degrees today. I like how the air is slightly crisp in the evening - some evenings, it's chilly - but mostly, the weather is just fantastic. People here look forward to this weather all summer long :)  Anyway, we've had a few sick days around here so had to be flexible with our advent and one of the sick days was the day we were going to see Santa. So, I was happy we could see him tonight. Last year, Aspen completely FREAKED out. This year, she saw that her friend was so happy and excited to see Santa that she was feeling pretty excited herself. She practiced over and over. I said "What are you going to say when Santa asks 'Now, what do YOU want for Christmas?'" and she said "I would love a baby ballerina doll". Then, we were in line to see Santa, and she got nervous, but she was still brave. She marched up there with Daddy and her baby sister, and she ended up sitting on Daddy's lap, and having him do the talking - but she didn't cry or run away. Hazel was one of the most popular "lights" at the event - wow she had a lot of admirers! None too shy, either. During Santa, she got to sit on Mrs. Claus' (aka Jessica if you've ever seen the old movie "Santa Claus is Coming to Town") lap - and she just stared right up at her and looked around with her big, wide eyes. It was cute. I was a little sad, because Sawyer was still a bit under the weather and had no desire to jump up and go sit on Santa's lap. Poor kid. I told him we can leave a note for Santa to let him know what his Christmas wish is this year (can you say STAR WARS!?!) We finally made it through the trail of lights and then walked over to the huge "tree" made of lights. It was of course a magical evening. I absolutely love the secular part of Christmas. Is that bad to admit? I don't think so...because in all honesty, everywhere I look - I am reminded of Christ, even in all the fun "non-spiritual" parts - I mean - LIGHTS. 

HE is the LIGHT of the WORLD. 
I love lights and the symbol they are of Christ and Christmas.

Happy Christmas "Adam" everyone! I can hardly believe tomorrow is already Christmas Eve! So much fun!

Holidays // Gingerbread Houses

The other night, we did gingerbread houses. I wimped out this year and just bought one of those kits, and then we added some candy from the bulk bins at the grocery store - I hate ending up with tons of candy left over because then it's much too tempting to eat it! We listened to Christmas music, and as the evening progressed and the kids consumed more candy as they built their houses, the music seemed to get louder and the kids were just about bouncing off the walls :) They didn't actually fall sleep until well past eleven. Eleven-thirty for our resident night owl (that would be Aspen). We all had fun, and even though Hazel didn't get to sneak any candy, she was sure happy about being part of everything, crawling around the living room, dancing a song here or there with Mama or Daddy. I love these little traditions. As Christmas draws near (three more sleeps!) I can't help but think about all the fun we've had this month with all of our different little advent activities. We have to be flexible at times, like when unexpected things like a fever creeps in one night, or friends invite us to join them for some fun, but for the most part we stick to our little list. It makes it fun for everyone, and while I designed all of it with the kids in mind, we end up having a blast right along with them :)

PS - Sawyer insisted on wearing his skeleton pjs, even though I reminded him those are more in the Halloween genre. Part of me wanted to insist right back that he wear something more holiday appropriate - but I just let it go. Sometimes you just gotta roll with it, right? He was having a blast jumping around in his skeleton pjs, wearing jingle bells. It made for a cute and fun memory of our four year old boy!

The Nutcracker (a family movie)

Ah, the ballet. During this time of year, my head spins with beautiful ballerinas and my mood is lifted by listening to one of my favorite classical suites - The Nutcracker. We knew our kids were too little to take to the ballet, so last year we got the storybook and NYC Ballet's version on DVD to see if they enjoyed the story and the dancing. I thought for sure they'd be bored with the "movie" version but to my surprise, they loved it! Several times throughout the year we have watched it, and when they unwrapped the book again this year in their stack of advent books - it was sheer delight at remembrance of the magical story. We almost took them this year. I found a ballet school production that was only 1.5 hours long - about half the time as the traditional ballet when performed by a professional company. I think Sawyer would have been able to sit through it, and be excited about it without a problem. Aspen gets a little more wiggly though, so I thought maybe better to wait a bit longer. And Hazel, well, you just never know with a baby. BUT I feared if I just took Sawyer, that Aspen would be utterly heartbroken if she didn't get to go, so we put it off for another year. Next year will be the golden ticket to the ballet.

This year, to have fun with it, I had this bright idea of putting on a little performance ourselves. I made each child a tutu and some themed masks (Sawyer wanted a black one and after I went to the trouble of making it he decided he didn't want to wear it, imagine that - but I bribed him with a candy cane, and now I have some video of him that is priceless!) I got the idea for the masks from an etsy shop - no wonder they were expensive, while the supplies are inexpensive, it took me all day to make those masks! But they turned out rather darling, I must admit. Especially on my little ones! 

Side note: Aspen's best girlfriend, Ruby, sent her a package in the mail a couple of months back. It was so sweet and Aspen was overjoyed. Besides some other fun stuff, Ruby sent Aspen this ballerina necklace. Her mom said she picked it out just for Aspen. Ruby knows that Aspen loves ballerinas. It's such a sweet little reminder of her special girlfriend. She wears it all the time. It has surprised me how much she misses her dear little friend. I thought she was young enough that most of her memories of people in Seattle would fade rather quickly, but that has not been the case at all. She still thinks about/talks about her "Ruby Duby" all the time. Sometimes when she's having a hard time going to sleep she will tell me that she misses Ruby. It makes me so sad. Anyway, thanks Ruby, for being a sweet friend to my Aspen Jane. And thank you for the ballerina necklace!

