Austin's first snow day in who knows how many years

Feb. 4, the entire city of Austin took a snow day off, including us.

Dinosaurs and our first family vacation

In February, we took Julian and Avery on our first family vacation and learned more about traveling as a family of four than we did about the dinosaurs whose fossils we had traveled to see.

Glen Rose, just southwest of Fort Worth, is a super fun place to bring kids. Dinosaur fossils have been found in a creek bed near the city, and the whole place has gone a little dino-crazy, which makes for a fun weekend getaway.

We stayed at a cabin whose primary feature was a hot tub and a nearby fishing pond, where Ian caught his first fish in a very long time. He's been carrying around a rod, reel and tackle on the past few trips, but he hadn't caught anything until this trip.

Look at those curls!

 

One of the most interesting parts of this dinosaur park is the giant sculptures that greet you at the entrance. The two dinosaurs are a tyrannosaur and a brontosaur, because back when the sculptures were created, scientists didn't know as much about dinosaurs and they thought that the tracks near Glen Rose were from these animals. Come to find out, not only are the tracks made by entirely different animals, the T-rex and the brontosaur lived 40 million years apart. 40 million years. That's a long freaking time.

They decided to leave the sculptures as a reminder that science is always changing and we're always learning more.

So what did we learn, that didn't have to do with dinosaurs? That sleeping in a hotel with a 4-year-old and a 5-month-old is not fun for anyone. That not even dinosaur footprints in the bottom of a riverbed will convince a cranky Julian to get out of the car. That we can travel for 3 hours in a tightly packed car without a meltdown.

(The trusty Corolla, still going strong after all these years. We're pushing 190,000 miles, and knock on wood, we'll make it to 200,000 without incident.)

It was a challenging trip, but fun nonetheless. We needed a break from Austin, especially ahead of SXSW. I covered the technology festival for the paper and got to enjoy some of the music part with Ian. It's always a crazy busy time of year, and honestly, I think it takes Austinites a month to recover.

What have we been doing in the meantime? Chickens! (Post coming soon.)

Santa baby

It's almost Valentine's Day, but these adorable photos from Christmas have been sitting in my inbox since, well Christmas. I'm glad to finally have the chance to post them on our virtual family scrapbook.

Avery's first day of school and our first chicken

The boys on Avery's first day of schools. (J was pretty excited that they both got to wear hoodies.)

Julian watching cartoons one morning before school. I had to bribe him with Lucky Charms to sit still for a few minutes so I could take this photo to go with a story I'd written about why ditching cable has been one of the best decisions our family has made.

We got a chicken! Julian named her (the red one on the right) Julia, and she and her amigas (Skeletor and Buttermilk) are already laying eggs for us! Our neighbors Matt and Kat have the girls in a coop in their backyard. It's only a matter of time (well, money, actually) until we get our own coop going. Seriously, I can see how chickens will be addicting.

Julian is on a major Transformers kick. All the kid wants to do all day is transform these little 3D puzzle guys. We had his fourth birthday at Phil's Icehouse (he wouldn't let us do it anywhere but there), and all his friends seemed to have brought him something Transformers related. His "collection" is up to more than 10, many of them second generation Transformers from when I was a kid. (I was too busy with Rainbow Bright and My Little Pony to be into Transformers, though.)

These guys love each other so much. Avery's eyes just follow Julian everywhere, and Julian is so excited to bring him to school every day. He makes up the goofiest sounds and names for his little brother; it's quite endearing. It's easy to see how they are going to be such buddies, and that's just the reward this busy momma of two needed to make it worth all the extra work.

Oh, and we picked some carrots this week ahead of the big old cold front. Didn't pick them all (they can actually survive the cold weather), but I needed to thin them out.

I love it when I pull a funny looking one.

The hustle and bustle of the new year

Thanks for not giving up on me, La Vie Dansante readers. I might not post frequently, but I try to connect the dots when I do.

A look at the past few weeks:

Baby boy turned 4 months. He's 14.5 pounds, laughing, babbling, drooling, flipping on his back, grabbing his feet....

and hanging with his bro.

Julian, who will be turning 4 in less than two weeks, and Ian are developing an even more special bond these days, and it's not just their identical Converse shoes. Just about every day, he asks me if I'll please read books and have alone time in our bedroom so he and Ian can have "boy movie night." Star Wars seems to be a favorite movie that the two of them can agree upon. Otherwise, when it's just Julian movie time, he's watching X-Men or Transformers. Occasionally, it's Strawberry Shortcake, Barbie Mermaid, Thumbelina or Tigger and Pooh.

(Look at this adorable cauliflower they decorated for me one day that J was home from school.)

Julian has really been getting into his letters, as well. He has finally latched onto a book that he insists on "reading" to me. (It's a Christmas book called, "I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bell." It's the seasonal gift that keeps on giving!) He is (no quotes needed) reading words like "on," "off" and "Nerf," and sounding out others that he finds. (I don't count him recognizing the HEB logo as reading.) There's even an iPhone kid game or two that I'll catch him playing and sounding out the words to pick the right answer.

This is what will probably be my final quilt for a little while. It was my gift to GaGa for Christmas; a dachshund from Boo Davis' book "Dare To Be Square Quilting" on which I embroidered the names of all of her wiener dogs from years' past.

All the way up to Chloe, who had to be put down late last year.

They all lived such happy lives with GaGa. I hope this quilt brings her even an ounce of that happiness when she snuggles with it during her daily nap.

Look at those blue eyes.

Just before Christmas, Ian had some friends come visit from Austin. Ryan and his girlfriend Julia, from Vancouver, were our awesome house guests just before the big day. They were a blast to spend the week with.

 

Ian and I (and Avery) even got to go out on a little date with them one night to a nice restaurant downtown. (Yay for nursing in public when you're on a date with your husband!)

And then there's work.

Well, not even so much newspaper work, but all the other projects going on in my life right now, the biggest of which is Austin Supper Club, the television show I'm working on that hopefully we'll get to air on the local public TV station later this year.

(Oh, and I did a little segment on the local FOX station on making kale chips with my friend Susan.)

A week ago, Sean and Rob (the producers) and I shot the last half of that urban farm episode with a nice, all local dinner we cooked on camera at Rain Lily Farm.

My friend, farmer Stephanie Scherzer, was a great host. (And look at those curls! Hers are something else. You can see here that my own curls are getting straighter by the day it seems. I'm kinda freaking out about it, but I know that nothing lasts forever. The uber curls could return after I stop nursing. Or maybe they won't. I'm fine with it either way, but this new hair is taking some getting used to.)

The final dinner was so beautiful, and I think I did a really good job cooking and being in front of the camera. It's a little crazy to be in the middle of all of this action, but it's a lot of fun. Balancing it all is tricky, of course, but I like the challenge. Plus, it all has to do with food, so I get to weave this wonderful basket out of it all. I feel so incredibly lucky right now. So filled with excitement and possibility. It's overwhelming, really, but with Ian's help, I'm making it just fine.