November/December 2019

Hannah won 3rd place at the Dallas Solo piano competition.  So proud of all her hard work.  She is learning so many great life skills in addition to music.  

The 4th graders at school did a Veteran's Day program.  Their music teacher did a fabulous job putting this together and all the kids worked really hard.  

We had a great Thanksgiving break...love that we are out of school the whole week. We mostly hung out at home, but Nathan did take one extra day off work and we went to the Ft Worth Zoo.  It was a little chilly, but not miserable.  All in all a super fun day.

Our choir and orchestra Christmas concert was really really good.  Both girls sang in the children's choir and they sang in a smaller select ensemble as well.  Hannah was also asked to memorize and recite the Luke 2 Christmas story as an introduction to one of the songs.  She did a AMAZING job! So proud of her. (photo credit Tuyen Le)

2nd Grade also did a school program this year.  It was winter/holiday themed. Abigail's favorite song was "Mr Grinch."  It was super cute and the kids (and music teacher) worked really hard to put it all together.

Hannah is super excited to have finally hit double digits, but mommy is STRUGGLING!  Swear she was just born yesterday.  Her birthday pictures turned out super cute though!

We had a nice low-key Christmas.  We enjoyed lots of yummy food, Christmas sing-along, and opened presents.  The weather wasn't Christmasy but 70 degrees instead.  My dad got the girls a remote control car so they took it up to the school parking lot to play for a while.  All in all it was a great day.

I'll leave you with the 6th Annual edition of jammie pictures in front of the Christmas tree.

June 2018

Nathan and I decided that the girls were finally big enough to take a real vacation where we don't just go visit family.  We didn't want to go anywhere too far away or too expensive so we chose San Antonio (about 6 hours away).  It's HOT in Texas so we planned early June so we didn't completely melt.  We had a fabulous time and made so many great memories!!!

We left on a Monday morning and arrived that afternoon.  We made a potty stop at Bucee's and the girls wanted their picture taken with the beaver statue.  Once we checked into our hotel we headed downtown.  We walked along the Riverwalk and then went to the Alamo.

We spent ALL day at Sea World Tuesday.  I have always enjoyed the animal shows, but it was really fun to see the girls get so excited and listen to their squeals of joy!  We even got to see a baby sea lion that had been born early that morning.  SOOO cute!

 The girls have been saving their allowance money so they could buy a toy to remember our trip.  Abigail began talking about seeing orca whales weeks before we left.  Not surprised that's what she picked.

Wednesday we decided to take in easier and not spend all day outside.  We found a REALLY cool park to play at in the morning while it was still shady.  Then we had some lunch and watched a movie in our hotel.  My college roommate lives in San Antonio so we were excited to hook up with her and her kiddos that night.  They had tons going on that week and we were glad we were able to connect.  We met them at their neighborhood pool for swimming and pizza. 

 Hannah and Amelia are only a year apart so they became fast friends.  Abigail and Corrine had fun playing together in the shallow end despite their age difference.  Luke is 9 and he was happy playing with other boys in the pool instead of the girls.

Thursday we headed to the zoo.  I think this was the day the heat affected us the most.  Even though we were outside longer at Sea World the day was broken up by 30 minutes of sitting in the shade to watch shows.  The zoo was ALL walking.  However we had lots of fun and enjoyed seeing some different animals.  We bought tickets for the zoo experience which included a train ride and admission to the butterfly house.

The Japanese Tea Gardens were across the street from the zoo.  We went in for a few minutes but not long because we were really hot and tired from walking around the zoo all day.  They were amazing and I loved seeing all God's beauty!  But I think we would have enjoyed them more if we had visited on a different day.

The week after we got back was VBS at church.  Our theme this year was Amazed Beyond Belief (emoji's).  It was a super busy week but we had lots of fun.  And we learned that God can do anything!  The girls got to come help me decorate the room I was working in which they thought was super cool!  We also drove a friend back and forth.  Her mamma agreed to drive one more friend than she had seats in her car. The girls loved getting to play with Ellie while waiting for her mom to get back.

Abigail was so excited that she FINALLY gets to start piano lessons!  She is doing really well so far and already knows 4 different notes. So far she's pretty cooperative during practice too which is nice.  I'm sure we'll have plenty of arguments before long though.  HA!

