back to normal

After a two week break from blogging I'm back. Life has returned back to normal since the hurricane. This past Monday Dario went back to school after a two week break. It almost felt like the first day of school all over again! The weather has been very mild almost fall like. The other day we took advantage of the nice weather and went outside to play and blow bubbles. I'm glad those hot summer days as well as hurricane season are almost over!

hurricane ike

Pine tree that fell right by our bedroom window, just missing
our house.

Our neighbors shed that the wind lifted over our fence and
landed right by our sliding glass door.

A week after we had to evacuate for Hurricane Gustave, our area was hit by Hurricane Ike, which makes 3 hurricanes in three years, (Rita, Humberto, and Ike). This time we decided not to evacuate. The night the hurricane hit we spent the night at Brian's parents house, because our house is surrounded by very large pine trees and during hurricane Rita one crashed right onto our house. During the night the winds started picking up and around 1 am we lost power. The wind was very loud and scary. Amazingly Brian and the kids slept right through it all. We are still in our town even though the power is still out and probably will be out for at least another week or more. We were blessed to get a generator from Brian's Dad and our home is undamaged, so life is good under the circumstances! Going through a Hurricane really makes you appreciate things that normally might be taken for granted, electricity, air conditioning, running water, food, shelter.

frog

Aiden caught this huge frog while he was outside playing. He knocked on the door to show me the frog, I was totally not expecting to see a huge frog being held up to my face and it made me jump! After Aiden was done playing with the frog, he threw it in a bucket filled with water and placed a lid over the bucket, so the frog wouldn't escape. Poor frog, Brian will have to go free it in a little while so it doesn't die.

mandatory evaucation

Last week, our area was under mandatory evacuation because of Hurricane Gustave. We decided to go to my parents house and leave on Saturday night, instead of when the mandatory evacuation officially started on Sunday morning. Thankfully, the traffic wasn't near as bad as when we had to evacuate for hurricane Rita. This time it took us about 3 hours to drive what is normally about a 2 hour trip, as compared to hurricane Rita where it took us 13 hours to drive what is normally a 3 hour trip. That weekend was labor day weekend and we had lots of fun spending it with my family. We sort of figured our area wouldn't be hit that hard, but didn't want to risk it with 3 small children and me being 7 months pregnant. It turns out our area barely got any rain, but we did get a fun weekend out of it and Dario got several days off of school, which he was happy about. Hopefully that is all of the evacuating we have to do this hurricane season!

first day of school

Today started off crazy! Right before my alarm went off, I started having really painful Braxton-Hicks contractions. I couldn't even get out of bed except to go throw up. Brian is an awesome dad and was able to single handed cook Dario a pancake breakfast complete with bacon and eggs, pack Dario's lunch, get Dario dressed and drop him off at school. I was disappointed that I missed all this and couldn't help. Brian said Dario was excited in the car on the way to school and while Brian was with him at school, but as soon as Brian started to leave Dario started getting sad. When Dario came home I asked him how school was and he said recess wasn't fun because none of the kids would take turns on the playground equipment and all he got to do was draw in the dirt with a stick. I asked Dario if he wanted to go back and he said maybe. At least he didn't say no!

vacation

Today we got back from a four day vacation with Brian's family. We stayed at a cabin by a beautiful lake. The cabin was really nice with a living room, kitchen, four bedrooms and each room had a bathroom. The air conditioner was broke the first night, so it was hot, hot! Luckily, the next day it was fixed! Everyone had fun fishing, swimming in the pool, taking paddle boat rides, and playing games. Thanks for the fun and relaxing vacation Nana and Granddad!

fun visit

This past weekend my sister Lauren, her husband Dan and their three kids came to visit. The house was very loud with six kids running around, but we had lots of fun! We went swimming and to Chuck E Cheese. The kids stayed up past midnight and woke up bright and early the next morning. We are glad we have family who lives close to us and love spending time with them! The following pictures were taking by Lauren. Thanks Lauren for letting me use your cute pictures!

ready to hit the road

Ava's got her sunglasses on, she's ready to hit the road in style!

family arts day

This Saturday our local art museum had another free family arts day. This time the theme was "things with wings". The boys got to make paper dragons, butterflies, paper wings and these cute bird masks. The Houston Zoo gave a presentation on birds and brought several live birds that the boys got to pet and hold. It was lots of fun!

playing in the rain

Today we got lots of rain thanks to the hurricane that hit far south of us. The boys went out to play in the rain. They got soaking wet, but had lots of fun. Here they are all bundled up in their towels after they were done playing.

no girls allowed!

Dario drew this picture and asked me to hang it on his bedroom door. If you can't tell what it is, it's a no girls allowed sign. Silly boy! (picture of Dario courtesy of Aunt Lauren)

painting

hats

The boys wearing their traditional Austrian hats from Nana and Grand Dad.

Brian's parents brought back lots of souvenirs form their trip to Europe. All of the kids were so excited to get their presents. One of the things they gave Ava was a cute pink Beret from Paris. So sweet!

swimming pool

I took all three kids to the pool, by myself, for the first time today. Normally three is pretty manageable, however today it seemed like there were double that many. Two of my kids can't swim but think they can! Despite the chaos, I did manage to take a couple of pictures. Next time, Brian is defiantly coming with me!

fourth of july weekend

This past weekend we went to my parents house to celebrate the fourth of July. We ate lots of good food, saw fireworks, went to the beach, swam at the pool and spent time with lots of family. It was the perfect weekend!

one of her favorite foods

Ava loves yogurt. She does a good job of feeding herself with a spoon, with the exception of the occasional spill!

it's a...

Today I had an ultrasound, and we're having a girl! That was what I was hoping for! Now we will have two boys and two girls!

strawberry pie

The grocery store had strawberries on sale for really cheap. I bought a lot and made my mom's recipe for strawberry pie. She has been making this for as long as I can remember and always reminds me of summer.

1 cup mashed strawberries

1 cup strawberries cut in half

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tbs. lemon juice

1 cup water

4 tbs. cornstarch

1 baked 9 in. pie crust

Combine mashed strawberries, sugar, lemon juice, water, and cornstarch. Cook over medium heat until thick, cool and pour into crust that has been filled with the cut strawberries. refrigerate until set.

painted toenails

Today Ava got into my nail polish and actually opened it! Luckily she was wearing an old shirt because the nail polish was everywhere. After all that effort I just had to paint her toenails!

playing outside

Aiden dressed himself today and put on a long sleeved shirt in the middle of summer. Luckily for him it wasn't too hot because it had just rained and was still cloudy.