Texas Bound!!!!

So, we're headed back to Texas! Actually, we are here in the Lone Star State now. We only got the news last Friday and already have an apartment and are quickly getting movers scheduled and all the five million other related tasks! Tuesday, Kenny started back in the Dallas office on his new project; we've been living in a hotel the past few days.

Kenny and I have moved quite a few times already, but this is the first (of many, I'm sure) with Mira in tow. It is definitely an added degree of difficulty! She's taking it in stride, as usual, though. Today, Sheesa, Mira, and I went shopping for Mira's new twin-sized big girl bed that she will get to start sleeping in when we move to the apartment.

She's very excited to be living closer to Sheesa and PapaNui, and so are we! We realize that we might just get a date night or two! Woo Hoo!

We are excited to move back "home", but there are definitely some great people that we are going to miss! We made some wonderful memories and met some wonderful people while in "the swamp" as we so lovingly call it. I'm sure we'll visit again if for no other reason than the drive-thru daquiries and Nawlin's Snoballs!!

Of course, it's also a little sad to leave Mira's first home. The house we so carefully brought her home to less than 48 hours after she was born. The bedroom where she gave me her first real smile in the wee hours of the morning and melted all my new-parent stress away. The living room where she took those first wobbly steps between Mommy and Daddy. The kitchen table where she had her first birthday cake.

Well, I could go on and on, but I think I'll have to wallow in these sweet memories later - we're too busy right now!!!

Norton's - Spring 2011

Well, the beautiful weather and our beautiful daughter made us think we needed to make a visit to the beautiful Norton Art Gallery gardens. We've never been there this early in the year - we've been missing out!! I didn't realize there are so many azaleas!

It was a gorgeous day, so, of course, there were droves of people - cameras in hands! Everyone had the same idea! We even ran into some friends; Mira's friends Brody and Olivia (as seen in the Chimp Haven post) were there to take some pictures, too. Brody's Mommy, Cheryl, had cleverly thought to bring some Nerds as a bribe and Brody was so sweet to offer to share them with Mira - all by himself, with no prompting from anyone! What a great guy!!

We took over 200 photos, so here are just a "few".....

Ta-Da!!!!!

This is her new fake smile.

This says "Look how big she is now. She's growing up and able to cross bridges all by herself." Exciting, but definitely makes me a little sad.

Still needs a hand once in a while though!  =)

There's that (authentic) pretty smile!

Playing chase with Daddy got some great smiles!

Brody was so nice to share his Nerds!

A Week with LaLa

This is a bit over-due, and I've got lots to blog, so I'll do one of those quick, mostly-pictures kind of posts. My niece Olivia (LaLa) came and spent her Spring Break with us!

We spent the week mostly talking - about books, school, books, music, books, writing, books, drama, books....and we crocheted a little...and she played guitar with Kenny a little...and we went to the movies!

We met about half-way, in Tyler, to pick her up and spent the afternoon at Caldwell Zoo with my brother Kenny, LaLa, and Sheesa and Nui.

LaLa and Mira spent most of the day like this.

Love this girl!

In the elephant foot print.

We did this last time we visited this zoo (March 2010).

She really enjoyed watching the penguins, and they enjoyed watching her, too!

Surprisingly, she was super-excited to feed the birds. What a difference from last year's bird experience!

Amongst other things, we spent some time at the park while LaLa was here.

Mira successfully flying her kite.

LaLa and I - repeatedly unsuccessful at flying ours.

Show-off!

Ummm, Daddy - this is stupid.

We also visited Chimp Haven for a little while which was pretty cool.

Brody and Mira had fun playing together (not really caring anything about the Chimpanzees).

We saw our first nutria!

Painting a banner for the Chimps!

And, LaLa and I went to Painting with a Twist to paint "Funky Blues" - what fun!

We had a lot of fun this week! So glad to have LaLa with us. Mira was pretty upset about dropping her off the following Sunday. Luckily, we only had to wait a week before we saw everybody again!

Garden Update!

Wow!! Our container garden is going crazy!! Check out the progress:

On March 12th (just 7 days after planting):

Tomato Seedlings

The herbs have sprouted!

Not much going on here with the bell peppers and pumpkins.

Bell Pepper plants are looking good!

Nothing happening with the strawberries - we planted some little strawberry plants here today.

The tomato plants are growing.

The onions have sprouted!

Some new growth on our Japanese Maple!

New growth on the blackberry bush!

Then yesterday, on March 28th (about 3 weeks after planting):

The bell pepper seeds have sprouted! Nothing still with the pumpkin seeds - I gave up and tossed those today.

The potatoes have grown like CRAZY!! We can barely keep up!

Planted some mint from Avi Grace's garden - CoCo swears this will survive - as pitiful as it looks. I hope so because it smells SO good! Mimosas anyone?!?

The bell pepper plants are looking good - a few flower buds have appeared!

We've since transplanted the tomato seedlings - today, I thinned and spaced them.

The blackberry bush is covered in flower buds!

Our Japanese maple, which we planted last year, is so full and beautiful right now!

We recently added the blueberry "bush" (it started out looking more like a twig) to our garden bed - it sprouted leaves in just 2-3 days, so it's looking good!

Look at the onions!!!

Tomato plants have lots of flowers already!!

We'll be protecting everything with nets soon to keep the birds from eating our bounty! We learned about that the hard way last year.

Today we replaced those strawberry plants, transplanted the bell pepper seedlings, and planted some jalapeno plants! I'm so excited that everything seems to be doing so well! We are not exactly known for our green thumbs around here! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything actually produces!!!

Oh, we also got a hydrangea today which I have always wanted and just never got - they are so beautiful!

I love this time of year - seeing all the lovely signs of Spring just make me happy!