tuesday, tuesday

the kids both mentioned this morning that i smell bad.  i think poop was referenced.  thanks guys.  apparently this is the thanks i get for hauling your rears to Kerrville & back BY. MY. SELF.

stinkers.  (in the interest of self defense, i'm pretty sure they were smelling their own morning breath.  it couldn't be me anyway because i totally showered just 2 days ago :) )
a few pics of our time in k'ville...

love our family time @ the river.  wish clint could have come, but he's a busy bee these days with Harp Design Co & other projects we've started (we do seem to start a lot of projects!).  hoping we get to go again before the summer's end.
and to finish up, let's see the sea of vacation disaster that i need to tackle today:

 

ready, set, go...

happy fall

this was our last weekend in houston @ the pumpkin patch (WITH the underwoods!).  it was a great way to say goodbye to houston.  fall, pumpkins, friends, heat, & humidity :) 
anyway, when i saw these pics, i immediately thought we could do a "happy fall card" for the holidays - perfect!  i love the pictures, i'd be early...  then the gypsy journey began & i forgot about everything other than
a.  how it's possible that every pair of hudson's socks could have gotten lost between houston & kerrville.
b.  whether or not it's wrong to drug your children just to get them to sleep.
c.  how many times a week it's okay to eat blueberry donuts.

so here you go.  happy fall :) 
i realize hudson has a bat on his shirt in the pics & that's so october, but i hope you can overlook that & accept the pumpkins as holiday-appropriate for november. 

(thank you.)

*christmas card photo session from last year

happenings...

thank goodness I've taken a few phone pics of the last few weeks, or else I'd seriously not be able to recall. leg one of our gypsy journey is coming to a close next week. we've had fun in kerrville, amidst the chaos of all of this life change, living out of suitcases, clint & I swapping roles... I think our kids aren't too scarred :). yet. ha!
a few pics to remember what we did this month...
the h's watching charlie brown thanksgiving...

trying to get hud to smile for a pic @ our new weekend tradition: Rita's Famous Tacos (downtown kerrville)...



some people feel grumpy about Rita's...



but NOT ME!




good mothers get their children donut holes before walmart trips.




oh, & there was Halloween... fireman + undocumented strawberry (sorry, holls)...




these weeks have included quite a lot of trying to get holland NOT to fall asleep on the 12 mile trip from town to home...




a few family walks...




more donuts (& sassy clint faces)...



one freakish episode of me trying on jeggings @ the waco target  (are fake pockets really okay???)...




several sessions of fish feeding...




& a good sprinkling of fudgecicles...









gypsy journeying is not for the faint of heart... but neither is LIFE in general!  & fall in the hill country?  how lucky are we?!

open email

*i was just about to push "send" on this email to jen when i thought to just post it here.  you know, just so you know i'm still alive & everything.  i am.  mostly.  :)  also, so you can keep up with the fascinating details of my fascinating life.

saturday night & i'm on a hot date with the computer.

it's awesome.
ha.


poor clint - he's tried to talk to me about 5 times, but i just keep mumbling something inaudible back. poor guy. anyway, do you still read kendi's blog? i was RIGHT! she did live in kerrville! did you see that she moved to mckinney & opened a clothes shop??! i'm thinking it should be a definite stop on the jen & kelly hangout weekend.
breadwinners will be also.
& you know we'll end up @ target. probably for m&ms.

oh, also i got a hat @ JCPenney's today, which i really wanted to just call "Penney's" because then i'd really sound like a local. I THINK it's cute. it's either cute & fun, or just all wrong. we can always hope can't we? you can let me know when I post pics of our trip.
 
kelly

falling off the face of the earth...

i sort of feel like i have.
whew.
my days are spent either
A.  working @ my mom's store
B.  running after little tykes
C.  packing for our big trip (did i not tell you about that??!)

today is option A...

working on my mom's facebook page.
i WILL be back here @ some point.  promise!
PS:  it's finally cooler around here - yipppeeeee!!!  i love scarf weather (AND pumpkin lattes!)

working is hard work.

oh yes it is.

i've been working @ my mom's shop (yep, she just bought it!) The Funky Frog here in kerrville.  she's working like a crazy woman & i'm trying to keep up: organizing, cleaning out, freshening...  whew!  it's been so, so fun, but serious work, peeps! 

so here are bits of wisdom i've learned in my 2 wks in the hill country...

1.  working is hard work.
2.  small town people really are nicer. 
3.  donut shops are the new starbucks (cheap!).
4.  living 15 miles out of town really cuts down on last minute ice cream runs.
5.  living without a target really is possible.  (actually it's the joann's i miss most!)

happy day from the hill country.  we'll actually be making a run to wacky waco for a few days.  checking on some grad student housing options.  gotta be close to pizza & beer.  bah hahahahhaa!  i don't even like beer.  

**this post was for yesterday, but i couldn't get my phone to cooperate.  we're back in kville now with more about our waco trip to come...

know what goes well together?

pigtails & donut holes.

missed you people...

