Greetings from Austin!

Butler Park in Downtown Austin

At the Park

We met up with LeiLani and her kids at McQueen Park this week. :)

Look at all these hoodlums

The boys enjoying their picnic lunch

Balloon Pillow

The girls went to the dentist this week and got balloons. Apparently, balloons double really well as pillows--or so Owen tells me. :)

Owen Talks

Owen is quite the talker nowadays. He loves to repeat everything he hears. I tried to record a little, but he was so fascinated by the camera that I couldn't get him to say much. So these videos are a little on the long side and lacking in substance; I'll have to try again some other time:

 

Bathroom Update

Scott put a lot work into this bathroom this week--painting and drywall repair. It looks really nice. One lady came by yesterday to look at the place, and she says she plans to submit an offer this weekend. Hopefully it works out! :)

This paint color matches most of the rest of the condo. The lighter color makes the bathroom feel a lot brighter.

Mesa Riverview

We went on an impromptu trip to the Mesa Riverview Park tonight. The City made some great renovations while we were in Ohio:

Lizzie on the 50 foot tall Genesis climbing tower... She would have climbed higher if we would have let her.

Splashpad

Fruit Salad

For some reason Lizzie has been really into fruit salad lately. One morning she and Heidi surprised me and made a fruit salad:

It contains several grapes, an orange, 2 apples, and 2 bananas.

Here she spelled out "fruit salad party" phonetically--without help:

Uncle Steven's Basketball Game

We went to Uncle Steven's basketball game this morning:

Basketball Fans

Mommy-Owen Selfie

Yay, Uncle Steven!

Artwork

This artwork has been on our fridge for the past month. Thought I should take a picture before they go in the trash:

Lizzie drew this picture of Cinderella.

Heidi drew and autographed this Christmas tree. (For a little while, she spelled her name "HOA." We've been working on it, and she now spells her name "Heidi" or "Hiedi" or some other variation.)

Lizzie's rendering of a pool party

Halle Heart Children's Museum in Tempe

(The pictures didn't turn out great because of a flash/lighting problem:)

Giant heart replica (Where does she come up with these poses?)

This exhibit was cool... You could see heart replicas and hear heart beats for a bunch of different animals.

I think the highlight for Owen was just spinning in circles around this pole. :)

Guess Who Lost a Tooth!

Wiggly tooth.. On the bottom in the middle

Dad pulled it out with some dental floss

The Tooth Fairy is going to visit tonight!

A Visit to Great-Grandma's House

Owen was really excited to get to know Grandma's dog, Jewel.

Fancy Nancy

(The pose was her idea.)

This Kid...

He's just too cute. I can't get enough of him.

Cousins

We took these pictures of the kids and Baby Ruby last week:

And this was earlier today. We went to the Mesa MLK Festival:

I told the girls that we were going to the Martin Luther King parade, so they kept talking about the "prince parade." (King... prince. Get it? Lol.) We didn't actually make it in time to catch the parade. Oops.

Phoenix Zoo

While we were at the library yesterday, we lucked out and got a culture pass to the zoo. That means all four of us got in for the price of one child admission. (Woot woot.)


Kmodo dragon exhibit (I'm pretty sure I have a picture of Lizzie doing this exact same pose about 3 years ago.)

Orangutan

This is where Mommy and Daddy went on their first date more than 7 years ago.

Gotta love Lizzie's face here.

This one makes me think of Ariel.

P.S. These kids look like a bunch of ragamuffins. They're all getting haircuts tomorrow! :)

P.P.S. Can I just say that Arizona ROCKS! It was in the 60s today. Meanwhile in Toledo, it currently feels like -6 degrees and they're expecting 1 to 3 inches of snow tonight. Yeah, I don't even kind of miss that place.

Milo

Grandpa Miller bought a puppy for Grandma Lu a few months ago. The kids had fun playing with "Milo" for a couple hours this afternoon:

Owen kept trying to pick him up by the neck. :-s

Liz got a little itchy (allergies), but had a good time.

Heidi was nervous. She LOVES animals, but usually feels more comfortable from a distance.

Happy New Year!

Our New Year spread... We had Aunt Allison, Aunt Kristi, Uncle Jason, and Ruby over.

Our cute little New Year Baby...  Notice his latest injury, above his right eyebrow.

Birthday cupcakes for Aunt Allison's golden birthday