Austyn's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Austyn's 3rd birthday about a month ago. We had originally planned to do it the weekend before her birthday, which is Aug 26, and have a luau in our backyard. We were going to have games for the kids to play and munchies for us to well, munch on. Unfortunately Joe's schedule was changed and it turned out that he wouldn't be able to be here for that weekend. Not wanting to do the party without him we quickly changed gears and through together a smaller party at a local park. It ended up being better for me because I didn't have to spend as much money on entertainment so I could spend it on the birthday girl. She had a lot of fun, and almost all of her friends were there. She really missed Ahlana, but there isn't much we can do about that situation. She will just have to wait until Nov to see her : )

This is her blowing out her candles, she picked out the cake. It was so funny because she kept changing her mind. First she wanted an Elmo cake, then she wanted a Sleeping Beauty cake. We got to the cake store and the only princess they had was Cinderella. She didn't want that so she had to pick from a crown, a castle, Elmo, ballet shoes, and the minnie. She picked minnie and then got to tell them what color for her dress and everything. To tell you the truth I am a little surprised it wasn't yellow since everytime we talk about colors she always lets us know that yellow is her favorite color. I wish I had a video camera for her reaction to the cake and her presents. She loved every present and of course her cake. Whenever she opened something up she just opened her mouth with a big gasp. It was classic.

Austyn getting a little help from her big sister opening the presents. She still can't quite figure out how to open wrapping paper, but the bags she never had an issue with. She had a blast and then two weeks later she got to have a second birthday when she recieved a package from Grandma and Grandpa with a couple of way cute dresses for church and a pair of jammies with ballet slippers on them. Thanks Mom and Dad, she really loves the dresses.

Lubbock, TX

About two weeks before school started Joe had a few days of training that he told me he could miss so we decided that we would take our kids on a mini vacation. My friend had told me about how her family went to Lubbock for the weekend and did some school shopping and saw some sights. I thought it sounded like fun so Joe and I planned it last minute, he called in to work and we took off for Lubbock, which is a two hour drive. We didn't get out as quickly as we would have liked because that was the day that the plumber was over and we discovered that our children had flushed the toothpaste. Good Times!! The kids loved the weekend, we stayed in a hotel, ate out, went to the discovery center, and picked apples at an apple orchard. Of course, I think they would have been just fine with nothing but the hotel, but Joe and I had to get some vacation out of it. We had a blast and have plans of going back because there were thinks that we didn't get around to seeing like the Buddy Holly center, and there was a cool park were you could go and dig for fossils. Of course there is always the chance that we might get to go out there for a Texas Tech football game. That would be cool!! Here are some pictures from our mini vacation, hope you enjoy them and we hope to be able to go on a real vacation next summer....keep your fingers crossed!

This is at the discovery center, they had a mirror that you could put one leg up behind and look like you were floating. In order for it to be a believable picture you had to be exact on were you were positioned. Noone got it just right, but it was really fun trying :)

Everett at the discovery center. He didn't have as much fun as the other kids because there just wasn't anything for him. But he sure looks cute when he is bored.

This dinosaur scared the kids and only these two were brave enough to stand by it to take the picture, Austyn was freaked out. Of course I am pretty sure there was some bribing on Joe's part.

This part of the discovery center was kind of interestingbecause it was about dental care and what not and there were some kind of gross pictures but the kids really liked the big mouth.

Austyn tuckered out at the apple orchard. We had a busy day so by this time she was passed out. I don't think she woke up at all while we were there.

This was Macayla's job to tote the cart around, and she wouldn't have it any other way. She had fun except for the fact that she was in flip flops and she kept getting dirt in her sandals.

Elijah is sampling the apples, which the lady said we could do. He is eating a golden delicious that Joe had picked, this was heaven for Elijah because he loves apples.

I love this picture of Everett and thought it would be a good finale for the post. This was our one vacation that we were able to take all summer and though it was short it was really fun. The time we have as a family is so short that we really try to make the most of it, and I really think the kids came away from this with some good memories :)