... & this space.  i'm glad to have some kind of record of our lives these days.  i often wish i had some kind of journal or something of my grandmother, or great-grandmother.  wouldn't that be fascinating?

in kerrville last week, i looked through lots of old photos.  we were getting ready for great uncle bob's funeral.  he was 96.  97 christmases.  that's amazing isn't it?  we will miss him & his funny ways.  he loved singing old hymns & slapping his knee all the while.  i hope i'm singing & slapping my knee @ 96...

back to the old pics.  it was confirmed, holland looks exactly like baby me (complete with mega chunky thighs)

(& will be looking more like me in a few weeks - her top 2 teeth are peeking out!)

it was also confirmed that my uncle made sweet wooden giraffes in the 70s.
seriously, my sister & i loved that giraffe.

we had a great christmas.
clint & i hemmed & hawwed for months over hudson's present.  he has wanted "real drums" for a year.  for over a year.  & for over a year we've put it off.  does he REALLY need drums???  but he is in LOVE with all things music & especially drums & so we finally took the plunge.  it was really his only gift from us(& some helpful grandparents!)& it was EXACTLY what he wanted.  no more, no less.  

yes, their big.
yes, their loud.
yes, we've lost our minds.
yes, he's in total love.

he calls them his "cool, cool drums", as in "mommy, can i go play my cool, cool drums now??"

daddy's in love, too...

hee hee.

i hooked the boys up with matching shirts...

& clint hooked us up with punky matching aprons.



this picture kills me.
"yeah, yeah.  it's a shirt.  let me get back to my drums."



he did cheese it up for a pic with the accordian.

& miraculously, the play kitchen WAS finished in time for christmas!!  ha!  we may have gone to bed @ 1:15, but darn it, it was done.  i'll do a whole post on that one this week.

after christmas, we were off to kerrville, stopping in austin to get my sister & her boyfriend, jonty.  they were in from jolly ol england & we were so happy to see them!  our car ride was cozy with all of us packed in like sardines, when hudson barfed. 
what is it with my kids & barfing?
side note:  holland barfed on me 4 times last night.
all i can say is hudson & his sister inherited some kind of crazy sensitive stomach from who knows what ancestor. 
the point is, i blame all of this on my sister & jonty who gave him a gingerbread cookie.
the other point is that laughter in awkward situations is apparently also genetic because both my sister & i couldn't stop giggling as we all baby wiped him down on the side of the road. 
 
in kerrville mimi spoiled adults & children alike with christmas presents (as she always does).  my aunt cathie was there, too & we had a great time eating, doing a little site seeing, & playing lots of really fun games.  
have you played wits & wagers?  so fun.
i did get 2 whole pictures (i am SO BAD.)

holland, johnna, & jonty @ high's cafe in comfort.

love high's cafe.  love.   

such a nice holiday.  i feel really blessed.  not because my life is perfect or even just as i want it, but just because darn it, i DO have so VERY much to be thankful for. 
it's true.
remind me of that in a few hours, okay?

here's to a happy january & a happy new year. 

thanksgiving

kerrville for thanksgiving...

it was nice & fallish.

mimi & i took holland for a little shopping & lunch - just the girls.







but the fun was so overwhelming, she had to take a nap...





we had a booth @ christmas in comfort. it was really fun. no pictures, of course bc I'm so bad!

while we worked it, clint took the h's to the san antonio zoo with all the cousins. special daddy stars for you, c!!


hope you had a nice holiday, too.  i have one more holiday show this weekend, then i'm done!

back from the road

so i'm finally back home. i've been out of town for almost all of july & i really cannot believe the month is almost over. what your parents tell you is true - the older you get, the faster time seems to go by. weird isnt' it?



anyway, after sleeping for 12 hrs friday night (thanks to my sweet, sweet hubby), i decided to spend the rest of the weekend mostly resting. well, you know all the rest that you can possibly get with a 3 yr old & a baby :) basically, what i mean is i didn't really unpack or attack the laundry piles, so that's what i've been up to today. & yes, it took a grande, nonfat caramel macciato to make me feel up to the task (thanks again to said sweet hubby).



miss holland amelia (or holland-melias, as hudson calls her) has become fascinated with rolling over & over & then getting stuck which would be great if she didn't need to sleep. i had forgotten about the stage where they finally get the hang of rolling & then get stuck & not sleep. it's like she really wants to sleep, but her body is compelling her to roll over & over. kinda funny. kinda not.



mr hudson has become fascinated with seeing just how far he can creep over the line of disobeying with out getting a spanking. it's testing me. it's trying me. i may have no hair left. he's such a stinker & seems to have some kind of spanking quota which he must fill everyday. in between stinker-y activites he's just as punky as ever & that's why it's so darn hard to spank him!



besides all of that, it's peach season in the hill country & it just so happens we have THE BEST peach tree in kerrville. mom & i & hudson (& some neighbors!) picked & picked peaches last week & they're still dropping like crazy. & when i say hudson picked peaches, what i mean is that he got all the bad ones & threw them into the creek with such gusto that he ended up throwing himself into the creek & getting covered in mud. then we took a break to feed the fish & he fell in again (this time just wearing underwear due to the muddy clothes), which scared me to death & he found hilarious. that's when we just gave up & mimi jumped in so he could go for a swim.



and going back to the peaches, i'd like to say that we made peach preserves for all of the family (sort of in honor of memaw as she used to make them), but the reality was that mom did it while i wrangled children.



i did bring lots home, though & felt quite the old farm wife while boiling & slicing & getting them ready to freeze. i'm pretty sure "old farm wives" canned rather than freezing, but i didn't let that stop my domestic fantasy. also in the domestic fantasy list, i will be making lots of peach & blueberry cobblers with crumble toppings. i LOVE crumble toppings. Oh.SO.Good.

Holland & cousin Piper (1 month apart)


Attempt @ getting all 4 little cousins in a pic...



We took a quick trip to Boerne & ate @ The Bear Moon Bakery - mmmm! Please go there & please get their house-made Scottish Oat Bread.



Pretty, pretty flowers sweet hubby sent for our ninth (wow!) anniversary last week...



Mimi & Hudson @ Cracker Barrel (hudson's new fav bc he can order scrambled eggs!)


okay, back to laundry. here's to a happy rest of july.