Monday, March 31, 2014

Happy Birthday Ray


We celebrated Ray's 37th birthday yesterday with his parents and dinner at our place. We had steak, mushrooms, baked sweet potatoes, grilled yellow squash, and a homemade cream cheese pie. Ray received new Asics running shoes, a gift card for clothing from his parents, a veggie chopper from his brother, concert tickets to see Motley Crue in October, and a badminton/volleyball set from his girls.

The greatest gift was not those given to him, but the gift he is to all of us. We love him more than words could ever express and we are truly grateful for a another year with such a wonderful person in our lives. His is a wonderful Daddy, Husband, Son, Brother, and Uncle.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Emma's first basketball game


 
 
 
  

Emma started playing basketball this week in a YMCA league.  She had her first practice on Thursday and her first game today.  Most of the kids on her team are a year older than her and already have a year of playing experience under their belts, but Emma is learning quickly!  We bought her a basketball to practice at home and we should have her a goal up in the next week.  Despite being younger than everyone, she is one of the tallest players.  She seemed to have a lot of fun and really likes Coach Quentin and her teammates!



Sunday, March 16, 2014

Hermann Park and the Natural Science Museum

Another way we spent Spring Break with the girls was a trip to Hermann Park and the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  We rode the train through the park, and the girls loved it, especially waving at the people we passed and looking for animals in the park.  Afterwards we went to the museum to show Emma and Abby the butterfly exhibit, the dinosaurs, and other animals.  They both enjoyed the butterflies, although Abby kept trying to crawl into the fauna to get a closer look.  Unfortunately, Emma and Abby were both ready for a nap after that, and most of the exhibits aren't exactly geared towards their age groups, so they weren't interested in too much of the museum.  Brandie enjoyed the gemstone and jewelry exhibit immensely though!





Monday, March 3, 2014

The Zoo March 3, 2014

Well today was supposed to be about doing chores like laundry, sweeping, moping, dusting, etc...
While getting the morning breakfast of homemade waffles underway Ray and I discussed going to the Zoo. The girls were supper excited about the idea so we put ourselves in fast mode and within 2 hours did the majority of our chores, packed snacks and drinks, and got all four of us ready for our trip to the Zoo.

Before going to the Zoo we decided to stop by and see Nana and Poppa. We had a good visit, but poor little Abby got a really big boo-boo. (pictures to come) She was really brave about it until she saw the blood then not even I was cool.... Ray of course being the calm one during the time of emergency was even having issues trying to put on a band-aid and it took Poppa coming to the rescue with medical gauze and tape to get the bleeding under control. After a snack of pretzels, milk, and watching Octonauts she was relaxed and calm enough for us to load back up and head to the Zoo for the day.

We had a ton of fun at the Zoo. The girls were allowed to custom order their lunch... Emma wanted cheese pizza and Abby wanted a hot-dog, good thing there were multiple food vendors selling these items. They pointed things out to us. We questioned them about the animals, colors, and shapes we were seeing. Both girls rode the carousal with their Dad and really enjoyed it. They had a blast feeding the giraffes and overall it was a wonderful trip to the Zoo. It started raining as we were leaving the Zoo and made it impossible for us to ride the train which saddened us all, because that is our favorite part of the trip to the Zoo.









Family Fun

Saturday 3/1 we took the girls to lunch and to see a movie, the toy store, then grocery shopping with us at HEB where they have developed the habit of asking their Daddy for flowers every time. We have wanted to take them for some time, but due to our crazy work schedules, then having to deal with our move and getting settled we just never manged to make it. Well we were able to take them to see Frozen and they really enjoyed it. Emma's response to going to the movies was "this is amazing" and Abby was more focused on being able to eat chocolate candy than watching the movie.

The only thing we had planned was the grocery shopping! Thanks to my wonderful husband and the spur of the moment decision we had a wonderful day making memories with our little girls.




Farewell February

It seems as if the days are flying ever so swiftly. Ray and I stay busy with our work and the responsibilities that they entail. Then on top of that being parents to girls that are involved in dance, gymnastics, and soon to be basketball we have to schedule date nights just to make sure we get some time for adult conversation! We love it and would not have it any other way.

February brought with it birthday celebrations for some of our nieces and nephews. We were blessed to be able to help our nephew Zeth celebrate his special day at our house. Pictures of that to come soon.

We our now comfy and settled in our new place. The girls love it and enjoy running and playing in the large yard. We have established our routines and we are happy to be back in the swing of things.

Ray and I are working hard to stay active with the girls, exercising, walking etc... We are dedicated to eating the majority of our meals at home to save money as well control the quality of the food that we eat. This has given us more quality time with the girls and they are the ones that bless our food at meal time : )

Emma had her first disagreement with a friend from dance that she considers to be her BFF. This resulted in her talking out the situation with her Dad during the 10 minute ride home, then talking to me about it when she got home, then talking to her Nana about it the next day. Needless to say she had forgotten about the situation by the next dance class.

Emma has hit a growth spurt resulting in the need to purchase new tap shoes, ballet shoes, and tights.

Both girls continue to amaze us with different things as they grow. Their language is extensive, showing the mastery of words that kids older than them have not mastered. They are both inquisitive and the questions have started with Why? What is that? How does that work? What was that noise? They also point out various things to us and have showed us that they understand cause and effect relationships of various forms.

We say farewell to February and look forward to making precious memories with our girls in March.