Spring is Right Around the Corner!

Drawing with Powell, Caroline's best neighborhood friend. He's the third son...therefore clothing is optional =)

I've got to get this girl back to GA. She's become a "cow" fan aka longhorn.


Amelia LOVES BBQ and ribs from the County Line!!!

Happy Hour with Ceci and Taelyn. The girls loved dancing with the band. Freddy's Place has a playground and live music Friday's. Caroline has been begging to go back!

Amelia celebrated Valentine's Day with some tasty leaves!

Happy Valentine's Day!!


Baking Mommy's birthday cake!!

Amelia LOVES to pull everything out of the kitchen. Who knew that this was such a great baby toy!













Wow! January and February were a blur. They are probably my least favorite months. Work has been quite stressful and we have been battling endless colds. Thank goodness Spring Break is next week!!

A couple good things happened in February. I celebrated my birthday and Baby Brinson arrived! My birthday was on a Friday this year and I had not planned to take the day off. Well, mother nature arranged for me to have a snow day that Friday! We woke up to a beautiful blanket of white with a thin layer of ice underneath. It was such a rare treat for Austin!! Alex took me to dinner Saturday night to La Contessa, an amazing gourmet Mexican restaurant next to the new Austin City Limits theatre. Caroline helped make me an amazing chocolate cake with lots of sprinkles and she went shopping with her daddy for my present. She kept the secret for about an hour. We were in the kitchen cooking together when all of the sudden she looked up and said, "You need to go get your present out of Daddy's car. It's a red, sparkly necklace." Well, it was a beautiful turquoise necklace so she was half right =) Baby Brinson was a bit of a surprise coming a few weeks early, but he is doing great! He and Cat were able to leave the hospital right away and he's growing like a weed. Cat and Wes seem to be doing great. I just wish I lived closer to help! We cannot wait to meet the little man.

Caroline is growing up so quickly. Her favorite thing to do after school is to dress up as a teacher and "teach" Amelia and I. She can be very bossy =) Caroline and Powell, a boy her age that lives next door, have been playing together almost every day. They are constantly running back and forth between our houses. We celebrated her bestfriend Ceci's birthday in February at the Little Gym. Caroline told everyone that it was Ceci's birthday. She really honored her friend.

Caroline's really into Peter Pan and Cinderella. I used to dream and talk about Peter Pan when I was little and I love the fact that she has fallen in love with the story too. She is constantly asking about Captain Hook and the tic-tocking crocodile. She also seems to have a little crush on Micheal. I'm interested to see if she's going to bring home a tall, skinny, boy that wears thick glasses and a top hat. Last week, Caroline spilled a cup of water all over the kitchen floor and I made her get a towel and clean it up. She told me that she was just like Cinderella. Does that make me an evil stepmother/stepsister???

Amelia is still our little sweet pea. She is a super fast crawler and she's starting to travel on her feet by holding onto things. Unfortunately, our little Mia is still putting everything in her mouth. Caroline and I were planting last week and Amelia crawled over to us and the next thing I knew, she had a mouth full of mud! It's pay back for Alex and I laughing at other kids eating sand when Caroline was a baby.

We have gone into full spring gear with lots of planting projects. Caroline is an avid gardener. We went to the kite festival in Zilker Park yesterday and had a lot of fun. I had no idea that there could be so many kites in one place! Amazing! Caroline talked to everyone and asked to pet every dog she could find. She doesn't have a shy bone in her body or any fear of dogs. We've got some work to do about strangers and unfriendly dogs!

We're headed to Athens this weekend for some family time on the farm and then back home for a relaxing week off. I can't wait!

Amelia's Baptism

Amelia was supposed to the baptised on the 26th of December, but mother nature had other plans. There was still snow on the ground and it was freezing cold so we decided to postpone until the 30th. It was just family instead and very special. Amelia was the perfect angel and Caroline was impressed that she liked the water on her head! Amelia made quite a face when Terry put salt in her mouth, but she still didn't fuss. It was a nice close to our trip to Georgia.

Goats on the Roof and Tallulah Gorge

We drove up to the mountains after Christmas to take a quick hike and see some goats. The gorge was beautiful as always and Caroline loved the visitor's center. The goats on the roof was the big hit. We will definitely make the drive to see that again!

December 2010

Christmas Eve: Caroline 2 years and 8 months, Amelia 7 months, and Jack Cooper Brinson 6 weeks.

Nona and Aunt Carolyn with their grandbabies.

Caroline and Cousin Baby Jack




We have had an eventful December full of parties, travel, baking, and trips to the doctor! Caroline has been getting ready for Santa since Thanksgiving. Our neighborhood has lights in every yard which only adds to the excitement. We have made cookies and she has made three gingerbread houses. I think her favorite part of the holiday season is the music! She is constantly singing Christmas carols. We had a lot of fun at her school Christmas party. The kids all had their pictures taken with Santa and only one of them cried.

