So Many Blessings!

Sisters

2009-12-04T12:28:00.001-08:00

It's finally happened... my sweet little girls play together... for real. This morning was so wonderful. The two of them played together blissfully with baby dolls for over an hour. There was a lot of Blake saying "Emma, can you bring me that?" or "Emma, can you put that over there?" and Emma saying "Yeah!". They had so much fun taking care of their babies, dressing them, packing stuff up for them and taking them on "trips" from room to room. I was able to hang all of their clothes up in their closets, smiling with contentment the whole time. I always wanted a sister to play with and I love seeing (and hearing) my girls be so sweet and having fun with one another. I hope this new development of really playing together continues.

Q: How was Paris?

2009-12-04T10:34:00.000-08:00

A: Too wonderful to describe! Everyone was so happy for me to get to go on this trip and I really have appreciated all the people taking time to ask me how it was. It's hard to describe how great it was, but trust me living it was awesome. Here are a few more pictures of my fantastic trip to Paris. I can't thank my mom enough for making this trip possible for me. She's the best and we had such a great time together! I'll treasure those memories forever Mom.

This was taken at Angelina's which is famous for their African Hot Chocolate. It's amazing!

Me in front of The Louvre

Notre Dame at night! Mom took me to an early birthday dinner at a restaurant with a view of Notre Dame right outside of the window by our table.

I loved all of the flower shops like this one in Paris!

Galleries Lafayette is a huge department store in Paris. This is the beautiful ceiling (with Christmas decorations already in place).

We went to this cool bar on our last night and we all shared this drink with dry ice in it (very appropriate for the day before Halloween).

J'adore Champagne

2009-10-30T02:46:00.000-07:00

Our trip has been just wonderful and we head back home tomorrow. I can hardly wait to hug my sweet babies, but first I still have one more day of enjoying Paris (and one long flight home). On Monday and Tuesday we rented a car (by the way, our rental car was an Audi so the French know how to do rental cars right) and went with Laura and Dan to the Champagne region of France which is just a couple of hours away from Paris. We learned that the region has over 300 villages full of champagne houses. The area is so beautiful and the villages are as cute as can be. Since I adore champagne, this was the part of the trip that I was most looking forward to and I have to say has been the highlight of my trip. It was as good as I hoped it would be, if not better! We went to Reims, the biggest city in the champagne region, first. We had a lovely lunch and went to the Martel champagne house and sampled four yummy champagnes. The prices weren't bad either so I purchased a few to take home. We also saw a beautiful cathedral in Reims where all of the Kings and Queens of France used to be coronated. After Reims, we drove to the sleepy little village of Ludes where we spent the night at this really nice old house that is now a bed and breakfast. They also produce their own champagne, Ployez-Jacquemart. The next day we went to another bigger city, Epernay, where most of the big, well-known champagne houses are based. We saw Moet and Chandon (which produces Dom Perignon) and many, many more. We went to the tour at Mercier and saw the cave where they make the wine and did a tasting. It is so cool that the whole champagne region has miles and miles of caves underneath where all the champagne is made. They use the caves to let the champagne sit and ferment for a few years and then they go in and add the sugars and yeast. Then they let it sit longer before they go in and turn the bottles (either by hand or by machine) to get the yeasts to go to the neck of the bottle. Then they remove that stuff and bottle it all nice and pretty. So to finish off our fun times in Epernay, we went to a really cool champagne bar where we sat and tried six different champagnes each (it was so cool because our table was filled with 24 little champagne glasses that she came around periodically and filled to the top one by one). We sat there for a couple of hours and headed back to Paris. What an awesome little trip! I can't wait to go back some day! Since then I've seen Notre Dame, been to the Louvre, been to Galeries Lafayette, had more amazing food and so much more that I will blog about when I get home. Until then, here are a few pictures from our champagne trip, including the first meal we had there in Reims, pictures from the Jacquemart bed and breakfast place and me holding the bottle of champagne I got from there, a picture of the awesome views of the village and grapevines in the countryside and a couple of pictures from Epernay (that weird sandwich with the egg on top is called a croque madame and it was really good).

Bonjour de Paris!

2009-10-25T12:08:00.000-07:00

Paris has been wonderful so far. Yesterday when we arrived at Laura and Dan's apartment we were greeted by the sweetest couple (Bruce and Lesa, also from Dallas) who were finishing up their visit and just left today. Laura and Dan were at a cooking class so in their absence Bruce and Lesa gave us the tour, prepared lunch for us (complete with the coolest beer called Ruby) and had the bed ready for us to take a much needed nap. Laura and Dan's apartment is so nice and in a beautiful neighborhood. We felt like we had just arrived at an awesome bed and breakfast or something. The windows are super-cool too and have these fabulous automated black-out shades. After lunch and a nap, Laura and Dan returned and we had some champagne and left for dinner. We had a great meal (I even tried escargot for the first time which was really good) and then we went to see the Eiffel Tower. They are celebrating the 120th anniversary of the tower and they had a special multi-colored light show which was beautiful. What a great start to the trip. So today Mom and I must have been plenty tired and jet-lagged because with those black-out shades in our room we managed to sleep in until 1:00 this afternoon (actually they just had their time change last night so technically we would have slept until 2:00 if you didn't gain that hour). Basically we had 14 hours of sleep which I probably haven't done since college. We still had a lovely day of strolling and shopping and another great French meal. Tomorrow we'll be heading to the Champagne region and staying the night. I'm really looking forward to it!

I posted some pictures that I've taken so far. I plan to make sort of a food photo journal of my meals and what I saw while I ate. So I have included pictures of my first lunch at the apartment and Lesa drinking her Ruby beer sitting across from me. There is also a picture of my first glass of champagne and Laura and Dan sitting in the apartment in front of me. The other food pictures are my three courses at the restaurant last night (escargot, gallet filled with crab and shrimp, chocolate mousse and a marscapone cream with orange). Then my Eiffel Tower pictures are next.

Happy Birthday Emma Grace!

2009-10-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

Today we celebrated my other sweet baby's birthday. Emma Grace is 2 today! Wow, time flies! Emma had a fun day of school, picking up balloons at Party City (she literally got excited each time the man blew up the next balloon, the girl LOVES balloons), then celebrating at home with Ami (Pappa was out of town), Nana, Grandpa and Ra-Ra and Jason. I think she really enjoyed the evening. I know she enjoyed eating the icing off of her cupcake. Blake and I had lots of fun decorating Emma's cupcakes while she was taking her nap today. She also had a great time opening her gifts, stopping after each one to examine it closely. She got a lot of things that play music, she got some Elmo stuff and some books. So many of her favorite things! Emma is such a big girl now and I guess I won't be able to call her baby Emma much longer. She still loves to cuddle though and I'll take advantage of it as long as possible. She is just so sweet! She's really starting to talk more and she's becoming so physical (quite the little climbing monkey). She loves to play outside and go to school. She's getting so smart and she's starting to really love playing with toys (instead of just getting into everything) like Barbies, legos, puzzles and baby dolls. Another important favorite of Emma's now is her big sister, Blake. She loves Blake so much! When Blake's at school, Emma asks about her all day long. When it's time to pick Blake up at school and we turn onto the street the church is on, she starts getting all excited. It's so cute to watch their relationship get stronger. Blake really loves Emma too. She's the most patient and loving big sister. I'm so proud of how they share and show such kindness to each other. It's fitting that their birthdays are so close together. They really do share a special bond and it's been fun watching them get so excited for each other's birthdays over the past few weeks. What a joyful month!

