Part of our Austin trip

This is the house we stayed at while in Austin.

It was beyond AWESOME!

This was one of the doors on the front porch that led to the living room.... I would say that this house is a place I dream about someday living in. It was that nice. A dream house, I say.

How sweet are these two?

These stairs led to our family bedroom... which was so cozy. There were old double doors on each end of the long room, and opened they let in a wonderful breeze.
Awesome, I tell you.

Here is the upstairs "family room" with the two models. The huge windows let in SO much light.

So throughout the whole house, beadboard (what you might think of as the boards that go halfway up a wall) was on the ceilings.... it looked fantastic.

In this right hand corner of the pic is a chaise lounge... Kellen slept there and LOVED it!

The most awesome old bathroom sink! I really want one in our future house in the "kids" bathroom. I loved that it had three spouts for the kids and one drain. It was perfect.

Looking from the bathroom into the bedroom.

Oh, and the beds were VERY comfy. Even with being super sore from the Tough Mudder, we slept like rocks!

Off the back part of the wrap around porch. The kids had a fabulous time running around the whole house over and OVER again.

Even Soren was loving it. Which was tiresome.

Tyler really wanted to fish... too bad we left the poles at home.

The master bedroom, and its wonderful antiques.

My parents said it was very comfy, and the only complaint was on the last night, and the wind was howling... they said it was pretty noisy.

Something I would be willing to live with. Promise.

Part of the living room.

There was a TV here, along with a DVD player... but no cable and no WiFi, much to my father's dismay!

Here is the rascally crowd! Kellen was not wanting to have his picture taken at all.

And it was cold.

If you can see... Colton is wearing Tyler's special Tough Mudder headband... the kids loved them.

Plus they kept their ears warm!

On the back stairs of the house.

We had a couple people over for dinner the night we got into town, and had a great time bbqing up some chicken and enjoying the beautiful sunset.

The front of the Pond House....

Absolutely beautiful.

Even with the scorpion we found, the mud daubers (we think), and the dead mouse under the sink (in a trap). Those are just things that occur out in the country.

We loved every minute of it!

More to come on the Tough Mudder and how much fun that was (and the week working up to it!)!!!

The crazy Vegan diet

I don't have any pictures for this post at he moment... I just wanted to chat about my vegan experience this month. I started this "thing" a little over three weeks ago, and let me just say, I feel amazing.
I have "cheated" here and there, but I did not stray very far or very often. (although, I did not give up chocolate this whole time!) The course that I signed up through has provided some fantastic recipes and information that I really find quite appealing and the results are pretty nice too.

I have lost about 5 lbs in these 3 weeks, which really isn't surprising to me at all. I have upped my running and changed my diet, which is a no brainier for weight loss. But it is the way I feel too. I feel like I have more energy, and feel all around, MORE healthy from the inside, out.

I have been surprised with how delicious a lot of the recipes are, and KNOW that I will continue to use them (and try to convince Tyler that meat is not necessary at every meal!) I just got finished watching the documentary Forks Over Knives. So much of the information, I already agreed with, but some great added knowledge on my part too. It really emphasizes a plant based diet, and I'm starting to agree wholeheartedly. But I am ready to compromise too.

Tyler and I had a conversation about our meal planning just today and how to budget a bit better for it. We came up with the idea of eating the same basics Monday through Friday, and a change up on the weekends. So I think my compromise will be eating vegan-ish on the weekdays, and get our meat fix on the weekends with good cuts of meat. If you take a general approach, saying Monday will be spaghetti, Tuesday will be tacos, Wednesday will be oatmeal, Thursday will be beans and rice and Friday will be pizza, and then just get creative weekly with diffent variations, I think this could work very well. And make it easier on me for menu planning! Then on the weekends have some wild Alaskan salmon on Saturday and a BBQ chicken salad on Sunday... Everyone should be happy, right?

You know who I really wish would give this "diet" a try? My parents. Mom and Dad, come stay with. Us for a m onto, and see how/if this changes anything for you.... If it does, GREAT! If it doesn't, well, you could cross it off your list! I worry about your guys' health on a daily basis. And I truly believe you would benefit from a diet change. Love you guys!

