life lately // april

Well, we must be having a TON of FUN, because time is sure flying by at mach 10 lately! I am a bad Mama, haven't taken a monthly portrait of my baby yet this month - I've got just a few days left before she turns 11 months old! Can you believe it? She's rounding the corner to her first birthday, already!?! She stands independently and takes a few steps before falling to her knees because she's lightening fast at crawling and it gets her there faster. It's cute to see her just stand right up in the middle of the room, put her hands high in the air (soooo  big!) and then toddle a few steps. It won't be long before she's tearing around the house at full speed! She sure is a sweetheart. She's had a rough go the past couple weeks with all FOUR of her top teeth trying to break through the gums - they're almost there. It makes for some uncomfortable nights for the poor dear. My baby is slowly, yet quickly, disappearing and before I know it she'll be a toddler! With 6 teeth! I'm excited to celebrate her first birthday in June. But like most Mamas, it's a little bit sad to say goodbye to that first amazing whirlwind of a year where they start sooooo tiny and helpless and end up running into your arms with a huuuge smile that shows of their few little teeth. Crazy! Makes me want to just keep on having babies...I really hope I will have a strong feeling when our family is "complete" because right now I'm not sure I'll ever feel that way? 

Since she's good at balancing and taking a few steps, the kids decided to "hand down" or give Hazel their old little bike. Hazel was THRILLED to feel like such a big girl, riding a bike! It was so cute! Sawyer and Aspen were equally thrilled watching her and cheering her on!

The warm spring days are even warmer than the warmest summer days in Seattle. Everyone keeps warning us about how HOT summer will be, but in the meantime, we've really enjoyed the weather here. Immensely! Walks to the park, playing in the sand, spray and splash pads, pool, picnics, bbqs - it's my kind of life. The smell of sunscreen and dinner on the grill. A splash in the pool to start or end the day - I LOVE it! And of course, so do the kids!

It's so awesome that because of the wonderful weather, people can have parties outside whenever they please. We attended a birthday party at the park under a huge old oak tree. It was magical! We will have to plan a party outside one of these days...speaking of party planning - we've got TWO birthdays coming up! I don't think they'll be outside this year - but we are planning Sawyer's 5th birthday, which he has requested to be a LEGO party! It's going to be so much fun! And Hazel is going to have a small party with just our family. So fun to have so many reasons to celebrate! We got a head start on party prep and the kids helped me peel a bunch of old crayons and melt them in mold into lego bricks and little lego men (we'll use as party favors). Aren't they cool? I think so!

The big news of the month is that we closed on our new home! Did I mention that we bought a house? We are so so excited! We have a month of overlap between ending our current lease for our apartment so we decided to start on a couple of projects before we move in and have to be in the middle of it all. So, now, we're kind of half way packing and in between and running back and forth -- it's a little crazy. But, it is exciting and it will pass. We'll be moved in soon - the kids are absolutely thrilled!

Someone from our church moved recently, and gave us a ton of boxes to use. The boxes take up 1/3 of our living room in our apartment, or so it seems. They have turned into a climbing wall, ice skating rink, and other various fun things. At first it was fun, and now it's kinda driving me nuts - but hey, just part of the process, right? At least the kids are enjoying it! Even Hazel is amazing at climbing the slippery "wall". 

Okay. Call my CRAZY! (because you KNOW I AM!!!) I decided I wanted to start making our house our home, "ours" by starting in the very heart of it - the kitchen! I wanted to paint the cabinets white, add new sparkly hardware, and brighten things up a bit. So, I studied and researched for HOURS and DAYS and WEEKS and came up with a master plan of how that would happen. Let me tell you, it is a TON of work! And it's really hard to do with little children, and a family. And thank GOODNESS we're doing it while living elsewhere. Like most DIY projects, it costs A LOT less to do it yourself. Like under $500 vs. $5,000. So, I'm doing it. Crazy? Definitely! Worth it? I'll let you know once I'm done!

