Shopping, Football, Party...A Great Saturday

The Ernst family had a wonderful Saturday. First, we went to the Round Rock Outlets for a family shopping affair, which was much needed. Kaylee is growing out of EVERYTHING and with the weather becoming cooler, she desperately needed new clothes. It is a bit odd to hold up LONG 18 Month Old clothes....we are like surely these are too big for her...nope Kaylee is that long. And we bought her a pair of shoes...she even got fitted...you guess it a whopping size 5. Yes, she is a big girl. We also got her Halloween costume, wait for it....TINKERBELL! I thought we would have gone more traditional with a pumpkin, ladybug, etc, but when we saw Tinkerbell we thought of Kaylee with her blonde hair and blue eyes. I think she will be adorable. Eric had some luck finding a great belt and a couple of Polos to replace his old ones. As for me, I hit the jackpot and found several "work" tops and some much needed work-out gear. It was very cute that we had a morning family shopping trip...Starbucks and all. Then, we went home where Eric had arranged 2 TVs side by side to watch the UT and Purdue Game together. UT played awesome, whereas Purdue fell short. And we won't mention the Florida game, Becky. Aunt Lindsey stopped by to play with Kaylee, who really only wanted to play with empty water bottles. Then, I spent a wonderful night with a group of girls for Sara's Bachelorette Party. And I finally got to make it to Mulberry, which is a wine bar downtown that one of Eric's MBA classmates opened. It was great Saturday!

Apple Gig

It is official...I've accepted a position with Apple! I start October 6th and my official title is Supply Demand Execution Planner. I put in my 2 weeks yesterday and it was great to "stick it to the man". Just kidding. I feel bad to leave and will miss several friends, but everyone is happy for me. I signed my offer today and they personalized the Apple Icon Header in PINK for me. How cool is that?!? The offices are about the same distance from AMAT just the other direction. Not to mention the offices are VERY laid back, I'm talking people wear shorts. Very Austinite. I'm going to miss carpooling with Eric, but I very excited about the new gig.

A Love Hate Relationship

I'm on the see-saw of love and hate for Bikram Yoga. Bikram Yoga is a 90 minute class with 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises, but get this....in a room that is heated to 105F and 40% humidity!!! My sister-in-law (Melissa) and I signed up for a month package last week, since she broke her foot and is limited to little exercise. You have to be HYDRATED before you go...or else you will be miserable and you really don't drink much during it. Bikram Yoga is totally different then my regular Hatha Yoga. I can't say I enjoy myself sweating profusely for 90 minutes with limited water and I'm usually hating it my the end of class. HOWEVER, when I wake up the next morning I feel great! Like you just got a massage or something! So you can see how this is a love hate relationship. But I can't decide if I really enjoy it or if it is worth it. With my regular yoga, I look forward to my practice and feel stretched, strong, and empowered after class. And I really can't say the same with Bikram. But I will say it is nice to sweat out ALL (plus some) of your toxins every once in awhile. And another note, I do find it somewhat entertaining to look over to Melissa with a huge boot cast on while she is trying to do a pose dripping sweat! It reminds me that she has it harder than me, so I can't complain. I still have a couple of weeks to make my judgement.

Friday Night Lights

This weekend we went to San Antonio to watch my lil brother's (Tyler) football game. I was a bit nervous, because the game started at 7:30pm and that is usually Kaylee's bedtime. Not only that, but when we were at the Cubs game she didn't like the abrupt cheering. But Kaylee slept the whole drive down to SA and was pumped up for the game! And.... she loved it! The school band kept her going, she was waving her pom pom, and she loved looking at the people. She was clapping the whole time and danced along with the halftime show. We stayed with 5 minutes left in the game...about 10pm. When we got to the car, she clapped when she saw her car seat and immediately went to asleep. My little brother's team Churchill lost to Reagan, but it was to my Alma Mater. (I had gone to both schools, so I was in a win/win situation.) After the loss, all the parents said Kaylee was the highlight of the game! We all had a great time, especially since Eric hadn't been to a High School football game, well, since he was in High School. Oh..I almost forgot...we got to see Kaylee's ad in the program! And she was wearing her Churchill outfit that Uncle Tyler gave me when I found out I was having a girl!

