It's always fun when grandma comes....

My mom got a plane ticket to our house for her birthday this year, and we had a great time!  We headed down to Austin, and stayed in a hotel for a couple of days.  One of the days we went to the capital building, and took the tour.

 

 

Standing in front of a statue of Sam Houston  we found some of the lights have the 

star with Texas spelled out in lights

 

We walked around downtown Austin for a bit and looked around

 

Paul got a new hat at Five Below.   Paul is so lucky to have a grandma that will do anything for him - even play hot wheels for hours! 

Sadly, grandma had to go home, but we had time to go have a picnic at Paul's school on her last day. Thanks grandma!

Vroom! Vroom!

My friend Tiffany gave us tickets to a NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway.  Since we had four tickets Paul got to invite his best friend to come with us.

 Flyover before the race started

Watching the cars - preliminary laps.  We thought it was loud then, then they started to go FAST!  Then it was LOUD!

 It was so fun!  It made me wonder a little bit what we would do if we had a girl kid instead of a boyo..

We bought both boys a race car and after they watched the race for a little bit, they played on the bench.  When there was a crash, they would pop up and watch until the urge to race their own cars was too strong! 

The race was sponsored by Duck Dynasty so there were poster all over the place with Uncle Si.  We couldn't resist!  

Sam Antonio

We had a great time meeting my mom and dad, aunties and uncles, and my brother and his girlfriend in San Antonio in February.  The weather cooperated perfectly and it was fun to hang at Uncle Marlo and Aunt Kathy's house and go to the rodeo.

 Uncle Marlo has a sandy beach around his swimming pool - it was too cold for swimming but not for playing in the sand.

 He also lets Paul drive the tractor AND pick up loads of dirt AND dump the load where needed.

 We love going to Gruene while we are there and throwing rocks in the river.  Grandma and Grandpa brought him this super cool wolf shirt.

The BIG tractor 

The rodeo is big in San Antonio - complete with fair rides and exhibits.  Paul got to pet this snake in the reptile tent. 

 And shoot a BB gun

 It's hard to be a lefty in a righty world

 Lunch at Mi Tierra - love this place!

Boys at the Alamo

My phone was dead during the rodeo, so I didn't get any pictures but it was so fun.  The concert after the rodeo was Tim McGraw - I LOVED IT!  Super fun weekend!

Texas Pride

In February, first graders have a unit on Texas and citizenship.  The first picture is in response to what makes a good citizen

 They also did a collaborative project with a middle school art class.  The first graders wrote a poem

Paul Miller

Chocolate Lab

Brown, Black

Barking, Running, Whimpering

Mine is named Sasha

Chocolate Lab

then the middle school kids illustrated it.  They combined the poems and illustrations into a class book. 

 My name is Paul and I am a cowboy.  My ranch is named Paul 3.  I have a horse named rockstar.  My job on the ranch is to feed the cows.  Cowboys wear boots and bandannas.  I love being a cowboy because of the longhorns.

Cowboy Paul and bluebonnets 

December 2013

Jared is part of the Dallas Millenial Choirs and their concert was in the Meyerson Symphony Hall.  It was so beautiful!  His voice is one of those things about him that makes me fall in love all over again! 

 The Packards sing!  These are the cousins that are also in the choir - it was fun to see them!

 This is our third year going to the Highland Village fire station to see Fireman Santa.  They outdo themselves every year.  

 I was able to go to Paul's class party this year where they made reindeer cupcakes.

 Love this boy!

 One of his Christmas presents was going to Legoland with his best friend!

 He is a very serious racer - and spent most of his time at the racetrack.

 They have these awesome lego jeeps that he got to drive - and he was a maniac!

Christmas 2013

Our friends the Rabner's invited us over on Christmas Eve for dinner and fun.  We played this super fun game where you had to rip newspaper strips down the middle all the way to the end.  If you you didn't get to the bottom you lost.  It was a race - and it was quite intense!

 After the silliness, we acted out the nativity story - Paul wanted to be the start.

Joseph and Mary weren't acutally allowed to touch the baby according the the baby's owner - little Miss Lily. 

 When we got home, we put out reindeer food just to make sure they stopped by.

 Had our traditional fire, and made a bed by the tree.

 I realized much, much later that I had gotten some great pictures of him opening things - but not actually of the gifts.  This year he got a Wii gaming system, several games, a new baseball mitt,  the movie Turbo, a plethora of Hot Wheels cars, and a whole bin of tracks.  Also - I realized ON Christmas Eve around 10 pm that I had pink and birthday wrapping paper.  Hence the Christmas bags and printer paper wrapping.

 In the afternoon, we snuggled up on the bed by the fire and watched Turbo.