We've also started narrowing down paint selections and putting a few samples up (okay, maybe more than a few) on the walls. We will study them in all sorts of light and live with them for at least a week before we decide on the winners. Although I may go ahead and decide and do Hazel's room because I really want it to be painted so we don't have to rustle her around. She's been in our room, and sleeping with us, up until now, and so I want to only have to make one transition for her. Jacob is also getting me a much-longed for and anticipated super comfortable gliding/swivel rocking chair to put in her room. I'm so excited about it! It will take a long time to get our house all decorated etc. but we're trying to start with the most important things, first. A rocker was pretty high up on the list :)

The kids have been amazing, as always. Wonderful little troopers while I drag them around to lots of errands and attempt to do some things around the new house with them under foot. They are seriously such good sports. And they play SO well together. Sometimes I feel a little bad that we hardly ever do playdates - but we don't really need to, since they're best friends. Something exciting, though, is that I met some of our new neighbors and there is a little girl right next door who is Aspen's age, and a boy across the street who is Sawyer's age. How fun is that?

Last Sunday we took the kids to our new home to have a picnic dinner in the back yard. We knew all along we were buying a home for them, more than for us, but WOW, it's crazy how excited they are to have more room to run and a huge back yard! Aspen decided to start moving some of her special, important stuff (ie toys) over to the house. "Look Mama, I'm stroooong!" 

Amidst the craziness and chaos that is our lives the next few weeks as we get ready to move and get settled, I noticed we have a couple of beautiful rose bushes on each side of our house. And they're all blooming. Good reminder - even during times of craziness, it's good to stop and smell the roses. For reals! We are feeling so so very blessed, yet also a bit overwhelmed with all we have to do in the next three weeks. Let the crazy fun begin (well, it already has!)

Favorite Trio

I meant to share this a couple of months ago, but just now got around to it while organizing some digital files and *attempting* to clean off my desktop a bit. A couple of years back, Jacob helped me do silhouettes of the kids - which have since hung in their shared bedroom. I think Sawyer was barely two, and Aspen was around ten months at the time. I just loved them! I had an empty frame just waiting for something...so Jacob updated the Silhouettes by doing a new ones of all three of our kiddos. Sawyer is 4, Aspen just turned 3, and Hazel about 7 months in these. I love seeing their little profiles. It has been said that three is a "magic" number. Yes, it is! Loving and cherishing these three, my favorite trio ever!

Outings // SXSW: bring your own chair

A few weeks back, Jacob and I were stoked to experience our first SXSW (South by Southwest - only the biggest live music festival in the world!!!). We were especially excited because The Butler Bros - Jacob's new office - puts on one of the only very cool, yet family-oriented, events. It was an all-day event with six different bands, fun stuff for the kids, yummy food trucks - one of which was GoodPops - a popsicle stand where I had the best popsicle(s) (or 2 or 3) of my life (not kidding - hibiscus mint...you've got to try it!) and just an overall super awesome day with the fam. You can see a little video re-capping the day on the Bros blog, here. 

Have I mentioned yet how much we love the weather here in ATX? Can you say...perfect? Okay, I know we haven't been here for summertime yet, but from what I hear 6 weeks of "hot as hell" is worth the rest of the year being utterly amazing. Everyone has air conditioning and a pool nearby, or a river to float - I think we'll survive. But, yes, we are thoroughly enjoying the sunshine and warm temps here in Texas. LOVE LOVE LOVE!

So, our kids had been kinda chill just relaxin' in the shade of our little tent cover thingy, and eating their trailer food (and popsicles!), but finally when the Danish band Tako Lako came on for their set (btw they were awesome! such good energy!), something inside Aspen was set free. She was mesmerized and decided to just get up and dance like I know she can. Perhaps she was being a little shy before (we have plenty of dance parties at home, so I know she has moves) but she just let it loose and it was SO fun. I've been known to dance with the hippies...her Daddy, too...so perhaps, it's just in her genes. Any way around it, it was cute and we even captured a little iPhone video of our whirling dervish girl.

Even though it was a long day, Tako Lako gave the kids their second wind and they kept going strong. They found an ice chest with the melty ice and started playing with the melting ice cubes. Eventually, more kids joined them. Aspen danced so crazy, her little buns fell out, and she decided to try to take a dip in the ice chest. Good times, I tell ya, good times. 

We can hardly wait for next year!

SXSW 2013 from Tysha on Vimeo.

Easter 2013 (and a tea party!)

The other morning, I was reading to the kids, and we read a Fancy Nancy book about tea parties. All of a sudden, their eyes lit up and they asked if we could have a tea party, like Fancy Nancy - alfresco ("that's Italian for outside"). We had no car, no other plans, and it was almost lunch time, so...why not? I already had some muffins cooking in the oven, and our cupboards were literally almost bare (we're getting ready to move, ya know?) so I decided to make some sun tea and that we could eat the muffins, and that could be our tea party.

