11 Year Anniversary

We celebrated our 11th anniversary this month. Last year we did it up in San Francisco. This year we hung out in Texas and made a quick trip to Austin. Earlier this summer we stayed at the Omni in downtown Austin. We stayed in the Omni in San Fran last year and had great service. But our stay earlier this summer had a few things go wrong. It was mostly noise from renovations. Todd let the Omni know that although we love their hotels we probably wouldn't stay there again. Well.. they offered us a free night's stay in one of their renovated rooms. Who are we to turn such an offer down right. ;) It was fabulous. They tried really hard to please us and gave us a super room and it was all free. Talk about a great anniversary gift.  We checked in.. got dressed and went out to dinner at Uchi. It is one of the yummiest places I have been too. Of course I do live in a good food deprived city so I could be wrong. But I don't think I am. We tried all kinds of deliciousness at Uchi. Totally recommend this place if you are looking for a cool and yummy place to have sushi. It is pricey so expect to put down some money if you go but so worth it. Just talking about the place makes me want to go back as soon as we can.. My favorite was the machi cure (picture below) which consisted of smoked baby yellowtail, yucca chips, asian pear, marcona almonds with garlic brittle. 

My date was pretty awesome too. Todd and I have never gone to a real sushi place together. He spent some time in Japan before we got married and he attempted to teach me how to use my chopsticks. I started out pretty good but as the dinner progressed my chopstick skills waned. It was a fun dinner. Kind of odd that we have been married for 11 years and never has there been an occasion for the whole chopstick lesson. I guess there are more surprises and adventures yet to come. :) Happy Anniversary Todd! 

Fuzzy phone pic before dinner

The awesome bookshelf that Todd built in our bedroom.. his gift to me. 

The suite comped by the Omni

This is a sweet suite :)  

Machi Cure 

Luca at 3 Years

Luca's first family portrait.. There is an extra Luca to the right of Jack. 

Luca is into anything big brother is into...Here he is testing out his new remote control car. 

Our little Luca turned 3 today. I ask him pretty frequently to stop growing up and to stay my baby forever.. He always says that he will grow up and become a big boy. He's right and he is well on his way. Luca is really into "knightly things" right now. He will have a Mike the Knight birthday party and has been looking forward to it for months. He says that when he has his "knightly things" (sword, shield, armor) that he will save my plants and scare the animals away from eating them. In the first picture you can see that he is practicing his archery. Little does he know that my father really did practice archery and can show him a lot about bows and arrows. We are at the end of potty training. He has done so well with it. He has almost mastered the process. We are crossing our fingers he gets it before school starts up again. He needs to be able to be independent in this area in order to go into the early childhood classroom at his school. Not quite in line with Maria Montessori's self-pace and "when the child is ready" philosophy but that's okay.  

Luca at 3 years:

1. Favorite color is red

2. Can be heard beginning a sentence with the words "eventually" or "actually"

3. Says his J sound like a Z so Jack sounds like Zack

4. Says his TH sound like an S so "thank you" sounds like "sank you" and "think so" sounds like "sink so" 

5. Loves to dress up like super heroes, cowboys, and knights

6. Will eat turkey (sometimes) 

7. Never eats chicken or meat

8. Lives off of carrots, fruit, cheese, bread and waffles (current favorite breakfast treats are cinnamon rolls) 

9. Prefers crocs to tennis shoes

10. Likes to play with trains

11. Enjoys going to the country

12. Loves playing with his older brother but gets very frustrated with being younger and less capable 

13. And desperately wants to be on a soccer team 

Luca's personality is more rambunctious than Jack's. He is not afraid to let people know when he is not happy. He will yell, cry and yes even hit. He takes a swing at Jack at least once a week. We are working on using our words. God gave Luca such a fun personality. We love you Lucaboo! 

Jack at 6 Years

Jack had a Harry Potter birthday party this year. 

Opening Hogwarts Lego present from Uncle Sean and Aunt Karen. 

Slip n' sliding after the party

Testing out Platform 9 3//4...

Jack graduated from Kinder in June. For the last 3 years he has had a wonderful teacher and class. He will continue to attend Montessori school but will be moving up to the lower elementary side of the school. It will be a whole new experience for all of us. We attempted to get Jack into a local magnet school that seems great and promising but it didn't work out. I am unsure how long we will continue to do the whole private school scene. We never really intended to do elementary school in any private school but it just kind of happened. Jack loves his school and we all have been very happy there so for now it is the perfect place for us. (Luca included who will be moving up to the Early Childhood program in the fall.) 

So Jack at 6 years old: 

1. Is a really good reader and his favorite book is Harry Potter 

2. Likes to eat at Rudy's, Fazoli's, and Cracker Barrel

3. Loves his school and has a great group of friends there

4. Likes to wear Sketchers and Crocs

5. Likes exploring outside and playing with water and dirt

6. Loves going to the country house and hanging out with cousin Penny

7. Has about a zillion legos

8. Gets car sick

9. Enjoys trips to the beach

10. Has a cool connection to my Dad and likes to sit outside and talk to grandpa about plants, cars or anything else that comes to mind

11. Just discovered video games and has been playing Super Mario Brothers on the wii 

12. And is saving his money and seeking out chores for payment to buy either a Nook or the Hogwarts Express Lego set (I am pushing for the nook...) 

Jack's character continues to be one of someone that tries to respect others. (as much as a 6 year old boy can..) He is ultra aware of fairness or the lack there of.. He tends to get his feelings hurt easily and is timid about trying new things. He excels when he is in a comfortable and familiar environment. We thank God for Jack and love everything about him. We look forward to this next year of his life. :) 

Resurrected...

It has been um.. a while. I stopped blogging some time ago. This summer Jack turned 6 and in a few weeks Luca will turn 3. It has come to my attention that because I stopped blogging I stopped capturing many of the day to day things that eventually fade our memory. So I hope to post occasionally for the purpose of documenting the lives of my babies and to update on our family happenings in general.

Bad Blog

For anyone that still checks in...So sorry to disappoint. I am a total blog failure. Ha! There is just no way that I can keep up with everything these days. School is really taking up most of my time. I love my family and I love my kids so any free time I do have....I try to spend it with them.

Luca is 19 months old and he is a hoot! He deserves a post of his own detailing all that he is doing.

Jack is 4 and a half and at times acts like a old man with all of his idiosyncrasies. Other times he acts younger than Luca!

Todd is working hard at the tenure process.

And I am simply trying to survive my last full semester of classes.

Well... let's see how long it is before the next brief update!

Pots and Pans

An activity intended for Luca, but enjoyed by both boys. :-)

Halloween

Our little family had a nice fall weekend. We enjoyed some much needed family time. We had a little BBQ, ate outdoors, carved a pumpkin, roasted some pumpkin seeds and watched a good football game. Here we have Sporticus and a Skunk completing the weekend with a little trick or treating.