Wimberley Trail of Lights

Thanks to a hot tip from Ella's mommy, we ventured over to the Wimberley Trail of Lights this evening. What a neat display! I loved the small town feel of it, too. We could barely keep up with Spencer - he was flitting around from one thing to the next and had zero interest in posing next to the pretty lights. So we didn't make it home with many pics. I think the first one below captures the vibe of the evening!

As a bonus, we drove by a live nativity at a church in Wimberley. Even though it was already after 7:00, we just had to stop. Spencer loves hearing the story of the Baby Jesus and I had actually been trying to find a live nativity in Austin. We lucked out!

Spence fell asleep on the drive home and we pulled off another car-to-bed transfer. Until recently we thought those were the stuff of legends and fairy tales. I honestly could not imagine ever being able to move my sleeping boy from a car to his bed - sleep has always been so tricky for us. Holding that big boy in my arms tonight made me almost get weepy. He's growing up so fast and getting so heavy that sometimes I wonder how much longer I'll be able to tote him around. Gotta keep soaking that up while I can - and lift weights! 

Piper and Beckett's 5th Birthday

We have a tradition of going to the Trail of Lights with Piper, Beckett and their parents. It worked out this year that we went on their actual birthday. We met at Chuy's first for dinner and a cookie cake, then walked to the park. It was cold but we had fun! Beckett charmed a guy at the entrance so he gave us all VIP passes to go in early instead of waiting until the gates opened for the general public. VIP baby!

A few days later was the twins' birthday party. There was cake decorating, face painting, giant lollipops and a pinata. Big fun!

Hard to believe these three little sugars are 5 years old. Check out this picture of our first Trail of Lights visit in 2009. I love that Spencer has friends he met on the day they were born!

Trail of Lights

We went to the Trail of Lights with the Poages and Garvens this week. Even though it is waaaaay scaled down this year, Spencer still thought some of it was "Wow!" It was really cold, as you can see by the bundled babies below (I forgot to bring Spencer's gloves!), but that made it feel more Christmasy and fun.



Here are some cool, psychadelic pictures Dave took along the way (click to enlarge).

December Catch-Up Continues

Before I write about our Christmas festivities, I wanted to record a couple of other holiday activities since I'm behind on blogging.

In mid-December, Spencer and I went to see Ballet Austin's The Nutcracker at the Long Center. Steffani and Ella joined us, too! The kids had fun, but the performance was a little too long to hold their interest. Steffani and Ella headed out at intermission and we sneaked out with about 10 minutes left. I forgot how slow the beginning of The Nutcracker is...they should rethink that! :)

We also checked out the Trail of Lights with Piper, Beckett and their parents a few days before Christmas. This was the first time in several years that the city did the full-scale trail, and it was pure insanity, but fun. I'm glad the kids got to do the Christmas light thing together again - it's a sweet little tradition. Most of my pictures turned out something like this:

 So you'll understand now when I say these are the two best pics of the night: