Jinx

I jinxed it.  I said Stella had escaped the virus and the next morning she woke up with a high fever.   It has been a very, very, very loooooooooooooooooooong week.  Give me a few sentences to complain, then I'll move on.  All 3 kids sick (fever, nose that runs like a faucet, cranky).  Wes is out of town Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.  Construction crew inside our house re-doing upstairs bathroom, which means upstairs is off limits.  Oh, and downstairs is off limits because the workmen have to come in and out and in and out and Stella will escape given any opening of the door.  That means, we are confined to the master bedroom.  For four days.  Four days.  Four. Days.  And I'm feeling nasty, too.  Snotty nose, weepy eyes, and lack of sleep.  And one more thing... the vanity that I designed the entire bathroom re-model around doesn't work because of plumbing issues so I had to go to Home Depot and buy a replacement.  Not my favorite.  UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Ok, all done whining about my first world problems.

The good news is we are all on the mend.  Stella should go back to school tomorrow and I can take Reese and Drake to the club.  I've never been so excited to exercise in my life!!!!!

Sick 1, 2 and 3.

A few bathroom remodel pics.  Should be able to post finished pics tomorrow.  Here is before and during...

Signing off to take a nap:)

Quick trip to Houston

Jill and I met in Houston for a weekend of wedding dress shopping.  In typical Reese fashion, the first dress she tried on was the winner.  We felt obligated to visit one more store, but quickly decided to return to Tootsies to purchase the dress.  Jill looks AMAZING in it and I can't wait to share pics from her special day.   I'm pretty sure the month of May will be here before I know it.  I also got to spend some time with my favorite Condit girls, Carol Michelle and Chris.  Now to get them to Austin for a visit!  (hint, hint - I know you are reading this!)

Reese spent the weekend with Nana while I was in Houston.  She was super excited to visit Nana, Pop and Carly.  Sounds like they had a good time together!!  Wes mentioned that Stella was doing a lot more talking with Reese out of the house.  Surprise, surprise.  It's no secret that Reese DOMINATES every conversation happening in our house.  I bet Stella was glad for some peace and quiet.

Now it's Wednesday and I've got two sick kiddos.  Reese and Drake both have high fevers and a terrible cough.  I posted on my mom's page and immediately got 15 responses of kiddos with the exact same symptoms.  Luckily, no tummy troubles are involved.  But I was shocked when Reese's fever was 103.7!  That's the highest it's ever been.   The worst part of the virus is the cough that settles in the middle of the night.  Reese has coughed for two nights straight, keeping me wide awake!!!  Benadryl knocks her out for a few hours, but then the cough comes back.  This is the second time (knock on wood) that Stella has escaped an illness that the other two have come down with.  That is surprising since the steroids she takes are supposed to weaken her immune system.

Joe popped the question to Lindsay!  And more importantly, she said yes!!   The entire Reese clan is super excited.  Good job, brother Joe.  This will be the year of weddings.  Jill and our nanny Kaitlyn get married in May.  Not sure when Joe and Lindsay are tying the knot, but guessing it's within the calendar year.

The city of Austin and our HOA have given us permits for the pool-building to begin.   Hoping to begin first week of February.  Maybe I'll throw a pool party for the girls birthday in April!!  Can't believe they are almost 4!

Video time:


Fun on the trampoline and fun with the slow motion setting on my phone.

 Reese's current favorite movie is The Little Mermaid. Here she is singing like Ariel, which she takes quite seriously. Whenever I sing like Ariel she says, "No, mommy. You are the octopus and I am Ariel."

  

 Drake loves for me to draw all the shapes so he can name them. Check out his cute little lithp.

 

Let's play catch-up

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  From Christmas to New Year's, I was fighting a nasty sinus infection that kept getting worse and worse.  It ended with a bad ear infection and a trip to the ENT to have my ear drained.  Yuck!  But luckily, I shaped up just in time for a weekend getaway to New Orleans.  Wes was finishing up a business trip so I flew out on Friday to join him.  Our friends JJ and Sara (also from Austin) joined us for a weekend of fine dining.   First stop, Killer Po-Boy's for a shrimp po-boy.  Next was BBQ Shrimp from Mr. B's.  Dinner was a bit of a miss (we tried a new place called Bombay House) but they are just opening up so maybe they will get the kinks worked out.  Saturday, we had lunch at Domenica, an Italian joint with phenomenal food.  Truffle oil risotto, squid ink pasta, baked lasagna, octopus carpaccio, charcuterie plate, mushroom pizza, Oh My Goodness!!!!!!!   Jill and Byron drove in to pick up some coffee beans so we got to have dinner with them!!!   Byron recommended Meauxbar and it was a big hit.   We tried almost everything on the menu and it was all amazing.  We finished the weekend with a quick breakfast at Ruby Slipper (buttermilk biscuits, poached eggs, bacon, etc) before heading home to see our kiddos.

While we were eating beignets on Saturday morning, Sara got a call from her nurse with the sex of her baby.  (She is 3 months pregnant.)  She asked the nurse to call back and leave the gender on a voicemail and we would listen to it that evening.  We were wandering around the french quarter and came across a dive bar with a band playing.  It seemed like the perfect place for a gender reveal!!  We took Sara's phone on stage, put it on speaker and played it out loud.  "It's a GIRL!!!"  We celebrated with the finest $10 champagne, as seen in this photo.

The happy couple.

Sisters!!

We bundled up for a horse-drawn carriage tour of the quarter.

Celebrity sighting at MeauxBar.

KK sent me plenty of pictures of kiddos.  On Saturday, she had a lunch date with Reese along with haircut and nail polish.  The pictures are adorable.

Stella is now wearing her hair in pigtails.  It is the cutest thing ever.

Reese found a ladybug in her bedroom.

Drake loves his baby dolls.

Stella loves to climb.