Wine Thief

Last Wednesday, Eric and I decided to have a "date" once Kaylee went to bed. This "date" wasn't a night out or anything extravagant, rather it was just us eating a normal grilled chicken dinner but outside on our patio. The weather has been amazing...Texas Falls our my favorite! And...when we call our time together a "date" we don't allow any interruptions and it makes things well, more fun. But we did have one minor interruption before our "date"...a wine thief. Eric was choosing a bottle of wine from our BOTTOM shelf (aka the good stuff) when out of no where a wine thief came along. See the pictures for yourself. And please note, this may looked staged, but I assure you it wasn't. I had been playing with the thief and her hood, before she darted off to the kitchen.

Missed the Mark...twice

Last night, I went out with one of my good old friends for a girls night out. We went to Jasper's (Gourmet Backyard Cuisine) for dinner, which has been on the top of my lists of places to go for awhile now. The Chefs won on Iron Chef, their ribs are the "Bon Appetit's Top 3 in America", and has been written up in SOOO many magazines. I was excited! We start off with crab cakes and they were good, but needed more flavor. Then, we shared Texas Peach Barbecued Pork Tenderloin with Bourbon Cream Corn and their famous Ribs with Aged Gouda Mac & Cheese. Don't get me wrong everything was good...it just wasn't WOW and especially for the HIGH dollar price. The descriptions sounded amazing and the food didn't live up to them. I was bummed, but had a blast with my girlfriend and well of course WINE makes everything better! After dinner we were off to see "The Women" with Meg Ryan. I was again excited and again disappointed. It was sooo boring! And after wine, a late boring movie wasn't the answer for me. I'm pretty sure I dozed off several times. But guess you can't win them all...at least I was with good company.

Proud Parents

Today was a big day for little Kaylee. First, she finally started to use her walker and has been all over the house today. She has been cruising from one piece of furniture to the other and although she uses the school's walker, she hadn't used the one at home. And she did today! Then, we were playing around and I put her down standing and she stood by herself for several seconds. Usually when she lets go she freaks out and plops to the floor...a whole second. Today was definitely several seconds! Next, she has been becoming very observant. She knows what button to push to start the music on one of her new Fisher Price toys. Usually she would just push all the buttons, now she specifically knows which one. And boy, she likes to push it over and over again. And she has started to kiss her dolls, which is pretty funny since her kiss is a open mouth slobber kiss. Finally, the girl can dance! I give myself credit on this one since I love to play my ipod and dance with her...I started at 2 months! Now she pushes her toys to play music and then dances. Sometimes it looks like "The Night at the Roxbury" dance or she will wave her hands in the air or just move to the music. It is awesome. It is amazing to watch her grow and we definitely proud parents!

Fisher Price Playdate!

Today was the day! It was so much fun! Fisher Price had sent 4 "big" toys, 10 party favors, gift bags, and coupons. We had bagels, fruit parfaits, and mini muffins. We had 5 little ones checking all the toys out and playing. I think our first playdate was a success and Fisher Price was so nice to do this all for us! Now Kaylee gets to keep all the toys! She has been passed out for the past 2 hours...she must have been playing hard!

No love from Hurricane Ike

Zero. Zero rain that is. Austin has gotten nothing from Ike thus far. We are fortunate we didn't get a beating like Houston area got, but being soo close we thought we would get something. We've been clued to the TV and couldn't believe the size of Ike, weather is truly unbelievable. And yes, our family from Angleton had evacuated to San Antonio on Wednesday. Thank you for those you asked. I do have to smile when I hear the name Ike, since I went to Eisenhower Middle School. I have shirts and pins that say "Ike Pride". It is rather humorous to me. However I was shocked when I went to HEB on Thursday night to pick up a "few" items and there was NO stock of anything. I managed to find a case of water on a random shelf which I was happy about and got the last loaf of wheat bread on the shelf. Not to mention I waited 40 minutes to check out! It was insane...I never thought so many people would freak out and prepare how much as they did in Austin. But I guess better safe than sorry. My hearts do go out to the Houston residents who now how to go back home and see possible damage. I hope it all works out.

Finally a Relaxing Weekend...in Austin.

