Grandma Liz

Grandma Liz came to visit us 2 weeks ago (surprise, surprise, I am behind again). We had a great time with her.


Liz is the one in the middle. Her cousin, Grace, lives in Carrollton and was kind enough to hang out with Liz and the girls while Ian and I were gone (we'll get to that in a bit).


Reagan was able to show Grandma Liz her new violin and what she does to practice. Reg was very excited to demonstate, as you can see.

We, Jenna and I, took Liz out to lunch on Friday.

After lunch, we took Reagan out of school early and headed off to the American Girl store. Since Liz wasn't around for Reagan's birthday, she got her a few things there.

Here she is with Reagan. (Heidi, this is the dress that you got Reg for her birthday. She loves it! It is like someone that knows everything about her likes and dislikes picked it out for her. ;) )

And here she is with Jenna.

Liz was kind enough to watch the girls so Ian and I could get away and spend some time together. So we packed up our things and took the long, I don't know, 10 mile drive South to the Four Seasons Resort and Club in Las Colinas. I know, when we get away we really like to get away. (I am not sure if you can even call it a get away if it is that close to where you live.) Anyway, thanks Liz. It was very nice and relaxing. Oh! And much needed.

We had a wonderful time with her and can't wait until we can see her again!

Book Tag

Of all of my friends and family that are into blogging, Holly is the one that makes sure that there is something new each and every day! Well, on Sunday, she book tagged me.

Heres what you're supposed to do:

Pick up the nearest book (one with at least 123 pages)
Open to page 123
Find the 5th sentence
Post the next 3 sentences
Tag 5 people


My book is I am America (and so can You!) by Stephen Colbert. "But my sheepskin announces to all assembled that though I may be a man of the people, I also have the keys to the clubhouse. I can't count the number of times I've heard the phrase, "You went to Dartmouth? I find that hard to believe." (Heard it while at Dartmouth, too) " It is a pretty funny/ridiculous book, even though I still haven't finished it. How can you not love (and I mean LOVE) Colbert. He is not only hilarious but a pretty darn good looking nerd. :) If I could just stay up late enough to watch his show more than once a month. Seriously, I love the guy.

So the lovely ladies that I am tagging are Christy, Brooke, Cami, Liz, and Abbie.

Reagan's Mulan/Chinese Party

OK. So I am a bit behind on the pictures but at least it is in the same month as the party. Which is actually very good for me considering that I only posted "Part 1" of our Christmas pictures. (I promise that I'll put the rest of them up before next Christmas.)

We started off the party by decorating chopsticks to put in the girls' hair. While those dried, we played a few games and ate some food.


Here is Reagan sporting her party do and her decorated chopsticks. Do you like her outfit? My mom made it for her and one for Jenna too. Jenna was afraid of the outfit for some reason. But I thought she looked very cute. (Thanks Mom! You always surprise us with your fun creations.)


Here are a few pictures of the girls getting there hair done....they had makeup done too, but I didn't include those pictures.

(I wanted to thank all the mom's for their help, especially Marcie. You were so helpful! I owe you big time.)



All the little ladies with their hair, makeup and fans that they made. The short one is Jenna. She didn't make a fan.


Ian barely made it to the party (because of work). I was so happy when he arrived with the food and took charge of the pinata. He was tired that is why he looks so unenthusiastic. :)

Here is Reagan's dragon cake.

And after all the stress and work that goes into putting on a party at your house, there is only one thing left to do....


Thanks Mom for making the trip up to help with all of the craziness. I couldn't have done it without you!

Samantha

For Reagan's 6th birthday, Ian and I surprised her by taking her to the American Girl Boutique and Bistro. (Of course, I forgot my camera.) We had a great time. The Bistro was so girly. And the food was surprisingly quite good. After eating, we let her pick out a doll. She chose Samantha. (This is the doll that I have been wanting since I was 8--I promise that I didn't coax her into getting it. We told her that she could get any of the dolls.)

Reagan had a wonderful time. She was so happy with everything. The whole way home, she was talking with Samantha and playing with her hair. It was so cute.

And I have to admit, I feel like the evening was just as much for me. ....Because, I GOT MY DOLL!!!!! YES!!

My Baby is 6!

Yesterday, my baby turned 6 years old. I can't believe how quickly the years have flown. If I could just get her to stop growing, things would be just perfect. But I suppose that they need to grow. What can you do? I guess just enjoy all of the ups and downs of their precious little lives. And I know that I am very blessed to have this precious little life in mine.

