Spring Break 2012

Even though we don't have a "true" spring break, because I technically don't have any children in school, Ezra's preschool does take the week off. It's kind of like having a spring break. We didn't really do anything. I mean, Brent didn't take off, and we did our normal routine, for the most part.

TUESDAY, we  met a friend at the park while Ezra and his buddy, Kate, rode bikes. Then we went to the playground and played and played.

WEDNESDAY we had a play date with a friend of mine from high school, and her family.

THURSDAY, the kids and I ventured to Fredericksburg for the day. We met up with Brent's mom, sister (her family) and his brother (and his family) for a day at two different farms. First off, was Uncle Johnny's to see all the new baby goats. Then, we headed for the playground and picnic area by LBJ park. We ate lunch and played before stopping by the Sauer-Beckman living history farm.  This is an actual German farm from the 1900's that is still carrying out business on the farm like they did in the 1900's. They have no electricity and everything is still authentic from the way it was in the 1900's. They have men and women dressed up, carrying about the daily life of the farm. It is such a fun thing to do, and great experience. The men and women on the farm take you through a day on the farm and explain the different things around the farm. They kids loved it. I can't wait to go back when the kids are older, so they can really understand it. Also, it's pretty significant to Brent and his family because they are distantly related to the Sauer's. Brent's mom's great-grandmother, Augusta Sauer-Lindig married a Lindig (Brent's mother's maiden name) and this was their farm! How cool is that!? Also, this farm is located on the LBJ state park and was near where Lyndon B. Johnson lived. Augusta, Brent's great-great grandmother, was the midwife that DELIVERED PRESIDENT JOHNSON!! So cool! Ha! It was just a fun experience.

After the Sauer-Beckman farm, we headed to Oma and Opa's to play. Nothing like being with all 11 cousins and having a great time! I just LOVE Brent's family. I love that he wasn't even there, and I felt so comfortable and like I was home hanging out with my own family. Fr. Brian, Uncle Brian, was at Oma and Opa's when we got there, so the kids were so excited. He is like a kid himself and always is pushing them down the hill (and back up) in the jeep, playing catch, running around with them and jumping on the trampoline. Such a great Uncle! We had such a great day. We ended up staying for dinner and not getting back home until 8:30.

FRIDAY, we did NOTHING! I had planned on taking the kids to eat doughnuts and do something fun, but when I asked what they wanted to do, they said, "stay here and play." So we did! I cleaned the house while they were outside all day.

My sweet friend, JoAnna, who used to live in my neighborhood, but now lives in the neighborhood next to us, called and asked if Ezra and Emersyn would be able to come over and play for an hour or so. She has two grown children, but no grandchildren and has kinda adopted mine as her own grandchildren. I am thankful for her and my children LOVE her. I dropped them off around 3:30, went to the store and went back to go get them. They DID NOT want to leave. JoAnna asked if they could stay at little longer, so I went home and put up my groceries. I went back around 5:30 and they still did not want to go. They were building a cowboy and Indian fort out of these old school playmobil. They are kinda like legos, but so much cooler. Ezra was in heaven. She also had a tea party set up for Emersyn, so Emersyn was in heaven. Needless to say, it took me 30 minutes to get them out of there. They are already set to go back next week. Such a blessing!

Today, SATURDAY, we are just planting flowers, doing some yard work and playing outside. The weather has been great. God willing, we will just have a relaxing weekend before we start back into our routine on Monday.

Next week, we will really start to get busy. Ezra and Emersyn BOTH are doing swim lessons, starting Thursday, and Ezra starts his first ever sports class at the end of this month. I am excited! But, we will be busy busy!

Uncle Brian pushing Emersyn, Elynn and Caleb in the jeep. 

Elynn wanted to go down the hill like the big kids. Sweet uncle Brian guided them down with Elynn in the jeep too!

The canning house of the Sauer-Beckman farm

A picture of the house and work house

The outhouse with the corn for toilet paper. When I told Ezra that, he said, "WHAT!?"

The breeze way between the kitchen and the rooms

The kids rooms. They had 10 KIDS and only two rooms!

Sweet Cousins

The wash room

One of the cute men working on the farm

Sweet Elynn

The man showing the kids how they kept the meat good without a refrigerator. They kept the meat under lard from the pigs! They could keep it in this canister, under the lard for a YEAR!

Telling us about butter and cheese

Family photo

9 of the 11 cousins

a 500-600 POUND PIG

Emersyn, Maria and Emmanuel

Sweet cousins

The history of the farm and Augusta Sauer-Lindig

The parents room

The meat house. Smelt sooo good!

