Family Friendly Fun in Brisbane

Hi friends! As you know, once you have kids your weekend activities tend to change quite a bit. Gone are the sleep ins and long brunches and in are the early mornings and planning the day around nap times and playground access.

As you might have gathered, Travis and I aren’t really the types to just hang around the house all weekend. We have spent the past two years finding things to do around Brisbane that please both the little one and us.

Today I am partnering with Expedia.com.au to share a few of our favorite spots that are fun for the whole family.

Houston {Three Months}

We no longer have a newborn people! Honestly, it’s a bit bittersweet. I’m sad at how quickly he’s grown, but at the same I feel like the fun stages are just beginning.

Houston is turning into the sweetest, happiest little guy and I seriously melt every time he smiles. For the most part he’s pretty content and calm unless he gets overtired or too hungry. As long as you stay on top of those two things, you don’t hear much from him.

Leighton’s Elmo + Abby Birthday Party

If you would have told me a year ago that I would be having a character themed birthday party, I would have laughed in your face. Buttttt never say never, because when you have kids and they love something it’s too fun to indulge in it with them.

I’m pretty sure most of us know who Elmo is (the lovable monster from Sesame Street), but in case you don’t have a toddler at home Abby is a newer addition to the street. She’s a little purple fairy and Leighton has always had a soft spot for her. In fact, an Abby doll was her gift from Houston at the hospital.

She LOVES her Elmo and Abby stuffed animals and treats them like her own babies. They go for walks in the pram, have breakfast in their high chair and even get baths in her kitchen sink. So when it came time to plan her 2nd birthday, I knew exactly what to do. Although, the word “planning” might be used loosely because when you are in the newborn sleep deprived fog, you don’t really have the brain power to get too creative.

Leighton {Two Years Old}

24 months of this wild haired, sassy, little lady. It’s hard to believe she has only been in our lives for two years, because she is such a big part of our family.

Leighton at two years old is absolutely hilarious. She picks up on EVERYTHING. Seriously, everything. You can’t do or say anything that you don’t want repeated. She has been known the mimic us, inflection and all. People stop me all the time to say how cute she is, but people that are around her for longer than a few minutes always have to comment on her personality and sass.

Weekends in July

Since becoming a family of four, we haven’t been heading out on too many adventures on the weekends. Newborns are a bit unpredictable, so we have been taking it easy staying close to home. Hopefully once we are in the swing of things, Houston will be ready to do some exploring further. I haven’t been keeping up with posting lately, so I figured it was time for a little update on what we have been up to on the weekends.

When I last left off, my brother and sister in law were visiting. The following weekend was one of our favorite festivals, the Teneriffe Festival. Teneriffe is the neighborhood directly across the river, where we lived our first few years (in fact in the first picture that is our old building they are walking by). We loved that neighborhood so much, I actually did a whole post on it a few years ago (here).

Houston {Two Months}

No sooner had I published Houston’s one month update, it was time to write number two (and almost two weeks later I am finally hitting publish). So here we are!

I feel like so much has happened in the past month, but at the same time he’s still such a tiny little guy.

Morgan and Ben take Brisbane

So, I I have been a bit behind (jk really behind) on sharing what has been going on in our lives this past month. I now have a backlog of pictures I want to write about and I’m figuring just how to go about organizing them. When I last posted an update it wasn’t long after my parents left. Well, since then we have had another set of visitors (and more coming in a couple weeks!).

Houston’s Newborn Photos

Hi friends! Both kids are napping and I have a bit of time to share some of my favorite photos from our recent newborn shoot. When I say recent I mean it was almost five weeks ago, which feels like a whole other lifetime. Houston was only three weeks old and I feel like he has already changed so much.

Jana came over to our house the same Sunday that my parents had left to go back to Texas, so it was a bit of a crazy day. Especially since they had been staying in Houston’s room, I had to scramble to turn it back into a nursery. Jana is the same photographer that took our family photos back in November, that also doubled as our pregnancy announcement. I love her style and am so happy with the way they turned out! There were over 100 images, so it was tough to narrow them down, but here are my top 44 :).

 

We started in Houston’s room with just he and I while Travis entertained Leighton downstairs. I was pleasantly surprised how well he stayed asleep, with only one little nursing break.

After a while, Leighton and Trav came in to join us. Leighton wasn’t quite sure about everything at first, but once she warmed up she just wanted to bring us books to read.

Then we moved into our room to finish off the session. By this point Leighton and Houston were both getting a bit hangry and less cooperative, luckily you can’t really tell in the photos.

This is one of my favorites- Jana was trying to get a cute picture of Travis and Houston (which she did), but look what was happening on the other end…

“Yee haw!” as Leighton says.

Saving our family photo for the very end probably wasn’t the best since they are mostly a variation of this one, but that pretty much sums up life with 2 under 2. Hope you enjoyed them!

Houston {One Month}

Things have been a bit quiet over on the blog, but not in our house ☺️. I’m finally getting around to writing Houston’s first monthly update, just a couple weeks late.

I can’t decide if this month has gone by fast or slow. I did accidentally refer to him as my unborn child (like I thought I was still pregnant) the other night, so there’s that.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s a bit about one month old Houston Alkek.

Life Lately: 2 Under 2

Hi friends! As expected things are a bit slow on the blog front right now, but I thought I would pop in to share a bit of life lately.We are a month into having two kids under two. How is that possible?

My parents were in town for the first three weeks of Houston’s life and that was such a blessing. My mom cooked, cleaned and gave Leighton her undivided attention. She is super woman. My dad got to be fun Pops with Leighton, the baby whisperer (seriously Houston would calm down the minute he held him) and even got to squeeze in some golf games across the street.

When they left I was so sad, but it’s nice getting back into the swing of things and figuring out life as a family of four though.

Here are some highlights from their visit…