Below I included pictures from tonight as well as pictures from our super-fun combined birthday party for Blake and Emma at the pumpkin patch in Celina. We invited lots of friends and had such a great time! Blake and Emma wore their Halloween costumes (Hannah Montana and a fairy). Everybody really enjoyed feeding the animals as you can see in the pictures. I also included a couple of pictures from our day at the Texas State Fair with Ami and Pappa. Chris even took off work and we went on a Tuesday when it wasn't too crowded. We had a great time! Emma really enjoyed the auto show (she really did, it was kinda weird how much she loved those cars) and Blake enjoyed taking part in the kids backyard circus performance where she played a butterfly ballerina in the show.

Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas May 2009

2009-10-21T21:00:00.001-07:00

Here's a project I put off for quite a while. Our trip to the Bahamas in May was beyond awesome and I just now made the photo book I've been planning to make for a while. The Atlantis is the best and we went here for our honeymoon 10 years ago so going back with our family was really special.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Happy Birthday Blake!

2009-10-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

My baby is 5 today. I can't believe she is such a big girl. I'm just so incredibly proud of the smart, beautiful, fun and kind big kid she is becoming. I truly am just so, so proud of her. I cried a little two times today. First I cried when we were just cuddling on the couch for a little while watching TV during Emma's nap and thinking of how just yesterday she was this tiny little baby I was cuddling and now she's this big girl. Luckily she's still little enough for me to hug on and doesn't mind too much when I want to just grab her hand and hold it for a minute. She's actually more affectionate than she used to be and I think that's because she's already becoming aware of how happy it makes me (and luckily how happy her affection makes the grandparents). The second time I teared up was after we opened a birthday card Blake received in the mail. She was thrilled to find $10 dollars inside and I said, "great you can put it in your spend, save and give jars". It was actually two $5 bills so she excitedly suggested that she take one of the bills to school to put in the little box outside of her classroom for the food pantry at our church and then she could put the other bill in her save jar. I of course was just completely overcome with pride and love. After fighting back tears and giving her the biggest hug I tried explaining to her why I was so proud of her maturity and kindness. I'm not even sure she really knows what that money is used for and I tried to explain it a little, but no matter what, I'm proud of her anyway. We celebrated this special day by having all four grandparents and Aunt Ra-Ra and Jason over for pizza and parfaits (that's fancy for ice cream sundaes as Fancy Nancy would say). We watched old home videos of Blake as she's grown up, which was really fun and cute. We made it right up to the point right before Emma was born and I figured we'll watch the rest on Emma's birthday. Of course there is a lot less video from that point on. Poor Emma won't have 20 minute segments of video of her at 5-months old sitting in a Bumbo chewing on a teething ring. It really is sad to see how much time I had to spend on videotaping Blake and how little I've taped Emma. So anyway I think Blake had a great day. She had fun sharing muffins with her friends at school, getting balloons delivered from Aunt Rachel, getting the main items she wanted on her birthday list and more (most notably she received her American Girl Doll, Kit, that she has asked for for months from Nana and Great-Grandma and Grandpa Davenport). She went to bed tonight after reading her new Fancy Nancy book with Mommy, with Kit by her side, knowing she is so loved and that makes me feel so good (almost as good as I did 5 years ago today with that new little baby in my arms). Thank you to Ami, Pappa, Nana, Grandpa, Ra-Ra and Jason and everybody else who had nice wishes for Blake on her birthday and made this day so special for her.

Blake enjoying her Fancy Nancy parfait with chocolate ice cream, hot fudge and M&Ms.

I think Emma enjoyed the parfaits too.

Blake with Pappa and a borrowed Kit on a recent trip to the American Girl Store and Bistro. Pappa even sat with a doll which was really fun for the girls. What a good sport he is!

This is Blake admiring her make-up that she had done when she was a flower girl in Aunt Ra-Ra's wedding in September. I love how you see in her eyes how she feels transformed. She really felt like a princess that day. She even had her hair done after the make-up too.

The Coleman Girls Take on Preschool (and Gymnastics)

2009-09-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

This was the first week of school in the Coleman house and what a big week it was! I'm getting a glimpse of all that chauffeuring Mom stuff you always hear about now that Blake is going to school FOUR days a week and she has started gymnastics lessons once a week for an hour. It is a big change for us because she has only done two days in the past. She seemed to like it and went back to school with the same enthusiasm she usually does. I am so proud of what a great student she is and how much she is already excelling at for her age (I think she's taking after Daddy in the scholar department... good for her). I also admire her confidence and her ability to make friends. To continue my proud Mommy moment I must now inform you that Emma is following in her sister's footsteps. She had her very first day of preschool today and walked straight into a classroom of crying babies like she owned the place. She walked right past them, looking at them like "hey, what's the big deal?" and sat right down and started playing. She should feel like she owns the place since we're there CONSTANTLY. I feel like we spend a lot of time walking in and out of St. Andrew UMC. Emma is already very comfortable with all of the nursery staff from her time there during church and Mom to Mom, but now she's also quite used to dropping off and picking up big sister for school. Last year and the year before she was so little I usually carried her in to take Blake and pick her up, but now it's another story. She likes to casually stroll down the hallways waving and saying "hi" to random strangers, then she stops and says "baby" at every single stroller and car seat she sees, then she stops at the water fountain and asks for (demands) help getting a drink and then we can finally make it to Blake's classroom (and on then on Thursdays we can go on to her room). The whole process of getting in and out of there seems like it takes a million years. It is all very cute though and Emma now has many fans. She knows how to get noticed. I'll give her that. Luckily, Chris is taking Blake for me on Mondays and Wednesdays. Not to make any of this sound like some kind of hardship. I am so happy to have the chance to take Blake and pick her up and spend this time with Emma. It is one of the many perks of being a stay-at-home Mom that I appreciate greatly and don't want to take for granted (I'm sure looking back on spending 10 minutes a day with Emma at the water fountain and then carrying her out screaming will seem a lot sweeter when I look back on it). So here are our pictures of our fantastic firsts.

Family Reunion 2009

2009-08-26T20:48:00.001-07:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

I have really neglected my blogging this summer, but here are some pictures from our family reunion we went to in Arkansas in the form of a Shutterfly photobook I created. By the way, Grandma and Grandpa, I ordered this book for you as an anniversary gift. I hope to get it to you as soon as possible (I guess this is a little preview). We did in fact plan this reunion as a celebration for my grandparent's 50th anniversary. We went in early August to the Mulberry Mountain Lodge in Ozark, Arkansas. We had 16 of us all in the lodge together and it was great!!! It was so beautiful and we really enjoyed spending time together. I'm pretty sure Grandma and Grandpa really loved it too. Grandpa kept saying he really wanted to stay.

Celebrating 10 Wonderful Years Together!

2009-06-26T11:13:00.000-07:00

I have so much blogging to catch up with... Mother's Day, Bahamas, birthdays, Father's Day, summer activities... hopefully I'll be able to catch up at some point. For now though, I want to take a quick moment to recognize this special day, the ten year anniversary of my marriage to my soul mate and the love of my life. Chris and I were married ten years ago today in Irving, Texas at 2:30 in the afternoon in an absolutely beautiful ceremony surrounded by all of our family and friends (what great memories!). It's interesting to think about how our friends and family have changed in these ten years. So many new friends and a couple of pretty special additions to the family as well (Blake seems to think its kinda funny to imagine that she wasn't around yet when our wedding took place. I can see now why couples renew their vows when their kids are old enough to be there and witness it. She would have loved being there at our wedding.) What a wonderful ten years it has been. Thank you to Chris for making my life so happy and thank you to God for blessing me with this man and this marriage. I'm looking forward to celebrating tonight at the Gaylord Texan and getting to sleep in tomorrow (what a treat)!

