The five year old.

Autry turned five a few days ago. To mark the occasion, she has started wiping her own bottom, which is great... Autry at five is tall and lanky and always draws a lot of attention everywhere we go with her beautiful red curls. She is very graceful and fast, she might be our most athletic child. She is an amazing climber and is always throwing herself onto unsuspecting victims and wrapping her arms around their necks. She loves her dance class, which is basically like a mother's day out. She is there Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and dances ballet, tap, sings, does crafts and imaginary play, and eats lunch. Her teacher is Mrs. Emily. Autry was a baby bird in the winter play, which was "Are You Our Parents?" Autry is dramatic and hilarious - she always has the perfect accent or raised eyebrow for any occasion. She tells really funny jokes and is always making us crack up. She is also extremely sensitive, which is so sweet when she uses that gift to nurture, and can be frustrating when her feelings are easily hurt. She cares very deeply for her friends, family, and pets. She is very attentive and loving, always offering hospitality and help. She loves to be read to, puzzles, playing with Bogie, holding babies, barbies, webkins, dress up, makeup, playing outside, painting, dancing, singing, princesses, playing soccer, riding her bike and skateboard. She and Luke are amazing friends, they wake up early every morning before school so they will have time to play together before Luke leaves. She can make Luke laugh (and cry) harder than anyone. Autry and Sierra couldn't be more different from each other, and kind of drive each other crazy some times, but other times they are able to play together very well. Some of her favorite friends are Ally, Aiyana, Saida, Naomi, Jack, Rell and Otis. She wants to be a doctor and a mommy when she grows up. I couldn't hope for a better companion, I am really going to miss having her with me during the day when she starts kindergarten next year.

Mexico part dos

Ay-yi-yi! So... Now that months have passed... Basically, Punta Mita was a nice, relaxing trip. The surf wasn't all Brian had hoped for, but he did get out there and give it his best. Sierra went out with him a few times as well. We watched a lot of soccer, ate a lot of Mexican food, played on the beach, went for walks, swam in the pool... Luke and Autry both started swimming well for the first time. We slept in, watched movies, played games, cooked. Victor and Neda joined us for the second week. We chartered a boat with a funny Austrian named Rudy as our guide and went snorkeling and saw the blue footed boobies. "You like zee boobies?" We also chartered a little boat on another day to take us to a different surf spot, where the kids found hundreds of little hermit crabs. One day we hopped on the bus to check out another little town and do some shopping. The kids were wonderful, we only had to threaten to tie Sierra up like a goat on the roadside once. It really is a lot more fun traveling now that they are a little bit older.

Pillow talk

Autry - "Luke, wake me up real early so we can play."
Luke - (With blankets over his face) "Ok."
Autry - "At half o'clock!"
Luke - "Ok."
Autry -"When I go 'beeeep' you'll know it's time."

Autry - "Beeeep."
Luke - "It's time!"
Autry - "No! That was just to show you."
Luke - "Ok."

Some days I feel like I must be doing something right

This morning Autry came rushing in from playing in the front yard with some of the neighbors. "Mommy, can you help me get 6 cups of water because everyone is running a lot and must be thirst!" (She says thirst instead of thirsty) We fill a pitcher and get 6 cups and she carefully takes them outside. A minute later, "Mommy, can you show me where the bunny grahams are because I want to bring everyone a snack, too!" She is such a thoughtful and caring person, it makes her momma proud... AND, Sierra just got everyone ready for a bike ride, got them drinks, AND did an entire load of dishes with out being asked!! Both Brian and I aren't feeling well, so she decided to pick up the slack. AND Luke and Autry made me the cutest get well cards! Sweetness!

The seven year old.

