So long, Austin

After a stressful night of worrying about Lane and staying up until nearly 3am packing, the movers arrived bright and early the next morning.  Kyle's brother, Trent, came in town to stay at the house and help with the movers that day.  I am glad we had an extra person there for when I had to go tend to Ellis and Kyle had to go to the office to put in a few hours on his last day of work.  We had everything that was to go to Chicago labeled with red duct tape, and the remaining things were going to be moved to the storage unit in Mansfield by Kyle and Trent.  The movers were so fast!  By mid-day, they were loaded and gone, and I stuck around a little longer to do some last minute things and get my car loaded.  The kids and I were planning on living at my mom's house for a full month before moving to Chicago, so I had quite a bit of stuff that needed to come with me to her house.

Our Austin home.  We will miss you, Sautelle Lane!

That afternoon, I loaded up Ellis into our packed car, and we left our home in Austin behind us!  I was excited to get to Mansfield to see Lane, who was discharged from the hospital at about the same time I was on the road.

A sweaty, tired Mama and baby girl in her car seat mirror!  So long, Austin!

Kyle and Trent stayed behind to load up a U-Haul truck with the furniture and boxes to be kept in storage in Mansfield.  Since we were downsizing to a 2BR apartment in Chicago, we had LOTS of things that we had to store.  The guys had a tough job ahead of them!

Our last days in Austin...

Our last weeks in Austin flew by!!!  Movers were set to arrive on Thursday, June 12, so we squeezed in lots of activities between packing!  Luckily, Ellis was relatively easy while Kyle and I packed boxes and prepared for the move.

A little tummy time while Mommy packed!  

Our cute little cupcake!

Sweet girl!

Eating carrots, holding his sister, and watching TV.  A big brother PRO!

Happy little lady!

We made one last visit to Kerbey Lane for breakfast.  Lane and I LOVED going to Kerbey Lane for pancakes.  We already miss that place so much!

A couple of nights before the move, we finally went over to Kyle's great aunt Margaret's house for a visit.  She lives in Austin close to the UT campus and in the 2 years we lived there, we never got around to getting together!  We were happy to get to visit with 2 of Kyle's aunts/uncles, as well as his cousin, Mae, who was a flower girl in our wedding years ago!

Hanging out with Mary

Coloring with Mae.  I can't believe how grown up she is now!

Margaret lives on the 14th floor of a fancy apartment building overlooking the UT campus.  This was a pretty view off of one side of her balcony!  Lane loved looking at the tower and the football stadium.

Mommy and Ellis posing by the tower

Coots fam bam

Sara was able to come too, and loved holding baby E.

Aunt Margaret and Ellis

Lane had a fun time playing with old toys that Margaret had saved and listening to the player piano.

The next day it was back to packing!  Ellis wanted to be held all morning, so I ended up having to put her in the sling to get anything done.  My view that day was this sweet face and loads of boxes!

Little darling!

Josh, Carrie and Abigail were coming to Austin for a short family vacation at a nearby resort, so they came and spent a night with us before getting to their hotel.  They had no bed upstairs since we had already moved our big bed out, but they made do with an air mattress.  We were happy to get to see Miss Abigail and spend one last weekend with the Bays fam!

We ate dinner at Contigo, which had a great outdoor patio and plenty of open space for Lane to move about.  He and Abigail had a blast playing at the table!

Taking it like a man!  She loved pinching his face!

Sweet kisses!

Ellis tried out her bumbo chair for the first time...and she liked it!

"Check out this new trick, Mom!"

My little paci unicorn

We squeezed in one last movie night in the media room.  We didn't utilize this room quite enough, and I know we will miss it like crazy!  We watched The Sandlot, and Lane LOVED it.  (Even though he tried to say he only liked it a little.)  He somehow memorized lots of quotes from watching it that one time.  We heard "You play ball like a girl!" more times that we could count!

Sara came to babysit Lane for a bit while we got some packing done.  She took him to her house to meet her baby chicks and he had such a fun time!  He begged for Mama Fu's on their way back to our house, and ended up falling asleep before he could even eat it!  Aunt Sara wore him out!

My mom came to visit a couple days before the movers arrived.  We hit up some of our favorite Austin spots and even stopped by the Austin mural to take an updated picture now that Ellis is here!