Four Generations at the Arboretum

2009-04-10T21:58:00.000-07:00

Wednesday we went to The Arboretum with Mom and Grandma. It was beautiful as always and the weather was perfect. We enjoyed lunch and a fabulous afternoon.

Blake's shot at photography... not too bad

Classic Emma "bitter beer face"

Having Fun With My Girls

2009-04-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

As much as I would still love to have a little boy, I really do enjoy doing girly activities with my daughters. I can only imagine and hope that this will get even better as they get older. One of these "girly" activities is an outing to the American Girl Store and Bistro at The Galleria. We've been several times over the past couple of years. Blake doesn't have an American Girl doll yet, but she does have a Bitty Baby from there and on this visit she started showing a real interest in the dolls from the different time periods. She said she wants Elizabeth for her birthday. We had a snack and dessert in the little bistro and it was Emma's first time to get to sit with a doll. They have dolls to borrow that sit at the table in a little highchair. Emma had so much fun with her Bitty Baby she sat with. Blake sat with Elizabeth and really enjoyed the ice cream sundae we ordered. I'm not even a big doll fan, but I love going to this store for some reason.

Emma feeding her baby

Blake and Elizabeth, who represents the year 1775 (we think she kinda looks like Blake)

Emma's first trip to American Girl when she was about a month old. She's growing up so fast (so is her big sister!)

Congratulations Rhandi!!!

2009-04-10T20:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've blogged and I've neglected to post about my very best friend Rhandi's engagement. Her fiance Jason proposed about a month ago and they are getting married on September 5th. I'm so excited for Rhandi and I'm having so much fun helping her plan the wedding. I'm matron of honor and the girls will be flower girls. Chris is in the wedding too and we all couldn't be more excited for Aunt Ra-Ra. Rhandi is more like a sister than a friend and she's always there to support me. I'm happy to have this chance to be there for her and celebrate this special time in her life. We took the happy couple to Roy's a couple of weeks ago to celebrate their engagement. Roy's is so awesome and they really know how to make a special occasion even more special. We enjoyed it as always!!!

The Eyes in the Back of My Head

2009-01-29T10:08:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to realize just how real the whole "eyes in the back of the head" saying is for moms. I have them now. I hadn't even noticed until recently, but now that Blake is into a new phase of dishonesty, my magical mom powers are really kicking in. From what I've read and heard, this whole lying thing is completely common and normal for 4-year-olds, but it sure is annoying. It's usually little things and sometimes it's things that I don't even understand at all why she would lie about it (like "I washed my hands" when she didn't or "I put my shoes where you asked me to" when she didn't). Sometimes it's things that really get to me like her obviously suspicious response of "nothing" when I ask what she's doing in another room. Then there's the downright make me mad times like when she's obviously wearing my lipstick or my perfume without asking for help and permission and says "I wasn't doing anything, I'm being honest". When she has a dishonest moment I say stuff like "It's important to be honest", "Remember God is always watching what we do and He wants us to be honest" and when she asks me how I know what she's up to I say, "I'm a Mommy and I always know". It's so funny though because every time she asks me how I know, I say "I just do" and it makes me think about the old saying of moms having eyes in the back of their head and how true it is. Thanks God for the extra set of "Mom" eyes. Now can you just help me figure out what to do and how to respond when I see the less than ideal behavior occurring? Any advice from other moms is also welcome.

My Lovely Grocery Hair-Do

2009-01-26T11:26:00.000-08:00

I just discovered I went grocery shopping with one of Blake's little yellow hairclips stuck in a random tangled-up section of hair in the back of my head. I had no idea and I had completely forgotten that Blake was "fixing" my hair earlier. I took off the headband she put on, but I couldn't see the clip way back there. I really don't care what anybody at Kroger thinks of my hair and I looked pretty crappy anyway. However, I think if I'm out somewhere and I see a woman with something really obviously, odd going on with her hair and she's with a little girl who looks like she'd be into giving mommy fancy hairstyles, I think I'm going to say something to her because it would be pretty annoying to find that in your hair after a long day of running errands and stuff. I've found stickers stuck to me in some pretty funny places too. I think I need to start checking myself out a little more closely before I leave the house.

15 Months!

2009-01-23T20:54:00.000-08:00

Emma Grace is now 15 months old as of yesterday. She weighs 23 pounds and 2 ounces (just above 50th percentile) and she's 33 inches tall (above 97th percentile). When I told Chris her measurements yesterday he said "yep, I make tall babies". She's walking, saying "Uh-oh", "Hi", "Doggie" (which sounds like Da-Da), "Baby" (which sounds like Da-Da), Da-Da and Ma-Ma. Her hair is long enough to put in little pig-tails and she's still super-blonde. She still loves to cuddle and she's so stinkin cute I can barely stand it. I love this age. We've watched some video of Blake at this age recently and it just melted me. When they first start walking and talking it's just adorable. I wish I could just bottle a little of this cuteness, but since I can't, I'm trying to soak it in as much as I can.

Since I wasn't blogging back when Blake was this age I thought I'd include her picture and measurements from when she was this age. I'm one lucky Mommy to have two such wonderful girls!

At 15 months Blake was 24 pounds and 2 ounces and 32 and 1/4 inches tall. I remember her saying "Uh-oh" a lot too, but I think she was also saying quite a few other words by this point. She was completely adorable too of course. She wasn't quite as affectionate, but she was just as friendly to strangers and being our first child I know we thought everything she did was genius.

By the way I realize 15 months isn't exactly some huge milestone, but it happens to be a moment in time I'm making an effort to record since I haven't been very good about doing it. Hey, I think you take your opportunities when they present themselves.

Here's a recent picture of Blake on Christmas day showing off her Belle dress from Santa. I think this shows just how far (in what seems like such little time) we've come from 15 months old and where Emma may be in just three short years. Oh my, how much princess stuff will be in our house at that point?!

I Love Lucy

2009-01-22T10:17:00.000-08:00

I feel like expressing my love of this timeless show. I Love Lucy has to be one of the very best shows ever created. I remember watching reruns of I Love Lucy when I was a kid and now I'm sharing them with Blake. I've been recording them to DVR lately and she's been watching them with me. She may be a little young to really appreciate the show like I do, but she can already appreciate how silly Lucy can be, what good friends she and Ethel are, how cute Lucy and Ricky are together sometimes, all the great song and dance numbers on the show and the many adventures and ridiculous scenarios that the foursome get themselves into. The first few times we watched it together she had a hard time getting past the show being in black and white. That seemed pretty strange to her. Now I think she's getting that they're actual real people who were in the show and it was just a long time ago. She notices all of Lucy's great clothes, she loves the episodes with Little Ricky (and she told me the other day that when she grows up and has a little boy she's going to name him "Little Chris") and she loves when Lucy manages to find a way to dance and sing in Ricky's shows. I love all the same things and so much more about that show. It makes me feel good to watch it. I like thinking about living in that time period and in New York City. I like thinking about the days when nightclubs were like the one Ricky worked in where people got all dressed up and had dinner, danced and watched a show. I like thinking about being a part of the entertainment world back then. And I like Lucy's spirit. She may come up with some crazy plans (that are often disastrous), but she's always so bold and adventurous and fun. Not only that, but she's a pretty impressive housewife at the same time. I'm sure I could go on. I'm just thankful that this show exists and that Lucille Ball and the rest of the people who made this show were the geniuses that they were and they were able to share it with countless people for generations to come.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-23T21:30:00.000-08:00

Today Blake and I had lots of fun decorating Christmas cookies for Santa. It was a little stressful working on them when Emma was awake and doing her best to get into everything (by the way, Emma is 14 months old now and walking everywhere), but it was much easier after she went to bed. We are really excited for Christmas Eve tomorrow. Chris is off work for the next week and a half and we are really looking forward to all the fun and festivities ahead. Merry Christmas!!!

