Brian's Birthday and Preschool Christmas Party

Brian celebrated his birthday on December 5th. Big 28! First we went to lunch with his parents and sister, then later on, we had Pizza and birthday cake for dinner.





A couple of Sunday's ago, Brian and I left Maddie with his parents and we went out shopping for Maddie's Christmas presents. We hit up Toys R Us and went WAY over budget, but we got some real cute toys for her. She has entered a new toy phase, so earlier in the week I picked up all the toys that were broken or missing pieces and threw them away. Then, I gathered up all the toys that she has out-grown and put them away. (All during the night while she was asleep of course. I don't think she has noticed anything is missing)

While we were at Toys R Us, Brian stumbled upon a train set that he would have loved to have. He has actually talked about wanting a remote control train set, and here, he found one. A Christmas one to be exact. We both looked at it and thought how cute it would look around the Christmas tree. We looked at each other, then back at the train for a few minutes, wondering if we should just buy it. And buy it we did. I didn't really hesitate because he just had a birthday, and he had just found out that he passed his CPA exams. Its official. Brian is now a CPA! It has been something he has been working on forever! We are both very glad he is done!

After Maddie had her bath, we surprised her with the train and she helped Brian put it together.


Lastly, today was the last day of preschool for this semester and we finished it off well with a class Christmas party. They had a craft, book exchange and they got to ice sugar cookies.

Maddie and her friend Rylie

Rylie was inspecting Maddie's art work.

Book Exchange
Spreading icing on sugar cookies.
Obviously pleased with her work!
Merry Christmas!

Tree Lighting

(Maddie after I picked her up from preschool one day)

Wow, have I been busy these past couple of weeks! And the thing is, I can't really pin point why exactly Ive been so busy, all I know is that I have not have time to sit to blog, watch my shows, or do anything relaxing. I feel like I've done nothing but run around these past few days. I think it's that I have had a hard time getting back into the groove after the Thanksgiving holidays, Brian got sick on his birthday, my best friend had a baby...just so much going on this time of year!

First, here are some pictures my parents took of Maddie decorating the Christmas tree. Brian and I had left on our early anniversary get away the night we were decorating, so it was up to my parents to document the event.









Last weekend Brian, Maddie and I went down town Plano to watch their tree lighting ceremony. Brian's dad plays in the Plano Community Orchestra and they were all set up playing under the gazebo. The whole thing was really nice. The weather was great and the lights were fun. Maddie, on the other hand, was not playing along.

Brian and Maddie in front of the tree. And Let me just sat that ALL NIGHT LONG when she took a picture with him, this is what we got:

But a picture taken with me, this is what I get:
Thanks.

Here we are waiting for the tree to light up.

She was exhausted. And it wasn't even 7:00 pm yet.

I was trying really hard to capture her expression as she gasped in excitement the moment the tree lit up. And this is what we ended up with. Her emotions were a little anti-climactic.

The Plano Orchestra was playing in the gazebo behind Brian and Maddie.


On our way back to the car we stopped at this bridge were Brian proposed to me 7yrs ago. I think it was our first time back since then.

And, this is the cake I made for Brian for his birthday. I had just added the filling, but the Chocolate Gnash Kahlua icing was hardening, so I couldn't add it yet. But, let me just say, that it was delicious!

A birthday post will come up shortly.

Early Anniversay gift

Brian and I got to celebrate our 6 year anniversary a little early this year. Our actual anniversary is December 17, but we got to go do something special last weekend.

It all started on Saturday around 4:00 pm. Some of our family was still at our house from the Thanksgiving holiday. We were all in the front living room putting up the Christmas tree when there wound up being some sort of mess and confusion about an already-paid-for-unclaimed-hotel-room at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas. So after the confusion had been settled, my parents decided to pay the owner of the said hotel room and give it to Brian and I as an early anniversary gift!

Brian and I have also started a tradition a couple of years ago to go to The Melting Pot in Addison for our anniversary dinner. So, we decided, since we were going to be spending the night in Dallas, lets just make it an official anniversary date and go to dinner as well. And that we did. Had I known we were going out to a nice dinner and an even nicer hotel for the evening, I would have washed my hair when I got up that morning, I would have bought a new dress and I would NOT have eaten so much for lunch.
By this time it was about 4:45. I made a quick reservation for 6:15 for dinner. We only had about an hour to change clothes, pack our bags, say our good-byes (Maddie doesn't like to say good bye, it takes forever to leave the house) and drive to Addison which takes about 20-30 min.

We had a GREAT time! Dinner was FABULOUS as always and the Hotel reminded me of the Titanic since its a historical hotel. I didn't get any pictures of dinner since I didn't want to take my ginormous camera inside with me but I got plenty inside the hotel.

This was our view outside. It was neat how the stop lights had a large ornament hanging from the middle. The ornament changed colors also.

A plate with chocolate covered strawberries and other chocolate treats greeted us as we walked in the room.

Yes, the sweet well-wishes were made in white chocolate as well!

I LOVED this bed and the mirror above it. Its SO early 19 hundreds.

I also loved the rotary phone and the mirrored table.

They had the hotel decorated for Christmas. It was beautiful!

This was one of the lobbies. In the back, stands an ornately wood-carved Grand Piano. Beautiful!

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We hosted it here at the house and most of the family came and we had WAY to much food and desert like always. I am not entirely crazy about thanksgiving food, mainly because Christmas food is WAY better. And that is mainly because I like Ham better than Turkey.
Brian, Ashlee and Michael started the day off right running the Turkey Trot in Dallas. I was going to go, but I chickened out. On Wednesday night when we were going to bed, I looked at Brian and told him I wasn't upset I wasn't going with them. They were about to do two things I HATE the most: Waking up early and running.



Like I said earlier, we stayed in Murphy for Thanksgiving, but what set this Thanksgiving apart from the rest was this:

That is my sister and her new Fiance, Michael.

We all gathered up around the living room for my dad to say a prayer. Everyone (except me, brian, my mom and dad because we all knew about the surprise) faced my dad expecting him to start talking, but he didn't. Michael started to talk. He said how much he loved our family etc... then he turned around to face Ashlee, got down on one knee and proposed. Everyone was SO surprised and Brian was finally able to sigh in relief that he didn't have to keep a secret anymore.

After that, my dad said the actual prayer and we engorged ourselves. Just kidding.
Congratulations to Ashlee and Michael!

I'm pretty sure Maddie thinks she has mastered the art of scraping food around her plate to make it look like she ate most of it.

Kaia, My cousin's daughter. So, Maddie's 3rd cousin?