I think Brady and I have lost our minds!

A few weeks ago, we decided to spend our tax refund on updating our house.  Our interior paint was a disaster and our fence was falling over and I REALLY wanted some new carpet.  Strange thing is this was all supposed to be for our benefit.  Then the question was asked...  "Why not sell your house?"  It's a seller's market in Austin and the interest rates are SUPER low and to be honest, our house hasn't met our needs for quite some time.  So, renovation for home improvement took a turn to renovation for selling!  I have spent the last month of my life at the whim of contractors.  My house is in shambles!  Furniture is in different rooms, the master bath is torn apart, the backyard is full of new wood for repairs and old wood with rusty nails that were pulled off the house!  The floors are filthy as I refuse to clean anything until they are done traipsing in and out of here with dirty shoes and buckets of grout!  I have managed to pack quite a bit and tons of boxes are safely tucked into a climate-controlled storage unit!  The kids and the dogs are not quite sure what to think.  This has been kind of a sudden thing for them.  One minute this was our home and all was well, next minute, this was no longer going to be their home and they had to watch half of their stuff get packed in boxes to reduce clutter for showing.  They have done pretty well, but I know this is hard and they are uncertain.  They are going to be leaving the only home they remember (we've been here since Ian was 3) and they will be leaving behind many neighborhood friends.  It's sad, but I really think this will be for the best for everyone.  We are looking in kid-friendly neighborhoods with excellent amenities and yes, good schools.  We are still homeschooling, but there is always the possibility that one or both of them might want to go to school at some point and we better make sure the school district is good.

We have been looking for houses for weeks, haven't really found what we need, but it doesn't matter anyway, until we sell this one, we can't move into another.  And you can't really put a contingent offer on the table BEFORE you list your own house!  So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that these guys finally get it in gear and get done today or tomorrow so I can spend the weekend cleaning and preparing for the house to be officially on the market for Monday.  Please keep your fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly, that the house sells quickly and we are able to find a wonderful PERMANENT home (well at least permanent until kids go to college!).

But anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know what we've been up to and why I haven't checked in for awhile.  I will do my best to keep everyone posted on progress, in fact, as soon as work is done, I will be sure to post some pics.  Kind of funny to live in a house for 6 years and not really do much to upgrade, but turn around and spend thousands of dollars to make it pretty for someone else!

Gardens and Geisel

A couple of months ago I took the kids down to the Zilker Botanical Garden to enjoy all of the blooming flowers and the gorgeous weather.  The roses were in full bloom and just stunning!

Needless to say, I took full advantage of the photo opportunities!  I didn't get many pics of the kids because they were running around, smelling the flowers and playing hide-n-seek throughout the gardens.  I did manage to catch a quick shot of the little girl while she was perched on one of her favorite spots.

I couldn't resist a couple of shots of the gazebo.

Once we had our fill of roses, we headed over to the Japanese portion of the gardens.  All was going SO well.  One minute we had this going on...

The next minute I had a boy up to his neck in the pond!  He has traversed these stones about 100 times, but this was not his lucky day!  He slipped and ended up taking a swim with the koi!  In brand new sneakers, might I add!  I'm sorry that there are no photos, but the fact is, I had NO idea how deep that pond was and although he could stand up, he was freaking out, Ainsley was freaking out and it just wasn't the most opportune time to take photos!!!  Although, in hindsight, it sure would have been a funny pic to add to this post!!!

I fished him out, half amused and half annoyed since we were supposed to be visiting a local art gallery after we visited the gardens.  I was pretty sure the "Soggy Bottom Boy" wouldn't be a welcome addition.  Because I am always somewhat prepared, I had a blanket in the car.  I wrapped him up, took his soaking, BRAND NEW sneakers off, and fed him a picnic lunch, hoping he might dry out a bit.  He was so cold and miserable and so upset that he was going to miss out on the Dr. Seuss exhibit.  I told him he was likely going to have to sit in the car and play his DS so Ainsley could still get to see the exhibit.  But as it turns out, the people at the gallery were really cool and allowed a damp, bare-footed boy to walk through the gallery.

The exhibit was really cute.  Dr. Seuss was incredibly creative and possibly on acid!  ;)  Here are a few of our faves.

Joseph Katz and His Coat of Many Colors (LOVE this one!)

Not sure what this one was called, but it's so cool!

And how in the world can you see a Dr. Seuss exhibit and not get a pic of the kids with the Cat in the Hat?!?!

AND the Lorax?!?!

I would love to have a fountain in my backyard with the Lorax as the centerpiece!  So awesome!!!  It ended up be a lovely day!  We could have lived without the impromptu dip in the pond, but hey, it worked out in the end and everyone was happy!

Kids and Kids

OK, so I seem to be on an eternal quest to catch up on this blog!  There is just SO much going on right now and I will be updating soon.  But until then I would like to revisit a wonderful, spring day!  Linda takes basket-weaving classes and it just so happens that the woman also raises goats.  So, she invited Linda to bring the kids out to enjoy the babies.  I cannot even put into words how cute these little guys were!  And my kids absolutely fell in love with her "kids"!!!

Ian played chase...

And they adored him and wanted to jump on him!

And they REALLY wanted to eat his shoelaces!

And little did we know that Ainsley has a future as a "goat whisperer"!

Or possibly the Pied Piper of goats.

These little goats were just the funniest things and the kiddos adored them!  It is good to have friends with goats!  Last shot has to be one of my favorite pictures of Ainsley.  She was swinging on the gate and I just grabbed the snapshot.  Once I got home and uploaded the photos I was really taken by surprise.  She's growing up SO fast!

LOVE.