Lydia's Baptism

On Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013 Lydia got baptized at Hyde Park Baptist church.  Grammy, Nana & Grandpa came to see it.  On Dec. 8, a Saturday she invited Jesus into her heart (when she was four she said she did it every night but this time she seemed to really understand) and we talked about the next steps including baptism and said when she was ready to go forward on a Sunday morning.  Two weeks ago she did.  We are very excited about this and looking forward to seeing the great things God does in her life every day on.

Brazil Visit

 Through the international office at UT we signed up to host two Brazilians in our home for a weekend.  They are English teachers and here for a six week training.  The home visit was part about learning culture and they even had questions to ask us and homework from their time.  So the plan was a typical weekend for us....I picked them up and we all enjoyed the Austin Friday evening traffic.  We had a homemade meal of chicken and rice and brownies, then put the girls to bed in our room and played Apples To Apples which they really enjoyed.

 The weather each day that week had started out cool and warmed up into a beautiful day.  On Saturday we had a big breakfast and headed out to Zilker Park.  It was cool and raining (they are both from the north where its always warm, but one from the jungle and one from the coast) but we still enjoyed seeing the pool, the Splash Exhibit, walking along the creek, feeding the ducks and they really enjoyed taking pictures of squirrels.  We went to lunch at Shady Grove and it was still cool and raining, but we sat under the patio and enjoyed our big burgers and local atmosphere.  Then Gloria and I took them to Wal-mart for a few things, as we walked in it was still cool and raining, but when we left it had turned into our beautiful day, oh well.  Back home we rested, the girls played chalk in the front yard (one big difference they noticed was the openness-no gates and guards) and then got ready for girls' night at Jenna's (a monthly mostly ladies from the church plus a few other friends like Imane).  It was perfect one was planned while they were here.  We had a potluck and just sat and talked and laughed and told stories.  They said that they had much to talk about concerning culture from the visit.

Sunday they took pictures in our cowboy hats and then loaded up to be taken back to their hotel.
Obragada!  (thanks in Portuguese)

Kindergarten Choir

 Lydia's school had a choir performance of Kindergarteners.  This is with her music teacher Ms Spurlock.

Caleb, Gloria, Nana and I went to watch.  I picked out two outfits for Lydia to chose and she said both and put them together :)

They really were amazing.  All were still and sang the words loud and clear.

Rock Star Car

 this year in AWANA Lydia's age group does a Grand Prix Derby car races.  We bought the kit, Dad helped her sand and paint.  She wanted to do the whole thing in finger nail polish but settled for pink spray paint and a ROCK STAR theme.

There were tons of super cute entrees and then the ones you could tell the kids did most of the work.  Lots came to watch them race and Lydia got 4th!  One place away from a trophy but she was excited about her ribbon.  When Caleb was in Cub scouts he raced the same car three years in a row but here there is a rule that each year you must do a new one, I protested saying we were in Austin-what about Reduce, reuse, recycle, but the rule stands so until next year....

An Un-happening

I normally don't post about stuff like this (the blog is called Harris Happenings) but about super fun outings and parties, etc.  But this week since Monday morning, I have had strep throat and I got it good.  The first thing I realize about this is that sometimes it stinks to be human, the second thing is that the people around me are amazing.  Caleb has totally stepped up to the plate-making lunches, doing laundry, dishes, keeping the girls fed, clothes and ready for their next activity.  He even went in late on Tues and took Gloria to school, picked up her and brought her back to watch movies until later so I could rest.  My neighbor (I call her new but they have lived her since Aug) Marz is amazing, she has picked up Lydia every day from school and twice kept the girls from 3 until Caleb got home.  Gloria is amazing in that she can entertain herself for long periods of time and can even be a big helper grabbing stuff for me.  The first day before I knew what I had she got her own cereal and played by herself until 11 when I finally got out of bed.  On Tues Lydia watched a movie while I was in bed and made me a note that said, "I feel alone all by myself mommy..." but she never complained or fussed verbally :)  Instead of doing our normal Monday around the house day, visiting two friends while G was in school, an outing to the LBJ Wildflower Center (coordinating various cars and rides), then dinner at church and my group study, and picking up five people and then leading Friendship (and it was the church tour I was excited about) I laid around the house and went to the doctor (Caleb and my mom are amazing for strongly encouraging me to go instead of waiting).  Only on Wed afternoon did I do anything which was watch some tv.  It hurt to move and each swallow was excruicatingly painful, but Caleb suggested watching some Johnny Football highlight videos after the girls were in bed, so we did and it was at those moments that the tide turned and I finally started feeling a little better.  So the moral of the story is-Go watch Johnny Football with Dude Perfect and life will go on :)

New Braunsfels Children's Museum

 Our grand hurrah for Lydia's winter break week, we went to the NB children's museum with our DV neighborhood playgroup of girls (yay Kirinda is back from France)  They have a bat cave.

 Rocket ship

 horses to ride

 Laura and Audrey who live close by joined up.  Lydia snapped this of the grown ups :)

 and here are the kids at lunch.  bunch of silly girls!

 It was COLD but they hadn't been upside the days before so they played so long and hard outside.  This is the block building area, doesn't appear to be a single aspiring engineer among them as they jumped around in a mosh pit instead of building and had fun yelling no boys allowed!  we are okay with that for now.   Outside there was also this super cool climbing structure.  The moms wimped up and sat inside by the big window.

Gig em Aggies!  We wore them out.  L&K took us in their car and the kids were exhausted on the ride home.  Definitely a fun place to visit.

Cotton Bowl

 Caleb's uncle (and grandma) scored us some tickets to the Cotton Bowl in Cowboy stadium to watch the Aggies defeat OU.  This is Caleb's first sight of the amazing Johnny Football in person!

 We got to see the world's largest tv (or least a corner of it because it was blocked by just a super super super big tv from our spot in the end zone).  This is the national anthem, the Kilgore Rangerettes preformed with some high school dancers as well.  The game was great, close in the first half to keep us in suspense then a blow out in the end.  Some great plays to remember.

Our group-cousins Amanda, Annie & Loryn with two boyfriends and uncle Garry.  Bill was also there with some buddies from college.  We waved once during the game and then met at the exit to say hi.  Super fun time was had by all because TAMU beat the hell out of OU!  Whoop!  We remembered all the yells (this was my first game since graduating) and enjoyed the aggies around us including current students, old ags and the token drunk guy with his wife who loved everyone and everything and kept getting more drinks and then didn't return for the end of the game!

 Carrie graciously kept our kids and put them all to bed, then we had a short time of catching up before heading out.

Lydia & Luke (who enjoyed making books and forts) Claire & Gloria (who played dress up and dollhouses) and Cora who followed them around walking and looking like a doll.