Turkeys

Old school plow

Townes Hunter Parrish

Ashley, Hunter and baby Townes

My sister had her BABY! She was early, at 36 1/2 weeks, but everything went great. She had gotten in a little fender bender the day she went into labor. Hunter got off work early so he could help her with her car, they went to eat chick-fil-a and TWO hours after the fender bender, her water broke. She went home took a shower, got her bag (i know..she was a complete pro, being her first time..) and went to the hospital. She labored through the night and Townes Hunter Parrish was born at 8:48 am. He weighed in at 6 lbs 4 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. During her labor, they had to give her oxygen because his heart rate was dipping. Turns out, the cord was wrapped around his little neck two times. Other than that, he was just fine. Didn't have to go to NICU and got a great Apgar score!! How it all worked out, it was blessing. God knew his due date long before we did.
The kids and I, along with my grandma, drove to Fort Worth on Saturday to go meet him. It was a great trip. We got to spend the day with my sister, brother-in-law, mom, ron, my brother, sister-in-law and their kids. We ended up driving back Sunday afternoon/evening. At the time, I was thinking, "we probably should have stayed till Monday to drive back." But, this morning when I woke up in my own bed and we had no plans for the day, I was thankful we made the drive!
Anyway, he is so cute! They are so happy and in LOVE. It is so crazy seeing my sister as a MOM! I mean, she is a MOM! AHHH! She is great! She is so laid back and doing such a great job. Hunter is a great dad. He is the more "nervous" one of the bunch, but it is super cute!
I can't wait to go see them again! Until then...here are some of the pictures I took.

Townes Hunter Parrish

Proud Daddy

Grammy and Emersyn holding baby Townes

Great Grammy holding Townes

Proud Aunt

Sweet mommy and baby

Grammy, Ashley, Mimi, Townes and Elynn (they happened to be matching :))

Emersyn, Townes, Ezra and Elynn

Group picture

So awake! I mean, I did bring my THREE kids with me.. :)

Emersyn loving on baby Townes

Another picture of the new family

Cowboy the goat

We have a new addition to our family! Cowboy, the goat. It is a temporary thing, but we are loving it! Brent's uncle has a farm. I asked Brent to check with Johnny and see what he thought about the goat staying at our house while we bottle feed and take care of it until it is time for the goat to go back. He usually has one or two baby goats he has to bottle because the mom has had multiple kids and can't feed them all, so Johnny bottles them until they can eat pellets and grass. I thought it would be just a fun thing to do with the kids. Our kids LOVE animals and LOVE going to uncle Johnny's to see all his animals. So, why not bring one to our house? We have a great back yard for it.
Well, the other day, Johnny called and he had a goat! The mom died giving birth. I think Johnny said she had another baby stuck inside her that he was unable to help her get out. So, we have Cowboy now and are enjoying him so much! I am hoping we get to have another baby goat soon, to keep Cowboy company and because I really am enjoying it!
He is only 7 days old. He is so sweet. He loves following us around, running in the yard, jumping off logs and laying right by you. He is super sweet! Too bad goats grow up and become not so cute. I would definitely keep him if he stayed just this size!

Oh, Emersyn, how you challenge me to be better!

I had to blog about this! Mainly so that I can remember this story for when Emersyn is older and can appreciate it!

Yesterday, Monday morning, I HAD to make a run to the grocery store! I mean, HAD, because if I didn't go to the store we wouldn't have been able to eat lunch. That's normal, right?! Anyway, Emersyn is 2, almost 3, and exercising her right as a 2 year old VERY WELL! She is the sweetest thing, but is the most challenging of my three! She can throw fits about anything and everything. If you change or help her with whatever it is she is throwing a fit about, she will find the next best thing to throw a fit about.
Yesterday was one of these days. It started off with her clothes not fitting right (she picked the outfit!), then her hair was in a pony tail and she did not want her hair in a pony tail. So, as I take her hair out, fix her outfit, she is still crying. I put her in the car and tell her she needs to calm down. I bargained with her and said, "if I take your pony out, will you stop throwing a fit." Of course she said, "yes, I be nice.", but this did not help.

We arrive at the store and she is still crying. I thought being in the store would distract her and she would stop. We have yet to had a fit in the store, so why would this day be different!? HA!

