1st day of school

Getting ready to leave for school!

Today was Ben's 1st day of 2nd grade and Emma's 1st day of KINDERGARTEN!! I can't believe how big they are getting! They both had awesome first days of school!

Ben 2nd GradeEmma Kindergarten

PARTY TIME: Ginny's 2nd Birthday!

Today we celebrated Miss Ginny's 2nd Birthday with an ELMO themed Party! She LOVES Elmo!! We had so much fun celebrating with our Family and Special Friends at GaGa & PaPa's house. We opened presents, and Miss GiGi made out like a bandit! ;) Then we had cake/cupcakes (made by yours truly) and ice cream! Then we went swimming!! What a fun time we had!
Here are some pics of our fun:

Our 9 Year Anniversary

*picture courtesy of narci d Photography

Today is Chris & I's 9 year Anniversary, I can't believe it's been 9 years already! These have truly been the best years of my life! I am so blessed to be loved by such an amazing man! I LOVE our life together, our beautiful children and all of the memories we're creating! I am so in love with you Chris and I could not imagine my life without you! Thanks for the wonderful times!!

On our way out the door for dinner at Maggiano's :)

Ginny's 2nd Birthday!

Happy 2nd Birthday my sweet Dolly! I can't believe you're 2, I love you so very much! You truly complete our wonderful family! :)
Ginny Grace you are loving, sweet, a bit stubborn ;) and just pure joy to be around! You love your family & friends so much! You are getting to be such a big girl, you actually say "yes" more than "no" :) and it warms my heart when you say " I Lobe you too" :) It cracks me up to hear you tell your dolly's & friends "No Ma'am"~I wonder where you heard that one hee hee ;)
You are so very precious to me!
Here are some pics from her day:

Family Pics at The Arboretum

Today we had our pictures taken at the Arboretum by a long-time friend of the family and very talented photographer Narci. Here's a link to her website:
http://narcidphotography.blogspot.com/2010/04/sweet-family.html

She did such a wonderful job of engaging the kids and getting them to actually all look at the camera with sweet smiles AT THE SAME TIME!!! I don't know how she does it!
Narci created such beautiful memories that we will cherish forever!!
Here are some of my FAVORITES:

Western Day

Today was Western Day at Emma's Preschool, here's our little Cowgirl:

Spring Break: The ZOO

Today Daddy took the day off from work and we took the kids to the Fort Worth Zoo! It was such a great way to end Spring Break!! GaGa & PaPa met us there and we all had such a fun time!! Ginny LOVED the Giraffes and all the kids loved the little meerkats! Ben loved the sharks and the birds and Emma loved all of it especially the meerkats & elephants! We also got to ride on the train! After a fun-filled warm morning, we headed to lunch at Cracker Barrel and then back home.
Here are some pics of the fun:

HAPPY St. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

Here are my sweet little Leprechauns!!!

Ben's Art Show

Tonight we got to go see Ben's Artwork in an Art Show that the district holds each year at Central Office. This is his 2nd year to have a piece featured, we are so very proud of our sweet Artist! Here are some pics of his CraZy CaCtus:

Emma You're a STAR

This week at Preschool, Miss Emma Kate was the STAR Student. She was SO excited to get to bring the star bag filled with some of her favorite things to show her friends: Barbies, books, and her stuffed Ariel & Aurora! She also had a special bulletin board that showed some of her favorite things and a sweet picture of my sweet girl.
On Thursday she got to bring the estimation jar, she decided to bring Hershey's kisses to share with her friends, she had such a great week!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year we had another lovely Family dinner on Saturday night, with barbecue chicken, twice baked potatoes and cheesy broccoli. We ate out in the dining room with our "nice" plates & cups, we even got the kids sparkling grape juice. I made a special Heart shaped cookie cake for my valentines, it was super yummy! My Sweetheart surprised me with chocolates and some pretty roses! :) Then on Sunday we went to my parents and had a Valentines celebration with the whole family. What a sweet weekend we had!

More fun in the SNOW

We had SO much fun playing in the snow, even Daddy got to join in on the fun Friday! He made the BEST Snowman!! Miss Ginny liked it SO much better the 2nd time around! ;)
It was just so magical to get to play in the snow, it reminded me of my childhood~we had a blast!
Here are some pics of our fun:

NOW this is what I call SNOW!!!

We woke up this morning to snow falling!! And I mean the REAL stuff this time~REAL LIVE snow that I can remember playing in when I was growing up back in Ohio. It snowed ALL day long, in fact I think it's still going at least a little bit! ;) The kiddos had school today, but after school I bundled them all up and we went out in the backyard to play in THE SNOW!!! They had SOO much fun! I made a snowman~yea it's not the best, but I didn't have a lot of help ;) Ben & I had a snowball fight. Ben & Emma made snow angels and went down the slide and fell into the snow, they had a blast! They also decided they might as well see what it was like being a cow~As in they laid out on their tummy's in the grass/snow and ate snow~they were COVERED in it! Miss Ginny wasn't very sure at first, but she really liked it after awhile~EXCEPT when she fell over~then she wanted Mommy to hold her(which also made the snowman building kinda hard ;) ). We all had such a fun time, and the best part is that Ben doesn't have school tomorrow! **I just read on our news webpage that today's snowfall broke the all-time record.** How COOL is that?!?! I'm SO glad that my kiddos got to see it and enjoy it! And just so ya know it is STILL snowing!!! =)
I LOVE THE SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ben's School Dance

Tonight was Ben's school dance, I was so lucky to have 2 of the cutest and sweetest dates!! Ben, Emma & I went and Daddy stayed home with Miss Ginny. The first thing we did when we got there was check out the snacks!! Yum~ Then we went into the Gym, where the music was blastin' and started to dance around. Ben went up on the special stage and danced, Miss Em decided she wanted to stay with Mom. Plus she kept saying it was TOO loud~and covering her ears (silly girl)! Then Emma & I got a front row seat to watch the first graders dance~it was TOO cute!! We had SO much fun and we can't wait til next year!

Emma's Art Show

Today at Emma's Preschool they had a little art show for the kiddos. Emma did such an amazing job, I'm so proud of my little Artist!

Cousin Charlie's FIRST Birthday!

Friday the 8th, my nephew Charlie turned ONE, we celebrated his birthday at my parents house on Sunday! I made him a special Monkey cake and of course a little smash cake. He was not very sure about it, I don't think he likes getting messy yet!! ;) We had so much fun helping to celebrate this sweet boy's birthday! I can't believe he's ONE!!!