You are Not Seeing Double!

Yesterday Les came to me and asked if I wanted to take on another mini Dachshund. Matt's neighbor had a 7 month old full blood that they wanted to give away. So, of course I jumped on the opportunity, but wanted to see the dog first. Many of you know how badly I have been wanting to breed Chili Dog and I have not had the chance to find a male for her. We also have been toying with the idea of getting another dog as a companion and friend for Chili. So finding this dog was perfect timing! When we first saw him he looked identical to Chili except that he has spots, which make him a Dapple. He was a sweetheart and fell in love with the kids, so we took him. The best part is that he is actually registered! Yippee. So we brought him home last night and could not wait for Chili to meet him. We just knew she would be as excited as us. WRONG-O! Chili was hacked off and extremely jealous. They fought and snapped for a long time, I guess Chili was telling him that she was boss of this house. This morning they are finally getting used to each other, so wish us luck and let us know if you would like a puppy soon. Yeah!

Time Flies When You Are Having Fun!

Brandy, my good friend I spoke of in the previous post, and her family came all the way from Kyle, Texas to stay the night with us last night. We were so excited for them to come to our house. They had never been to our new home before, so it was fun showing them where we live. It is quite different from Austin. She has three boys, so Nolan and Leslie were in play heaven. They played guns, XBox, went bug hunting, jumped on the trampoline, swam in the kiddie pool and slip and slide. Luckily they even got to feed the deer across the street. Wow, they were very busy now that I list it all. We even roasted marshmallows and ate s'mores last night after our baby back rib dinner! Les and DeRance played washers while Brandy and I caught up on old times. We had a ton of fun, thanks Brandy and DeRance for making the trip to our home to visit. We hope you all had a great time. We sure did!!

Gotta Love Our Lone Star State!

WARNING... THIS IS A VERY LONG, BUT ENTERTAINING BLOG READ!

This has already been a full week! We got back from our little Texas get away trip from over the weekend. Les had hotel points saved up so we (including the kids) decided to head south to San Antonio for a couple of nights on the riverwalk. We left on Friday afternoon and arrived in San Antonio just in time to do lots of sight seeing. I just love living in Texas! There are so many different cultures and landscapes to see. I have lived here all of my life and still love to vacation in different parts of the state. Our favorite culture is the Mexican American. We love the food, colors, and art. We stayed right on the riverwalk so we were able to park the car all weekend. Yee hoo! First we took a river boat tour since there was no line at the time. Those boats seem to run 24/7 and are always full of people! It must be the top tourist thing to do on the riverwalk. However it got really hot and sticky on the boat, but the kids liked it.

The view from our hotel room.

Les and Nolan on the boat.

Eating on the riverwalk!

Afterwards we walked to the restaurant row and ate a Mexican place of course. The kids loved seeing the Mariachi band play. They were quite loud but wonderful entertainment for the the kids. We headed back up to the hotel to swim at the pool on the fourth floor. How cool is that? Nolan and Leslie thought it was the best, especially seeing all of the tall buildings surrounding us. Their favorite was swimming under the glass wall that makes the pool indoor/outdoor. When we had enough of all of the other kids splashing us constantly we decided to get dressed for a night out on the town. We walked to the Tower of Americas, "the Needle" to see the city from up high. It was so very freaky going up 750 feet in an elevator with windows. Then once we were up there, our equilibrium was so off Les and I had a hard time walking. Weirdo, but super neat to see. The best part of the tower trip was the 4D video we got to see. It was a video about Texas and you wear 3-D glasses and sit in a movable seat. As we watched the screen the seats bounced and moved. Leslie and I screamed when we experienced seeing a rattlesnake, it hissed in our faces (a puff of air hit us in the face) and then it crawled away and something hit us on the back of our legs. Yowza!

Nolan and Les in front of the tower.

The next morning we visited the Alamo at the most perfect time on a Saturday. We got there right before a mile long line formed. Yippee.

The kids and I in front of the Alamo.

Nolan and Leslie in front of the trolley bus.

We have so far had great luck in timing. There really is not much to see at the Alamo, but the Alamo, so we did not spend much time there before we loaded a trolley bus and went to the Mexican market. There the kids touched every known breakable thing and drove us nuts!! So we put them on a bull to teach them a lesson. Just kidding. But we really let them ride a mechanical bull. Neither one of them would hold on with just one hand, I guess they did not want to get bumped off! Hee hee.

After this full morning we had to go back to the hotel to take a nap. Swimming the afternoon away was the only thing we could do in this Texas heat. Once it cooled off a tiny bit we walked back to the riverwalk to eat at the Rainforest Cafe. We waited for over an hour, but the food and experience was great. Leslie was afraid the entire time. Everywhere she looked she saw something bigger than her. First there was a crocodile that moved, then an enormous elephant and tiger. I thought the kids would love it not be afraid of it. The most hilarious part was the fake rain storm in the restaurant. I warned the kids that they will hear thunder and see lightning, but apparently that went in one ear and out the other. Leslie was terrified and crawled under the table. Everyone in the restaurant pointed and laughed. Poor thing!

