Happy Mother’s Day!

Thanks for being such a great mom and giving me an example of how I want to be with Ellery! Happy Mother’s Day to an awesome mom and a wonderful friend.  Wishing I could be with you to celebrate.  Love you so much!

Happy Mother’s Day Mum! We had a great weekend with a few moms in my family – my mother, aunt, and grandmother. It’s great that distance doesn’t keep us too far apart!

The Privilege

Whenever we go to Bryan and Amanda’s house I always hope we get there in time to see Hudson before he goes to bed.  We all go into Hudson’s room and ask him who he wants to put him to bed, then we all quietly hope that he picks us.  The past few times we’ve been there he has picked me like 80% of the time…not bad.  Bed time is the BEST time of night and I can’t believe Amanda let’s anyone besides her put him to bed.  I bathe him, which is just so nice.  Then we do his chore chart (this is new and honestly is a little bit annoying because the whole time it is his goal to procrastinate going to bed).  We feed the dog, which is one of the funniest things I see all day.  He screams, “not yet Grace” at her if she tries to eat any of the food before he is done. Then we go to his room and he picks a book.  Sometimes I pull an AUNTIE move and let him read more than one book, shame on me.  Then we pray: which his prayers are super sweet and he then picks a song.  It’s usually Old MacDonald, but sometimes it’s Bingo and the other night it was Jesus Loves Me which I really enjoyed.  Then comes the moment we all wait for…kiss time.  I don’t know how I really feel about kissing on the mouth, but since his parent’s do it, I by default kiss him on the mouth because I don’t want him to think I don’t love him.  Kiss time is fun because he gets to pick what kind of kiss he wants: butterfly, Eskimo, or smooches.  With me he almost always asks for butterfly and then he says smooch after I give him butterfly.  For a while he would ask for a big smooch and then a little smooch, ahhhh so sweet.  I love bedtime routine with big H and until I get to have my own kiddo to put down I’ll keep secretly hoping he picks me!

Celebrating a Lovely Woman

My Sister-In-Law had a milestone birthday this year and with all her amazing parties she has thrown we couldn’t let her birthday go by without doing something beautiful for her.  My original thought was to do a vintage theme because she loves vintage stuff.  The problem is I didn’t really have vintage stuff so I worked with what I had and it turned out to be more of a feminine garden party.

Napkin rings made with homemade tissue paper flowers

Placecards made very simply with paper and letter stamps

Paper Doilies made up the table runner

Used salsa, jelly, spaghetti jars and yarn to make votive holders

Coolest yarn ever: I think it's called Bunny Tail and I'm definitely getting some to decorate my tree for Christmas. Saved me a lot of time making a garland for their huge dining room.

More Like Her

I’m becoming more like her everyday.  My Grandmother, Katherine Burks Russell.  She passed away February 28, 2005.  Since then I’m reminded of her often through the jewelry I inherited, she was one trendy jewelry wearer.  I’m reminded by my nail beds, how random is that?  I literally look at my fingernails and realize that I have the same hands.  Age spots, yep they started showing up last year, I remember she had quite a few and they have definitely popped out in a patch on my face.  Unfortunately this week I found out that I inherited her high cholesterol too.  It sent me in to a bit of a tailspin because I’m very dramatic.  I believe I told Andrew that I was probably dying…can you imagine me saying that?  Then I googled some stuff and I am trying to figure out what I’m going to eat and trying to commit to working out everyday.  It turns out that it’s just another thing that I’m going to have to fight against to not be chemically medicated.  I need to drop it 33 points…blek, that’s a lot, I think Cheerios is supposed to drop it a whole 3 points. If only I had inherited her tiny figure too…

Sir Lennox The Dreamholder

That was his official registered name, but we called him Lenny, Lenster, Lenny Oh Oh, Leonard, Len, and other variations of that.  Lenny and I weren’t the best of friends early on.  He cried A LOT and was super annoying, he chewed my shoes, peed on the floor and was a complete attention hog.  But then about a year into his life I really started to love him.  He was your shadow, you were never lonely when he was there because he wouldn’t leave you alone.  He had a fantastic personality and absolutely loved people.  He was very sensitive apparently because he never stopped crying, but we all got used to it.  He liked car rides and taking walks, but mostly he liked to snuggle and was a 70 pound lap dog.  My parents treated him like a child and catered to him more than most people cater to their pets, but he really was a part of our family and we loved him so much.  I wish I had the picture on my computer of him from my wedding day.  My parents house was buzzing with people and the photographer stopped by to snap a couple pictures.  I got down on the floor with Lenny and there is a picture where he turns and looks at the photographer as if to say, excuse me, I’m having a moment with the bride.  Lennox had to be put down last Wednesday, he got cancer and it progressed rather quickly.  My parents are learning to live without a shadow and we are all thankful for the time that we got to spend with him.  I hope there are dogs in heaven and I hope that Lennox greets us at the gates!

 

Hostess with the Mostess

Ok so I’m not saying I am the hostess with the mostess, but I love to host people from out of town.  Andrew’s parents came in from Massachusetts for Memorial Day weekend and it was the first time ever that we had actually hosted them in our home.  All of their other visits they stayed at Club Russell and my parents cooked, cleaned, helped plan activities, etc, etc.  We had such a nice visit and Austin did not disappoint us with hot and sunny weather like we promised them.  They called us on Thursday to tell us their flight was cancelled, but they arrived by lunch on Friday and everything worked out great.  So here is a quick recap of the Campbell family visit.  Of course I have zero pictures, because that’s how we roll…

Friday: Lunch at Hula Hut (our favorite Mexican restaurant on the water).  We showed them around our house and got the same reaction as everyone else, they just couldn’t picture this from the video and pictures.  So bottomline if you REALLY want to see our house you need to plan a visit!  Then we had Andrew’s birthday dinner…pictures of that coming later, it turned out great!

