Rob's Visit Part 1

Christmas is always one of my favorites times of the year. This year and last year were expecially special though, because MY BROTHER CAME HOME!!! :) That's right, Blair (aka Rob) made the trip all the way from Hong Kong to Texas. It was soooo good to see him. The kids were so excited that he was coming. We hadn't seen him since June in Hawaii, so it had beena little while. PLUS, my Uncle Cary was here too which made it evven more special! They arrived in Texas on Christmas Eve and came straight to Celina where we went to Christmas Eve service at church then back home for food, family and fun. I hope Blair didn't think he was going to sleep in on Christmas morning! Not with Kason and Katie in the house!! :) They woke him up around 6:30 or so Christmas morning with "Wake up, Uncle Rob!" It was a fun morning!

That afternoon, we went to Oma and Art's house for dinner and gifts with Poos, Jim, Shane and Jamie. It was so wonderful to have the whole family together!
The guys....
Rob said he wanted to buy Kason a bed for Christmas. So a few days after Christmas Blair and I went shopping. It was so great to have a day together, just the 2 of us! It has been a long time since we have done that! We found Kason's bed at Rooms To Go, they delivered it a couple of weeks ago. Doesn't it look great in Kason's room!?!?
After we had purchased the bed, Blair and I went to BJ's restaurant for lunch and drinks. Here is a pic taken by our waitor at lunch. We had so much fun! Do you like the hat the Blair bought me?? I think it suits me pretty well. :)
Rob had said that he wanted to take the kids somewhere special while he was here. We decided to go to the Charlie Brown Ice Exhibit at the Gaylord resort in Grapevine. Mom came over that morning and we drove to Grapevine and met Blair there. Here is a pic of Katie when she saw her uncle. Too cute!In addition to the ice exhibit, they also had a snow hill with sledding. Kason had a blast with that! Katie wasn't so sure... She went down once but wasn't too keen on doing it again. Once Kason had had his fill of sledding, we went to the ice exhibit. They gave us big blue coats to wear because it was 9 degrees inside the building. Don't the boys look cute?? :)
Kason was excited about the Ice exhibit, but Katie wasn't too sure at first. She did not want to put that big blue coat on, but we finally got it on her. We couldn't get the hood to stay on her, though, so Kason was sweet enough to give her her hat so she wouldn't be too cold.
After the ice exhibit, we ate lunch at one of the restaurants inside the Gaylord. We ate outside in the Atrium and had alot of fun and good food! Here are the boys at our table.
After lunch, we stopped at the wishing fountain to throw some coins in and take a few more pics. The kids love their Uncle Rob!!

Then, it was time to head out.

After one last pic.... :)

What a fun day! Thank you Uncle Rob, we love you!!!!

Photo Shoot

Way back in November (yes, that is how far behind I am on blogging....) we had our annual Family Christmas pictures photo shoot. For the 2nd year in a row, we hired our friend and former neighbor (Moving Day blog coming soon), Heather Flores Photography. Heather Rocks!! She does a great job and is very reasonably priced. We were going to do the pictures on the square in McKinney like we did last year. But at the last minute we decided to have them done in downtown Celina. It was closer and we thought there were some places that would look good in the pictures. We debated about taking Tucker with us, but decided at the last minute not to take him. We have enough trouble getting 2 kids to smile and look at the camera, much less adding a dog into the mix. :) Maybe next year.

So we met Heather bright and early on a cold Saturday morning. I had just picked up Katie's new pink fluffy pettiskirt the day before from a friend of ours. I was afraid it might be "too much", but I should have known better. "Too much" works great for Katie Blair. :)

The kids did great and the pictures turned out terrific. I have posted some of my favorite ones below. This first one cracks me up. GD and I thought Heather was just taking a picture of us. We didn't realize until we saw the picture that the kids were in it too. I'm not sure you can tell from this pic, but Kason had his hand over his mouth saying "Gross!" LOL!!

