Celebrating Resurrection Day!

My Forever Friend

I'm so fortunate to have a forever friend. Do you have such a friendship? One that defies time or distance? On that sustains itself, despite the business of life? Jennifer and I were the best of friends for only one year. Then I moved to Texas in 1987. We went to college, married, & had families. But through it all, we maintained a closeness that is only understood by those who also have a forever friend.

Jennifer visited for the weekend & we had such a good time having her in our home. Elia ADORES Jen. She even has a stuffed turtle (gifted by Jen!) named in her honor.

We were exhausted the entire time it seemed, but here are a few pictures we managed to take!

I can't stress enough how tired we were when these were taken!!!

Isaac took sooo many pictures, it started to feel like a photo shoot. So I went with it!! Elia was running around laughing hysterically! Yeah. I know. We're hot. I think I was probably saying something like, "Are we really this juvenile?" This picture seriously cracks me up!

Bluebonnets!

This time last year, I didn't even ATTEMPT to get my 2 year old in the field of Bluebonnets for an annual snapshot! She would have no part of this Texas Tradition.

This year, my now 3 year old understands the art of bribary and engaged in the forced fun with ease. The ole "If you, then mommy will" etc, etc was put into place. What talked her into the attending the photo shoot? A Slurpee from 7-11! 30 mile an hour wind gusts did not help our hair, but it was pretending we could fly!

Such innocence.

This is the "I AM looking at you" smile.

I shot a few of her dancing in the field. This is when I knew we were done!

Welcome, Mr. Yappy!

Most of you know that last Thanksgiving, our sweet Big Dog passed away after 12 great years of life. After giving our family some time to heal, we all decided our home was too quiet and needed a puppy! We definitely decided on a rescue, and boy did we get one!

Mr. Yappy (this is what you get when you allow a 3 year old to name your dog!) was lost and wandering around in the ice storms we had in February.

Thanks to Elizabeth (who just happens to own a great little shop in Southlake Town Square (plug!) that you should definitely visit by clicking HERE!), Yappy was taken in and kept safe until we could get him! Elizabeth is a true angel, and Mr. Yappy is forever grateful!

Needless to say, he looked and smelled aweful! Being on the street is not for the weak, or the clean! Our wonderful friend, and pet groomer, Kelly, saved the day. After a long day, she graciously let us race over to her shop and she worked on Mr. Yappy for hours. Thank God for good friends! Need a pet groomer you say? See Happy Tails information by clicking HERE (plug!)

So here are the BEFORE photos:

Can you believe it? What a mess! And here are the very shaved AFTER photos:

Kelly worked wonders getting that mess off of this tiny little fellow! Now it's been a few weeks, and his hair is beginning to grow out a bit.

Here's what the show dog version of Mr. Yappy might look like: But, I'm thinking we'll settle for a "do" like this: Mr. Yappy is sometimes called Mr. Grumpy Ole Man because he's still a bit timid, and wants to make you think he's a big, bad, beast! He's still getting used to the idea of trusting everyone, but he's coming around. He's learning "tricks" thanks to Elia and Daddy, and I think in time he'll learn to relax and know that we love him very much. Welcome Home, Mr. Yappy!

An outlet for all of that energy!

Elia's "My first trampoline" is her new favorite thing in life. It's just like a large trampoline, only this is just for one (small) person. Jumping on her trampoline shakes the sillies out after a long day at school. She loves to be out there while Isaac is grilling dinner.

That smile is what it is ALL about.

(Yes, I know, staining our fence is on our list of things to do this Spring.)

( Don't worry, the winter clovers in the background got mowed. We're getting our Spring cleaning started slowly but surely!)

Yeeeee Haw!

Elia recently had Western Week at school. She wore cowboy boots and a hat each day, although the bandana never made it past the front door. She was NOT excited about the forced-fun square dancing show they put on at the end of Western Week. I have the evidence in the photo's below...

Is this not the saddest Seniorita you've ever seen?

At this point, only sitting with her class because I am RIGHT behind her on the floor (and not sitting with the rest of the parents in chairs!!)
BEGGING me to rescue her from the forced-fun event. This is her crying out "mommyyyyyy". Breaks my heart!

Oh, being 3 is SO HARD! Notice she refuses to get in line, and just wants this miserable day to be over! No worries though, she had a great time with her friends as soon as they returned to their class. I'm with Elia, I'm not a fan of forced-fun either. Poor kid.

Cabin Fever!

Overnight we received a blanket of ice covered in beautiful snow. It was terrible to try to drive on (speaking from experience), but made for another great day together as a family. What to do when cooped up all day? Cook, of course! I was going to make cupcakes, but didn't have my cake mix, so we made cookies from scratch! I've never made the Nestle Toll House recipe from the back of the morsels bag until today, and they were a hit!

Elia paced back and forth with her hands folded behind her back in anticipation of the timer going off.

Still waiting...

First batch done!

Elia asked to put cookies in the muffin pan, and may I just say they were delish!
With a wind chill below zero, we bundled her up for a VERY quick snow angel.

Our daughter is in there somewhere, I promise.

Ready to collect the snow for a little snow ice cream! (She wanted to put it directly in the Radio Flyer, but mommy insisted on the zip lock bag)

Paula Deen's recipe is the best I've ever had!

She approves!