After my cookie run, we headed out past Elgin to see my Aunt & Uncle's new house they built. They have lived in Mobile, Alabama until the past 3 years, give or take some. They were my only family members that lived outside Texas, so it is great having them back! Their beautiful house sits on some gorgeous land....very quiet, very relaxing. We took Kaylee swimming and she did very well remembering how to kick and kind of blow bubbles. She got to play with my cousin's adorable 20 month old Piper. Piper kept saying "Baby Play, Baby Play". It was very cute. We loaded up on fajitas and a couple of margaritas and visited with the rest of the fam. Kaylee was exhausted and went right asleep on the car ride home. We thought she was done for the day, but boy did she get her second wind when we got home. She was laughing and playing like crazy and we just ate it all up! We finally had to call it quits, because we knew she was tired and sure enough not a peep after left the room. Getting a good night rest, we woke up early to go running on Town Lake. This is one of my favorite things to do in Austin and I used to walk around when Kaylee was a baby, who know what I mean when she was a baby baby (newborn!). We get there right at 8am and it seems like the whole city of Austin had the same idea! But once we got going the people seemed to thin out. Kaylee was having a grand old time waving to the people going the opposite direction and then randomly clapping. I would run next to her and she would put her hand out for me to give a high five. I loved it! We ran 3.2 miles just under 30 minutes and I felt great. Muddy Buddy Training has started. We came home and I made Apple Cinnamon Bran muffins that we quickly learned Kaylee loves!!! We couldn't stop her. We will give a little piece of whatever we were eating and when I gave her a little of the muffin she attacked me and took my muffin! I had to get another muffin, but it was funny and of course adorable! We ran some family errands (Sears, Toys R Us, Target) and now are enjoying our Sunday afternoon. Soon we put some Chicken and Pineapple on the grill for one of the May's classic Chicken Hawaiian Salad. Yum... We have been having a blast going out of town, but boy is it nice to have a relaxing family weekend at home.

A Wonderful Saturday Morning

I have been very excited about the Grand Opening of Tiff's Treats right by our house on 183. Tiff's Treats is a cookie delivery store that started on the UT Campus and Tiff was a UT Business Grad. They are soooo good...taste just like you mother's homemade cookies. This place was like the devil and probably contribute to many students' Freshman 15! Anyways, their Grand Opening was this Saturday. The were selling a dozen cookies for, get this, TWO DOLLARS! All of the proceeds are going to Make-A-Wish Foundation for the cutest little girl Jordyn. Her wish was her family to go to Disney World. I arrived promptly at 9am and I guess several people at this idea...the line was soooo long! I thought it would go pretty fast, but Tiff's will only put out the freshest cookies. So..I waited TWO HOURS! Yes, I could have given up, but I couldn't stop thinking of Jordyn and her family. That is what kept me there for 2 hours and of course I made new friends in the line! I bought 5 dozen and another 5 dozen for my new friend in front of me. There was 10 dozen limit and he was buying them for his firm. But then I discovered I won some of their door prizes! I won a $10 Gift Card to Quiznos and $25 to Uchi Sushi! I was so excited! They ended up selling 1800 dozen cookies and are able to send the family to Disney World! Gift Cards, Cheap Great Warm Cookies, and helping fulfill a little girl's dream! Not too shabby for a Saturday morning!

http://www.cookiedelivery.com/austin/

We have to give a shout out to the last birthday of our chaotic August family birthdays. Greg rounds out the group with September 2nd! Happy Birthday! I think we celebrated well with him over the weekend, hopefully he has enough gusto to bust out one night! We hope you have a wonderful day!

Parents Gone Wild Weekend in Chicago

It has been a while since I last blogged (not sure if anyone reads it in the first place), but I have been recovering from our Parents Gone Wild Weekend in Chicago. Our first time away from little Miss Kaylee, who stayed with my parents in San Antonio. They said she did great and she got to visit with the extended family, which was good for her. I believe my parents had fun too, since my Dad called Tuesday saying she missed her. It is hard not too, since she is so sweet! As for our Parent Getaway, we had a blast! Eric's brother and wife, Greg and Emily, were excellent tour guides. We spent Friday night in Lincoln Park at the neighborhood bars and then some much needed late night Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza. Saturday...we slept in! That is what we were looking forward to the most, since that doesn't happen anymore! Then, we had BIG lunch at a Pub Cafe with Eric's Dad & Julia. Afterwards we went to the Shed Aquarium, which is always fun to see. They had Eric's friend the Komodo Dragon. We spent Saturday night at this insane UT bar in Lincoln Park to watch the game. I could NOT believe how many UT people were there! It was great! Then, we had so much needed late night Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza...again. Sunday was our big Wrigley Rooftop party. It was unlimited food and drinks so....we had fun to say the least. Eric and I then had a nice Italian dinner by ourselves, which was great. Although the Italian food there is sooo good and sooo rich, we both took a couple bites and we were done. We tried to keep the leftovers, but were able to sneak it a bite or two before we left. Afterwards, we met with my BFF Lucy and Shannon who were also in town and well...we lived it up. It was a fun weekend and we just love Chicago...especially when the weather was as perfect as it was over the weekend. We did well with being away from Kaylee, although I felt the pilot could have gone a bit faster on the way home! We definitely had a great time!