We brought the New Year with some of our great friends.
The kids had an incredible time playing together (ie. destroying the house) while we played board games and drank champagne out of these super cool glasses:
Merrick actually stayed up to midnight for the first time ever. Even more surprising than that, I was able to stay up to midnight...
February brought on a crafty Valentine's Day. I don't know why, but I really got into the VDay spirit this year. Every food was heart shaped for about a month and I spent about 4,237 hours making a wreath for the door. I also started a new craft blog about this time, OnesieTwosie (after my Etsy store), to chronicle all the crafty craziness...
We had snow in Austin...for about 24 minutes. It was the twins' first time playing in snow. I don't think they liked it too much, but maybe that's because Mommy wasn't quite prepared with gloves and the like that people have in places where the weather tends to get below 100 degrees.
In March, Marcos and I snuck off to a marriage retreat with our church which took place at the Hyatt Lost Pines. What?!?! This place is ridiculously amazing. I'm so hoping we can go back for our anniversary and stay a bit longer. It was just so relaxing. I didn't have to do any laundry or pick smushed green beans off the floor. Marcos and I went on little adventures together throughout the campus. In one day I took 3 showers and watched about 3 episodes of Hoaders back to back. I slept in without being woken up by, "Mommy!!!!" Pure heaven.
Jagger and I have also started doing some homeschooling. I started a little blog, Gettin' Skooled, to document what we're learning. It is such a joy to watch Jagger grasp a new concept and then hunger for more. Recently, we've started on our "read-aloud" books. We've also studied out dinosaurs and space. I'm indescribably proud of Jagger.
Also in March, we visited Dallas with my parents. Our favorite part was spending the morning at the aquarium. Let me just say...I had no idea! There is a 3 story building in the middle of downtown Dallas that is home to thousands of beautiful and complex creatures. The children went nuts. As I stood in front of the tank with a ginormous anaconda (ie. 25 foot snake) I kept thinking, "This is not where I'd want to be standing in the event of an world altering earthquake."
I've also made some little paintings in 2011. I am working on decorating my craft room as well as putting some new paintings above Lulu's crib. I figured out a new technique called direct image transfer about which I'm especially excited (bottom image).
Marcos and I got the great privilege of traveling back to North Carolina (where I was born and bred) to attend the wedding of my childhood best friend. What an amazing experience to be playing Barbies with your friend at 4 years old and then turn around and see her walk down the aisle (ironically, looking like a Barbie). She was a beautiful, fun, and graceful bride. It was so great being back in NC and seeing several of my childhood friends again (and getting to introduce them to Marcos) as well as my beautiful family. Marcos also got to see "mountain dancin'" for the first time. He then proceeded to tear up the dance floors with moves for which they have no names.
Shortly after this, Marcos ran in the Capitol 10K here in Austin. His brother, Henry, also took up the challenge. Marcos's high school bestie, Jason, woke up at crazy-man hours that morning to drive from Houson to Austin to see Marcos run the event. What a great friend, no?
I was so proud of Marcos. He was so disciplined in his training (surprise, surprise) and shaved 10 minutes off his time from last year (more than a minute per mile).
The same weekend, I drove down to San Antonio a couple of times to be a part of the Taliaferro's short film, Recalculating. This was so exciting for me, as I had not acted in quite a while. Mike Taliaferro leads our sister church in San Antonio and also runs an incredible site, ICOC Hot News, which reports news from all of our sister churches from around the globe (ie. when there is an earthquake, tsunami, or civil war, he is Skyping the dudes on the inside and letting us know what's really going on...intense stuff). His son, Nate, is a film major at UT Austin. Together, they have made several short films to help spread God's word as well as unify Christians.
Soccer season has also begun. Jagger is a rock star on the field. He has really, really grown since last season. Instead of grabbing his opponents by the shirt and trying to throw them to the ground when they have the ball, he actually gets on defense and guards the goal. Last week, he made his first goal ever! Like I said...rock star.
These past couple of weeks, we decided to try something new. After reading this post here, I decided we must get our family into the vegetable gardening gig. I do not have a green thumb, but so far, everything is still alive. Yeah!
And then, of course, this past weekend was Easter. Marcos took Friday off and we had an incredible weekend together as a family. More on this to come!
What a great 2011 so far. It's been a bit busy, however. I'm currently training for the Capital 2K Swim coming up this Sunday. After that, I plan on doing nothing but sewing, reading, painting, and spending time with my family. I'm ready for some down time!
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