Everyone was looking at us. I was giving it my all to be calm with her and talk her through the fit, while trying to collect what we needed and GO. Well, through the produce and onto the meat department, we are still breathing hard, crying and trying to get out of the cart! She is now, at this point, upset she is having to sit in the front of the cart instead of the back. I would have given in, however the groceries would not fit with her in the back of the cart, and she would have thrown a fit if I tried to put the groceries in the back with her. See where this is going?? It didn't matter what I did, she was going to be upset. AND, I AM THE MOM! HA!

Well, as I am waiting for my lunch meat, there is an older lady waiting to get her meat too. Emersyn is still crying but not screaming or going crazy, just kinda doing what she does. The lunch meat lady looked at me with empathy and was kind. Well, the older lady to my left kept giving me the evil eye. I tried to ignore her because I am trying to be self-controlled. As I am standing by my cart that Emersyn and Elynn are both sitting in, the lady looks at me and says, "UM, Ma'am, your daughter!" I look over at Emersyn who is trying to get out of the cart, but failing because she is buckled in, and tell her, "Emersyn please sit down." Now, she was NOT, by any means, standing up, nor could she stand up because she was buckled in. AND- I was standing right there by them! So, I look at the lady and with as much self-control and politeness say, "thank you, I can do this." The lady continues to give me the evil eye while saying, "your daughter keeps standing up in the cart and if she falls she will be hurt." Mind you, I am standing right by her, and she is not in the least standing up!! So, I politely, again, tell Emersyn to sit down please. I look at the lady and politely say, "I mean, if she falls, maybe she will learn not to try and stand up in the cart." (maybe not the best thing I could have said, but I am the MOM and my heart was pounding to say so much more than that, while I am trying so hard to control my tongue and glorify God) The lady looks me dead in the face and says, "if she falls, you bet I will call the police and they will be here soon." I MEAN REALLY!!!?? Goodness! I had not raised my voice, I did not beat or touch Emersyn and she was NOT STANDING IN THE CART!

My heart was racing, but I just looked at Emersyn and said, "you need to stay in your seat."

UGH! After the lady got her meat, she went to the other side of me and took out her phone. Some people!
Another older lady who was standing with us, that witnessed the whole thing was so sweet. She looked at me and said, "I am so sorry honey. Hang in there."

Such a good humbling lesson.

The Rodeo: part 2

I was looking at my blog and realized I didn't blog about our trip to the stockyard part of the Rodeo. We really wanted to take the kids to the stockshow part of the rodeo, ride rides, go to the petting zoo, eat the rodeo food, see the animals and just have fun.
One Tuesday, Brent was 6th call and it was a nice day, so we decided to head to the Rodeo. I went to my bible study in the morning to watch the video and headed out early. We got to the Rodeo just in time for lunch.

After lunch, we headed for the stock show barns and looked at all the different animals that were still there to be shown. The kids got to see pigs, cows and some horses in the barns. Most of the livestock wasn't there because it was the last week of the rodeo.

The kids wanted to ride some ponies, so we got in line for the pony rides. Ezra picked out the brown horse, Tex (very appropriate for him) and Emersyn picked out the white horse. They were so excited to be "riding" the horses by themselves.

Right next to the pony ride was the potbelly pig races. We happened to be there 15 minutes before the races were about to start so we took our seats in the bleachers.(Elynn and I ended up watching from behind the bleachers. She was ready for her nap at this point.) It was so cute to see those little pigs running so fast for an oreo. The kids LOVED it!

After the races, we headed to the petting zoo. We were in there for a good 30 minutes. They had so many different animals. Elynn wasn't too sure about them coming right up to her, I mean, she is just as tall as they are, so she is face to face with them. I get it! But, she still enjoyed herself. Emersyn loved all the big animals. She is not scared of anything. Ezra followed this one, oh so cute, baby goat around the whole time. I even picked it up so he could hold it for a bit. Not sure you are supposed to do that, but we did!

Our next stop was the HEB barn. The kids were given baskets to collect veggies and fruit as you make your way through the barn. At the end of the barn, you return your plastic veggies and fruit for a prize. We ended up buying a real tomato plant. It is growing nicely in our green house. It makes me miss our garden we had at the other house. Maybe we can find a good spot in our yard for a new garden. We shall see.

The last stop of our day was the Bluebell barn for ICE CREAM! It was a great way to end a great trip!

Emersyn with the Llama 

Not so sure about that goat.

Emersyn and her white pony

Brent teaching Ezra about the different pigs. Brent actually showed pigs in 4H growing up. So country! ha!

I will stand by him, but will not pet him. 

Ezra and Tex

ICE CREAM!

Ready for her nap. Such a trooper.

Love this picture! He is the cutest boy EVER! He loved this goat!

So long Rodeo, you have been good to us! Until next time!