St. Paddy's Day

We began our St. Patrick's Day with green hot chocolate, green eggs and green iced cinnamon rolls!  That crazy leprechaun had so major green fun in the kitchen this morning.  :)

 We went upstairs, tossed on our green garb and began or day of play!

Zilker Kite Festival

One of our favorite Austin traditions...Zilker Kite Festival.  Even better when it's a crystal clear, breezy kind of day!

SNOW DAY!!!!!

Yep, the beginning of February it actually snowed here!  The kids loved it! With a day off from school (a Friday at that) we had so much fun!!!!  Sledding down our GIANT hill, snowball fights, hiking, building snowmen and snow angels with hot chocolate breaks/fireplace time to warm up between almost every activity.  We had to enjoy the morning since by noon it was gone!  We just LOVE our snow days in Austin!

Our Special Day

In preparation for our special day, we picked Grandma and Grandpa B up from the airport Saturday afternoon. :) We are so thankful they were able to fly in to celebrate the weekend with us!

We began our special day with our official entrance into the church.

After a year of learning and growing in our new faith, J and I made our profession of faith in front of the whole congregation.

To make the day even more special, our sweet little angels were baptized too!

Deacon Tom, who has made this journey so special, did the honors of baptizing our little angels for us.

With amazing Godparents too, our sweet little angels are in great hands all the way around! We are so thankful for our amazing family and friends that shared our day with us!!!!

Weekend with Grandpa N.

Grandpa N. came to Austin for a fun weekend visit.

making pizzas...

With lots of bike riding, playing games, watching movies and playscape fun too, the kids sure had a blast! :)

R & R

Since Daddy took some time off for the holidays, we had an amazing opportunity to spend some serious quality family time together. It was so nice to lay low and catch up with each other. For once, the kids truly had our undivided attention. I think they needed that as much as we did. :)

Christmas Wrap Up

Christmas baking with the kids was SOOOOO much fun this year! They did it all with very little instruction!. It was nice to have the cookie creation as a family activity. :)

Prepping for Santa...

Christmas morning

Santa brought Little Miss A the unicorn she asked for ad Mr. D the famous Neville Longbottom wand he wanted as well. Lots of new fun things to play with made for HOURS of playtime fun for everyone!

Nutcracker 2010

Our Nutcracker tradition continues!!! We began our evening all dolled up and ready for a night on the town. One of our traditions has been to try a new restaurant every year. This year was another winner. :)

Here is a glimpse of our traditional intermission festivities. :)

What an awesome night!

One on One Time...

We took the kids to the movies and separated at the ticket booth.

Daddy and Mr. D went to see Mastermind

Little Miss A and I went to see Tangled.

Win, Win!!!!

We had so much fun!!!! We definitely need to have that one-on-one time more often!!! :)

Christmas Decorating...

Getting in the spirit with some holiday decorating...

This was a scary scene!!! I had visions of the 3 of them falling off the chair into the tree, through the window, down the back steps and into the yard. My hands are sweating as I type this just thinking about it.

Thanksgiving in New York City

It was another year of our every 5th year tradition celebrating Thanksgiving in the Big Apple. This year, my family was joining us...what a fun treat! :) Here is the WAY condensed version of our trip...

Bagels on the steps of the library

Grand Central Station!

Mamma Mia was AMAZING!!!

My dear friend L was in the city for Thanksgiving too!!!

Our kiddies FINALLY get to meet one another! :)

Balloon Inflation

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Thanksgiving dinner with the fam!!! :)

Ice Skating in Bryant Park

Carriage ride in Central Park

D, Daddy and Grandpa head to the Ghostbuster Fire House while the girls braved Black Friday shopping at Macy's with the CROWD!!!

Family pics in Central Park!!!

