moose and deer

When Keith goes out of town we really try to make sure he says goodnight to Caroline before bedtime. He's been gone to the ranch on a hunting trip for a couple of days now. This was the content of their conversation the other night:

Keith: "Hi, Caroline how are you?"

Caroline: "Bring home deer daddy."

I eventually get the phone back and proceed to put her into bed and we have a little conversation:

Lauren: "Caroline, do you know where daddy is?"

Caroline: "hunting trip"

Lauren: "What is daddy hunting?"

Caroline: "Moose and deer."

Keith is obviously not hunting moose, however, I'm sure he wishes he was. I think she is picking up on the moose from when he takes her to Sportsmans Warehouse she see all the mounts on the walls.

Then, this morning I thought I'd revisit our conversation:

Lauren: "Caroline, what is daddy hunting?"

Caroline: "Moose, deer, and elk."

Again, I'm sure Keith wishes he was hunting moose and elk.

Keith is on his way home right now with 3 doe in the back of the truck. I know Caroline is expecting to be able to see them because as you can tell she's been talking about it all week. I'm not sure however how I feel about her seeing the deer dead...this is to be determined(if I let her look.)

**PS**For all the animal right activists out there---we do actually eat the deer!

what a wonderful husband...

After weeks of not having a camera and going crazy Keith surprised me with a digital SLR that I have been wanting for so long. The funny thing is about 3 weeks ago I dropped my camera, we sent it in to Canon, and they want over $120 to fix it. We paid around $200 for it, so it didn't make sense to fix it. I'm sure Keith thinks I dropped it on purpose so I could get a new camera. :)

Yesterday we decided to take Caroline to the Cedar Rock Railroad. I mainly needed a good excuse to get out of the house and experiment with my new camera. I can already tell I'm going to have lots of fun with this! There's no doubt I have a lot to learn. Anyhow, the train ride is about 1.5 miles and it was just the right amount of time for a little toddler. I think she had a great time.

On a side note, please pray for us. As most of you know Caroline had croup last week. Last night we went to a birthday party for a little friend from playgroup, came home, gave her a bath, and then off to bed. At around 10pm she was up with a 103temp! This morning we stayed home from church, yet again, because she has a temp of 100. We'll have a day of rest today and then hopefully she'll back to herself tomorrow.

Enjoy the pics! xoxo.

i love my neti pot

Ever so often when I find something I think is awesome I really feel it is my job to let you guys know. I am mainly speaking to my fellow allergy sufferers this time. If you don't have allergies...well I don't like you. :)
Most of the time when I have allergies or a cold my nose clogs up and I literally cannot breathe through my nose. It's very uncomfortable....especially at night. I found this neti pot. You can actually buy it at Walgreens. It's very awkward the first time you use it. You take the little pot filled with water and a salt mixture into one of your nostrils and water comes out the other side...I know sounds weird.
Why have I never heard of these before? It is really a miracle for me. I can actually breathe. So as the cold/allergy season approaches try out the neti pot. I don't think it could take the place of medication, but it could definitely be a substitute for a nasal spray.

my sick child

Caroline has had croup since Tuesday. She's had a fever on and off for four days! It's odd to me because it seems like when I get a fever it usually comes and then goes. Her fever just won't seem to stay gone. She really sounds like a seal. Her cough is awful. I don't think I can even tell you how many hours of Dora/Diego she's watched. All I've heard lately is "watch Dora mommy." I've caved quite a bit on the TV lately b/c she's so pitiful.

We've been a little bummed today because we had to cancel our Halloween party...our own party! We had invited a few of our friends over that have toddlers. We obviously couldn't have people over with Caroline being sick. I'm honestly relieved we called it off b/c this morning I woke up and could tell I was getting sick. I think with Caroline being in preschool this is only going to happen more frequently. We've been really fortunate so far because she really hasn't gotten all that sick.

I'm sure that tonight we will let Caroline hit up (no not really "hit-up" :) a couple houses, just so we can get her outside for a bit. We've been trapped inside this cave since Tuesday. Stay tuned for pics....

caroline + 9 years

Keith thinks this will be Caroline in a few years,
field stripping an AR15.

dino day

At the advice of my friend Aubrey we decided to take Caroline on Sunday to the Zilker Botanical Gardens. They have a dinoland exhibit going on right now and since Caroline just recently had "dino day" at her preschool we knew she would be excited. Any dinosaur that was small (are there small dinosaurs?) was a "baby dinosaur" to Caroline.




Dinosaur stamps and markers

After we finished up at dinoland, since we were downtown, we decided what a better time than to eat at an Austin favorite, Guero's. After we finished up at Guero's there was live music(of course, the live music capital of the world!) playing outside. Caroline immediately starts to dance on her own. Keith and I are constantly amazed at her vibrant and free spirited personality. She makes our life so fun. I look back at my life before her and think what did I do? (Okay, so maybe I could answer that.:) What a blessed life we have.

Port Aransas

Despite the circumstances of our cancelled trip to Galveston, we thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Port A. We were actually fortunate to be able to find a place to stay due to so many people re-routing their trip from Galveston to Port Aransas. This was Caroline's first trip to the beach and it definitely won't be the last. My parents treated us, along with my brother and his family, on this trip.

I hear that some kids don't like the feel of the sand on their feet, but our little C had no issues getting her hands and feet dirty
The girls building sand castles with grandad "gan-dad"

Caroline and Elena are best pals. Most of what we heard all weekend was "Come on Elena."

Thanks again Mom and Dad for a great trip!