Reagan is such a sweet and loving child. She is the first to give you a hug when you are down. She always laughs at the silliest things. She thinks that running around before bed time is the best. Reagan is a budding fashionista. She grabs anyones clothing and can turn it into something completely different that fits her just right and surprisingly looks pretty good. She loves her sister so much and is always helping her. She loves mexican food...rice and beans specifically. And she loves to sing. Since she could make noises she has been humming and singing. I think that she secretly wants to be a rock star, but who hasn't.

I love this kid so much. She means the world to me. And I know that she is truly "My Sweet Angel".

Happy Birthday Baby! Mommy loves you!

A Night Out With the Girls....Little Girls

My current calling in church is the Laurel Advisor. So when we leaders found out that one of our YW was in the play "Beauty and the Beast", we knew that our girls would love to see it. So we made a date of it.

The evening began at Chili's Too (because the girls love it, and Coppell doesn't really have very many restaurants at all). Jenna joined us for dinner only. Ian stopped by to beg for scraps (thanks Marcie) and to take Jen home. We knew that there was no way that Jenna would be able to sit through a play....a 3 hour play!




This was one of the little ladies in our crew, Lily. She got all dressed up for the occasion. She was all about princesses that night.


And this is Jossi. She was also one of the the little ladies. (She is quite an accessorizer --is that a word?--- I love the necklace Jossi!)

Our YW, Whitney. She did a great job!

The ladies with Belle. I think that was the highlight of the night for them.

Easter pics

Yes, I do realize that we are a few weeks past Easter. But what you may not know is that not only am I a procrastinator, but even when i am doing something when I should be, I am very very slow. So here are our Easter pictures, in true Anayansi form, late.

In the past, we have had some messy/very stained items (clothes, counters, etc.) due to coloring eggs. So this year we went all out and got the biggest plastic sack we could find...thank you American Airlines. As you can tell from the picture, we were prepared for just about anything with that huge bag. Ian thought that if Jenna just watched, and didn't actually participate in coloring the eggs, we would have less of a mess. So here he is trying to show Jenna the joy of having Daddy color the Easter eggs for you.


Reagan, being the big girl that she is, was allowed to participate in the dying of eggs. She had a blast. Her favorite part was putting on the Tinkerbell "Tatoos" that were included in the kit.

I decided that Jenna should be allowed to participate, so I tried to show her how to put the Tinkerbells on the egg. Of course they were "rub on's", so they were too difficult for her.

For Jenna, dying eggs was not exactly fun. (See picture below)


After the girls went to sleep, the Easter Daddy had to put together the sand/water table we got the girls as a gift from us. Since we have been married, I cannot tell you how many things Ian has been forced to put together. He wasn't thrilled that this new toy required "some assembly", which is obvious from the picture.


Well, Easter morning arrived and the girls were so excited to find their bunny baskets filled. A few months ago, Ian announced that we were cutting back on sweets for the girls (which is a good thing considering I was the one who was eating all of their treats). So this Easter they only received 2 sugary treats from the Easter Mommy.

As a side note, I would like to thank Liz for the sweets because I have been having sugar withdrawls. I left the picture out of me stuffing my face with chocolates. Ian caught me in the act with the camera. It wasn't a pretty picture.

The girls searched for their eggs quickly before church.

And thanks to Reagan's help, Jenna even found a few.

After church (while I was having a YW's meeting), Ian showed the girls the gift from us parents. They loved it. I am not so sure that I love the sand that I am constantly cleaning up in the house. But they love it, so oh well.

(Ian dressed Jenna after church. I am so glad that we got a picture of it because as you can see, Ian put Jenna's shirt on without insiding it out. I love seeing how he dresses her. At least it all matched. Good job Hun.)


We were in such a rush to get to church on time in the morning (I was in the program), that I forgot to take a picture of the girls in their Easter dresses. Ian was so smart to get a picture of them after church...even though the were pretty messy afterwards.

Don't you just love how Reagan tied her bow in the front rather than the back (she did it in Primary). She is always wanting to make her own outfits. You should see how she made a halter top dress out of one of my long sleeve shirts. I was pretty impressed.


Later that day we had a great dinner prepared by the family chef, Chef Daddy. It was a nice day. And the kids loved it.