Happy Birthday Charles

Charles turned 31 this year :) The only thing he asked for was a cake, white with white icing! So, that's what he got . . . along with 2 new flat screen tv's! We also went to his favorite restaurant, A Taste of Texas. Happy Birthday Charles & Daddy! We love you so much and thank you taking such good care of us!

Cake Time

Waiting at Taste of Texas

Dance Class

The girls have both started dance classes here. Emily is in a 4 year old, ballet and tap class. It is an hour long and they do 30 minutes of ballet then 30 minutes of tap. She is really enjoying it! It is a lot different than her old class, it is very serious ballet here! But, Emily seems to be really good and has already showed me some "positions" and "poses" that she has learned!

Ashley is in the Boni's Babies class (the studio is called Boni's Ballet and is run by Mrs. Boni :)! It is for 14-23 month olds. Ashley is one of the youngest. It has taken her a while, but she is really enjoying and participating in class now! They do about 15 minutes of songs (Itsy, Bitsy Spider, The Wheels on the Bus, etc.) and then they do 10 minutes of "gym"! Here they have a little obstacle course with a balance beam, slides, trampoline, ball pit, etc. After that they do parachute and bubbles and then it's over. We have discovered that Ashley does not like the parachute, which is kind of odd, but she loves the bubbles! There is not a dress code for Ashley's class; however, on the first day everyone was in a leotard except for Ashley! So, now she has one too :) It is only 30 minutes but it wears me out :)

Emily and her teacher, Miss Marsha.

Emily Starts Preschool

I can't believe it, but my Baby Girl started preschool this year! She goes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9-1. She was so excited for school to start! At her school, they call it a Gradual Entry process for the beginning of the school. On the first day, Charles, Ashley and I all got to go to class with her. On the second day, she only went by herself for 3 hours and did not have lunch. On the third day, she went her usual from 9-1 and had lunch so it was her first full day! I think this process was more for the Mommy's then for the kids, but it worked out great! She loves it and can't wait to go every day!

First day!

Ashley's ready to go too :) Showing off her new backpack, thanks Grandma and Pa :) And, Ashley's ready to go too :) Such a big girl!

Charles sent me an Edible Arrangement to make it through the first day :)

Sweet & Sassy

Before school started, Emily was in desperate need of a haircut! We found this cute place on Market Street called Sweet & Sassy. So, I surprised Emily one afternoon for a haircut and her first manicure! She was so excited and definitely received the royal treatment :) I think we may be back to Sweet & Sassy!

Emily's 4th Birthday

I can't believe my Baby Girl is 4!! Where has the time gone?!?! We went back to Arkansas for her party. We had her "family" party on Saturday, the 7th and she was so excited to have it at Bub & Mimi's house! Emily chose Ariel as her theme and wanted all of the Ariel decorations Party City had :) She settled for plates, napkins and a few decorations! However, when we got to Bub & Mimi's house it was Ariel everywhere and Emily was in heaven :) We all had a great time and Emily received so many nice presents!

Sunday, the 8th, was her real birthday. We carried on our tradition and went to Chuck E. Cheese in Fort Smith. I know Emily had a good time and I think all of the grandparents did too :)

On, Monday, the 9th, we were able to make it to NWA for a little get together with some friends at the Promenade in Rogers. They have a little train and took the kids on a special "Birthday Ride"! Somehow, Brianne and I were the only adults who ended up on it and I think we were both ready to get off by the time it was over! However, the kids loved it and that's all that matters right :) We had another Ariel cake and Emily got to open presents again :)

It was a great trip and a great 4th Birthday for Emily! Thank you to everyone for coming and helping us celebrate!

The Birthday Girl ready to party :)

It's so hard to get a good family picture these days! Birthday girl at Chuck E. Cheese! Ready to ride the Birthday Train! Ready for cake...again! A group shot!

Starting Again!

It is time to start blogging again! We have had a very exciting 8 months! Ashley turned 1, Emily will be 4 next week and we made the biggest move of our lives . . . to Houston! We are getting settled in and finding our way around and really liking it so far! I have promised I will start blogging again to keep our friends and family updated with everything, so here goes!

Yesterday we had a very spur-of-the-moment kind of day, which is totally unlike us! We went to the Children's Museum yesterday morning and had a blast. It was wonderful to be in a place where the girls could do everything! We hardly had to tell them no, the worst part was we had to scoot them along sometimes so we could get to everything!

While we were eating lunch at the museum, I got to thinking (which as Charles would say, is dangerous :)! I have really been wanting to go to the beach, or at least just see the ocean, since we are so close and everything now! So, since we were already halfway there we decided to head to Galveston for the afternoon. We had nothing with us, so we stopped at Wally World (which just happens to be across the street from the ocean in Galveston, no joke!) to get beach necessities, i.e. swimsuits! Would you know they did not have swimsuits in the girl's sizes! So, we just bought them an outfit to change into, some sunscreen, a towel and some beach toys and headed out :)

This was Ashley's first time at the beach and she loved it! She is usually not a big fan of water so we were very excited! We probably looked goofy being on the beach and not one of us in a swimsuit, but oh well, we had fun and that was what mattered :) Afterwards we headed to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner and then headed home!

I do not have any pictures from the beach on this camera (I bought a waterproof one at Wal-Mart), but here are some from the Museum.

A cool pic of Emily playing with the mirrors!

Both are actually smiling!
Playing with the water outside.
Emily was in heaven, there was a full-size diner that the kids could play in!

There was even a whole section for Ashley to play in!

Going Private

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am going to make this a private blog. If you want to be able to view it, please leave me a comment and let me know!