Hip Hop

Ellie just finished her first four-week Hip Hop class at the local Wylie Rec Center.  Robin's mom, Dawn asked a bunch of us if we'd like to join Robin in the class and we were thrilled to join.  As you can see Robin and Ellie are joined at the hip now.  They are so great together - same disposition, same funny faces and what I love most is to see them laugh together!  And all the while they call each other cousins due to the family connection!

We;re still figuring out how to shrink the video be able to upload.  In the meantime here's a photo of the final dance routine of the season!

Robin (left) right next to Ellie the whole time!

Concentrating on the upcoming dance!

Snow Day

Snow day to have an ADVENTURE 

Tiramisu Latte to begin my day off!

Snowy view from our lunch spot in Richardson

Friday I had the day off from working last Saturday at the Call Center.  We call it a flex day - and I'm not really good at remembering to take mine.  Friday I remembered!  And I was actually looking forward to it.  It had been a long week of weather, rescheduling, scrambling and truly looking forward to our upcoming vacation!

My day was full of errands, happiness and coffee.

I spent time making a housewarming basket to take to our new neighbors, Jen, Kevin, Olivia and Ava who we will visit on Saturday afternoon.  They've moved from Arizona in the last couple weeks.  Jen and I are getting our girls together after sharing only pictures for the past month!

And through the snow I trekked to Twisted Root to have lunch with Bill.  A welcome lunch date in the middle of all the chaos.  And to round out the day I ventured home, a stop at Target for a birthday gift for Ellie's teacher this week .. arriving in time to park and home and walk to school to pick her up!  The crossing guard called us 'brave' for venturing out in the weather.

We didn't mind.  We love to walk in the snow.  Our cheeks were a bit pink when we arrived home and we were happy to walk and talk the whole time!

My Starbucks Girl!

I know you'll agree that my girl is just about the cutest thing around!  She's always up for an adventure to the store, whether we're shopping for groceries or a new pair of running shoes.  She's there.  She also loves her craft projects and is always game for a trip to Michael's.

On this particular occasion we were keeping busy while Bill was feeling under the weather with a few errands.  It had to include a quick trip through the drive thru at Starbucks next to Kroger!  She is all the rage with her hot cocoa in hand!

Who wouldn't want this awesome, smiley helper along for the ride?!

Happy Birthday to Bill!

Happy Birthday to Bill was capped off with the arrival of our MAGIC BANDS!

These colorful bracelets are getting us one step closer to our Disney trip on March 7th!  The bands provide us access to the parks, our hotel room, paying for food and purchasing souvenirs! They are downright MAGIC!

We were able to order the color of our choice and our names are actually on the inside of the band as well.  If only they would also track steps - then I wouldn't have to where my FitBit too!

Cannot wait to celebrate Bill's belated birthday and Ellie's early birthday while we're in Florida as a family!

The Wall at Kenny's

Our framed photo on the wall at Kenny's Burger Joint!

You may recall that on one of our first trips to Kenny's Burger Joint - and we've been back 3 times since - they asked if they could take our family photo for the Wall of Fame.  Of course, we agreed and on a recent return trip we found the photo had made it to the wall!

What a treat to see our family front and center after having enjoyed a great meal.

Yes, we've been back three times since!

Once we met up with Michael and Jeanine Martineau, that we knew from Charlottesville - and they'd already enjoyed Kenny's Italian on the other side of Plano!  And the burger joint was a hit.

And secondly, we brought Aunt Di and Uncle Bruce with us to enjoy one of our favorite go-to spots in town.  It made for a nice treat between showing them City Line and a visit to SouthFork!

Sunday Art Project

Supplies!

Ellie preparing her canvas!

Part-way there ...

Ellie painted 3 canvases in her collection!

"To the world you may be just one person,
but to one person you may be the world."

Happy Valentine's Day

Our adventure this morning was a shopping trip to Watters Creek in Allen.  Bill and Ellie headed to Pandora for a Valentine charm for my bracelet, while I headed to Sephora to redeem a certificate!

It was sunny and warm - temps headed to the low 70's in February!

Later in the day Ellie and I visited Michaels for an art project, Dick's Sporting Goods for a new larger size soccer ball for the new season and Kroger for chocolate covered strawberries as a dessert treat!

We loved the sunny, warm weather and being outside walking was a real treat!

Black Bat Day

In our house Friday, the 13th is affectionately known as Black Bat Day!

