Quiet on the Set!!!

Tonite we experienced something I've never been able to experience before! We got to watch a movie in the making. It all started two weeks ago when a guy called Shawn at the church building and asked if it was possible that they use the building for parking and wardrobe for a movie they would be shooting one block over. Shawn got the okay from the elders and today was the day. They began shooting early in the day. We had errands to run tonite, so we decided to go back by the place where they were shooting and see if it was still going on. The guy that Shawn worked with to allow them to use our building was out in the street when we drove up and he invited us to come watch them shoot some scenes. We were thrilled! Not long after we walked to where they were shooting, we heard the director yell "Quiet!" and we knew he meant it. Did I mention we had a 7 and 4 year old and a 14 month old. At this point it went from really interesting to terrifying...for me. It was S I L E N T for a 100 ft radius of where they were shooting and we were about 20 feet away. Immediately I began panicking thinking of Levi deciding to yell loudly in his gibberish way that he does all the time. Oh did I also mention that there was something like 40 people on set and many of them had already given me dirty looks for having creatures that might cause issues. So, I did everything I could to keep him totally silent, which really isn't possible at all. To give you an example of how quiet they wanted it, about 50 feet away a car was sitting idle and they made the person turn the car off. So anyway, he stayed pretty much silent except for one tiny peep at the very end. I cringed, expecting to hear CUT! and everyone's head whipping in my direction, but they kept on shooting, not really seeming to notice it. I'm not a gambler so we high tailed it out of there before Levi could make another noise. It was VERY interesting to see the whole process and had we been without kids, I probably would have stayed for hours watching. So, the movie is going to be called The Girl and it should be out within a year. We have no idea what rating the movie will be but probably at least a PG-13. Anyway, a very cool and interesting night!

They were shooting right behind us

Here's the scene set up
Here is what it looked like in one of the church classrooms.

Get Up!!!

It's fitting that on Monday night at VBS we were talking about the lame man at the pool of Bethesda and how Jesus said, "Get up and walk!" (yes, I'm paraphrasing) Anyway, I guess the lesson just really sunk in with Levi, because on Tuesday, he took his first steps!!!! And, it didn't even take a miracle from Jesus, but it did take a pretty pink glittery tube of Arbonne lipgloss in the color of VIP to do the trick! He's still not walking willfully but last night at VBS he stood up completely on his own and took a step so I know we are REALLY close!!!

This is what it took!

quick question....

I've posted a few videos lately....are you able to watch them? when I check out my blog, it doesn't show a way for me to watch them??? thanks!

Foot Fetish

"Fetish" may be too strong of a word, but not by much. Levi L O V E S my toes!!! I mean, he'll stop what he's doing if I'm barefoot and come right over and kiss them like crazy!!! And if I wiggle them at all, he really goes crazy. It's hilarious! I captured his love for my toes and just seeing the pictures makes me laugh.

Like Father, Like Son

Vintage is always in style

Shawn circa 1978

Getting his groove on

We are watching Little House on the Prairie on a very regular basis. We have just finished season one, which had about 30 episodes. Everyone knows the theme song that goes with the show. Well, every single time we begin to watch it, Levi stops whatever he's doing and dances non stop until we stop looping the music or start playing the show. Cutest thing every and we all watch him the whole time, dancing and clapping alone :)

An Only Child

Levi has gotten to have a tiny glimpse of what it would have been like if he was either born first, or the only child. I'll have to say, I'm not sure he's missing his sissies too much. He seems quiet content to be left alone to play! All of our ears have gotten a break, but I sure do miss those sweet giggles and smiles from my girls. They will be home tomorrow. In the mean time, here are some pictures of what Levi has been up to this week.

First, he tested out our baby proofing skills on the oven door. Cute trick, till me need to turn the burner on....gonna have nix this one fast.
Next, he climbed his toy to get to his other toys....why is he able to climb, but not walk? lol
Then, he distracted me from whatever I was doing. How can I get anything done with such cuteness staring back at me? Really, how can I???
Next, he offered his "help" with VBS craft preparation. Thanks so much Levi!
Finally, I introduced him to Teletubbies. Elle L O V E D this video when she was little and Ava never got a chance to watch it, since Elle had strong opinions about what to watch. I thought this week would be the perfect chance to let him meet them. He thought they were okay, but he wasn't mesmerized.

