Singing at the TX State Capitol

Sola Gratia had the opportunity to sing in the Rotunda in Austin on Saturday.  Even though James is so little, I still really wanted to be a part of it, especially since I’d learned all the Christmas music.  Some wonderful friends and family were able to watch the girls so Matt, James, and I could go to Austin.  Mamma and Pop came over early early (6am!) so we could leave and they could get the girls ready.  Then about 11:00, Lisa came and got them to play at her house.  She also took Anna and Joanna to see the Nutcracker while the little girls stayed home with Tony and took naps.  I’m excited to see the pictures she took of their day! 

We had a pretty uneventful drive there, and Matt’s Mom and Dad let us use their GPS!  I think I may be addicted.  I LOVE it.  :)  James slept some, looked around some, and ate some when we stopped.

We all arrived around 11:00 and rehearsed outside the visitor’s center.  Matt took this picture:

 

Most of the rest of the pictures were taken by my friend Kim.  She used to sing in the group when she lived here, but she now lives in Austin.  We’re so glad she was able to come watch us sing then go eat with us.  She just got a new camera, so these are some really great shots.  Thanks Kim!

The group in front of the capital building:

We sang in the middle of the beautiful building form 12:00-1:00.  It was so hot in there.  Later, you will see my hair gets put up.

 

We sang our program through twice.  It was pretty cool, but I sure would have enjoyed it better if I had felt some A/C on that 80 degree day in my lined black suit.  :)

Here are a couple of shots Kim took of the building:

Looking up, above where we were singing:

There were several levels you could go up and look down from.

I took these next two:

There was so much light in there, even my camera did okay.  Matt took a bunch of us while we were singing as well, but Kim’s just turned out so much better that I didn’t post ours.  :)

After singing we went to Ranch 616, a restaurant just a few blocks from the capital:

One of the group said that only in Austin would you see a picture of the Last Supper, a Longhorn, and a nude, all on the same wall.  :)

I ordered fish tacos.

Matt ordered Pork tenderloin.

But then we switched.  The tacos were uber-spicey!

Here’s me and my James!

The source of much of the spicey-ness – fried jalapenos.  They even made Matt sweat a bit and hiccup!

We had a great time in Austin and are so thankful for our friends and family who kept our girls safe and happy for us!

Sadly, James cried most of the three hour trip home, but I know he’d had enough of traveling for one day.  On a good (no, super-fantastic) note, he slept an EIGHT HOUR stretch last night.  It was pretty fantastic.  I figure it’s probably a fluke, but I’m hoping it’s a sign of things to come.  :)

Miscellaneous pictures that I want to blog but that don’t all go together.

The other night Matt and James snuggled for a long time.  That boy does love to be held!

I decided to try listening to my mp3 player in the car. 

It has lots of great music on it, but (as far as I know) there’s no way to hook it up to the speakers.

So I put batteries in this little set of speakers and put it in the car.  The sound is actually pretty good.  Poor Joanna way in the back has a little trouble hearing, but it’s not a perfect system.  :)

 

Sadly, it has an on/off switch, and you must turn it off.  It doesn’t automatically go into power save mode or anything.  So when you leave it on all night, it will absolutely use up the brand new batteries.  I need to be finding my rechargeables pretty soon.

I asked Natalie to help me get the laundry out of the dryer, and she did it all herself!

 

Friday the kids and I took the van to get it inspected.  The place was not busy, thankfully, and we all had fun!

The girls got to watch the men work;

And read magazines:

And play legos:

 

And James got to be held.  The reason I took this pictures is that his hair looked so red to me in that light!  What do you think?

Right now looking at him, his hair seems very brown, but you never know…

The Beginnings of Advent

We love kicking off the Advent season with Hanging of the Greens up at the church.  I think this was when Gary was playing the trumpet.  Natalie wanted to get a better view than from where we were sitting.

If you look very closely (and ignore the blur) you can see Joanna’s grumpy face.  She really wanted to be up on the Chancel area, not down with us. 

The girls were pretty antsy during the service, but I hope not too disruptive.  They enjoyed it.

I like getting Christmas decorations out the day after Thanksgiving, but it just didn’t happen this year.  Finally on Monday, James had a good morning nap, so the girls and I went out to the garage for the tree and some other things.  The stuff is actually up in the attic, which is accessed in the garage.  There’s no ladder/door so I had to put up the big ol’ honkin’ ladder (which is NOT designed for my tiny arm muscles) to get the stuff down.  That was HARD!

But I did it!  In fact, the only thing I couldn’t bring down was a big box that had books in it.  So I unloaded the books, brought them down, brought the box down, and reloaded the books!

I LOVE that this tree is pre-lit!  I caught the girls putting their baby dolls in the tree.  I have no idea where that idea came from!

 

We also put this tree up in their room.  I thought to use it as a night light, but it’s far too bright for that.  The night we tried it, they were up forever in there, and they made lots of messes.  It’s better when they can’t see so well!

Later in the week we decorated the tree with all our Hallmark train ornaments.

 

You can definitely tell little kiddos hung the trains, but I don’t think I’ll move them.

I like it.

Thanksgiving (The Real One)

Not that the other one wasn’t a “real” Thanksgiving, but this one actually fell on the holiday.  :)

I think these are Allie’s glasses, but don’t they look cute on Joanna?

 

Natalie loves to pet the stuffed bobcat.  I try not to think too much about it.  :)

 

I can’t remember why, but she ended up wearing Aunt Mindy’s jacket.  Matt and I thought she looked like Yoda here.  :)

 

The girls really l loved playing with one of their favorite toys: Uncle Steve.

I bet he was worn out when he went home!

We had lots of fun visiting with “Matt’s side” of the family over at Uncle Mark’s house.  The food was very yummy, and we even got to bring some home to eat over the next couple of days.  I love Thanksgiving leftovers!!

5 and 6 Weeks

I haven’t blogged much the past week… busy I guess!  But here is a sweet picture of James at 5 weeks old.  He fell asleep in my lap in the Boppy, so I layed him on the couch next to a pillow and he stayed asleep for a little while.

This one is from when he was 5 weeks old exactly.

These sweet feet are 5 weeks, 1 day:

This is our little “photo shoot” on the changing table at exactly 6 weeks.  Please excuse the pink cover.  :)

 

(Okay, I started writing this post DAYS ago, and am just finishing it.)  Two-handed moments are few and far between around here!

We (um, I) put the trees up on Monday.  I am so glad our big one is pre-lit!

James had to take some pics in front of the tree.  These are also “6 week” pics.

 

Sadly, it’s Friday and the tree still has no ornaments on it.  I keep waiting for there to be a time that we’re all home to do it.  I guess that will be Sunday after church… hopefully!