The tradition goes back to my days babysitting at Jody's house.  She and her sister, Cindy would leave cut out black bats for each other all over their bedroom growing up, and later in their respective houses.  Today, Jody's sisters Cindy and Linda, my sister Maureen and I all celebrate Black Bat Day!

I have been mentioning it at work when we talk about Friday being the 13th!  And what a surprise I had when I walked in on Friday morning to my office ... lots of cut out black bats - everywhere!

They made me laugh so hard!  A couple of the early Supervisors, Tiffany and Stuart decorated for me!  What a wonderful surprise!

Flat Tire

The beauty and dilemma of arriving as the first tenant in the new building strike a delicate balance as we tiptoe through life.  As the first department in City Line its a wonderful thing to have the view, the newness and the excitement of arriving early in the year.

The challenge is that the rest of the place is still under construction.  And on my way into the parking garage on Tuesday I must have caught a nail in my rear tire.  Security sent me an Instant Message asking if I owned a Ford Explorer parked on the second level of the garage.  We then established that I had a flat and would need to call AAA.

The driver quickly came and put the donut in place of the tire.  Bill arrived to take the Explore to a local tire place in order for me to have a drive-able vehicle!

Hence my early Valentine's Day present - 4 new tires!!

No food pictures - just family shots!

Three gals at the breakfast counter in the kitchen

The boys' selfie

Just the two of us

Using the trip-pod for a family shot

oh my girl - she always take a great photo!

SouthFork Ranch with the Ewing's

We're on the tram awaiting our tour of the property to begin!

Ellie hanging out on the tour

Does this look familiar?  That's SouthFork Ranch where JR Ewing lived!

That long driveway on every show ...

She's found her spot!

Our family in the Ewing living room under "Jock" Ewing's picture

Cowboy hat for the Texan!

The girls in the famous driveway - with the wind a-blowing!

Cutest cowgirl you'll ever see!

We had a great day on Saturday showing Aunt Di and Uncle Bruce our area of Texas.  Ellie chose our lunch place - and picked Kenny's in hopes of Hailey being our waitress.

Hip Hop

"You want me to do what?"

Happy to be here!

Watching the instructor practice the routine

Robin and Ellie waiting for instruction

Ellie began her Hip Hop class this week at the Wylie Rec Center with her 'cousin' Robin.  She was so excited to start a new class, to spend time with Robin AND learn to hip hop!  These girls were really adorable.  They worked hard and smiled the entire time.  It was awesome to see!

Practice Pies

One of my supervisors at work tells the story of every year at this birthday his mom would ask, "Jeremy, what kind of cake do you want for your birthday this year?"  and every year he'd say, "I don't want cake.  I want a cherry pie."  And she'd make a cake.  Which makes me laugh!

My team has also asked that we celebrate more in 2015 - which I completely agree with!  So last team meeting I made a German Chocolate Cake to celebrate both Andi and Alberto's birthdays within the same week!  Good timing.

Next team meeting we're going out to lunch to celebrate more changes on the team.  And the following team meeting we'll celebrate Jeremy's birthday with cherry pies.  But this is not something I've made before.  So I knew I needed to make practice pies at some point.  And truth be told I didn't know if I made them for home I'd even like cherry pie!

So when I found out that Jeremy's parents were going to visit the new building on Friday and his dad's favorite is, guess what, cherry pie! I couldn't resist making practice pies to share with them.  One container for his parents and one container with practice pies for him.

For the team meeting I'm thinking I'll do part cherry pies and part apple pies - since I'm sure that not every one favors cherry to apple ...

Spring sprung and disappeared!

Seems in Texas we are still adjusting to this weather.  We had about two weeks of winter in December and January and thought we were done.  Kinda greedy for us to think we could get away with just two weeks of winter.

So when the Groundhog saw his shadow this morning and we were deemed to have 6 more weeks of winter I thought, 'well that's okay too!"  Its been a very mind winter in Texas - and we're already into February.  Spring is right around the corner!

We're still getting outdoors every day - precipitation has been kept to a minimum and even the cold days are just winter coat and gloves weather.  We're very lucky, I say!

Here's a bit of Spring I put on the table this weekend - Trader Joe's has great flowers too!

Cupcakes!

After dinner on Saturday of pasta with meatballs we had cupcakes!  Ellie thought that would be a good idea because CJ HAD to to like cupcakes!

We made butter pecan with cookie butter butter cream - after a special stop at Trader Joe's to get the Cookie Butter.  It is amazing on its own - and makes a great flavor for butter cream too!

The cupcakes were a hit!