Another year older...

Well another year has passed... I have been very blessed this past year! With a wonderful family and the addition of Seth nearly 3 months ago I couldn't wait to celebrate with them. We headed out to the Boardwalk to do a little shopping beforehand then headed to Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro. We love this place! The food is to die for and of course their desserts are out of this world! Plus their lounge (aka The Ice Bar) is pretty swanky too!

With everyone in tow, including my in-laws, we were ready to celebrate. And to celebrate my birthday we all had martinis! I opted for the Garden District drink which I forgot what all was in it but it was very good! It only took 1 drink for me to get a bit whoozy. Man, I've turned into a lightweight! :) Here I am with my drink...CHEERS!

After ordering our entrees, which by the way I ordered the Crawfish Ravioli, we took some pics to pass the time. I love how these came out. I am just so blessed to have such a wonderful and amazing family!

Here I am with the kiddos! Abby just absolutely loves her baby brother!

Not sure what was up with Abby's face here but here she is with her daddy.

And here is Grams with the grandkids! Then our food arrived...

Abby requested spaghetti for dinner. And yes, this was a child's plate!

Abby just loves her pasta...without sauce of course! That seems to be a favorite at several restaurants. We try to get her to taste the marinara sauce, and she will, but that's it. No mixing it together.

Now it was time for dessert!

With so many choices to choose from I finally decided on the Black and White Tuxedo Cheesecake. Oh my.... talk about SINFULLY DELICIOUS!!! This is a new favorite of ours!

After a wonderful dinner we headed home and I opened up my gifts. I had to include pics of these two adorable cards I got from the kids. They made me tear up and I just love how Abby is improving on her handwriting!

My oh-so-cute card from Seth.

With Abby's help it was sooooo adorable! She loves to write her name and yes, she loves XO's!

Here is Abby's card...

Too cute!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day....oh, how sweet the day was! Since it was Seth's first Valentine's we had to get some photos! Suprisingly they were both cooperating with me and no one cried or through a fit. :) just the way mommy likes it! Abby is such a loving big sister. She never misses a chance to kiss or hug him. Let's see how long that last...ha!

Abby had her Valentine's party at school too and she had a lot of fun. We made goodie bags & addressed valentine's the night before. Seems like she wanted to eat more of the goodies than stuff them! She wore her cute outfit and made some adorable crafts too! Although it seems like Valentine's day is more for the kids than the adults, Dan suprised me with a GC to get a mani/pedi! Wahoo...last time I did that was back in October of 2010!! Dan is sweet like that...he's not a "flowers or candy type of guy" but he knows what I love. :) Love you honey!

We finished out the evening with a gourmet meal and a delish dessert! Fish was on the menu along with fresh asparagus and rosemary infused boiled potatoes. A friend of mine suggested the dessert...Tuxedo Cake! Oh wow, it's a fave now! Thanks Candace!

All in all it was a nice evening. Dan and I caught up on our DVR shows and fell asleep in front of the TV. Very romantic, don't you think?! :)

Showing her brother some LOVE...

Abby's goodie bags for school!

Love this!

And this too...:)

Cards from Abby and Daddy...we also got some from Mimi/Papa, Auntie M/Uncle Will, and Grams/Bob Bob!

Abby signed her name along with Seth's!! She's improving!

Had to have XOXO!!

Striking a pose for mommy...she's got it down! :)
She wore the same outfit for her school party!

A little photo shoot with little brother, Seth. :) She is so sweet to him.

Can't give little brother too many kisses!

Our little handsome Valentine!

One last squeeze before I put the camera away!

Our "didn't get any snow" day!

Well it didn't snow the other day like the weatherman anticipated...:( Boo, and Abby was so looking forward to it. In fact, we all were...more snow to play in. Being a South Texas girl I haven't seen this much snow in all my life! So this is rare for even me!



After much hype from our weatherman we figured we were gonna get about 2-4 inches of snow. Well that didn't work out. No snow whatsoever. We did get freezing rain and sleet though. So we stayed in all day and made the best of it. Dan was able to come home early from work and spend the rest of the day with us. Here's how the afternoon went...

Abby making a mess as usual...well, she calls it "playing". Ha!

It was time for her "friends" to take a nap...unfortunately I asked her to do the same but she said no way.

And then it was snack time! She does take care of her friends pretty well! :)

And of course my sweet handsome boy...he's such a trooper. He definitely rules the kingdom over here!

Abby's 4th Birthday

I realize that it's now almost two months since Abby's birthday party and I'm just now getting to post the pictures. I can't believe I didn't post them sooner since I took a gazillion photos and had to narrow it down to these 20 or so! Anyways, we celebrated Abby's birthday at Sci-Port Science Center and it proved to be one fun party! Our party host was fantastic and kept all the kids entertained. What a wonderful day!

She's ready for the party! :)

We had Abby's birthday party at Sci-Port Science Center this year. It was so much fun and we would definitely do this again. Everything was perfect and a lot of fun as you will see...

It's the birthday girl and our wonderful party host! Abby is going to make Sci-Port's famous liquid nitrogen ice cream!

She poured in several ingredients but now she's pouring in the cream...she is a master at this!

Stir, stir, stir...

She's getting the hang of it! She was having a really good time!

Now it's time to put in the liquid nitrogen! I was a big scared at first since our party host started putting on all her safety gear and warned us about the hazards of spilling it. But, the kids were amazed as were we when she started pouring...

ooooooohhhhhhhh........

After mixing the ice cream ingredients with the liquid nitrogen our party host let the kids
inhale a bit of the freezing mixture. They all thought it was pretty cool!

Now it's time to taste the famous "liquid nitrogen" ice cream! I have to say that it was quite good. Reminded me of a good ol' Dairy Queen ice cream cone. Very tasty I must say! Everyone enjoyed it!

On to the cake! The wonderful Cake Fairee made Abby's princess cake again. She does such a wonderful job and Abby fell in love with it!

All she wanted to do was stare at it for a while. She is such a princess girl!

Abby was a bit shy when everyone starting singing Happy Birthday to her but she did manage a cute smile too!

Blowing out the candles...

Looks like everyone is enjoying their ice cream, cake and cupcakes! Yum!!

Here's Abby discussing "princess stuff" with Wyatt...not sure he's too interested! Ha!

Time to open presents! Wasn't sure how this was going to work considering in the past we've opened presents after the party but here it goes....

Abby was overwhelmed with everyone hovering over her so they took over...

Ha, I had to laugh when I took this pic of Abby and Tripp. They are too sweet with each other!

Here are the kids playing with one of the exhibits...which tennis ball will go faster? The one on the straight ledge or the one with the curves? Did you guess right...??

Here's Abby with her buddy, Tripp! I love this pic of them two. They have alot of fun together!

It's off to do some construction work at Sci-Port!

We made it back home and it was time to open more presents from the family. She received so many nice gifts! Thanks everyone!

And then she finally got her own digital camera! Yep, it's a real one and now she can use it instead of borrowing mine!

What a fun birthday Abby had this year! Thanks to all our friends and family for making it extra special for her! Still can't believe she's 4 years old already...(sniff, sniff)