Nov 19, 2008

The Finished Video

This is the finished video that I was working on all this Fall. We shot many of these scenes while in Europe and North Africa. Many more of them were shot in Austin in the weeks following. This will be used all over the US and the world in the coming months to encourage students with operational skills to join with our ministry. I hope you enjoy it!

Nov 18, 2008

Hide & Seek

On Tuesday afternoons I am on campus, and don't usually get home until around 7. The last couple of weeks, I have come home to high energy and very enthusiastic children. Also a husband looking a little tired.

Tonight the children announced that we were playing "hide and seek" and I think they have gotten pretty good at it. Chris had given each of them a flashlight, and we were taking turns being "the seeker." You have to be fast to get to a good hiding place before they get to 20, and I had to laugh at each round.

Round one--Zach hides from daddy with me in the closet, but keeps his flashlight on the whole time and talks the entire time. I can't believe it took them that long to find us.

Round two--Zach is the seeker, and I hear Isabella giving him very obvious clues to where she is. "Here I am, Zach" until he finds her.

Round three--I am the seeker and they have no patience...they come out to meet me in the hall.

Round four--Isabella knows that Zach and I are hiding behind the recliner, but spends an exorbitant amount of time finding Chris before she comes to see us. She calls "Daddy" the entire time she is looking, and he has to give her many clues to find him including whistles that she eventually follows to where he is hiding.

Nov 12, 2008

just a little laugh

I am so thankful my children haven't done this, although I wouldn't put it past them, especially Zach. I don't think I'll show him so as to not give him any ideas. But lots of laughs.

Nov 10, 2008

New PJs

My sister and her husband came over to Austin to see the UT/Baylor game (a friend of theirs gave them 3rd row, 30 yard line seats- nice!) and stayed at our house while we were gone camping. My mom sent the kids some new pajamas this weekend so they brought them over. They were very excited about the new pjs.



Thanks Nonny!

Camping

This weekend we went camping with several families from the "New Parents" class at our church. It was the first time we've ever gone camping for 2 nights with the family and it was a great time. It was COLD at night (39˚ outside and 47˚in the tent) but we did OK. On Saturday afternoon, we went over to the play ground and the kids started picking up sticks from the meadow to throw in the creek. It became a game of getting the biggest stick. Eventually Zach saw one and decided to bring it back.
He got started and then Isabella ran over to help him. Here you can see them pulling it over, but it's hard to tell how big it is.

As they got closer we could see how big it was.

It was taller then both of them put together. They were quite proud of themselves and we dumped in the creek with great fanfare. :-)

Only one other family stayed the second night, but the kids had fun playing the net morning after we had pancakes at the picnic table.

I had never done two nights before and didn't know how I would like it, but we found that being able to just stay put on Saturday really made the second night much more relaxing. I think we'll do 2 nights again next time!

Nov 2, 2008

Haircut

Yesterday, Zach and I went to Sport Clips to take advantage of a $4 off coupon that we got in the mail for a kid haircut. He did great, though he was sitting on my lap the whole time.
This was not nearly as radical of a cut as his older cousin Morgan got (see that story here) but it was still an improvement.
Before the Cut
After the cut.

Halloween

Since Liza and Isabella were gone to Mexico for Halloween, Zach and I were on our own. We were invited to have dinner at Andy & Ashley's house and then go trick-or-treating with them. We had fun. Andy dressed up like Peter Pan (sans the tights.) He got a turtle neck and cut off the arms to make the shirt. Those arms turned in to great hats for Zach and Katie..

After dinner, we got Zach dressed up in his Tiger outfit. He was very excited to go "trick-er-treat and get candy!!!"

Here he is from the front.
And here he is showing off his tail, which you can see if you look hard. He liked the way it wagged behind him as he walked.

We went up and down the block with Andy and the gang, then headed over to our neighborhood so we could go visiting there. Despite how you may feel about the holiday, you must admit that it is the one night of the year that it is perfectly acceptable to go up and down the street meeting everyone. There were huge packs of kids in our neighborhood and Zach had a really fun time.

We went to our neighbors' house (Dan and Kristy) last year and met them for the first time on Halloween. This year when we went back (they were #1 on the list of houses Zach wanted to visit) they took these two pictures.

Since Isabella couldn't go this year, Zach agreed to ask for extra and then give half of what he got to her. His pumpkin was over full by the end of the night and I think he and Isabella will have enough candy to last them to July and beyond. :-)

Oct 26, 2008

Halloween fun

Tonight we went looking for some candy and stuff for Halloween, and the kids found some costumes. They were so funny dressed up.


Zach and Isabella first tried on the wig, which was funny, but the mask was really good. I thought they looked like some sort of hobbits or something...


Very old and big headed hobbits... :-)

Camping Trip

This weekend we went camping with the Cavanaghs and had a great time. The kids had so much fun together and so did the parents.

The had fun running around the campground.


And then even more fun getting in the lake and getting all wet.

Zach and Katie enjoyed the water.


Our campsite. There were lots of people in a pretty small area, but it was great.


There was a burn ban in effect, so we had make smores over the charcoal. The kids didn't care though. They still had a great time.


Zach and Liza before bed time. I said Zach looked like he was a superhero in training.


Here the kids were all getting ready for bed (and still finishing off the smores.)


The next morning Zach had lots of fun hanging out with baby Nate.

Later they were all hanging out enjoying some apple juice.

When we were ready to go home, Indie got up in Zach's lap (with encouragement from Ashley) and she stayed there the whole trip home.

They both caught a nap on the way back.

When we got home, we were all pretty tired. :-) We had a great time as a family and with our friends. We are so glad we got to go this weekend. We'll be going camping again in 2 weeks with our New Parents class. More pictures then, I'm sure.

Oct 25, 2008

A swing and a ...

Last week the kids and I were playing baseball- really just practicing hitting the ball. There are lots of swings and misses, but both the kids can hit the ball pretty well when they connect with it.