Daddy Daughter Dance

Mia and Daddy attended their very first dance together. We shopped for the perfect dress...Mimi took Mia to get her hair and nails done at Sweet and Sassy right after school...she got dressed....and waited for her date. :)

Heading to school Friday morning :) It doesn't get much better for a kindergarten girl than a party during the school day and a special dance with Daddy in the evening. She WAS.SO.EXCITED!

After school transformation. 

Look at our little beauty!

Sweet angel.

They had so much fun and danced the night away. I was the official photographer since it was our school's PTA event and got to sneak a peak where all the dancing was going on at the end of the night.

PRECIOUS is the best way to describe what I witnessed.

Daddy picked his little lady up dressed in a suit, tie to match her dress and a beautiful bouquet of pink roses. She was thrilled!!!

MY FAVORITE!!!

Mia and Maddox - love those two!

Mia and her bestie Emi. 

I am so thankful for Justin and what a sweet Daddy he is to our little lady. This was such a special night for them and I am so glad we have many pictures/videos that captured the memories.

Our First Ski Trip: Crested Butte 2014

In July we booked our very first ski trip and had been looking forward to it for a long time. Justin had been sking before plenty of times, I went skiing once when we were newlyweds living in AZ and kiddos clearly had never been. We planned on heading out the day after Christmas but at the last minute decided to break up the driving. We hit the road Christmas Day (evening), spent the night in Amarillo and continued our looong second leg of the trip up the mountains.

Crested Butte in Colorado might be the most beautiful little town ever. It is precious beyond words. No chain restaurants in a 50 mile radius, snow everywhere, surrounded by mountains on all sides, beautiful scenery, decorated for the holidays  and the perfect place for first time skiers. The resort was not too busy and everyone was super nice/helpful.

Our condo was cute, clean, well stocked with beautiful views and just super cozy. We skiied for 3 days and enjoyed sledding/other fun the other two days. The kids had so much fun! We made lots of memories and plans to return next year. Here are some of our favorite pictures.

We are SO proud of Luka and Mia. They learned how to ski without ski school!!! Saved Momma and Daddy some money and rocked the slopes! They were more comfortable on the big people slopes than I was. LOL! I was impressed with Justin's teaching and their willingness to brave the mountain over and over and over again. 

Let's Catch Up

{Longest post in the history of blogging}

Well, it has been a while. My longest break from blogging ever. I am not sure how consistent I will be ( as busy as we are) but I want to try to record at least some of our second part of 2014/beginning of 2015. So much happens and so much we would not remember if it wasn't for this blog. I am determined to try keeping up.

SCHOOL YEAR - we are officially half way through it. WOOOHOOO! The countdown to Spring Break has officially started. Everyone is doing really good. Kids are blessed with wonderful teachers and I have a great group of kiddos this year. I am on PTA this year and didn't realize how hard those peeps work. Holy cow! I do love the group of ladies that took over this year and they are doing some amazing things for our school. Plus they are fun and hilarious and go above and beyond for each other.

KIDDOS - Mia has improved SO much in her reading. She is currently reading end of 1st grade books and loves taking AR tests to earn points. She has amazed us with her growth this year. She works hard and wants to please us and her teacher. Homework is usually done without whining and she is rocking her sigh words each week.

Luka is reading like a chap as well and currently loves the Jake Maddox series. All about those sports. He has become more independent. Homework time can still be a beating with that boy. His planner looks like it is 100 years old and he forgets things around the building all the time ( only when he is with me though).

They both love to write. They write stories all the time and they are precious. I constantly find stories on my phone notepad that Luka comes up with. They crack us up. :) Mia is more of a card maker and loves writing letters to people. She writes to everyone, teachers, friends, us, grandparents, etc. Mia went through a stage of writing poems and Luka is currently working on chapter books.

First semester was a bit crazy. We were busy, we were sick, we were exhausted but we still managed to have plenty of fun.