My sweet, wonderful, brilliant, funny, handsome, thoughtful boy turned seven this week. I'm his mother so I can use as many adjectives as I want... He's having a good year. He likes his teacher (Mrs. Flagiello) and is doing well in school, although lately he says he hates writing. I think he gets bummed because practicing handwriting is a drag. He loves math, science, art, and music. He has started playing the piano and seems to have a knack for it. He has also started to really get the hang of soccer, much to Daddy/Coach's delight. He considers himself a soccer superstar. He still has no problems with self esteem. He started swimming pretty well this summer in Mexico. He was the ring-bearer in his cousin Mercy's wedding in Aspen and his Aunt Jessie's wedding in Martindale. He plays with Legos and his Webkinz quite a bit, still makes story books, and loves to read Peanuts cartoons. We have heard him calling his sister a "blockhead" more than once... His best friend is his cousin Jack. He also likes to play with his friends Tobin, Isaac, James, and Linus. He is such a good, beautiful boy.

Halloween

Last weekend was intense. Friday night the kids had their annual fall festival at Maplewood, Saturday morning we had a children's class/devotional at our house, Saturday afternoon we had a birthday party for Luke (7 years old !!??!?!), Saturday night the kids went home with Grandpa and Lydia and Brian and I went out, Sunday I taught my children's class and then picked the kids up in Martindale, and then HALLOWEEN!

Ok, here we go. We had a big summer. Really big. Mexico to Canada and everything in between. Beaches and mountains and deserts and cities and one horse towns. Family and friends and even a couple of black bears. Of course, my intention was to dutifully record all the goings on at the time they were going on... Didn't happen. So I am going to do my best to get caught up, a little at a time.

MEH-HE-CO (PART UNO)

Brian turned 40 this summer. He wanted to celebrate by getting as far away as possible, so he booked a trip to Mexico about 6 months in advance. This is not the way we usually operate, but it was fun having all that time to anticipate our vacation. He wanted to go somewhere where he could do nothing but surf and watch world cup soccer, which sounded good to me. The kids are old enough to where I hoped we could all actually relax a bit. I just wanted to sleep in and read, and the kids wanted to swim and play on the beach. Win for all. It was the first time we had all flown together as a family, and aside from Autry repeatedly trying to run off in the airport (the moving sidewalk was a big hit, she used it to elude capture amazingly well), it went very well.

We got to see Lydia at the airport, she was flying to Norway for Rose's graduation at the same time. We flew from Austin to Houston to Puerto Vallarte, Mexico. As soon as we arrived the kids started saying "Hola!" to everyone they saw. After we got the luggage we crossed the street to catch a bus to Punta Mita. The bus ride was CRAZY. Take everything you imagine about riding a bus in Mexico and add three little kids and about 10 pieces of luggage and a driver who was probably insane. Lots of bouncing and sweating and brake slamming. The kids thought it was fabulous. I kind of did too, it was so fun to be out in the world like that with our little family. Punta Mita was at the end of the road, about an hour north of Puerto Vallarte. It had one street for tourists along the beach with some condos, hotels, and about 10 restaurants, all facing the water. The rest of the town was pretty typical small Mexican town, little kids running around selling Chiclets and lots of stray dogs. It was a very quiet little town and we felt safe, even though Mexico in general is not the safest place right now. Our condos were gated with a 24hr guard. It did make me a little nervous that there was an army post with heavily armed soldiers in the main street. Brian told me later that there had been some sort of an "incident" in a town nearby while we were there. In general the town was very quiet, the few tourists that were there were mostly Mexican families. A lot of times we would have the entire restaurant to ourselves. They filled up a little bit during soccer games, but were never crowded. Our condo was really nice, two bedrooms/bathrooms, nice big living room, kitchen, and big, private patio. It was nicely decorated and comfy. Only problem was that our AC never really worked very well. They were working on it when we got there, and even though they thought it was fixed, it never shut off and never really seemed to cool things off as well as it should. The condos had a nice pool with a hot tub. The kids were super excited to be able to swim in the hot tub, as the one at the Dunes in Port Aransas is "NO KIDS ALLOWED". We were a block off the beach and sat on top of a little cliff, so that we overlooked the restaurants and the ocean beyond them. To get to the beach we walked out of our condos, turned left down a steep hill, and then walked through (or between) the restaurants.
*Having some issues with pulling photos up... I'll post them when I figure it out.