Wearing one of Evin's hand me downs.  I asked Kori if these were supposed to be capris or pants.  Answer: pants.  But Ellis rocked them as capris!  Must be a long-legged girl!

A trip to Panera...another one of Lane's faves.  Each season they have a different iced cookie and he was excited that they had baseballs this time!

My mom left on Tuesday the 10th, and took Lane and Scout back to Mansfield with her so that I could work hard on getting everything packed and so that we wouldn't have Lane and Scout to deal with on the day the movers were coming.  I snapped this gem right as they were about to leave.  Scout is like "Sheesh!"  

Posing on a few of the many boxes in our home.  Although this wasn't our favorite house ever, we made so many great memories there!  Our two years in Austin flew by and we made the most of it!  Lane had 2 great years of pre-school, Kyle gained great experience at a job he loved, we had our favorite restaurants and stores we frequented, had lots of fun when visitors came to town, Lane made friends with our neighbors, and we brought our baby girl home to that house!

The last time posing on the front steps for a picture.

 

Memorial Day Weekend 2014

Memorial Day weekend was sort of our last, full weekend in Austin before our move.  The next weekend we were in DFW for Ellis' Sip & See and a birthday party, and the next weekend was spent frantically packing before the move-out.  We planned a big garage sale for that Saturday to purge some of the things we just didn't need anymore.  It is amazing how much can be accumulated in just 2 years!  Prepping for the garage sale was torturous, but we got everything outside and ready bright and early that morning.  Before Kyle even finished putting the signs out, we had about 5 cars unloading and playing let's make a deal.  

Luckily, Ellis and Lane slept late, and when E woke up, I quickly fed her inside and headed back out to help Kyle.  She slept the whole rest of the time in my arms.  Lane had fun playing with the neighbor kids outside while we worked.

How many people do you think asked "How much for the baby?"  Answer:  Almost all of them.

We finished up pretty early and headed inside.  Lane's friend Breck from next door came over for a while to play.  Lane LOVES Breck.  He is a couple years older than Lane, so Lane thinks he is pretty cool.  They enjoyed some mac n' cheese for lunch and headed back upstairs to play in the playroom for the rest of the afternoon.

 

We stayed home and took it easy Saturday night, and Sunday we went out for a family dinner at a restaurant we had been wanting to try before we moved.  Since it was Memorial Day Weekend, I dressed the kids in red/white/blue.  I just love a kiddo dressed in patriotic colors!

Daddy didn't get the patriotic memo, so he snapped a picture of his 3 loves who were sporting red, white, and blue!  I love how Lane is holding Ellis' foot!

 

Lane agreed to the picture, but only with his microphone and microscope in his pocket.

 

Some snapshots of the little lady in her patriotic attire.

 

We went to dinner at Salty Sow, and we both loved it!  I have really branched out on my food preferences and will try new things way more than I ever used to.  We got some special deviled eggs and duck fat fries with an egg on top.  These were the 2 recommended appetizers that the restaurant was well known for.  If you would have asked me to try this 10 years ago I would probably have gagged just thinking about it.  I have to say, both were really, really good!  Our meals were really good too, and the presentation was unique.  I got braised short ribs with potatoes and carrots that came in a little skillet.  I didn't take a picture, but ate every bite!

Salty Sow gets 2 thumbs up!  (Even though Lane took his own little dinner in his lunchbox.)

Monday was Memorial Day, and also my Mom's birthday!  We hated to miss it, but planned to celebrate it the next weekend when we would be in town.  I apologize for the alarming number of pictures of Ellis following this paragraph.  We got dressed in our red, white and blue again and headed to Kyle's boss, Dave's house for a going away dinner.  Ellis' outfit was so simple, but paired with her tiny flag bow, I thought she looked adorable!  She was so alert and happy, so I just kept snapping pictures like crazy!  I still think these are some of the cutest pictures she has ever taken, and most of them are from my iphone!

My favorite...

  

The first of many "twin" outfits for Mommy and Ellis!  Navy tops with red skinnies for the win!

 

We had a great time at Dave and his wife Allie's house.  Dave did the same exact MBA program at Kellogg as Kyle did, so Allie had lots of tips and recommendations for me!

Cuddling a bit in Lane's bed before calling it a night.

 

And I will leave you with a  little entertainment.  Since we couldn't be with Mums on her birthday, Lane serenaded her on his new guitar.  My very own little Blake and Miranda!   :)