Christmas 2009

Steph hasn't been able to blog much lately, so I'm gonna hijack this blog for a little while and try to get this thing back up to speed.

This Christmas season has been a joyous one for our family!

Several weeks ago we were able to watch Katy perform with the preschool choir. She did excellent as usual!

Both Katy and Keelie got to have a Christmas party with their classes at preschool. I took a few pictures of Keelie with her friends in her class. Keelie wanted to give her friend Ryder a hug for the picture.

Then Tori wanted to hug Ryder too! Poor fella - he's already having to beat the women off with a stick! Kinda reminds me of elementary school . . .

During Katy's party, her class performed the nativity story for all the parents. Katy got to play the part of the angel Gabriel!

Our family also went to see the ICE! exhibit at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine. It was fun, and the girls really enjoyed it, but I'll be honest with you - it wasn't nearly as good as last year. It seemed like we were done in about 10 or 15 minutes.







This year we had Christmas with both sides of our family at our house. On Christmas Eve day, my family came over for Christmas dinner.


This is my Uncle Robert trying out my Grandmother's new Snuggie!





While we were eating and opening presents the snow arrived!



Later on Christmas Eve, Steph's family came over to spend the night and we had our Christmas morning opening presents with them.

This year Santa Claus brought Keelie a new toy chest and Katy a huge doll house along with about a half dozen Barbie dolls.






This was the first white Christmas of my lifetime, and I believe only the 5th in north Texas in 111 years of recording the weather. It was beautiful! The holly berries made for a pretty picture on Christmas morning.

On Christmas night the girls got to spend the night with Mimi and PawPaw, so Steph and I got to go to a movie. We went to see Blind Side with Sandra Bullock, and it was an exceptional movie. I would recommend you go out and see it today. Steph looked so pretty on our date that I wanted to get a picture!

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you a happy new year!

We're off!

Well, almost. We are so excited about leaving for Iowa tonight! Katy is REALLY excited. The first thing she said when she woke up was, "I can't wait to leave for Iowa. I really miss Uncle Denny! Remember last year when I wouldn't hug him? I'm going to this year! I miss him so much!" It was adorable!

The calls from Iowa friends have already started! We feel like celebrities when we go up there. Everyone is always so excited to see us; the feeling is mutual. We have made so many friends and we can't wait to make more!

Iowa...Here we come!!!!

Halloween Weekend

On Friday, Katy and Keelie got to wear their PJ's and slippers to school. They were so excited! Rob snapped some really cute pics of them before school.

Rob also sent me a very unexpected surprise on Friday. I was called to the office and, there waiting for me, was a very large, beautiful bouquet of flowers in Fall colors. The note read, "Just to say I love You." This was a very monumental day for Rob; it was only the second time in over 9 years that I have recieved flowers from him. This thoughtful, unexpected gesture really made me feel loved. I love you-Thanks so much, babe!

Halloween night, we got the girls dressed up and took them to Carnival 31 (our church's Fall Festival). Katy has wanted to be Dorothy ever since she discovered The Wizard of Oz last year. She asked her Ma to make her a Dorothy dress. She did a fabulous job on the dress! After make-up and curling her hair, Katy really looked like Judy Garland in the movie! We couldn't believe it! She was GORGEOUS!!! Keelie was a little Pumpkin. She was adorable, as usual. I don't have much to say about her costume...

Katy's Birthday Party

We had a wonderful time at Katy's birthday party. It started with Uncle Denny calling from Iowa to wish Katy a wonderful day. It was such a blessing for him to call!!!

We then had a house full of family and friends! Katy got some wonderful gifts and enjoyed a very tasty cupcake cake!!!

The surprise of the day was when Mark and Lindsey (Rob's sister and her husband) announced they were expecting their 2nd child! CONGRATULATIONS Blevins family!!!

I can't believe it...

Katy is 5 years old today!

Rob and I keep talking about how we can't believe that our baby girl is now 5 years old!!! It seems like yesterday we were anticipating her birth, experiencing all the new joys of parenthood and wishing she would talk (we're actually wondering about that wish now...LOL). Now, Katy is in preschool and doing AWESOME! She is starting to read, she LOVES writing, and she is just blossoming into a wonderful young girl!

Today we celebrated her birthday with my parents and my sister's family. When we asked Katy where she wanted to go for her birthday, you would assume it would be some really kid friendly place like Chuck-E-Cheese or McDonald's...well our sophisticated litte 5 year old chose Prairie House because she wanted brisket and a baked potato.

We had a lot of fun and she ended up talking my sister into a slumber party at Anie and Uncle's house! We are now looking forward to a fun Birthday Party on Saturday with our whole family and some of our friends!!!