Dinner Time

After telling Payton this morning I wouldn't have it in me to make dinner tonight, he called mid-day to suggest dinner at Maggiano's. We've been once before and sat in the bar with Eli. The booths in the bar are great because he can have his own play area in the seat, we don't have to mess with a high hair (he eats standing in the booth), and it's so loud with people that his squeals are barely heard.

We sat in the main dining area tonight (the bar was full). It was pretty pleasant, aside from Eli's occasional squeals and telling the waitress who his "mama" and "daddy" are each time she stopped by. We also got some great video of him entertaining us. Enjoy...

Oh the games we play

I am always looking for ways to entertain Eli, there is only so much coloring and playing with his toys on the coffee table that we can do before he tunes out and I find myself playing with my phone.

When I was young, I had an aunt and uncle that I adored.  We lived in the same town and they didn't have children until I was 7 so I would stay the night with them often on the weekends.  They would take me to Chuck E Cheeses (where a kid can be a kid) and I specifically remember one game that we would play for hours.  They would drag me down the hall on a blanket as fast as they could go. 

A few weeks ago, Payton called me into the living room to see the new game that him and Eli were playing, not knowing my history of "blanket dragging" games.  Eli loves this new game and will pull the blankets out of the basket and lay on them, ready to go.

Here's a video from when I got in on the action, and please ignore the high-pitched comments and shrills from me, I was actually really entertained.

Happy Holidays!

I'm actually pretty proud of myself (as I pat myself on the back) for being so on top of our Christmas cards this year.  Last year I was totally down to the wire and didn't love the cards half as much as I do this year.

I ordered the cards from Tiny Prints.  I narrowed their huge selection down to about 15, then 5, then my favorite.  I was totally impressed with how easy it was to find my template, load my pictures, size them, customize our names, and finish the order.  It took less than 5 minutes to get it all done, start to finish, once I found the design.  One week later (with standard shipping), and ahead of schedule, they were on my doorstep.

We had our pictures taken by a long-time friend of mine who I haven't seen since college.  She met us on a cold and windy day in McKinney over the Thanksgiving holiday, bless her heart.  I loved all of the pictures she took and wanted to include as many on the card as possible without being totally obnoxious. 

Here is the final product:

I was inspired by some hand written addresses on Pinterest

and decided to buy a calligraphy pen and try my hand at

something a little different.  It took a while to get the hang

of it (and even longer to address them ALL), but I really

like how it came together in the end.

And just a quick snapshot of how freaking cold it is here in Austin, a picture Payton sent me of our water hose this morning, ugh!