Princess Castle

We had a few boxes left over from some new furniture, so Todd decided to make Lindsay a cardboard house.  After they did a little "decorating", he started adding on and things got a little out of control... now we have a huge princess castle in the living room!

The things a Daddy will do for his little girl.... :)

Early Spring

January has been unusually pretty... and it's been perfect for getting outside and playing!

Bossing the dog around... 

Driving the Cozy Coupe at Grandma's house 

My stylin' little toddler! :)

Here's hoping we get to keep this nice weather all spring!

Turning 2

It's official... we are parents of a bona-fide 2 year old!  Good thing she's still cute and pretty sweet most of the time... maybe "terrible two's" won't be too bad!



Attempting to blow out a birthday candle

We had her party last weekend with both sides of our family.  Thanks to her current love of Mickey and Minnie, the decorating was pretty easy -- red, black, and lots of polka dots!

Our little family :)

"2" Brownies!  These were super easy to make, I just baked a shallow pan of brownies, then cut out shapes with a number cookie cutter.  Endless possibilites for future parties!

The decorations

From the other side of the table (please ignore the bad icing job on the cake!).  Below is the dessert table.

The birthday girl!

Mmm, cupcakes!

Good girl, she reads the cards first!  Not sure this will last...

She finally figured out how to rip open the paper... looks like we're in trouble next Christmas!

 

We love you, sweet girl!  Happy birthday!

Christmas Marathon

We didn't run an actual marathon -- we had one of the holiday variety!  Seriously, this Christmas season felt like a marathon!  We are so lucky to have both sides of the family living so close, and that meant having five days of non-stop Christmas fun.  Lindsay handled it like a champ -- Todd and I, though, were exhausted! :)  Here are a few highlights...

We discovered a love for "decorating" this Christmas -- trees, presents, cookies, you name it!

She was very comfortable meeting Santa the first time at a Christmas breakfast.  When we tried to visit him again at Market Street on Christmas Eve, all she said was "No thanks, not right now."

Daddy and Lindsay at the park while Mommy wrapped presents 

Santa came to Lollie and Pops' house and brought an awesome Little People Princess Castle (and all of the princesses)!

The first of many years of handmade Christmas ornaments for my tree. :)

Checking out the fun "kitchen" (stove) Santa brought to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Holding on tight to "Jingle" (an Elf on the Shelf plush toy -- no hiding or special powers) while we took a road trip to Memaw's house.

Concentrating very hard to put ornaments on the tree...

Lindsay loved helping us decorate for Christmas! 

As much fun as we had over Christmas, Lindsay was very concerned when she noticed people in the neighborhood taking down their decorations.  She still asks me every day on the way home from school, "Where are the Christmas lights, Mommy?".  She also got very upset when the tree was packed away!  We've tried to explain that Christmas is over and that we'll do it again next year, but how do you explain a the concept of a year to a 2 year old?!?

Disney 2012: Meet the Characters

Fun family photo in front of Cinderella's Castle!

When we've gone to Disney before, it was never really part of the "adult" agenda to stand in line and meet characters.  Every once in a while, we'd get a picture with a random character (like Donald in a sombrero and all of the 7 dwarfs from Snow White!), but we never really planned our trip around it.

Now that L's almost 2, and in love with the Disney characters and Princesses, we made it a point to visit the characters that she knew and loved.  I worried she might have a little "stranger-danger" since the characters are so much bigger in person, but she was excited to talk to everyone and give out hugs (except, for whatever reason, poor Peter Pan!).  Instead of an autograph book, we took a photo mat from a picture frame and had all the characters sign it.  Now we have something we can hang on the wall and enjoy to remember our visit!


Finally meeting Mickey.  Love her sweet face in this one!

Dancing with Mickey Mouse

Donald signing our photo mat at Chef Mickey's Breakfast

L absolutely LOVES Ariel!  And Ariel was so sweet, she sat and talked to L for about 5 minutes about all the pretty shells and other things in the room.  We had to go back and visit her again before we left the park. :)

L's other favorite character!

Loving on Daisy Duck

Goofy was also really sweet -- I guess he may have intimidated a small child or two before, because he sat down on the ground as we walked up so he wouldn't be so tall when L came to talk to him.

Seeing Snow White was almost as exciting as meeting Ariel! 

This opened up a whole new aspect of Disney for our family, and I was so impressed by the time each character took to make sure L had a special moment with them.  They really committed to doing what Disney does best -- creating magical memories!

Disney 2012

We are so lucky that we get to tag along with Todd to his annual conference in Orlando... and even luckier that we get to visit Disney World while we're there!  Disney is amazing year-round, but at Christmas, it is truly magical.

We started our trip with a short stay at Universal Studios (where the conference was), but soon headed over to Disney to start the fun. :)  What can I say?  Seeing this sign just never gets old!

Our view from our balcony at Wilderness Lodge

Small World: L's favorite ride, Daddy's not-so-favorite ride!

She also discovered a new love this year... Prince Charming's Carousel!

Waiting to eat at O'Hana at the Polynesian 

Afternoon goldfish snack  

Ready to head to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!

On the carousel... again! :)

Family picture at Cinderella's Castle

We also spent a big part of our trip meeting characters -- L was so excited to meet them!  I'll save that for the next post.

Houston Color Run

Right before Thanksgiving, some of us from the math department got together and did the Houston Color Run.  The Color Run is a 5K run/walk through downtown that raises money for a local charity that works with veterans.   All along the route, there are stations set up where volunteers throw colored powder at you.  Messy?  Absolutely.  Super fun?  Absolutely!

The four of us at the start line -- all smiles in our clean white t-shirts!

Waiting at the start line... behind about 10,000 other runners.

The pink station.  I think the volunteers had as much fun as we did!

We had to stop mid-race and take a picture with the downtown skyline.

The blue station -- glad we didn't have to work clean-up afterward!  What a mess!

At the finish line (with a random creeper getting in on our picture!)!

Every 15 minutes, there was a color party at the finish line where everyone threw powder at each other.  We were already super messy, so why not add a little more?

Perfect sign for the finish line!

I am by no means a runner, but I had so much fun doing this race with these ladies!  What a great way to spend my first 5K!