Week 2 - Boerne and Austin

Winter in Texas is so awesome. It's kind of the big payoff for suffering through the 100+ degree weather all summer (plus May and September, of course;). I'm sad to admit that we had been wavering on our desire to move back to Texas once we're done with the military, but we were totally won back over on this trip. HEB helped too, of course.

Anyway. After a week at 'Bayissa's' house we packed up again and headed to Boerne. The Smith's got there a few days after us, so it was definitely a party and Granny and Grandad's house.

Marc entertained the troops - unbeknownst to them, the littler ones were only pretending to play:

Nora practiced stair climbing some more:

One of my favorite moments - we had told all the Smith kids that if they saw Nora on the stairs they should stop her and let us know she was there. A little while after that warning, we heard screaming coming from the stair area. Little Aoife (she'll be 2 in Feb.) had taken our instructions to heart and had tried to stop Nora from climbing the stairs. The only way she could figure out how - with a foot placed firmly on Nora's back, holding her in place. It was pretty hilarious (and effective!), I'm just sad we didn't get a picture of it.

The city had recently completed a nice little walking path behind my parents house, so we took all the kiddos for a walk.

Nora and Aoife in the stroller:

T, Brigit, and Granny:

Colin and Aoife are so cute! I couldn't resist getting a picture of them. They were just walking along holding hands, both sucking their thumbs:

And then with their dad, although Rob did not participate in the thumb sucking...

T had to be just like the big kids and cross the rocks. That's her curly little head in the bottom corner.

After a few days in Boerne, we took another little trip up to Austin, to see some more cousins. Marc wasn't about to let us visit Austin without getting a Mighty Fine burger, so we braved taking all 12 of the kids there for lunch. I hate how much T looks like a 'big kid' in this picture :(.

They were actually all really well behaved for the meal. Pleasant surprise. There's brand new little Ryan in his car seat. He's such a cutie.

Brigit wasn't about to be intimidated by the size of her burger :)

In the same parking lot as Mighty Fine was a place called Gigi's Cupcakes. Marc's mom is 'Gigi' to her grandkids, and she calls T cupcake, so of course we had to snap a picture for Gigi. Just ignore T's burger residue all over her face...

And then it was time for bouncing! Auntie Aislinn has an awesome bounce house right near their house, and of course the kids all had a great time. Nora even got in on some of the action:

T was trying to be a big helper, but Nora was not super interested in being helped.

Let's see...top to bottom that is Declan, Teresa, Liam, Aoife, and Rowan.

After our short Austin trip, we were back at Granny and Grandad's for Christmas Eve caroling (and the stomach flu!). All the kids thought caroling to the neighbors was a total blast, here they are coming home from all the fun.

T had some trouble with her Santa hat:

But she figured it out after a bit.

T with cute little Aoife, and Aoife's pacifier that T totally snatched when we left, little rascal. Sorry Aoife!

Up next: Christmas!