Without further ado, here are some of the cast in our family production of the Nutcracker...

Aspen - The Sugar Plum Fairy

Sawyer - The Mouse King

Hazel - Waltzing Flowers

The kids were excited all day long about doing our performance the other evening. We tried on costumes and I even dug out my old leotard, tights, and bloch slippers and squeeeezed my way into them. We practiced and had so much fun. We watched the NYC ballet version during the day and listened to Tchaikovsky all afternoon. To add to the festive and happy mood, I made egg nog french toast for dinner...everything was sparkly and shiny with all the Christmas lights and tulle around. I think Jacob was slightly shocked surprised when he walked in the door from work and there was his wife and children all dressed like ballerinas. He was a good sport and joined in the fun - he's pretty awesome like that. To add to the drama, Aspen fell asleep at the dinner table! We let her take a cat nap and then woke her up for the big production. It wasn't as seamless as I'd envisioned - I would probably describe it as more "interpretive dance" than an especially graceful ballet, but it was fun nonetheless and that's all I was hoping for. I caught a few glimpses on video and put together a little souvenir of our show. It's a very condensed version of our evening performance - so if your littles are too little to sit through the ballet, feel free to show our version (it's barely over two minutes long). Please laugh freely at our silly family and don't hesitate to ENJOY THE SHOW! *and don't you doubt that one day Aspen and Hazel will grace the stage...gracefully! (if they're interested, of course;)

Family Nutcracker 2012 from Tysha on Vimeo.

O Christmas Tree - A Video

Over the weekend, we got our Christmas Tree. It's the first time since we've been married that we got a real one. We got a Noble Fir and between the scent of our tree and Christmas cookies, our little home is smelling quite heavenly. 

Hazel's first solids

Hazel has been showing signs of readiness for her first food for several weeks longer than I'd like to admit. I was the one who wasn't feeling quite ready. Over the weekend, she hit SIX months(!!!) so I figured it was time! So, yesterday before rushing out the door and off to church, we sat her in the little bouncy seat, snapped on a bib, and had at it. She was more than ready - no hesitating, she took to the spoon like a natural and ate like a champ!

Something I didn't think to consider as our family grew, was how much fun it is to have the older siblings be so excited about all the milestones of the littlest family member. Sawyer and Aspen are a year and a half apart, so kind of too close to appreciate those types of things (or more like Sawyer was still little enough that he would've shoved the spoon down Aspens throat or in in her eye if we weren't careful!) - but having the older two a little, ahem, older, this time around, is soooo much fun! It makes every milestone that much more of a celebration! They each had a turn giving her a few spoonfuls, and now I have plenty of volunteers for helpers at mealtime :)

Yes, it's safe to say the food was a big hit. She was super excited about it this morning. We did take some video as well but of course I'm too lazy to post it, for now. I need to do a six month post eventually, so maybe I'll post some video then...but for now, DIG IN, Hazel Gracie! Enjoy the goodness that is FOOD!

Chuy's Children Giving to Children Parade

Here's a few images from our first advent activity - the Children  Giving to Children Parade downtown. It was 82 degrees! It felt like summer, but we were celebrating the Christmas Season. I'm still trying to get used to it (but not complaining, either). I took the kids to pick out a few new toys to donate - basically, there is a fun parade, but at a certain time, it stops. Santa's helpers invite the crowd to come out into the street and donate their toys - and truckloads are filled! The Blue Santa (aka Austin Police) find homes for those toys, where a child will appreciate and love them. So fun for everyone! I loved shopping with my kids, and seeing what they picked out, knowing it was not for themselves, but for another child. When I explained the event to them, I got all teary when I told them how some mommies and daddies aren't able to get presents for their children, but they wish so badly that they could. So Blue Santa and his helpers help those mommies and daddies so their children can be happy and get a present under the tree. Mixed with all my emotion, somehow my own kids were touched - at least it was very evident that this subject is one that is close to my heart, for a variety of reasons. I thank my own mother for instilling the love of giving in my heart.

Anyway, back to the parade. It was Christmas, Austin style!

The bagpipes - reminded me of my Grandma Iris. She always loved the bagpipes :)

Elvis even helped gather some of the toys. Funny thing is, our kids have NO idea who Elvis is, but I wasn't surprised to see him at the parade - Austin is, after all, the Live Music Capitol of the World - and he's the King.

This is just one of the many trucks filled with toys - toys from children, to bless other children. Such a  sweet idea.

A Christmas Parade wouldn't be complete without a showing of the Big Man himself - and his Mrs., in this case! I think they both wanted a mini vacay from the North Pole, hot rod and all :)

After the parade, we went in search of food. The littles were tired, so rode in the BOB. Hazel slept through most of the parade in the big girl backpack. We walked over to Whole Foods for some lunch, and had a nice time just walking around our city. The leaves are finally turning a little and starting to fall. 

We ate outside, as it was such a gorgeous day. This pigeon kept coming over to try and steal crumbs from under the kids' seats. They kind of freaked out and screamed a little bit. It was both funny and embarrassing. You would've thought they ran into a snake or something :)

And the bebe woke up for lunch. I tried to nurse her, but there was so much going on, she wasn't really interested. The thing she is ALWAYS interested in, though, are her toes. She sucks on them like no other.

Such a cute girl! And such a fun day! Oh, how I love Saturday's with all of my favorite people!