My Little Songbird

2008-12-23T21:15:00.001-08:00

Blake loves to sing and does so all the time. She's even a very creative songwriter. I've never been particularly musical and always wished I was, so I should really be encouraging this passion of hers. She seems to be very good at memorizing lyrics and she certainly has a knack for projecting her voice so she's off to a good start. I'm still not so sure about whether or not she has a good voice, but that may be a little difficult to detect in a 4-year-old. Well whether or not a career as a singer is in her future, she has managed to be the star of the show in both of her preschool music performances the past two years. Last year, she cracked us up as the only voice that could be heard among the 2-year-olds at the spring concert and this year it was a repeat performance at the Christmas concert with the 3s, 4s and pre-K kids. She just gives it her all. Her teacher told me when I picked her up from school that day that I needed to get her in singing lessons as soon as possible because she carried the show. Since then several parents have told me that they enjoyed her "solo" at the concert. So we're very proud of Blake for her enthusiasm for singing and performing! Good job sweetie!!!

Poor Babies

2008-12-23T20:56:00.000-08:00

Both the girls have been sick with an illness that started as a stomach bug and then turned into a ridiculous runny nose and coughing. It was Emma's first time to throw up last week and she was so sweet and cuddly and we felt so bad for her. Blake didn't get sick until a couple of days later and now they are both just covered in snot all day and are coughing up a storm. I can't stand to see my kids cough. I really can't stand hearing them coughing in the middle of the night. It's torture! How awful to be sick at Christmas too. It could be worse though so I'm just hoping we don't get it and they don't get worse.

Last weekend at a restaurant we noticed a crying baby and Blake said "That baby is really poor". I asked her if she meant like when someone says "poor baby" and she of course said, "yeah, that baby is really poor look how hard she's crying". So I thought that was really funny and tried to explain to her that "poor baby" was a figure of speech and saying it the other way meant something different. I'm not sure it sunk in though because since she's been coughing today I've said "poor baby" a couple of times and once she said "yeah, I really am poor today". I could see where she might be confused. The English language is full of some pretty funny expressions and kids just make them even funnier.

The Nutcracker and "Fancy Brunch"

2008-12-18T17:49:00.000-08:00

My little ballerina Blake and I had the special joy this year of going to a performance of The Nutcracker with her Nana and her Ami. She's so lucky to have both grandmothers living so close by to do fun stuff like this whenever we want. I took ballet classes throughout elementary school and was in drill team in high school so I was just as excited to go to the performance as she was if not more. The Nutcracker is always a great ballet, but this performance was really, really great. It was the Texas Ballet Theater performing at Bass Hall in Fort Worth. It was magical and beautiful and we all had such a good time! One of my favorite parts of the whole thing was seeing all of the little girls dressed up for the occasion. Apparently I wasn't the only mom who had the idea that her 4-year-old was at about the right age to enjoy getting all fancy and going to the ballet at Christmastime. There were tons of little girls there and they all looked adorable. Blake really enjoyed wearing her fancy new clothes. I wrapped up a new dress, tights, gloves and coat for her with some nutcracker and ballet Christmas ornaments attached to the ribbon and put the packages out in front of her room for her to see and unwrap first thing when she got up that morning (she's really into getting herself all dressed from head-to-toe first thing when she wakes up in the morning right now, but that's another post entirely). We also went to brunch that day in Fort Worth at a place called Bistro Louise which was really great. We were celebrating Karen's birthday that day too so Chris, Emma and Danny joined us for brunch before the rest of us went on to the ballet. Even though the brunch place wasn't all that super fancy, Blake is pretty much convinced that brunch is a very fancy event because we were all dressed up for the ballet and just for the heck of making it a special day. Even Emma was pretty fancy in her dress and faux fur wrap that was one of my favorite hand-me-downs from Blake. So now many of Blake's pretend play scenarios include her and her imaginary prince or her and her imaginary kids or whatever the case may be getting dressed up to go to brunch. It cracks me up every time. What a special day! I hope we can make it a tradition and Emma can join us when she's old enough.

All Caught Up

2008-12-07T20:25:00.000-08:00

Our Thanksgiving was really wonderful this year. We spent a couple of days out at Danny and Karen's house in Keller with Rachel (who was in from New York) and Uncle Randy and Aunt Anita (who we rarely get to see and were visiting from Kansas). It was so nice to spend our first holiday out in the new (finally finished) house! We feel like we were truly able to appreciate all the great things about the house. I love that it's on enough land that you really can't see any neighbors, I love the outdoor fireplace, I love all the trees in the fall and I love that even though the house has been redone you can still feel that it's old. We can't wait to spend Christmas out there too and it will be nice to have my mom there since she went to Austin on Thanksgiving (we missed you). Highlights of the holiday were: the girls wearing their matching monogrammed dresses I recently bought them at the Junior League of Plano Christmas market (and Emma wearing the super-cute diaper cover with the "E" on it); Blake making the place cards for everybody (with a little help on the spelling), decorating the table with leaves and using her hand to make a turkey decoration on the crust of the cherry pie (with Ami's help); my thirty minutes of quality time laying on the hammock with Blake cuddling and talking and enjoying the beautiful outdoors; eating and eating and eating some more; the Cowboys winning; knowing ahead of time that the Aggies were going to lose so it didn't really bother me when they did; Blake sleeping in a tent in Ami and Pappa's room; visiting with the Ficklins the day after Thanksgiving; shopping at Southlake Town Center the day after Thanksgiving with Karen and Rachel; eating at Uncle Julio's that night and all the grown-ups sitting in front of the fireplace on the porch that night visiting, having some drinks and listening to Christmas music. Lots of fun!!!

Catching Up

2008-12-03T20:43:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a month and I have a lot of catching up to do. Here we go...

Revisiting Halloween

Oh how we celebrated Halloween this year... many, many times and many, many places! Here are some highlights.

First up, we have Fall Fair at church

Next we have Trunk or Treat at church sponsored by my Mom's group. I love the picture of Blake with the smaller little girls (Claire and Sadie) who thought she was so beautiful as a ballerina princess.

Here is Blake admiring herself in the mirror the first time she got all dressed up in her costume with the make-up and everything. She had so much fun with it, but we created a monster over that week of her getting into costume so many times. She is now more obsessed than ever with wearing a dress every day and asking me constantly if she can wear my make-up.

Blake's school party (it was also pajama day)

These are from Boo at the Zoo at the Ft. Worth Zoo. We went with Ami and Pappa and had lots of fun. The pumpkin carvings of the animals are so cool.

