Happy Birthday Blake!

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)

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

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!

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

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

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!!!

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!!!