In addition to Christmas, we celebrated Daddy's birthday on the 17th at his company party. It was nice to have a night out with a free babysitter at home (Nana). Unfortunately, that weekend was also filled with nursing a sick baby back to health. We took Amelia to the doctor last Saturday and she was diagnosed with RSV. Luckily, we caught it early and she was back to normal after a few days. It was our first experience with anything other than an ear infection and it was NOT fun. We were still able to fly out on the 19th, but we headed to the doctor in Gainesville on the 21st to make sure that her breathing was okay. Thank goodness for a doctor in the family because she was seen right away. Her breathing was fine, but she had an ear infection. She's now officially feeling good and eating like a horse.

Other than the trip to the doctor, we have had a great time in Georgia. We have spent a lot of time in our pjs watching Christmas movies and reading Christmas books. Caroline's current favorite is The Grinch. We have played with Nana B otherwise known as Nana with the Kitties and met the newest Brinson, Baby Jack. Caroline and I went to see Tangled with Anna, Ally, Aunt Carol, and Nana. We LOVED it!

Christmas Eve was magical and wonderful. We went to the twelve o'clock church service for kids and had a family party. It was so much fun to see Caroline, Amelia, and Baby Jack together. We opened presents from cousins last night and it was hard to stop, but we were able to get the girls to bed so Santa could do his magic!

Halloween and Thanksgiving

Curtis age 5, Caroline 2 1/2, and Charles age 9






Wow time flies! We have had a great time with the girls this past two holidays and we are getting really excited about Christmas. Caroline was a fairy for Halloween. She loves to play dress up at school, so this was a big treat for her. We made it to quite a few houses, but she had the most fun answering the door. We are so lucky to live in such a safe, kid friendly neighborhood. So many houses were decorated and everyone was so friendly. Amelia chilled in the stroller in her Pumpkin PJs. I'm sure she'll be the perfect sidekick next year. Thanksgiving started off kind of rough for Miss Amelia. She had been fighting a cold the last couple weeks and I had already taken both of the girls in to have their ears checked, but they were clear. I put Amelia to bed the Monday before the holiday and she seemed fine, but woke up with a fever and a terrible cry. I stayed home with the ladies that Tuesday and took Amelia back to the doctor. It was still just a cold, but with a fever. We did end up driving up to Arlington Wednesday morning for a delicious Thanksgiving lunch hosted by Grandaddy. That evening we drove over to Athens for Turkey Day part two. Caroline had a ball with her cousins. They all played so well together even though there's a pretty big age range. Amelia had a good time as well, although she wasn't 100%. She spent a lot of time asleep in her Nana's arms. Amelia turned six months old the Friday after Thanksgiving. She is now crawling (not very quickly though) and she can sit up from laying down. She's really trying to pull up too so we broke down and lowered the crib. Amelia has finally decided that she is ready to eat solids. She loves anything that we eat, but does not like baby food. So, I blend up whatever we're having and she's happy. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we drove back to Austin to buy our Christmas tree and decorate. It's beautiful! We have been reading lots of books about Christmas and we watched Rudolph last week. The excitement is definitely building and I have a feeling this is going to be a memorable year.

Fall Festival and Visit from Grandaddy

We drove over to Elgin, TX to a fall festival a few weeks ago. Caroline had a lot of fun with Taelyn, but she wanted nothing to do with the ponies! We might head back to Elgin to cut down our tree this year!
Grandaddy came down for a visit last weekend. We had such a nice time eating great food, watching basebal/football, and relaxing. Amelia enjoyed trying to crawl all over Grandaddy and Caroline chased Lily the whole time. We can't wait for another visit!

Amelia is 5 months old!

I cannot believe that my baby is 5 months old! Time has flown by. She is now sitting up on her own and babbling. Her favorite thing to say is "da da da". After five months of getting up every night to nurse, this is the thank you that I get? Hmmm is that fair? Oh well, she's still my sweet pea. This past weekend, she teased me by sleeping through the night 7:30 pm to 6 am two nights in a row. Unfortunately, she was up again at 2 am Sunday night and last night. I can't complain too much because she usually nurses and is back asleep in 20 minutes. She is still not quite ready for baby food. We've tried for the last month and she gags on the spoon and looks utterly repulsed by the whole thing. We tried one of the baby food "nets" that she can suck/gnaw and that worked a little better. Might have something to do with the sweet potato casserole with brown sugar that I stuffed it with =) Caroline was so ready to eat at four months and Amelia is taking her time. It's kind of nice to not have to fool with food at school yet. I'm going to try to enjoy another month of her only needing me. She's definitely easy to pack for!