Finally, actual Halloween day. Blake enjoyed passing out candy more than anything else and as you can see from the picture of her holding her nose, she didn't enjoy the smell of the pumpkin being carved. We think Emma enjoyed Halloween, but mostly I think she just wondered why we kept dressing her up like a dog all week.

Even Paris had a costume. Here she is as a princess.

So that's that. Whew!

So then came my 31st birthday November 9th and our trip to Las Vegas. It was AWESOME!!! I love Vegas every time. We stayed at The Venetian the first night and it was so nice. We stayed at Planet Hollywood the next two nights and it was okay too, but no Venetian. I did have a pretty great time there in The Pleasure Pit (a group of blackjack tables where the dealers are all girls in lingerie). They may be catering to men at those tables, but I sure did get lucky there. Chris was pretty lucky on our trip too and won us some tickets to see the show "Stomp Out Loud" which was really great. What a fun trip and as always I can't wait to go back (Jeremy and Tammine we need our Vegas buddies next time so be prepared).

My birthday celebration before we left for Vegas. Blake picked out the cake, candles and my hat. I may be 31, but with a 4-year-old around I can still celebrate like a kid.

Me enjoying our room at the Venetian. All the rooms there are suites and they have a really cool living room area. Plus, all the rooms have 3 tvs (including one in the beautiful bathroom) and remote controlled window shades. Awesome!!!

A couple of cute pics of Emma bundled up for the first really cold day of the season (she loves her soft jacket) and waking up from a nap. What a cutie!!!

That's about all the catching up I can do for now. I'll save Thanksgiving for tomorrow. I'm ready to move on to Christmas... my favorite time of the year and such a fun time to have little kids.

Number 1 and Number 2

2008-11-03T07:40:00.000-08:00

I'm so proud of Emma this morning. She went number 2 on the potty this morning for the first time and Saturday she peed on the potty for the first time. I started putting her on the potty every once in while last week and it only took 4 times before we had a successful event to cheer about. I sorta think it makes since to at least introduce babies to early potty training when the right moments come along. I started Blake at about 10 months and Emma last week at 12 months. I certainly don't worry about consistency, but if I notice a dry diaper after nap time or I see her looking like she's trying to poop and I have an opportunity to get her to the potty I'm going to take it. I also like to put her on there before bath time. So hooray for Emma! We had a great time cheering her on and Mommy, Daddy and Blake are very proud of her! It's pretty silly how exhilarating and exciting this stuff can be for a Mom. Who knew somebody peeing and pooping on a potty could make my day? Motherhood cracks me up sometimes.

A Beautiful Autumn Day at the Arboretum

2008-10-28T10:51:00.000-07:00

The girls and I went to the pumpkin patch and Halloween activities at the Dallas Arboretum yesterday with our friends Katherine and Ethan. We had a wonderful time on a chilly fall day. Blake and I seem to disagree on how wonderful the cool autumn days are. Every time I say "Oh, I love it when it gets cool. Isn't fall great?" she says "No I think I like summer". I may be crazy, but I love the cooler weather. The girls had a great time and even put their costumes on at the end (I'll post pictures of them in their costumes later). Blake couldn't wait to get her face painted. She loved her princess face paint and kept asking me the rest of the day if it was still on.

Emma liked trying to stack her "baby" pumpkin we found for her.

The other pictures are of the girls yesterday morning sitting on the couch watching TV together. I just thought it was so cute how they were cuddling under the blanket together. I'm so happy to watch these sweet little sister moments.

Happy 1st Birthday Emma!

2008-10-22T20:04:00.000-07:00

Today my baby turned 1. Sweet, happy Emma has brought so much joy to our family this year and so much more love to my life. What they say about mothers having plenty of love to go around for their children is so true. Emma just is love. She's so kissable, huggable, happy and sweet she makes everyone (even strangers) fall in love with her. I can't imagine our lives without her and I can't help but try and imagine what it will be like when she gets a little older and starts talking and really showing her own unique personality even more. Today she wore her Baby's 1st birthday onesie and socks with her pink tutu and birthday crown. We celebrated with lunch with Ami and Nana and dinner with Nana again at Benihana's. Emma (and Blake) seemed to enjoy the food preparation and Emma really enjoyed the food. Emma also rode for the first time in the car with her seat forward which seemed to really surprise her and she has had her first cups of regular milk. What a big day and fabulous way to end one wonderful year and start another. We will also be having a small party on Sunday for some more family to help us celebrate. At age one Emma is able to: crawl, cruise and stand on her own for a about a minute; she says dada, mama, hi (sort of) and her favorite sound to make right now is blah-blah-blah; she can clap, wave and sort of blow kisses; she lights up for her sister; she sleeps like a champ; she loves any food we give her and eats a lot; she gets startled easily and is scared to death of Tickle Me Elmo; she loves her blankie, baby dolls, music and opening and closing drawers and cabinets; she loves to hang upside down; she loves to pull all of her hairbows out and she puts everything in her mouth; and at age one Emma melts my heart and brings a smile to my face about a million times a day. Oh Emma, Mommy loves you so so much!!!

Deja-vu? and a Kiss Too

2008-10-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

The pictures of the girls in the dress made me think of a couple of other pictures I've taken recently of the girls doing similar things at similar ages. I'm hoping to do my best about not making comparisons of Blake and Emma as they grow up so I won't make these photo comparisons a regular occurrence. However, it is kinda fun to take pictures of the second one doing things the first one did. I liked Aubrey's photos of Joshua and Andrew each eating an Oreo on a recent blog post. These two pictures of Blake were some of my favorites so I had to get Emma in similar poses. The last picture is Emma blowing a kiss. She just started doing it last week. It's so cute! She puts her hand to her mouth, but then she just leaves it there kinda blowing behind her hand. She hasn't quite gotten the blowing the kiss away part down. She's so sweet about kisses though. She goes around giving sweet little half-open-mouthed kisses to all the stuffed animals and dolls around the house all the time. She's also pretty willing to give out kisses to Mommy and other family members too. What a sweetie!

Emma's picture is first and Blake's is second in the towel and in the Aggie cheerleading outfit in the stroller. The picture of Blake in the doggie towel has to be one of my favorite pictures I have ever taken of her.

Great-great-grandmother's Dress

2008-10-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

I finally took some pictures of Emma in this dress that was made by the girl's Great-great-grandmother. My Mother-in-law wore it when she was a baby too. I just think that is so cool and the dress is really beautiful. We took pictures of Blake in the dress when she was about Emma's age or a month or so younger. As you can tell Blake liked the whole photography session a little better than Emma. Poor Emma just did not want to be barefoot in the grass or dirt and certainly didn't want to touch the tree. I'm thinking she's not going to be the outdoorsy type. She really just hasn't been cooperating when it comes to picture-taking much at all lately, but I'm hoping she'll come back around soon. I felt kinda bad torturing her for these pictures, but I really wanted to continue the tradition. The first picture is of Blake and the other three are Emma (in case it isn't obvious).

Happy Birthday to Blake!