Check her out under the table. Her poor face tells all.

The next morning we checked out of the hotel and drove back to Austin for some weird Austin fun. On our way we stopped and surprised my friend Brandy and her family. She was still in her PJs! Sorry Brandy! We visited for a short while and let the kids play. Before long it was time to hit the road to downtown Austin to check into our hotel. Barton Springs was the next stop on our list. I remember visiting the springs when I lived there but for some reason I forgot how COLD the water was. Man it was shocking but refreshing. Nolan and Leslie even thought it was very cold, and you know how kids don't think any water is cold.

We only stayed an hour before we met Cheri and her family at the famous most delicious snow cone stand we used to visit all of the time. Seriously, they are the very best in the state! Seeing the Thompson family was fun, the kids play so well together while Cheri and I catch up and reminisce.

We all decided to really go down memory lane and go to our favorite BBQ place called the County Line for some big daddy ribs. Oh boy were they delicious. The kids even turned their noses up at their kids plate and reached for our ribs on our plates. We had an awesome dinner.

Leslie and Nolan enjoying their ribs!

Afterwards we said our good byes and went back to the hotel. On our way we drove over the Congress bridge and remembered how cool seeing the bats would be. So we hurried and parked the car and walked down Town Lake to the bridge. Nolan and Leslie walked as fast as they possibly could so they could see the bats fly. You see, the bats fly by the trillions out from under this bridge every summer evening at sunset. It was amazing to see the trail of them fly through the sky. It looked like a black cloud in the dark sky.

Can you see the long line of bats above the tree line?

We had some fun Austin fun that day and Texas fun that entire weekend!

Slumber Party

Leslie had her very first sleepover last night. Her little friend Madison came to play and stay the night. They played dress up, swam in the kiddie pool, jumped on the trampoline, played on the swing set, drove their jeep around and watched a movie. Wheww! I am exhausted! They had a lot of fun. I really need to buy a trundle for her twin daybed because the girls were a little long to sleep at each end of the bed. Apparently it worked last night, but I know next time they will be entirely too big.

Rockband Star!

As most of you know, we have the awesome game called Rockband for the XBox 360. It comes with a guitar, microphone, and a drum set. It is a blast to play. No, we do not know or recognize half of the songs, but it is still fun and a challenge to play. I have to admit I am in love with playing the drums. I remember watching my big brother play his real drum set in complete amazement as I grew up. Honestly, I still love to watch him play the game as well! I am not so sure of this, but I believe my son might feel the same way about me. Hee hee. We actually fight over who gets to play the drums first...jk. He loves them as well and is getting really really good at them. He consistently scores in the 70 or above percentile (how many notes he hit correctly) and his highest score was an 88 note streak! He is impressive to watch play for a six year old! Granted he is playing on the easy level, but don't let that fool ya. It is still hard. Yesterday he decided he would try to play a song on the medium level. My mouth dropped as he played and hung in. That is the level I am currently on! It was awesome. I don't know, but we may have a drummer on our hands. He is our Rockband Star!

How In The World?

Yesterday morning I was sitting here at the computer doing our daily bills and looked over at Leslie as she was reaching to see in a high drawer to pick out a movie. As I scanned over, I noticed her toes. She had them curled under and standing on them! I was in shock! Now I did see her doing this about a month ago, when my mom brought it to my attention. I really paid no extra attention to it. I figured my mom and dad were amazed how she can stand on her very tip toes. However, this is not her tip toes, she actually has them bent under and putting weight on them. You will see in one picture, she can also place all of her weight on ONE foot doing this as well as walk on the tile floor. OUCH! DOUBLE OUCH! Her new trick last night is trying to do a cheerleading jump while on her toes. WOW. I always knew Leslie was very limber, but NOT THAT LIMBER!

In this photo she is actually on her tip toes....my little ballerina in the making.

Cheer Up!

Leslie cracks me up every day! Seriously, each day that passes she sends me to tears because she is growing so quickly and surprises me with the knowledge she has. Last night we watched ice skating on the TV and Leslie immediately fell in love. She got up and pretended she was ice skating; dancing and jumping around. At one point she stopped and came to me to see if I would sing a song for her to skate to and I said well if you will continue to play. She replied, "It will be my pleasure." I died laughing. Where in the world did she hear that? Where does she pick up on things like that? Leslie continued to dance around until bedtime and amazed us with her athleticism and limberness. While I laid in bed with her she stated that she was ready to be a big girl now and did not want to be a little girl anymore. Yes she said those exact words! I teared up and she knew it. She said, "Cheer up Mommy". Again, I was amazed at her vocabulary. She said, "Cheer up means to be happy, not sad!" I laughed and explained that I was sad because she is already growing so fast. Needless to say, I laid there staring and crying at Leslie while she drifted off to sleep.