More pictures from Austin and San Antonio

Here is the beautiful San Antonio Texas Temple. We loved the beautiful blue bells in front of the temple.

Austin and wild flowers

On our way home to Dallas, we stopped at a fabulous German restaurant in New Braunfels and enjoyed an authentic German meal. The restaurant owners immigrated from Germany in 2006, so the food was exactly how it should be. Laurel had her first taste of good German food and she is now a huge fan of "Germany hotdogs" (bratwurst).

We stopped in Austin to enjoy the beautiful Texas wildflowers at Lady Bird Johnson's flower center. Above is a picture of us enjoying the beautiful flowers at this center.

We enjoyed our time together as a family. The kids enjoyed spending time with their dad since we don't see him as much as we'd like during the week. It makes you appreciate the moments you do have, like this weekend, to be together.

San Antonio

We decided to take a day off and head to San Antonio for a 3 day weekend. We had a wonderful time visiting this historical city. We visited the Alamo, Riverwalk, and several great restaurants. Laurel, as always, enjoyed staying at a hotel (if you've ever heard Laurel say "hotel" you'd here a strong southern accent . . . it's hilarious). I really enjoyed learning about Texas history. Dale and I left with a better understanding of why Texans are so proud of their state. Here is a picture of me and Laurel at the Alamo.

We enjoyed walking the Riverwalk and decided to find a nice cafe to have lunch at. It was fun to people watch and just soak in the beautiful day. We splurged and bought tickets for a boat ride on the river. Laurel loved the ride, but Andrew cried through most of it because he was tired and hungry. After the ride, we decided to head back to the hotel to have a rest before dinner. Here is a picture of Laurel on the Riverwalk.

Six months!!!

Happy 6th month birthday, Andrew! We are so glad you are in our family and look forward to many more months and years. You are now eating some solids and love it. You especially love pureed bananas, carrots, squash, and applesauce. Rice cereal doesn't agree with you so well, but there's always oatmeal. You've also begun rolling around, just a little. You're not one to move anymore than you need to. Kristen, your physical therapist, is helping you with that. You are a sweet little boy and the apple of our eyes.

More Easter

Here are a couple of more fun photos from Easter. The top one is from our yard - yes, our grass would be the dead grass and our neighbors have the pretty green grass. We used their pretty yard for our background. Directly above is the picture of Laurel and Andrew after they found their Easter baskets.

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter this year. My brother (Mark) and his wife (Laura) came to Dallas for a visit. They stayed in Frisco with Laura's family, so we were able to spend a couple of days with them.

On Friday night they all came to our home for a BBQ. We had a great time catching up with everyone. Laura's niece performed several gymnastic routines in our living room. I was so amazed at her abilities and I would not be surprised to see her in the Olympics one day. It brought back a lot of memories for me as I watched her tumble in our living room. I remember going to gymnastics as a young girl and doing all of those fun tricks. As I recall, I nearly broke my neck a few times, but it sure was fun! Now I can barely touch my toes, but there was a time when I could bend backwards and flip every direction. Just writing about it makes my back hurt!

On Saturday morning, our ward hosted a fun Easter egg hunt for the children at a park near our home. We had such a great time getting to know more people and especially watching Laurel interact with all of her new friends. Laurel enjoyed searching for eggs and finding the treasures inside. Dale also had a hunt of his own. He dropped his Blackberry phone somewhere in the park and we couldn't find it. Due to the size of the park, we weren't certain we would be able to find it, but we did after we retraced our steps. Thank heavens! After the hunt, we headed to Wal-Mart to purchase flowers and soil for our garden. It is so strange to finally be purchasing flowers and such for our yard - I still can't believe we finally have a home.

On Sunday, we drove up to Frisco to enjoy Easter with Laura's side of the family. Greg, Laura's brother-in-law, is a master chef, trained in Paris at Le Cordon Bleu. He invited me, a wannabe chef, to join him in the kitchen and learn some of his magic. I had so much fun! We is an amazing chef. He could chop, slice, and julienne with no effort (and he didn't cut his fingers off). Although I couldn't eat a majority of the food due to Andrew's allergies, I did manage to sneak a couple of licks. It was all so delicious. Greg cooked chicken with a garlic mushroom basil cream sauce, mushroom potato and zucchini pancakes with a tomato marinade, spinach and pine nut salad with balsamic vinaigrette, and crepes suzette. It was all delicious and most of all, I thoroughly enjoyed being Greg's assistant.

We had a wonderful Easter holiday. It was fun to watch the kids, particularly Laurel, discover their Easter baskets. But most of all, it was fun to share with Laurel why we celebrate Easter. It isn't about the Easter bunny and candy. Easter is about the death and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Not only does each one of us have the opportunity to resurrect once we die, but each day and each week, we have the opportunity to repent of our sins and become new and clean. As I try and teach Laurel these truths, I am amazed at her innocence and purity. This was the first Easter that we were truly able to communicate with her about such an awesome event and I have to say that I enjoyed it. This was truly a memorable Easter.

Hooray for Grandma Chris!

Today we had to say goodbye to Grandma Chris. We enjoyed the time we spent with Grandma while she visited us in Texas. Here are some of the highlights from Grandma's trip (from Laurel's perspective):

1. Grandma took me to Sonic and the gas station for slushies and drinks

2. Going to the movies with Grandma

3. Baking cupcakes with rainbow sprinkles

4. Story time with Grandma

5. Bedtime with Grandma - Grandma was a trooper and allowed Laurel to sleep with her in the Aerobed . . . it couldn't have been comfortable, but Laurel sure enjoyed it

6. Buying green clothes together for St. Patrick's Day

There were many other wonderful things we did together. I am especially grateful for Grandma's help because she watched the kids a lot the final few days of her trip while I finished my final paper for a class. It was so fun to have Grandma around for a visit and we look forward to many more with Grandma Chris and the rest of our Grandparents!