I decided to take the girls to the Heard Museum one morning before it got too hot.  It's only about 15 minutes away.  We had a great time looking at the rescue animals and walking on one of the trails. 

April 2017

Thankfully we've had lots of nice weather this month.  I always get worried when it warms up early that it will be hot too quickly.  We've had a few cool fronts come through to keep temperatures down.  I actually really love warm spring weather when it's nice enough to enjoy spending time outside without wearing a jacket....and before the awful Texas heat sets in.

My mom and I took Abigail to Duck Creek one Friday while Hannah was in school.  This is a super pretty park/creek in a neighborhood not too far from my parent's house.  There is usually lots of wildlife although we only saw turtles and a few ducks this time.  Abigail enjoyed feeding them though.  =)

Hannah's class went on a field trip to the Dallas Zoo at the beginning of the month.  I had to teach my preschool music class that day and was sad I couldn't go.  But Nathan was able to take off work.  They had a great time and the weather was beautiful!

Hannah had Good Friday and Easter Monday off this year.  We thoroughly enjoyed our four day weekend.  Nathan and my dad had to work, but my sister was off.  Friday we took the girls to play miniature golf. It was so much fun and also quite entertaining.  We tried to help the girls with correct putting form, but they preferred to putt between their legs.  LOL!  We had a great time though.

My mom also got supplies to make resurrection gardens.  Before we made them we read the Easter story from the Jesus Storybook Bible.

That was the extent of our Easter celebrating other that going to church on Sunday. We didn't do any egg hunt or Easter baskets.  We did take pictures of the girls in their dresses.  My mom actually bought these for them last year and they still fit.  Yeah for saving some money!  And I love that they still enjoy wearing matching clothes.  I plan to take advantage as long as they will let me.  LOVE the sweet french braids too...that's Grammy.  I wish I knew how to do them, but I never learned.

Hannah lost tooth number 5 on Easter morning right before we left for church.  It had been loose for several months and was just barely hanging on for almost a week before it finally fell out.

Hannah had her second piano festival last week and this one was also a competition.  Hannah played really really well and she was so excited to win 1st place.  The look on her face when they called her name was priceless!

Our zoo membership expired this month and we decided not to renew it again.  We've kept it for 3 years and now that both girls will be in school we don't have as many opportunities to use it.  And we bought Six Flags memberships last fall.  Those are good until the end of December and then next year we'll pick a new place to join.  There are so many choices in the DFW area!!  We wanted to make one last trip to the zoo before our membership expired so we went on Saturday.  It was hot and humid, but the rain held off and we had a great time.  The brand new hippo exhibit opened the day before.  It is really nice, but sadly the hippos were hiding and we only saw their noses peek up for air.

March 2017

Plano had their spring break at the very beginning of March.  We started off our week with a quick visit to Arkansas to see Nathan's family.  His sister recently received a kidney transplant and we were excited to see her.  She is doing really well!  No pictures with Angela or Paw Paw.  Their apartment is very dark and it was cold and raining outside.  Hopefully when we go in the summer we can take some.  But we did have a great time visiting and playing!

These cuties are such good travelers!

Nathan took the whole week off work so we got to spend lots of time together as a family.  We rode bikes, played at the park, went to the zoo, and watched Finding Nemo.  We also spent time playing with toys and reading books.  It was a nice relaxing week. We were so glad we had good weather so we could spend time outside.  Here's few pictures of the fun!

The girls also got invited to a birthday party.  The Creature Teacher came for a visit and brought lots of fun animals.  Everyone was able to pet each animal.  We saw a: pig, sugar glider, chinchilla, tortoise, tarantula, chameleon, and ferret.  But the coolest animal was the kangaroo.  Yes it's wearing a diaper and yes it really did get to hop all over the living room.  It was so cute and really sweet.  It was also surprisingly soft.  The kids also got to feed it almonds.  It was really awesome!

We took a walk with Grammy up to the college.  We were hoping to find baby geese or ducks but no such luck.  It was probably a little too early.  We did take the opportunity to do a mini photo session though.  Hannah has gotten so good at taking pictures.  Abigail tries so hard and is really cooperative, but she still struggles with looking at the camera and not doing a "cheesy" smile. =P  These turned out so cute!

LOVE the personality in this photo!!