Surprise Visitor

This past weekend our "landlords" were both out of town. We hadn't really thought about it much until the weekend was upon us. We sent a text to Nema because we thought if she wasn't up to much, she might want to come on over for a visit. She left 12 hours later. She hadn't seen the girls since Christmas. Needless to say, she was very excited to see them. We all had a wonderful time playing and enjoying the wonderful weather.

Our Little Valentine

Emily was very excited to prepare for her Valentine's party at school. We looked at different places for the perfect cards. Her only "must" was that she wanted to bring pencils with her cards. She has a lot of fun pretending pencils are magic wands or styluses for her pretend ipad. We finally found Princess cards at the store. At the checkout, the cashier asked Emily what the boys were going to get because surely they wouldn't be getting princess cards. We made it all the way back to the car before Emily asked if we could go back in to get the boys some cards. They ended up with Cars valentines. She wrote her name on all of the cards all by herself. She even stuffed the pencil in most of them. It was fun to see her get so excited about the holiday.

Best Friends

Freddie can recognize her best friend now. Both of them love to hang on each other and give hugs. It is the cutest thing. Freddie will even look at pictures of GHC on the computer and smile. She loves her BFF!

The Landlords

We have officially begun the remodel. We are now out of our house. We've unloaded our two adults, two kids and two dogs on a family of two plus dog. Everything has been going fabulously. We have some really exceptional friends, and realize we are very blessed to have them offer this HUGE favor to us. We're sure the noise went from about a 2 to a 10 overnight for them. Our kids have a lot to say. P&L are always patient enough to listen, play, watch videos and hang out with our kids all of the time. A huge thank you to them!

Bringing in the New Year

We were lucky enough to hang out with our good friends for the New Year's Eve holiday. Emily & Freddie love to play with Tripp. Our first stop of the day was to go play with the elephants at the zoo. Tripp was all over getting up close and personal. Emily was much more timid. That evening we went over to Tripp's house for some food, partying and bath time. It was a happy, happy way to ring in the new year!


Emily would only go near the elephant if we held her.



Tripp was all over it.


These kids are made of sugar.

Christmas Holiday

We had a wonderful Christmas. It was the very first time we did not travel for the Christmas holiday. Emily sang in the Christmas Eve choir. She was definitely excited about Santa coming that evening, but sad to say goodbye to her Elf. We opened presents first thing the next morning. Emily received a bike (Santa) and a dollhouse (us). Freddie received a lego alligator toy, but was much more interested in Emily's dollhouse. Nema and Abuelo came to hang out from San Antonio that day. They were able to help us keep the girls busy playing all day long. We enjoyed our relaxing holiday.




Emily loved her stocking gifts almost as much as her presents under the tree.


Freddie just wanted to drink her milk.


Emily was pretty surprised to see that bike.

We play dollhouse every day now.

Granddaddy and Tuddie gave Freddie some new wheels. She loves it!

Freddie was under the weather for most of the week. She loved being held.

Ballet & Tap Christmas Performance

Emily had a dance recital to end the fall semester. She was very excited to showcase her talents. We watched quite a few tap and ballet dances. She did a great job of smiling and doing the moves. Emily had taken tap and ballet in the spring. We bought her tap shoes at that time. Once she decided to continue doing tap next spring, we asked if her shoes still felt okay. She admitted that her tap shoes were a little snug. Then during one of the wonderful, winter performances, she confessed to our camera recording, "Mommy! It feels much better with the new tap shoes." Parents of the year award caught on video! We were very proud of all her newly developed accomplishments.