hanging at the park

one of our favorite things to do here in texas is to meet josh (curtis' brother) and laura his fiancé at a park and just hang out! so that's just what we did. some of my best memories of living in austin are hanging out with these two! today was a perfect day and i wish we had more like it!

perfect texas weather

the weather here in texas gets so strange this time of year.. one day it's burning hot and then two days later it's freezing cold. it can be very frustrating but then every once in a while we have a few perfect days and i remember why i love texas so much! a friend of mine told me about a new park so on one of those said perfect days we went as a family and it was fantastic. there really is nothing better than a perfect park day!

i love being an aunt!

so i absolutely love being an aunt! and i mean, nothing beats being a mom but i really love being an aunt! my sister janice had all four of her boys before i ever had a child and so those boys hold a very special place in my heart because they were legit the first babies i ever had any experience with and i just love them so much! (don't get me wrong i love ALL of my nieces a nephews! i have the best ones ever!) so when my sister asked me if when she and her husband kris were going to europe and taking their two older boys if i would watch her two younger boys carson and hendrix i said heck yes! she flew them out here to stay with us for 5 days and we had an absolute blast!! seriously we had so much fun! we went to the movies a couple times, we hit up some bounce house places, curtis took them to this new dart gun place by our house, we went to the zoo, and a couple other fun places, we also had lots of ice cream and just hung out and i seriously mean it when i say i did not want them to go back home! my girls had a blast having them here and we are all so sad that they are gone now! i guess we just need to take a trip out to california very soon!

here are some photos from their time here. they aren't the best quality which bugs me but we were having too much fun and i have to post what i have!

also while we were at the zoo the lions were being so playful and i got some video of this.. i already posted it on fb but i have to post it here too because it was too good!

2017 new year resolutions

i love making new year resolutions. i really do. not that i think they are easy to keep because they really aren't and i have made many resolutions over the years that i have yet to keep. most of them concerning health and weight loss. but i still think they are worth making. i love the beginning of the year. i feel like it's like buying a new journal, starting over. i have the whole year to make this my year and i plan to do so. so here they are, my 2017 new years resolutions.

1. read 13 books. a few years ago i made the resolution to read 12 books which was reading one book a month and i did that, so this year i am upping to to 13 this year. i have really been slacking on reading and that is something that is important to me. so 13 books it is!

2. go to bed early and wake up early. obviously there are times where this isn't possible but there are plenty of nights where i am just home and i am staying up until 1am and then feeling horrible the next morning when i have to get up and get brooklynn ready for school. i don't want this to happen anymore. so i am going to try to be in bed by 10pm on school nights.

3. take my health more seriously. i know this seems very vague and it is. but there is just so much that needs to change that i don't feel like spelling it all out. i just need to take it more seriously. i want to live a long and healthy life and the choices i have been making aren't leading me in that direction. i don't drink, i don't smoke, i don't do drugs, but the food i am putting into my body are not what my body needs. so it's time to start eating the foods that my body needs. 

4. go to the gym 5 times a week. or if i don't make to the gym do something active at home. this honestly will be the easiest of all my resolutions i think which is crazy because i used to hate going to the gym. but i have found the most amazing gym that i actually love going to. it starts my day off it the best possible way. if you live in austin you should check out burn boot camp because it is the best and it's changing my life. 

5. get pregnant and stay pregnant. after having two miscarriages in the past year i'm hoping that the positive changes in my health will help with having a healthy pregnancy. here's to hoping 2017 is my year!

now i'll leave you with some photos from a gloomy day hike we did on christmas eve!
happy new year, everyone! 2017 is going to rock!

halloween 2016

curtis had to work on halloween this year so we went trick or treating with a friend of mine and her two littlest kids. we had a great time despite a few melt downs from quinn. she was supposed to be sky from paw patrol but somehow at our church's halloween party half of her costume was lost so we had a last minute run to target where she decided on peppa pig. i loved watching them get excited about each piece of candy! brooklynn was the cutest nerd ever! before we started trick or treating we stopped by the fire station that had a bunch of activities for the kids to do! it was awesome!