It was an absolutely amazing trip!!!!!!! We were so happy the family came with us...made the visit that much more special! :)

Horseback Riding...Belated Birthday Trip

We were finally able to take Little Miss A and Mr. D on their birthday trip horseback riding. It was so wild to see how many places require their riders to be 8 years old! We found an amazing place in the Hill Country and will definitely be going back in the summer to enjoy the rest that the place has to offer! :)

The both had the most amazing time!!!! As soon as our ride was over, they both began asking when we were going to go again. Little Miss A thought we'd be able to go again the same day...sweet girl!

Little. Miss A and Carmel

Mr. D with Tony

Unfortunately, we weren't' able to take our phones or cameras on the ride, since they scare the horses, but as the trail caboose, I had a vantage point of the kids at the front of our family line and they just looked SOOOOOOO incredibly grown up. They both did an amazing job with their horses...turning them when/where they needed to and pulling up their heads when they stopped. We crossed through some of the most amazing sections of the hill country across several streams and creeks. It was amazing!!!!!

We are already so excited to go back this summer to experience all that the resort has to offer including additional horseback riding. :)

Thanksgiving "School" Lunch

We had our Thanksgiving lunch at school, which Little Miss A informed me was actually a "feast"! :)

I was fortunate enough to be able to rearrange my school schedule with my own students in order to be able to join my own little pilgrims for a feast at school. What a fun treat!!!!

I am so thankful for you two!!!!!!

Six Years Ago Today...

6 years ago today our lives were changed forever in the most amazing way!!! I can't believe that our sweet little punkins are six!!!!! Where does the time go? Although, having said that, I think back and can't really even remember what our lives were like before their arrival November 3, 2004.

Little Miss A is the sweetest girl. Always so caring of others, super kind and considerate. She loves to take care of her family and friends...wanting to make sure everyone is happy all the time. She is so thoughtful and always wants to do the right thing. We are so lucky to have her!

Mr. D is our little funny man...he has the most amazing sense of humor. He loves to laugh and make others laugh as well. His laugh is contagious...completely infectious! Like his sister, he loves for everyone to be happy and is more than willing to share his laugh and silliness to make people smile. We are so lucky to have him!

I am happy to report that the bug they had yesterday was completely gone by the afternoon so they were able to spend their special day as we regularly planned. We had an early release day at school, so the kids had the best of both worlds...school with friends and a nice long afternoon of fun as well.

The kids woke up in the morning to the traditional birthday song. We learned when we split them up to their two separate rooms when they were 2, that we needed to sing loud and have them both come to the great room for presents together. (Not quite the same as my childhood where the whole family walked into my room singing the birthday song carrying presents, but we can't be in 2 places at once.) After a shower of gifts, the kids began to get ready for school. I headed out to Starbucks for our traditional birthday morning pick me up...hot cocoa. A little bit farther drive in the new house, but a tradition we can't possible give up. :)

At school the kids had their names called on the announcements...birthday wishes from the principal. As all of my students heard their kids names, they came to my class passing on birthday wishes, some of them even made cards for them...how sweet is that? Little Miss A and Mr. D thought that was so cool! They were both line leaders for the day sporting their birthday crowns from their teachers for the day...

The kids picked special cupcakes to share with their classmates:

(Princess)

(How to Train a Dragon)

We celebrated both birthdays in the cafeteria as one great big group. Which meant the boys in Little Miss A's class were able to enjoy dragon cupcakes/rings and the girls in Mr. D's class got to have princess cupcakes/rings. :)

With an early out at noon, I took the afternoon off to spend A & D's special day with them doing something exciting and fun! After a few changes in plans, we ended up at the Main Event. (A fun indoor play land.) We ironically bumped into some of our old playgroup friends, so we were able to join lanes and bowl together. :) After a few hours of bowling, the kids and I headed to the arcades to play some more. What a fun afternoon.

We left the Main Event and met Daddy for dinner...A & D's choice our old traditional Mexican favorite. I think we've celebrated their birthday dinner there for the past 3 years now even though we've moved. :)

In maintaining that tradition, the kids fell asleep (AGAIN) on the way home and we ended up having birthday cake the next day instead...

What a great day with two AMAZING kids!

Happy birthday "babies" we love you!