"Austin Part Deux - The Capitol" Nov 10, 2009

Dude its so nice outside today! Except I must have lost my mind as I sit inside on my kitchen table. All the kiddos are off playing on their own so I thought I could take some Nush time and come here.

Anywho... here are some more pictures from Austin. We hit the Capitol. I thought Rockstar wouldn't be very interested. Especially since we asked him the day before if he wanted to go. He replied with a, "No, thanks!" But, I guess they show the Capitol on one of the SpyKid movies or something because they played that movie in our hotel and he immediately was pumped to go. Ha!


We got there oober early( since our kids love waking up at the butt crack of dawn) and so I wasn't able to ask really anyone to take a picture of us all together. Still a pretty cool pic if I do say so myself. Thanks to my Coolpics Nikon camera, teehee.

This picture is underneath the dome portion of the building, from the inside. They boys thought it was totally awesome.

From previous post you all know that Rockstar LOVES climbing trees. He really wanted to climb this one. But, he quickly realized he needed to be a giant to climb this one.

Superbaby adores animals. He loves all the pigeons around us. Here are some pictures of him trying to catch play with them.



We then walked across the street to the Vistor Information building. This is where to take kids who are all about touching... everything. Here they can play, touch, explore and enjoy the exhibit. We all loved it. Boys had a good time exploring while my hubs and I read and learned more about our state.





Off to the park for a picnic with the kids. Enjoy this beautiful Tuesday!

Announcing Giveaway on Friday! Stay tuned.

Much love,
Nush

"Living in the NOW" Nov 8, 2009

I had the tendency of holding myself back from moving forward in whatever I was involved in. I realized that I was not allowing myself to fully appreciate that moment. I would be consummed with thoughts of what could happen etc. Then I heard about living in the now. It is a really simple concept and I am in awe that it took my 28 years to learn about this. It all boils down to being in tune with what feels good or right at the moment and how to maintain this happiness. Worrying about the future is simply a waste of time and energy, especially if it holds you back in acheiving and finding happiness and contentment. Of course preparing for later is normal( as I often love using my planner and getting things ready ahead of time and should do more of this for meal planning). But, if preparing is actually something you do that puts enjoyment and happiness in a stand still- then its kinda a waste of time.

My boys share a room. They sometimes normally sleep in their room at night. But for the past three weeks our boys slept in our room. Their mattresses where next to our bed and they loved it. I focused my energy and positive thoughts on the enjoyment of having our boys close to us. We all slept great for those weeks having them close by. Then the day came where we all agreed it was time for us all to go back to our rooms. With my husband waking in the morning for work and our dog kicking off our youngest from his bed made us all long for our normalcy in our home.( our dog sleeps in our room and thought she hit the lottery with thinking that her bed grew, ha!) If I hadn't been in tune with enjoying the moment and living in the now I would have been at my witz end with thoughts that would lonly hold me back from fully appreciating and devouring the love our boys have for us.

Stay tuned for more Austin pics and our upcoming giveaway!

With love,
Nush

"Austin Trip- First stop Inner Space Caverns" Nov 6, 2009

We love family time over here and even more we love....

FAMILY TRIPS!

We packed our stuff and heading over to Austin( TX) for good food, entertainment, and quality family time. With our van packed we heading towards Georgetown to hit the Inner Space Caverns. You end up going down in this awesome cave for a 75 minute guided tour. The boys, my husband and I were all in awe with the whole thing.

We first started with waiting to get on a cart that would take us down underground. Our group was the orange group and once my youngest saw that we were entering a dark hole, he became a bit worried.


My oldest is a ham and this is his concerned face.
He really was excited to enter the cave and check out some bats. You can tell in this picture how excited he was. This is him dancing just seconds from exiting our van to enter. We totally would have purchased this cool excavating hat... but it did not include the batteries, which I thought was pretty lame.

Well its a federal offense to tamper with anything in the cave, so they were so kind to have a rightly name, "Temptation Rock." Which I am sure you all can tell by the name that its where you can touch with all your delight, without being worried to be put behind bars. You also could easily see how the oils in your hands really ruin the look and growth of the cave. Here is Superbaby working up the nerve to touch it.

We actually saw a few bats in the cave. They were really tiny and super cute. Yes, I love bats and think they are adorable. The guide told us that we were free to take photos of them, but to not use flash since their little eyes were extremely sensitive. My freaking camera wouldn't cooperate with me, so I couldn't take a picture:( BUT, my husband has one on his cellphone so I'll post later.

At one point we were down about 70ft underground- way cool! Plus, they make this tour really cool and interesting for kids too. They have stories for the formations and all. Great way to use your imagination and all.



