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cute things

A few cute things the kids have said lately:

1. Our friends Anthony and Jessica have newborn twin girls. We went to their house down in south Austin to see the babies and bring some soup. We pull up to the house and Luke notices there are no cars in the driveway.
Luke: Nobody's home!
Me: Maybe the cars are in the garage.
Sierra: (very patiently) Luke, in some REALLY FANCY houses the car actually goes right into the garage!!!!
Luke: shock and disbelief

2. Luke coughing and spitting his milk all over the place, and then after he recovers, saying, "Momma, I Bless-you'd!"

3. Autry calls our neighbor Mark, "Marker." She was also calling Dad "Grandpa Lydia" the other day. She was also calling Jessie Rose, and refused to call her by her name.

4. Luke and I were sitting at the kitchen table having a snack. He looks and me very thoughtfully and asks, "Where ARE all the white people?" This from the whitest boy I know...

5. Brian and Luke went to Academy so Brian could get his hunting license. They spend a little time looking at the bows and arrows, and Luke was getting really excited. Brian finds a kid set with the suction cup ends and offers to buy it for Luke. Luke examines it, less than pleased. Brian asks him what's wrong, and he says, "But how will this make them get dead?"

Her Father's Daughter

Sierra couldn't find her toothbrush the other night, and it was about time for a new one anyway, so I opened up a new package and gave her a new lime green one. She was pumped, new toothbrushes are really exciting around here. Last night she walks into the livingroom at toothbrushing time, carrying her old, frazzled, pink toothbrush. When I asked her where she found it, she said, "On the floor. Behind the toilet. In a cup of medicine." While I might not be totally sure what all is on the floor, behind the toiIet, I promise there are no cups of medicine. Anyways, I made a face and told her to throw it away. Her expression was as if I had suggested drowning a sack of kittens. "But it's my toothbrush."
"It's old and disgusting, and you have a new one."
"You can't just throw it away!"
"Ok, give it to me, I'll hold on to it."
She looks at me very skeptically, and backs away into the bathroom to finish her business. When she comes back, she asks me what I'm doing with her toothbrush.
"Snuggling it."
"Then what?"
"Then I'm going to throw it away, because it is gross."
"NO! It's just, it's just that, I really want to keep it."
Of course. If there is no room in the box with your collection of Sweet Tea lids, or in the stack of graded TAKS math worksheets which you might want to look at when you are older, just tuck it into the drawer with your dad's Girbauds.

Dinner Theatre

We were eating a peaceful dinner the other night, everything was going swimmingly, when all the sudden out of the blue, Sierra goes, "Momma, Daddy called me a jackass." What??? I look at Brian and he looks confused... "A year and a half ago! When I was on Autry's bed! He did!" Brian jumps on this opportunity to cross examine, and he keeps getting her on all the details - the final story she comes up with is that Brian was laying on the bed in Autry's room, she hit his feet (but he wasn't really sleeping of course - I think she has pulled that same trick with Grandpa, right Dad?) Anyways, so he called her a jackass, she ran and told me, and I came in and spanked him. And he told her jackass wasn't a bad word because it is in the Bible and it means donkey, "but donkeys AREN"T SMART!" If there is anything in the world that makes Brian happier than getting random people worked up it is getting the kids worked up at the dinner table, because then I start freaking out, so it is like double points for him... anyways, he gets this look in his eyes, "So, Sierra, if you can't remember the details of your little story, how do you know Autry wasn't the one who called you a jackass?" He turns to Autry, who has been quiet this whole time, "Autry, did you call Sierra a jackass a year and a half ago?" She slowly looks around the table, then looks at him. Then, with perfect nonchalance, "Ohhh yeeahh..." Brian and I were laughing so hard, tears were rolling down our faces. Sierra, never one to under-react, FLIPPED. She was immediately standing up in her chair, jumping up and down, her face bright red, "NO AUTRY NO YOU DID NOT CALL SISSY A JACKASS YOU COULDN'T EVEN TALK DADDY DID IT DADDDDDDYYYYYYY!!!!!!!" So, final score, Daddy - 1, Jackass - 0.

Gracie

Question: What do you get when you put a 14 year old in a house with no television, BUT unlimited photo booth on the computer?

Answer:






Oh, there's more where that came from... much, much more :)

She'll love me for this one...

I couldn't resist...

hurricane dean

So there was a hurricane a few weeks ago, and like all responsible and level-headed citizens we hit the beach. It is just a sad fact that our children will only know the gulf to be a STICKY SANDSTORM because when the weather is bad, surf's up, dude. It wasn't that bad this time, just really windy, and we had a great time. The waves were pretty good, not as great as Brian and Anlo had hoped. Brian's board had a run in with the pier and got pretty dinged up. He was really sad about that, but he was able to bondo it up and get back out the next day.

The highlight of the trip for the kids and me was finding a huge, blue crab stranded under the pier. After much talking about the whys and hows of the situation, building a seaweed shelter for him, and general jumping around, we managed to get some other beachgoers with a huge bucket to help it back into the ocean. Bon Voyage, crabby. Now, I don't have a picture of said crab. This trip was the first time I was serious about bringing my camera and trying to take pictures and I learned a few things. First of all, it is good that the kids all have cool hair and the whole different colors thing, because they move so much the back of their heads is what I usually end up getting. Secondly, one adult, three small children, a delicate camera, and the ocean do not mix. Period. The few pictures I got of the kids actually on the beach were all taken in the first three minutes of being there, and then Autry was knocked over by a little wave and photo time was over. I couldn't even really clean the sand of her face right away because I was holding my camera. It was, as we say, a situation. So for the rest of the trip, Autry wouldn't get close to the water and I gave up on bringing the camera out. Good thing the kids love the "ho-towel", camera was safe in our room, and I got a few cute pictures in there.













love,
Jub

independence day

Every year on the 4th of July our neighborhood gets together and has a parade and party. They have been doing this for 50 years, supposedly the longest running neighborhood parade in Austin. The event is very Austinish - an eccentric mix of trashcan brigades, unicycles, old cars, strange bikes, spanish dancers, ROTC kids, firemen, politicians, and of course, what get together can be complete without guy with giant snake. Have fun with that one, Brian. It is a lot of fun, with a different vibe than the annual drunken strangeness that is New Years. Of course, that parade does have bagpipes... and lots of yelling.





This guy cracks me up. On Halloween he wrapped himself in saran wrap and hid in his trashcan, jumping out and yelling at the unsuspecting trick-or-treaters. He certainly added a little bit of extra drama to our night. Luke is still trying to come to terms with it...



Sierra and our across the street neighbor.

painting

Sorry, these are sideways and not the order I tried to put them in. I'm sure I'll get the hang of this... The kids were working on making a background for the aquarium in their room. It has finally stopped raining, so we can be outside!





Sierra - "Look, I'm Cinderella with no pants..."

swing-bot

We have these great neighbors, super socially responsible young couple. From the moment they moved in I think we have kept them entertained with our front yard antics. They don't have kids, they have cats, and they call us "the breeders." Anyways, they have nicknamed Autry swing-bot, which I think is really quite fitting.
love,
Jubilee

los patitos

Los patitos means the ducklings, which is what the kids are reminding me of lately - all three of them in a little row, quacking away. Here we are in Mexico, towards the end of a long road trip. Lots of quacking.
love,
jubilee