2008-10-06T22:05:00.000-07:00

My first sweet, precious baby girl is really growing up. Sometimes I just cannot believe it was 4 years ago that I gave birth to my amazing Blake. Wow, how my world has changed since then. We've been on quite a journey, Blake and I. I can't imagine a more wonderful child to help me learn how to be a mother. Emma and I are still developing our bond and I'm sure it will be incredible and strong in its own ways, but I think there might be something special about the bond a mother develops with her first child. Not to say I'm playing favorites in any way (believe me I can and will gush about sweet Emma too on another occasion), but Blake has been like my introduction to parenting in every new stage and every new discovery. She's been the one through which I've discovered what it means to love a child and be in constant awe of her and God's power to create such individuality, personality, curiosity, brilliance and beauty. I'm always thankful that God chose me to be Blake's mother and I consider it such an honor, privilege and blessing. I just pray often for the guidance to do my best at it. Through these past four years Blake has grown up so much and developed so much personality. Some of the personality traits that have really shown through over this last year are Blake's intelligence and desire for and love of learning (I think that's some of Daddy shining through there), her loyalty and nurturing for her baby sister, her stubbornness (maybe she gets that from Aunt Rachel), her girlyness (a love of ballet, dressing up, make-up and anything pink come to mind) and a love of the arts (she loves to color, paint, craft, sing, dance and listen to music). I can't wait to find out what we have in store for us this year and in the years ahead for Blake, but at the same time my heart breaks to think of a time when she won't be so eager to sit with me, talk with me and be with me. These past four years Blake has pretty much been a "mommy's girl" and sometimes I find it hard to appreciate her wanting me for this or that, but I know a time will come when that won't be the case so I will keep trying to appreciate and enjoy this moment of motherhood as much as I possibly can. Try as I might to make every moment count I know I will still be one of those mothers who talks about how fast it all went and tells new moms to "enjoy it now". I will be a mess when my kids grow up and leave me. But hey, she's only four so maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Tomorrow she'll still wake up and need me to make lunch for school and run to me and give me a great big hug when I pick her up. And I'm going to enjoy that 4-year-old hug so much. Thank you Blake for the most wonderful four years any mother could ask for. I love you more than I could ever put into words.

My how she's grown! Blake on her past 3 birthdays and this year:

Procrastinating

2008-09-24T21:21:00.000-07:00

This blogging stuff can really keep you busy. You know, becoming everyone's follower and finding cool ways on other peoples sites that I can change my own. I can spend hours doing this stuff and avoid doing the things I really need to be doing like laundry. How can I love clothes so much and hate laundry so much? It's my nemesis!

Here's a sweet picture of Emma and Chris. I love that she's such a Daddy's girl. Somehow it makes me feel really good for him (although I have to admit I do feel a little like "hey what am I chopped liver, I'm only the one you spend like 99% of your time with"). But, seriously it really is sweet.

The New School Year

2008-09-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

Blake has been back in school for two weeks now and she's loving it again. This is her third year at the Children's Weekday Program (CWP) at our church. She goes to school two days a week just like last year. I've really been enjoying her enthusiasm when she's describing her day. She loves school and I love having a little one on one time with Emma (and a few moments during that time by myself when she's napping), so everyone wins when the school year begins. On a funny note: she calls her class the "4-year-old class" and for a while there this summer she was convinced her birthday was magically going to coincide with the first day of school. I was finally able to help her understand that she's actually in the 3-year-old class and she just happens to have a birthday that comes early in the school year (only three weeks to go before the big 4 birthday she's been looking forward to for so long now).

Here are some pics of her on the first day and little sister striking a pose in her apple dress in honor of the first day of school (Blake had some apples on her dress too and I seem to be getting more and more into the whole "twinning" thing or at least coordinating).

Summer Recap

2008-09-02T14:48:00.000-07:00

Since I was such a terrible blogger this summer I decided to do one big post to recap our summer (sorry to overload with so much at once). I did already post a few of our activities over the past few months, but the photos below pretty much cover everything else. I also thought it was time to give my blog a new look for the new season (even though its not really fall yet I'm eager to start enjoying my favorite season). It still might change, but this is what I settled on for now. I'm going to try to get back to my goal of posting at least once a week now that the summer is over.

These pictures include a trip to the American Girl store and cafe with our friends Elizabeth, Caroline and new baby Ike. This is Blake and Caroline enjoying ice cream sundaes with one of the loaner dolls the restaurant gives the girls to eat with. The next photos are of a party at our friends Amy and Jon's house. Amy and I have known each other since junior high and the photos show Emma along with Amy's daughter and the daughters of two other friends from junior high and high school, Lyndsay and Erin. How funny is it that the four of us all have little girls so close in age!? The last one in this group is of Blake at her first day of ballet class this summer.

The next photos are of Emma at Gymboree where she and I participated in a baby class once a week while Blake took an art class. Then you see Emma and Blake playing with their cousin Rylie at her house in Houston while we stayed there for a week with Rylie's parents Justin and Kathy. We had a great time! After Houston we went on to Galveston and these other pictures show the girls on the beach playing and in Emma's case taking a little nap on Mommy.

The girls had so much fun on their first trip to Build-a-bear for Barrett's 3rd birthday this summer. Blake made "Princess Panda" and had fun playing with friends while Emma watched patiently wondering when she's gonna get do all this big kid stuff. The other pictures here are of Blake with her cousin Robert and Great-Uncle Grady on a swan boat at Fair Park and Emma with Great-Aunt Tracy. The other picture is of Robert and Blake milking a fake cow at the Science Place museum in the children's area. By the way, what an awesome museum for kids! I can't wait to go back with Chris. I hadn't been in such a long time and they've changed a lot.

In these photos a dragon is trying to sneak into the castle of the beautiful Princess Blake and her loyal servants Daddy and Emma. The feared dragon Paris is pretty successful as you can see she has breeched the walls with her giant fire breathing head. I think next time Daddy and Blake are going to have to build a stronger fort. Blake loves to make the fort about keeping Paris out. The other photos are of the wonderful trip Chris and I took to Palm Springs, California in August. You may be wondering why the first couple of photos don't look like a desert with Palm trees. It's because those were taken in the super-cool town of Idylwild about an hour up in the mountains. The last photo is what we saw the rest of the time we were there. It was beautiful and so relaxing. It was AWESOME!!!

Blake did a lot of swimming this summer. By the end of the summer she is now swimming on her own without any floaties. She even swims with her face down in the water. We're really proud of her progress and she's so proud of herself. I guess those two sessions of swim lessons this summer really helped. Emma's big accomplishments of the summer were certainly growing, crawling, standing and learning something new every day. Here are some pictures of her standing, playing and just plain being cute.

If you made it through all of that, WOW, you must really love us so thank you! We had a great summer and I am glad to have finally had a chance to share it with everybody.

Emma's on the Move

2008-08-12T09:25:00.000-07:00

Emma started crawling and pulling up this week. She's 9 and a half months old now and still as sweet as ever. This week she has just exploded with activity. After scooting around backwards for a few weeks she finally got up on all fours and started crawling forward Thursday and Friday a little. Then over the weekend she started exploring the house and pulling up to her knees. She even managed to pull up to standing already once at the fireplace. Of course, Mommy and Daddy (and Blake) are now constantly trying to keep her from hurting herself and keep her from putting all of Blakes toys, markers and crayons in her mouth. This may be quite a challenge. It's been really fun watching her though. She's just so cute and it's always amazing to see how quickly they learn new things.