I would totally recommend to check this place out if you are in the area.

Much love,
Nush

"Back Tracking"

Yep- I am behind on my photos. With my laptop back in working order I thought I'll share some of our Halloween pictures. The boys picked out their Halloween costumes at Target in the beginning of October. I was so sick and didn't want to make their costumes this year. Who really cares what they got, the night of Halloween they both came up to me dancing and cheering( we cheer a lot in this house) saying...

" We are rock stars!" So I actually ended up "making" their costumes per say.

They both wanted to be rocker's. We rummaged through their things, applied tattoos, colored hairspray, and facial hair and went on to the trick or treating excitement.



Little did I know that most people would think that my oldest was a hobo! HAHAHAHAHA nice.

Here is a picture of me with my boys. I was a loofah( yep the kind you use in the shower).


The breakdown on the boys costumes is CHEAP!

* Clothing was things they already had.
* Hair color was .75cents each at Albertsons
* Facial hair and tattoos were used with eyeliner and facial paint I already had so FREE

The only thing we really spent on was their trick or treat bags since the ones they had last year are oober little.

With love,
Nush

"To cut or not to cut" Nov 3, 2009

I am pretty fed up with my hair. It is always in a ponytail. Now I am here a few hours away from getting my hair cut and still do not know what to do.

Should I go for the short style that would be oober easy to get out of bed, style and keep on with my day? Or should I go for just more layers, keep length and shorter bangs. Because boy do I love having short bangs!

Hmm, guess I'll post a pic tomorrow on what I decide.

Much love,
Nush

"Well Hello There November" Nov 2, 2009

Whoa... It's November already?!!? Wait the month RIGHT before Christmas? How in the world did that happen? Okay enough of my questions, but boy did it really sneak up on me us. Don't get me wrong, I totally love all the traditions, family, food, laughter, and everything else involved with the holidays. But, with all of the gifts involved with the holidays- I wished I had some more time. "How will I handle this year's shopping list?" "Will I be ready to pull my hair out the night before?" All questions I ask myself every year. NO is the answer to this.

No- I will not be at my witz end the closer the holiday approaches. It totally defeats the meaning of the holiday in our home. Christmas is about appreciating and loving each member of the family and close friends. I have already started my gift list which consist of about a large %-age of homemade gifts. Things that I know they will like and use at the same time. Simple things that are made with love. Yah, I will still purchase things either online or at the local store but I am working on the homemade gifts first in order to allow ample time for them to be finished.

We still do that whole Santa thing here in our house. Our boys are 4 and 2, so we will milk it for all its worth. So the gifts will need to be wrapped with the "special" Santa wrapping paper. One that little children's eyes have not seen. One that only Santa gifts are wrapped with. Then my hubs and I decide on which one or two gifts will be from us. These are the ones that have special meaning to us or something that the boys talked to us about them wanting. Like Rockstar has really had his eyes peeled on a drum set. We have been talking to him about it and setting up drum lessons in the future. So this will be a gift from us- since we have devoted time to setting it all up, lessons and all.

So if you see my pulling my hair on or after Christmas... its not 'cause of the holidays. It's most likely from the noise uh music coming from his room.

Much love,
Nush

"Yay for technology and Halloween" Oct 29, 2009

This post is brought to you directly from my cellphone. For some reason my laptop has been acting funky( that's why I have been M.I.A). I know that the plug in most likely needs to be fix, along with other things that we will work on during the weekend after all the halloween goodness is absorbed.

On that note my favorite holiday will be here in just TWO sleeps( lingo that's used within our home). Pretty pumped to carve our pumpkins tomorrow along with orange homemade play dough, costume fun, pumpkin pancakes, local pumpkin patch and anything else in store for the eve of my holiday. We kind of do not have any traditions for Halloween. We just wing it and do what feels good or sounds like fun that year.

I'm interested to hear... What's your families traditions? I always love hearing sweet things like that.

This Saturday will be trick or treating. I've heard of families who actually switch out the treats with ones that are purchased before hand. Then saw a clip of The View where they were talking about this very thing. Kinda sounds like a waste of energy and loss of the spirit of trick or treating. Yes, of course parents are doing this for precaution and all but I wonder about the areas they trick or treat. Like for instance, we trick or treat in the part of our neighborhood that consist of four streets. We only hit the homes we know and feel comfortable knoking on the owners door and receiving candy. If we don't feel 'right' about a house we skip it. When we arrive hom we just check the stash for any that-

are unwrapped
punctured
or just plain...GROSS.

I love how there are some great trusted areas, organizations, and communities that actually host trick or treating events. Helps with the fear of the unknown for some parents. To me, it seems like a better fit than swapping out candy.

With love,
Nush