Saturday:  We ventured down to Greune, TX went to the Gristmill, The Antique Company, and The General Store.  I love this little town and know we could have spent a full day here.  We then headed off to San Antonio to see the Alamo and walk the Riverwalk.  It was a hot one, but we had a nice day.

Sunday:  We had a low key day of church, eating leftovers and then we went to Sunday family dinner at my brother and S-I-L.  Andrew took his parents for a beautiful scenic drive.  We love the scenery here!

Monday:  We spent the day at a friends lake condo.  It was a hot and sunny WINDY day.  Too windy for boating so we spent the day sunning at the pool.  We had “The Worst BBQ in Texas” Rudy’s for dinner…this is their slogan, it’s actually supposedly the best!

We realized that we didn’t hit a lot of places, but some of that was on purpose so that we have places to take them the next time they visit.  I’m trying to get my M-I-L to come down alone so we can go to all the different hot spot shopping places.  Ideally I would get my mother and Mother in Law to come at the same time so we can have a crazy girls weekend!

Needless to say the trip was great, quick, but really nice!

 

TWO of the Many Reasons We Live in Austin

BOATING.  We went out for about 2 hours on the lake today and soaked in some beautiful sunshine.  The waters were pretty busy seeing as it was a gorgeous sunny day and with the temps in the 90s people wanted that cool lake breeze.  We saw some mansions, including what we believe to be Mark Zuckerberg’s new pad.  It’s a mansion built on 3 lots and is literally the size of 3 giant houses squashed together.  For the first time in 3 months I actually got some tan, I was embarrassed to live in the south and be as white as I have been.

HUDSON.  I think this was obvious, but I tell you what, this kid gets sweeter everyday.  Today we ate brunch, I read him books, we had some dinner together, he colored Easter Eggs, and he FINALLY answered the question, “do you eat poop?” properly with the answer NO.  Usually we insert that silly question into a stream of other questions and he gets on a roll saying yes and then he says yes to that question which we all know isn’t true.  He is potty training right now so there is a lot of poop and pee talk going on in the house.  We are trying to communicate that “big boys” go in the potty.  When we asked him if Andrew pooped in the potty or in a diaper he thought long and hard and then he said, “Andrew poop in pants.”  Hilarious.  We also all have to go into the bathroom so he can pee on the potty and as he sits down to go he says “Uponapotty” which is cue for the book and then when he is finished he reads the potty book that MeeMaw gave him (which he loves by the way mom).  Then we ended the night like this:

I refrain from eating him up, it's hard though. We look awful, but we were boating so I guess that's a good excuse?

Who Knew?

I’d love this little boy so much?

My hair would get so curly down here?

My love could grow so much for this man?

Hudson would hate getting his picture taken this much?

My siblings and I would be this crazy…there are so many bizarre things about this photo?

Thanks Jenna for capturing so much love through your lens!

Then We Slept Under the Stars

In about 10 minutes we will be leaving to come home from Massachussetts.  It has been a wonderful trip filled with great family time.  Here is a rundown of our trip.

Friday: We made both of our flights…it was a close one, but we made it.  We got to dinner right on time and had dinner on Federal Hill in Providence, RI.  It was a great Italian restaurant and we had a good time.

Saturday: We got up EARLY and headed to Bryant University for Nick Campbell’s graduation from college.  It was my (Laura) first ever outdoor graduation and it was perfect weather.  The graduaton lasted over 3 hours and we were all ready to head home afterwards.  Saturday night we had one of the Campbell family traditions, Jay’s Flying Pizza.  This guy makes the pizza in his garage and it’s really good.  I got to ride with Scott to pick it up so I got the full effect.  Then we played Yahtzee and I won.  To top it all off we got to go to the GAP (Great American Pub) and hang out with Nick and his friend Drew.

Sunday: We had the graduation party.  We got to visit with family and friends all day, watched the boys play a game of pick up baseball and then hung out with friends afterwards.  Played another game of Yahtzee, this time Nick won with 2 yahtzees.  It was a great day and we stayed up way to late chatting as always.

Monday was an awesome day.  We went to Newport, RI and visited the Mansions.  If you are ever in Newport you GOTTA SEE THE BREAKERS!  It was the Cornelius Vanderbilt’s summer “cottage” located right on the ocean, named “The Breakers” because the waves crash and break on the property.  It was WAY cool.  We had lunch overlooking the Harbor and then walked around in the beautiful weather.  Some day Andrew and I will most likely vacation in Newport for a weekend while we are out here visiting family.  SO much to see, so little time.

Then each and every night Andrew and I fell asleep under the stars.  Alright so this is a little bit of a stretch; they were the plastic stars he stuck to his ceiling when he was 13, but a girl can dream right?

It was a wonderful trip and it’s sad to leave not knowing exactly when we will be back!  For sure Christmas/New Years time, but not sure if we’ll see them before that and that is a LONG time not to see family.  Away we go, if you think of it shoot up a prayer for a safe smooth trip home…I want to get home at a decent time and as always can’t wait to sleep in my own bed!

EDIT: We got home safely and about 15 minutes early!

Our Fabulous Weekend!

We are looking forward to a fabulous weekend!  Andrew’s parents are on their way as I type…they will be driving through the night and will be arriving tomorrow just after lunch.  We plan to take them to Peoria on Saturday and show them our future hometown.  Then on Sunday…cue pomp and circumstance…Andrew will be getting hooded, he tried his gown on tonight, it’s pretty stinkin awesome!  Praying for beautiful weather for their short trip, I hope you have an exciting weekend planned.  Check back Monday for some exciting news about my latest business venture!