Moving Day

On December 11th, 2001 Gary Don and I closed on and moved into our very first house. It was HUGE (or so we thought at the time)! But after 9 years, 2 kids, and countless toys, we had most certainly grown out of our house. We had put it up on the market twice in the last couple of years, but didn't get any bites. This time, we found a new realtor, Melissa Eason (the best realtor ever!!!!) and put the house back on the market Labor Day Weekend 2010. We didn't have very high expectations because of our past experiences. And we were OK with staying where we are if we needed to, for a while longer. But lo and behold about 6 weeks after putting our house on the market, I got a call from Melissa that we had an offer on the house!!! OMG! We almost couldn't believe it!

The following 6 weeks or so was a complete roller coaster ride. Our buyers were having financing issues and there were many times that we didn't think the deal would go through. But thanks to Melissa (did I mention she was the best realtor ever?!?!?), we finally closed on our house on December 1st, 2010 (or right around then, I can't remember the exact day right off hand). Whoo Hoooo!!!! Then a few days later we closed on our new house. The last night in our old house was bittersweet. After all, we had been there for 9 years, and we had brought both our babies home to that house. It was a great house that will always hold a special place in my heart. Melissa took this picture of us on the last night that we spent in the house: So then it was moving day!!! We had looked at a lot of houses, and had actually made an offer on a different one, but it didn't go through. When we first saw the house we did end up buying, we weren't quite sure that it was the one for us. But after negotiating with the builder and getting lots of upgrades for almost nothing, we were convinced! Now the hard part was here. Moving all of our stuff!! Not to mention getting all the utilities and cable transferred and hooked up. What a hassle! My mom was kind enough to buy us a new washer and dryer as a housewarming gift. The old ones we had I had bought right after I graduated from college - a long time ago! It was time for new ones. And what an upgrade!!! Look at these beauties!! We love them! (And by "we" I mean GD - he does the laundry. Yes, I know I am one lucky girl!) Thanks Mom!!!

We are loving our new house so much. Even more than we thought we would! We now have a fireplace which has been awesome this past month with all the cold weather. Here is a pic of the living room. The game room is above it, and open so that we can hear the kids when they are up to no good. :)

And the kitchen. Oh, how I love the kitchen!!! My old kitchen was T-I-N-Y. I am in love with the cabinet space, the granite counters and the gas stove. Not that I am cooking any more than I used to or anything. But I still love it. :)

We have been here almost 2 months now and love the house even more now than when we moved in. We will just look at each other and say, "Have I told you that I love this house?!" I don't think we expected to love it as much as we do. So here it is. Our beautiful new home! :)

Little Brown Sheep

Just so you know, Katie Blair L-O-V-E-S her Preschool!!! And her Preschool loves her. Everytime I take her, they just gush over "Katie Princess". Her teacher is Ms. Wendy and she is constantly telling me how sweet and good Katie is. I am so so so very happy that she loves school!!! We weren't even sure that we were going to start her in Preschool this year at 3 years old. We thought we would wait until she was 4. But my mom urged us to pursue it (and also helps with the tuition) so that helped us decide to start her a year earlier than originally planned. I am SO glad we did!! She is learning not just numbers and letters, but also songs and bible verses. It is wonderful!

Before Christmas, the Preschool put on a Christmas pagaent. We were not too sure what to expect. Katie had been practicing singing "Silent Night". But that was the extent of what we were expecting.

When the pageant started, we were delighted to see the cutest little brown sheep in the whole world!!!! Here she is in her theatrical debut!:
It was the cutest thing EVER!! She saw us in the audience and was so very proud of herself. She waved at us and smiled. The older kids were angels and shepherds/wisemen. They all sang at the end. Katie did such a great job. We were so proud of her!

She was front and center and did not seem anxious at all! :)

We were able to get a picture of Katie after the play. She did a great job and had so much fun!

After the pageant, Katie took off her costume and we went to her classroom for refreshments and a book exchange. Katie was happy to show us her classroom and some of the work she has done. Here she is sitting in her classroom with her refreshments.

For the book exchange, Katie got "The Velveteen Rabbit". She was so excited because she and Kason had just watched the movie a few days before.

What a fun day!! We love you Katie Blair!