Happy Birthday Charles

Charles turned 31 this year :) The only thing he asked for was a cake, white with white icing! So, that's what he got . . . along with 2 new flat screen tv's! We also went to his favorite restaurant, A Taste of Texas. Happy Birthday Charles & Daddy! We love you so much and thank you taking such good care of us!

Cake Time

Waiting at Taste of Texas

Dance Class

The girls have both started dance classes here. Emily is in a 4 year old, ballet and tap class. It is an hour long and they do 30 minutes of ballet then 30 minutes of tap. She is really enjoying it! It is a lot different than her old class, it is very serious ballet here! But, Emily seems to be really good and has already showed me some "positions" and "poses" that she has learned!

Ashley is in the Boni's Babies class (the studio is called Boni's Ballet and is run by Mrs. Boni :)! It is for 14-23 month olds. Ashley is one of the youngest. It has taken her a while, but she is really enjoying and participating in class now! They do about 15 minutes of songs (Itsy, Bitsy Spider, The Wheels on the Bus, etc.) and then they do 10 minutes of "gym"! Here they have a little obstacle course with a balance beam, slides, trampoline, ball pit, etc. After that they do parachute and bubbles and then it's over. We have discovered that Ashley does not like the parachute, which is kind of odd, but she loves the bubbles! There is not a dress code for Ashley's class; however, on the first day everyone was in a leotard except for Ashley! So, now she has one too :) It is only 30 minutes but it wears me out :)

Emily and her teacher, Miss Marsha.

Emily Starts Preschool

I can't believe it, but my Baby Girl started preschool this year! She goes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9-1. She was so excited for school to start! At her school, they call it a Gradual Entry process for the beginning of the school. On the first day, Charles, Ashley and I all got to go to class with her. On the second day, she only went by herself for 3 hours and did not have lunch. On the third day, she went her usual from 9-1 and had lunch so it was her first full day! I think this process was more for the Mommy's then for the kids, but it worked out great! She loves it and can't wait to go every day!

First day!

Ashley's ready to go too :) Showing off her new backpack, thanks Grandma and Pa :) And, Ashley's ready to go too :) Such a big girl!

Charles sent me an Edible Arrangement to make it through the first day :)

Sweet & Sassy

Before school started, Emily was in desperate need of a haircut! We found this cute place on Market Street called Sweet & Sassy. So, I surprised Emily one afternoon for a haircut and her first manicure! She was so excited and definitely received the royal treatment :) I think we may be back to Sweet & Sassy!

Emily's 4th Birthday

I can't believe my Baby Girl is 4!! Where has the time gone?!?! We went back to Arkansas for her party. We had her "family" party on Saturday, the 7th and she was so excited to have it at Bub & Mimi's house! Emily chose Ariel as her theme and wanted all of the Ariel decorations Party City had :) She settled for plates, napkins and a few decorations! However, when we got to Bub & Mimi's house it was Ariel everywhere and Emily was in heaven :) We all had a great time and Emily received so many nice presents!

Sunday, the 8th, was her real birthday. We carried on our tradition and went to Chuck E. Cheese in Fort Smith. I know Emily had a good time and I think all of the grandparents did too :)

On, Monday, the 9th, we were able to make it to NWA for a little get together with some friends at the Promenade in Rogers. They have a little train and took the kids on a special "Birthday Ride"! Somehow, Brianne and I were the only adults who ended up on it and I think we were both ready to get off by the time it was over! However, the kids loved it and that's all that matters right :) We had another Ariel cake and Emily got to open presents again :)

It was a great trip and a great 4th Birthday for Emily! Thank you to everyone for coming and helping us celebrate!

The Birthday Girl ready to party :)

It's so hard to get a good family picture these days! Birthday girl at Chuck E. Cheese! Ready to ride the Birthday Train! Ready for cake...again! A group shot!

Starting Again!

It is time to start blogging again! We have had a very exciting 8 months! Ashley turned 1, Emily will be 4 next week and we made the biggest move of our lives . . . to Houston! We are getting settled in and finding our way around and really liking it so far! I have promised I will start blogging again to keep our friends and family updated with everything, so here goes!

Yesterday we had a very spur-of-the-moment kind of day, which is totally unlike us! We went to the Children's Museum yesterday morning and had a blast. It was wonderful to be in a place where the girls could do everything! We hardly had to tell them no, the worst part was we had to scoot them along sometimes so we could get to everything!

While we were eating lunch at the museum, I got to thinking (which as Charles would say, is dangerous :)! I have really been wanting to go to the beach, or at least just see the ocean, since we are so close and everything now! So, since we were already halfway there we decided to head to Galveston for the afternoon. We had nothing with us, so we stopped at Wally World (which just happens to be across the street from the ocean in Galveston, no joke!) to get beach necessities, i.e. swimsuits! Would you know they did not have swimsuits in the girl's sizes! So, we just bought them an outfit to change into, some sunscreen, a towel and some beach toys and headed out :)

This was Ashley's first time at the beach and she loved it! She is usually not a big fan of water so we were very excited! We probably looked goofy being on the beach and not one of us in a swimsuit, but oh well, we had fun and that was what mattered :) Afterwards we headed to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner and then headed home!

