Lifestyles of the Young + Suburban

Charlie actually got a call back from the photo shoot we did in October and landed herself her first modeling gig! We couldn’t be more proud. Unfortunately the girl didn’t smile the entire time. And we were there for an hour and a half. We still got some photos out of the deal and a very (very) slim chance they will use her photo for their Valentine’s advertising campaign. Here are a few pictures of her. I am not sure of the rules of me posting the photos, so I won’t mention the company’s name until after the time period for their ad campaign is over. I am considering getting some V-Day cards printed up, but it may be kind of weird since she’ll be 3 months older in the middle of February and looking slightly different!

Here is our love bug.

We moved webservers last week and unfortunately the site was down for several days due to me not knowing what I needed to do or having the time to do research/get on the phone with people that do know what they’re doing.

What’s more unfortunate is that all you loyal subscribers received a very lame, very generic “Hello World” email that Word Press (the software we use for our blog) sent out. Sorry about that.

But, rest assured that we are back in business. We (meaning Lisa) will have some cute stories and pictures to post in the coming days.

Thanks for your patience and your readership.

PS: If you need a website and/or web hosting, I’d strongly recommend 1and1.com. I’ve been really impressed with their customer service and how much cheaper their service is than what we were paying before.

Well, so am I (well, a girl that can get things done)! It feels so good to complete a project doesn’t it? Even if it took you all of 30 minutes. And wasn’t on your to-do list to start with.

As I have been (very slowly) buying bows for Charlie’s enormous head of hair, I realized I have no where to put these things. Waiting in line to pay for said bows, I saw these ribbon things you can clip the bows on. For $12. Mmmmm…I can do that. So, I bought a few things (yes, for less than $12). Today I finished her hair bow holder! The colors don’t look exactly like they really are, but I still think I did an ok job. On to the next project! This time I am hoping it will actually be something on my to-do list…

Let’s just start off by saying sometimes Grayson is a goofball. And this time, maybe his mom might be in that category too. I’ve signed both kids up for a “model search” at the mall next weekend. Hey, I think both my kids are super star cute. What parent doesn’t right? But mine are really really good looking. AND they can turn left.

Before I could even attempt to explain to Grayson what I’ve gotten him in for, he supplies me with proof that it might come naturally. See video below:

After that I thought I could introduce what we’d be doing in the coming weeks. So, I explained what a catwalk was and immediately found a clip of the “walk off” which of course has Right Said Fred in the background. (If you don’t know what I’m referring too it probably won’t be funny to you anyway, so just know that we were doing some research.) G had a few runs down our make shift catwalk of beach towels that have yet to be put away. He even managed to get some hands on hip action. Impressive.

While I doubt we are moving to LA or NY, or that we will even get a return call, I think it will be a fun experience for the kids. Or for me, since they aren’t likely to remember. I guess this could be my version of playing dress up? See, I am girly after all.

We just got back into town from a two week long visit with my family. Awesome trip and I will get around to sorting through the 800 (literally) pictures I took while there some day… Thanks to my mom for hosting us for so long and showing us so much love!

We kicked off being home by diving head first into our routine. Grayson had his first day of school today. Technically the first day was two weeks ago, but we kind of missed that. He was super excited to go and even remembered his teachers’ names. He was also as ready for me to leave him there as I was to have a day with only one kiddo in tow. Grocery shopping is so much easier with one!

Here are some photos of this morning.

Ryan and I had a blast on our (kid free) trip to San Francisco last weekend and we both are so anxious to start planning our next visit to wine country. I haven’t gone through all of our pictures yet and still want to add a few that we took with our phones, but did want to go ahead and share! Here’s a link to our photos. I’ll post more about our trip soon!

Our little family has welcomed it’s newest addition! Miss Charlotte Olivia! We are so happy to have her and we are enjoying life as a family of four. Grayson has been so good and sweet. We’ll see how that changes as Charlie gets more mobile! I plan on sending out birth announcements soon, but here are some photos to tide you over!

Charlotte Olivia
April 29th
8 lbs 3 oz
20 inches

I continue to be pleasantly surprised about new things I learn about being a husband/dad/family man. I think it is fascinating that we never really stop learning about anything, and discovering new aspects of life makes it a lot of fun.

Most recently, I found myself a little surprised that Lisa’s family’s traditions of hiding Easter eggs differed so much from mine.

I was surprised this hadn’t come up in our nearly 8 years of marriage and our 12 years of knowing each other, but I guess something about having a 3 year old who is finally interested and able to hunt for Easter eggs will teach you a few things.

The Austin’s would sit around and color the hard-boiled Easter eggs and then the next morning the Easter Bunny would hide those around the house for the kiddos to find after diving into their Easter baskets. While at the Manchee house, we’d color eggs, but I am pretty sure they become decoration or a part of Easter dinner (via deviled eggs). The eggs that were hidden were of the plastic egg variety and contained candy, toys, coins, and if we really lucked out maybe a $1 bill. I can’t remember if it was really an Easter Bunny coming to hide the eggs / drop off the baskets, but we knew it was a special day.

I have fond memories of emptying out the eggs and eating all of the consumable prizes, then re-hiding them for hours (maybe minutes?) with my big brother and sister.

While this was a bit different, we both had the tradition of a big family meal after church and enjoying the company of our loved ones.

So maybe as we continue to learn we realize there is so much more that we don’t know, but we also learn that we’re not so different.