Little Piggie Party

The girls looked so sad last night that they couldn't hang out with the big girls and get their toenails done--I suspect they were more sad that they didn't get to have an oreo ball, popcorn, and slushes. So I decided after the party that I'd give them a special pedi party today after we got home from church. They were busting at the seams with excitement.

Choices, choices, choices...I made them narrow it down to two colors...Ava was up to four when I had to put that rule into effect. Elle chose polishes named Rock Candy and Gold Coin. Ava chose Blue It and Jumpin' Jade.

First, soaking the feet. They loved this part!
Then while their feet were soaking, I went and made their slushes and got their oreo balls. They were super excited about both things!

And the finished product! They are super proud of their lovely little piggies and can't wait to show them to their friends tonite at church :)

Pedi Party

I had a pedi party 3 or so years ago and then life just kind of got in the way for a while, and I didn't have another until tonite! Six women and a precious newborn came over to have some girl time and make our toes look great. We had such a good time just relaxing and chatting. We have got to do this more often....maybe once a month till it's too cold for sandals. Oh and just for the record, I painted my toes a color called "Gold Coin" and I LOVE them! They look like gold and silver mixed together. Love them!

I think I counted something like 50 polishes....I like nail polish and so does my mom :)

Yes, we all fit in there....it was cozy! :)
Showing off our toes
All ready for church tomorrow...I told them they all had to wear open toe shoes tomorrow!

Kitchen Island Getaway

My Mother's Day present is finally complete and immediately went into use! I absolutely love love love having the island. There was NO room on the counters for the three girls to work, much less room for just me to do things like roll out dough or set hot cookie pans all over the place. Now, I have PLENTY of room and we have found ourselves using it nonstop for everything. I love how every bit of it turned out and love even more that we stayed within our budget (which is really hard to do when you're dealing with this kind of thing) and paid for the whole thing with cash from garage sales and tax return money!

FINALLY! Room for everyone and no one fighting over where they get to stand!

The only thing missing is the little tiny board at the bottom that covers that small section and we have the stuff and I just have to get the handy man to take care of it :)

Lovin Summer

Summer is one of the few times when I'm okay feeding into every single cliche that is associated with this season. Besides the crazy heat, I love EVERYTHING about summer!

At a free sprinkler park in a nearby town--all three loved it! The last time we went here, we just had 2 girls and they both HATED it!

These are the smallest swim trunks he has and they are still too big! Then I realized we aren't putting a swim diaper on him...that ought to help fill them out in the future!

Thank you so much Gramme, for taking care of our kids while we went to San Antonio...they sure are lucky to have you :)

We went to a park in town a few nights ago and it was super hot. I was just about ready to take Levi's pants off of him too!

If I say that this picture might explain why Levi is still not walking alone at 14 months, will you understand why? lol

God made ME!

I have to give credit to Gramme. While we were gone to San Antonio, she taught Levi the same song that she had taught the girls when they were babies. I have sung it countless times with all of them and it has earned a special place in my heart :) When we got back, Levi could sing "Me!" at the end of the song. So cute! I will say that most of the time, he can't wait till the end of the song to say "me!" so he says it more than once :)

On a side note, notice that really pretty piece of granite Levi's sitting on :) That is the top of my new kitchen island and we L O V E it!

A bike rider

Today, Elle and I checked another goal off the list of things I wanted her to accomplish this summer! She can officially ride her bike! The whole neighborhood got to take park in our excitement considering that when she did it the first time, I started screaming and jumping up and down with Levi in my arms! It was greatness. Elle said afterwards "I really wanted to learn to ride my bike! All the other kids in 1st grade know how to and now so do I!" Enjoy!