We went to church with friends.

We visited the Arboretum during their pumpkin season

Had fun during the red ribbon week at school.

 Went to our first Mavs game as a family.

Had lots of park days.

Went to Rowlett HS Homecoming.

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Visited our sweet Grandma in Each Texas.

Got dressed up for school's fall portraits.

Decorated pumpkins for a school project.

Enjoyed a picnic in the niehgborhood.

Participated in Hillside's First Annual Turkey Trot

Continued lessons at ASI.

Brought Ollie the Owl home from kindergarten for the week.

Played an awesome season of soccer with our Jets

Had some meltdowns ( just keeping it real).

Mastered a lot of awesome things in gymnastics even though we missed way too many classes due to being sick.Mia loves working on her gymnastics at home with Daddy. She has perfected one handed cartwheel and her round off. 

Celebrated a great season with the Jets with trophies and pizza.

We enjoyed some family nights out at our favorite restaurants - Apple Bees and Olive Garden 

Saturdays - church, cuddles, pjs.

Visited Santa at the Galleria.

Attended LP's Candlelight Christmas service with the cousins.

Started basketball. Yes, we added another sport. Crazy? YEP!

Spent Christmas Eve night in Mommy and Daddy's room...on the floor...to continue our tradition.

Luka is loving his new hoop. He wants to stay outside all the time. Our front driveway comes in handy now. :) 

These kids adore their Daddy. The doggies do as well. 

After Mia recovered from the flu and being out of school for a whole week, she couldn't wait to be off the couch.

Family game nights have become our favorite. There are still occasional tears but we have made great progress compared to last year. LOL! They love Twister! We also LOVE card games.  Farkle has been quite popular thanks to Papa for teaching the kiddos how it works. 

Beautiful Sundays outdoors in the middle of January. 

We enjoyed a fun camping trip to Tyler State park last month, just the four of us. The weather was beautiful and we learned how to "rough it" in a tiny cabin with bunk beds, concrete floor and a table with for chairs. We had a blast hiking off the trails and riding the scooters. 

Hillside Eagles hosted an awesome cup stacking tournament. Daddy was a judge, each kiddo competed individually, in doubles and on a team. I coached Mia's kinder team while Dea and Ivan helped get the score sheets. It was a family affair!

These two got sick and got the flu. YUCK. Luka and I had it in December. DOUBLE YUCK.

Monday nights are spent at the rec center. Mia and I do homework/hang out while Luka has his basketball practice. 

They entering grades in the computer. Score!!!

We went shopping for a fancy dress Mia could wear to her first ever Daddy Daughter dance. She even picked up a tie for Daddy to wear that matched her dress perfectly. PRECIOUS!

We have been making it home earlier when we can. Heading to my portable to get our stuff and get the heck out of school. 

We visited our local assisted living place with a lot of our third grade friends. Many of the siblings tagged along and made it such a special day for many of the residents.

Mia LOVES Maddox, one of my sweet third graders. She ADORES her. She is crazy about her. Maddox is just precious with Mia and they have developed this adorable big sis/little sis relationship. I am so thankful. 

Daddy celebrated his 35th birthday with 35 balloons and lots of love from his peeps.

Luka typing one of his funny stories. Love those eyes!

Mia and I enjoyed a girls night. We went to see Sponge Out of Water and after we attended our first ( and possibly last) open gym time at ASI on a Friday night. Mia had a lot of fun while Momma is thankful she could still hear in both ears from the noise. 

Family game time!!!!

Daddy joined us at school as our Watch D.O.G. Little ones were so excited!

We grabbed a picture with Mimi while she was doing morning duty.

#15 was my number playing soccer...Luka got it randomly for basketball and Momma was pretty excited. Love our #15 SO MUCH!

Twister time.

AAAAAAnd there was that one day when I ran into my daughter in the hallway and she looked like this. Daddy was in charge of her hair that morning....LOL!