I carried their little table and some chairs outside (our apartment backs to some greenery - to cover up the freeway on the other side ;) and they picked some little purple flowers they found amongst the weeds, and there we were. When they said they wanted to get fancy, I had them put on their Easter clothes, because you know what? I haven't been very good at all about picking up my camera, and thought maybe I should at least get a few pictures of them all Easter-ish and cute. So, that's the story of our little spur-of-the-moment tea party. They were too excited to sit still anywhere for very long - and we also brought out the Easter baskets and they put little trinkets in them and we had a little Egg Hunt as well, along with our tea. 

How's that for Fancy? I was the only one who wasn't as fancy. I did wear a skirt - but with flip flops. And do you know what? Fire ants started crawling on my legs and that got me jumping a bit. I am sure I didn't look very lady like. But such is life, we can't all be as fancy as, well, Nancy, I suppose :)

Today we did our Easter Baskets (we don't really talk about a bunny delivering baskets, the kids just know that they get some surprises in their baskets). We also took them to an Easter Egg Hunt at our church. It's nice to do the fun and rather sugary part of Easter the day before. Sunday, we try to focus on the more spiritual part of Easter. It's a nice balance and so far it's been a relaxing and fun weekend. There is a tradition here in Texas that is new to us, which is confetti eggs. Have any of you done the confetti eggs? I have never heard of them. Jacob's co-worker sent some home for the kids to do - and he just remembered tonight. So they'll get to do the magical confetti eggs tomorrow after church. Good times!

Though we often have picnics, I was happy that we took the time to have a little tea party, alfresco. Sipping sun tea on a weekday afternoon with three of the most darling little people in the world was something my soul needed. I love my little family more than anything and hope you all have a wonderful and memorable sabbath as we reflect upon our loving Savior at this Easter time. Happy Easter!

8/9 months

I realized a week or so ago that I failed at posting any pictures or my monthly update on all that Hazel is doing these days. So, here are a couple from the day we had our tea party. She was looking so sweet in her Easter dress. And that hat! It's her sister's sun hat, but she kept putting it on her head, and then we all laughed when Hazel would try to peek out or take it off. A game in itself! I know the next few weeks will be crazy as we're getting ready to move, so I thought I'd just write a little note so Hazey knows what was going on during those months...

Darling little Hazel...during your 8th and 9th months...

-We bought you a new house! Well, it's for all of us, but most definitely for you as well. I know you're going to love our big backyard, the neighborhood playground, and the pool. AND, you will finally get a room of your own - right in time to celebrate your first birthday! Consider it the kind of gift you only get...every now and then :)

-You are so fast! You like to stand up and "walk" around, and can stand unassisted for a few seconds. You love to grab onto Mommy's legs and just stand there, holding on. I know it won't be long until you're walking and running - but I'm going to place my bet on right around your birthday. (please, no sooner! you're already growing up way too fast!)

-You are a sheer delight! So happy and just so fun to be around! Giggles galore, and the cutest little smirky grin. 

-I think you truly will be our brunette. Mini Audrey Hepburn!

-You love love love finger foods. We've been doing baby led weaning (which is NOT weaning from breastfeeding, it's a British term that means we add food along with the liquid gold, but it's not just mashed up baby food. We did purees for the first couple of month, and I made most all of your food! But now we just follow your lead and hand you REAL food (not steak, mind you). You LOVE it and you're so proud of feeding yourself like a big girl!) Some of your favorites are banana, apple, mango, pear, melon, avocado, pasta, carrots...etc.

-You also have finally got the hang of signing!!! One day, it just all clicked and when I asked if you were "all done" with your dinner, you looked at me and started signing back "all done", with a huge grin! It's a magic moment when that happens, for sure!

-You LOVE LOVE LOVE the water! You always have, but now that it's warmed up again and we are hitting the pool - oh baby, you are SUCH a water baby! I love it! And when we start the water, whether it be for a shower or a bath, you crawl to the tub like there's no tomorrow and try to climb in! 

-Still only TWO bottom teeth, I keep thinking some more will break through at any moment - I can see the top four right through your gums...any day, any day...

-We can't imagine life without you. You are very very sweet and loved more than you can probably ever imagine! I can't believe that in a couple of weeks you'll be 10 (TEN!!!) months old! I've already started planning your first birthday party! I think you're gonna LOVE it!

-Your Momma loves you like crazy cakes!!!!