Mom & Dad Visit Austin

Mom and Dad came to Austin to visit this weekend. We went to Zilker Botanical Gardens, Mount Bonnell, and to Uncle Billy's for some BBQ. Mom took all of the pictures, so I stole these from her, but here are a few pictures from the weekend.

These are at the Zilker Botanical Gardens:

Do you like my green afro?

Mom and Dad with the Austin skyline in the background:

After that we went to Mount Bonnell and climbed the 100+ steps to the top. That may not sound like a lot... and for people who are in decent shape it's NOT a lot... but... whew! It was quite a trek for me! There is a beautiful view at the top and some beautiful (but ridiculously big) houses that can be seen from there. We've heard rumors that at one time Sandra Bullock's house could be seen from Mount Bonnell, but I have no idea if that is true or where it was.

We followed up the sightseeing with (what else?) BBQ!

Matt and I recently tried making homemade peanut butter. I was amazed at how simple it is. Are you ready? You put peanuts in a food processor or blender, and you turn it on. That's it. You can mix in your own flavors (vanilla, cinnamon, chocolate, whatever). We bought honey roasted peanuts and used those and it is delicious. While mom and dad were here, we made a jar for them to take home. Yum!!

Matt and I enjoyed having them stay with us for the weekend, and enjoyed exploring some parts of Austin that we don't get around to seeing very often!

Birthday Girl

It's my birthday! :)

Today I was sitting in my office working when I looked up and saw two birds heading straight for my window. Austin Grad has floor to ceiling windows, and it isn't uncommon to have birds fly into the windows. Still, even when you see them coming, it will scare the phooey out of you. Well, I look up and see something heading toward my window. Suddenly, they slam into it and I'm able to see what is going on. A hawk was chasing a pigeon and chased it right into the window. They were both pretty shaken up. The hawk stood up, stretched his neck and his wings, then walked over to the pigeon and stood over it. The receptionist could see all of this by now and she said she was NOT going to sit there and watch that hawk kill that pigeon! I heard her jump up from her desk and run outside yelling, "OH NO YOU DON'T!" Ha!! She ran out there and scared the hawk off. It was several minutes before that pigeon was up and moving again, but he finally flew off. Several minutes later I looked up and noticed that the birds had left an imprint on my window. You could see the pigeon's face (eyes and beak), body, wings, and feet. The hawk's talons had chipped the window tint off around the imprint of the pigeon. Isn't that crazy?! I couldn't believe it. It made for a good story. :)

For my birthday, Matt got us tickets to see The Lion King play. I saw it once in New York when I was around 13 or 14 and remembered that it was incredible, but didn't actually remember many of the details. We heard months ago that it was coming to Austin, but I didn't know Matt had gotten us tickets.

It was AMAZING. The tickets were a little pricey, but if you ever have the opportunity to go - GO!

All in all, it was a great birthday. And now I'm a year older!

Little Rock Trip

Over MLK weekend we took a trip to Little Rock to see Pappa Mac & Jill. We had a great time getting to catch up with them, visit, look through old pictures, and just having a good time! I always enjoy getting Matt and Pappa Mac together so I can listen to the two of them discuss church history and theology. :)

While we were there, Pappa Mac told me that he had recently come across a picture of his mother (aka: Mamaw Rossie) that reminded him of me. As soon as he showed it to me, I remembered a picture that Matt took of me just a week or two before. We found the pictures and put them side by side and were speechless! We may not look exactly alike, but there are definitely some similarities. Of course the stance is similar, but what got me the most was the flip in her hair. Mine does the same thing! It isn't as apparent when comparing the two pictures, but my hair definitely flips that same way! We had a lot of fun sitting around looking at pictures and telling stories.

We got to go sightseeing to see several pretty places around Little Rock. Jill and I mourned over the loss of some trees that were destroyed in a storm, while "the guys" gave us a hard time about it (but what do they know, right??). :)

We forgot our camera on this trip, so we didn't get many pictures. We DID however sneak this picture on my phone. Pretty sweet, huh?

We love you two! Thanks for having us for a couple of days!

Snow!

We had a white Christmas in Gainesville this year, and the snow was nice enough to stick around for a little while. It was fun watching Ginny play in the snow, so we decided to spend some time outside with mom's nice camera and get some pictures. I hope you enjoy them!

Cotton Bowl

Who enjoyed watching the Aggies whoop up on the Sooners in the Cotton Bowl? This girl!

Trying to Take a Family Picture

I was looking through mom's pictures from Christmas to find a good one of us with Ginny. At first, I started eliminating the "bad" ones, but then I really started to get a kick out of them. So I've included all of them below and titled this post "Trying to Take a Family Picture." Enjoy! :)

Christmas in Gainesville

We had a great time celebrating Christmas with my side of the family in Gainesville. I'll share a few pictures!

Mom and I were cooking some things and I found this apron and commented how cute it was. My mom told me it was my grandmothers (her mom) and gave it to me! Maybe one of the best Christmas gifts of all. :)

Ginny-pup relaxing on the couch (spoiled!!)

Matt and Ginny taking it easy...

The SNOW! It was FANTASTIC! I don't know that I've ever actually seen a snow quite like that. It was a blizzard (for Texas, anyway!). Here we are trying to get a picture, but it was hard to even keep our eyes open!

The boys loved it, especially Solomon! :)

Matt and I sat down to play some Christmas songs on the piano and Elijah and Judah decided to join us. I found an old Christmas Carols book from when I took piano lessons and I could still manage to play the basic melodies of the songs. Matt came in with the chords to actually make it sound nicer. Elijah helped Matt, and Judah played "the pretty part," as he said. This sweet moment quickly turned into a funny one when Matt and I taught the boys "Nana Got Run Over By a Reindeer." ;)

It's always nice to get the whole family together - especially for Christmas! :)