I've been such a bad blogger lately. I haven't posted in forever and I have so many fun summer memories to write about. I'll have to do one big post to recap the summer. For now though I'll just put up these couple of pictures of the girls with my grandparents. We are in Lawton, Oklahoma (my birthplace and home for my first 12 years) visiting them while Chris is at a conference in LA. We arrived Sunday and will head home Wednesday. Grandma will come back with us. She and my mom will watch the girls part of the time Chris and I are on vacation. My dad and mother-in-law will watch them too. Speaking of vacation...could I be more excited and ready!? I leave Friday morning to go to Palm Springs and Chris will meet me there. Oh how eager I am to sleep, relax and have fun doing grown up things for a few days. In these pictures Emma is with Grandpa standing at the table (her favorite thing to do these days, but she still needs a spotter). Grandpa is her new favorite man. She's loving being with him. You know she's quite the Daddy's girl and now I guess she's Great-Grandpa's girl too. In the other picture Blake is making gingerbread with Grandma. She cracked the eggs and stirred and helped serve the cake when it was ready. Grandma had a few of her friends come over for tea and gingerbread to visit and meet the girls. We're having a great time being here. My grandparents are just the best!

The Silver Lining of a 3-year-old Throwing Up in the Middle of the Night

2008-07-23T19:30:00.000-07:00

This week Blake has had a runny nose, cough and earache (which the doctor said is not an ear infection) so we've had some sleeping problems the past few nights. It doesn't help that she's getting back to normal after spending last week out of town in Houston and Galveston. So last night she woke up coughing and calling for Mommy, but Chris went in to see if she was okay. That wasn't going to do because it had to be Mommy so I went in and gave her some water. She seemed fine, but about 10 minutes later I heard her again and went in and she had thrown up from the coughing and drainage. Dealing with throw-up in the middle of the night is so not fun, but I wearily changed the p.j.s, wiped her up as well as I could and started changing the sheets. Blake obviously knew I was frustrated after several nights in a row of waking up with both her and Emma (who's teething finally-the two front bottom teeth are well on their way) so while I was doing the sheets she says "I can help you Mommy" to which I said "the best way you can help Mommy is to let me sleep the rest of the night... pleeease". She said "okay, I will". So she crawled in to bed and I leaned in to give her a quick kiss and she put her arm around my neck and hugged me really tight. It sort of surprised me awake a little more because it was so sincere and I could really feel how much she appreciated me. I went back to bed really happy to be a mom instead of annoyed that I had been woken up to deal with 3-year-old throw-up. Thank you God for the silver lining.

4th-ing with the Starrs

2008-07-07T21:54:00.000-07:00

Why does that sound dirty somehow? So much for trying to be clever with my titles.

We had a wonderful 4th of July over at the Starr's house this year. They've had a party every year for the past 6 years and we were finally in town and able to attend. I'm so glad we did. We had a great time! It was so fun to hang out with the Bolstads, the Henlines, the Hendersons (inluding Blake's new boyfriend, Zachary, their 7-year-old son) and the Sutherlands. Cody and Jessica are always such great hosts and our family loves hanging out at their wonderful home!!! Throughout the rest of the weekend the girls were able to spend time with all of their grandparents. Saturday we continued our holiday weekend celebration with a day of grilling and swimming at Ami and Pappa's (Chris's parents) new house in Keller. They're moved in!!! The house is looking so great. It's been a long time coming, but I think it is going to be so well worth it. We love being there already and I know it will be even better now with the main house finished and all of their stuff back from storage. It was so great to see everything. Nana (Heather's mom) joined us for the day too and we all had such a good time. It was so nice all day to think it was only Saturday even though it felt like Sunday. It was such a gorgeous day with a beautiful blue sky so it was really nice to be out at their house. It's such a great place to enjoy the outdoors. Plus, the pool is a great way to beat the heat. Sunday the girls enjoyed playing with Grandpa (Heather's dad) while Mommy and Daddy dealt with the broken refrigerator and freezer and getting it repaired. With the slight exception of that last part I have to say what a great weekend!!! We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and most importantly to have our wonderful parents living in the same town. I don't know what we'd do without them.

Happiest Baby on the Blog

2008-06-24T17:38:00.001-07:00

I didn't read "The Happiest Baby on the Block" when Blake was born, but I did finally get around to it after Emma came along (thanks for loaning it to me Jessica, I still need to return those books) and I thought it was pretty good and realized I was already doing most of those things. So either the book's suggestions are extremely effective or God has just blessed us with the happiest baby I have ever known (I tend to think it's mostly the latter). The true extent of Emma's good nature and joy for all the little things in life has been starting to show more and more over the last couple of months. She's always been a good baby and super sweet, but lately she's just all smiles and squeals of delight. I think most babies at 8 months are pretty happy. Life at this age is all about new discoveries and they finally seem really comfortable with their environment and routine (by the way, Emma has been sleeping a wonderful 12 hours at night now for about 2 months), but I'm telling you Emma is especially happy. It's heartwarming and contagious. She brings a smile to every new person she meets. Everywhere we go we make new friends. I remember telling Chris once when we found out we were having another girl that poor Emma might feel like she has a lot to live up to with such an amazing big sister, but even though Blake is smart and charismatic, Emma has certainly been able to charm her way into everyones hearts too. She will have no trouble making her big sister share the spotlight (which is saying a lot because we all know Blake commands plenty of attention). They are both so remarkable and I'm constantly in awe of them and thankful that I get to be their mother. I don't want to go on too much about my amazing girls, but what better place to brag on your kids than your blog, right? In fact, when I first started the blog, my single BFF, Rhandi, said "yeah, I guess I don't need a blog since I don't have a husband or kids to brag about yet", and I thought that's not what it's all about is it? Well I guess a lot of times it does seem like I'm blagging or brogging (blog-bragging, get it?), but it's nice to share what the girls are doing with everyone since, after all, our friends and family are also responsible for them becoming who they are and deserve some credit too, right? I also like having a record of my thoughts and feelings about the girls while they're little that I can look back on later. Here are some pictures of my sweet, happy girl making friends with her rocking-lamb in her room a few days ago.

"Hi lamby, you're pretty cute."

"Wow, you're soft too. I like you!"

"Did you see this thing, Blake, it's awesome!"

"No I mean really, I'm soooo excited that this amazing toy is in my room!!!

"Excuse me, I may have gotten carried away. I'll try and contain my excitement... at least until I discover the next new thing to cross my path."

Our Weekend in Del Rio

2008-06-19T22:16:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had so much fun visiting with family in Del Rio. The car ride was a little grueling, but the kids did really well. We got there late Friday night and stayed until Monday. We celebrated Chris's grandpa Stuart's birthday and Father's Day while we were there. We also went 10 miles across the border to Acuna and had a great dinner in Mexico. A big highlight for me was our day on the boat Sunday. What an awesome boat! Plenty of room for a huge group of us and a cabin underneath with a bed (for Emma to take a nap) and a table (for Blake to color at). Such a great set-up for little kids (or anybody for that matter). I'm in love with that boat. We swam in the lake, had some beers, got a little sunburned and had a great time. It was so nice to catch up with everyone over the weekend.

It's been a whirlwind of activity since we got home. Tuesday was Chris's birthday and my mother's birthday (yep, they have the same birthday... weird, huh?) HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you both!!! Of course, unpacking and trying to get the girls back on schedule is a little bit of a challenge so here it is Thursday night and I'm finally getting to posting this and looking at our pictures (and there's still a suitcase laying on the living room floor).

