Sadness

Sadness. Super duper sadness. Today Nikki and her family left Mia and I behind today to head to San Antonio and Mia and I got a small peek into what life is going to be like once they leave, and let me tell you, it's going to be super quiet and lonely around her. Super duper quiet and lonely. Super duper sadness.  Mia and I are going to be so lonely once they leave. It's been so fun having them here, and having them here for three whole weeks makes them feel like part of our little family - like they are a permanent part of our life.  I'm sure they will be relieved to be back in their own space and their own beds and I know Sara has really missed their dog, but we sure will miss them!!!


Here are a few photos from the last little bit:

Nikki and Fia spider swinging - fun!

Mia's loving the licorice. By the time she was done both her AND papa were covered in red drool.  :) 

Mia walking with the help of Sara and Fia. 

Sara loves to push Mia everywhere we go. She's such a good little mama!

This one of all of us girls was taken right after we picked them up from the airport. Man, we are going to miss them!!!

On Sunday we went on the Austin Duck Adventure. It's this bus/boat contraption that drives you on a tour around town and then drives into the lake and putters around the water as well. I'd gotten a great deal on Groupon before they'd come and so we were in a scramble to find a date that would work for all of us. I was a little worried how much the kids would enjoy it, but it was so fun. They gave us all these duck bill whistles that were a big hit with the three girls and I SO wish we could have captured the look on the girls faces when the big bus made a HUGE splash down as it drove into the water. Too too fun!!!

Our classy bus/boat ride looked like this. (from www.austinducks.com)

All aboard the boat/bus!

Almost everyone sporting their cool complimentary duck bill whistles (can you spot the party pooper?!?!).

Cheese! ...or should I say, "Quack?"

Mia was very relieved to find that mama was willing to share her duck whistle. 

Mia LOVED the duck whistle, even though she couldn't make it quack, and pretty much chewed on it the entire ride.  lol

My beautiful nieces taking in the water view after splashdown.

Man are we going to miss the Lindgrens!  Thankfully we still have three more sleeps before they head home!!!

Menagerie of Memories

 So, this post is going to be a menagerie of highlights of the past two weeks.  We've been having such a great time that I haven't had as much time to post as I would have liked to have been able to keep family up to date on our fun day-to-day activities.  :)

our happy little teether with her 2 bottom center teeth!

see, they really ARE there!  lol

Sorry about the super-hard-to-see baby teeth photos on the previous post.  It was harder than I thought to get a pic of them!  Hopefully they won't play whack-a-mole-baby-teeth and go up and down like Auntie Mish warned us sometimes happens.  Definitely crossing our fingers that it DOESN'T!!!

SADNESS OF ALL SADNESSES

It's official, the Lindgren family broke our hearts today by leaving us and heading back home to Germany.  We are in the depths of despair!  Walking down the hall to the rooms they stayed in makes my heart so sad.  The giggle level in the household has declined dramatically and we miss them so much!  Thank goodness I at least have Zeus here with me for the weekend before Monday comes and it's just back to Mia and I.  :( 

all the girls, feelin' the love

then feeling the sadness when we think about them going home in a few hours

I programed my phone number on Sara's cell phone that she got at the Disney store with her tooth fairy money.  I put myself as speed dial number 1.  She's got it memorized so that she can call me when ever she gets sad and misses me.  Too bad we have to use "pretend" to make it work.  :(

This morning Sofia said,"Be not sad.  I Super Girl.  I will fly back and visit you.  Be not sad."  I know that she TOTALLY means it.  Such a cutie patootie!

another favorite Sofia quote of the day:  "I was running and I ALMOST flying...but then I fall down."  Thus says the ever running, always falling Fia.  :)

Good memories:

What a fun trip this has been.  Now it's time for a walk down memory lane to all the good times we've had.

pool fun

the lovely Lindgren Ladies

good times - Nikki, Mia and I

hanging with grandma and decorating sugar cookies

the "tooth trip"

Sara lost her tooth and Mia had two teeth come in!

The day before Halloween:

Claes and Zeus at the game - too bad the Longhorns lost

decorating jack-o-lanterns

dressed up and ready to go trunk-or-treating at the church

our trunk all decorated with spiders and ghosts made by Sara and Sofia, along with their jack-o-lanterns

Fia and Sara love them some mama and Nikki loves her some girls!

trunk-or-treating - going from trunk to trunk

grandma with Sara as she hands out "goodies" at our trunk-or-treat after filling her bag

Sara with quite the Halloween haul  :)

Sofia, already enjoying her "goodies"

grown up fun

Grandma and grandpa watched the kids so we could go to a Halloween party at a bar/restaurant that a friend of Zeus' manages.  I won third place in the costume contest (pretty much by default though) and got a bottle of vodka and a gift certificate to the restaurant.  Zeus was more excited about the bottle than I was...  :)

Halloween day:

We got up and headed to San Antonio to visit the Alamo and the River Walk.  So fun with everyone there!

remember the Alamo...  I guess you could almost consider this a family photo by default  :)

so glad Deena and Michael were able to make it out!

mom and dad - aka grandma and grandpa at the Alamo

I think Sara took this one

Sara and Fia at the River Walk with their Texas memorabilia pets that they got at the Alamo museum - longhorn and armadillo

dinner at Iron Cactus on the River Walk in San Antonio 

fun dinner with the family before heading home for trick-or-treating

trick-or-treating fun in the neighboorhood

Waco trip - this past Thursday:

 cousins and second cousins chilling at Wendy's

smiles all around

Sara lovin' on Mia - sweetness!

Sara taking a pic of me feeding Mia - good little photographer

Sara took this pic showing how sad I am at the thought of them going home to Germany soon

back at Sami's house playing with the cool dollhouse and fun toys

while the Mama's are silly - me and Nikki

Sami, me and Nikki - good times!  Man, we should have pulled the camera out before Kristi snuck off!  :)

sweet baby!

coloring fun with second cousins

Fia helping me feed Mia - her attention span lasted a whole minute and then she was off to conquer the world and Mia and I were left to fend for ourselves  lol

I can't believe they are really gone.  We miss them so so so much and are very "sadness" without them here.  We hugged and waved goodbye for the longest time before they drove off down the road with promises to Skype soon.  After they left I kept looking around the house trying to find something they'd left behind so that I could call them and they'd have to come back to get it.  When I couldn't find anything, I thought about making up something, but then I remembered how Sara told me that when you tell a lie your tongue turns black and I decided I didn't want a black tongue.  Sadness!

no black tongues here - Halloween candy sharing fun

Such very fun family times!

going to the pumpkin patch

thanks Uncle Claes for buying all the pumpkins

and thank you Sara for picking out the perfect little pumpkin for baby Mia - I made it a little cleft lip pumpkin  :)

It is so strange to think that next year at this time Mia will have two major surgeries behind her!  Both her lip and palate will be repaired by then.  Our little sweetie will look SO different next Halloween in her cute little butterfly costume.  I'm going to miss her sweet little split smile!

thank you Auntie Charlotte for the darling bib!

man I miss these two adorable sweet little faces!!!

wish they were still here and sure do hope they come back soon!!!