Also, we decided to surprise Shawn when he came home for lunch by showing him. We had it all planned out. We didn't say anything about it at all throughout the whole lunch and then we started looking at each other and giggling and Ava started getting dangerously close to telling him so we enacted our plan. I had Elle go outside and get completely ready and then told Shawn to come outside. When he walked out, she started peddling and that's why he sounds surprised in the video :) She was SO proud of herself!

Saturday in SA

On our last day, we were having so much fun, that we asked to move our check out time to 3 hours later. We were excited when they said it was no problem! So even though we had no major plans, we just didn't want to have to rush to head back home. We knew it would probably be quite a while before we had time alone again! Saturday, we drove all over San Antonio trying to find a decent scrapbook store....to no avail. :( We did find a great shopping center and had a great time doing some shopping. We also went back to the riverwalk and strolled but it started getting hot really fast. We decided to take advantage of the hotel pool and soaked up a little sun before packing up and beginning home. This trip was so necessary for us! As a friend said, children make the time you spend alone with your spouse so very sweet and cherished. I am so thankful that after 12 years, 6 moves, 3 jobs, and surviving the pregnancy, birth, and 1st year of 3 children, we still love to spend time together. Great memories and something to look forward to as we take our kids back!

A view from our room

Caught a pigeon on camera--a witnessed quite a few pooping on people while they ate on the Riverwalk! I was always checking over my head!

A beautiful mosaic by our hotel

12 years together!

Friday in San Antonio

Friday started with a breakfast at a little deli called Schilo's just a short walk from our hotel. I was hoping for something between a cheap donut shop and a 5 course breakfast and this was PERFECT! The biscuits were so delicious, the ambiance was such eye candy (and no I didn't take pictures...duh emma), and we were just about the only ones there. It was VERY reasonably priced too. I would definitely recommend it! After a big breakfast, we headed to the Japanese Tea Gardens, which were free and BEAUTIFUL! You should definitely make a little side trip there and we can't wait to take our kids to that place because it was so beautiful and open. After that we headed to the famed Alamo. Mark that one off the list of things to ever do again. Sorry history buffs, it was boring. Then we went across the street to Guinness Book of World Records Museum....worst way to spend $40 in my life. But, on a positive note, it was air conditioned. lol Let's just say, we figured out a lot of things NOT to do with our kids when we bring them back! After all this excitement, we headed back to the Riverwalk and ate at a little BBQ place called The County Line. I AM STILL SPINNING over this one. We decided to order Brisket Tacos for one and we just could not believe how much meat we got! We had to stop eating it before it was all gone, just to keep from getting sick. I will go to this place every single time we are there. Best tacos ever. Need more. There is another one in Austin and I'm already making plans to get there QUICKLY! After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to do nothing at all but watch TV and avoid the heat outside! For dinner we headed to a "modern tex mex" restaurant called Acenar. It was so beautiful inside and we got bold and ordered things we weren't sure about. We tried something called Ceviche which I've heard of before but never tried. It was not too bad, but not too great either. We also ordered Tacos al Parrilla which was AMAZING! It was chicken, cilantro, onion, and pineapple in white corn tortillas. Unfortunately we only ordered one plate of these and we both were wanting more of them! It was a neat little place....are you seeing a common theme here....food. We walked a LOT of the river after that and then I wanted ice cream so we went to Justin's which has all kinds of very weird flavors but was delicious. I got a chocolate/orange flavored ice cream. After all that food, we headed back to the hotel and went to the pool to chill out for a while. We were both so exhausted from all the walking we had done all day and all the heat too! Earlier in the day I had stopped at a bakery and gotten cupcakes, and since we had no kids with us, we headed back to the riverwalk, found some comfy seats and at 10:45 pm, gobbled up our cupcakes. The banana flavored was the best! What a wonderful and exhausting day.

I ordered all of this and Shawn ordered a cinnamon roll....typical!

Japanese Tea Gardens in the background

Beautiful mosiac on the ground

Guinness Museum...my waist is so close!

Crazy!!!

This is the kind of thing that makes me excited!--best tacos ever.

Dinner at Acenar