I feel bad for not devoting more blog time to Chris for Father's Day and his birthday. I hope he has had a pretty good week. The girls and I love him so much and appreciate him more than I can say. I can't believe he's 31 (or that I'll be there in November). I still think of him as the 17-year-old he was when I first fell in love with him, but I love him so much more now for the man and the father he has become (in his old age). His biggest Father's Day gift will be his day of having fun and goofing off with no responsibility in a couple of weeks when he goes to play poker with his best friend Jeremy at Winstar casino. I hope you have fun honey!

Dinner in Mexico

Here Emma looks like she's about to punch me if I try and take the puffs she's now learning how to eat

Daddy and the girls on Father's Day morning

Out on the boat

A Playful Goodbye

2008-06-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

Our friends Meredith, Kyle, Caden and Reese are moving to Budapest, Hungary this month and they will be there for two years. I always admire people who make big, exciting, adventurous moves like this. I think it would be so amazing to live in another country for a while. Our friends Alex and Laura moved to London a couple of years ago and are still living there. I love getting their e-mails and pictures of all of the fabulous trips they take. They have traveled throughout Europe and beyond a lot over the last couple of years. Seeing the world and how other people live is so fascinating to me. I love thinking about what people are doing in some other country right now. It's so easy to get caught up in my own little world and forget just how big and diverse this planet is and how many other people are living lives right now too. I look forward to doing much more traveling in my future. I would love to live abroad as well, but I don't know if I could ever handle being away from my family and friends for any extended period of time. Meredith and Kyle are going for a pre-determined amount of time at least so they know they will be back in two years. I think that would be the perfect way to do it. We wish them the best and we'll be looking forward to hearing all about it. We had a good time Wednesday wishing them farewell as we played and had lunch at Willowbend. Chrisse and Claire, Kori and Sadie and Jessica, Barrett and Kyle joined us in saying goodbye.

Tickle, tickle, tickle

A chilled out Kyle

Goodbye hug

Barrett and Caden saying their goodbyes (I missed the photo of the hug, of course)

Welcome Baby Barrett

2008-06-05T06:22:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning, June 1st, Jeremy and Tammine (some of our very best friends) welcomed their precious son Barrett to the world. We are so excited he is here and Jeremy and Tammine are now parents. They are going to be great at it. Barrett is adorable and we had so much fun visiting him Sunday and Monday. We already can't wait to see him again as soon as possible. I'm also already looking forward to all the fun family vacations we will be taking as our kids get older (and the ones we will continue to take without the kids). Blake really enjoyed meeting the new baby and likes to call him "Baby Barrett", not just Barrett, I think to distinguish him from our other buddy Barrett (Starr). So welcome Baby Barrett and congratulations to the new parents! We love you all!

Memorial Day Weekend

2008-05-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend! Rachel was home from New York for the weekend and she brought her boyfriend Aaron home for the first time for us all to meet him. We spent most of the weekend with them introducing him to Texas. His first meal was a chicken-fried steak at Babes (his first chicken-fried steak ever) and we just kept feeding him from then on. Mexican food, hamburgers, steak, homemade ice cream... boy we sure do eat a lot in Texas! Blake did her first outside swimming of the season at Ami and Pappa's house and we could barely get her out of the pool for three days in a row. Emma went swimming for the first time ever and seemed to really enjoy it. Blake had so much fun with her new buddy, Aaron, and we all really enjoyed getting to know him. We were sad to see them leave yesterday and have such a fun weekend of playing, eating, swimming and being together come to an end. What a great start to the summer!

Magic Wands 101 and Coffee, French Fry and Potato Chip Soup

2008-05-20T12:50:00.000-07:00

Today Emma received her first lesson on the use of magic fairy wands. She was in her exersaucer with Blake in the playroom while I was getting dressed and I heard Blake teaching her what to do... "Emma hold it like this and wave it around, but don't put it in your mouth." I walked in to get a peek and Emma did pretty well when Blake gave her a turn. Blake came running in to tell me all about it... "Emma used the magic fairy wand and she didn't even put it in her mouth". All I can say is I hope Emma likes pink, fairies and princesses because she's going to be learning all about them whether she wants to or not. I can tell watching them together is going to get pretty funny. Later Blake made some soup and called me from the other room..."Mommy the soup is ready come and join me". I just love the "come and join me" part.

A Beautiful Weekend

2008-05-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

Saturday at the Zoo

Saturday was such a gorgeous day and we made the most of it by going to the Fort Worth Zoo in the afternoon and Joe T. Garcias for lunch. We were so happy Christina, Barb and Hannah decided to go with us (Christina is one of my best friends since high school, Barb is her fabulous sister and Miss Hannah Victoria is Christina's 1-year-old daughter... what wonderful company!) We had a really good time. Lunch was so good (and so were the margaritas). Joe T. Garcias is so beautiful and sitting out on their patio always makes you feel like you're on vacation in Mexico. The day started great too with breakfast at The Original Pancake House and hamburgers on the grill a la Rhandi since she cooked for us when she and her boyfriend Jason came over to hang out in the evening. Needless to say we were worn out after such a long and wonderful day.

Sunday at home

After our busy day, Sunday was a day for staying at home. Emma had a little bit of a fever and wasn't quite herself so we stayed in and let her take her full naps at home. She was sweet and cuddly today and wanted her paci a little more than usual. She perked up a little in the evening and babbled a ton (Blake was convinced she was saying "Daddy" and kept excitedly telling Chris about it.) She's so excited about all of Emma's upcoming milestones. She also keeps trying to feel for teeth and swears they're coming in. She's such a good big sister and it's so sweet (of course, I'd rather her stop putting her fingers in Emma's mouth). Maybe she's right about the teeth. I can't feel anything, but that might explain today and she will be 7 months this week so it's about time already. Blake kept us on our toes today playing and sometimes I can't wait for the day when Emma can be a playmate for her (even though I know that will bring a whole new set of challenges.) They seem to adore each other so much and I'm just so happy they have each other.

Blake playing in her kitchen today

Butterfly Festival

2008-05-14T19:20:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we went to the butterfly festival in Plano with our friends Caroline and Elizabeth. It was fun to be so close to all those butterflies. They have a big tent filled with flowers and plants and lots of butterflies. They gave us little pieces of cantaloupe and if you hold it close to a butterfly he'll climb right on. We were also able to get them to climb right on to our fingers... so cool! Blake was a little skiddish, but she had fun and Emma seemed to be really intrigued. I love the look on her face in the picture.

Brand New Blogging Adventure

2008-05-13T08:43:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to start blogging. I have to thank some friends of mine (Jessica, Meredith, Stephanie, Emily, Jonna and Aubrey) for introducing me to this. I've been enjoying their blogs for a couple of months now and realized just how much fun it is to "blog surf" as Meredith told me it's called. I've been following the links to the blogs of people I don't even know. It's a weird phenomenon, but what can I say...I'm hooked. I figured this will be a way to share pictures and stories of all the wonderful, silly, crazy, happy moments happening in the life of the Coleman family these days with all of our fabulous family and friends. Now nobody will have to ask me to send out pictures of the kids, they'll be posted regularly right here. I also like Jessica's idea of creating a blog book. What a great way to keep a record of the special moments in our lives that I'm likely to forget. I felt like coming up with a name or a theme for my blog was a lot of pressure, but for now I came up with my current title because the many, many blessings of our life here in the Coleman household are exactly what I plan to share. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed with these incredible blessings all around me and here is a place that I can share them all with some of the most special blessings of all... our family and friends. Let the blogging adventure begin!