Pumpkins!

Every year I try my best to take the kids to the Pumpkin Patch. It's always somewhat difficult to fit it into our busy October but we have a good time. This year, we went on Columbus Day when the kids were out of school and Oma tagged along too.

Our first activity is to always take pictures in the mounds of pumpkins. My kids are not so thrilled with this but it's a requirement of the trip!

Oma and the grandkids

After all the pictures, I let them pick a few activities to do.

The kids love the big bouncy pillows.

Ryan loves the barrel ride!

Everyone loves the hay ride.

And feeding goats...

And then of course, we have to carve the pumpkins we bought!

The finished products... 

October 2016

October is always a busy month - so many Fall activities. 

Ryan started playing soccer too. This Fall, he did a program through Lonestar called Lil' Lonestars. It's more of just a practice once a week (no games) which is perfect for him. He had a blast with Coach Troy!

We went to the Chalk Fest this year for the first time. It was pretty fun and the kids enjoyed coloring their own squares.

We had National Night Out (in Texas they do it in October a lot of places because seriously, August... way too hot to be outside!) Our neighborhood does a great job - face painting, food, Fire Trucks, Police Cars, bouncy houses.  Too bad it's a school night!

I felt like in October, I was constantly at the Dr. this year. Ryan was having a lot of chest congestion issues and had to do breathing treatments for a couple weeks.  Caitlin burst her eardrum and had a very persistent ear infection that took shots of antibiotic to finally clear up. It made for a lot of trips to the Dr.  Thank goodness we had already met our deductible :)

October is Oma's birthday so we took her out to Rudy's for dinner.

More soccer - we had some beautiful weather!

Caitlin started doing some private lessons with a coach at gymnastics. She really wanted to make it into the Hot Shots class so we added in a few private lessons where we could. Coach Jenn is the best!

Caitlin went to a roller skating birthday party with friends - so much fun!

 Caitlin did a cheer clinic at RRHS where they learned some cheers. 

And then they got to cheer at a RRHS football game!

Evan and Caitlin did a swim meet at UT.  This was Caitlin's first ever - she rocked it!

Caitlin on the starting block

Evan on the starting block

Ryan got a big boy bed since we gave our crib to Baba for the new baby! He loves helping Papa do work.

We threw a baby shower for Baba! 

And we took my mom out to a concert - Straight No Chaser - for her birthday present!

And that's not all! I have more to post on October including our annual trip to the pumpkin patch and Halloween of course.

Post Labor Day September 2016

After Labor Day, a lot of changes started for the Stacers.  After being laid off in July, I started a new job with Samsung Austin Research Center (SARC).  It is part of Samsung, the huge company you all know (and hopefully love). I joined their Performance Team which is responsible for making sure that the chips going into your Samsung phones and tablets are the best and fastest at what they are designed to do. This is kind of a departure from my previous roles, but I had worked with a lot of people on the performance team a LONG time ago at Motorola. And my personal role is on the Correlation team which works to ensure that design models and performance models are accurately matching. I had contemplated not going back to work (as I have been part-time since Evan was born). But, this opportunity came up that would continue to let me work part-time so I felt like it was a chance I couldn't pass up - not many people will hire you and let you work part-time from the start!

Since I'm so late posting this, I can tell you that 4 months in, it is going well. I see a lot of familiar faces from Moto/Freescale/NXP. The work is new and interesting. The commute - not much better than before. But, I like the company and the people and the job so I think it's a win!

Now, back to what you really want to know about - the kids!  Ryan also started Preschool after Labod Day.

He was pretty excited to start school. He is going M/W/F this year... he would probably go every day if he could!

Walking up to school

Hey, look who is in his class again? Worst twins ever :)

The great thing about Samsung is they totally get flexibility. I can't really work from home, but they understand you have commitments that you need to be there for and that's okay. So here I got to go to Ryan's preschool for Breakfast with the Parents!

Caitlin is taking 2 dance classes this year - ballet and hip hop! Here she is ready to learn some hip hop moves - which she loves by the way!

Evan is playing soccer again this Fall. And best of all, he is on the same team with his 2 best buds!

Caitlin is playing soccer again too with her friend Charlotte on Team Ireland. Who says you can't play soccer and be fashionable?

The older two are both swimming with Lonestar again. Here they are dressed up for an 80s party - they went at Coach Adam and Coach Dax, 80s style.

Ryan is doing swim lessons still with Ms. Hannah and loving it. Maybe another future Lonestar swimmer here too!

We got to enjoy a night out to celebrate Mel and Lorena's bday. Fun to have the girls back together!

And last we enjoyed some family time with a great bike ride!

Labor Day and Irish Invasion

This year, early September was quite hectic. I started my new job just after Labor Day so I was determined to enjoy the last few remaining free days.

I took Ryan and Chelsea to Bryce's work for lunch.

We played soccer outside.

Love this pic of Caitlin reading a chapter book to Evan!

Boy Scout popcorn selling at Rudy's

But probably the biggest highlight was that Notre Dame came to Austin to play the Univ of Texas in their football opener. There was a lot of hype and activities surrounding this, and we had a lot of friends come into town for the game. I wanted to share a little bit of that excitement with the kids. So, the Saturday before the game, we rode the train downtown to attend the Pep Rally!

Ready for some fun

A train - probably the highlight for Ryan!

Ready to get hyped up about the Irish!

Cheerleaders performing

It was a little exhausting but it was a fun outing. The next day, Bryce and I headed to tailgate with friends and go to the game (scored some tickets thanks to Casey!)

Fred and Steve - fellow CPEGs that I haven't seen in years!

Bryce supporting ND for me :)

Mojo and Chas - great to see them!

Andy and Aaron - if you can't tell, Aaron's face is painted with an ND symbol and an OU symbol. Last year, he and Andy had a bet on the ND game (which ND won). Loser had to paint their face for this rematch!

View from our seats (which were pretty high up). It was an intense game - double overtime! Tough loss for the Irish which was to be the precursor to this not so great football season. Still, it was a fun weekend. I loved getting to see so many faces from college and attend an ND football game. Some day I hope to take the kids to a game at Notre Dame Stadium! Go Irish!