I do not have any pictures from the beach on this camera (I bought a waterproof one at Wal-Mart), but here are some from the Museum.

A cool pic of Emily playing with the mirrors!

Both are actually smiling!
Playing with the water outside.
Emily was in heaven, there was a full-size diner that the kids could play in!

There was even a whole section for Ashley to play in!

Going Private

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am going to make this a private blog. If you want to be able to view it, please leave me a comment and let me know!

She's Sitting Up!!!

Well, for the most part! She is doing so good! Charles caught a picture of her tonight while she was playing with Emily's "driver". Santa Claus brought this toy to Emily her first Christmas and Ashley really loves it! She is sitting up pretty well. She still goes forward some, but is working so hard on it! She did eventually crash to the left, but she is making so much progress! I can't believe it, she just looks so big sitting up!!! Sorry it's fuzzy!!

Climbing the Tree

So apparently somewhere along the way, Emily has learned that trees can be climbed! The other day when she was outside playing, I look out and she is in our little pecan tree! I said what are you doing and she said "climbing the pecan tree Mommy!"! So, here she is! The pink mower was her "step stool" to get up there!

Our Growing Girls!

Here are just some random, cute pics I have taken the last few weeks!

Ashley enjoying her Bumbo Ashley enjoying her walker!

Ready for church one cold morning!

So cute!

Ah :)

Emily's favorite thing to do, play dress up!

Halloween 2009

We had about a week of Halloween this year! Here goes!

Halloween #1 - Party at Tarah's
On the 23rd Tarah had her annual Halloween Party. Well, maybe not annual, but she has had it 2 years in a row now :) Daddy was off work that day and got to go with us, I know he was thrilled! It actually worked out really well because he took care of Ashley while I took care of Emily. It was so cute to see everyone dressed up! Tarah had put a strobelight in the garage and played kids Halloween music (Scooby Doo was their favorite!) in the garage! They had so much fun out there just dancing around! Then they decorated cookies and ate lots of snacks!

Sage Lee and Emily decorating cookies

Hitting the pinata

Halloween #2 - Halloween in Ft. Smith
On Saturday, the 24th, we took the girls to Ft. Smith to trick-or-treat at the Grandparents! We went to Gigi's first! She had made a yummy pot of soup! Her and Uncle Jackie loved seeing the girls in their costumes! Emily wanted to wear hers the entire time we were there! Gigi had gotten Emily a Cinderella chalkboard and she loved it!

After that we went to Mimi and Bub's for dinner! Bub had built a fire in his fire pit and we roasted hot dogs for supper! Emily didn't want to roast hers, but she sure wanted to eat :) The girls put their costumes on for Mimi and Bub too! They were so cute! After it got dark, we roasted marshmallows and had S'mores! Emily actually roasted and then ate the marshmallow this time!

It was a long day, but a very fun one! (I only took 2 pictures the whole day, I can't believe it!)

Uncle Jackie and Emily coloring on the chalkboard!

Uncle Jackie's SO TALL!!

Halloween #3 - Trick or Treating at Daddy's Work
Charles' work had their annual trick-or-treating on the Thursday before Halloween. It really is annual :) Emily was so excited to get to wear her costume to Daddy's work! It ended up POURING down rain that afternoon, but we still had a great time! Emily's candy bag was FULL after this! I can't believe how much candy she got!! When she got home her and Charles had to go through her bag and see what all she got :) We ended up handing out all the shew candy on Halloween night, but she didn't know that :)

Our cute little bee!

Beautiful Snow White

Having to drag her bag of candy!

Halloween #4 - Trick or Treating
On Halloween we had our annual Sonic dinner! Emily had a $.50 corn dog and an apple juice slush...she was so excited about it! She could not wait to get to go trick-or-treating! When the first ones came to the door, she said "We have to go now!"! Her and Charles went around our street and Ashley and I stayed here and passed out candy! When they got back, I think Emily had more fun answering the door than she had going around!

Ready to go! Off they go!

Shelly, Emily & Ashley's Trip to Dallas

Aunt Vicky asked Emily, Ashley and I to come down to Dallas one week when Uncle Jeremy was going to be working a lot! It was kind of a last minute decision, but we are so glad we went! We just hung out with Aunt Vicky and Hadley! We did a little shopping in the POURING RAIN! Yes, we took all 3 girls shopping....I don't know what we were thinking. We were so wet when we finally got home!

We also went to a pumpkin patch down in Dallas! We met one of Vicky's friends who had to kids a little older than Emily. They just played and played so much, the older kids were so sweet to help and play with Emily! Before we met them, Emily said that she was just going to "pretend that they were her friends." When we left, she said "Mommy, they were really my friends!" So sweet!!! Thanks for the hospitality Aunt Vicky and Hadley :)

Jumping on the Pumpkin for "big kids"!
Cutie!
Emily loved playing on the big bale of hay! I'm glad she wasn't allergic!

Kay-Kay helping Emily up the big slide!

Snow White!

Cute Hadley :)

Emily

Ariel!