So there is my ramblings... Hope I haven't scared any of you. Are you going to look at your current diet a bit harder now? Do you feel good every day? Do you want a change? I have a few recipes I could pass on to get you started! Like blueberry breakfast muffins... And an avocado and white bean wrap. An amazing peanut sauce.
Oh, and I ran 5 miles yesterday, with a smile on my face, and felt FANTASTIC! That book i read, Born to Run, made such an impact on me. Today I took my first Texas yoga class, and really enjoyed it.

Mother's Day (at the zoo)

I had a fabulous Mother's Day! I felt so special with my four wonderful little rascals celebrating for me! Tyler helped them pick out the cute garden (or kitchen) gnome for me! I am so excited to get to go paint him!!!

They woke me up a bit early (your supposed to get to sleep in on Mother's Day, right?) at 730am, but it was sleeping in an hour past usual... plus they had breakfast in bed! With a flower even.

And of course, chocolates were had. Tyler knows what I need.

The gnome is kind of a funny gift. Tyler HATES garden gnomes (he thought the movie "Gnomeo and Juliet" was pretty cute, and he thought the boys dressed as gnomes for Halloween was cute... but for some reason, he dislikes the garden variety pretty hard.... unfair! I think they are so cute! The travelocity gnome is just so cute! Anyways, he got me a gnome... he must really love me!

Then we went to the zoo.. one of our favorite things to do around here. The peacock is one of Ayla's favorite, and she always tries to get close. 

Do peacocks bite? or peck?

Isn't the mountain lion picture a tad scary? These 2 here will prowl and follow anything with wheels... aka kids in strollers!

Watch out!!

I am on day 3 of my 30 day vegan class... and completely loving it!!!

Today we had baked tofu with watermelon salsa (I thought it was fantastic) and a strawberry "cheese" cake for dessert. And for breakfast, I made this cashew cream sauce for over berries... it was to die for! I like this vegan thing... or maybe just getting new recipes and cooking new stuff is fun. Either way, I find it WAY more healthier than I was eating... which was pretty healthy to begin with!

Well, I better go help Tyler pack for our weekend camping trip (again!). We are gearing up for the big one next month!

WIP... ?

I really haven't had much time to do any projects per say. But, I did cut this little one's hair. She wants to grow it long "like Mommy's", but in order to do that, the bangs had to catch up. I think it looks rather spectacular on her!

Some things we are up to around here:

*sorting through stuff and selling on Craigslist. So far, I have made $20, but today is the first day. I sorted out all my kids clothes into sizes and sex, then posted an ad listing each item in the group. We will see. We are also selling our kitchen table, hoping to replace it with a simple picnic table; our double jogging stroller, since we have a bike trailer/stroller combo too; a big bag of wooden toys for kid kitchen with puzzles and a really cute boy doll (we have too much stuff)!

I was inspired to do this by Rachel at LuSa Organics::Clean, that post really struck a cord with me; what about you?

*learning Spanish! Tyler gets access to Rosseta Stone, so we figured for our upcoming trip it may be useful. I am also brushing up on my Russian... it has been awhile!

*getting ready for our trip to Mexico! So excited to be there with our wonderful family (part of it, at least!)

*enjoying watching Colton change in front of our eyes with a love for school that I imagine I had when I was a kid. Every day when I pick him up, he asks when he gets to go back. And yesterday at storytime, him and Ayla both participated! They both used to stand there and watch, and it was SO good to see them dance around! We went and got a cookie afterward!

*I invited a couple friends to come over and make some napkins. I thought it would be a fun time to make something for Christmas, and teach some friends how to sew a little bit. If any of you are interested and live near, let me know.

*making due without Tyler for the next couple days. He headed to Las Vegas early this morning for a work thing. And he went golfing. Luckily he went to Vegas, because here, at 10:30 this morning, it was 37 degrees!!! Cold, cold, cold!!