It's my birthday!

Saturday I turned the whopping 28...yikes! Thanks to my family and friends the whole weekend was memorable. For starters, my sweet sweet husband bought me a new camera! And my mom and dad came through with some camera accessories. Wait until you see the picture quality compared to my old posts. This is a serious one, not like the kind I had before. I feel a little bit like I should be taking pictures at someone's wedding :-) Saturday morning the girls and I baked a birthday cake with "preen-tils" as Lucy says. She also sang me a beautiful rendition of Happy Birthday. Her and Edy had so much fun decorating, but mainly sticking their hands in the icing. I could hardly snap a picture before I would see a little hand heading for a big grab. A knock at the door from Edible Arrangements and this scrumptious bouquet of fruit and chocolate showed up, delish! Thank you Kelly.

Saturday night Sara and Eric watched the kids for us and we enjoyed a night of fondue at The Melting Pot. Thank you everyone for your sweet cards, phone calls and gifts!

You should've tasted the white and milk chocolate covered bananas, wow!

Yummy

The finished product!

Having fun with Ethan and Savanna

This is totally random, but check out that clarity!

smOOches, Emily

Carousel

Today we ventured out to The Woodlands Mall and while eating our lunch Lucy spotted a carousel. Having never seen or been on one, she was intrigued. So after lunch we gave it a go. Edy was rather amused while Lucy seemed concerned. She had a very tense face all the while, but she did make it through without getting down. I, on the other hand, don't remember carousels being so nauseating, puke. Next carousel will be daddy's turn!

smOOches, Emily

Sisterly love

Grammie sent Lucy and Edy a special gift in the mail: Reader Rabbit's Toddler. It's a a computer program for toddlers with developmental learning on the computer. Lucy especially loves it and wanted to share the mouse at a hand in coloring. They can really be sweet sometimes ;-)
smOOches, Emily

Open gym

Gymboree Play and Learn: Development through play and learning with our seven-level program designed to support your child's growth at his or her own individual pace. From sensory stimulation to problem-solving games and storytelling, our classes use play-based activities to stretch the body and mind.
Stretch the imagination through creative play to support symbolic thinking, language development and social interaction.
Play both independently and with peers while learning to connect ideas through cooperation and communication.

We went to a play and learn class on Tuesday to check it out and the girls had so much fun they couldn't stand it. We played games and sang songs with a parachute, little exercises to associate with "on" and "off" and much more. So yesterday we went to open gym. They thought it was way cool because they could do as they please and run around the gym. Lucy really enjoyed the slides and Edy preferred climbing through the tunnels.

smOOches, Emily

sweet tooth

The other night the girls and I had gone to the gym. While on our way home I asked Lucy what she thought Daddy was going to make us for dinner when we got home. She replied, "a cake on the grill!" To Lucy's disappointment (and mine) Daddy did not have a cake baked for us on the grill like we thought. Instead, it was a yummy pork tenderloin. So to satisfy her sweet tooth, Lucy took matters into her own hands!

smOOches, Emily

i'm back!

A great apology for letting all my blog readers down for the last couple months! I am back on-line with a new computer I must say, which is really exciting, super fast and has shift keys for capital letters :-) and also settled into a new house. Long story short, we have moved, and by moved, I mean packed up the U-Haul with everything literally but the kitchen sink and posted up in Tomball, TX, which is a suburb of Houston. We are trying to rent/sell our house in good ole Sebring if anyone knows someone who might be house hunting :-) There's no telling how long we'll be here...we go where the wind blows with JD's job. So if anyone has ever wanted to take a trip to Texas, now is the time. Visitors are always welcome! We have been here for two weeks now and so far my observation is: it looks a lot like Florida. It's crowded. There's a super yummy bbq joint not far from here. The people do not drive friendly like all the highway signs say. There are no cactus or dust balls. However, it's wonderful to have our family together no matter where the location. Pictures soon to come of the house for those of you who have been bugging me! In my spare time (which is never) I'll have to work backwards on posting pics and things from what has happened in between the caladium festival and Halloween! Thanks again for all who have kept faith in me that I would post again! Enjoy.

trick-or-treat!

This was Lucy and Edy's first year of trick-or-treating! It was so much fun. I spent the last week preparing their costumes as Little Red Ridinghood and the Big Bad Wolf! They turned out super cute for my first time ;-) We shared Halloween with our friends Eric, Sara and their two children Ethan and Savanna. We went to their house and grilled out, put on the costumes, loaded up in the wagon and headed into the neighborhood. Edy wasn't too keen on the idea. She had been traumatized with separation anxiety this morning (another story from the gym) so I think she thought I was going to leave her on the doorsteps or something because everytime we got near a front door she would cling tight! Lucy really made us proud. Once she got the idea that she was going to take home a "treat" she would march right on up to the house and softly mumble "trick-or-treat." It was possibly the cutest thing ever!

Getting ready to go.

And we're off!

The Dowds

Hilarious! http://www.baronbob.com/motorized-cruzincooler.htmhttp://www.baronbob.com/motorized-cruzincooler.htm

The Wylies

Ethan and Savanna as Pebbles and Bam Bam.

The whole crew.

Daddy and the fiesty wolf!

checking out the candy. (yes, mom.)