Happy 8th Anniversary!

Happy anniversary to us, happy anniversary to us! Robert and I have been married 8 years this week. We can't believe how much fun we have had along the way...and how much we loooove being the parents of sweet little Grace and Olivia. We decided to have a yummy dinner to celebrate, and to make things even better Nana and Papa from Florida sent us some crab claws from a local FL restaurant! What a treat....all of us really enjoyed the fun dinner. Olivia kept commenting, "you are eating the crab?" I don't think she has a much fun as we did, nor was she willing to even try it!

Grace got to try cracking the crab - and realized it was much harder than

she thought it would be!

Big scary crab Daddy! Robert loved playing with the crab claws and scaring the kids with them!

Chinese New Year, Noodles and Chopsticks

This past weekend, to celebrate Chinese New Year we decided to make lots and lots of Chinese cuisine! (well, let's face it - Robert cooked!) On the first night he made Hot & Sour soup which we loved. The girls couldn't wait for us to join them and got started right away with their own noodle soup - the not spicy version! On night two of Chinese cuisine we had my parents over and had sticky pork, spicy green beans and more hot & sour soup. Everyone loved Robert's cooking and the food was a huge success.

To round out our weekend of celebration, we went to the Chinese New Year festivities at the Allen Library. They had story time, lantern making, coin envelope making and a dragon dance! Grace's Girl Scout troop continued the party by doing a Chinese New Year theme last night and making many of the crafts we learned at the library in addition to getting fortune cookies and chopsticks! What a fun week!!

Robert preparing Hot & Sour soup. We loved it and ate tons! It was a really cold night and the soup was really spicy - delicious!

This was night one, girls are excited to use the chopsticks and can't wait for Robert and I to join them....they were STARVING!! All in all they did really well and a lot of noodle soup got eaten as well as "veggies on the side".

Here, on the second night of noodle eating, Grace (confident with her new chopstick skills) helps Olivia eat noodle soup!

Driscoll Girls Come for Play Date!

Well, three weeks since my last entry I have gotten my act together and posted something new! Today Grace and Olivia had two friends over to play and have dinner/movies. Grace and Mackenzie went to preschool together last year and have managed to miss and love each other while going to different elementary schools! (thanks moms!) Mackenzie's little sister Tess was in Olivia's class at Little Gym...and a friendship was quickly formed!

The weather is amazing for January. The girls were able to play out front on their scooters, blow bubbles, make hopscotch with the sidewalk chalk and run run run for a few hours after school. They all loved being outside, but we managed to lure them inside with the prospect of making their own pizzas...yum!

Tess, age 4 1/2, riding her scooter....well, posing for an "action" shot!

Mackenzie and Grace, both age 6, comparing notes on the best scootering techniques!

The sidewalk chalk and bubbles came out.....the weather was sooo nice outside!

Grace, Mackenzie and Olivia made candy bracelets....Tess wanted to just eat her candy!

(smart girl!)

The girls finished the night with the movie "High School Musical" and some snacks!

Our Christmas....

This was the first year that Santa came to our house instead of us being at Grandma & Grandpa's. We were a little worried that we may not like the change, but it was getting a bit hard on "Santa" to transport all the "goods" to and fro each year! ha ha. My parents were troopers about the whole thing and got up at the crack-of-dawn to come to our house. This was the first time in 40 years they woke up not having kids in their house! The morning was really nice and very sweet. Of course Grandma brought donuts, and we spent the day lounging in our PJ's until Aunt Jenny, Uncle Jason, Emily, Amanda and Uncle Gary came over later in the day. Here are a few photos to capture only a few of the special moments the kids had........

Joyful

Styllish

Thankful

Suprised

Restful

Baking Christmas Cookies

The girls really enjoyed decorating the cookies with tons and tons of sprinkles. They kept asking me to cut out certain shapes that were their favorite! Robert joined in and was "very serious" about how to decorate the cookies! I think he enjoyed this as much (or more??) than Grace and Olivia!

You should see the floor!

Here, everyone has abandoned ship! Hey.....what about the cookie decorating??

Grace is in love with the amount of cookies we have! She was a little sad when I told her we made this many to give to some of our friends and family.

Uncle Seann and Aunt Jackie Visit Dallas

Shame on me. The holidays have come and gone without me posting a single picture of my cute kids. Not a word about the fun times we shared with family and friends...not even a mention of Robert's brother Seann and his wife Jackie (affectionaltely known as Uncle Seann and Aunt Jackie to Grace and Olivia) and their visit to Dallas!

I have finally gotten my act together and decided to post many many fun stories so that you can get up to date on what we did in December - what a crazy month! (yes, glad that it's over!)

Like I mentioned, Uncle Seann and Aunt Jackie were in Dallas to run the Whiterock Marathon. They happened to be here during the coldest week of the year...with weather in the 20's and 30's during the day. They managed to bear the bad weather and see us every night during their visit, which made all of us so happy! Grace and Olivia loved having guests and couldn't get enough of them, holding them captive to many funny stories. Both girls wanted to show them allll of their toys, and tell them every detail they have missed in the 3 years since we were together. Lucky for us, Uncle Seann and Aunt Jackie were really good sports about the whole thing!

While in Dallas Seann and Jackie managed to get their chocolate fix at some of the local shops. As a gift they brought us some of their favorites - which we enjoyed....and a little something unusual for us to remember them by. Robert and I tried chocolate with bacon in it - argh! I managed to spit mine out quickly but Robert was able to eat a bit or two! He even passed along the delicacy to anyone that came over to our house over the holidays! ha ha ha.

Here, Uncle Seann pretending to be "big and scary"! Grace was not convinced of this, and savored every minute she had with Uncle Seann during his visit!

Olivia is showing Aunt Jackie how to eat edamame! Both of them really enjoyed the snack before we had dinner.

Aunt Jackie, Olivia, Uncle Seann (wearing the purple band-aid Olivia thought he needed!) and Grace.

Robert and his brother Seann - you'll notice Uncle Seann still has his purple band-aid from Olivia!